Over the next two years, Yavapai County will update its Zoning Ordinance first adopted in 1968 and its Subdivision Regulations, which govern how land can be developed and divided and were last updated in 2012.
On Feb. 19, the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors awarded a $500,000 contract to Logan Simpson, an environmental services firm based out of Tempe, to rewrite the zoning ordinance with the tentative final code slated for November 2027.
Some of the stated goals of the update are: “To create New state-of-the-art Zoning Code, Map, Subdivision Regulations, Implement Yavapai County’s 2030 Comprehensive Plan, balance need for preserving rural character and environmental integrity with anticipated growth and development, ensure a mix of housing types including missing middle housing, encourage planned development rather than lot-splitting — incentivize clustering, open space preservation, infill/redevelopment, & mixed-use,” according to a March 27 presentation by Logan Simpson to the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission.
Update 1968 Zoning
“The purpose is essentially to update a 1968 zoning code to make it align with the [county’s] comprehensive plan that was adopted 18 months ago,” Logan Simpson’s Senior Planner Roger Eastman said. “At the same time, we’re also updating the subdivision regulations, which were last substantively updated in 2013.” We’re working “to take an antiquated code and make it align with the comprehensive plan, but also refresh everything. Planning has evolved over the years, and the county needs new standards to manage growth and protect sensitive lands.”
One of the means, offered by Eastman to protect lands, is the creation of a new land-use designation for agricultural zoning that could also tie to economic development.
“One of the interesting things is that the county doesn’t really have any agricultural zoning, and we’ve heard that there’s tremendous desire to have agritourism as a use and as a zone within Yavapai County,” Eastman said. “Agritourism, for example, would be in the Page Springs area, where you’ve got all the wineries, or perhaps outside Wickenburg, where you’ve got the dude ranches.”
Additionally, Eastman said Logan Simpson is looking at combining some of the existing zoning categories to simplify and consolidate as much as possible.
“We may include a mixed-use zone that would allow residential [use] above commercial development, for example, or we may allow that as a use within some of the commercial zones,” Eastman said. “We certainly will be looking at the industrial zones and, across all of these zoning categories, allowing for more uses under the right standards and under the right conditions.”
Simplifying and Streamlining
Simplifying categories, Eastman also views as an opportunity to streamline the bureaucracy because currently, Yavapai County does a lot of its approval processes through conditional use permits, which go through the planning and zoning commission and the board of supervisors. The idea is to try and simplify that, to have more decisions made by county staff “based on good standards.”
“While there isn’t a lot of consensus on the question of growth; there is, however, consensus on issues around water and fire protection,” Eastman said. “Another issue is wildcat subdivisions — that is, the illegal lot splitting occurring across the state. Otherwise, there is consensus on the need to protect the rural character of Yavapai County. Interestingly, almost everybody said the code needs to be updated.”
Another of the goals of the update is to make housing more affordable that Eastman said they are doing by working with the firm Elliott D. Pollack & Company to produce a housing report.
The report “hasn’t been made public yet, but it’s under review by county staff,” Eastman said. “The housing report shows the gap in housing — how many housing units the county has relative to how many are needed and at what price points. It also provides recommendations on how to address that gap. The zoning code will then take that a step further and say, in these zones, we need to change the standards to allow, for example, smaller housing units. Rather than one house on two acres, which is the default zone, smaller homes on smaller lots would be allowed, making them more affordable for working families.”
Housing
Eastman said they are also looking at incentivizing cluster development that works to concentrate housing into tracts of land that are typically closer to roadways and infrastructure to also preserve open space rather than following the more typical subdivision pattern.
“We’re exploring this because Coconino County has a clustering program, and there are many good ideas we can borrow from them and other counties,” Eastman said. “You can take it a step further and incentivize clustering by allowing the developer to build more units — doubling the density, for example. That would allow for smaller lot sizes and more protection. With smaller lots, you can build smaller homes, which makes construction more affordable.”
Landscaping regulations is another area of focus Eastman said to also address water conservation.
“[We have] ideas for protecting vegetation on the site so you don’t have to scrape the lot and then replant it,” Eastman said. “All of this is coming from a position of protecting water resources. Xeriscape landscaping, that is to say, drought-tolerant landscaping, is something that’s not well addressed in the code.”
“Despite the size of the county and the difficulty of reaching everybody, we really want people to be involved,” Eastman said. “Using the county website and getting people involved and participating is important. Our goal is to inform people as much as possible about this process.”
Public Input
Comments and questions about the update may be emailed to zoningcodeupdate@yavapaiaz.gov.
For more information about the zoning update, visit the Yavapai County Development Services’ website on yavapaiaz.gov, which is the primary means of communication about the process.
