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ITEM 2

Planning & Zoning Commission Development Services Memo No. 05-017

Date:

June 18, 2025

To:

Planning and Zoning Commission

Thru:

Kevin Mayo, Planning Administrator

From:

David De La Torre, Planning Senior Manager

Subject:

PLH25-0030 Downtown Region Area Plan Update

Proposed Motion:

Move Planning and Zoning Commission withdraw this request for the purpose of re-advertising at a later date. The request is to adopt the Downtown Region Area Plan establishing future land uses, conceptual design guidelines and other goals and policies to replace the Downtown-South Arizona Corridor Area Plan, which consists of the Redevelopment Area Plan and the South Arizona Avenue Entry Corridor Study, and the South Arizona Avenue Design Guidelines.

Background/Discussion

On January 25, 2024, the City Council approved a contract with Logan Simpson Design Inc. to update the area plans for the downtown region (i.e., the Redevelopment Area Plan, the South Arizona Avenue Entry Corridor Study, and the South Arizona Avenue Design Guidelines. Since that time, 2 questionnaires, 2 virtual workshops, and 8 public events including an immersive experience lab have been held to gather input from the community. A draft was prepared based on the input received from these public outreach opportunities, as well as from city staff from various departments and from a few touchpoints with the City Council and the Planning and Zoning Commission along the way.

Recently, the governor signed House Bill 2447 that requiring cities to authorize staff to review and approve development plans based on objective standards without a public hearing, which may run in conflict with the design standards in the draft plan. As such, additional time is needed to review the drafted design standards to ensure compliance with state law.

Further, as the Planning and Zoning Commission may be aware, the City is concurrently in the process of preparing a Comprehensive Housing Plan and updating the General Plan. As a part of this effort, staff has recently reviewed preliminary findings with the housing needs analysis indicating there is a deficiency in housing units citywide. Staff believes that it would be prudent for the area plan to wait for the comprehensive housing plan to be completed so that corresponding housing goals and policies can included in the downtown region area plan.

Staff from various city departments can also take advantage of this time to work on strategies to address infrastructure improvements that may be necessary to accompany the goals to attract additional housing to the downtown area in the form of redevelopment and infill projects.

For these reasons, staff is requesting that this item be withdrawn to allow additional time to work on the plan. Staff anticipates bringing back a revised draft plan for review and approval later this year, potentially late summer or early fall.