By Howard Fischer | Daily Independent
Elected officials from Paradise Valley and Gilbert spoke out last week against a proposal that would require Arizona cities and towns to allow new homes, duplexes and triplexes on small lots in residential areas.
More than that, the bill, which was approved by the Senate Commerce Committee, would allow homeowners to add backyard casitas, ban cities from enforcing design standards, eliminate requirements for off-street parking and override some height restrictions.
Sen. Steve Kaiser, R-Phoenix, said his measure is a way to help solve the state’s housing crisis by removing zoning rules and speeding up approval processes that housing advocates and apartment developers say have hamstrung development. He has been pushing for an overhaul of zoning laws for a year.
Some Democratic lawmakers on the panel noted, however, that Kaiser’s proposal requires no affordable housing be built. And cities and towns objected to having their ability to control local zoning taken away.
“This is basically a nuclear option to allow a whole bunch of housing but not saying it has to be affordable housing,” said Frank Cassidy, who represents the League of Arizona Cities and Towns. “It is just a ‘trickle down’ argument for that.”
Cassidy testified against the measure last week, joining Gilbert Mayor Brigette Peterson, who previously served on the town council and as a planning commissioner, and Paradise Valley Councilmember Anna Thomasson.
Peterson told the committee that the bill disregards parts of the community’s voter-approved general plan and requires the town to accept zoning changes and to implement design standards or density rules.
“These factors have made our community unique,” Peterson said.
Thomasson said overruling local zoning rules will have wide-ranging effects, including forcing change to local character.
“We think it’s important to hang on to the culture of all Arizona communities, including Paradise Valley, that we retain the right to have our own zoning, and to have our own determination, public process involvement,” she said.
The plan is backed by developers of homes and apartments as well as urban renewal advocacy groups.
“The fact of the matter is, we have zoned out starter homes, that is just a fact,” Spencer Kamps of the Homebuilders Association of Central Arizona told Committee members. This bill, he said, would allow developers to produce “starter homes.”
“We have zoned out accessory dwelling units,” Kamps said. “We’ve zoned out single-occupancy dwelling units. They don’t exist. You can’t build them. This bill allows the triplexes, duplexes, what we call the missing middle. This bill allows that to happen.”
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