Commission recommends zoning overhaul, expands renewable energy rules; forwards proposal to supervisors

The Navajo County Planning and Zoning Commission on June 17 voted unanimously to recommend a comprehensive update to the county zoning ordinance to the Navajo County Board of Supervisors. Planning staff said the update consolidates and clarifies zoning districts, modernizes administrative procedures, and adds a new, combined renewable energy article covering both wind and solar projects.

Planner Cody Cooper, who presented the update, told the commission the rewrite reorganizes the ordinance so users need only consult a single district to find permitted, administrative and special uses, and it moves enforcement, violations and penalties into a single, clearer article. "We've tried to make this as visual as possible for certain elements to be helpful to the commissioners," Cooper said. He said the draft trims roughly 80 pages from the previous 180-page ordinance by simplifying language and using charts.

The draft also adds a renewable energy section that consolidates standards for wind and solar, introduces development agreements as an alternative or supplement to special use permits under Arizona Revised Statutes 11-1101, strengthens the role of responding fire agencies in permit review and construction conditions, codifies road use agreements with pre- and…