Tucson zoning in on code changes to encourage more housing

TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Tucson is seeing more and more car washes and drive-thrus pop up all over the city.

City leaders say that has a lot to do with the city’s zoning code. Now they are looking at ways to change those restrictions to encourage more housing development.

Following success in other cities like Austin and Minneapolis, the city wants to encourage more multi-family, pedestrian and transit-oriented housing along arterial and collector street corridors.

This comes as the cost of buying or renting a home in Tucson has essentially doubled in the past nine years, according to Redfin and Zillow data compiled by the city.

“We have policies that say we want mixed-use, pedestrian-oriented, transit-oriented development, but we have a zoning code that really incentivizes things that support the automobile, such as drive-thrus, car washes, self storage,” explained Dan Bursuck, planning administrator for Tucson Planning & Development Services.

“So what we’re looking to do here really is to realign our zoning code with what our policies say… It may not lead to a huge boom in housing. But it does allow for that redevelopment throughout the city.”

Tucson’s zoning code hasn’t seen wholesale changes in more than 30 years.

Bursuck says the city is still finalizing its plan but it’s looking at loosening rules like reducing building setbacks, reducing or removing parking requirements for new housing and adding to the maximum building height.

He says the focus will be on sites taking up large chunks of land like struggling commercial spaces and empty parking lots.

“Replacing a concrete, asphalt structure that just holds onto heat and leads to more stormwater runoff with new housing for people in Tucson is really one of the things we hope that this will lead to,” he said.

The zoning changes would apply to commercial or office zones along arterial and collector corridors city-wide.

Gayle Hartmann, president of the Sam Hughes Neighborhood Association, says the plan to encourage more housing “can be done, but it needs to be done with care and not this kind of blanket approach.”

“These Midtown neighborhoods are pretty good places to live, but they’re kind of fragile,” she said. “Allowing that just on any collector or arterial seems to us to be just a really bad idea.”

Hartmann worries about taller buildings leading to issues like less privacy, more limited parking and lower property values.

Bursuck says shade and open space requirements would help protect historic neighborhoods, and that conversations will continue.

The city is targeting more public meetings later this month or in early November. That feedback would lead to a revised proposal before moving to planning commission and then Mayor Regina Romero and city council by early 2025.