The Planning and Zoning Board approved the Draft General Plan as recently amended by staff at the direction of the Subcommittee, to include a large proposed Angle Homes subdivision in the northeast corner of the Golden Valley Improvement District that the Supervisors had previously rejected a rezone request for.
But, not so fast, there appear to be multiple violations of Arizona’s Open Meeting Law relating to the Mohave County Planning and Zoning General Plan Subcommittee meeting held on January 15th, 2025, as well as the 2024 Subcommittee meetings. An Open Meeting Law complaint has been filed, which could potentially nullify all Subcommittee actions and force them to start the process over.
A copy of the January 15th Subcommittee agenda had to be requested by after the fact, because it was nowhere to be found on the County website.
The upper right-hand corner of meeting agendas have a section to list the date and time the agenda was posted as well as by whom, but none of the Subcommittee agendas have this section completed. Some previous Subcommittee meetings are also lacking a posted agenda altogether on the County website.
The website page for the General Plan also shows the wrong dates for the Planning and Zoning and Board of Supervisors meeting, and does not list the Jan 15th Subcommittee meeting under "Subcommittee Meeting Schedule".
By law, the specific items discussed on January 15th should have been listed for discussion and action on the agenda, but the agenda did not list the two specific area land use designation proposals that were in fact discussed during the meeting, although "staff" clearly came prepared with talking points and exhibits for their presentations in support of taking action. The agenda stated specifically "Presentation & Discussion Regarding Community Meeting & General Plan Update to discuss goals and policies." and that “This item is for discussion only. No formal action will be taken.” However, substantive changes took place to the draft General Plan before being submitted to the Planning and Zoning Board for a vote at the July 9th meeting, including putting the Angle Homes subdivision back on the Plan with only slight modifications from their previous proposal.
On the Subcommittee meeting YouTube video, a staff member says "We wanted to present this to the subcommittee for any thoughts or conversations on it, if you guys wanted to direct staff to make any changes there. So we'll open that up to for conversation." Members present gave input. Then Development Services Director Scott Holtry says "so, receiving that direction from all three commissioners that are here today I think staff will uh make those changes um in the in the plan and then when the Planning and Zoning Commish, when we bring the entirety of the plan to the Planning and Zoning Commission uh for approval that this portion would be changed from what we were previously showing in the other meeting."
At the July 9th P&Z meeting, the Board was informed that the Subcommittee had violated OML. Cullen Patillo requested an opinion about whether he and other Subcommittee members broke the law. Staff responded with an acknowledgment that there was no "formal vote taken" at any Subcommittee meetings but gave an assurance that "to my knowledge there was no violation of any open meeting laws". Mrs. Keck presented evidence that OML had been violated, and Board Member Rex Ruge requested staff address that evidence and "staff" gave a rambling non-answer about staff recommendations.
This is an ongoing story, and we will keep you updated.