PHOENIX — A bipartisan group of lawmakers are trying to throw a lifeline to residents of historic neighborhoods in Arizona’s large cities and towns, proposing an exemption from a 2024 law mandating that municipalities allow much higher density housing in what are now prized old single-family neighborhoods.
Residents belonging to historic neighborhood associations in Phoenix, Tucson and the 14 other cities and towns affected by the zoning preemption law have pushed for more than a year to protect their areas from developers.
They joined together in a coalition they named Save Historic AZ to seek a remedy for the 2024 law. It forced cities and towns with populations of 75,000 or more to change their local zoning rules to allow construction of duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and townhomes on all lots zoned for single-family homes within a mile of each city’s central business district.
