TUCSON, Ariz. (KGUN) — Talks of where to put middle housing continue with the City of Tucson and members of the community.
Middle housing are smaller residential buildings such as duplexes, triplexes, fourplexes, cottage courts, and townhomes that are more affordable.
City of Tucson Planning and Development Services held a meeting Wednesday night to go over their proposal they recently released.
Daniel Bursuck, Tucson's Planning and Development Services Department Planning Administrator, says these developments all have to be within a mile of a defined downtown area.
The reason for these changes is because Arizona House Bill (HB) 2721 that passed in May 2024 requires more middle housing to be developed throughout Tucson.
The housing law states this action must be taken by cities with more than 75,000 residents, such as Tucson – which has a population of over 550,000 residents.
After recommendations and feedback from previous meetings, the proposed middle housing area is stretching citywide from Country Club to Silverbell and Silverlake to Wetmore.
“Any singular lot that allows currently for a single family home, so one home, now has to allow for four units," Bursuck said.
The City says over 35,000 new housing units are needed.
As of 2023, only 38 percent of homes were affordable to median-income families in Tucson.
Some community members raised questions about how these developments will impact their land and neighborhood, while others are looking forward to the project.
Jay Tolkoff says he’s all for middle housing and is something that needs to be in every community, but the way it’s being implemented is dangerous.
“I would really like to think that we will take a look at it on an experimental level and then if it works okay lets expand it but to go across a huge swath of the city this way is a mistake," Tolkoff said.
Elliot Welch also attended the meeting and says it’s exciting to see the city apply middle housing to a wide area.
“I think everybody will benefit. I mean more housing. I’m a neighbor for more neighbors right? I want to see more people, the city wants to see more people with opportunities to live in different types of housing," Welch said. "Armory Park, a lot of the images they showed are from Armory Park, diverse housing types. I think it's an awesome neighborhood and I would like to see more neighborhoods like it."
Other community members also mentioned that one parking spot her unit isn't doable, but Bursuck said that code has already been enforced for a couple of years now.
The proposal also states that there will be additional new landscaping standards.
“So that would be trees and shrubs that will now be required that weren’t required previously," Bursuck said.
The City must apply these changes by January 1 2026 to comply with Arizona HB 2721.
The City says if Tucson doesn’t act, the law will apply automatically to allow duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes on all single-family lots, without local input.
There will be another outreach meeting via Zoom August 28 at 6 p.m. and if you can’t make that meeting, you can fill out an online forum that will be open for one week.
"We'll take all of that, we'll revise the proposal. And because we to have this adopted by January 1 2026, we will be bringing it to the planning commission for a study session and after that, we'll have a public hearing with the planning commission," Bursuck said. "They'll make a recommendation to our mayor and council and then our mayor and council will host a public hearing as well for potential adoption."
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