Most St. George residents rarely, if ever, think about city zoning ordinances. For many people, weeks, months and even years can go by without a single mention of zoning. But for business owners and sometimes homeowners who live near businesses and homeowners who find themselves in disputes with neighbors over property lines, St. George zoning regulations can become an important topic.
Nothing to sing about
However, there’s a good reason why there are no songs, movies or TV shows about zoning regulations: they can be complicated, extremely detailed and subject to modifications that can apply to a single property or to all properties in St. George.
One of the very first things a person will do when they anticipate a dispute over zoning is to head to the city’s website. They’ll be greeted there with a list of topics that ranges from General Provisions at the very top to Improvements at the very bottom. In between are topics such as Agricultural Zones, Gravel and Grazing Zone, Residential Zones, Rockery Walls, Airport Vicinity Zones, Outdoor Lighting and many more.
Diving in deeper
If you click on any of those classifications, you’ll be taken to a list of subtopics. For instance, clicking on Agricultural Zones takes you to a list that includes Area, Width and Yard Requirements, Design Criteria and Yards Unobstructed – Exceptions.
Burrowing into Agricultural Zones reveals that you can indeed raise hogs in the city, but only two for a maximum of six months – and the pair must be “for purposes of meeting requirements of a youth club.”
No trespassing
Jump into Outdoor Lighting and you learn “artificial light source shall project direct artificial light into the nighttime sky” and you aren’t allowed to place lights on your property that creates what’s known as a light trespass (light that’s projected onto someone else’s property).
If you explore the city’s zoning regulations, you will undoubtedly find other interesting oddities – and hopefully, the information that will prove useful in a real estate purchase, business decision or dispute.