The land use element of a community plan generally provides for a balanced mix and type of land uses which will serve the needs of existing and future residents. It will assist in a plan to generate sufficient revenues to support essential city services, respect the city’s natural environmental resources, and to complement and enhance the unique character of the city and quality of life of its residents.
- Fruit Heights is nearly built-out. The City covers about 1,466 acres, slightly less than 1,500.
- Single-family neighborhoods are the dominant land use, at 677 acres (46%). Multifamily (13 acres) and manufactured homes (11 acres) together make up less than 2%.
- Commercial uses total only 23 acres (1.5%), located at Cherry Hill and the Rock Loft area on Mountain Road.
- Only 129 acres of agricultural, vacant, or undeveloped land remain, and the plan expects most of it to become single-family homes.
- The golf course is the City’s largest open area at 170 acres (the plan also cites about 150). The City does not intend to pursue a change, but the plan includes a concept in case the County ever changes its use.
- Natural open space totals 168 acres. Most of the Bair Creek corridor is already preserved, and the plan recommends preserving the remaining private sections.
- Most of the City has few environmental constraints. The East Bench, however, faces steep slopes, fault lines, and limited water, and much of the City sits on the Bair Canyon alluvial flood plain, where flood risk is considered minimal.
- The City acquired roughly 100 acres on the East Bench for a future cemetery. The plan recommends using the lower half and water-conserving landscaping.
- Residents worry that growth threatens the small-town feel and that open space is disappearing. They also want more small, local businesses and are concerned about affordability.
- The future land use plan, which looks 20–50 years out, keeps single-family homes as the primary use (947 acres, 64.5%). It adds mixed use (24 acres), more commercial (40 acres), and more multifamily (50 acres), mostly by assuming the golf course redevelops.
