City forced to adapt after Governor signs new law
The Cottonwood Planning & Zoning Commission discussed potential changes to the city’s zoning ordinance and subdivision ordinance due to legislative changes required by House Bill 2447 during its Sept. 15 meeting.
House Bill 2447 requires, rather than allows, administrative personnel to review and approve site plans, development plans, plats, lot line adjustments and land divisions without a public hearing and based on objective standards. It also allows applicants with a history of building code and regulation compliance to be eligible for expedited permit review. The bill was approved by Gov. Katie Hobbs on March 31 and is effective beginning Wednesday, Dec. 31.
In August, Cottonwood city staff presented the upcoming requirements related to these state-level changes that affect the powers of the local commission. The changes will require the city to make amendments to its zoning and subdivision ordinances that allow staff to administratively approve design review applications and preliminary and final plats.
Cottonwood Community Development Director Scott Ellis said the commission will be most affected by the inability to bring design review projects to a public hearing. Approvals will be done at the staff level. He said this also takes away City Council’s ability to approve things.
“I want it to be really clear that this is not coming from Cottonwood city staff,” Cottonwood P&Z Chairwoman Lindsay Masten said. “It is actually a directive from the state legislature and staff are responding legally, as they should, to that directive and they’re informing us of that change and preparing us for it.”
The commission discussed draft copies of changes to the ordinances that will later be presented for recommendation to the City Council. The changes are primarily rewording items formerly brought to the commission to now be brought straight to staff.
For setting objective standards, Ellis said they met with other community development departments in the region and that many are unclear as to what these will look like at the moment.
Commissioner Beth Canedy asked if there is a place where the public or council can see the projects, while staff is reviewing them.
Ellis said city staff is are going to start posting projects on the city website after they have complete applications ready for review. While they still aim to address comments, they can’t delay a project to accept public comments.
The commission’s legal counsel, Mike Goodman, shared that part of why they have this in front of them is because of delays due to the public process and the ambiguity in design standards.
“As much as this kind of feels like it might have some negative aspects, I do think that there is an opportunity to craft standards that are clearer and will help developments move faster,” Masten said.
Moving forward, staff will look at past design review projects to see what consistent comments have been made to aid in setting objective standards. The recommended changes will be brought to council in November.
