New ordinance introduced to help in tight housing market in Moab

MOAB, Utah — The city of Moab has been battling a tight housing market for some time.

In an effort to create more housing for people who work in the area, the city is creating a new ordinance that requires one-third of any new multi-home developments to be designated for active employees.

Peter Christensen, CEO of the Utah Central Association of Realtors, tells KSL’s Dave and Dujanovic that this is far from low-income housing.

“Basically, new development is coming in, in certain areas of the city,” Christensen said. “They’re wanting to derestrict the units, the land and have it so certain portion is allocated to workforce housing.”

Workforce housing in the tight Moab market

“Basically, people that work a certain amount of hours in Moab, and I believe Grand County is in there as well,” he said. “They are trying to hit a very specific group.”

Moab also has an ordinance that requires any new overnight accommodations to designate a percentage of workforce housing as part of the development or contribute a fee to the City’s affordable housing fund.

“We, by no means, think this is the perfect solution,” Christensen said. “A lot of great compromises came from working together. But we still have some big concerns. In that the more handcuffs you put on a developer, the more we worry the unintended consequence will be that developer will not be able to make the project pencil. And so, you will get actually less housing allocated for the group you want to provide housing for. Because you are making really hard for a developer to build.”

Mark Jones contributed to this article.

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