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West Valley City • Hold the bulldozers and backhoes, the West Valley City Council is poised to place a moratorium on rezoning for new housing developments in the burgeoning community where precious little open land remains.

A public hearing and council vote on the proposed six-month suspension of rezoning is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at West Valley City Hall, 3600 Constitution Blvd.

It comes as Utah's second largest city — population 130,000 — has only 300 to 500 acres of open land left, said Nicole Cottle, community and economic development director. That's a slim fraction of the 35 square miles — 22,400 acres — that lies within city limits.

Some of the undeveloped land is agricultural, Cottle said. But much of it is not.

The moratorium would not impact rezoning applications already submitted to City Hall.

Housing and commercial development has been going "gangbusters" in West Valley, Cottle said.

With the construction season drawing to a close, it's a good time to pause and analyze what's the best track for the remainder of the city's development.

The effort is aimed at making "sure we're appropriately balancing the rights of the property owners and citizens," Cottle said. "This will facilitate a collaborative approach to rezoning the last few undeveloped parcels in our city."

If approved, the moratorium would give city officials time to complete the West Valley City General Plan update, said Steve Pastorik, assistant economic development director. It is expected the general plan will be ready for adoption in February.

Councilman Steve Buhler said the moratorium would give city officials the opportunity to ensure the remaining development enhances West Valley.

"There has been an ongoing discussion that we should look at undeveloped parcels so that we could do something special," Buhler said.

During the proposed suspension of rezoning, city planners would make an inventory of undeveloped land, said Councilman Steve Vincent.

"They will bring those pieces to us and we can incorporate them into the general plan," he said. "During this process we want to see which parcels are unique and special, but still allow the land owners to develop it."

According to city records, there are some 43,000 total housing units within the municipality. Some 70 percent are owner-occupied, with rentals making up 24 percent. The vacancy rate is about 6 percent.

The council also is seeking direction on whether some of the remaining farm land can stay as green space, said Mayor Ron Bigelow.

"Is it in the general plan that all agricultural land be rezoned for development?" the first-term mayor asked at the council's Tuesday study session. "It seems like the decision has been made to allow all agricultural land to become developed."

It would be nice if all agricultural land could endure, Vincent said, though he acknowledged that is unlikely.

Vincent wondered how far the city could go to keep farm land from being rezoned as residential.

"How do you deal with families who want to move on and don't want to farm anymore?" he asked. "If we told every family that wanted a rezone, 'no,' and we kept telling them, 'no,' I don't know what the legal ramifications would be."

But Cottle told the council as along as zoning is based on recognized urban-planning protocols, rather than on social-class restrictions, their decisions could be defended in court.

"Your power to zone is held sacred in this state," she said. "The council should feel empowered on zoning."

csmart@sltrib.com

Dan Harrie contributed to this article.