The Ahwatukee Village Planning Committee next week will get an update on how Phoenix is preparing to bend the knee to the last of the Legislature’s 2024 efforts to increase affordable housing in the city.
The Legislature passed House Bill 2721 in 2024, mandating that cities with populations over 75,000 must allow “middle housing” – duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, and townhomes – on single-family lots, particularly within one mile of central business districts and on new subdivisions of 10 or more acres.
Phoenix must adapt its regulations to comply with the law by Jan. 1 and so the proposed changes will be explained to the VPC when it meets at 6 p.m. Monday, Sept. 29, in the Pecos Park Community center.
The law aims to address housing shortages by reducing restrictions on the housing types, and all VPCs are getting a briefing prior to the Planning Commission’s consideration Oct. 6 and City Council’s adoption by the end of the year.
The presentation is for information only and the VPCs have virtually no impact on the outcome of the process, though it and people who attend the meeting will have a chance to comment on them.
Moreover, the changes will have virtually no impact on Ahwatukee, as the city Planning and Development Department has mapped the area in Phoenix that will be impacted by the measures.
Indeed, public hearings already have been held in those areas directly impacted by the changes, which allow up to four dwelling units in an area within a mile radius of downtown Phoenix.
Even if Ahwatukee had been within those boundaries – which it isn’t – the law exempts homeowners associations from compliance.
The regulations create a “middle housing overlay district” that allows up to four dwelling units on 20% of new subdivisions of at least 10 acres as well as on lot sizes spelled out in the city code. Mostly those lots are no wider than 65 feet.
The measures also spell out some design standards aimed at creating a diversity in the additional homes’ look.
“The goal of diversity is to provide a variety of subdivision and housing designs which lend visual interest and distinctive character and identity to the community,” a portion of the proposed measure states.
Lawmakers who pushed for the measure were determined to prevent municipalities from creating so many regulations as to defeat its intention to expand affordable housing opportunities in the state.
Hence, the law stresses that they cannot discourage middle housing development by making construction unfeasible or setting any restrictions more stringent than the current rules for single-family homes in the same zone.
The law allows cities and towns to restrict so-called middle housing to no more than two stories.
However, the law prevents Phoenix and other municipalities from implementing restrictions, permitting or review processes for middle housing that are more restrictive than those for single-family dwellings within the same zone, requiring owner occupation of any structures, or making siting or construction “impractical.”
The city also cannot require any structures to contain a fire sprinkler or have more than one off-street parking space per unit.