Salt Lake City zoning changes since 2023 have made it easier to add apartments across much of the city: affordable housing incentives grant extra height and density, more than two dozen commercial and mixed-use zones were folded into six simpler districts, and the city’s main multifamily zones were rewritten to allow more units per lot. For owners of existing buildings, the result is more future competition, but also more options to add units, and new rules that reward keeping older buildings rather than tearing them down.
Those local changes sit inside a state framework that pushes in the same direction, and alongside several very large redevelopment sites downtown and on the west side. This guide explains each change in turn, using city council records and state law, then looks at the construction pipeline and at what it all means for someone who already owns apartments in the capital.
Why Salt Lake City zoning changes keep coming
Salt Lake City is Utah’s capital and the seat of Salt Lake County. The 2020 census counted 199,723 residents, and the Census Bureau estimated 218,428 on July 1, 2025. It is a renter-majority city: according to Census QuickFacts for Salt Lake City, the 2020–2024 American Community Survey put the owner-occupancy rate at 45.8%, so about 54% of households rent. Median gross rent was $1,414, and the average household had 2.14 people.
The city’s own diagnosis of the problem is affordability. Its Thriving in Place anti-displacement plan, adopted on October 17, 2023, states that more than half of the city’s renters are cost-burdened. The plan sets 22 strategic priorities under six goals, including protecting vulnerable residents and preserving existing affordable housing. Almost every zoning change since then can be read as an attempt to do two things at once: add supply, and avoid losing the older, cheaper units that already exist.
Affordable Housing Incentives: extra height for affordable units
The largest single change is the Affordable Housing Incentives program, known as AHI. The City Council approved it on December 5, 2023, and it took effect on April 30, 2024, as chapter 21A.52 of the zoning code. Projects that include qualifying affordable units can receive more density, extra height, reduced parking requirements, a wider range of permitted housing types and a faster planning review. The city’s guide to Affordable Housing Incentives summarizes the options, and the 2024 AHI handbook spells out the requirements:
- Long affordability terms. Affordable units must stay affordable for at least 30 years under a covenant recorded before the building permit is issued.
- More units in low-density zones. In single- and two-family zones, qualifying projects can build up to four units per lot as two- to four-family homes, row houses or cottage developments.
- Rental thresholds in RMF zones. For example, 40% of units at or below 60% of area median income, or 20% at or below 50%.
- Rental thresholds in other eligible zones. For example, 20% of units at or below 80% of area median income, 10% at or below 60%, or 5% at or below 30%.
- Taller downtown buildings. Examples include three additional stories in the D-3 zone and three additional stories or up to 375 feet in a mapped part of D-4, with each added story capped at 12 feet.
KSL reported that the council’s vote was 6–1 and that the program allows one to three extra stories in many multifamily areas, which can meaningfully change the scale of what is allowed next to an existing building.
For owners of existing apartment buildings, AHI cuts both ways. It allows neighbors, including small lots in single-family areas, to add units that will compete for renters. It also gives the owner of an underused lot or a building with surplus land a new route to add units, provided they accept long-term affordability restrictions on part of the project.
Six mixed-use districts replace more than two dozen zones
In July 2025 the City Council consolidated many of the city’s commercial and mixed-use zones into six Mixed-Use (MU) districts. City sources describe the scope slightly differently: the council’s meeting recap refers to 27 zones, and the Planning Division’s 2025 annual report cites 26 zones and about 50 fewer pages of code. Either way, more than two dozen districts were grouped by similarity so that existing development rights carried over, and the change took effect three months after passage.
Consolidation matters less for what it adds than for what it simplifies. Owners of buildings along commercial corridors, where apartments, shops and offices mix, now work from a smaller set of districts with more consistent standards, which makes it easier to understand what a neighboring parcel could become and what the owner’s own parcel could support.
New rules for RMF-35 and RMF-45 multifamily lots
The change most directly aimed at existing apartment owners came in late 2025, when the council adopted updates to the RMF-35 and RMF-45 multifamily zones. City records date the final action to the council’s December 9, 2025 meeting, while the Planning Division’s annual report places it in November 2025. The updates:
- Lowered minimum lot sizes
- Removed minimum lot widths and replaced them with a 110-foot maximum
- Allowed more than one building per lot
- Added new design standards
- Created bonus units for projects that keep existing buildings
The last item is the one to read closely. RMF zones are the city’s residential multifamily districts, where many of its existing apartment buildings already stand. By granting bonus units to projects that preserve an existing building, the city has created a path for an owner to add a second building on a deep lot or behind an existing structure without demolishing what is already there. The 110-foot maximum width also means very large assemblages will face design limits, which may slow the replacement of small buildings with large complexes.
Consider a hypothetical owner of an older eight-unit building on a deep RMF-35 lot with a large rear parking area. Under the old rules, a second building on the same lot was not an option. Under the updated rules, the owner can explore adding a separate building while keeping the original one occupied, potentially with bonus units for preserving it. Whether that pencils out depends on construction costs, parking, financing and the design standards, but the question is now worth asking in a way it was not before 2025.
Downtown heights, the Fleet Block and the sports district
Downtown has been rezoned for more height and street life. Amendments approved on June 6, 2023, with a correcting ordinance on July 11, 2023, allow taller buildings in the D-1 through D-4 zones, G-MU, CG and the FB-UN1 and FB-UN2 form-based zones. New buildings must provide active ground-floor uses, or substitute design features through design review.
On the same night it approved AHI, December 5, 2023, the council created a new form-based zone and applied it to the roughly 10-acre former city Fleet Block, where plans call for affordable housing, commercial space and a public square.
The most expensive downtown change came from the Legislature. S.B. 272, the Capital City Revitalization Zone bill sponsored by Sen. Dan McCay and Rep. Jon Hawkins, passed on March 1, 2024 and was signed on March 19, 2024. It lets Salt Lake City levy a sales tax of up to 0.5% to finance a new or renovated arena, infrastructure and related improvements. On October 1, 2024, the City Council approved the district around the Delta Center and a 0.5% citywide sales tax projected to raise about $1.2 billion over 30 years, with up to $900 million for the arena and district. The council lists affordable and family-sized housing among the public benefits. For downtown apartment owners, a revitalized arena district could support demand for nearby units while also drawing new residential projects into the same blocks.
Large west-side sites: the Power District and Ballpark NEXT
Two large redevelopment areas outside the downtown core will shape supply for years. On December 10, 2024, the council approved a new zone for the Jordan River Fairpark area, creating the Power District on about 93 acres at 1500 West North Temple. Buildings can reach 400 feet, with design review required above 200 feet, under a development agreement with the Larry H. Miller Company. KSL reported that at least 10% of future housing projects will include affordable units and that 20% of new housing units will have two or three bedrooms. Ground was broken on Rocky Mountain Power’s headquarters on October 27, 2025, and a multifamily project is projected to start in 2026.
South of downtown, on December 9, 2025, the council, sitting as the board of the Community Reinvestment Agency, approved the Ballpark NEXT Community Design Plan for redeveloping the Smith’s Ballpark site with mixed-use development, more green space and safer streets. Both sites are large enough to add thousands of units over time, but both are long-term plans whose timing depends on financing and market conditions.
State laws pushing in the same direction
Utah’s Legislature has set its own housing requirements for cities, and Salt Lake City’s changes partly respond to them:
- Station area plans (H.B. 462, 2022). Cities with FrontRunner, TRAX, streetcar or bus rapid transit stations must adopt station area plans covering a half mile around rail stations and a quarter mile around BRT stations. A city with four or more stations had to finish four plans by December 31, 2025, and must complete at least two more each year after that.
- Moderate-income housing plans (S.B. 34, 2019). Cities must adopt plans with at least three strategies from a state menu and report annually. Cities that fall short risk losing certain state transportation funds.
- No local rent control. Utah Code Section 57-20-1 says a county, city or town may not enact an ordinance or resolution that would control rents or fees on private residential property without the Legislature’s express approval. Zoning and building powers are not affected.
The station area requirement is the one most likely to affect specific neighborhoods. Salt Lake City has many TRAX and FrontRunner stations, and each adopted plan can bring rezonings for more housing within walking distance of the platform. Owners of buildings near a station should follow those plans as they are drafted, because they can change both what a neighbor may build and what the owner’s own lot can support.
Because rent control is off the table, the city’s main tools for affordability are zoning incentives, subsidies and displacement protections. That explains why so many of the changes tie extra development rights to affordable units rather than limiting rents in existing buildings.
Displacement rules when buildings come down
Owners thinking about redevelopment need to know about the city’s Community Benefit and Tenant Displacement amendments, approved by the City Council. They apply only to projects that request a zoning map or general plan amendment, not to projects built under existing zoning. Where they apply, demolished housing units must be replaced and then either rent-restricted for 20 years or covered by a fee paid to the city, the developer must provide community benefits, and displaced tenants must receive help with moving costs, application and deposit fees, and rental assistance.
The practical message is that a rezoning request involving an occupied apartment building comes with real costs that should be in the budget from the start. Projects that stay within existing zoning, including those using AHI or the new RMF rules, avoid this particular process, which is one more reason the zoning changes favor adding to existing buildings over replacing them.
The construction pipeline by the numbers
Current apartment delivery figures come mainly from industry research firms, which define the market differently, so their numbers should be compared with care rather than combined. As reported by Multifamily Executive in January 2026, RealPage counted about 4,400 units delivered in 2025, expected about 3,300 in 2026, and tracked about 6,200 market-rate units under construction, down from about 19,000 at the 2022 peak. As reported by Multi-Housing News in May 2026, Yardi Matrix counted 9,430 units completed in 2025, equal to 6.7% of existing stock. Northmarq’s second-quarter 2026 report on the Wasatch Front put vacancy at 6.8% and multifamily permits through May 2026 below the ten-year average.
The sources disagree on volume but agree on direction: a heavy delivery wave in 2025 followed by a sharp slowdown in new starts. For existing owners, that typically means a period of concessions and slower lease-ups while recent buildings fill, followed by less new competition once the current wave is absorbed.
What the zoning shift means for existing buildings
Taken together, Salt Lake City’s zoning changes point owners toward a few practical questions:
- Is there room to add units? The RMF updates, AHI and the new MU districts may allow additional buildings on lots that could not support them a few years ago, and the RMF bonus specifically rewards keeping the existing structure.
- What could be built next door? Height and density bonuses mean a neighboring parking lot or single-family house may become a larger building that competes for renters or changes the property’s views and light.
- Is a rezoning really needed? Staying within existing zoning avoids the tenant displacement and community benefit requirements that come with a map amendment.
- How exposed is the building to new supply? Properties near downtown, the Power District and the Ballpark area will see the most new construction over time.
Day-to-day compliance has not changed. Every residential rental property in the city needs a business license with per-unit fees, and owners who participate in the city’s Landlord/Tenant Initiative can have those fees discounted by up to 95%. For definitions of the underwriting and valuation terms owners meet when weighing an addition or a sale, see our multifamily glossary. Our Utah markets page covers other cities in the state, and our Salt Lake City market page covers the capital itself.
