§ 17-27a-102. Purposes -- General land use authority.

(1)

(a) The purposes of this chapter are to provide for the health, safety, and welfare, and promote the prosperity, improve the morals, peace and good order, comfort, convenience, and aesthetics of each county and its present and future inhabitants and businesses, to protect the tax base, to secure economy in governmental expenditures, to foster the state's agricultural and other industries, to protect both urban and nonurban development, to protect and ensure access to sunlight for solar energy devices, to provide fundamental fairness in land use regulation, and to protect property values.

(b) To accomplish the purposes of this chapter, counties may enact all ordinances, resolutions, and rules and may enter into other forms of land use controls and development agreements that they consider necessary or appropriate for the use and development of land within the unincorporated area of the county, including ordinances, resolutions, rules, restrictive covenants, easements, and development agreements governing uses, density, open spaces, structures, buildings, energy-efficiency, light and air, air quality, transportation and public or alternative transportation, infrastructure, street and building orientation and width requirements, public facilities, fundamental fairness in land use regulation, considerations of surrounding land uses and the balance of the foregoing purposes with a landowner's private property interests, height and location of vegetation, trees, and landscaping, unless expressly prohibited by law.

(2) Each county shall comply with the mandatory provisions of this part before any agreement or contract to provide goods, services, or municipal-type services to any storage facility or transfer facility for high-level nuclear waste, or greater than class C radioactive waste, may be executed or implemented.

Amended by Chapter 363, 2007 General Session