HB 398 Utah House · 2025 General Session

Auxiliary Housing Amendments

HB 398 amends Utah law to streamline approvals for small living units built inside primary homes (such as basement apartments or converted garages), requiring municipalities to process these applications within 14 days. The bill mandates that local governments provide a completeness notice within 7 days, allow 10 days for applicants to fix issues, and approve within 10 days of corrections, with applicants able to bypass delays by submitting to the state Division of Facilities and Construction Management. This directly affects homeowners seeking to create such units and local governments handling land use approvals, without changing existing restrictions like parking requirements or lot size limits. The bill makes no new funding appropriations and focuses solely on expediting the application process.

Issues: ✓ Housing

Bill status in committee 1 of 4 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2025

Committee Review

Floor Vote

Governor

Introduced Feb 4, 2025 Last action Mar 8, 2025

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced → Substitute #1 · 7 edits

MODERATE

This bill adds new requirements for municipalities to process internal accessory dwelling unit applications within specific timeframes and allows applicants to appeal to the Division of Facilities and Construction Management if a municipality fails to act. It also renumbers several subsections and makes technical corrections to the text.

Scope change

The bill expands the scope by adding new procedural requirements for municipalities and counties regarding internal accessory dwelling units, including processing timelines and appeal mechanisms.

REQUIREMENT

Municipalities must process land use applications for internal accessory dwelling units within 14 days of receiving a completed application.

Municipalities must notify applicants within seven days whether an application is complete or incomplete.

Applicants have 10 days to correct incomplete applications after receiving notice from the municipality.

Municipalities must approve complete land use applications within 10 days of submission.

ENFORCEMENT

Applicants can submit applications to the Division of Facilities and Construction Management if a municipality fails to process them according to the new timeline.

FISCAL

The Division of Facilities and Construction Management may charge municipalities for processing costs when handling appealed applications.

TECHNICAL

Subsections were renumbered to accommodate the new processing requirements, shifting some provisions from subsection (4) to subsection (7).

Floor votes

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Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Feb 21, 2025

Committee

House/ to standing committee

lower

Feb 4, 2025

Introduced

House/ 1st reading (Introduced)

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors