Design Matters: Planning Dry Utilities for Higher-Density Communities

As housing affordability remains a major focus across Utah, residential developments are becoming denser than they were just a few years ago. According to Ben Duzett, Site Civil Residential Department Manager at FOCUS Consulting, that shift is changing how communities are designed and making early dry utility planning more important than ever.

Density Driven by Affordability

Over the last five to 10 years, increasing density has become one of the primary ways developers respond to rising housing costs. “House prices have gone up over the last five to ten years, and affordability has gone down,” Ben explains. “There’s a big emphasis from the State of Utah and just in general that we need more affordable housing so that families can live in homes.” For developers, density helps maximize the use of increasingly expensive land. “Land prices are expensive,” says Ben. “The more you can put in that land in an effective, efficient manner, the more affordable you can make the houses.”

As a result, today’s projects are often denser than those developed a decade ago. “There’s a lot more high-density, single-family subdivisions than there ever were,” Ben says. But even as products evolve, buyer preferences remain fairly consistent. “People still want a backyard,” Ben explains. “They want to have a place where their dog or kids can be outside without it being in the road. Our challenge is to design for increased density while still providing a great-looking community where people want to live.”

Dry Utility Coordination Has Become More Important

As density increases, utility planning becomes more complicated. In a traditional subdivision, utilities typically had a predictable location and enough space to meet required separations. Today, those same corridors often need to accommodate additional infrastructure. “You have to really plan out effectively. Where is the power going to go? Where is the gas going to go?” Ben says. “How do we get power and gas to each house and still meet setback requirements?”

Water meters, fire hydrants, street lights, power, and gas all compete for limited space. “There’s a lot of coordination and making sure that we’re thoughtfully considering dry utilities in our design and not just letting the gas company and the power company do their normal design.'” Utility planning directly affects site layout. ” Sometimes we’ll create a little more space on one side of the building for where we can run dry utilities,” Ben explains. “So that can impact how we lay out subdivisions.”

Planning Early Prevents Delays

One of the biggest lessons Ben shares with clients is the importance of addressing utility coordination as early as possible. “The earlier we can get on top of dry utilities and planning dry utilities in a dense community, the better off it’s going to be during construction to avoid delays,” he says. “If we wait until the end, oftentimes it’s much more complicated.” FOCUS helps clients by preparing conceptual utility layouts that can be reviewed with utility providers early in the process. This is particularly valuable because power and gas providers ultimately control the final utility designs.

The challenge is that utility considerations are often overlooked during entitlement. “A lot of times it’s not reviewed by the city,” Ben says. “You could have something the city approves, and you go to the power or gas company, and they’re frustrated, saying ‘We don’t have anywhere to go.'” When that happens, approved projects can face unexpected delays. “If you don’t plan appropriately, you may end up with an approved plan set where you get stalled weeks because you can’t get the power or gas design approved.”

Adapting to a New Normal

Some of the most complex utility challenges occur in higher-density products such as cluster developments, where several homes share a common driveway. “You have to get power and gas, sewer, and water all back to those houses along the shared driveway,” Ben says. “There’s different ways that you can do that, but you do have to plan it from the beginning.”

Despite these challenges, Ben expects the process to become smoother over time. “I actually think the problems will become less common,” he says. “The whole system is learning to adapt.” For Ben, the key is making sure utilities are part of the conversation from the very beginning. “It’s getting them drawn in, at least conceptually, during the planning stage,” he says. “We know it works. And we make sure it’s not forgotten.”

To partner with FOCUS Consulting, contact our team at info@focus-es.com or (801) 352-0075.