Official Web Site of the City of Phoenix

Deer Valley Airport Overlay (DVAO) District - Section 658

During 2006, the Deer Valley Airport Area, an approximately 7,800 acre area located around the Deer Valley Airport, was studied by a working group consisting of a variety of stakeholders at the request of the city of Phoenix Planning Commission. The identified area is generally bounded by 29th and 31st Avenues on the west, Rose Garden Lane (alignment) to the south, Cave Creek Road, Central Arizona Project Canal, and the 16th Street alignment on the east, and Happy Valley Road on the north. The exact study area boundaries are illustrated in the boundary map (2.2 MB, PDF¹).

The result of this group’s effort is the adopted Deer Valley Airport Area Study Report (1.4 MB, PDF¹), which provides a series of recommendations to ensure the long-term viability of the airport. This viability is important to the community, as the Deer Valley Airport is one of the top General Aviation airports in the country, acting as an important economic engine in the northern portion of the city. As development continues around the airport, protecting both the airport itself from encroachment as well as the protection of residents on the ground is of the utmost importance.

To implement one of the report's recommendations, the Planning Department prepared the Deer Valley Airport Overlay (DVAO), case Z-TA-23-05 (2.4 MB, PDF¹). Within this overlay are land use and other development standards which are built upon the recommendations of the Federal Aviation Administration for community planning in the vicinity of an airport. The purpose of the overlay is to encourage development that is most appropriate near the airport, such as commercial, employment and industrial users. The overlay does not change any property's underlying zoning and will not result in the city buying or condemning properties. The overlay only impacts the specific land uses listed and the height allowed at the runway ends in Area 3 (55 KB, PDF¹).

Additionally, this overlay is NOT related to any expansion of the actual airport; it is a land use regulation and does not effect flight operations in any way. For information on the future planning for the airport itself, please see the Deer Valley Airport Master Plan web page, which has drafts of the master plan and the options for the actual facility in the future.

The text amendment and related zoning map amendment, case Z-138-06 ( 3.3 MB, PDF¹), was adopted on November 29, 2006 as Ordinance G-4867 (142 KB, PDF¹) for the text amendment and Ordinance G-4842 (1.4 MB, PDF¹) for the zoning map amendment. The overlay is now in effect. The required avigation notification forms and instructions (103 KB, PDF¹) are available electronically.

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