Highland Utah Lot Sizes: Why There Are No Small Lots Here

Buyers ask me why Highland costs what it does. The honest answer is not the views, or the schools, or the canyon, though all three help. It is a line in the city code: no lot in any residential zone in Highland may be smaller than 20,000 square feet. That is 0.459 of an acre, and it is the floor everywhere in the city.

Highland is 8.64 square miles, and that one rule explains most of what you notice when you drive through it. No starter subdivisions. No zero-lot-line rows. Households averaging 3.98 people, the largest of the ten cities I work in. A city of 21,571 people with no real downtown. Understand the lot rule and the rest of Highland stops being surprising.

Highland City has exactly three zones allocated for residential development: R-1-40, R-1-30 and R-1-20. There is nothing smaller. Here is the part almost everyone gets wrong, including some agents: the number in the zone name is not the minimum lot size. It is the density divisor applied to the whole parcel being subdivided.

R-1-20. Lots must be at least 20,000 square feet, with 115 feet of width at the setback line and at the front property line. Cul-de-sac lots entirely within the bulb get an exception down to 98 feet of width.

R-1-30. The number of lots allowed is the parcel size divided by 30,000 square feet. No lot may be under 20,000 square feet, and no more than 25 percent of the lots may be under 25,000. Minimum depth and minimum width at the setback line are both 120 feet, with a 100-foot cul-de-sac exception.

R-1-40. The number of lots allowed is the parcel size divided by 40,000 square feet. No lot may be under 20,000 square feet, and no more than 25 percent may be 30,000 square feet or less. Minimum width at the setback line is 130 feet.

So an R-1-40 subdivision is not made of 0.92-acre lots. It is a neighborhood whose average density works out to one home per 40,000 square feet, built from lots that are mostly large with a small share at the bottom of the range. The practical effect is the same either way. Land per house in Highland is not optional.

Highland City publishes an online zoning map viewer, so you can look up the zone on any specific parcel before you make an offer rather than taking a listing remark at face value. If large acreage is what you are after, start with Highland homes with large lots.

There is a single pocket of Highland where the 20,000-square-foot floor does not apply. The Town Center Overlay Urban Subdivision covers one legally described parcel of 8.08 acres and permits single family and attached dwellings on small building envelopes, 46 feet by 60 feet, with the unbuilt land deeded back to a homeowners association as shared open space. Side setbacks are 15 feet, front setbacks 20 feet.

That overlay is why a Highland search will occasionally return a townhouse. Across the entire city the count of attached homes is in the single digits at any given time. If you want low-maintenance attached housing in this part of Utah County, Highland is not the place to look, and I would rather tell you that than walk you through eight listings that do not exist.

Large lots in Highland come with rights that matter to a specific kind of buyer, and they are written into the same code.

Large animals are permitted subject to conditions, with grandfather rights tied to R-1-40 lot sizes. Horse property in Highland is a real category, not a listing adjective.

Chickens are permitted, on a sliding scale. On a 20,000 square foot lot the maximum is 14 birds; at 15,000 square feet it is 10; at 10,000 square feet it is 6. Coops and similar structures must sit at least 20 feet from any neighboring residence.

Pigs are not permitted on any lot in the city. That one is unambiguous.

The residential zones also carry their own provisions for accessory buildings, large animal shelters and athletic courts, which is why you see so many sport courts behind Highland homes.

Before you count on any of this for a specific property, confirm it against the current development code and the parcel's zone. Ordinances get amended, and several of these sections were amended as recently as 2024 and 2025. Buyers planning a custom build often start with Highland homes with no HOA.

Zillow put the typical Highland home value at $974,274 as of August 31, 2026, up 5.2 percent over the prior year. The Census Bureau's five-year estimate, which measures something slightly different and lags the market, puts the median value of owner-occupied homes here at $928,300. Both numbers say the same thing: Highland is the top of the market among the ten cities I work in.

That is a land price as much as a house price. When the smallest legal lot in town is almost half an acre, there is no entry-level product to pull the median down. It also means the spread between a 20,000-square-foot lot and a two-acre lot with a view is wide, and that comparing Highland homes on price per square foot of house alone will mislead you badly. At the top of the range, see Highland luxury homes $1 million and up.

Household income tracks the housing. Median household income in Highland is $186,075 and 91.7 percent of homes are owner occupied, both of which are high even by northern Utah County standards. Household size follows the lot sizes too, at 3.98 people per home, which is why Highland 5 bedroom homes is one of the most useful searches in this city.

Highland City maintains 25 parks and 18.4 miles of trails inside those 8.64 square miles. In a city with no commercial center, the parks are where public life actually happens.

Highland Glen Park, 4800 Knight Avenue. The city's signature park: a pond, open green space, walking and biking trails, playground areas, a pavilion, and the Highland Glen Bike Park. The city runs its Hooked on Fishing program here.

Highland Family Park, 5691 West 10400 North, also known locally as Mountain Ridge Park. Home to a 30,000-square-foot all-abilities playground funded by a $500,000 donation from Highland residents Paul and Rachel Adams, opened in 2023.

Heritage Park, 10400 North Alpine Highway. Where the Highland Fling, the city festival, is held each summer.

Beacon Hill Park, 5959 West Beacon Hill Boulevard, with the city's disc golf course.

The Town Center Splash Pad, 10800 North 5400 West. Worth naming separately because it is its own park, not part of Highland Glen.

The Murdock Canal Trail, 20.8 paved miles running from the Jordan River Parkway in Lehi to Orem, connecting seven Utah Valley communities and passing straight through Highland. It has an adjacent dirt path for equestrian use, which fits this city better than most.

Others worth knowing by name: Canterbury North and Canterbury South, Mitchell Hollow, Windsor, Highland Hills, Dry Creek East and West, Wimbleton North and South, Town Center Meadows, Lone Peak Soccer Fields, Merlin Larsen, Spring Creek, View Pointe, Twin Bridges, Wild Rose, Apple Blossom and Argo Circle.

Highland has no downtown, and residents generally consider that a feature rather than a gap. What it does have sits along the 11000 North and Timpanogos Highway corridor.

Macey's, 5353 West 11000 North, is the anchor grocery. Open Monday through Saturday, closed Sunday.

Meier's Meats and Fine Foods, 5521 Timpanogos Highway, a butcher and specialty grocer.

Cubby's, 5551 West 11000 North Suite A.

Harts, 11000 North Alpine Highway, for fuel and convenience.

Everything else is a short drive. American Fork's Main Street corridor is minutes south on the Alpine Highway, and Thanksgiving Point and the Outlets at Traverse Mountain are minutes west on the Timpanogos Highway. If a walkable restaurant row is on your list, Highland will not deliver it, and no amount of marketing copy changes that. What Highland does deliver is garage and driveway space, which is why Highland homes with 3 car garages fills up so quickly.

Highland has no I-15 interchange of its own, which is a large part of why through traffic stays light. Three roads do the work.

SR-92, the Timpanogos Highway, runs east and west. West it reaches I-15 in Lehi; east it climbs into American Fork Canyon past Timpanogos Cave National Monument and on to the Alpine Loop.

SR-74, the Alpine Highway, runs north and south for five miles, from US-89 in American Fork through Highland and ending in Alpine.

SR-129, North County Boulevard, runs past Lone Peak High School.

Measured driving distances from Highland City Hall at 5400 West Civic Center Drive, along those roads: about 4.9 miles to Ancestry on Traverse Parkway in Lehi; about 5.5 miles to the American Fork FrontRunner station, which is the nearest commuter rail since there is no station and no TRAX line in Highland; about 5.8 miles to Adobe on Adobe Way in Lehi; and about 6.0 miles to Thanksgiving Point.

Outside of rush hour those are roughly ten-minute drives, which is why Highland pulls so many Silicon Slopes buyers who want land without a long commute. For the city as a whole, the Census Bureau puts the mean travel time to work at 23.1 minutes, which is the honest number for Highland workers overall rather than for one office park.

Every Highland student attends Lone Peak High School, which is in Highland and also serves Alpine and Cedar Hills. Three PK-6 elementaries sit inside the city, and grades 7 through 9 go to Mountain Ridge Junior High in Highland or Timberline Middle in Alpine. Highland is in Alpine School District through 2026-27 and joins the new Aspen Peaks School District on July 1, 2027. The full feeder, every address, and what the district change does and does not affect are on my Lone Peak High School boundary page.

The Highland Fling is the city festival, held at Heritage Park each summer with a parade. Beyond that the calendar is park-shaped: the Hooked on Fishing program at Highland Glen, disc golf at Beacon Hill, and a lot of use of 18.4 miles of trail. The city publishes its current event calendar on its own site, which is the place to check dates rather than a real estate page.

Lone Peak High School Boundary and the Schools That Feed It - every elementary, junior high and high school in the Lone Peak feeder, and what the 2027 district change does and does not move.

Highland Homes with Large Lots - current listings on a third of an acre and up, the search this whole page is really about.

Highland Luxury Homes $1 Million and Up - the top of the Highland market, where lot size and view drive most of the price.

Living in Highland, Utah - neighborhoods, costs and life at the base of Timpanogos.

Best Schools in Highland, Utah - a parent's guide to every public and charter option serving the city.

Highland, UT Real Estate - the city page, with current listings, demographics and local amenities.