SB 1619

REFERENCE TITLE: municipal zoning; maximum density; residential
State of Arizona
Senate
Fifty-seventh Legislature
Second Regular Session
2026
SB 1619
Introduced by
Senator
  Gowan
AN
ACT
amending section 9-462.01, arizona
revised statutes; relating to municipal zoning.
(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:
Section 1. Section 9-462.01, Arizona Revised
Statutes, is amended to read:
START_STATUTE9-462.01. Zoning regulations; public hearing; applicability; definitions
A. Pursuant to this article, the legislative body of
any municipality by ordinance, in order to conserve and promote the public
health, safety and general welfare, may:
1. Regulate the use of buildings, structures and
land as between agriculture, residence, industry, business and other purposes.
2. Regulate signs and billboards.
3. Regulate the location, height, bulk, number of
stories and size of buildings and structures, the size and use of lots, yards,
courts and other open spaces, the percentage of a lot that may be occupied by a
building or structure, access to incident solar energy and the intensity of
land use.
4. Establish requirements for off-street
parking and loading.
5. Establish and maintain building setback lines.
6. Create civic districts around civic centers,
public parks, public buildings or public grounds and establish regulations for
the civic districts.
7. Require as a condition of rezoning public
dedication of rights-of-way as streets, alleys, public ways,
drainage and public utilities as are reasonably required by or related to the
effect of the rezoning.
8. Establish floodplain zoning districts and
regulations to protect life and property from the hazards of periodic
inundation. Regulations may include variable lot sizes, special
grading or drainage requirements, or other requirements deemed necessary for
the public health, safety or general welfare.
9. Establish special zoning districts or regulations
for certain lands characterized by adverse topography, adverse soils,
subsidence of the earth, high water table, lack of water or other natural or
man-made hazards to life or property.� Regulations may include variable
lot sizes, special grading or drainage requirements, or other requirements
deemed necessary for the public health, safety or general welfare.
10. Establish districts of historical significance
provided that:
(a) The ordinances may require that special
permission be obtained for any development within the district if the
legislative body has adopted a plan for the preservation of districts of
historical significance that meets the requirements of subdivision (b) of this
paragraph, and the criteria contained in the ordinance are consistent with the
objectives set forth in the plan.
(b) A plan for the preservation of districts of
historical significance shall identify districts of special historical
significance, state the objectives to be sought concerning the development or
preservation of sites, area and structures within the district, and formulate a
program for public action, including providing public facilities and regulating
private development and demolition necessary to realize these objectives.
(c) The ordinance establishing districts of
historical significance shall set forth standards necessary to preserve the
historical character of the area so designated.
(d) The ordinances may designate or authorize any
committee, commission, department or person to designate structures or sites of
special historical significance in accordance with criteria contained in the
ordinance, and no designation shall be made except after a public hearing on
notice of the owners of record of the property designated of special historical
significance. The ordinances may require that special permission be
obtained for any development respecting the structures or sites.
11. Establish age-specific community zoning
districts in which residency is restricted to a head of a household or spouse
who must be of a specific age or older and in which minors are prohibited from
living in the home.� Age-specific community zoning districts shall not be
overlaid over property without the permission of all owners of property
included as part of the district unless all of the property in the district has
been developed, advertised and sold or rented under specific age restrictions.�
The establishment of age-specific community zoning districts is subject
to all of the public notice requirements and other procedures prescribed by
this article.
12. Establish procedures, methods and standards for
the transfer of development rights within its jurisdiction. Any
proposed transfer of development rights from the sending property or to the
receiving property shall be subject to the notice and hearing requirements of
section 9-462.04 and shall be subject to the approval and consent of the
property owners of both the sending and receiving property.� Before any
transfer of development rights, a municipality shall adopt an ordinance
providing for:
(a) The issuance and recordation of the instruments
necessary to sever development rights from the sending property and to affix
development rights to the receiving property. These instruments
shall be executed by the affected property owners and lienholders.
(b) The preservation of the character of the sending
property and assurance that the prohibitions against the use and development of
the sending property shall bind the landowner and every successor in interest
to the landowner.
(c) The severance of transferable development rights
from the sending property and the delayed transfer of development rights to a
receiving property.
(d) The purchase, sale, exchange or other conveyance
of transferable development rights before the rights being affixed to a
receiving property.
(e) A system for monitoring the severance,
ownership, assignment and transfer of transferable development rights.
(f) The right of a municipality to purchase
development rights and to hold them for resale.
(g) The right of a municipality at its discretion to
enter into an intergovernmental agreement with another municipality or a county
for the transfer of development rights between jurisdictions. The
transfer shall comply with this paragraph, except that if the sending property
is located in an unincorporated area of a county, the approval of the
development rights to be sent to a municipality shall comply with section 11-817.
B. For the purposes of subsection A of this section,
the legislative body may divide a municipality, or portion of a municipality,
into zones of the number, shape and area it deems best suited to carry out the
purpose of this article and articles 6, 6.2 and 6.3 of this chapter.
C. All zoning regulations shall be uniform for each
class or kind of building or use of land throughout each zone, but the
regulations in one type of zone may differ from those in other types of zones
as follows:
1. Within individual zones, there may be uses
permitted on a conditional basis under which additional requirements must be
met, including requiring site plan review and approval by the planning agency.�
The conditional uses are generally characterized by any of the following:
(a) Infrequency of use.
(b) High degree of traffic generation.
(c) Requirement of large land area.
2. Within residential zones, the regulations may
permit modifications to minimum yard lot area and height requirements.
D. To carry out the purposes of this article and
articles 6 and 6.2 of this chapter, the legislative body may adopt overlay
zoning districts and regulations applicable to particular buildings, structures
and land within individual zones. For the purposes of this
subsection, "overlay zoning district" means a special zoning district
that includes regulations that modify regulations in another zoning district
with which the overlay zoning district is combined.� Overlay zoning districts
and regulations shall be adopted pursuant to section 9-462.04.
E. The legislative body may approve a change of zone
conditioned on a schedule for development of the specific use or uses for which
rezoning is requested.� If, at the expiration of this period, the property has
not been improved for the use for which it was conditionally approved, the
legislative body, after notification by certified mail to the owner and
applicant who requested the rezoning, shall schedule a public hearing to take
administrative action to extend, remove or determine compliance with the schedule
for development or take legislative action to cause the property to revert to
its former zoning classification.
F. All zoning and rezoning ordinances or regulations
adopted under this article shall be consistent with and conform to the adopted
general plan of the municipality, if any, as adopted under article 6 of this
chapter. In the case of uncertainty in construing or applying the
conformity of any part of a proposed rezoning ordinance to the adopted general
plan of the municipality, the ordinance shall be construed in a manner that
will further the implementation of, and not be contrary to, the goals, policies
and applicable elements of the general plan. A rezoning ordinance
conforms with the land use element of the general plan if it proposes land
uses, densities or intensities within the range of identified uses, densities
and intensities of the land use element of the general plan.
G. A regulation or ordinance under this section may
not prevent or restrict agricultural composting on farmland that is five or
more contiguous acres and that meets the requirements of this
subsection. An agricultural composting operation shall notify in
writing the legislative body of the municipality and the nearest fire
department of the location of the composting operation.� If the nearest fire
department is located in a different municipality from the agricultural
composting operation, the agricultural composting operation shall also notify
in writing the fire department of the municipality in which the operation is
located.� Agricultural composting is subject to sections 3-112 and 49-141.�
Agricultural composting may not be conducted within one thousand three hundred
twenty feet of an existing residential use, unless the operations are conducted
on farmland or land leased in association with farmland.� Any disposal of
manure shall comply with section 49-247.� For the purposes of this
subsection:
1. "Agricultural composting" means the
controlled biological decomposition of organic solid waste under in-vessel
anaerobic or aerobic conditions where all or part of the materials are
generated on the farmland or will be used on the farmland associated with the
agricultural composting operation.
2. "Farmland" has the same meaning
prescribed in section 3-111 and is subject to regulation under section 49-247.
H. A municipality may not adopt a land use
regulation or impose any condition for issuance of a building or use permit or
other approval that violates section 9-461.16.
I. In accordance with article II, sections 1 and 2,
Constitution of Arizona, the legislative body of a municipality shall consider
the individual property rights and personal liberties of the residents of the
municipality before adopting any zoning ordinance.
J. Before adopting any zoning ordinance or zoning
ordinance text amendment of general applicability, the legislative body of a
municipality shall consider a housing impact statement regarding the impact of
the zoning ordinance or zoning ordinance text amendment that shall include:
1. A general estimate of the probable impact on the
average cost to construct housing for sale or rent within the zoning districts
to which the zoning ordinance or text amendment applies.
2. A description of any data or reference material
on which the proposed zoning ordinance or text amendment is based.
3. A description of any less costly or less
restrictive alternative methods of achieving the purpose of the proposed zoning
ordinance or text amendment.
K. A municipality may not adopt or enforce a land
use regulation that requires the property on which a nongovernmental primary or
secondary school operates to be larger than one acre.
L. On or before January 1, 2027, each
municipality with a population of fifty thousand persons or more shall update
its ordinances and regulations to do all of the following:
1. Allow for residential use as a
permitted use on all applicable land that the voter-approved general plan
has identified for residential use.
2. Amend the zoning regulations on
all undeveloped land within the planning area that is identified for
residential use or on which residential uses allow single-family
residential to be constructed at the maximum density that is identified in the
municipality's voter-approved general plan for each location.� If the
general plan specifies a density range, the maximum density is the upper
numeric value of that range.� If the municipality does not have a voter-approved
general plan or if the voter-approved general plan does not specify a
maximum density for single-family residential, the maximum density is six
dwelling units per acre.
3. Ensure that when all applicable
requirements are enforced in combination, the maximum density specified for
single-family residential is achievable in practice for each location as
identified in the voter-approved general plan.
M. The update to the zoning
regulations required by subsection L of this section shall be done pursuant to
section 9-462.03, including all required public notices and hearings.� If
a municipality does not adopt the zoning regulations required by subsection l
of this section on or before January 1, 2027, the allowances required by
subsection L of this section shall apply by operation of law on all applicable
land, notwithstanding any other ordinance or regulation.
L. n. For
the purposes of this section:
1. "Applicable land" means
all land that is identified for residential use or on which residential uses
are allowed and that is located within an urban area as designated by the
United States census bureau.
1. 2. "Development
rights" means the maximum development that would be allowed on the sending
property under any general or specific plan and local zoning ordinance of a
municipality in effect on the date the municipality adopts an ordinance
pursuant to subsection A, paragraph 12 of this section respecting the
permissible use, area, bulk or height of improvements made to the lot or
parcel. Development rights may be calculated and allocated in
accordance with factors including dwelling units, area, floor area, floor area
ratio, height limitations, traffic generation or any other criteria that will
quantify a value for the development rights in a manner that will carry out the
objectives of this section.
3. "Maximum density" means
the maximum density specified for the location in the voter-approved
general plan.
4. "Permitted use" means
the ability for a development to be approved without requiring a public
hearing, variance, conditional use permit, special permit or special exception,
other than a discretionary zoning action to determine that a site plan conforms
with applicable zoning regulations.
2. 5. "Receiving
property" means a lot or parcel within which development rights are
increased pursuant to a transfer of development rights. Receiving
property shall be appropriate and suitable for development and shall be sufficient
to accommodate the transferable development rights of the sending property
without substantial adverse environmental, economic or social impact to the
receiving property or to neighboring property.
3. 6. "Sending
property" means a lot or parcel with special characteristics, including
farmland, woodland, desert land, mountain land, floodplain, natural habitats,
recreation or parkland, including golf course area, or land that has unique
aesthetic, architectural or historic value that a municipality desires to
protect from future development.
4. 7. "Transfer
of development rights" means the process by which development rights from
a sending property are affixed to one or more receiving properties. END_STATUTE