The Mesa Planning and Zoning Board voted to recommend the city council adopt amendments to the Mesa City Code for middle housing at their recent meeting.
The vote passed 4-0 with board members Jeff Pitcher, Genessee Montes and Chase Farnsworth absent on Oct. 22.
The amendments proposed would modify chapters 5, 8, 31, 32, 86, and 87 of Title 11 of the Mesa City Code. These amendments would ensure Mesa is compliant with HB 2721, which was signed by Gov. Katie Hobbs in 2024 and requires municipalities with 75,000 residents or more to amend zoning regulations to allow middle housing on single-family zoned lots within 1 mile of a central business district or downtown, as well as middle housing on at least 20% of any new single-family development that is greater than 10 acres in size.
The proposed amendments would add and modify definitions related to middle housing, defining middle housing as duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and townhouses compatible in scale, form and character with single-residence dwelling units and more. The amendments would also add middle housing as a land use classifications to land use tables and chapters 5 and 8 of the Mesa zoning ordinance. It would also add a new section to chapter 31 of the city code that would establish eligibility requirements, development standards, and application procedures for middle housing projects and would amend chapter 32 to establish a new parking requirement for middle housing projects.
During the study session Oct. 22, board member Jayson Carpenter asked if the amendments being state mandated would result in them superseding any HOA bylaws or regulations that would be different from the state-mandated amendments.
Mesa Assistant Planning Director Rachel Phillips said the policy would apply in a similar fashion to how it is applied to accessory dwelling units.
“This is going to be similar to what we have with the ADUs,” Phillips said. “So the HOA covenants will still supersede city or the state.”
Mesa Board member Troy Peterson asked about how middle housing would be different from an accessory dwelling unit on a given site.
“How does this ordinance conflict with the ADU on a given site? Can you have both or does whichever one come first offset the other?” Peterson asked. “How do those two comingle?”
Phillips clarified how that distinction would be made.
“The ADU would allow for an ADU on a lot that has a single family residence. So if it had the middle housing, that’s not the same definition as a single family dwelling unit,” Phillips said. “So they wouldn’t be able to have more dwelling units, just in itself, because of those housing types that are allowed.”
The seven-member Planning and Zoning Board conducts hearings and make recommendations to the City Council on requests for changes in zoning and on required site plans. It also considers and recommends changes in the city’s long-range plans and in the municipal code concerning planning and zoning matters. Members are appointed for staggered terms of three years.
After graduating from Arizona State University's Cronkite School in spring 2022, Connor Van Ligten spent a little over year as a reporter for WWL-TV in New Orleans before finding themselves back in Phoenix in October of 2023. Now back in the Valley and writing for the Mesa Independent and the Daily Independent, Connor is ready to tell meaningful stories and report on important civic issues facing Mesa. Connor is a big fan of the 49ers, Warriors, pro wrestling, anime, dogs and fighting video games.
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