Tempe's General Plan 2050: Why it's controversial and what voters need to know

Tempe residents began voting last Wednesday on a proposed general plan that will shape the way the city grows over the coming decades.

In a typical year, it's a decision that voters usually pay little attention to. But this time it's become controversial, as Tempe residents grapple with where, what kind and how much development they want.

Tempe's proposed blueprint is called General Plan 2050. It's a long-term planning strategy that broadly spells out not just how pieces of land can be used, but also the community's vision for its transportation network, parks, civic buildings, public art, environmental sustainability and economic development.

State law requires cities to update their general plans every decade. City councils must approve them and present them to voters to be ratified.

This year's vote carries more controversy because it comes a year after those same voters soundly rejected the city's plan to let the Arizona Coyotes NHL franchise build a new hockey arena and entertainment district on city-owned land.

The unpopular idea has led voters to pay closer attention to development issues and has propelled challenges in city council races. The Coyotes and the general plan have featured prominently in the candidates' remarks.

Development issues take on more significance in Tempe because it has no way to grow outward. It must either grow upwards with taller buildings, add density by packing buildings closer together, or not grow in any significant way at all.

Consequently, every decision affects existing neighborhoods, unlike in edge cities such as Buckeye, which have huge tracts of open desert on which to build new communities.

What is a general plan?

A general plan is a broad outline of a community's vision of its future. It sets down policies in six categories: land use, economic development, circulation, sustainability, open space, and recreation and public facilities.

It does not result in specific projects. That requires future council rezoning, design or permit approvals.

Any project or change must conform to the general plan, as well. Those that don't must win city council approval to amend the general plan, which requires a supermajority of five 'yes' votes on the seven-person council.

General Plan 2050 changes the density allowance and land use of some properties throughout the city. Land use creates a general category that describes what certain properties can be used for, such as single-family homes or commercial buildings. Density is a measure of how many buildings are allowed per acre on a property, so higher-density residential zoning means more houses per acre can go in such areas.

How do I vote?

Tempe voters will see General Plan 2050 labeled on their ballots as "Proposition 478." Early ballots started getting mailed out Feb. 14.

Voters will have until March 5 to mail their ballots back. If they haven't dropped their vote in the mail by that cutoff date, they have to either put it in a drop box or cast it at an in-person voting site if they want their ballot counted. Those locations are available online.

Residents can look at Tempe's General Plan 2050 map online to see where property designations are changing in the city.

What does a 'yes' vote mean?

If Prop. 478 passes, it doesn't mean that the lots with new designations will all of a sudden be redeveloped.

General plans can make properties with existing buildings eligible for other possible uses, for example. Say a site with a strip mall might be made eligible for a three-apartment complex in a general plan update, but that development will never happen unless the lot is sold to a developer who wants to build housing there.

They also do not change zoning. That means the developer in the strip mall scenario would still have to go through a public outreach process, get approval from city committees and get a thumbs up from the city council if the apartment project doesn't match existing zoning codes.

A developer is not guaranteed the density called for in the general plan.

"We've made no zoning district changes in the general plan," said Ryan Levesque, Tempe's deputy community development director. "It's a land use and density projection tool that envisions what the city could be in the future, but has no guarantees for those densities or locations without going through the public hearing process."

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What if Prop 478 fails?

If voters reject the latest plan, Tempe's current General Plan 2040 will remain in effect until they greenlight an updated version. General Plan 2040 was ratified by voters in 2014, so state law requires that Tempe's leadership at least try to update it this year.

If General Plan 2050 is voted down, Tempe will have to either put that plan back up for voter approval at a later date or propose a different update altogether.

State law says the update will have to be put on the ballot during the next regular municipal election or during a special election that's at least 120 days after city council members tentatively approve a new general plan.

Why is Tempe's 2050 General Plan controversial?

Normally general plans don't result in immediate on-the-ground changes, so they typically receive little public attention. But Tempe's General Plan 2050 proved more divisive than usual after the city council decided in August to put it on the March 12 ballot.

The crux of the controversy has to do with the increased density that Tempe's updated plan could allow on certain properties, which often leads to taller buildings. The vast majority of properties that would see a big density uptick are located in Tempe's urban north, but some would be in the city's historically more suburban southern half.

Supporters of the plan, including Mayor Corey Woods, argue the increased density is needed to combat rising housing costs.

The idea is that by allowing denser buildings, more units can potentially be built on smaller pieces of land, so Tempe can make the most of the few available lots it has left as tens of thousands more residents move to the city by 2050.

Proponents also point out that the plan does not encroach on any parks or green space, and that nearly all of the significant density changes are well away from suburban, single-family neighborhoods.

They point out that the city held dozens of public hearings and community meetings to get input on and make changes to the general plan proposal.

"I think this is a really balanced approach to maintaining a lot of what has been great about Tempe for decades, but also preparing for our future in a very thoughtful fashion. Talking about housing supply (and) housing affordability," Woods said, "I think it's really a great plan."

Opponents have a long list of disparate and sometimes contradictory concerns.

Some say the city's public outreach process was excellent, while others say it was lacking. Some argue the plan will lead to urbanization throughout the city's southern neighborhoods, while others say the density upticks are concentrated too much in the north and should be spread out.

Council candidate David Lucier, the only contender who opposes General Plan 2050, pointed to what he called a "fatal flaw" in the plan during a Feb. 7 candidate forum. It was a sentence that says the city will promote "high-density and mixed uses in the immediate vicinity and within about a quarter mile of transit services."

"That's a quarter mile going both ways, so that's a half-mile swath," Lucier said. "If you make circles (around the streets with transit services) that's going to encompass about 80% of the land mass of Tempe. That's a huge fatal flaw that will be available to developers this year. It's a developer's dream."

The high-density areas designated in General Plan 2050 are far less than a fifth of the city's land mass, let alone 80%.

And the passage Lucier referred to also exists almost verbatim in General Plan 2040, the city's current plan that will remain in place if voters reject General Plan 2050. The only difference is that in the current plan it talks about promoting high density near "transit stations" and in the new plan is uses the verbiage "transit services."

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How do opponents' claims stack up?

Tempe 1st, the political group that successfully opposed the Coyotes project in May, is another one of General Plan 2050's biggest opponents. Some of its claims include:

• The plan "greenlights the path for developers to build high-rise and high-density complexes adjacent to neighborhoods." The Arizona Republic found only one instance south of Apache Boulevard where a density change would allow a building to be more than four stories tall next to a residential neighborhood.

• "It does nothing to protect Tempe’s few remaining parcels of open space." The plan does not add any extra parks or public open space designations, but it does not remove any either.

• "This 2050 plan will encourage ... high-rise luxury apartments and office buildings (not affordable housing for working families as proponents suggest)." The plan doesn't include price controls. The idea is that by increasing housing supply, the city can help meet demand so market rates balance out. Affordable units are often negotiated on a case-by-case basis as developers pitch projects.

• General Plan 2050 will increase traffic congestion and strain public safety resources. The general plan is put together based on what the city thinks its future infrastructure might be able to handle. Impact analyses are done when there's an actual project to consider, assuming developers ask permission to re-zone a property.

The Coyotes affect what voters say

General Plan 2050 opponents suggested in interviews that getting the plan approved by voters is less about its own merits, and more about the city winning a battle against the ghost of elections past.

The Arizona Coyotes $2.1 billion project proposal last year shook resident confidence in the ability of Tempe leadership to represent the community when development decisions crop up. Every city council member staunchly backed the proposal, but it failed overwhelmingly when voters got their day in May.

Now, residents are being asked to trust that the city council will consider traffic and infrastructure costs when projects get pitched. And that leaders won't amend the general plan maps to pursue the dense transit development goals listed in both the current and proposed general plans.

Paul Hubbell is a Tempe resident who represented the Brentwood Cavalier neighborhood during the city's General Plan 2050 community outreach process. He opposes the plan and said a lack of confidence in city leadership to make those decisions down the line is the most significant issue Tempe will face on Election Day.

"The biggest problem, if you try to put it into one sentence right now, (is that) the City Council has lost the trust of a substantial part of the population here," he said. "They've gotten too friendly with developers."

Mayor Woods agreed that some of the pushback is being fueled by suspicion of city leadership in the wake of the Coyotes vote, saying "I think that there's definitely some of that. Clearly (the Coyotes deal) was an issue that sharply divided many of our residents. And so, I think that some of what you're seeing is still some fallout from that."

But he said the plan isn't the brainchild of the city council or other city leadership, pointing to the multiple resident-led committees that put the proposal together and approved it over two years. He also cited the dozens of public meetings where the city heard resident feedback on the plan and tweaked it in response.

"This was a community led and community driven plan," Woods said.

Reporter Sam Kmack covers Tempe, Scottsdale and Chandler. Follow him on X @KmackSam or reach him at sam.kmack@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tempe General Plan 2050: what voters need to know about the proposal