How much garage space do you need in Utah?

Most northern Utah households need more garage space than a basic two-car garage gives them, and they usually find that out in their first winter.

The reason is that four separate demands land on the same space. Winter pushes cars off the street. Full-size trucks are longer than people realize. Storage that used to live in an unfinished basement moves to the garage once the basement is finished. And trailers, boats and campers have rules about where they can go. A garage that handles one of these comfortably often cannot handle all four.

What a “two-car garage” means on paper

Less than buyers assume.

Lot size decides how much of this is even possible. Butterfield and The Cove at Herriman Springs are the larger-lot end of Herriman, and Pepperwood in Sandy is the gated equivalent.

Herriman, as one example of a fast-growing northern Utah city, requires single-family dwellings to include a minimum two-car garage of 24 feet by 22 feet, or an approved equivalent, and a driveway at least 24 feet long (Herriman City single-family design standards, checked October 2026). That is a minimum, and plenty of builders build to it or close to it.

Now put a truck in it. Kelley Blue Book lists the 2026 Ford F-150 SuperCrew with the 6.5-foot bed at 243.9 inches long, a little over 20 feet (KBB, checked October 2026). The shorter 5.5-foot bed is listed at 232 inches. In a garage whose minimum dimension is 22 feet, a crew-cab truck with a longer bed leaves very little room at the front or back, before you account for the steps into the house, a water heater, a freezer or a wall of shelves.

That is why I tell clients with a full-size truck to bring a tape measure to showings. Measure the inside of the garage from the door to the back wall, and from wall to wall, then subtract whatever is permanently in the way. The listing will say “two-car garage” either way.

Winter is why the garage matters more here

In a lot of the country, a car on the street overnight is fine. In northern Utah, winter makes it a problem.

Herriman’s parking rules prohibit parking on the odd-numbered side of the street when it is snowing or there is snow on the street between November 1 and April 1, and the city’s general rule bars leaving a vehicle on a public street for more than 24 hours at a time (Herriman City parking FAQ, checked October 2026). The city’s snow removal page asks residents to move vehicles and trailers off the street so plows can clear it. Other cities along the Wasatch Front have their own versions. The details differ, the direction does not.

Then there is the scraping. A car parked outside on a January morning means ice on the windshield and snow on the roof. A car in the garage means you back out and go. For a household with two commuters, that difference shows up every weekday from roughly Thanksgiving to March.

So the practical question is not how many cars you own. It is how many cars need to be indoors on a snowy morning, and whether the garage can hold that many with everything else that lives in it.

The storage problem nobody budgets for

Northern Utah homes are often built over basements, and many are sold with the basement unfinished. While it is unfinished, it is storage: holiday boxes, camping gear, bikes, the chest freezer. If a trailer or motorhome is part of the plan, finding a house with an RV garage near Herriman covers what that search looks like.

When the basement gets finished, all of that has to go somewhere, and it goes to the garage. Buying a house with an unfinished basement covers the trade-off. The part people miss is the second-order effect. A two-car garage that fit two cars comfortably before the basement was finished often fits one car and a lot of shelving after.

Skis, snowblowers, sleds and winter tires add a seasonal layer on top. A garage is the only place most of it can go.

Tandem garages and third bays

Two designs come up often, and they solve different problems.

A tandem garage is extra depth in one bay, so one space holds two cars nose to tail, or one car plus a workshop or storage area. It is common on narrower lots because it adds space without widening the front of the house. The catch is the shuffle: whoever parks in front has to move for whoever parks behind. It works well for a long truck, a boat or storage. It works badly for two daily commuters with different schedules.

A third bay is a separate door and a separate space. It costs more and takes more frontage, and it is the more flexible of the two. It holds a third car, a trailer that fits, a workshop, or the overflow from a finished basement.

	Tandem space	Third bay
Best for	A long truck, a boat, storage, a workshop	A third car, regular in-and-out use
Daily convenience	Requires moving one car to reach the other	Independent access
Lot fit	Works on narrower lots	Needs more frontage
What to check	Interior length, door height	Door width and height, slope of the apron

Ask about door height too. A lifted truck or a roof rack can clear a door that a stock vehicle would, or not.

Trailers and RVs: the city has rules

If you own a trailer, a camper or a boat, garage space is only part of the question. The rest is where the city and the HOA let you keep it.

In Herriman, campers, RVs and trailers may not be parked on the street unless they are being actively loaded or unloaded, and then for no more than 12 hours (Herriman City parking FAQ). On private property, the city’s accessory vehicle storage ordinance took effect October 10, 2025. It covers RVs, trailers, campers and utility trailers, allows them only on lots with an existing home or established primary use, and caps the number by lot size, from 4 on small lots up to 10 on larger properties. Exceeding the cap requires a conditional use permit, fencing, an improved surface and setbacks (Herriman City, Accessory Vehicle Storage page, checked October 2026).

The code also sets standards for a side-yard pad: driveway access from the front lot line back to the rear yard setback (or only to the front setback where the side yard is fenced), on concrete, pavers, asphalt or a bordered, compacted gravel surface. Vehicles stored fully inside a garage do not count toward the cap (Herriman City Code, accessory vehicle storage, checked October 2026). That last rule is a quiet argument for a deep third bay.

If you are buying for an RV, the side yard matters as much as the garage. Measure the gap between the house and the property line on the side you would use, and check where the fence, the window wells and the air conditioner sit.

What HOAs can and cannot do in Utah

Many newer northern Utah neighborhoods have an HOA, and many HOAs have trailer and RV rules. Whether Herriman homes have HOAs covers how common that is.

State law changed in 2025. H.B. 217 added a subsection to Utah Code § 57-8a-218 that bars an association rule from restricting the parking of an operable vehicle in an owner’s driveway, unless the vehicle is a commercial vehicle, a motor home or a recreational vehicle trailer. In Advisory Opinion 2025-03, dated October 27, 2025, Utah’s Office of the Homeowners’ Association Ombudsman concluded that an HOA could not ban an owner’s operable utility trailer from his driveway, because it was not designed as a temporary dwelling (Utah Department of Commerce).

Two things follow for buyers. First, a camper, travel trailer or motor home can still be restricted by an HOA, so read the CC&Rs if you own one. Second, the same opinion notes the statute lets an association require, by rule, that an owner park in the garage, to the extent able, before using the driveway. A garage full of storage is a weak position under a rule like that.

Note: This is general information, not legal advice. HOA rules, city ordinances and how the statute applies to a particular vehicle vary, so read the governing documents and confirm with the city or an attorney before you rely on any of it.

So how much do you need?

My honest rule of thumb, from watching clients settle in:

• One commuter, no truck, unfinished basement: a standard two-car garage is usually plenty.
• Two commuters, or a full-size truck: a two-car garage with real depth, measured, not assumed.
• A finished basement, winter gear, or a workshop: a third bay or a tandem space.
• A trailer, boat or camper: a third bay or a side-yard pad that meets the city’s surface rules, plus an HOA that allows it.

The most common regret I hear is not about square footage inside the house. It is the garage that looked fine at the showing in June and turned out to hold one car by the following January.

I am Kelsey Earl, a Realtor with Keller Williams South Valley, and if a trailer, a truck or a workshop is part of your life, tell me at the start so we search for it rather than discover it. Send me what you need to park, and I will filter for it. If you are also weighing lot size for an RV pad, do Herriman homes have big lots is the next read.