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Oct 19, 2020 7:21 PM |
Not sure if anyone has read this yet. Tempe axed the Urban Core Master Plan.
Quote:
Tempe scraps plan that would have guided downtown development
Paulina Pineda - Arizona Republic
A three-pronged plan that would have guided development in Tempe’s downtown core over the next 20 years was scrapped Thursday, after nearly three years of work.
The Urban Core Master Plan, as it was called, would have provided building and design guidelines for development across approximately 6 square miles bounded by Loop 202 in the north, Union Pacific Railroad tracks in the south, Hardy Drive in the west and Loop 101 in the east.
Two related items, the Urban Code District, which would have updated land-use regulations and building design standards along public transit routes, and the Development Bonus Program, an initiative that would have allowed developers to build taller buildings in exchange for the creation of affordable housing or preservation of historic properties, also were tabled.
The move comes a year after the plan was first brought to the City Council. City staff had asked for more time after the October 2019 meeting to continue gathering community feedback, and then the new coronavirus pandemic struck.
The Urban Core Master Plan was a hard sell from the beginning.
Residents and historic preservationists feared urbanization would creep into the surrounding neighborhood, damage the area’s character and threaten historic buildings. Some developers thought the plan created too many hoops.
Even Mayor Corey Woods said during a candidate forum in February, before being elected, that he wanted to start over after hearing the community's concerns.
Without consensus around the plan — and as priorities shift to the health crisis and other issues — city staffers asked to withdraw the Urban Core Master Plan from Thursday’s City Council meeting agenda, said Kris Baxter-Ging, a city spokesperson.
“It was important for us to have our community vision be well accepted by the majority of people in the community and there really truly wasn’t a consensus in either direction,” Baxter-Ging said.
Proposed projects will continue moving through the development process as they currently do but this could mean the city will have less say on where and how growth occurs.
Staff plans to work on a leaner version of the Urban Core Master Plan that will be presented to residents and the council at a later time. There is no timeline for when that will be completed.
What would the plan have done?
High-rise developments have been a growing trend in Tempe, but the Urban Core Master Plan would have made it the norm — and put rules around it.
Until 2007, the grain elevator and silos of the Hayden Flour Mill stood as the city's tallest buildings.
Today, the West Sixth apartment towers downtown hold that record soaring 22 and 30 stories high.
About a dozen buildings in north Tempe are taller than 15 stories, and more are under construction.
Landlocked Tempe has become increasingly urban as it approaches build-out. The population in the city center is expected to double to 90,000 people by 2040 as the city attracts high-wage jobs and the student population at Arizona State University grows.
But that development burst has left city planners grappling with how to grow responsibly.
They say the city can’t prevent growth so it must plan for it.
The plan would've provided guidelines for how tall and dense developers could build and where that type of construction would be most appropriate in north Tempe.
It called for stricter design guidelines and sought to promote sustainable developments, use of multi-modal transportation, walking and more street-level commercial space.
Plan was a hard sell
City staff held more than 30 public meetings and dozens of focus groups with neighborhood leaders, businesses and property owners. They sent more than 213,000 postcards and 30,000 emails.
Still, the community couldn’t come together around the project after about two years of trying.
Some residents felt detached from the planning process, thought the plan was too cumbersome and not easily digestible.
Others thought the plan would allow new development to encroach on established neighborhoods and they pushed for growth to be spread to underdeveloped parts of the city, such as north of Loop 202. They feared larger projects would exacerbate Tempe’s affordable housing crisis that has been partially spurred by the disappearance of garden-style apartments in favor of luxury condos and high rises.
The plan would have required a major general plan amendment because it proposed new densities and land uses, which the council would have had to approve, but some residents thought such large-scale changes should have gone to voters as part of the next general plan. The general plan, which voters last approved in 2014, is a long-range blueprint for how the city wants to grow over the next 30 years and is ratified by voters every 10 years.
Developers also had concerns.
Some weren’t happy with the stricter design guidelines they would have to follow to build bigger projects. Others felt the plan added red tape and could make it harder to get projects approved.
The mayor said it can be challenging to get support for a proposal of this magnitude. People may favor some parts but could be hesitant to support the plan as a whole if they’re uneasy about any portion of it, he said.
That’s what happened with the Urban Core Master Plan, he said.
He told The Arizona Republic on Thursday that he thought it was the right move to “pump the brakes” on the plan.
“When you’re talking about planning for the future of development of the downtown area for the next 15 to 20 years, I think you need to have people come together around the idea,” he said.
What this means for development
Tabling the plan likely won’t hinder development in north Tempe, Baxter-Ging said.
Projects will move through the development process as they do now and continue to be considered on a case-by-case basis. Developers will be able to achieve the same heights and densities proposed under the plan by seeking variances or submitting a planned area development, or PAD, which must be approved by council, like they do now.
However, this could make it more difficult for the city to predict where and how growth will happen, Chad Weaver, Tempe’s Community Development Director, previously told The Republic. Some of the design improvements the plan called for won’t be implemented and the city will have fewer tools available to encourage affordable housing and historic preservation, he said.
Woods said the city will continue to promote affordable housing, multi-modal transportation and sustainability even without some of those tools because they are priorities for the city.
Baxter-Ging said the planning effort wasn't fruitless as staffers will use some of the collected data and feedback they got for future plans.
The Affordable Housing Strategy, which was approved last summer and creates incentives for developers to provide affordable housing and sets up a mechanism to analyze the impact of new projects on the city’s housing inventory, grew out of the Urban Core Master Plan.
Parts of the plan where there was consensus can be brought forward as separate measures, too, she said.
One example is the Smith Industrial Innovation Hub near the Loop 101 and 202 interchange on Tempe’s east side. The council on Thursday voted on a general plan amendment that would allow more density and a broader mix of development in the 302-acre employment corridor as well as development guidelines, which were taken from the Urban Core Master Plan.
Reach reporter Paulina Pineda at paulina.pineda@azcentral.com or 480-389-9637. Follow her on Twitter: @paulinapineda22.
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Source: https://www.azcentral.com/story/news...us/3643298001/ |
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