Two homesites go on the market in Tuhaye within the same month, priced within a few hundred thousand dollars of each other, same rough acreage, same golf-corridor exposure. A year later, one owner is settled into an 8,000-square-foot home with three sides open to the Jordanelle Reservoir. The other is still in redesign meetings, because the lot's Homesite Diagram cut the buildable footprint down to something the architect's first three concepts couldn't fit inside.
Same price. Different product. The list price on a Tuhaye lot tells you what you paid for the dirt. It does not tell you what the Architectural Review Committee will let you build on it, and that gap is the thing buyers in this market keep discovering after they've already signed.
The document that decides more than the price tag
Every homesite in Tuhaye comes with a Homesite Diagram prepared specifically for that lot. It marks the Allowable Building Area, the Improvement Envelope, the Natural Area, a Landscape Enhancement Zone, preferred driveway access, potential view corridors, rock outcroppings, and maximum height factors. Where an Allowable Building Area is drawn on the diagram, no disturbance can happen outside that line. Not a wing of the house, not a pool, not a retaining wall for a driveway that felt like the obvious route on the walk-through.
Two lots at the same price, in the same phase of the same neighborhood, can carry very different versions of that diagram. One buyer gets a wide, forgiving envelope. The next lot over gets a narrow one, shaped by slope, by a drainage easement, or by a view corridor the ARC has reserved for a neighboring homesite. None of that shows up in the comparable sales sheet. It only shows up once you request the diagram.
| What the price tag confirms | What only the Homesite Diagram confirms |
|---|---|
| Acreage, list price, and rough comparables | The Allowable Building Area and Improvement Envelope |
| Neighborhood name (Whispering Hawk, Cougar Moon, Moondance, Morningstar) | Whether the home reads as one story from the access road |
| General golf-corridor or reservoir exposure | Height cap of 32 feet, or 30 feet on slopes over 15 percent |
| Marketed "view potential" | The actual reserved view corridors and rock outcropping constraints |
The numbers baked into every lot
Tuhaye's design guidelines set a minimum gross floor area of 2,500 square feet, with a maximum that scales up to 10,000 square feet on lots larger than two acres. Height is generally capped at 32 feet unless the diagram says otherwise, or 30 feet on sites where the slope across the improvement envelope exceeds 15 percent. On lots with more than eight feet of slope across that envelope, the home is generally expected to present as a one-story structure when viewed from the access road, even if a walk-out lower level adds real square footage below.
Site work carries its own rules. Slopes generally cannot exceed a 3:1 ratio, retaining walls are preferred once a cut exceeds eight feet, and driveways are typically limited to 20 feet wide at a maximum 12 percent grade. If a particular lot falls under a Wasatch County ridgeline or viewshed overlay, the process can require a 3D digital terrain model and a vertical analysis of the improvement envelope before the ARC will move forward. That is an added planning layer that has nothing to do with the list price and everything to do with where the lot happens to sit on the plateau.
The community's own language is direct about the intent behind all of it. The design guidelines describe a mandate to design buildings that "tread lightly on the land," anchored in the goal to preserve and enhance the natural landscape the plateau is known for. That philosophy is exactly what produces the lot-to-lot variance a buyer feels later, in the size and shape of what they're allowed to build.
The six-month clock nobody mentions at closing
All architects and builders working in Tuhaye must be ARC-approved before they can submit anything. That alone changes the calendar for buyers who arrive with an architect they already trust from another market. The process itself begins with a pre-design conference, held before any drawings are prepared, where owners are expected to bring a survey with one-foot contour intervals, documented tree coverage, utilities, property lines, easements, and a list of the licensed professionals on their team.
Here is the part that catches people off guard. If a preliminary submittal doesn't happen within six months of that pre-design conference, a supplementary conference may be required. In practice, that means the clock most buyers assume starts at closing actually starts the moment they sit down with the ARC, and drifting past that window can mean going back to the beginning of a step they thought was finished.
Even after Final Design Approval from the ARC, the process isn't over. Owners still have to clear submittal and approval requirements with Wasatch County and any other applicable municipal authority. Move-in in Tuhaye is not one milestone. It's the tail end of a sequence: lot analysis, the pre-design conference, preliminary submittal inside that six-month window, rounds of ARC review, final design approval, county permitting, construction observation, final signoff, and only then occupancy.
- Lot analysis against the Homesite Diagram
- Pre-design conference with the ARC
- Preliminary submittal within six months of that conference
- ARC design review, potentially multiple rounds
- Final Design Approval from the ARC
- Wasatch County and municipal permitting
- Construction observation by the ARC
- Final signoff and occupancy
Why the entitlement gap matters more in 2026
Tuhaye's 2025 median sale price landed just under $6 million, according to the Park City Board of Realtors' year-end report, on 29 closed sales. Five million dollars used to be the entry point into this market. That is no longer true. At the same time, the last remaining developer homesites across all of Talisker Club are being marketed in the $2 million to $5 million range, a sign that the supply of raw, buildable Tuhaye land is thinning even as demand for it holds.
The same year-end report flagged something specific: a trend toward strong buyer appetite for vacant lots in gated communities where a golf club membership is already attached, distinct from finished-home demand. That detail matters here, because it means competition in Tuhaye is increasingly concentrated on the land itself, not just the houses sitting on it.
When land was cheaper and more available, a buyer who got a tighter Improvement Envelope than expected could often walk to the next available lot. In a market where developer inventory is running out and prices per homesite have climbed toward the top of that $2 million to $5 million band, that flexibility is gone. The entitlement gap between two similarly priced lots is no longer a minor design inconvenience. It is the difference between the home you pictured when you signed the contract and the home the ARC will actually let you build.
It's also worth remembering that most developer-offered homesites in Tuhaye bundle a Talisker Club membership deposit, commonly cited around $200,000, directly into the purchase price. That deposit buys access to the club. It says nothing about what you can build on the ground beneath it, which is exactly why the Homesite Diagram deserves the same scrutiny as the membership paperwork before an offer goes in.
What to check before you write an offer
- Request the Homesite Diagram for the specific lot, not a neighborhood average, before you submit an offer.
- Compare the Allowable Building Area against the actual square footage you're picturing, not the maximum the guidelines allow on paper.
- Ask whether the lot sits inside a Wasatch County ridgeline or viewshed overlay that could require additional terrain modeling.
- Confirm your architect and builder are already ARC-approved, or start that approval process before you sign either of them.
- Calendar the six-month submittal window the day of your pre-design conference, not the day you remember it exists.
FAQ
Does every Tuhaye lot already have a Homesite Diagram, or do I need to order one? A Homesite Diagram has been prepared for each individual lot in the community. Ask for it as part of your due diligence before writing an offer, since it is already on file rather than something built from scratch.
What actually happens if I miss the six-month window after my pre-design conference? The guidelines allow the ARC to require a supplementary conference, which functions as a reset of that stage of the review. It doesn't necessarily void prior approvals, but it adds time back into a timeline that most buyers assumed was already moving forward.
Is the Talisker Club membership deposit included in a Tuhaye homesite's list price? In many developer offerings, yes, the deposit commonly cited around $200,000 is built into the purchase price. Resale terms vary by lot and by seller, so this is worth confirming line by line before you compare two listings on price alone.
A homesite's list price tells you what the land costs. It doesn't tell you what the ARC will let you build on it, or how fast that six-month clock starts running once you sit down for your pre-design conference. If you're evaluating raw land in Tuhaye and want the Homesite Diagram read before you write an offer, Tricia Cohen can walk the entitlement details with you line by line. Schedule a Private Consultation to start.
