Scottsdale unanimously adopts state-mandated housing amendments despite local control concerns

e e e I call the November 25th 2024 City city council regular meeting to order city clerk Ben Lane please conduct the roll call thank you mayor mayor David Ortega president vice mayor Barry Graham I'm here thank you vice mayor council members tamy caputi here Tom Durham here thank you council member Betty Janik here Kathy Littlefield here and Salange White head here city manager Jim Thompson here City attorney Sher Scott here City Treasurer Sonia Andrews here acting City autor Lake KF here and the clerk is present thank you mayor excellent uh we have Scottdale police Sergeant Shan Ryan as well as detective uh Dustin Patrick and firefighter Ethan redbush if anyone needs assistance um please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance United States ofer for all well at at this time I U wish to call our attention uh to war torn countries around the world as well as our uh military men and women on duty in hazardous areas so I'd ask please join me in time for reflection uh as these countries fight for their freedom and democracy thank you well uh this week uh our entire country um reflects on um our our own um cities states and um we're very thankful this is a time for Thanksgiving and Scottsdale especially is thankful um for having a very stable City and the city um put together by so many before us other Mayors and councils but especially today I would like to um mention that Scottdale relies on our volunteers and I want to highlight um Lois lamb uh Lois lamb is uh with us today she's served on many boards uh she's been on blockwatch she's been on commissions and of course she's been a Scottdale Ambassador uh downtown for 10 years uh Lois represents really the best uh attributes that U residents have uh given to our our cities very selfishly uh and we rely on on her she is moving on she wants to be closer to uh family members out of state and we can understand that and especially at this time for Thanksgiving and the holidays it's really an ideal time to to join with with uh family members so I would like to call uh Lois forward and I have the appreciation um certificate for you for your many years uh helping Scottdale be as great as we are [Applause] well um my next item is um really historic you know Scottdale has an amazing character and one reason why Scottsdale grew the way it did is because of the Salt River Pima uh Maricopa Indian Nation uh that created the East Boundary for Scottsdale it's almost like a coastline where where our neighbors help identify Scottdale and all the openness of of that nation is amazing uh if we were surrounded by Mesa Phoenix and probably Scottsdale wouldn't have would be absorbed absorb and wouldn't wouldn't have the identity that we have um I do want to call out and the most significant project really in our history will be the uh moving forward with the Puma Road improve improvements uh for many years uh decades uh Puma Road was a major north south uh you know Street and of course the U latest proposal that has been designed and coordinated with Scottdale uh we have presenters here to explain that project to us and we are very grateful for our relationship as we move forward um I'm I'll be calling on the um Jennifer Jack she's the roads manager and uh josa um siaka the public re uh Works director on behalf of the Salt River Puma Maricopa Community uh they'll be presenting the Pima Road uh U project which will run from McDow all the way to Via Linda and uh bring every everything up to uh tremendous uh standards please come forward and take the podium thank you mayor uh thank you council members uh City staff and public appreciate it Anam Chik Josh Shaka uh my name is Josh Shaka I'm the director of uh public works at Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community uh I want to introduce uh Mrs Jennifer Jack she's our road section manager and she wants to give a quick update on the Puma Road improvements and again we do appreciate the partnership and and thank you so much for having us here tonight thank you good evening mayor vice mayor and councel again I'm Jennifer Jack and I'm the road section manager with Public Works a little background on this project the Pima Road rideway on the community side was acquired by ADOT in 199 along with the Loop 101 in 2004 voters approved of the prop 400 funds which is a half cent sales tax um that goes towards Regional Transportation and Puma Road was one of those projects that was funded as part of that in 2006 the Scottdale and the community have began their partnering efforts to improve Puma Road a design concept report was completed in 20 9 that gave us the standard uh for design that we would be using uh to widen Puma Road and um the aesthetic Corridor uh that would be used in 2011 Talking Stick way to Via dentura was constructed and then in 2019 the bridge over the Arizona Canal was constructed and then the community was awarded also in 2019 just under $50 million in a nationally significant Federal lands and tribal projects Grant from the Federal Highway Administration so an overview of the project is it is a widening from McDow up to cril Street which is just south of Talking Stick way Indian Bend um from there it's already widen into the four lanes and it also includes uh drainage improvements in the Granite Reef Watershed the city of Scottdale and the community have have an agreement to complete these combined projects as partners and the community is leading this phase of the project the total project cost is $ 87.5 million the good news is is much of that is coming from outside sources so we have the $50 million that is coming from the federal highways Grant 20 million is coming from mag and that's the prop 400 funds that I referred to earlier 7.5 million is coming from the Maricopa County Flood Control District for the regional drainage and then the remaining amount is a 6040 split between the community and city of Scottsdale for that local share so it's expected to be 6 million for the community and 4 million for the city of Scottdale so to dive a little deeper on what the improvements are the roadway improvements is widening from two to four lanes with bike Lanes a landscape median Street lighting and drainage infrastructure we're also doing intersection improvements at all the major intersections along the way including up to vinda this is a rendering of the crosssection so a couple things I wanted to point out on this you can see above um the orange line that shows the boundary is generally the middle of the existing two lanes between the city of Scottsdale and the community all of the widening is occurring on the community side so in the future it'll be one lane on Scottdale and three on the community side so there's no interference with the existing sound wall um all of the widening is going to fit within the right away that ADOT acquired then some other uh things that we are picking up is landscape improvements up from via day Ventura to The Loop 101 this section was completed by developers in 2008 but it did not include the Landscaping to fit the corridor Aesthetics so we will be adding that as well as the Granite Reef Watershed portion that is from Thomas South to the Salt River the contractor is Hayden and this is um a snapshot of their timeline you can see it's a two-year project that it will be under construction and I wanted to also on the bottom of the screen point out that there is a website um where you can sign up for weekly email um feeds and the hotline number the project managers for this is Pamela Tracy from the community she is leading the project and then also from the city Side Elaine Marcado is the um project manager that is overseeing the project from the city's perspective with that I'm happy to answer any questions well thank you um we are wonderful neighbors and really appreciate this update as U this will beautify um the um area between um our communities thank you so much thank you well moving on uh we have the possibility of a uh executive session during tonight's meeting the council may make a motion to recess an executive session to obtain obtain legal advice on any applicable item on the agenda if authorized by the council the executive session will be held immediately and would not be open to the public however the public meeting would resume following the executive session um also per our Council rules of procedure citizens attending City council meeting shall observe the same Rules of Order and decorum app applicable to members of the council and City staff so um please observe that etiquette and me the meeting will go much uh smoother we appreciate your cooperation additionally um we are setting aside any electronic uh Communications um all public meetings or executive sessions must be open to the public therefore we set aside our personal devices um and refrain from using them during the meeting uh next we are moving on to public comment public comment is an opportunity for um Scottdale citizens business owners or Property Owners to comment on non- agendized items um that are within the council's jurisdiction advocacy for or against a candidate or ballot measure during a council meeting is not allowed by state law and would therefore be deemed not uh within our jurisdiction no official Council action can be taken on public comment and uh certainly checking with the the um the clerk you'll be allowed three minutes uh please come forward uh we had a request from Brandon Pitman uh he's not here at this time or is he is there um Brandon Pitman okay we have a second um public comment period at the end of the meeting should he appear uh Steve Sutton please come forward um you have three minutes please I think we have your your uh resident address thank you sir my name is Steve Sutton I'm at 6637 North 81st Street Scottdale uh good even evening mayor Ortega vice mayor Graham and council members uh it's been a lot of talk at the dog park since uh I was here last and I wanted to come in and tell you that do chaperel dog park users are very pleased that Council unanimously voted to accept their petition for new signs at the park now the city manager Office is involved dog park users hope that this is the beginning of better communication and cooperation between managers and users of chaperel dog park so that problems can be solved and improvements made the petition for new dog Park signs is not just about improving the park with new text on signs but also about design size placement choices that make the signs more effective dog park signs are not just designation signs they are safety signs meant to promote safety for people and dogs there is a term used in safety sign industry known as sign blindness it is a concept similar to what is known on the internet as Banner blindness these terms describe the ignoring of a message due to over familiarity with text and location at the dog park signs that match in color and size with only a slight difference in text recently caused a demonstration of sign blindness the very similar large dog area and small dog area designation signs were moved this resulted in people with small dogs and large dogs unconsciously ing the wrong areas of the park it was about 2 hours before anybody figured it out this was early in the morning when a decision is made about new dog park signs choices in design size and placement to minimize the effects of sign blindnesses must be considered to make the signs as effective as possible an example would be making a round blue background white text sign for the passive dog area and a rectangular white background blue text sign for the active dog area in another matter almost universally dog park users have no interest in a key card access system being installed or access fees of any kind being charged to users they do however have some interest in making the dog park a direct Revenue generating facility through other means such as dog washing machines yes they exist like there's one right here on the reservation Santa Barbara County California has dog washing machines at six locations they generate approximately $120,000 annually you can see a dog washing machine at the gas station located at the intersection of Pima and Chapel roads t-shirts Scottdale is a tourist and seasonal resident designation they use the dog park why aren't we selling iRun with the pack at chapparel dog park Scott Stell Arizona t-shirts I think they'd probably sell thank you very much for your consideration I hope you all have a great Thanksgiving thank you Mr Sutton um with that I will close um public comment we do not have any minutes by the way to approve at this meeting so we would move on to the consent agenda items 1 through six and um uh we also have an opportunity for public comment on consent agenda items I wish to point out there were no requests from the public to uh speak on uh cons a agenda items 1- six I see councilwoman janic wishing to speak if it's appropriate at this time mayor I have a few questions on item number one certainly so um why don't you present your question okay thank you um my question is that we've got an amount not to exceed 15 million 177,178 for phase Rec construction it is a bond project and I wanted to see if we were still on track with our budget hi Allison Tim Q city engineer um councilwoman Janik yes so this is it's the third GMP it's within the existing budget um and it's actually for the fourth phase of the work we also have two more future phases which we will bring um the gmps to you um in the future when they're ready that's very good information thank you very much Ellison okay since uh two Council are remote uh the council uh Mand Durham or vice mayor Graham have any questions on consent agenda items I see no requests to speak therefore do we have a motion on consent agenda items 1 through six um I move to approve consent agenda items 1 through six second have Motion in a second uh please record your vote vice mayor gam votes yes council member Gham votes yes thank you we are unanimous moving on we have regular agenda items um we have seven and 8 I do want to note that um uh before we start the regular agenda uh that um we amended the agenda last week item number nine which is the Scottsdale Community U sustainability plan will be considered by the council in December so it's been agendized for Tuesday December 3rd uh 2024 therefore we would um we have two items on regular agenda item number seven and number eight um if there's anyone wishing to speak and I do have one request for item number seven from the public uh of course they can check in with the clerk and we'll keep track of that so let's proceed with the um uh um item number seven is presented by Brad Carr he's our Planning and Development area manager hello good evening mayor me uh vice mayor Grant R members of the city council um this evening staff is going to present to you um two separate items on your agenda there are two separate text amendments um and they deal with a number of different things most notably a few of the housing bills that came out of the last legislative session at the Arizona State state legislature so the first of that is 3ta 2024 item number seven on your agenda um and the purpose of this uh text amendment is again to address one of those housing bills house bill 2297 um as well as a Senate Bill 1162 that de deals with development application determinations um first I'm going to focus in my presentation on House Bill 2297 the Adaptive reuse Tech uh uh bill um some background on that bill as well as reminder that the State of Arizona grants cities and towns the local Authority uh with local Authority and ability to zoning and regulations uh subject to the state law house bill 2297 was introduced in the last legislative session as I mentioned and signed by the governor in April um to allow for adapted reuse of existing commercial office and mixed use buildings and sites um there's generally a lot of or there can be some varying um definitions of what adapted reuse is but as the state has um defined it on the screen there you can see it generally means the converting of existing buildings and sites um from the use that they were constructed for or to multif family residential uses um this this bill does have a deadline for cities and municipalities to enact that is January 1st 2025 and with um compliance the city is intending to minimize any negative impacts that may come from the proposed legislation or the enacted legislation and so um just uh on the screen real quickly this bill applies to all communities in the state that are of a certain size that being 150,000 Square F feet or50 000 uh population excuse me um most of those in the state are right here in the valley as you can see on the screen um the one that is not is the Tucson uh jurisdiction but as you can see on the screen Scott Still's kind of alone in that upper Northeast quadrant of the valley with regards to what um how this bill applies so what does that new state law dictate to the city first and foremost and probably maybe most importantly um with regards to how we normally process changes in land use the city cannot require public hearings for the proposed change from uh for an Adaptive reuse proposal that means we cannot include uh require rezoning conditional use permit or even a development review board application or approval in order for these uh proposals to move forward also the city cannot require any additional setbacks or density or parking and Building height that is any greater than what is set forth in that new state law so that state law also uh outlines some parameters as far as criteria when what we can require and that's shown on the right side of the screen those include a site plan review and approval process U compliance with building and fire codes adequate public sewer and water services and public utility review of the application as well as that the demonstration by the property owner that the buildings on the site building or buildings on the site are economically or functionally obsolete we'll talk a little bit more about that later in the presentation there's also some exclusions as a part of that um new state legislation we'll talk about those as well finally um a minimum of 10% of the total um new multifam constructed with one of these proposals must be either moderate or low income for a minimum of 20 years so the city's approach uh for this particular um Bill and and uh bringing this forward in our zoning code change is to establish a new land use called multif family conversion we will uh account for those specific exclusions as outlined in the state law um there is eligibility requirement as we mentioned well we're going to determine what percentage of existing buildings are eligible and then set a maximum conversion rate um as defined currently at 1% of existing commercial office and mixed use areas we'll talk through you a little bit further about that um conversion percentage that was set um and in addition the location there must be existing buildings on the site before the end of the year in order to qualify and you must be on a site with between 1 and 20 acres in size um as we mentioned there's some needs to be demonstration of adequate water and sewer and demonstration that the buildings are OB obsolete or economically or functionally obsolete for at least six months um and again 10% of those uh new units must be moderate or low income housing as defined by federal regulations so what buildings are included in that um in those new requirements um uh again this enables the adapter reuse of any existing commercial office in Miu building that qualifies again the land use requirements are there and and the building must be in a state of disrepair or have at least 50% o uh vacancy and that comes to that functionally obsolete or economically or functioning obsolete requirement um again the municipality can permit up to not more than 10% of their existing commercial um floor areas building the floor areas and that's straight out of the Bill's requirements as highlighted here uh further down in that you can see additional highlighting that says uh the city or municipality can address that percentage in the future um as permitted by the bill once every 10 years so we have an ability to establish that percentage with the establishment of these requirements and again uh we can do that again in 10 years if we need to adjust that so uh speaking spe specifically to the exclusions um again the legislation allows U municipalities to do three different things with regard to exclusions one is uh we can designate specific commercial and employment hubs where these Provisions do not apply so those special places that we find in the community they're essential for community members um we can designate those to not be uh a part of this process of conversion um they also allow the legislation also allows um or excludes buildings or sites within the vicinity of airport and that's defined by the bill and further defined by the state as far as what those areas uh Geographic areas and size of those um exclusion for airports finally anything that's designated as historic is would be excluded as well So speaking on that first exclusion commercial unemployment hubs the state law allows up to 10% of any existing commercial of the city's overall commercial areas to be designated as commercial as commercial employment hubs the city's intending to utilize that full 10% and as a result as you can see on the right side of the screen 10 sites have been chosen um that equal roughly 10% of the overall area of uh conversion that we are um seeking that will be eligible throughout the city uh for protection and emphasis again was placed on those areas that are neighborhood servicing um for community members they might have adjacent residential um and includes places like um those that have grocery stores or other neighborhood servicing type businesses further um with regards to our approach we are limiting the conversion as I mentioned of commercial mix juice and office jues to 1% % of the city's existing commercial space and this was done as a result of some analysis um of our existing General plan and our existing land uses throughout the community um generally speaking our existing commercial mixed use and employment area throughout the city only makes up less a little less than 1% of our land area throughout the city when you take into account the other exclusions and so in an effort to maintain that balance of land use throughout the city this uh we have chosen 1% uh conversion rate rate of the remainder of that area that's uh eligible as being um as eligible for that 1% conversion again legislation allows for a review and update of this every 10 years if needed and speaking specifically to that six Monon provision with regards to economically or functionally obsolete um the state statutes um does mention adapter reuse for a building that is at least 50% vacant but it's Loosely written and doesn't really provide any duration to how to qualify if that um needs to be vacant for a certain amount of time or not as written as a result one day at 50% vacancy would qualify and so um staff has decided that that's really not the intent of the provisions really you need to understand if the buildings I've been obsolete for a little while in order to understand if that's really economically or functionally obsolete so that's why six months has been chosen that six month date is uh is consistent with how we apply other um non-conform forming Provisions in the zoning ordinance a non-conforming structure land use that's been discontinued for a period of 6 months is no longer presumed to be abandoned and so it's no longer can can can carry forward that non-conforming status so this six month uh rule is generally consistent with other ways we apply that throughout the zoning code that would conclude this portion of of of the presentation so I'm going to go into the second part of this which is dealing with Senate Bill 1162 some background on this um this bill is related to the processing of zoning District map amendments otherwise known as rezonings here in this city as well as other municipalities throughout the state what it requires the the the city to do is determine whether a zoning application is administratively complete within 30 days of receipt of that application we also must uh and most importantly to our overall process we must approve or deny a zoning application within 180 days after that application has been determined to be administratively complete the city can grant onetime extensions of not more than 30 days for any kind of extenuating circumstances as well as Grant 30 30-day extensions to an applicant if they request so U our approach on that is again um to comply we're going to set our administrative review process to 30 days for first reviews and uh 15 days for any subsequent review uh we're also going to update parameters of incomplete applications is really a clean up on our existing zoning ordinance and we're going to define specific time frames for the zoning District map amendments as I mentioned 180 days all other time frames um that we have for any other type of case use permits um General plan amendments things of that nature those all be the same as they currently are and published by the city So speaking a little bit to our timeline to how we got to this point um the Planning Commission initiated these text amendments that I'm speaking about tonight on July 10th we had two public Outreach and openhouse meetings um September 19th and 20 to discuss the approach with the community um we had two Planning Commission meetings initially a non-action discussion with them on October 9th and finally an action hearing for recommendation on October 23rd that recommendation was approval uh for 61 on recommendation for approval and again we're here tonight for possible adoption of the proposed amendments um we also our staff are looking at Future General plan amendments to address anything that might need to change as a result of these text amendments and those will come forward to the council likely next year so uh this evening the request is to adopt three different items for this particular topic uh one is ordinance number 4651 for the purpose of adopting amending the zoning code and Associated resolution number 13253 is to declare the adapter reuse and development application determin determination text Amendment as a public record and finally to declare a public record with for the Scottdale commercial unemployment hubs and essential areas table uh with 13254 that concludes my presentation mayor I'm happy to answer any questions well thank you uh you know at this point we would move to a public comment and I see there's only one person wishing to speak uh so we will uh open up uh Dr Sunny kirtley representing COG happy tury week to you all and Happy Thanksgiving Elmo please Elmo Sonnie kirtley representing cogs we want to uh support the propositions many of our members attend of the open houses we're impressed with the presentations by the staff this staff has done an incredible job on this you know the state keeps landing on us they take away our 30-day limit on short-term rentals they take away so many of our political signs our ordinances and this is another footprint on top of scotchdale so they've done an amazing job of putting flexibility back in number one we support the following maximum conversion is set to 1% it could have been 10% thank you number two it excludes those two 10 square mile areas that protects a lot of neighborhoods there's a lot of sigh relief there there was some uh contention I understand with some government officials down in Washington that we were also using some of Sky Harbor's flight paths well remember that we go all the way south to Roosevelt or to Continental those people are affected number three Scottdale designated historic neighborhoods and historic old are protected yes the state was going to protect them but we've got them designated so now we know they're safe number four the conversion must prove it has sufficient water and infrastructure for both that sewer and the water that is our general plan we've had that Vision let's protect the water we have a sustainability plan coming up later in December our town is so far ahead on every one of these important policies and the state keeps thumping on us so let's be strong on this let's support our staff they've done a great job thank you thank you very much uh with that I will close public comment on item number seven yeah we are aware and in light of a correspondence received from the Arizona House of Representatives um we have correspondence in hand related to agenda item number seven I believe it's it's appropriate to U uh recuse to a u executive session on this matter do I have a motion so moved second we have Mo we have a motion to uh enter into executive session and our regular meeting would um uh resume following um our executive session please record your vote May council member gam votes yes and repeat vice mayor Graham vice mayor Graham votes yes thank you um so uh we are unanimous and we will adjourn to the executive session e e e we will we will now resume our regular meeting uh in particular our top our agenda item number seven number seven has been presented and we have uh opened and closed um public comment this point I see councilwoman Janik wishes to speak thank you mayor um I'd like to make a motion to adopt ordinance number 4651 for the purpose of amending the city of Scottdale zoning ordinance ordinance number 455 adopt resolution number 13253 declaring as a public record the adapter reuse and development application determination text Amendment 3A 2024 and adopt resolution number 13254 declaring as a public record the quote Scotto commercial employment hubs and essential areas table in the Scott till quote total allocated multif family conversion development projects Amendment second can I just ask our attorney if I did everything properly mayor and uh councilwoman Janet you did except the the last word of the public document is allotment allotment thank you corrected second thank you um would you like to speak to uh your motion or second I and I will call on um um councilman Durham and councilman vice mayor Graham who are remote if you wish to speak let me know um this point we have h a motion on the floor uh do we have any questions of Staff seeing none um the um this has been a very large effort uh uh Outreach to uh residents and certainly procedurally U done correctly so uh we have a motion and a second seeing no other Council wishing to speak please record your vote vice mayor Graham votes yes council member council member Durham votes yes thank you we are unanimous therefore the motion carries unanimously next we will go to um item number eight item number 8 is also U presented um it refers to legislation and accessory dwelling unit Adu text Amendment and our presenter is Brad car once again please proceed thank you again mayor vice mayor members of the council uh similar to the last item on the agenda this next item is a text Amendment to the city's zoning ordinance to address several different areas most notably um accessory dwelling units um as we as I noted um these are these two text limits are dealing primarily with some housing um bills that came out of the state legislature this one in particular accessory dwelling units House Bill 2720 um is the primary focus of this update but it also includes uh updates to the zoning code to address um House Bill 2325 which is related to Backyard foul as well as some other uh updates to the code to make it more usable and uh and read a little bit better so I'm going to go through all those uh with this presentation um similar to the last one house bill 2720 was introduced and passed by the state legislature and signed by the governor in April this particular Bill addresses as I noted accessory dwelling units on single family Residential Properties the city must comply with this similar to the last one by January 1st 2025 um we are also intended to minimize negative impacts with this update to the zoning or um but notably this bill has um a requirement by January 1st 2025 the otherwise accessory dwelling units would be allowed in the city U Without Limits so um we want to make sure we address this appropriately as as um the city and his residents seek fit um just as we did on the the previous one we want to knowe where this one uh this legislation applies this um threshold for population is lower than the last one it's at 75 ,000 versus 150,000 as a as a result uh more communities are um qualifying or in uh have to abide by this new state law but again notably in the Northeast portion of the Valley Scottsdale is Alone um in that um in compliance so let's speak a little bit about what an accessory dwelling unit is an Adu is a subordinate and self-contained dwelling unit that is on the same lot as generally as a as a main single family residential dwelling that is is already existing it is is designed for living purposes and includes its own sleeping facilities kitchen facilities and sanitary facilities and it can be either attached or detached from that existing single family dwelling they come in many shapes and sizes but most common is a selfcontain unit that's detached from the main dwelling unit uh that upper diagram shows that um but they can be attached as the lower one shows um and it could that lower uh uh element could be attached on the ground floor it could even be second floor above a garage um so what does the state law the new state law dictate to the city the city must allow at least one attached and one detached Adu per single family property uh in addition if that property is over an acre in size the city must allow a third detached Adu if that uh Adu is designated as an affordable unit the state also defines or sets a parameter for the size of those adus at 75% of the gross flare floor area of that existing home or 1,000 square F feet whichever is less also the state says that we cannot do a number of different things um that is one we cannot prohibit the shortterm or long-term lease of an Adu we cannot require familiar relationship between the owner of that main unit and Adu occupants um we cannot require any additional site parking for an Adu or any fees in lie of parking we can also um we cannot require that an Adu look like the existing home on the property so that unit could to be completely separate from a design standpoint from uh the existing building or home on that property we can't require any more than 5T of distance um for an Adu in the rear yard from any side or rear property line we also cannot uh require improvements to a public Street as a result of uh allowing an Adu or any permits or licenses or conditions between private parties of the use of an Adu finally and and and also very important to the city of Scots as a whole we cannot require an Adu to have any fire sprinker system as I know mo all of you know um we have a fire ordinance requirement currently any livable or habitable space requires fire sprinklers this would prohibit us from doing that in an Adu so what does Scott still allow for adus now um the short answer is we don't uh we allow guest houses and we allow guest houses on single family properties and those are different than Adu we'll get in that in the next slide but generally for a guest house standpoint that Guest House can be up to one half the size of the main building or house on that property um guest houses must be connected to the existing water meter and other infrastructure at that property and they cannot be rented separately from the main building or house on that property so what will be the difference between a guest house and Adu as a result of this changes um the existing Guest House requirements are still in place uh but the main difference is um essentially you can rent out that Adu separate from the main residence whereas a guest house again you cannot rent that Guest House out separately from the main residence it's designed to be accommodations for guests of the main residents but in establishing adus you're essentially EST establishing a whole new residence on that property or multiple other residents on the property in addition the adus is again going to be limited to 75% of the size U or 1,000 square feet and um again yeah separately rented is the big deal there so um the exclusions similar to the last bill there are exclusions in this bill um notably legislation prohibits um adus in the vicinity of an airport and again those are defined and in the state statutes those uh geographical boundaries of those airports the city does have two U airports within its vicinity the Scot airport of course but also the flight path airflight uh over paath overflight air path of Sky Harbor airport is also within the southern boundaries of the city and also notably HOA neighborhoods can still privately restrict adus that was um made clear within the bill that any existing um uh ccnr or other restrictions that are in place for an HOA can still be uh can still restrict adus so the city's approach for adus we are going to establish some new qualifications related to a new accessory ding unit land use one importantly that has to be a single family residents already on the property in order to establish an Adu utilities are going to be separately metered unlike guest house uh we want those to be again because this is a separate home ENT essentially a new home on a property they need to have separate meter separately metered utilities ownership um adus cannot be sold separately from the main residents um and they cannot be subdivided separately from the main residents on the property renting um as we as I noted we cannot prohibit short-term rentals um for a prohibit an Adu from being a short-term rental but the state uh Bill does allow a municipality to restrict um that the owner of that property reside on the property if the short-term rental is an uh if the Adu is a short-term rental so um that's going to be added to the provisions that the city's proposing as I mentioned you can't subdivide it separately and we need to make sure there's sufficient Water and Sewer capacity uh for these for these new Adu units um we also going to establish some de uh development standards some objective development standards for adus first again we have to allow certain number of those on the lot as I mentioned one attached one detached and one restricted affordable Adu for Lots larger than one acre um the size as I mentioned 75% of the main residence or 1,000 square fet whichever is less for the first unit and all other 80 80 units on the lot will be limited to 500 square feet occupancy um currently the city limits single family properties to six um unrelated people uh on a single family property where to can continue that forward so the total occupancy for a single family uh lot can still not exceed six regardless of the configur ation of number of people in Adu and the main residents um but we want to emphasize a familiar relationship is not required as part of that total number of occupancy and finally we can't require more parking as I mentioned but we can still maintain that code Min code minimum requirement for the main residents at all times so that's uh outlined in the new Provisions some additional Pro uh development standards we are going to require private outdoor living space for each of these new adus um similar to when we have multif family devel El ments we require an outdoor living space to ensure people have the ability to outjo the outdoor space adjacent to their unit so we're requiring a 50 foot size minimum here building Heights going to be the same as underlying zoning District as well as setbacks U with the exception that again the Adu can be as close as 5 feet from a rear or side property line if it's located in the rear yard um we are going to ensure access to each unit is separate uh each ad unit is separate from the main access to the uh main residence and it needs to have a clear path to travel if that unit is in the rear we want to make sure there's a clear path of travel for First Responders to get there in case of emergency and similarly addressing addressing we need to make sure that there's a unique address for each of these so that um again responding through emergencies is easy um and straight forward that concludes uh anything on the Adu portion of this particular text happy to answer any questions there or we can go on to the next part why don't we continue with the item eight uh the HB 2325 backyard file certainly mayor um so in addition to the Adu changes we're making to the zoning ordinance we're also incorporating recent changes regarded to back backyard foul that were passed by the Arizona legislator at the last session in short the the requirements um make it clear that there needs to be enclosure for keeping a backyard file on a residential property and there needs to be some distance for that enclosure from property line so um we're going to just basically copy straight over what those requirements the state uh established and those include the setbacks as I mentioned 20 ft uh from a property line and a maximum size of 200 square fet the enclosure can also uh not exceed 8 feet in height any existing parameters that we have in the city code related to domestic animals will continue to apply so as I mentioned there's a number of different additional amendments we are making to the text again to clarify certain things um related to how this City administers a zoning ordinance related uh especially related to single family residential dwellings the first is non-conforming structures there's some minor cleanup there accessory buildings and structures also some cleanup residential Recreation areas is Sport courts tennis courts pickle ball courts so there some additional clarification there we needed to make some further distinctions between what a guest house is and an Adu is so there's some changes there as well and some manufacturing home changes to clarify some things there fit Hills overlay is unique area in the city as I'm sure many of you know um it defines the separation between certain accessory buildings on the property because adus have certain requirements for special requirements for setbacks we had to make some changes there as well and finally correcting any typographical areas or restructuring text reusability was also included so similar to the timeline this was on the exact same timeline as the last text Amendment 3A went to Planning Commission in early July for initiation followed by public Outreach in September back to the Planning Commission for two items in October and finally tonight with city council we are anticipating again some changes to the general plan as a result of the changes to the zoning ordinance text those will come in 2025 so the the request this evening is to consider adoption of ordinance 4652 for the purposes of amending the zoning code um as well as adopting uh resolution 13255 which declares that public record for that accessory dwell unit TCH Sumit 4 ta 2024 with that that concludes my presentation I'm happy to answer any questions sure at this point I would call for U public comment seeing none for agenda item number eight therefore I will close public comment um moving on uh councilwoman wead thank you thanks mayor yeah well first of all I once again want to thank staff um as the mayor has said multiple times you know we are seeing our uh governing power significantly reduced along with our Revenue and the uh residents come to us not their legislators when things go wrong so this bill is probably my least favorite since 1487 and the short-term rental law this is an assault on our local control in our neighborhoods and I just want to thank the many hundreds of residents that responded to an email I put out um simply writing to the governor's office and the legislator explaining simple Common Sense ways to make this law better much better we still prefer local control but we know that our housing is um we struggling with our housing because of short-term rentals so common sense number one make the ad use for long-term rentals but the legislature chose not to do that they chose to exasperate the problem and number two when people buy a home they understand that the zoning at the bacon lot might change or the commercial center might go through a renovation to have some changes but when they look in their backyard and they see their neighbor's yard a large yard with maybe a tree in it they don't expect a building to suddenly appear 5 feet from that wall that completely upends residential real estate in our city and then of course one of the things that defines Scottdale is um our high development standards this blows that out of the water for no apparent reason and finally it would certainly appear that Public Safety is not of the interest of these legislators by uh allowing us to even require the the mandatory fire sprinkler codes that we require in all of our homes so these are homes they're just not safe homes and they're not situated in a way that a person um buying a home next door can expect anything their privacy or their view or anything to remain the same so I consider this a terrible Terri law and um again I appreciate what staff has done with it so I do have a question and that's with this business of the occupancy of six adults can you go into more detail I just want to point out to anybody who has written to us and complained about short-term rentals all of those people know that the city has no power to enforce the six adult rule and and and one other point I want to make is this law puts a tremendous burden on the city without any funding to enforce what limited enforcement mechanisms we have so go ahead explain this six person one more time for me certainly and thank you uh mayor and councilwoman Whitehead I don't know uh I don't if I want to get into all the detail on the short-term rental side of that but um right now our zoning ordinance says that you can have up to six um unrelated people on a single in a single family home essentially and that means you can have six people unrelated in on a single family lot so we want to carry forward that standard that the community has of certain number of people in these on a residential property which has other ramifications such as the amount of parking that's going to be on that property um since we can't require more parking uh through foreign Adu through this process we kind of that parking is going to have to probably go somewhere maybe not on the lot maybe in the street just larger impacts that start uh escalating from there so in attempt to limit those impacts as we noted we want to limit the number of people on a lot that's similar to what people are accustomed to which is six unrelated people and so that's why that that provision is in here if you have one additional Adu and on you have one Adu and one main dwelling you have six adults between the two if you have two uh adus and one main dwelling you still have six total between the three different buildings on the site the reason I asked that question is I just want our constituents to understand how hard our staff Works within the boundaries of a law to protect protect our community so thank you another question uh the law requires um an operating an Adu operating as a short-term rental to um have an owner occupant in the main house of course there's no enforcement dollars or mechanism for that so that's I won't go into that however in a buyer of a let's say an equestrian property can come in and correct me if I'm wrong can come in and build let's say it's a two acre property can build three adus and not reside on the property they have no vested interest is that correct uh Council Whitehead if that if that none of those adus are offered as short-term rental then yes they do not need to occupy the site if even one of those though is a a a short-term rental then the owner will be required to reside on the site but my point is that we can have equestrian properties we're in equestrian town and this is one of my Big Field fears and also I want to point out as well that the burden once again falls on our older properties and our large lot properties in uh kind of the traditional Scottdale neighborhoods that have had felt this burden all along um my point is is that an investor can now purchase an equestrian property put three homes where there was one and not reside even in one of the homes or even in the same town is that correct that would be correct yes I think that's a big problem thank you so much councilwoman Janik councilwoman caputi and councilwoman L field thank you mayor first of all I totally concur with what councilwoman Whitehead has said um very disappointing to see this as part of our state laws um I totally appreciate all the work that planning has done and staff has done because everything here is interrelated so it's not like you can make one change you have to go through everything and make sure there's a consistency and um they have done an outstanding job of that but I guess my biggest objection which I just shake my head at require an Adu to contain a fire sprinkler system we cannot allow that as a city we value our residents that's why we require a sprinkler system but Heck if it's an Adu doesn't matter you don't need the sprinkler system and by the way sprinkler systems do save lives I believe that what should have been said is that if a city already has a code requirement for a for sprinkler systems the adus should have to follow that code as well um I just I'm amazed that this is what they did shows a total a of to me appreciation for human life but I guess that's what they did so thank you councilwoman caputi and councilwoman Littlefield well good comments by my colleagues obviously with both of these laws we're trying to land in a place where we're balancing protecting our city and our residents and appeasing the legislature and following the law so it puts us in a super awkward position um we're trying to do a little Balancing Act here for the best of everybody I just had one question um you said that the adus can be rented separately and they can't be sold separately I'm curious what is the logic behind mandating the separate metering given those two parameters certainly mayor and councilwoman caputi the the reasoning is is these essentially are different dwelling units they're separately they could be people that don't even know each other and likely will be people that don't know each other that live in these two units um so for instance if you had an issue with uh the the sewer line with one of the units if it got had an issue and that unit is dependent on the other unit for that sewer line to be unclogged you have could have an issue where um you know you have two people that are don't know each other they likely are paying different bills and they're then are dependent upon each other for that service similarly we had some conversations with local utilities electrical utilities they want the the separate utilities for electrical connections they said that their preference is that those be two separate connections I don't know uh they didn't really get into much detail about why I think it's maybe for ease of uh maintenance or billing or whatever uh but I think they prefer two homes two different people having separate utilities and so there's a there's some good reasons to have those utilities separate okay I mean I'm picturing you know there is a main homeowner and it's seems like that would that should be left up to the homeowner because I mean they could they could rent to a person that's related to them or you know um um it can still be like a casino with a family member on the yard it seems like it just feels to me like that should be something the homeowner should be able to decide or not but that's just my two cents it feels weird to mandate that um that's my opinion thank you councilwoman Littlefield and I will go on to uh remote uh councilman Durham and uh vice mayor Graham if you have comments go ahead councilman Littlefield thank you mayor um and I agree with all of the comments that have been made up here tonight about this um every single one of them is pertinent and meaningful to the future of this city um I also would like to thank staff very much for the time and effort that you put into this researching every uh crevice that you could and find every way that you could to make this less honorous for our people and for our city to have it and I really appreciate the work that you've done so I thank you for that and I I totally agree with everything that said this is not something that is good for Scottdale or any other city that has to comply with it thank you okay councilman Durham did you have a comment or um thank you mayor I I just wanted to comment to um both the continuing members of the council and future members of the council as as if we needed more proof that this is clear that uh we don't have the final word on zoning decisions in Scottsdale and um um it's important to remember that um our word is not final thank you mayor thank you vice mayor Graham any comments yes thank you mayor I agree with the sentiments I think this is U an attack this legislation was an attack on uh communities like Scottdale and uh it's you know many of us up here have found it disturbing we we have you know we're thankful to what our staff has done to um read it closely and to uh apply it um to apply it um carefully um I want to uh is uh I can't see is is Brad Carr still at the podium yes um you were you were watching this closely legislatively and I want to call out um and thank we have have a you know Scott still has a legislative delegation and I want to thank personally on the record uh representative grass representative chaplick representative collan representative trik for voting against this um I believe both legislators in District 8 including representative Hernandez voted for it and um I don't remember on the Senate side I'm pretty sure that um Senator Senator Marsh voted against it and Senator Kavanaugh voted against it um Mr Brad is that correct mayor and vice mayor I I don't know the specific um votes for the the bill I'm sorry I don't have that it's just uh it's just sort of an angle in all of this because you know the legislature does have control but we can show appreciation to our Scottsdale delegation most of them not all of them for standing up for Scottdale and standing up for their representatives um and making sure that we know and they know that we know and putting rant to the record um who was there for Scottdale so thank you mayor okay well um my concluding comments are that the um Arizona legislature subverted our uh Decades of planning and Decades of working in consensus the item number eight uh does has two um legislative actions first one um basically allows many hotels everywhere short-term rentals and the second action is um as though we don't have enough uh short-term rentals the second action is um to allow I guess more production of eggs in our city because now we are they are permitted foul everywhere so for some reason we don't have enough eggs and the price of eggs should go down because of their action uh we will have uh complaints we will have other uh situations to deal with uh what I want to emphasize is that staff did our due diligence on these matters and we U were dealt a bad Hand by the legislature I think there's uh some precedents that are also in danger in the future uh possibly going after HOAs uh that may come uh it's not without U uh out of the question uh they they've come at our um non-hoa areas uh so uh I appreciate U the U uh comments councilman caputi and you know we have a motion and need a motion I just wanted to make one last comment because I meant to make it when we were talking about the Adaptive reuse and I I just think it's important on this page 10 of your presentation it says existing commercial mixed use and employment land uses make up about 0.8% of existing land area outside of the airport exemption um and we all had the both of us had printed out the page from our general plan and I just I I don't think we can emphasize that enough that less than 1% of our City commercial mixed use and employment land and when you look at the page from the general plan 50% of our land use is single family low density residential and almost 40% of our city is open space I feel like I need to repeat that 10 or 12 times up here tonight and maybe I should have been repeating this well I feel like I have been for the last four years as well but most of our city you know is very low intensity uh residential single family homes and that has not changed over time so the character of our city remains and uh we are all talking about the Teeny tiniest little less than 1% of our city that's even impacted by some of this higher intensity building so just want to make that clear thank you okay councilwoman uh Whitehead do we have a motion yeah I moved to adopt ordinance number 4652 for the purpose of amending the city of Scottdale zoning ordinance number 455 adopt resolution number 13255 declaring as a public record the accessory dwelling unit text Amendment 4- ta2024 second we have a motion in a second seeing no F second thank you uh we have a motion in a second no one else wishing to speak please record your vote vice mayor Graham VES yes council member Durham votes yes okay the motion passes unanimously um next um I want to remind everyone sustainability was uh continued till December uh therefore uh we will move on to public comment public comment is an opportunity for Scottsdale citizens business owners or Property Owners to comment on non agendized items advocacy for against a candidate or ballot measure during council meeting is not permitted by state law and of course we will not take any action on a non- agendized item I have a request uh from Mr St uh sorry Brandon Putman to come forward you have three minutes sir please uh State your place of residence thank you good evening mayor members of city council my name is Brandon hman I am at 7536 East Virginia Avenue in South Scottsdale I'm here tonight to urge you to pass the Scott sales sustainability plan a Visionary document that has been two years in the making shaped by extensive research public input and expert analysis this plan represents a culmination of your commitment to Scottsdale's future and it's critical that we act now first let me emphasize that this plan is aspirational and not a mandate there are no penalties if the targets are not met no Financial burdens no restrictive regulations what it offers instead is a roadmap for Scottdale to address the most pressing challenges of our time while preserving a Vibrant Community and unique desert environment we all cherish as represented by the continuation of the sales tax uh recently voted on by our uh Community we cannot afford to delay this this further climate change is already altering our life in the desert as evidenced by record heat waves failing Saros dying shade trees and drought fueled wildfires each summer we feel the financial strain of rising cooling costs and the growing economic toll of extreme weather events costs that have been compounded by srp's recent rate hike without action these challenges will only escalate threatening not only our environment but our econom our economy our tourism and our quality of life this plan is not just about adaptation it's about Innovation it lays the groundwork for Scottdale to continue as a world class sustainable City in the southwest fostering economic opportunities while protecting our natural resources as Community leaders you have the chance to make this your legacy a commitment to ensuring Scottsdale thrives for generations to come climate change will not wait passing the sustainability plan is a vital step forward signaling that Scottdale is ready to confront these challenges headon with Solutions grounded in collaboration and practicality thank you for your leadership and consideration now is the time to act I look forward to seeing you next week thank you Mr butam next we therefore I will close public comment uh moving on to petitions petitions is um an opportunity for citizen to come forward there seeing none therefore I will close the petition uh uh posted agenda item with that we have concluded our regular agenda items and U may have a motion to adjourn second moved and seconded please record your vote vice mayor Graham votes yes council member Durham votes yes unanimous we are adjourned thank you e e for