Schultz says full repeal of 'preliminary municipality' law is on the table

Utah House Speaker Mike Schultz, R-Hooper, said he is open to changing or fully repealing SB258, a 2024 law that lets landowners in mostly undeveloped, unincorporated areas petition to form a "preliminary municipality," Utah News Dispatch reported Monday. Schultz said he expects the issue to come up in the legislative session that begins in January. ^[1] The 2024 bill text sets up the preliminary municipality process as a pilot project that ends Jan. 1, 2031, and requires that the area be owned by no more than three persons who consent and be at least 50% undeveloped. ^[2]

"We will be open to all options right now, including a full repeal," Schultz told the outlet. Gov. Spencer Cox said in a statement that the state should explore all options to address housing affordability, signaling openness to changes. ^[1]

The law's pilot program allows up to three landowners to start the process. Wasatch County leaders passed a resolution last month asking lawmakers to roll it back, saying it lets developers sidestep standards other communities must meet. Tensions rose after Cox's senior housing adviser, Steve Waldrip, threatened to withhold state road money from the county after it rejected a 144-lot proposal east of Heber. That threat has since been dropped, and Waldrip has said the message could have been delivered better. ^[1]

Schultz noted that the House unanimously passed a bill this year adding requirements for preliminary municipalities, but it died 14-12 in the Senate. He said the Philo Development proposal involved large, expensive lots that did little for affordability and called for a collaborative rather than "top-down, heavy-handed" approach between state and local officials. ^[1]