Taylorsville adopts backyard cottage rules for 11,000-square-foot lots

The Taylorsville City Council voted 5-0 on Oct. 21 to adopt Ordinance 26-15, which allows detached accessory dwelling units, often called backyard cottages, on residential lots of 11,000 square feet or larger. Before the vote, the council changed a rule the Planning Commission had recommended for units built taller than the main house. Council Members Curt Cochran, Ernest Burgess, Meredith Harker and Anna Barbieri and Chair Bob Knudsen said yes on the roll call. ^[2]

A city planner told the council the ordinance responds to a bill the Legislature passed in 2026 that requires cities to permit a detached accessory dwelling unit on any lot of at least 11,000 square feet that holds a permitted single-family home. Taylorsville's code had covered internal accessory units, and guest houses on lots of 15,000 square feet or more. The planner said about 2,050 lots meet the state minimum, which staff said is fewer than 10% of the city's lots, and that the minimum does not mean every such lot could hold a unit. ^[2]

As presented to the council, the ordinance reorganizes the city's code chapter on accessory dwelling units into standards that apply to every accessory unit, internal or detached, and a separate section for detached units. ^[2]

The detached-unit standards presented include the following. A unit may sit in a side or rear yard but not the front yard. Side and rear setbacks are 15 feet, and a unit must be at least 6 feet from the main house. A unit may not exceed 50% of the main house's footprint or 75% of its total square footage. The city keeps its owner-occupancy requirement and documentation rules. An existing legally built accessory building, such as a detached garage, can be converted but must meet the same standards. ^[2]

Staff said the planning commission started with work sessions on April 28 and June 9, held public hearings on Aug. 25 and Sept. 22, and used scale maps and Lego models to test setbacks. The city also hired a consultant for technical review and for diagrams that appear in the chapter. ^[2]

**Taller units.** The Planning Commission's draft said a unit could not be taller than the main house unless the separation between the two buildings grew by 2 feet for every 1 foot of additional height; the 15-foot side and rear setbacks stayed fixed. Staff said commissioners rejected a flat rule that units be no taller than the house, because it would be unfair to owners of low houses. Council members debated the ratio, with Cochran and Knudsen raising the concern that a 2-to-1 separation would push a tall unit toward the neighbors. The council settled on 1-to-1 and added a matching increase to the side and rear setbacks, which the draft did not have. Chair Knudsen's motion, which passed on the roll call, adds that if a unit's height exceeds the main house, the required separation from it increases by 1 foot for every 1 foot of height, and the side and rear setbacks increase by the same ratio. Under that rule, a unit built 3 feet higher than the house would need an 18-foot side and rear setback instead of 15 feet. ^[2]

**Rental length.** The draft had two different minimum rental periods, 30 consecutive days in one section and 90 in another. Burgess said he preferred a single 90-day minimum to avoid a loophole for bed-and-breakfast style rentals. Staff said the 30-day figure comes from state code. Knudsen said the council would keep the rental period as it is in state code for now and amend it later as state law is updated, and Burgess said he could vote yes on that basis. A legal adviser, Tracy Cowdell, suggested staff report back in a few months on how the ordinance is working. ^[2]

Ordinance 26-15 was an item on the meeting agenda. The agenda notice is a scanned image, so this report relies on the meeting video, and the minutes had not been posted when it was written. ^[1][2]