As a result of the Strategic Plan’s Development Continuum action item, the Development Services Department (DSD) and Legal Services Department (Legal) collaborated to identify and initiate efficiencies in support of streamlining the current development timeline. The following four initiatives were identified and put in place as a result of the collaboration.
FINAL PLATS:
Arizona Senate Bill 1103 was approved in March 2023 allowing the legislative body of a city authorize personnel to review and approve final plats and plat amendments. Previously, final plats required Council approval. The final plat process can have a significant impact on developer project timelines, especially when final plat recordation is necessary before a developer sells a piece of property to a home builder. The plats often need to be placed on the Council agenda quickly to meet tight timeframes and the Council agenda schedule does not align with the needs of the customer. Moving this action to an administrative process is anticipated to save customers time in the process, as well as staff time, that can be redirected to other activities. This administrative process will be handled by DSD and will remove Legal from the normal plat processing procedures. The city code change was adopted by City Council on October 7, 2024 and is effective as of November 7, 2024.
REZONING AND USE PERMIT TIMELINE:
Rezoning cases can take many months to get through the development review process due to complicated infrastructure planning and the public input process. The current review process typically begins with DSD staff completing the first review, drafting the Council staff report and stipulations, and then sending them to Legal for review and comment. This means that working through the recommended stipulations with the customer is done shortly before the Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council meetings which can cause last-minute changes and delays in the projects.
A change to this process is being implemented. DSD staff will now draft stipulations during the first review of the rezone or use permit review and send them to the customer along with the first review comments. DSD staff and the customer will work through the concepts of the stipulations during the comment review meeting held between staff and the customer. At second review of the rezoning case, the draft stipulations agreed to between DSD staff and the customer will then be transmitted to Legal for review and finalization. The finalized stipulations will be transmitted to the customer with any remaining second review comments. The stipulations will not be modified or added after this time unless it is requested by the customer. This new process will streamline the timeline and provide more certainty and predictability to the customer earlier in the process.
DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENT STANDARD OPERATING PROCEDURES:
With input from impacted departments and the City Manager’s Office, Legal Services drafted a Standard Operating Procedure (“SOP”), outlining the steps and timelines to be adhered to in moving a proposed development agreement through the City’s review process. As opposed to past practices, the SOP (Attachment A) outlines responsibilities and establishes a “shot clock” on city departments, including Legal, to analyze the city’s requirements or needs from the proposed development agreement, gather consensus, provide those comments to the developer, and provides a process to respond when developer feedback is received.
The SOP envisions a process where the Development Agreement Coordinator (“DAC”) shepherds the proposed development agreement through the process, and each impacted department has some accountability in responding to the DAC’s request for input/information within defined timelines. In addition, the Legal Department is responsible for developing draft development agreements and/or drafting responses to developer comments within defined timelines.
The new SOP formalizes the process the City has generally followed in the development agreement process but adds accountability and adopted time frames to accomplish the specific areas of work that previously had no timeframes attached. This should serve to keep the proposed development agreements moving forward through the City process.
REAL ESTATE DIVISION RELOCATION TO THE ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT:
The Real Estate Division has been a part of the Legal Services Department for approximately seven-plus years. Prior to that, the Real Estate Coordinator was located in the Engineering Department managing city real estate acquisitions, easements, and dedication work. At the time, it was thought that due to the amount of integration between the Real Estate Coordinator’s work and the Legal Department, it might be more efficient for the position to be located in Legal where it has remained for the last several years.
As a part of the Strategic Plan’s Action Item related to Evaluating Processes to Streamline the Development Timeline, Legal and the City Manager’s Office and Engineering Department revisited whether the location of the Real Estate Division within Legal was the most efficient approach. A decision was made to relocate the Real Estate Division to the Engineering Department as of October 1, 2024. Much of the Real Estate Division’s work is in support of Engineering projects including the acquisition of right-of-way and/or easements for city capital projects, or in the evaluation of the acceptance of easements and other land dedications related to the platting process. The Engineering Department proposes to create a workgroup consisting of two real estate professionals, a land surveyor, and administrative support within Engineering to streamline the land acquisition processes by integrating that team directly into those city projects. The close collaboration between Engineering and DSD on projects involving real estate work should further the improved efficiencies with the relocation of the Real Estate Division and remove the step of Engineering/DSD projects having to then be sent to Legal for the relatively small amount of real estate work contained within the larger development project. Finally, without the responsibility of supervising the Real Estate Division, the Deputy City Attorney should have significantly more time to dedicate to her legal work in support of development projects, again improving efficiencies in support of streamlining the development review process. |
