By Christopher Leone | Arizona Daily Sun
Some Flagstaff planning commissioners and a handful of citizens say rezoning requests should still come with detailed site plans and impact studies.
A month after the Flagstaff City Council agreed in principle to the faster handling of a rezoning request and making it less financially burdensome for the applicant, the Planning and Zoning Commission gave the actual amendment a mixed reception.
The city currently requires a detailed site plan and a number of impact studies, from traffic to sewer, before even considering a change to the underlying zoning.
The Council had agreed in July after several meetings to give parties seeking a zoning change the option to submit a “concept-zoning plan” that would permit a change in zoning to be approved or denied without a detailed site plan or impact studies — the plan and studies would still be required, but only after the rezoning request was approved.
On Wednesday night, several commissioners were skeptical of changing the process.
And of the half-dozen or so people who spoke Wednesday night, not one of them supported adopting the amendment.
Commissioner Jim McCarthy suggested that the amendment could lead to speculative zoning changes, which in turn could lead to higher land prices and a higher cost of housing.
