Supervisor Snider — County planning and dealing with inactive zoning

In the concluding paragraphs of my column last month, I spoke at some length about the county’s push to review and revise its Comprehensive Land Use Plan (more commonly referred to as the Comp Plan – it’s the equivalent of a city’s general plan). If everyone promises not to fall asleep, I would like to talk a little more about that and then spend some time discussing the Board of Supervisors’ recent hearings to consider some inactive zoning cases.

The Comp Plan is designed to be a document to serve as a guideline for county planning officials – it is a statement of policy and an expression of the county’s vision for uses of land within the unincorporated county. The Comp Plan is not generally intended to be cast in concrete but rather a reflection of general consensus.

All Arizona counties (as well as cities and towns) are required by state law – known as the Growing Smarter Act – to revisit and revise their Comp Plan or General Plan every 10 years. Pinal County’s Comp Plan was originally adopted in 2001; however, due to the pace and scope of development here, the Board of Supervisors directed staff to initiate the revision process well before any legal deadline to do so.

In order to ensure the broadest possible input, the board and staff engaged Partners for Strategic Action, Inc. (PSA) to manage the 100+ public meetings, listening sessions, focus group events and design charrettes as well as to work with the county’s planning staff, the Citizens Advisory Committee and the County’s Planning Commission.

PSA maintains a Web page with links to current opportunities for public input and participation, frequently asked questions and a library of Comp Plan documents. There’s also an electronic newsletter that anyone interested in the process and/or the Comp Plan itself can subscribe to at no cost – all available at the above Web page.

One of the more commonly asked questions about the whole Comp Plan revision process is: why should I get involved or even care about this? Isn’t this sort of stuff for real estate brokers, land use planners and government staff?

Answer: “the Comprehensive Plan outlines how and where the entire county should grow and develop over time. It addresses where open space will be preserved, identifies locations for employment-related uses and residential areas, and designates where commercial or services should be located. All of these decisions will impact everyone, and your ideas and desires need to be heard.” In other words, the Pinal County your children inherit will reflect someone else’s vision of the future unless you take the plunge and get involved today.

Now let’s talk about the County Board of Supervisors’ recent public hearings on 29 apparently inactive zoning cases (involving some 7,700 acres of land) scattered throughout the county. As has been reported elsewhere, the Board heard testimony from developers and land owners about monies expended to prepare land for development and/or other apparently mitigating circumstances that argued against reverting zoning on projects that have been pending for years. The common thread to these cases is that they all had agreed to a zoning stipulation (or condition) that said that the development had 18 months in which to begin development or the board could bring the case back for consideration of reversion of zoning, extension of zoning, or a determination that the development had reached the point of compliance.

Twenty-two cases were given extensions of an additional 18 months, eight cases were found to be in compliance and were granted their zoning, and eight cases had their public hearings continued until December 19, 2007. Despite the apparent lack of development activity in some of these cases, i.e. no dirt being moved or any survey staking being done, engineering studies to mitigate flooding or drainage issues can take lots of time; in other instances, disputes between utility providers (as to who serves the area) can also take years to resolve, holding developments hostage.

However, those cases receiving an extension were admonished throughout the hearings that: it was incumbent upon the developer to take active steps to develop in the next 18 months; the developers need to keep county staff apprised of their efforts to develop their properties, and the board did not relish the thought of having these cases return for another round of hearings on possible reversions of zoning due to inactivity.

Those cases with extended public hearings were treated thusly due to a lack of representation on the published hearing date. Why did the board take these actions? Land use patterns change, development standards evolve and neighborhood assumptions are frequently built on the promises made by developers (i.e. roads will be paved, infrastructure will be brought to the area, etc.). Pinal County residents have been witness to speculative zoning, land speculation and land use promises made but never kept. It’s the job of the Board of Supervisors to hold development accountable, and that’s what we did on September 26.

In closing, I think it appropriate to note that the Pinal County community is a poorer place these days as some of our best and influential residents pass away. Their stories of how we came to be the Pinal community of today – who did what with whom and why – how certain decisions were made and what the “rest of the story” was behind those actions – the tales of people who lived the events that we only know dimly as history – their smiles, hugs, songs and gestures are gone except as they persist in our memories.

Some of these special people I never knew and some I did, but I can say this: our county is a better place for having had them walk and live among us. I encourage all of us to capture the stories of our elders so future generations aren’t cheated out of the lives and stories of the elders of Pinal County.

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