Land reverts to old zoning

Owner unable to come up with development plan

The Yuma County Board of Supervisors on Monday voted to have the zoning for five properties near Wellton revert to its former status, after one of the owners was unable to come up with a plan with the other four to develop them.

The 13.6 acres at the northwest corner of Old Highway 80 and Avenue 37E was rezoned in 2004 from Rural Area-40 acre minimum to Suburban Site Built-2 acre minimum.

But to have that zoning be recorded and vested, the owner was required to build a chip-sealed road to provide access to the houses and meet other stipulations.

That “schedule for development” expired in 2009. The five lots were eventually sold to new owners who weren’t informed about that issue until going into the county’s Department of Developmental Services to try to start building their homes.

The vote to change the zoning back to Rural Area40 acre minimum means that the lots are too small to conform with the minimum size required by their zoning, creating a different roadblock to the houses getting built.

The board vote was delayed from a June meeting after the owner of one of the affected lot properties said he would try to get the others on board with a new plan, but said in an email to the county last month he “has no basis” for contesting the change.

County planner Javier Barraza said notices sent to

the owner of two of the parcels, which was the original developer, came back as undeliverable, and there was no response to the other two.

District 2 Supervisor Russell McCloud asked if there is any way to bring the five properties in for a rezoning, saying that a future Board of Supervisors lineup could decide to stick some of the owners with the cost of building the entire road.

“I would prefer we take care of this today while this board knows what’s going on, so all five property owners are treated fairly,” he said.

Planning Director Maggie Castro said the county could not do that without getting permission from the other owners, and the most it can do is send something out to all of them outlining the options for getting their land into zoning compliance.

This is one of 34 cases brought to the board this year, in response to a similar one in April 2017 in which some buyers who wanted to build on their land could not, unless they had the means to build a gravel road in front of all five lots.

Safeguards were adopted by the county in 2006 so this situation would no longer come up, but the board wanted to address those which were still outstanding in the county.

In other action Monday, the board approved:

• Two budget amendments for the county’s housing department, including one for a $250,000 U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development for installing security cameras, LED lighting and other safety equipment to the three county-owned apartment complexes.

• A transfer of $110,000 from the county’s flood control district contingency fund to fund a drainage project on North Frontage Road from Fortuna Road to Foothills Boulevard.

• A $143,021.66 contract with Westerner Products of Yuma for a covered employee parking project at the Public Works complex.

• A contract with Electronic Security Concepts for $243,000 to replace fire alarms at the Justice Center.

• A $152,300 contract with Advanced Mechanical Services of Tucson to replace the chiller for the air conditioning system at the juvenile detention center.

• The purchase of a used Caterpillar asphalt paver for $175,447.27 from Empire Southwest LLC of Yuma.

Yuma Sun staff writer Blake Herzog can be reached at (928) 539-6856 or bherzog@yumasun.com.