A proposal to deregulate yurts ran into a blockade of questions and objections in its first committee hearing Tuesday.
The House Business and Labor Committee voted 12-0 to hold HB297 after questions were raised about whether it differentiated between commercial and private yurts and concerns were aired about public safety.
Some members said the bill language could easily be interpreted to exempt commercial yurts — like those in Solitude — from fire safety codes and food safety rules.
“I’m concerned about exempting commercial operations. I’m not concerned about the private family that wants to go out and set up a yurt,” said Rep. Jim Dunnigan, R-Taylorsville. “My main concerns are the fire issue … and health and food safety.”
Rep. Brady Brammer, R-Pleasant Grove, defended his bill as addressing an area that already has too much regulation.
“People have a desire to be out in the wild. At some point, when we over-permit things, it starts to be a little less wild,” Brammer said. “Sometimes, not everything in the world needs to be permitted, commercial or not.”
HB297 would effectively allow yurts to operate without a permit and would also allow the yurt to provide food to visitors without needing food handlers permits.
Lincoln Shurtz, of the Utah Association of Counties, voiced concerns that removing permit requirements to operate a yurt would endanger public safety because it wouldn’t be subject to the same type of building safety inspections or food safety inspections as other structures.
“The question we have is what are the unintended consequences by removing the fire code, removing the building code, removing the permitting requirements and removing food handlers permits,” Shurtz said.
He suggested the bill be amended to distinguish between commercial and private use yurts.
The committee decided to hold the bill until Brammer could hammer out some of the issues and concerns.