SAVE WILLO Article in AZ Central
Published on 04/25/2025 • Posted in Neighborhood News, Development & Zoning, General Interest
Homeowners in Arizona’s historic districts worry about impact of law allowing fourplexes
Catherine Reagor
Arizona Republic
Updated April 25, 2025, 11:16 a.m. MT
*A new Arizona law allows for multifamily housing development near central business districts, overriding local zoning and impacting historic neighborhoods.
*Owners of historic homes fear the law will lead to demolition of unique homes and the construction of
unaffordable multifamily units.
*While the law aims to create more “middle housing,” it doesn’t require owner-occupancy or specific
design standards.
Many Phoenix owners of historic homes are concerned legislation to create more affordable housing for renters and buyers will turn one-of-a-kind houses into multifamily properties that most people won’t be able to afford. A state law that goes into effect Jan. 1 allows for the development of fourplexes and townhomes within 1 mile of a city’s central business district. The law supersedes most local zoning.
New AZ law will allow historic homes to be replaced by multifamily The area where the multifamily projects can go up, mostly without separate zoning approval, spans more than a dozen historic Phoenix
neighborhoods, including Willo, Coronado and Encanto-Palmcroft. Houses in many of the Neighborhoods often sell for more than $1 million.
“My biggest concern is a homeowner sells to a developer who is going to tear down a unique historic home and put up a fourplex on a single-family home lot that won’t be affordable,” said Willo Neighborhood Association President Brad Brauer. “Legislation says developers can’t be stopped from
doing that.”
House Bill 2721, passed in 2024, requires any Arizona municipality with at least 75,000 residents to allow duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes and townhomes on all lots zoned for single-family homes within 1 mile of a central business district. The bill to create more “middle housing” doesn’t require the developments to be owner-occupied. They can’t be higher than two stories.
The controversial bill passed a few months before Phoenix expanded its central business district last summer. Phoenix’s central business district now spans a 12-square-mile area surrounding downtown. The boundary extends from McDowell Road on the north to roughly Broadway Road on the south, between 23rd Avenue and 20th Street.
The previous central business district was roughly 2 square miles. The city can now offer developers more incentives in a larger area. Phoenix officials said in a statement that the new legislation will not
impact all of its new central business district. “HB2721 defines the CBD as the entire geographic area that the municipality has officially designated as its downtown,” according to a statement from Phoenix’s Planning and Development Department. The city said its officially designated downtown is the region regulated by its “Downtown Code” and that’s the area that will be used to determine
compliance with HB 2721. HB 2721 defines a central business district as “an area or series of areas
designated by a municipality that are primarily nonindustrial and that attract community activity, including the entire geographic area that the municipality has officially designated as its downtown or equivalent.”
Based on Phoenix’s downtown definition, the area impacted by the law will roughly be 1 mile north of McDowell, 1 mile east of Seventh Street, 1 mile south of Buckeye Road and 1 mile west of Seventh Avenue.
The Willo Neighborhood Association board has collected nearly 1,200 signatures on a petition to keep its single-family zoning and not have lots “subdivided” for multifamily development.
Attempt to amend law to exempt historic districts stalls
in Legislature
Rep. Aaron Márquez, D-Phoenix, said that although the housing shortage needs to be addressed, historic neighborhoods were designated to preserve character, design and heritage. “We should protect those pieces of our state and ensure they don’t go away,” Márquez said. He introduced legislation, HB 2719, to exempt historic neighborhoods from the new law aimed at creating middle housing. But his bill has stalled. The new zoning law also impacts historic neighborhoods in Tempe, Mesa,
Glendale, Tucson and Flagstaff.
“I don’t think Phoenix fully understood how expanding the CBD would circumvent historic preservation,” said Brent Kleinman, who is on the Encanto-Palmcroft Historic Preservation Association board and the
Encanto Village Planning Committee.
“The legislation won’t solve the affordable housing problem, but it will allow some crazy developer to put up a fourplex where one shouldn’t be,” he said.
Willo resident Charlie Martin said he questions how politicians have the power to hurt neighborhoods with decisions that won’t help anyone. Historic homes have strict design and building guidelines homeowners must follow to keep a home’s historic status, which gives the owner a discount on property taxes. The new law doesn’t have similar design requirements for the multifamily development.
“While the statute does not permit the city to be more restrictive than it would be for a single-family home, it also does not prohibit the city from evaluating proposals for middle housing on historic properties using the same processes currently used for historic properties,” according to
Phoenix.
Brauer said Willo has a conservation plan adopted by Phoenix decades ago that has been difficult to get implemented, so he’s concerned about the city’s ability to help it navigate the new zoning.
“While we understand the need for additional housing, we believe the law did not account for the many historic districts within this one-mile boundary, putting our valuable historic homes at risk of demolition,” said Brauer in a letter to Rep. Walt Blackman, R-Snowflake, about getting the
legislation to exempt historic neighborhoods passed.