Herriman planning commissioners recommended that the city council amend the commercial zoning code to create a new Commercial‑Flex (CF) zone aimed at encouraging small‑scale manufacturing, maker spaces and shared tenant units that support home‑based businesses growing into commercial operations. The commission’s recommendation included one substantive modification: lowering a proposed 8‑acre minimum for certain sign and storage allowances to 5 acres.

Staff said the CF zone is intended to activate underutilized parcels that sit between higher‑density mixed‑use and heavier manufacturing districts, to allow uses such as indoor storage and limited wholesale on larger lots, and to provide smaller tenant spaces and shared reception/meeting rooms. The draft code would permit wholesale and warehousing in CF (uses not normally allowed in the C‑2 commercial zone), add the CF zone to the major corridor sign overlay, and require conditional use review for larger projects. Staff also proposed design standards that keep high‑visibility frontage buildings to higher‑quality materials while allowing more utilitarian architecture in back tenant spaces to reduce construction costs.

Proponents told the commission that CF would give entrepreneurs “a first rung” between working at home and leasing traditional industrial space. Kyle Norton, a local contractor and developer who spoke in support, described the product as a combination of small flex units, shared reception and meeting space, and accessory storage, and said the model helps businesses expand incrementally: “it gives that somebody that first rung to grab onto a place for their business outside of their home,” he said. Applicants and staff discussed limiting drive‑up storage and indoor self‑storage to lots at least five acres in size and restricting drive‑up units so they serve the primary tenants rather than the general public.

Commissioners discussed the tradeoffs among uses, expressing support for promoting small businesses but concern about overuse of self‑storage, visual character and signage spacing along corridors. Staff proposed increasing required spacing for major corridor signs from 200 to 500 feet. Commissioners also discussed the appropriate minimum lot size for accessory storage; several said five acres is a reasonable threshold, and the motion that passed included changing the earlier draft’s 8‑acre figure to 5 acres for those allowances. The commission’s recommendation to the council carried 4–1, with Heather dissenting; the recommendation will now go to the city council for final consideration.