Court Opinion

ID: 9561236
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 18:05:41.554188+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:13:41.737859
License: Public Domain

HOWARD, Presiding Judge,
specially concurring.
I concur in the result but not the reasoning of the majority opinion because I do not believe that the Phoenix Concept Plan 2000 and Interim 1985 Plan were general plans enacted pursuant to the Urban Environment Management Act, and therefore no consistency was required. The Urban Environment Management Act requires municipalities to adopt a comprehensive long-range plan for the development of the municipality. “General Plan” is defined in A.R.S. § 9-461(1) as a “municipal statement of land development policies, which may include maps, charts, graphs and text which sets forth objectives, principles and standards for local growth and redevelopment enacted under the provisions of this article or any prior statute.” (Emphasis added.) A general plan adopted pursuant to the act must contain nine specified elements.
In addition to adopting a general plan, a municipality may but is not required to adopt specific plans. As already observed by the majority, although a municipality that desires to engage in planning is required to adopt a general plan, the statute imposes no time limitation for doing so. Furthermore, pursuant to A.R.S. § 9-462.-04(E), a municipality is not required to adopt a general plan prior to the adoption of a zoning ordinance. Therefore, it seems obvious that all zoning ordinances adopted by the city do not constitute a “general plan.” Rather, it must be a comprehensive plan enacted pursuant to the provisions of the act.
*292A reading of the Phoenix Concept Plan 2000 and the Interim 1985 Plan and their adopting resolutions discloses that the city council did not intend these documents to serve as the city’s general plan. Resolution No. 15227, which adopted the Phoenix Concept Plan 2000, contains the following statement of legislative intent:
“WHEREAS, the Phoenix Concept Plan 2000 is only the beginning of the development of a general plan for Phoenix and plans for each of the villages and areas identified in the plan____”
Moreover, several statements in the plan itself clearly show the intent of the city council that the document not be considered a general plan:
“* * * The [Urban Village] map is a graphic representation of the urban village concept in Phoenix and is intended primarily to identify the areas to be planned by the urban village planning committees____
The planning and implementation program [to bring about the goals of the plan] would include preparation of the nine general plan elements required by the State and the preparation of a plan for each village by 1985.
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The 2000 plan will serve as the guide for planning in Phoenix. It suggests that the city government should concern itself with decisions of city-wide importance and delegate responsibility for making decisions of less than city-wide importance. It does this by requiring the development of two sets of plans — (1) a General Plan including the following nine elements: Land Use, Circulation, Conservation, Housing, Recreation, Public Buildings, Neighborhood Rehabilitation and Redevelopment, Public Services and Facilities, and Safety, and (2) a Specific Plan for each urban village or planning area. These plans would be developed, progress toward them monitored, and appropriate amendments made on a continuing basis. The General Plan will be prepared in accord with Arizona Statutes and the Specific Plans for urban villages in accord with the Charge to Urban Village Planning Committees.
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The goals [listed in the plan] as well as the plan and policies should form the basis for development of General Plan Elements and Urban Village Plans. ******
This [implementation] program should include the following accomplishments by 1985.
a. Preparation of the nine General Plan Elements required by the State. Preparation of the Land Use and Circulation Elements should begin immediately. The circulation element should include a long-range transit plan.
b. Appointment of a village planning committee and preparation of a village implementation program for each village.”
Similarly, Resolution No. 15228 which adopted the Interim 1985 Plan contains, inter alia, the following statement of legislative intent:
“WHEREAS, the Phoenix Concept Plan 2000 is only the beginning of the development of a general plan for Phoenix and the plans for each of the villages and areas identified in the plan ... ******
WHEREAS, the Interim 1985 Plan is intended as a guide for making the public and private development decisions until the village and area plans are prepared and adopted ...”
In addition, in the very first paragraph of the text of the Interim 1985 Plan it is emphasized that the plan is a supplement to the Phoenix Concept Plan 2000 acting as a guide for the planning commission and city council on zoning decisions.
The foregoing statements leave no doubt that the city council did not intend the Phoenix Concept Plan 2000 and the Interim 1985 Plan to be the city’s general plan. The majority has come to the conclusion that these documents must be a general plan even if the city council intended otherwise, apparently upon the belief that since the sole source of municipal authorization *293to adopt plans is contained in the act, any plan adopted by the city must, a fortiori, be a general plan. I do not agree. Unquestionably, the state has preempted the field of planning, and any general or specific plan must be adopted in accordance with the requirements of the act. Levitz v. State, 126 Ariz. 203, 613 P.2d 1259 (1980). However, nothing in the statute supports the conclusion that conceptual interim guidelines, such as the Phoenix Concept Plan 2000 and the Interim 1985 Plan, must be considered to be general plans. The city’s mistake was, apparently, in calling these “plans” instead of “concepts for future planning,” which is what they are. The Phoenix Concept Plan 2000 and the Interim 1985 Plan are merely a conceptual framework for future planning, and as such, only one step in the general preparation process. Each step in the process does not by itself constitute a general plan.
Since the Phoenix Concept Plan 2000 and the Interim 1985 Plan are not general or specific plans, the “consistency” requirement of the statute has no application to the grant of the variance at issue herein. The trial court here was correct in its conclusion, but for the wrong reason.