My name is Nolan, I am a Tempe resident and was a member of the Community Working Group, who helped city staff create the General Plan for 2050 and ultimately voted to recommend its passage. The General Plan is now before Tempe voters for approval as Prop 478. So what is it, what does it do, and how will it impact Tempe?
The General Plan is a vision document which guides the proposals and efforts of city staff. The state of Arizona requires every city to pass a General Plan once per decade, and the passage of these plans is usually routine and without controversy. The document covers all aspects of city services, from arts to parks to libraries to zoning, and is the guiding document for all city planners.
In the course of their daily work, staff and planners are often asked to present city council with a list of possible actions and policies to solve certain problems. When a policy priority is written into the General Plan, staff are required to put that policy in front of council (in addition to other policy options).
General Plans also have implications for housing policy: If someone wants to build more homes in an area than is normally permitted by the General Plan, they have to get a General Plan Amendment. These amendments require a 5-2 council vote instead of the usual 4-3, which equates to a higher level of complexity and cost for any new homes being built in that area. Increased complexity and risk is bad for the creation of new homes, as it adds cost that is passed on to renters or homebuyers, and because it scares off smaller, less sophisticated developers who want to build smaller and more affordable projects.
The plan is over 190 pages, and was designed by staff over the course of the year with input from an appointed “Community Working Group” and a “Technical Advisory Group”. TAG, as it was called, had meetings with a variable number of attendees who represented important technical professionals like air traffic controllers and firefighters, as well as civilian advisors such as members of the transportation committee. The Community Working Group was made up of residents from each of the city’s zip codes.
During the Community Working Group meetings, city staff would make a presentation of that week’s topic (there was an arts and culture meeting, two zoning meetings, two transportation meetings, etc), and group members would give feedback and ask questions. Any preferences or opinions would be written down on digital notes, and those notes were synthesized by staff to inform the design of the plan.
The entire process was very public. Near the end of the process, city staff developed a few possible maps for the housing component, which showed different possible intensity levels for new housing. These maps were made available online and at public events, and while turnout was low, there was a strong preference among respondents for the most intensive map.
Once the preliminary map was chosen, city staff began organizing public comment sessions. There was an outcry by members of a neighborhood group in North Tempe that there should be more public meetings, so an additional slate of neighborhood meetings were held at the library and different community centers.
After the neighborhood meetings were held, there were two General Plan Working Group meetings to vote for or against the plan (one more than originally planned), two development review council meetings, and two city council meetings. All the meetings were public, and at the end of each stage the plan won a majority or unanimous recommendation to advance. At the final city council meeting, a supermajority of all public comments were in support of the plan and of more homes being built in Tempe.
The final stage is a public vote on March 12th, the ballots for which have already been mailed out. The General Plan is on your ballot as Prop 478.
If you plan to mail your ballot, mail it at least one week in advance (March 5th) to make sure it arrives on time. You can also drop your ballot off, signed and sealed in the inner envelope at Tempe City Hall or a ballot drop box, or go vote in person at Tempe History Museum on a weekday the week before or on the 12th for the day of.
If you would like to read the plan yourself, there are recaps and videos on the city website as well as a full pdf version of the document.
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