Tempe City Council & Development Review Commission Joint Meeting - Oct. 26, 2026

The Tempe City Council and Development Review Commission joint meeting, titled for Oct. 26, 2026, focused primarily on a draft update to Tempe’s voluntary affordable-housing development bonus program. Staff described a proposal that would allow additional height and residential density, along with parking reductions, in exchange for designated affordable units secured by a 30-year property covenant. Public feedback called for more safeguards and public input, while developers surveyed through the Urban Land Institute questioned whether the incentives outweighed the costs and restrictions. Staff recommended not advancing the program in its current form, and council members expressed consensus with that direction; no formal vote was recorded. Alternatives discussed included expanding existing development-fee reductions, improving the state-mandated commercial adaptive-reuse option, and continuing collaboration with the Tempe Coalition for Affordable Housing. An existing fee-reduction program offers 50% development-fee reductions for qualifying projects in the Apache corridor; no new spending or procurement action was identified.

The meeting also included a video presentation of approved development projects, but that portion of the transcript was too garbled to summarize. Under future meeting topics, commissioners raised the possibility of revisiting use-permit requirements for front-yard parking and concerns about equitable code enforcement. No contract awards, bids, vendor selections, or procurement decisions were discussed.