A. Board-Initiated Amendment Requests for Immediate Review.
1. The board may initiate the plan amendment process immediately, provided, at a public hearing noticed in accordance with Section 18.89.040(D)(5), the board makes one of the following findings based on substantial evidence in the record:
a. The applicant has demonstrated that waiting for the normal amendment periods would deny substantial and significant benefits to the greater community in terms of:
1) New jobs;
2) Expanded tax base;
3) Enhanced opportunity for disadvantaged populations;
4) Significant promotion of affordable housing, mixed use planning, and compact development; or
5) Major regional economic development opportunities.
b. The applicant has demonstrated that waiting for a normal amendment period would place the community at greater health or safety risks in the form of:
1) Inadequate waste treatment facilities;
2) Inadequate or unsafe transportation improvements;
3) Hazardous environmental conditions; or
4) Insufficient community or governmental services facilities.
c. An application that would revise the FEMA one-hundred-year floodplain designation as it affects the subject property has been submitted to, and accepted by, the Pima County Regional Flood Control District.
B. Minor Revisions to Comprehensive Plan.
1. Type 1.
a. (Type 1a). The comprehensive plan may be amended administratively by the development services department without hearing, but with notice to the commission, when minor revisions are required due to annexation, ownership transfers of government land (e.g., federal to state), or minor revisions to resource sensitive or resource conservation categories consistent with accurate FEMA one-hundred-year floodplain information.
b. (Type 1b). The comprehensive plan may be amended administratively subject to ratification by the commission that a scrivener's error occurred involving a mapping or text portion of the plan that did not reflect the board of supervisors' action on a property or policy or is a non-substantive staff error. For the purposes of this section, a scrivener's error is defined as a minor mistake in writing, mapping, map labeling, or copying something on the record, and not a mistake in reasoning or determination. Staff will provide the commission with the factual background and basis of the scrivener's error. If the commission is unable to ratify an amendment as a scrivener's error as defined above, the amendment will be processed as a Type 2 minor revision, subject to meeting the criteria of Section 18.89.041(F)(2), or through the amendment program.
2. Type 2.
a. The board of supervisors, planning and zoning commission, or development services department may initiate at any time a plan amendment to remedy a planning error, a planning oversight, or an incorrect planned land use intensity category. The planning official shall prepare a report for public hearing based on criteria that follow. The report shall demonstrate that the subject property was designated in error during the plan development, update program, or plan amendment program and that the change in planned land use intensity category is not based on altered property or market conditions subsequent to plan adoption. General criteria to support this administrative procedure may include any of the following:
1) The subject property is designated at a lower land use intensity category than its existing land use or existing hard zoning and such designation is not founded on public recommendations or planning practice documented at the time of designation, or does not represent implementation of the environmental planning element of the plan;
2) The plan designation creates an isolated lower intensity residential island, surrounded or nearly surrounded by property of higher residential intensity;
3) The plan designation does not adequately reflect existing or planned land uses along or at the intersections of major arterials, thereby creating land use conflicts between low intensity and adjacent commercial uses. In such a case the planning official shall report on whether the low intensity designation was justified to avoid or mitigate the effects of commercial strips.
4) The plan text does not reflect a process or policy previously approved by the Board.
b. This administrative procedure shall not apply to properties greater than eighty acres in size. Amendment requests for such properties that may otherwise justify a change of designation based on a planning error in accordance with this section must be processed during the plan amendment program in order to provide sufficient public notice and opportunities for public review.
c. A minimum of fifteen days before the scheduled commission and board hearings, the development services department shall provide notice by first class mail to property owners within the proposed amendment area and within three hundred feet of the proposed amendment area.
d. The commission shall forward its recommendation to the board along with the planning official's report for final action on the property by the board.
C. Concurrent Plan Amendment/Rezoning or Specific Plan.
1. Purpose. The purpose of this subsection is to allow the concurrent application and processing of a plan amendment and a rezoning for requests that have minimal impacts on surrounding properties. And this subsection is intended to allow the concurrent application and processing of a plan amendment and a specific plan for non-residential or mixed uses. This concurrent plan amendment and rezoning process is not subject to the concurrent review requirements of subsection 18.89.040 or the restriction of subsection 18.89.040 on the time that applications may be submitted.
2. Application. An application for a concurrent plan amendment/rezoning or specific plan may be submitted by the property owner at any time. Applications shall include information required for both the plan amendment under Chapter 18.89, and either rezoning under Chapter 18.91 or specific plan under Chapter 18.90. The planning director shall determine if the application meets the criteria for a concurrent plan amendment/rezoning or specific plan as provided in Section 18.89.041. If the planning director determines that the application does not meet the criteria, a plan amendment may be applied for through the processes described in Chapter 18.89. However, the applicant may direct a written appeal to the planning and zoning commission appealing the decision of the planning director within ten working days of the planning director's decision. The appeal shall be scheduled for the next regularly scheduled planning and zoning commission meeting that is to occur at least ten working days after the date the written appeal is received, but the appeal shall not require the notice described in Section 18.89.040(D)(5). The planning and zoning commission shall make its decision based on the criteria in Section 18.89.041(C)(4).
3. For purposes of this subsection, property adjacent to the subject property is considered "abutting" the adjacent property only if the property boundaries of the adjacent property and the subject property physically connect or are separated by no more than one hundred feet from the subject property by a road or alley.
4. Criteria.
a. Any request for a concurrent plan amendment/rezoning or specific plan must meet the following criteria:
1) The proposed use must not conflict with any applicable policies, including regional, special area or rezoning policies, of the comprehensive plan.
2) There has not been a concurrent plan amendment/rezoning previously approved for the subject property, or any portion thereof.
1) One additional residence may be requested if at least five percent of the perimeter of the subject property, as measured in linear feet, abuts properties with a zoning district or comprehensive plan designation that allows a density equal to or greater than that requested for the concurrent plan amendment/rezoning.
2) More than one additional residence may be requested if fifty percent or more of the perimeter of the subject property, as measured in linear feet, abuts properties with a zoning district or comprehensive plan designation that allows a density equal to or greater than that requested for the concurrent plan amendment/rezoning.
c. In addition to the requirements of subsection 18.89.041(C)(4)(a) a concurrent plan amendment/rezoning or specific plan may be requested for non-residential or mixed uses:
1) If Section 18.91.030(E) does not require that a preliminary development plan be submitted with a proposed rezoning and at least five percent of the perimeter of the subject property, as measured in linear feet, abuts properties with a zoning district or comprehensive plan designation equal to or less restrictive than that requested for the concurrent plan amendment/rezoning;
2) If Section 18.91.030(E) requires that a preliminary development plan be submitted with a proposed rezoning and the property is not greater than ten acres in area and seventy-five percent or more of the perimeter of the subject property, as measured in linear feet, abuts properties with a zoning district or comprehensive plan designation equal to or less restrictive than that requested for the concurrent plan amendment/rezoning; or
3) If the applicant is requesting a Specific Plan.
5. Notwithstanding the planning director's decision to proceed, per Section 18.89.041(C)(2), at the public hearing the planning and zoning commission may separate the plan amendment and rezoning or specific plan processes. The commission may continue either or both public hearings on the plan amendment and rezoning applications for a definite time not to exceed a combined total of nine months, in conformance with Section 18.91.070(A)(3) of the zoning code. The commission may continue either or both public hearings on the plan amendment and the specific plan applications for a definite time not to exceed a combined total of three months, in conformance with Section 18.90.060(F)(4). If a continuance requires that new public notice be provided, the cost of providing the new notice shall be borne by the applicant. If the plan amendment and rezoning or specific plan hearings are separated by the commission, they shall be heard concurrently by the board of supervisors.
6. If a concurrent plan amendment/rezoning or specific plan is approved for the subject property, a rezoning policy shall be added to the comprehensive plan stating that a concurrent plan amendment/rezoning or specific plan was approved for the property and also stating the zoning district and uses approved for the property, if limited by the board of supervisors.
7. Future rezoning or specific plan requests. If a property owner wishes to apply for a zoning district or specific plan district less restrictive than that approved for the concurrent plan amendment/rezoning or specific plan, an amendment to the comprehensive plan, in accordance with Chapter 18.89, must be approved before the rezoning or specific plan may be scheduled for public hearing.
8. Public Meeting. An applicant for a concurrent plan amendment/rezoning or specific plan shall hold a public meeting regarding the proposed request at least fifteen days prior to the public hearing before the planning and zoning commission. The applicant shall invite those property owners and neighborhood and homeowners' associations of record within the public notice area, as set forth in Section 18.91.060(B)(1)(c) for plan amendment/rezoning meetings and Section 18.90.060(E)(1)(c) for plan amendment/specific plan meetings. The list of property owners shall be provided by the development services department but the applicant is responsible for ensuring proper notice and conducting the public meeting. For concurrent plan amendment/specific plan public meetings the applicant shall comply with Section 18.90.060(C)(2). The applicant shall provide the development services department with a copy of the notice sent to surrounding property owners at least thirty days prior to the public hearing before the planning and zoning commission and provide a copy of the sign-in sheet and a summary of the meeting prior to the public hearing.
9. Public Notice. Public notice shall be as set forth in Section 18.91.060(B) for rezoning hearings and Section 18.90.060(E) for specific plan hearings, except that all required notice shall include a statement that the proposed action is in accordance with the requirements for a concurrent plan amendment and rezoning or specific plan.
D. Except as provided for in this subsection, all changes and amendments to the comprehensive plan shall be processed in accordance with Sections 18.89.040 and 18.89.050 and all rezonings shall be processed in accordance with Chapter 18.91.
(Ord. 2017-3 § 4, 2017; Ord. 2016-37 § 1 (part), 2016)