Official Web Site of the City of Phoenix

Phoenix General Plan

The Phoenix General Plan is the long-range guide for the city, and addresses issues such as energy, housing, neighborhoods, public facilities, natural resources, transportation and land use. Arizona State Statutes require that this plan be updated and/or readopted every ten years by a public vote. The current General Plan was last presented to the voters in 2002, making 2012 the deadline for the current update. The update process will be broken into two phases - Part I is visioning, and Part II is drafting the goals, policies and implementation actions.

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Phoenix General Plan 2002

The current City of Phoenix General Plan was adopted by City Council Resolution on December 5, 2001 in accord with action taken at its final public hearing on November 7, 2001.

In 1998, the State legislature adopted Growing Smarter legislation, and in 2000, Growing Smarter Plus legislation. These laws required the City to update its general plan elements including adding an infill program to the Land Use Element and to add five new elements: Growth Area, Open Space, Environmental Planning, Cost of Development and Water Resources.

The entire document, including the General Plan Map had to be adopted by the Council by December 31, 2001. Therefore, to be in compliance with the law, the Planning Commission held hearings on the General Plan in May, June, July and September in order that the Council could adopt a General Plan in November.

The elements are formatted with goals, policies and recommendations. They reflect what we would like to achieve over many years. Actual achievement may not be totally possible and will be dependent on community priorities, funding availability and market conditions. The General Plan is based on adopted city policy including the urban village model, the area plans for our growth areas, the Sonoran Desert Preserve, Transit 2000, and all of the other ongoing city policies and programs. It is a comprehensive document that pulls together in one place the work of the various city boards, commissions and departments. The Plan is also based on a scientific sample attitude survey conducted in January 2000 of over 2,000 residents equally distributed in each Council district. Questions in the survey addressed aspects of all 16 elements and were developed by the interdepartmental teams and our survey research consultant.

Amendments to the General Plan may be initiated by a village planning committee, two members of the Planning Commission, by a member of the City Council or by the owner(s) of a property in cases of a land use map change. Privately filed amendments require a fee. On an annual fall cycle, staff reviews the General Plan and will request the Planning Commission to initiate updates to the Land Uses Map and Street Classification Map for consistency with development that may have occurred, but did not required a General Plan amendment.

Last modified on 10/12/2009 14:58:30