Fulfilling State Requirements

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WEBSITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Please come back on September 22 to read and comment on the draft plan.


Growing Smarter Legislation - The State of Arizona has been working for nearly a decade to actively manage growth and preserve open space. Since 1973, most cities, towns, and counties have been required to develop plans for communities looking at issues such as land use, circulation, housing, public services and facilities, and conservation, rehabilitation, and redevelopment. As growth rates significantly increased in the 1990s, a critical mass of political support emerged to provide more tools to assist in responding to the consequences of rapid growth. In 1998, the Arizona Legislature passed the Growing Smarter Act, which clarified and strengthened planning elements in the required plans of municipalities and counties and added four new elements, namely: Open Space, Growth Areas, Environmental Planning, and Cost of Development. In 2000, the Legislature passed Growing Smarter Plus to further enhance land use planning statutes in Arizona.

The purpose of the Growing Smarter Act is to more effectively plan for the impacts of population growth by:

  • Creating a more meaningful and predictable land planning process.
  • Increasing citizen involvement in the land planning process.
  • Directing the acquisition and preservation of additional open space areas.
  • Establishing a process to plan for and analyze future growth.

Ultimately, the goal of the act is for future development in the state to occur in a more rational, efficient, and environmentally sensitive manner that furthers the best interests of the state’s citizens.

A few new components enacted by Growing Smarter/Plus include:

  • Require larger and fast-growing cities to obtain voter approval of their general plans at least once every 10 years and include a water resources element in their plans.
  • Requires mandatory rezoning conformance with general and comprehensive plans.
  • Requires more effective public participation in the planning process. ‘
  • Requires cities and counties to exchange plans, coordinate with regional planning agencies, and encourage comments between entities before adoption to encourage regional coordination.
  • Requires full disclosure to property buyers of the lack of available services and facilities.
  • Requires landowner permission for plan designation and rezoning of private property to open space.
  • Authorizes cities and counties to designate service area limits beyond which services and infrastructure are not provided at public expense.
  • Permits counties to impose development fees consistent with municipal development fee statutes.
  • Allows cities to create incentive districts and plans that could include expedited process incentives.

Please click on the drop-down menu below to learn more about each requirement and the corresponding goals, policies, actions, or exhibits that address them.

Public Safety

The safety element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A safety element for the protection of the community from natural and artificial hazards, including features necessary for such protection as evacuation routes, peak load water supply requirements, minimum road widths according to function, clearances around structures, and geologic hazard mapping in areas of known geologic hazards.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Goal A: Community safety
  • Goal B: Emergency preparedness
  • Goal M: Stormwater Management

Parks, Recreation, and Trails

The recreation element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A recreation element showing a comprehensive system of areas and public sites for recreation, including the following and, if practicable, their locations and proposed development:

(a) Natural reservations.

(b) Parks.

(c) Parkways and scenic drives.

(d) Beaches.

(e) Playgrounds and playfields.

(f) Open space.

(g) Bicycle routes.

(h) Other recreation areas.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Goal H: Parks and Recreation
  • Goal I: Trails
  • Goal J: Wildlife Habitats
  • Goal K: Environmental Resource Conservation
  • Parks and Recreation Map
  • Bicycle and Pedestrian Map

Environment

The open space element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

(a) A comprehensive inventory of open space areas, recreational resources, and designations of access points to open space areas and resources.

(b) An analysis of forecasted needs, policies for managing and protecting open space areas and resources, and implementation strategies to acquire additional open space areas and further establish recreational resources.

(c) Policies and implementation strategies designed to promote a regional system of integrated open space and recreational resources, and a consideration of any existing regional open space plans.

The environmental planning element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

An environmental planning element that contains analyses, policies, and strategies to address anticipated effects, if any, of plan elements on air quality, water quality, and natural resources associated with proposed development under the general plan. The policies and strategies to be developed under this element shall be designed to have community-wide applicability and shall not require the production of an additional environmental impact statement or similar analysis beyond the requirements of state and federal law.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Open space inventory in the associated Oro Valley’s Path Forward Background Report.
  • Goal J: Wildlife Habitats
  • Goal K: Environmental Resource Conservation
  • Goal Q: Water Efficiency
  • Goal R: Water Resource Planning
  • Goal Z: Public Transportation and Traffic Congestion

Climate and Energy

The energy element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

(a) A component that identifies policies that encourage and provide incentives for the efficient use of energy.

(b) An assessment that identifies policies and practices that provide for greater use of renewable energy sources.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Goal L: Dark Skies
  • Goal N: Heat Mitigation
  • Goal O: Recycling
  • Goal P: Utilities

Water Resources and Conservation

The water resource element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

(a) The known legally and physically available surface water, groundwater, and effluent supplies.

(b) The demand for water that will result from future growth projected in the general plan, added to existing uses.

(c) An analysis of how the demand for water that will result from future growth projected in the general plan will be served by the water supplies identified in subdivision (a) of this paragraph or a plan to obtain additional necessary water supplies.

The water resources element of the general plan does not require:

1. New independent hydrogeologic studies.

2. The city or town is to be a water service provider.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Water Resource by Use Chart
  • Goal Q: Water efficiency
  • Goal R: Water Resource Planning

Town Finances

The cost of the development element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A cost of development element that identifies policies and strategies that the municipality will use to require development to pay its fair share toward the cost of additional public service needs generated by new development, with appropriate exceptions when in the public interest. This element shall include:

(a) A component that identifies various mechanisms that are allowed by law and that can be used to fund and finance additional public services necessary to serve the development, including bonding, special taxing districts, development fees, in lieu fees, facility construction, dedications, and service privatization.

(b) A component that identifies policies to ensure that any mechanisms that are adopted by the municipality under this element result in a beneficial use to the development, bear a reasonable relationship to the burden imposed on the municipality to provide additional necessary public services to the development, and otherwise are imposed according to law.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Goal T: Cost of Development

The public buildings, services, and facilities elements are required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A public buildings element showing locations of civic and community centers, public schools, libraries, police and fire stations, and other public buildings. A public services and facilities element showing general plans for police, fire, emergency services, sewage, refuse disposal, drainage, local utilities, rights-of-way, easements, and facilities for them.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Public buildings and facilities Map
  • Goal S: Financial Stability

Transportation

The circulation and transportation elements are required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A circulation element consisting of the general location and extent of existing and proposed freeways, arterial and collector streets, bicycle routes, and any other modes of transportation as may be appropriate, all correlated with the land use element of the plan.

The circulation element provided for in subsection C, paragraph 2 of this section shall also include for cities with a population of fifty thousand persons or more and may include for cities with a population of less than fifty thousand persons recommendations concerning parking facilities, building setback requirements and the delineations of such systems on the land, a system of street naming and house and building numbering and other matters as may be related to the improvement of circulation of traffic. The circulation element may also include:

(a) A transportation element showing a comprehensive transportation system, including locations of rights-of-way, terminals, viaducts, and grade separations. This element of the plan may also include port, harbor, aviation, and related facilities.

(b) A transit element showing a proposed system of rail or transit lines or other mode of transportation as may be appropriate.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Circulation Map
  • Transit Map
  • Goal X: Safe Routes
  • Goal Z: Public Transportation and Traffic Congestion

The bicycle elements are required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A bicycling element consists of proposed bicycle facilities such as bicycle routes, bicycle parking areas, and designated bicycle street crossing areas.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Bicycle and Pedestrian Map.
  • Goal I: Trails
  • Goal X: Safe Routes

Housing

The housing element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A housing element consisting of standards and programs for the elimination of substandard dwelling conditions, for the improvement of housing quality, variety, and affordability, and for the provision of adequate sites for housing. This element shall contain an identification and analysis of existing and forecasted housing needs. This element shall be designed to make equal provision for the housing needs of all segments of the community, regardless of race, color, creed, or economic level.

A component that identifies city programs that promote home ownership, that provide assistance for improving the appearance of neighborhoods, and that promote maintenance of both commercial and residential buildings in neighborhoods.

(b) A component that identifies city programs that provide for the safety and security of neighborhoods.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Housing Data Summary Table
  • Goal AA: Housing Variety
  • Goal BB: Neighborhood Appearance

Land Use

The land use element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

(a) Designates the proposed general distribution and location and extent of such uses of the land for housing, business, industry, agriculture, recreation, education, public buildings and grounds, open space, and other categories of public and private uses of land as may be appropriate to the municipality.

(b) Includes a statement of the standards of population density and building intensity recommended for the various land use categories covered by the plan.

(c) Identifies specific programs and policies that the municipality may use to promote infill or compact form development activity and locations where those development patterns should be encouraged.

(d) Includes consideration of air quality and access to incident solar energy for all general categories of land use.

(e) Includes policies that address maintaining a broad variety of land uses, including the range of uses existing in the municipality when the plan is adopted, readopted, or amended.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Land Use Map and Land Use Designations
  • Goal O: Energy Efficiency
  • Goal P: Utilities
  • Goal AA: Mixed Use
  • Goal EE: Smart growth
  • Goal FF: High-quality design

The conservation, rehabilitation, and redevelopment elements are required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A conservation, rehabilitation, and redevelopment element consisting of plans and programs for:

(a) The elimination of slums and blighted areas.

b) Community redevelopment, including housing sites, business and industrial sites, and public building sites.

(c) Other purposes authorized by law.


This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Goal BB: Neighborhood Appearance


Growth Areas

The growth area element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A growth area element, specifically identifying those areas, if any, that are particularly suitable for planned multimodal transportation and infrastructure expansion and improvements designed to support a planned concentration of a variety of uses, such as residential, office, commercial, tourism, and industrial uses. This element shall include policies and implementation strategies that are designed to:

(a) Make automobile, transit, and other multimodal circulation more efficient, make infrastructure expansion more economical, and provide for a rational pattern of land development.

(b) Conserve significant natural resources and open space areas in the growth area and coordinate their location with similar areas outside the growth area's boundaries.

(c) Promote the public and private construction of timely and financially sound infrastructure expansion through the use of infrastructure funding and financing planning that is coordinated with development activity.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Growth Areas


WEBSITE UNDER CONSTRUCTION
Please come back on September 22 to read and comment on the draft plan.


Growing Smarter Legislation - The State of Arizona has been working for nearly a decade to actively manage growth and preserve open space. Since 1973, most cities, towns, and counties have been required to develop plans for communities looking at issues such as land use, circulation, housing, public services and facilities, and conservation, rehabilitation, and redevelopment. As growth rates significantly increased in the 1990s, a critical mass of political support emerged to provide more tools to assist in responding to the consequences of rapid growth. In 1998, the Arizona Legislature passed the Growing Smarter Act, which clarified and strengthened planning elements in the required plans of municipalities and counties and added four new elements, namely: Open Space, Growth Areas, Environmental Planning, and Cost of Development. In 2000, the Legislature passed Growing Smarter Plus to further enhance land use planning statutes in Arizona.

The purpose of the Growing Smarter Act is to more effectively plan for the impacts of population growth by:

  • Creating a more meaningful and predictable land planning process.
  • Increasing citizen involvement in the land planning process.
  • Directing the acquisition and preservation of additional open space areas.
  • Establishing a process to plan for and analyze future growth.

Ultimately, the goal of the act is for future development in the state to occur in a more rational, efficient, and environmentally sensitive manner that furthers the best interests of the state’s citizens.

A few new components enacted by Growing Smarter/Plus include:

  • Require larger and fast-growing cities to obtain voter approval of their general plans at least once every 10 years and include a water resources element in their plans.
  • Requires mandatory rezoning conformance with general and comprehensive plans.
  • Requires more effective public participation in the planning process. ‘
  • Requires cities and counties to exchange plans, coordinate with regional planning agencies, and encourage comments between entities before adoption to encourage regional coordination.
  • Requires full disclosure to property buyers of the lack of available services and facilities.
  • Requires landowner permission for plan designation and rezoning of private property to open space.
  • Authorizes cities and counties to designate service area limits beyond which services and infrastructure are not provided at public expense.
  • Permits counties to impose development fees consistent with municipal development fee statutes.
  • Allows cities to create incentive districts and plans that could include expedited process incentives.

Please click on the drop-down menu below to learn more about each requirement and the corresponding goals, policies, actions, or exhibits that address them.

Public Safety

The safety element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A safety element for the protection of the community from natural and artificial hazards, including features necessary for such protection as evacuation routes, peak load water supply requirements, minimum road widths according to function, clearances around structures, and geologic hazard mapping in areas of known geologic hazards.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Goal A: Community safety
  • Goal B: Emergency preparedness
  • Goal M: Stormwater Management

Parks, Recreation, and Trails

The recreation element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A recreation element showing a comprehensive system of areas and public sites for recreation, including the following and, if practicable, their locations and proposed development:

(a) Natural reservations.

(b) Parks.

(c) Parkways and scenic drives.

(d) Beaches.

(e) Playgrounds and playfields.

(f) Open space.

(g) Bicycle routes.

(h) Other recreation areas.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Goal H: Parks and Recreation
  • Goal I: Trails
  • Goal J: Wildlife Habitats
  • Goal K: Environmental Resource Conservation
  • Parks and Recreation Map
  • Bicycle and Pedestrian Map

Environment

The open space element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

(a) A comprehensive inventory of open space areas, recreational resources, and designations of access points to open space areas and resources.

(b) An analysis of forecasted needs, policies for managing and protecting open space areas and resources, and implementation strategies to acquire additional open space areas and further establish recreational resources.

(c) Policies and implementation strategies designed to promote a regional system of integrated open space and recreational resources, and a consideration of any existing regional open space plans.

The environmental planning element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

An environmental planning element that contains analyses, policies, and strategies to address anticipated effects, if any, of plan elements on air quality, water quality, and natural resources associated with proposed development under the general plan. The policies and strategies to be developed under this element shall be designed to have community-wide applicability and shall not require the production of an additional environmental impact statement or similar analysis beyond the requirements of state and federal law.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Open space inventory in the associated Oro Valley’s Path Forward Background Report.
  • Goal J: Wildlife Habitats
  • Goal K: Environmental Resource Conservation
  • Goal Q: Water Efficiency
  • Goal R: Water Resource Planning
  • Goal Z: Public Transportation and Traffic Congestion

Climate and Energy

The energy element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

(a) A component that identifies policies that encourage and provide incentives for the efficient use of energy.

(b) An assessment that identifies policies and practices that provide for greater use of renewable energy sources.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Goal L: Dark Skies
  • Goal N: Heat Mitigation
  • Goal O: Recycling
  • Goal P: Utilities

Water Resources and Conservation

The water resource element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

(a) The known legally and physically available surface water, groundwater, and effluent supplies.

(b) The demand for water that will result from future growth projected in the general plan, added to existing uses.

(c) An analysis of how the demand for water that will result from future growth projected in the general plan will be served by the water supplies identified in subdivision (a) of this paragraph or a plan to obtain additional necessary water supplies.

The water resources element of the general plan does not require:

1. New independent hydrogeologic studies.

2. The city or town is to be a water service provider.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Water Resource by Use Chart
  • Goal Q: Water efficiency
  • Goal R: Water Resource Planning

Town Finances

The cost of the development element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A cost of development element that identifies policies and strategies that the municipality will use to require development to pay its fair share toward the cost of additional public service needs generated by new development, with appropriate exceptions when in the public interest. This element shall include:

(a) A component that identifies various mechanisms that are allowed by law and that can be used to fund and finance additional public services necessary to serve the development, including bonding, special taxing districts, development fees, in lieu fees, facility construction, dedications, and service privatization.

(b) A component that identifies policies to ensure that any mechanisms that are adopted by the municipality under this element result in a beneficial use to the development, bear a reasonable relationship to the burden imposed on the municipality to provide additional necessary public services to the development, and otherwise are imposed according to law.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Goal T: Cost of Development

The public buildings, services, and facilities elements are required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A public buildings element showing locations of civic and community centers, public schools, libraries, police and fire stations, and other public buildings. A public services and facilities element showing general plans for police, fire, emergency services, sewage, refuse disposal, drainage, local utilities, rights-of-way, easements, and facilities for them.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Public buildings and facilities Map
  • Goal S: Financial Stability

Transportation

The circulation and transportation elements are required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A circulation element consisting of the general location and extent of existing and proposed freeways, arterial and collector streets, bicycle routes, and any other modes of transportation as may be appropriate, all correlated with the land use element of the plan.

The circulation element provided for in subsection C, paragraph 2 of this section shall also include for cities with a population of fifty thousand persons or more and may include for cities with a population of less than fifty thousand persons recommendations concerning parking facilities, building setback requirements and the delineations of such systems on the land, a system of street naming and house and building numbering and other matters as may be related to the improvement of circulation of traffic. The circulation element may also include:

(a) A transportation element showing a comprehensive transportation system, including locations of rights-of-way, terminals, viaducts, and grade separations. This element of the plan may also include port, harbor, aviation, and related facilities.

(b) A transit element showing a proposed system of rail or transit lines or other mode of transportation as may be appropriate.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Circulation Map
  • Transit Map
  • Goal X: Safe Routes
  • Goal Z: Public Transportation and Traffic Congestion

The bicycle elements are required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A bicycling element consists of proposed bicycle facilities such as bicycle routes, bicycle parking areas, and designated bicycle street crossing areas.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Bicycle and Pedestrian Map.
  • Goal I: Trails
  • Goal X: Safe Routes

Housing

The housing element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A housing element consisting of standards and programs for the elimination of substandard dwelling conditions, for the improvement of housing quality, variety, and affordability, and for the provision of adequate sites for housing. This element shall contain an identification and analysis of existing and forecasted housing needs. This element shall be designed to make equal provision for the housing needs of all segments of the community, regardless of race, color, creed, or economic level.

A component that identifies city programs that promote home ownership, that provide assistance for improving the appearance of neighborhoods, and that promote maintenance of both commercial and residential buildings in neighborhoods.

(b) A component that identifies city programs that provide for the safety and security of neighborhoods.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Housing Data Summary Table
  • Goal AA: Housing Variety
  • Goal BB: Neighborhood Appearance

Land Use

The land use element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

(a) Designates the proposed general distribution and location and extent of such uses of the land for housing, business, industry, agriculture, recreation, education, public buildings and grounds, open space, and other categories of public and private uses of land as may be appropriate to the municipality.

(b) Includes a statement of the standards of population density and building intensity recommended for the various land use categories covered by the plan.

(c) Identifies specific programs and policies that the municipality may use to promote infill or compact form development activity and locations where those development patterns should be encouraged.

(d) Includes consideration of air quality and access to incident solar energy for all general categories of land use.

(e) Includes policies that address maintaining a broad variety of land uses, including the range of uses existing in the municipality when the plan is adopted, readopted, or amended.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Land Use Map and Land Use Designations
  • Goal O: Energy Efficiency
  • Goal P: Utilities
  • Goal AA: Mixed Use
  • Goal EE: Smart growth
  • Goal FF: High-quality design

The conservation, rehabilitation, and redevelopment elements are required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A conservation, rehabilitation, and redevelopment element consisting of plans and programs for:

(a) The elimination of slums and blighted areas.

b) Community redevelopment, including housing sites, business and industrial sites, and public building sites.

(c) Other purposes authorized by law.


This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Goal BB: Neighborhood Appearance


Growth Areas

The growth area element is required for the Town of Oro Valley and must address:

A growth area element, specifically identifying those areas, if any, that are particularly suitable for planned multimodal transportation and infrastructure expansion and improvements designed to support a planned concentration of a variety of uses, such as residential, office, commercial, tourism, and industrial uses. This element shall include policies and implementation strategies that are designed to:

(a) Make automobile, transit, and other multimodal circulation more efficient, make infrastructure expansion more economical, and provide for a rational pattern of land development.

(b) Conserve significant natural resources and open space areas in the growth area and coordinate their location with similar areas outside the growth area's boundaries.

(c) Promote the public and private construction of timely and financially sound infrastructure expansion through the use of infrastructure funding and financing planning that is coordinated with development activity.

This section adheres to these requirements by providing relevant reference materials and by implementing the actions associated with:

  • Growth Areas


Page published: 29 Aug 2025, 02:22 PM