Planning commission backs rezoning for self‑storage on Highway 89 after debate over access easement

The Coconino County Planning and Zoning Commission on June 25 voted to recommend that the Board of Supervisors rezone a 1.87‑acre parcel on U.S. Highway 89 from a split AR‑2.5/CG‑10,000 designation to full CG‑10,000 to allow self‑storage development, while adding conditions intended to preserve access for an adjacent residence.

The matter drew extended public comment and commissioner discussion after neighbors and their attorney said a decades‑old informal drive crossing the site gives them a prescriptive easement and that litigation will be filed; the parcel owner and the applicant said a recorded northern easement already exists and that rezoning would resolve long‑standing ambiguities and allow construction of a new legal access meeting county and ADOT standards.

The commission majority concluded the parcel sits inside the Burris Lane rural activity center identified by the Flagstaff Regional Plan and the Doney Park‑Timberline‑Fernwood area plan and found…