1. The Basics of Zoning for City and Town Officials
2016 League Annual Conference
League of Arizona Cities & Towns
Frank Cassidy, Marana Town Attorney
August 25, 2016

2. Recent changes to cities’ zoning authority
Sign regulations after Reed v. Town of Gilbert (2015)
Regulation of vacation rentals after SB1350
“Leading edge” or “outside the box” zoning regulations after SB1487
Zoning exactions after Koontz v. St. John’s River Water Management District (2013)

3. The purpose of zoning
Traditional view: Zoning protects the public health, safety and general welfare by separating incompatible land uses and by organizing, arranging, and locating land uses to optimize available public services
Modern view: Zoning protects the public health, safety and general welfare by addressing any valid government concern

4. Brief history
Building requirements go back nearly four millennia, to the Code of Hammurabi (1750 BC)
Planning requirements were brought to the New World by the Spaniards with The Laws of the Indies, promulgated by King Phillip II of Spain in 1573 and codified in 1681
Zoning requirements were common in the early colonial experience

5. Modern legal framework of zoning
Federal
State
Local
Private

6. Modern legal framework of zoning
Federal government land use regulation
Endangered Species Act (“ESA”)
Clean Water Act, especially Section 404
Religious Land Uses and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA)
Fair Housing Act

7. Modern legal framework of zoning
State government land use regulation
Planning enabling legislation (Growing Smarter)
Zoning enabling legislation
Subdivision enabling legislation
Floodplain enabling legislation
Private Property Rights Protection Act (2006 Proposition 207)

8. Modern legal framework of zoning
Local government land use regulation
Zoning regulations and official map
Comprehensive plan
Subdivision regulations
Floodplain regulations

9. Modern legal framework of zoning
Private land use regulation
Nuisance law
Covenants and deed restrictions (“CC&Rs”)
Affirmative and negative easements

10. Zoning nuts and bolts Sources of government land use regulation
The police power: to provide for the general health, safety and welfare of the public
The power of eminent domain: to take private property for public use, paying “just compensation”

11. Zoning nuts and bolts
Constitutional limitations on these government powers
Right of due process
Procedural due process
Substantive due process
Protection against “takings” without “just compensation”
Physical taking of property – condemnation of private property for public infrastructure improvements or redevelopment projects
Regulatory taking of property – When a regulation restricts land use so much that it is tantamount to a physical taking
Exactions (dedications, impact fees)

12. Zoning nuts and bolts
Constitutional limitations on these government powers
Right of equal protection
Right of freedom of speech
Right of freedom of religion

13. Administration issues
Arizona zoning enabling statutes
Nonconforming uses & vested rights
Planning commission
Hearing officer
Boards of adjustment
Enforcement

14. Public involvement General plan adoption and amendment
Citizen review process for zoning, rezoning, specific plan adoption, and modification of regulations or conditions

15. Public hearings Arizona Open Meeting Law Legislative processes
Judicial and quasi-judicial processes

16. Special zoning topics Arizona Property Rights Protection Act
Cell towers
Religious uses under RLUIPA
Historic preservation
Exclusionary zoning
Growth management