Glamping resort site plan: Kane County, Utah, at the Zion gateway

A model project east of Zion

This page is a model project. It places a 30 to 60 unit glamping resort on 20 to 80 acres in unincorporated Kane County, on the east side of Zion National Park, to show how the county's rules shape a site plan. The jurisdiction, ordinances, fees and hearing record are real; the project is not a client commission. Kane's gateway runs along Hwy 9 and North Fork Road, Mt. Carmel Junction, Johnson Canyon and Long Valley Junction.

Kane is the primary jurisdiction because its code is written for this use. It defines "glamping," caps a unit at 774 square feet and ties the number of sites to acreage: 14 sites for the first 10 acres plus 8 for each additional 10 acres, up to 70 sites on 80 acres or more ^{[2, 4]}. Its 2021 to 2026 hearing record includes glamping conditional use permits at this scale, and Camp Kaia was 60 sites on 100 acres ^[2]. Washington County is the documented alternate, and its 2023 campground standards fit this program poorly: 1 tent site per 2 acres in its OST-20 and A-20 zones, and no campgrounds inside any overlay zone ^[6].

For the statewide regime, see glamping site plans in Utah and the Utah state page; for the asset class, the glamping site plan hub; for how other states classify glamping units, the guide to glamping and campground regulations by state. The sister model in the Blue Ridge is the Buncombe County, North Carolina glamping resort, where the controlling limit is a building count rather than an acreage formula. Every model in the set is listed under case studies.

At a glance

How the use is classified

KCLUO 9-1-7 defines the use and the unit ^{[2, 4]}:

"GLAMPING: Upscale camping in a semi-permanent structure placed on a permanent/semi-permanent foundation, to be no larger than seven hundred and seventy four (774) square feet, providing overnight sleeping accommodations with amenities and comforts not normally included in a campground, such as: beds, electricity, and access to indoor plumbing."

"A canvas or membrane-covered frame structure designed to be used or occupied for commercial, transient or recreational purposes." (definition of "GLAMPING UNIT")

The 774 sq ft cap is recent. Before Ord. 2023-12 the glamping structure limit was 500 sq ft, and the 2021 Zion Spirit application on North Fork Road asked for sites above that limit ^{[7, 8]}. The county's campground definition cites "Utah Administrative Code R393-300"; the state's recreation camp sanitation rule is R392-300, and the reference is one to raise at pre-application ^{[2, 4]}.

The state layer is health law, enforced locally. R392-300 reaches any camp or campsite designed, intended or used for temporary human habitation, and leaves out only primitive or back-country camping, so every glamp-ground is covered ^[9]. Its definitions make a modern camp one with permanent buildings for sleeping, a potable water supply under pressure and food service facilities; a resort with permanent units and a restaurant is a modern camp ^[10]. The rule was adopted effective 3/26/2018 and amended effective 3/10/2022 ^[11]. R392-301 sets RV park sanitation at 1 toilet, 1 hand sink and 1 bath per sex per 15 dependent RV sites ^[12]. Near Bryce Canyon, Garfield County Ord. 2019-2 and Tropic Town Ord. 2020-3 define glamping units and glampgrounds; Garfield treats a glamping unit as habitable space under the IBC and bars any glamping unit from residential use ^{[13, 14]}.

AG land. The AG zone does not support 30 to 60 units, so the model plans on RU-10 and treats an AG parcel as a rezoning case ^[15]. The zone change form puts the order in writing: "Zone change applications must be approved prior to submitting a Conditional Use Permit or Subdivision application" ^[3].

State trust land. Kane reviews SITLA land "as if it is zoned Commercial 2 (C-2)," and state land transferred to private ownership "shall automatically be zoned Agricultural (AG)" (9-7D-3-2b, 9-7D-4(A), Ord. O-2023-07) ^[5].

Approval path

Every approval, in order. "Not stated" marks a figure the cited documents do not give.

The published local fees are $400 for the zone change and $150 for a Residential CUP, and a mobile home or park model park application is $1,000 ^{[3, 17, 23]}. The forms cited here publish no commercial CUP fee.

Timeline. The cited documents publish no total for the path. The Planning Commission meets on the 2nd Wednesday of each month and a zone change is filed 21 days ahead of it ^[3]. The longest single item in the Camp Kaia record is infrastructure: the BLM permit for the water tank was estimated at 6 to 12 months to approve plus 6 to 12 months to build ^[2].

Who seals what. At the CUP stage the Kane record shows an unsealed "preliminary site concept plan," and the Camp Kaia site plan sheet was marked "NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION" ^[2]. Utah Code 58-53-102(3), in the version effective October 1, 2024, counts "production of a site plan" as landscape architecture ^[24]. Section 58-53-602(1) requires a landscape architect's seal on any site plan prepared in the state, with exemptions for professional engineers, architects and others under 58-53-304 ^[25], and 58-53-304 exempts licensed engineers and architects and the supervised employees of a landscape architect ^[26]. The documents after the CUP carry seals: the geologic or soils report by a licensed geologist, soils engineer or civil engineer (KCLUO 9-19-1); wastewater, water system, drainage and road design by a Utah PE; plats by a licensed land surveyor; the final site plan by a landscape architect, PE or architect ^{[2, 25]}. The preliminary site plan is the layout those professionals build on and seal; the guide to who prepares a site plan sets out the roles.

Design standards

The RU-zone text above is quoted from the 2021 and 2023 staff reports. The code is now current through O-2026-12 and its section numbers have shifted since 2021, so the current text governs where they differ ^{[1, 2, 7]}.

The provisions that bind the layout

The density formula (KCLUO 9-5C-6, RU-10 and RU-40 uses table):

"Campground/glamp-ground with up to 14 sites for the first 10 acres, and an additional 8 sites for each additional 10 acres up to a maximum of 70 sites on 80 acres or more." ^[2]

The unit size cap (KCLUO 9-5A-5(F)):

"A conditional use permit shall regulate the size of the structure, not including the foundation; to be no larger than seven hundred and seventy-four (774) square feet (such as, but not limited to: tents/covered wagons/tee-pees/tree houses/yurts)." ^[2]

The setbacks (KCLUO 9-5A-5(G)):

"All structures and amenities within the campground/glamp-ground are to have a minimum setback of one hundred feet (100') from all private property boundary lines or twenty five feet (25') from all public land boundaries." ^{[2, 5]}

The capacity cap (KCLUO 9-5A-5(H)):

"The maximum campground/glamp-ground capacity in the Rural-10 Zone shall not exceed 70 tent sites." ^[2]

Access (KCLUO 9-15A-2-E-26(e), in the RV park and campground conditions as the September 2023 packet numbers them):

"RV parks and campgrounds/glamping sites must have State and/or County approved access off a State highway, County B or D road, BLM road or, if off a private road, roads will meet Wild Land Interface Urban Code standards and will require a road maintenance agreement between property owners and easement holders." ^{[2, 5]}

Utilities before rezoning (KCLUO 9-4-4E):

"Each zone change request by an applicant, seeking a change from a less dense zone to a denser zone, shall provide proof of all required utilities. No zone change application will be processed or granted without meeting said utility requirements." ^[5]

Parking location (KCLUO 9-13-7):

"Parking spaces as required above shall be on the same lot or on a public street or public parking lot within five hundred feet (500')." ^[7]

Parking and circulation plans (KCLUO 9-13-13):

"Detailed plans for off street parking, loading, circulation, and screening shall be submitted to the land use authority for approval... prior to the issuance of a building permit." ^[7]

Geologic and soils report (KCLUO 9-19-1):

"any application for a conditional use permit, a planned unit development, subdivision, MPR, mobile home park, RV park or a building or use permit shall be accompanied by a geologic and soils survey report... prepared at the applicant's expense by a registered or licensed geologist, soils engineer or civil engineer." ^[2]

Parking and internal roads. KCLUO 9-13-13 requires "sufficient parking for all employees, business vehicles and equipment, customers, clients and patients" and sets no per-unit glamping ratio in the text cited ^[5]. Stalls are 9 x 18 ft, and parking sits on the same lot or within 500 ft ^{[2, 7]}. Washington County's code is the numeric comparison: "one designated vehicle parking space" per tent site plus "one guest parking space for every five tent sites," and for internal roads "Paved Two-way (20' min. width)" at 40 to 59 sites, "Paved (28' min. width)" at 60 or more, with roads looped for emergency access once a campground has 20 tent sites or more ^[6]. In Kane the road dimensions arrive as conditions: a 20 ft hard-surfaced two-way entry road at Camp Kaia and 20 ft fire apparatus roads with 13 ft 6 in clearance at Binyamini ^{[2, 5]}.

Setback geometry. The 100-foot private-boundary setback takes a large share of a narrow parcel. A 20-acre square (about 933 ft per side) with private neighbors on all sides keeps only about 733 by 733 ft of buildable core, roughly 12.3 acres. Public land frontage needs only 25 feet, so parcels bordered by BLM land, like Camp Kaia's BLM edges on three sides, keep more usable area ^[2].

Water and service buildings. Where a site has no water connection of its own, the state water supply rule puts a shared faucet no more than 300 feet from it ^[27]. A service building must stand at least 15 feet and no more than 300 feet from the living and camping spaces it serves; a modern camp may fold it into a permanent building instead ^[11]. On a canvas layout these two distances fix the bathhouse and faucet positions before any unit is placed.

Constraints that resize the layout

Terrain, wash corridors and wildfire exposure decide where units sit inside the setback line; the campground site plan hub covers the general layout logic.

Determination: as proposed versus as resized

The brief asks for 30 to 60 units on 20 to 80 acres. The code resizes it as follows; the final count for a real parcel is whatever fits within these lines. The site counts below are the studio's arithmetic on the code's formula; the other figures are the ones the Kane record states.

Resizes on the record. Two county packets show the code and the infrastructure reshaping glamping programs. Zion Spirit, on parcel 1-9-4-6 off North Fork Road in East Zion, came to the Planning Commission in 2021 as 7 villas on about 5 of 173.16 acres in RU-40, with sites above the then 500 sq ft limit ^[7]. The staff report's conditions and open items were a Southwest Utah Public Health letter still outstanding, septic design pending, a tie-in to public water with a booster and storage for fire suppression, and dark sky lighting ^[7]. The county later replaced the 500 sq ft limit with the 774 sq ft cap in Ord. 2023-12 ^[8]. Camp Kaia, in Dairy Canyon off Johnson Canyon Road, proposed 60 cabin and glamping sites, each under 774 sq ft, with a restaurant, welcome center, spa and back-of-house on 100 acres in RU-10 ^[2]. Its water system did not have the pressure for fire flow, so the September 13, 2023 staff report called for a 100,000 gallon tank at about 5,650 ft with a 12 inch tie-in line and a BLM permit for the tank ^[2].

Site data and yield

The RU-10 formula as the 2023 staff report quotes it gives 14 sites for the first 10 acres and 8 more for each additional 10 acres, to 70 sites on 80 acres or more. The counts at the acreages in between are the studio's arithmetic on those words, not figures the code prints ^[2]:

The site data table on the plan carries these lines:

Fixture count, worked from the ratios. A shared bathhouse for 60 units at 4 occupants each is 240 people at a 50/50 gender split; at the Table 1 ratios that is 3 male toilets at 1:40 (120 male), 5 female toilets at 1:25, and 4 sinks and 4 showers per gender at 1:35. Ensuite units count toward the fixtures ^[11].

For comparison near Bryce Canyon, Garfield County requires at least 2,000 sq ft of lot per unit, keeps unit area to no more than two-thirds of the lot and caps density at 10 units per acre, and Tropic Town caps it at 5 units per acre ^{[13, 14]}. At Virgin, in Washington County, AutoCamp Zion opened in May 2023 with 96 units on 16 acres (72 custom Airstreams, 10 BaseCamps, nine X Suites, five ADA units), per trade press ^[32]. Kane's RU-10 formula yields far fewer units per acre than any of them. The general relationship between sites, acreage and amenities is covered in the post on RV resorts and glamping sites as a land use.

Comparable approvals and denials, 2021 to 2026

The table lists the projects the county's own packets and agendas document.

The staff reports apply the state conditional use standard, which they cite as Utah Code 17-27a-506: "A conditional use shall be approved if reasonable conditions are proposed, or can be imposed, to mitigate the reasonably anticipated detrimental effects" ^{[2, 7]}. A denial therefore has to rest on health, safety and welfare effects that conditions cannot mitigate, and the conditions in this record concentrate on water, wastewater, fire access and lighting ^{[2, 7]}.

Across the county line. In Washington County, the Above Zion proposal was cut "from approximately 2,000 units to 442," described as "442 on 1,148 acres, or one unit every 2.6 acres, with a need for 900 parking spaces" ^[34]. Washington County has moved rural recreation grounds in OSC-20 from conditional use to planned development, with Above Zion grandfathered as a conditional use ^[36]. Its Community Development Director told St George News in 2020 that the county had run a six-month moratorium on rural recreation and camping applications ^[31].

Cost and phasing benchmarks

How plan cost itself is set is covered in the site plan cost guide.

Phasing the record supports. Kane phases on infrastructure. At Camp Kaia the 2023 staff report required a Division of Water Quality letter and a water tank hold harmless before construction, and LUWDS approval before any construction ^[2]. Near Bryce, Under Canvas planned a phase 1 of 50 tents "each with a private bathroom" at about $350 a night and another 50 units in phase 2, under a Garfield County ordinance capping glampgrounds at 10 units per acre and 100 units total ^[35]. The model phases the same way: water source, storage and wastewater first; then the entry road, back-of-house, lodge and the first 20 to 30 units, sized to the first drainfield and tank; then the remaining units within the approved CUP envelope.

Submittal anatomy: preliminary plan and engineer of record

The sheet on the record. The Camp Kaia packet carries its site plan as sheet C200 at 1" = 150', dated 8/14/2023, marked "NOT FOR CONSTRUCTION" and keyed to 15 proposed items, together with unit plans and room areas (a 244 sq ft bedroom, decks, plunge pools), the spa and the restaurant ^[2]. That is the level of a preliminary plan at CUP: a dimensioned layout the Planning Commission can condition, ahead of the sealed construction set.

The split matches how the preliminary versus final site plan guide draws it: the preliminary plan fixes layout, counts and phasing; utility sizing, grading, drainage and the sealed sets belong to the engineer of record. Whether an architect is needed at the concept stage is covered in do I need an architect for a site plan.

Visual exhibits

The Kane checklists cited here do not require renderings or photo simulations, but the county asks the questions they answer. Binyamini's review asked, "What material and color are intended for the dome structure? We recommend natural colors so they would be visually pleasing and blend into the environment," and to "Show screening between neighboring properties" ^[5]. Camp Kaia was conditioned on a back-of-house building on Johnson Canyon Road that "will be an attractive western theme façade," trees as a buffer along that road, and lighting where "Dark Sky-compliant lighting is mandatory" ^[2]. Zion Spirit was designed to "blend in aesthetically with the environment" ^[7]. Kane's general lighting code, 9-10-14, only says new development is "encouraged to use hooded lighting practices" ^[5]. Zion was named an International Dark Sky Park in a National Park Service release of June 3, 2021 that lists the Kane County and Washington County Commissions among supporting partners ^[40]. Washington County's code puts it in text: "Construction materials shall match the landscape, natural character and colors of the area" ^[6]. Material, color, screening, theme and lighting are the questions an aerial massing view, eye-level views from the access road and the nearest neighbor, and a material and color board settle at a CUP hearing; the view set is described on the glamping visualization page.

Conditions and handoff

The conditions in Kane's packets repeat across the record:

• Infrastructure before construction. A Division of Water Quality letter and a water tank hold harmless before construction, LUWDS approval before any construction, and a 100,000 gallon tank where pressure falls short of fire flow ^[2].
• Fire and access. A 20 ft hard-surfaced two-way entry road, 20 ft fire roads with 13 ft 6 in clearance, and the Fire Warden's final WUI approval ^{[2, 5, 33]}.
• Neighbors. 100 ft private-boundary setbacks, a 6 ft solid fence on C-1 sites, quiet hours after 11 p.m., a tree buffer and western facade where the back-of-house faces Johnson Canyon Road, and natural unit colors ^{[2, 5]}.
• Sky. Shielded LED lighting at 3,000K maximum ^[2].
• Water protection. Development outside the Water Source Protection Zones of KCLUO Ch. 26 ^[2].
• Clock. A CUP lapses if action is not commenced within 1 year (9-15A-5) ^[2].

The handoff is the preliminary plan: unit count against the RU-10 formula, unit sizes against the 774 sq ft cap, the 100 and 25 ft setback lines, service buildings inside the 15 to 300 ft band, parking within 500 ft, fire road geometry, phasing tied to drainfield and tank capacity, and the visual package. A Utah-licensed landscape architect, engineer or architect carries it into the sealed final site plan and construction set. For a cabin and campground program in another mountain county, compare the Chaffee County, Colorado model; for a site across the state line to the west, the Nevada state page sets out that state's layers; the wider demand picture is in the post on the glamping and unique accommodations revolution.

By Viola Sauer, Principal, Innowave Studio