Layton, UT Zoning Overlays & Bonuses: Downtown Design Guide (2026)

070 of the Layton Municipal Code sets the architectural rulebook for the city's downtown-style overlay along Gordon Avenue and Highway 89, described in the code as drawing on the area's historic agricultural tradition and mountain valley geography. Commercial, office, and mixed-use buildings must use the Mountain Modern style as their architectural focus, while attached and detached residential buildings can choose Mountain Modern, Craftsman, Farmhouse, or Prairie, and a builder must pick one style and follow its design guidelines consistently across a project. Where the general municipal code, general design standards, and this section's architectural rules conflict, the code directs that the more restrictive standard governs.

Commercial, office, and mixed-use buildings must rise at least two stories where they front a street to create a continuous street wall, and corner buildings facing both a public street and a private access point must include a focal-point treatment such as extra height, a tower or parapet element, or a distinct change in materials. Roof pitches on these buildings must fall between 4:12 and 8:12, with overhangs of at least three feet supported on exposed timber corbels. Every qualifying development must also include at least one centrally located plaza or courtyard of 15,000 square feet, sited primarily in the commercial subdistrict, planted with one tree per 2,500 square feet spaced no more than 45 feet apart and drawn from the Table 16-2 tree list, plus two benches per 2,500 square feet and pedestrian pathways through the space.