Ground crews check an F-35 at Luke Air Force Base in this December 2018 photo. A Pentagon plan to redirect $3.8 billion in fiscal 2020 funds to border wall construction would include funds allocated for two F-35s, two cargo jets, two V-22 Ospreys, money for the National Guard and more. Photo by Nicole Neri | Cronkite News
A California congressman who wanted to know why the U.S. Department of Defense lobbied Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs to veto a bill aimed at spurring “starter home” construction has finally gotten some answers, but he still isn’t satisfied.
“I think we still have a serious issue of why, in the housing crisis, the DOD is objecting,” U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, told the Arizona Mirror. “It is really unfortunate that they chose to weigh in this way.”
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Garcia, a member of the U.S. House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, sent a letter to the DOD earlier this year obtained exclusively by the Mirror asking military leaders a series of questions about their stance on the measure that received bipartisan support.
The vetoed legislation would have overruled local zoning decisions for many Arizona municipalities by barring cities and towns with more than 70,000 residents from regulating the size of lots for single-family homes. It also sought to bar cities and towns from forcing a homeowner into an HOA interfering with the “right to choose the features, amenities, structure, floor plan and interior and exterior design of a home.”
Proponents of the measure said that it would have helped address the skyrocketing prices of homes in the state and the state’s growing affordable housing crisis. But critics, including more than 30 municipalities and the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, said the bill took away fundamental rights of cities to control development.
In her veto, Hobbs cited a letter from the DOD in which it said the U.S. military was concerned about how the measure could lead to developments creeping into areas around military installations, creating a risk of accidents.
In their response to Garcia’s questions, the DOD said it was contacted by the City of Glendale after the bill had already passed both chambers and was headed to the governor’s desk. The DOD said it reached out to the bill’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Leo Biasiucci, but did not receive a response.
“The first time I heard that DOD had a concern regarding the Starter Home Bill was on March 15th,” Biasucci told the Mirror, confirming what the Defense Department had written to Garcia. “We had no idea they had any issues. This bill was made public with a joint press conference in early January, and so I am unsure why it took so long for them to reach out to me with concerns.”
The bill was transmitted to the governor on March 12, and the letter the DOD sent to Hobbs was dated March 14. The Defense Department also said that it became aware of the bill on March 14, when Glendale reached out with concerns.
Glendale is home to Luke Air Force Base and the city’s mayor, Jerry Weiers, is a member of the League of Cities and Towns’ executive committee.
“DOD is correct that I didn’t reach back out to them, because I could not make any changes at that point since the bill was already on the governor’s desk,” Biasucci said. “The concerns from DOD would have been an easy fix and we would have gladly made that fix. But that was not the only issue the Governor’s Office had with the bill.”
The Department of Defense said it could not respond to the Mirror’s questions regarding the letter or answer additional questions.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have anything to offer as we do not comment on correspondence between the DOD and elected officials,” a Pentagon spokesperson told the Mirror.
The City of Glendale did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
The Governor’s Office said the concerns from DOD “was just one example of the potential unintended consequences of the proposed legislation.”
In her veto letter, Hobbs also cited concerns from firefighter organizations saying that the bill could lead to communities being developed that do not take public safety into consideration.
Research by Pew Charitable Trusts found that localities that enacted similar changes saw an increase to their affordable housing stock — and that the reforms did not lead to resident displacement, a concern shared by some critics of the Arizona Starter Homes Act.
“We are also pressing for more investigation into this on our committee,” Garcia said. “How often are federal agencies weighing in on state and housing policy?”
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