By Camryn Sanchez | Arizona Capitol Times
The chairman of the Housing Supply Study Committee is proposing to alter zoning laws and permanently fund the Housing Trust Fund to create more affordable housing in the state.
Rep. Steve Kaiser, R-Phoenix, made those recommendations and others in the committee’s final meeting Dec. 20.
Kaiser concluded that Arizona lacks housing data, zoning is a primary barrier to affordable housing, the building process should be sped up and there is too much NIMBYism blocking development.
Committee members sent recommendations to Kaiser, which he considered and approved certain ones.
The most ambitious recommendation and the one Kaiser has spoken about the most is altering zoning rules. Kaiser recommends reducing redundancies in the general plan and zoning codes, reducing the need for rezoning, expediting zoning applications, reconsidering whether city councils need to hear every rezoning request, establishing a rural community infrastructure grant plan and allowing developers to go through an appeals process if the city council rejects their proposal. Kaiser said he’s not sure who the developer would appeal to.
Last session, Kaiser sponsored a bill that would have made some of these changes, but it was transformed into the bill that created the Housing Supply Study Committee instead.
Following zoning changes, Kaiser recommended making it easier to build properties that are larger than single family homes but smaller than huge multifamily developments, such as duplexes and quadruplexes.
As he has suggested several times, Kaiser said he supports allowing people to build small affordable units (like mother-in-law suites and living spaces in remodeled garages). He also recommends limiting “discretionary review of design standards” to allow more housing options and styles, including manufactured homes.
Kaiser also recommended creating a housing data clearinghouse and charge the Arizona Department of Housing and the Arizona Commerce Authority with creating a housing needs assessment. Next, Kaiser wants to reconvene the State Interagency Council on Housing and Homelessness.
Keeping the senior population in mind, Kaiser called for allowing more small homes to be built, waiving parking space restrictions, funding senior homeless shelters and permanently funding the Housing Trust Fund.
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