The City of Phoenix Planning Department recently presented an excellent Continuing Legal Education program to the Real Estate Section of the Arizona Bar Association. The presenters included some interesting slides at the end of their program showing trends in the number of zoning related applications submitted to the department on an annual basis. This first slide shows the number of applications submitted each year for the last 5 years for general plan amendments, rezonings, special permits and planning hearing officer requests. The chart shows a chilling, steep decline in zoning application filings for the last 5 years:
The picture isn't much better for zoning adjustment cases (use permits and variances) for the last five years:
Some good news: the chart below shows application submittal trends for the last 50 years and the chart always moves upward after a period of decline (to be expected, of course). You'll likely note a spike in rezoning applications in 1960 (largely thanks to the widespread use of central air conditioning), a spike in the mid 1980's (the last economic boom that ended with the Savings and Loans crisis in the late 1980's) and a dip in applications for the last significant recession in the early 1990's. The chart trends upward after the early 1990's recession until we enter this most recent recessionary period. As of the end of May, the City of Phoenix Planning Department had a grand total of twelve rezoning applications for 2010. That's a terrifying number. Let's hope the chart will trend upward again very soon.
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