Zoning isn't easy

The Tucson City Council is going to make big moves soon ... Public will get to weigh in ... Trump rally in Tucson.

Like many cities, Tucson has a housing shortage, and city officials are well aware of that fact.

They’re in the middle of a long, complicated process to clear out zoning barriers so developers can build more housing, as you could see at the city council’s Wednesday meeting.

At the same time, they’re trying to balance the need for more housing with goals like making the city resilient to climate change, protecting historic areas, and clearing the way for more charging stations for electric vehicles.

To make it even more complicated, the city council doesn’t actually have the final say in how they manage certain types of housing, like casitas and duplexes. New state laws dictate what happens with those, and the city only has until the end of the year to comply with some of those new laws.

On top of all that, a fundamental problem has reared its head:

“Currently, the type of development prioritized by Tucson’s adopted plans is not allowed by the current zoning code,” Assistant City Manager Liz Morales wrote in a memo to the council.

So the council is looking at sweeping changes to how tall buildings can be, which types of housing can be built where, and an array of other issues in the zoning code.

A slide from a presentation at Wednesday’s council meeting.

They’ve been working on it for more than a year and they still have a ways to go. Here’s what it’s looked like so far:

• February 2023: The council calls for removing zoning barriers to affordable housing.

• April 2023: The council asks staff to figure out how to redevelop under-used sites like vacant buildings or parking lots along busy streets.

• August 2023: The council discusses regulations for tiny homes, which spurred University of Arizona researchers to conduct a study that the council leaned on this week.

• October 2023: Staff shows the council where under-used sites are concentrated

• June 2024: The council gets an update on new state laws that deal with city zoning.

• August 2024: Staff gets feedback on their goals and research at community meetings.

Those are just the items that staff included in a memo to the council this week. There’s a whole lot more. Affordable housing and the city’s growth are never far from the council’s agendas.

On Wednesday, Mayor Regina Romero and Council member Lane Santa Cruz said they were intrigued by the idea of declaring a housing emergency to speed things up, which was one of the recommendations of the UA researchers. Santa Cruz also pointed to parking as a big issue.

Councilman Paul Cunningham called regulations on building heights the “elephant in the room” and said the council should figure out where developers want to “build up” and which heights are actually desirable to developers. Like Santa Cruz, he said they need to dig into parking requirements.

Councilwoman Karin Uhlich pointed to the need to get regulations for electric vehicles right. If they don’t, the city could face “insurmountable challenges for progress.”

The council ended up telling staff to move ahead with their research and public outreach. Here’s the plan going forward:

• September 2024: Staff holds community meetings on heights, setbacks, and parking requirements

• October 2024: Planning Commission goes over the proposed changes

• November 2024: Planning Commission holds a public hearing and makes recommendations

• December 2024: The council holds a public hearing on the changes

• January 1, 2025: The deadline to comply with new state laws on casitas, the zoning approval process, and multi-family developments

• January and February 2025: Staff presents their research on middle housing (aka, duplexes and triplexes) to the council

• March to August 2025: City officials talk to residents and developers

• September to December 2025: The public reviews the changes proposed by the city

• January 1, 2026: The deadline to comply with state laws on middle housing. If the city misses that deadline, officials have to allow duplexes and triplexes on every single-family residential lot in the city.

As you can see, it’s a long process. So far, it appears city officials are committed to including public feedback in their decisions. So keep an eye out for items in our Other News section about “city officials ask for feedback on housing plans.”

In the meantime, if you’re interested in zoning, check out the report and recommendations from the UA’s Drachman Institute.

Trump time: Former President Donald Trump came to Tucson yesterday for a rally and Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff spoke at a private event downtown, the Arizona Luminaria staff reported. During his hourlong speech to a crowd that filled the Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, Trump made a lot of his usual claims, from saying the election would be rigged to wild accusations against immigrants. He also said he would end tax on overtime wages and he wouldn’t debate Vice President Kamala Harris again.

Setting the date: As expected, the Tucson City Council set the date for a special election for a half-cent sales tax at their meeting Wednesday, the Arizona Daily Star’s Charles Borla reports. The vote came after several people at call-to-the-public complained that too much of the expected $80 million a year would go to law enforcement, instead of affordable housing or health services.

A little help: New homebuyers are going to get more help from the Lighthouse program, offered through a collaboration between the Tucson and Pima County industrial development authorities, the Tucson Sentinel’s Ruby McKeown reports. That help averages about $15,000 for down payments, and if the new owners stay in the house for five years, they won't have to repay it.

A different tack: The new president of the University of Arizona is going to take a different approach to the controversial UA Global Campus, the Star’s Ellie Wolfe reports. Interim Provost Ron Marx said UA officials have a plan to integrate the online school into the main university, which would bring more scrutiny of academic programs.

78%: The decrease in building permits in the Tucson area from a peak in 2006, before the financial crisis, to the middle of 2020, according to the UA’s MAP dashboard.