{"id":259598,"date":"2025-09-27T20:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T20:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/259598\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T20:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T20:41:09","slug":"historic-phoenix-neighborhood-fears-impact-of-new-housing-law","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/259598\/","title":{"rendered":"Historic Phoenix neighborhood fears impact of new housing law"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>Key Points:<\/b><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\">\nResidents of historic Phoenix neighborhood seek exemption from new zoning law\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\">\nLaw requires cities to allow duplexes, triplexes, and townhomes in certain areas\n<\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\">\nPhoenix residents are divided on the law, with some supporting affordable housing\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Neighborhood leaders in the Willo Neighborhood Association are pushing back against a 2024 law that would allow property owners to build higher density housing options in the Phoenix neighborhood, including duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and townhomes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Brad Brauer, president of the association, told the Arizona Capitol Times the group is seeking to preserve Arizona\u2019s history by obtaining an exemption from House Bill 2721.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe don\u2019t want to prevent someone from having a place to live or a better first house to own, but I don\u2019t think that taking away from a neighborhood is the way to go about that,\u201d Brauer said. \u201cI really wish that the city and our state would come up with a better idea than to come in here with a bulldozer.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The law, known as the \u201cMissing Middle\u201d law, will require cities of 75,000 people or more to allow the development of duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and townhomes on single-family residential lots within one mile of a city\u2019s central business district. It also requires new developments of at least 10 contiguous acres to allow for at least 20% of the properties to be designated for higher density structures. The law will take effect on Jan. 1, 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>House Majority Leader Michael Carbone, R-Buckeye, received bipartisan support for the measure in the 2024 session. It passed with a supermajority in both legislative chambers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The law is intended to open up home ownership opportunities for Arizonans. During the 2024 legislative session, Carbone said that too many homes are built by corporate developers in Arizona, and that his legislation was meant to bridge the gap for a \u201clost way of living\u201d that was once more common in the United States.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe legislation reinforces a homeowner\u2019s right to use their property as they see fit which, for some, may include adding accommodations for multigenerational housing or to generate additional income,\u201d Carbone said in a news release after Gov. Katie Hobbs signed his bill. \u201cThe enactment of this legislation is a significant step toward solving the state\u2019s housing crisis, and I am proud of the bipartisan effort that made it possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Brauer said several residents of the neighborhood, located in central Phoenix, are worried the implementation of the new law will put the neighborhood\u2019s status as a historic district at risk.<\/p>\n<p>In the 2025 legislative session, Rep. Aaron Marquez, D-Phoenix, ran House Bill 2719, which would exempt historic neighborhoods from the law. It did not receive a hearing in the House Government Committee and Brauer said Willo residents are hoping to find a Republican sponsor for the bill next session.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Not all Willo residents are opposed to the new law. Sebastian Del Portillo, a resident of the neighborhood and deputy campaign director with Organized Power in Numbers, said he believes the neighborhood should have a greater variety of housing types available for working-class Arizonans, particularly given its proximity to downtown Phoenix.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere are already bungalows and apartments and different kinds of housing in Willo. They\u2019re already part of the character of the community,\u201d Del Portillo said. \u201cI think (the law) will bring more people into the community.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Del Portillo said the Willo community is slightly affluent because residents have worked with the city to invest in their community for decades. He believes more affordable housing options in the neighborhood would give people more opportunities for social mobility.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople are forgetting that they\u2019re in the middle of downtown Phoenix, which is extremely dense,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople in the neighborhood need to accept that they live in a main city in Arizona. They\u2019re not out in Peoria and they\u2019re not out in Goodyear. They\u2019re here. So, accept that you live in Phoenix and embrace that you live in Phoenix because that\u2019s what makes it so cool.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Neighborhood residents like Brauer say they don\u2019t believe the law will lead to affordable housing being built in the neighborhood. The law has no provisions requiring affordable homes to be built, and homes in the neighborhood typically range from $300,000 to $800,000, according to the Historic Phoenix Group of Homesmart.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhy would they want to come into a neighborhood, buy an expensive property, demo it for probably $400,000 to $500,000, and after you get past all the environmental stuff as well, then build a fourplex on top of it. I\u2019m not sure who that benefits,\u201d Brauer said. \u201cIt would just be more expensive and smaller housing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The city of Phoenix is currently drafting a middle housing text amendment and overlay district since the missing middle law requires municipalities to update zoning ordinances by Nov. 5. City staff noted in an Aug. 26 community presentation that the city does not have the ability to exempt areas for historic preservation.<\/p>\n<p>Christopher DePerro, a team leader for text amendments and special projects in Phoenix\u2019s Planning and Development Department, said during the presentation that the law doesn\u2019t require the city to allow two-story structures everywhere on a single-family zoned lot.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re not treating either middle housing or single-family housing any differently from each other. It\u2019s exactly the same,\u201d DePerro said.<\/p>\n<p>The City Council has scheduled a hearing on Nov. 5 to take action on the text amendment, and the Willo association is encouraging its residents to attend both that meeting and the city\u2019s Oct. 6 Planning Commission\u2019s meeting on the text amendment to voice their opinions on the issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Points: Residents of historic Phoenix neighborhood seek exemption from new zoning law Law requires cities to allow&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":259599,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,136191,136192,7065,136193,20038,1589,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,136194],"class_list":{"0":"post-259598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-phoenix","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arizona","10":"tag-az","11":"tag-historic-neighborhoods-in-phoenix","12":"tag-house-bill-2721","13":"tag-housing","14":"tag-missing-middle-law","15":"tag-neighborhood","16":"tag-phoenix","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa","23":"tag-willo-neighborhood-association"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115278203148676148","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=259598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/259598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/259599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=259598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=259598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=259598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}