Midway council adopts new setback and design rules for Main Street commercial zones

Midway's Main Street commercial zones have new setback and design rules meant to keep the town's rural, small-town look. The City Council voted 5-0 on Oct. 20 to amend the rules for the C-2 and C-3 zones (Ordinance 2026-27), according to draft minutes. Community Development Director Michael Henke said the changes call for landscaped setbacks, architectural variety and a more open, boutique-style Main Street instead of continuous building facades. ^[1]

In the C-3 zone the ordinance sets a 20-foot front setback, reduced to 15 feet for qualifying covered, open-air porches. The C-2 zone gets 30-foot front and rear setbacks and 20-foot side setbacks, at least 30% landscaped area or approved impervious-surface standards, and a new floor area ratio limiting building square footage relative to lot size. Both zones require ground-floor residential uses to be set back 50 feet so street-facing space stays available for commercial uses such as restaurants and retail. ^[1]

Street-facing walls longer than 40 feet must include a stagger at least 10 feet deep. The ordinance also requires at least 30% fenestration on street-facing facades, restricts bright or vivid roof colors, requires exposed galvanized vents and hoods to be screened or painted, and sets a minimum 9:12 roof pitch. Council Member JC Simonsen questioned the language on recessed sections and raised the idea of encouraging color variation on large developments; Henke said applicants can ask the City Council for exceptions to the setback and staggering requirements. ^[1]

Also on Oct. 20, the council voted 5-0 on Resolution 2026-24, a third extension of the Homestead Group's deadline to record conservation easements on about 16.5 acres of golf course open space west of Homestead Drive. The group's attorney said more time was needed to coordinate with lenders so the easement, to be held by Summit Land Conservancy, takes priority over existing loans, and asked for an extension through the end of the following year. The council also voted 5-0 on Trails, Arts, and Parks (TAP) tax awards of about $77,000 from roughly $122,097 available in the second grant cycle, split 54.6% to arts, 13.3% to parks and 32.2% to trails. Four applications came in, compared with the usual eight to eleven. ^[1]

The council took no vote on downtown parking but directed staff to get cost estimates for options that could add about 59 spaces: about 14 near the lot for The Market at Midway, 37 angled spaces along the north side of Centennial Park and eight parallel spaces along Center Street and Centennial Park. Members also discussed metered parking around Town Square and a possible city trolley. ^[1]