KINGMAN — The Mohave County Planning and Zoning Committee voted on June 11 to postpone approval of Mohave County’s General Plan until next month. The decision was made following nearly 90 minutes of heated discussion and public comment by residents and developers, but also included two unanticipated additions proposed by a county supervisor.
Mohave County Planner Matthew Gunderson presented the General Plan to the committee, emphasizing its new approach to Special Area Plans. Special Area Plans focus on specific areas, such as Beaver Dam and Fort Mohave, but the General Plan would replace these separate plans with one plan for the whole county.
The most controversial element of the plan, however, related to the zoning of Golden Valley. Dozens of residents protested peacefully outside the Mohave County Administration building prior to the meeting, arguing that the county was ignoring the community’s concerns.
Many residents of Golden Valley spoke at the meeting, many of whom wore yellow shirts in solidarity. Several told the commission during its meeting that they want the plan to better reflect their wishes to preserve their peace and quality of life.
“We don’t want a city. We want our rural area,” Angelica Speakman said. “We like our animals. We love our families to have the land to roam. We love the mountains. You put a city in here and we won’t have that.”
Some 26 residents that signed up to speak ceded their time to Danielle Ohle-Keck, a resident that told the committee she represented more than 400 Golden Valley residents. She outlined a 10-point petition of concern and consideration honoring what she called community values, and laid out concerns one at a time.
“The group of residents I’m representing do not have a no-growth mindset, but a mindset to preserve what we love about Golden Valley while allowing for respectful and responsible growth,” Ohle-Keck told the committee.
Residents’ zoning concerns included the need to protect Agriculture-Residential zoning, eliminating urban and high-density housing, preventing high-water consumption development, limiting commercial zoning to Highway 68, and requiring impact studies for any large developments. Ohle-Keck also mentioned the need to preserve dark skies and prevent light pollution, as well as prioritizing support for locally-owned businesses.
Another major concern raised was the presence of a wastewater treatment plant that presently exists in close proximity to residences with no buffer zone and which is alleged to be in poor condition. The residents get by just fine with septic, Ohle-Keck argued, and do not need or want a sewage system in Golden Valley.
The biggest complaint, however, seemed to involve the Dorado housing development, which is now being managed by Angle Homes, a local developer. Residents told the committee that this development was removed from the General Plan completely based on feedback received at a Golden Valley Review Committee Workshop meeting, but was later added back into the plan without their knowledge.
Mohave County Planner Gunderson then explained that the development was added back into the General Plan following changes that the developer made which staff believed were reasonable. Medium-density zoning was removed from the development’s zoning, for example, and all of the lots on the outer perimeter of the development were also changed to one acre or greater.
Still, residents stated that they felt blindsided by the change and stressed that Golden Valley’s representation in this process has been lacking. A representative from each district is supposed to represent the interests of residents, Ohle-Keck argued, but this is no longer happening. The representative for Golden Valley never attended any local community meetings, she said, resulting in greater disappointment and disconnect between Mohave County planners and the residents of Golden Valley.
One resident objected to these criticisms and offered a different take. He asserted that Golden Valley has 28.4 million acre-feet of water according to the U.S. Geological Survey, which is enough water for 500,000 dwelling units. He also showed a zoning map from the 1990s showing that high-density zoning already existed in Golden Valley.
Developers expressing support for the general plan included John Gall, Travin Pennington and Angle Homes President Tyler Angle. The latter said growth and housing units are both necessary and inevitable.
Angle responded to many of these criticisms and explained why he believed that his proposed development is reasonable. He said that the General Plan already places guardrails on people like him to build within certain restrictions. He pointed to a study commissioned by Mohave County in 2023 which found that tens of thousands of homes are needed countywide.
“We’re needing tens of thousands of houses in unincorporated Mohave County in the next 20 years, and they need to go somewhere,” Angle said. “And that somewhere is told to us by this proposed plan.”
After initially being denied, Angle Homes was told by the Board of Supervisors in 2023 that if they wished to be approved, they would have to participate in the General Plan approval process. For the last 18 months, Angle said, that is what they have done.
Planner Matthew Gunderson said the area plan components associated with the general plan 10 years ago are removed to simplify and streamline the 2025 document. He said the update reflects today’s concerns about water conservation and responsible renewable energy generation.
Mohave County staff held meetings all over the county before presenting the General Plan, including Yucca, Beaver Dam, Fort Mohave, and Wickieup. However, near the end of the discussion, Supervisor Rich Lettman proposed adding two additional key changes to the General Plan.
In the first amendment, Lettman proposed reevaluating the zoning of the Pravada housing development in southeast Golden Valley, near Oatman Highway, which was zoned for high-density housing in 2007. The lease agreement with the county is 700 pages long, Lettman said, but he intends to propose discussing this development at the next Board of Supervisors meeting and urged the committee to hold off on approving the General Plan until options for rezoning this area could be explored.
The second amendment Lettmen wished to make to the plan involved creating a new special area in north Mohave County. The proposed South St. George Special Planning Area would allow for development of the area just south of St. George, Utah, along the Arizona-Utah border.
He displayed maps showing three large subdivision developments in southern Utah that end at the north Mohave County and Arizona border. Lettman suggested that economic development activity and opportunity should be welcomed into Mohave County.
He proposed designating some 20,000 acres of state and federally controlled property along the border as a Special Planning Area for future development. Lettman apologized to the commission for offering a new wrinkle to the plan at the 11th hour.
After discussion concluded, the committee voted to postpone the approval of the General Plan until its next meeting in July.
Dave Hawkins and Alan Hayman contributed to this report.
