An Arizona House committee on Tuesday approved SB 1229, which puts restrictions on what cities and towns can regulate when it comes to housing. The measure, dubbed the Starter Homes Act, for example, would prohibit municipalities from getting involved in home buyers’ choosing the floor plan, interior or exterior design and amenities of a house. It also would set rules on minimum lot sizes, among other provisions.
The bill has already cleared the state Senate, and is now set for debate in the House. But critics are planning to offer some amendments.
Doug Nicholls, mayor of Yuma, is on the executive committee of the League of Arizona Cities and Towns. Nicholls joined The Show to talk about what he’d like to see changed.
Full conversation
What are the main issues with this bill, and what would you like to see added on to it when it goes to the House, the full House?
DOUG NICHOLLS: Well I mean, first off, I'd like to see that bill actually have provisions that help make houses affordable. You know, at this point, there's nothing in the bill that limits who buys these houses, which means it's open to investors from across the country, across the world, really, which only drives up housing prices and reduces opportunities for Arizonans to own homes.
How optimistic are you that lawmakers, Gov. Katie Hobbs and the League of Arizona Cities and Towns will all agree to that?
NICHOLLS: I guess I can optimistically be cautious that that'll happen. We've had a very difficult time getting good discussions with those that are sponsoring the bills and looking to try to take local control away from the cities. They're just not really coming to the table with, you know, compromising kind of language or approach. So it makes for a very, very difficult conversation, as we're trying to be part of the process, but not really being fully engaged.
Cities have been concerned with losing the rights that they have, some of the things that they're allowed to do. Are there provisions in the bill, as it is currently constructed, that would limit things that you would like to be able to do as a city?
NICHOLLS: Very much so. It gives essentially by right zoning to a lot of areas, and what that means is the planning that the cities have already done, the infrastructure investments, the all the forward-looking planning that we do as a city that we're responsible to our citizens for, goes out the window. Because if someone all of a sudden wants to quadruple the density of a neighborhood that wasn't planned for, it's not as simple as just putting in the right signers, water line and sewer line in front of your property. It's a system.
So it's got to work all the way down the system, and if we haven't been prepared for it, we have no ability to be engaged in the process to make sure we're mitigating and we're utilizing the systems that have been invested in over the years in a manner that is, I guess, relevant. I mean, just that the systems can actually handle the capacity. So local planning is a critical part of what cities bring. And it's not because the mayor and council want to have control over the city. It's because the people are engaged in the process. ...
Our public meeting process is the heart and soul of zoning. It isn't the mayor and the council sitting there going, "hmm, this is what I want to see." It's a lot of back and forth with our community, our community members, and yes, there's always the group that doesn't want anything built next to them because they got their home.
But a good council can take that input in and listen to the greater demands, the statewide demands for more housing, more affordability, and balance those needs as well as private property rights. So the people in this new bill are removed from the process completely.
Does Yuma have enough housing for the people who want to live there?
NICHOLLS: We are in a good spot here in Yuma. I mean, obviously the cost of housing really is driven by not regulatory controls, but by the market, by materials and by labor. So those are things that are really driving the cost. I think the city of Yuma, one of our developers, said the regulatory stuff is between 3% to 5% of the cost, as opposed to labor and material. So, you know, for Yuma, we have opportunities, but the housing prices are going up, and it's causing problems for, for those that are trying to get into homes for the first time.
As Yuma is basically on the border with California, are you still seeing a lot of Californians coming to Arizona because it's still relatively affordable?
NICHOLLS: That's not a new phenomenon, really for us, that drove the housing bubble in 2007-2008 here, where someone would sell a home on the coast for a million dollars and buy four homes in Yuma, you know, and rent out all four homes. And so that was what was driving then. But we've always had that. We're close enough where people can live in Yuma and actually like the quality of life here, but not have to live in Imperial Valley, but they can work in Imperial Valley. That's very common.
Housing prices are maybe not where you would like them. Are you finding that people are struggling to find affordable places to either buy or rent?
NICHOLLS: The market right now is a little bit harder. Yes, you know, interest rates play into that on what you can truly afford. So as those rates start coming down, I think you're going to start seeing more affordability. But you know, there is an issue for those that are just starting out, they find an affordable home, but it's still something that you know, as a community, we're moving forward our council, we've made about a dozen zoning changes and code changes to help developers, as well as homeowners, you know, have the houses they want and they need, and be responsive to the market and what's going on right now.
So, you know, Yuma council is very, very active, and we just, we just had a housing committee from the community just issued their final recommendations, and we're going through those right now. So there's a lot that we're doing as a local community. However, if this bill goes through, it'll just supersede all that effort and will no longer reflect Yuma. It'll reflect a generic Arizona city, not a uniquely Yuma or uniquely Tempe or uniquely Flagstaff.
