Box Elder County weighs zoning all unzoned land as agricultural heritage or industrial

Box Elder County is proposing to zone every unzoned parcel in the unincorporated county as either the Agricultural Heritage Zone (AHZ) or General Industrial (M-G), according to the staff report for an Oct. 29 Planning Commission public hearing on Zoning Map Amendment Z26-026. The posted record does not yet show the commission's recommendation. ^[1]

The staff report proposes M-G for the Nucor/Western Metals Recycling parcels and the Northrop Grumman Promontory campus, because those uses are already there and the sites come in for site plan amendments. The remaining unzoned land would become AHZ, which the report calls the zone most consistent with current use. A few landowners have uses the AHZ does not allow, and those would continue as legal nonconforming uses, the report says. ^[1]

The report says the AHZ sets allowed uses and densities of 5 to 10 acres and would give landowners and service providers predictability. It cites the county general plan's implementation goal to zone unzoned areas with a flexible agricultural zone. ^[1]

Community Development Director Scott Lyons told the County Commission on Aug. 12 that residents often assume unzoned land is zoned agricultural because that is how it is used, and that a neighbor's call about a salvage yard showed a project can be allowed in an unzoned area. He said the Planning Commission wanted the County Commission's support to move ahead with outreach and zoning over the next couple of months. Commissioner Lee Perry directed staff to take the idea back to the Planning Commission and return with a proposal. ^[2]

On Oct. 21 a speaker during public comment urged the County Commission not to zone all the property in the county, calling it unconstitutional. She said appointed planning boards have no right to make arbitrary rules about property. ^[3]

The County Commission's Nov. 4 agenda lists four separate rezone ordinances, #672 to #675, each converting individual unzoned property to RR-2, MG-EX or M-G, along with a public hearing on the tentative 2027 budget. The countywide application is not on that agenda. ^[4]