Development fades away

Development is virtually non-existent in the parts of Phoenix where new development was most anticipated, and the slowdown caused barely a ripple in the recent city election.

In Districts 2 and 3 in northeast Phoenix, no rezoning cases have been initiated since early in the year. Rezoning is a basic step in development.

The last cases heard by the Desert View Village Planning Committee had to do with scenic corridors along Loop 101 and Arizona 51, plus granting permission to a developer to split a parcel at 56th Street and Deer Valley Road. Neither matter resulted in new development.

The 56th Street case previously had been rezoned for apartments, and the developer was seeking permission to develop the property in phases.

Paradise Valley also approved the scenic corridors, as well as two planned urban developments - one requiring no development, and the other calling for an upgrade of a retail building at Cave Creek Road and Greenway Parkway, where no work has begun.

The last actual development in the area has been on 40th Street north of Greenway, where AAA-Arizona turned an old emissions station into an auto-repair business.

Village planning committees are not the only groups seeing fewer development-related cases come through. Few significant zoning revisions, typically heard by hearing officers, are being brought forward.

Construction is down, too, on cases that previously had been approved. Those include an approved housing development at 32nd Street and Earll Drive, a doctor's office and residence on Greenway near Arizona 51, and a housing development and retail project at Tatum Boulevard and Greenway.

Now, it appears, the city has shifted into reverse.

Phoenix has begun to take action against property owners who have not fulfilled the stipulations, or requirements, of their zoning cases, but such action is not likely to apply to cases approved recently. City planner Alan Stephenson said his department was looking at 64 cases in which time-limit requirements were not met.

by Michael Clancy The Arizona Republic Sept. 17, 2011 12:00 AM




Development fades away