County zoning board to add one more member
 
By JIM SECKLER
Mohave Daily News
 
KINGMAN — With five county supervisors being elected in 2012, the Mohave County Planning and Zoning Commission will increase to 10 members instead of nine.

Mohave County is in the process of expanding the supervisor districts from three to five districts and redraw the boundaries lines to match population growth in time for the 2012 elections. According to the 2010 census, the county now has more than 200,100 people.

Currently, the commission is made up of nine commissioners with the three county supervisors appointing three members from each supervisor district. With three supervisors, the state law calls for only one member from each district to be from an incorporated area and two members to be from an unincorporated area.

With a five-member board of supervisors, there will be 10 commissioners with each supervisor appointing two members to the commission. One member from each district may be from an incorporated area and one member may be from an unincorporated area. Members could come from areas of the county currently not represented like the Arizona Strip, Wikieup or Peach Springs. Unlike county supervisors, planning and zoning commissioners are not paid except for travel costs and lunch during the commission meeting.

The commission is now made up of Jack Pozenel, Peter Kaleta and Rick Sherwood of District 1, which includes Kingman. Members of District 2, which comprises of Fort Mohave, Mohave Valley and Golden Valley, include Joseph Morabito, Kristal Gibson and Mehdi Azarmi. Commissioners Carl Flusche and Sue Donahue are from District 3, which includes Lake Havasu City.

According to incompatible issues, planning and zoning commissioners cannot also be on the board of supervisors, who are paid a salary. A commissioner running for supervisor would likely have to step down from the commission, Civil Mohave County Attorney Bill Ekstrom said.

The redistricting project held the first three public meetings held last week in Bullhead City, Kingman and Lake Havasu City with about 30 people showing up at each meeting. Meetings will also be held Monday in Beaver Dam and Tuesday at Mohave Community College’s North campus in Colorado City.

District maps will be drawn up in June from the input from the public meetings. A second round of public meetings will be held in July. Map options will be presented to the county supervisors in August for approval. The plans will then be submitted to the federal Department of Justice in September. The project is required to be completed by Dec. 1.
 
MohaveDailyNews.com
Originally published Wednesday, May 18, 2011
 
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