For the past two years, the Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene (OVCN) has been working on a rezoning request that has seen multiple revisions. Their original proposal, which included a full sports complex, sparked strong reactions from the community. Since March 28, 2022, there have been 48 separate articles reporting on their plans, and although the details have changed, OVCN has never backed away from including some kind of sports facility on the property.
What has added to the frustration for many residents is the involvement of town staff in this process. While town staff may not be directly guiding OVCN’s plans, they have been advising the church throughout the various iterations of their proposal. In some instances, a senior member of the Planning & Zoning (P&Z) staff reportedly reached out to local residents, asking what would be needed for them to support the project.
This level of involvement goes beyond what most expect from town staff, who should be neutral arbiters, not advocates for a project. The continuous revisions and prolonged negotiations have allowed the rezoning process to drag on with no clear resolution in sight.
The recently passed Senate Bill 1162 adds a “shot clock” for rezoning applications. Under the new law, Oro Valley will have to decide whether a rezoning application is complete within 30 days. If it isn’t, staff must provide detailed feedback, and once the application is resubmitted, the town has just 15 days to confirm it is complete. After that, the town has 180 days to approve or deny the application. Extensions are allowed only for extenuating circumstances or at the applicant’s request, but even then, they are limited in duration.
This could be a game change for a town like Oro Valley, where rezoning requests have often become lengthy, drawn-out affairs
Rezoning requests can sit in the queue only to be revised again and again as developers and town staff craft and modify proposals based on two neighborhood meetings, one or two Planning and Zoning Commission reviews, and a Town Council hearing. The OVCN rezoning is just one example of how long the process can take—and that particular case hasn’t even made it to a Town Council hearing! The two years it took to develop a council-approved revitalized plan for the Oro Valley Marketplace is another example.
Loophole: It won’t be a game changer if every revision is defined to be a new submission… a restart of the “Shot Clock”
The loophole in the law is that the term “submission” is not explicitly defined in the bill. Typically, in zoning and regulatory contexts, a “submission” refers to an initial or revised application that includes all the required documents, forms, and information necessary for the application to be reviewed.
In the context of SB1162, it appears that a “submission” would be any application that is presented for review, whether it’s the initial proposal or a revised one following feedback. The law requires the municipality to determine if the application is “administratively complete,” which implies that any major revision requiring resubmission could potentially restart the clock if it is deemed a new “submission.”
It will be up to the Council to close that loophole
In Oro Valley, a rezoning request goes through a process that typically involves two neighborhood meetings. Each neighborhood meeting generally results in a revised version of the proposed rezoning request. Then, there are one and sometimes two meetings before the Planning and Zoning Commission, which usually lead to more revisions. Finally, there’s a hearing in front of the Town Council. Every one of these hearings generally results in some sort of change. If each change is defined as a new submission, then the clock starts again.
It will be up to the Council to decide what constitutes a submission. If every revision is considered a new submission, then the timeline for a rezoning request could drag on indefinitely—just like it does now.
Code change will be approved by council by year end
Town staff will present their version of the updated code the Planning and Zoning Commission in severa months. Then, they will present a version to the council for approval before year end.
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