Could a home built behind another house (commonly known as flag lots) be a compromise to Utah’s housing crisis? The South Jordan City Council dealt with that idea directly in December as a homeowner bought two lots in his neighborhood with the intention to build two more homes behind them on the same property. 

The council was split on the decision, denying the development agreement in a 2-3 vote while approving the rezone in a 3-2 vote allowing for a flag lot overlay zone.

The approval saw two adjacent properties along 3010 West at 10555 South and 10537 South (between Bison Ridge Road and South Jordan Parkway) be allowed to subdivide creating two lots behind the two existing lots.  

Dan Milar lives approximately a quarter mile down the road. He bought the homes for his family, he wrote in a letter to the city, to “provide a home for my in-laws, build a new home for my family and provide an investment in the future to build a fourth home.” 

“This is a personal thing,” he told the council during the December council meeting. 

Milar has six kids between ages 5-16 and wrote they are mindful of housing and doing what they can to both keep them close and ensure they “have the ability to stay in the community they were raised in if they so desire.” 

“This is at the heart of it,” said Milar, who works in construction for his dad’s custom home builder Gordon Milar Construction. 

He added the hope is to build a personal house on the southeast lot in the near term and then work with the others over time. 

The proposal was previously addressed in October, with the council expressing concern over the possibility of detached accessory dwelling units or guest houses being built on the properties. In the proposed development agreement, Milar agreed to disallow the guest houses but not internal ADUs like basement apartments. 

Milar said ADUs, and especially flag lots, are essential “and uniquely suited” to address the city’s housing needs while “having minimal impact on neighborhood character and density.” 

“While it is not my intent to build and rent out multiple ADUs on these four proposed properties I cannot in good conscience agree to never put a single ADU into any of them,” he wrote to the city. 

The proposal faced pushback from some neighbors, however, with two speaking at the council meeting. 

“We don’t want it,” Ivan Klotovich, a neighbor who’s lived in South Jordan for 84 years, told the council. “It’s stressful for the older people. What we’re worried about is if this starts a trend…put yourself in our shoes.” 

Cheryl Diener, another neighbor, said maybe this will happen eventually, but they don’t want it on their street. 

“We’ve been here a long time, we bought them because we wanted horses, we wanted property, we wanted things,” she said. “We didn’t want our property to be divided and have more people move in.” 

Klotovich said Milar is doing it for the money. “We feel like we’re being bullied out and we don’t like it.” 

Councilmember Jason McGuire was nervous it could become a “rental community” with four homes with renters until Milar’s family are ready to move in.

Milar, for his part, said if this was money motivated, he would’ve made different decisions to maximize profit. 

“The land is expensive,” he told the council. “There are other areas that are better to buy and do rentals. I know that game, this isn’t where I would do that.” 

He also pointed out there are other homes in the area currently being rented out and a flag lot already exists in that neighborhood. 

Under current city code, South Jordan’s Director of Planning Steven Shaefermeyer said, if you have a lot two times the size of the average lot, you can do a flag lot without needing to rezone the property. These two properties didn’t meet that size threshold, thereby needing the rezone. 

The flag lot overlay rezone was adopted by the council in 2020, Shaefermeyer said, to “allow flag lots in limited circumstances where it may be reasonable and appropriate.” 

“This is the first application being presented to the council,” he said. 

The neighborhood conflict brings a statewide issue down to street level, with flag lots and ADUs proposed as a housing solution without bringing further density via condos or townhomes. But it still means change and increasing population for those living next to it. It’s a conundrum councilmembers acknowledged prior to their votes. 

“I feel compassion for the folks that live on that street and for the pain that change brings,” Councilmember Don Shelton said, later adding “I feel compassion for people who are trying to buy homes right now.” 

But they need to consider where future generations will live. 

“We have to think about ways to allow more housing in our city with the least impact on the residents that currently live there,”
Shelton said. 

Councilmember Tamara Zander said the decision would be challenging, noting “some families that don’t want homes on their street and some families that want desperately to have more housing for their family and both are good, viable reasons.” 

She felt the joining of the two new lots with a single driveway would be less burdensome on the street and community. 

But for other councilmembers, flag lots weren’t the solution. 

“It doesn’t make for good development over the long run,” Councilmember Kathie Johnson said, adding it makes for a disjointed and incoherent
development. 

McGuire said he sympathizes with the housing crisis, but this area was set up for larger lots. 

“We are doing our part (to help with the housing crisis) but I think we can also do our part to honor these subdivisions that were built a long time ago to help establish South Jordan as a great place to live,” he said. 

Councilmember Patrick Harris was the deciding vote, disagreeing with the approach for the development agreement (denied 2-3) and how they handled the ADUs, but approving the flag lot rezone for that area (approved 3-2).  λ