small modular reactors; zoning; co-location

HB2456 - 572R - S Ver

Senate Engrossed
House Bill

small
modular reactors; zoning; co-location

(now: nuclear-ready
communities; comprehensive plans)

State of Arizona

House of Representatives

Fifty-seventh Legislature

Second Regular Session

2026

HOUSE BILL 2456

AN
ACT

amending section 11-804, arizona
revised statutes; amending title 40, chapter 2, article 6.2, Arizona Revised
Statutes, by adding section 40-360.14; amending title 41, chapter 10,
article 1, Arizona Revised Statutes, by adding section 41-1530; relating
to electricity generation.

(TEXT OF BILL BEGINS ON NEXT PAGE)

Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Arizona:

Section 1. Section 11-804, Arizona Revised
Statutes, is amended to read:

START_STATUTE
11-804.

Comprehensive
plan; contents

A. The commission shall formulate and the board of
supervisors shall adopt or readopt a long-term comprehensive plan for the
development of the area of jurisdiction in the manner prescribed by this
article. The comprehensive plan, with the accompanying maps, plats,
charts and descriptive matter, shall show the commission's recommendations for
the development of the area of jurisdiction. The comprehensive plan
shall be made with the general purpose of guiding and accomplishing a
coordinated, adjusted and harmonious development of the area of jurisdiction
pursuant to the present and future needs of the county. The
comprehensive plan shall be developed so as to conserve the natural resources
of the county, to ensure efficient expenditure of public monies and to promote
the health, safety, convenience and general welfare of the public. The
comprehensive plan may include studies and recommendations relative to the
location, character and extent of highways, railroads, bus and other
transportation routes, bicycle facilities, bridges, public buildings, public
services, schools, parks, open space, housing quality, variety and
affordability, parkways, hiking and riding trails, airports, forests, wildlife
areas, dams, projects affecting conservation of natural resources, air quality,
water quality
,

and
floodplain zoning
and electric power production and demand, including small modular
reactors and data centers
. In the preparation of the
comprehensive plan, the commission shall make surveys and studies of the
present conditions and prospective future growth of the area of the
jurisdiction. The comprehensive plan shall be a public record, but
its purpose and effect shall be primarily as an aid to the county planning and
zoning commission and to the board of supervisors in the performance of their
duties. The comprehensive plan shall include provisions that
identify changes or modifications that constitute amendments and major
amendments to the plan.

B. In addition to the other matters that are
required or authorized under this section and this article, for counties with a
population of more than one hundred twenty-five thousand persons, the
comprehensive plan shall include, and for other counties the comprehensive plan
may include:

1. Planning for land use that designates the
proposed general distribution and location and extent of uses of the land for
housing, business, industry,
energy, mining,
agriculture,
recreation, education, public buildings and grounds, open space and other
categories of public and private uses of land appropriate to the county. The
land use plan shall include:

(a) A statement of the standards of population
density and building intensity recommended for the various land use categories
covered by the plan.

(b) Specific programs and policies that the county
may use to promote compact form development activity and locations where those
development patterns should be encouraged.

(c) Consideration of air quality and access to
incident solar energy for all general categories of land use.

(d) Policies that address maintaining a broad
variety of land uses, including the range of uses existing in the county at the
time the plan is adopted, readopted or amended.

(e) Currently identified sources of aggregates from
maps that are available from state agencies, information from the Arizona
geological survey on how to locate existing mines, consideration of existing
mining operations and suitable geologic resources, policies to preserve
currently identified aggregates sufficient for future development and policies
to avoid incompatible land uses, except that this subdivision does not affect
any permitted underground storage facility or limit any person's right to obtain
a permit for an underground storage facility pursuant to title 45, chapter 3.1.

(
f
) Designation
of the proposed general distribution, location and extent of the uses of the
land for the construction and operation of Extra high load factor customers,
including
data centers and data center facilities that
are appropriate to the county.

2. Planning for circulation consisting of the
general location and extent of existing and proposed freeways, arterial and
collector streets, bicycle routes and any other modes of transportation as may
be appropriate, all correlated with the land use plan under paragraph 1 of this
subsection.

3. Planning for water resources that addresses:

(a) The known legally and physically available
surface water, groundwater and effluent supplies.

(b) The demand for water that will result from
future growth projected in the comprehensive plan, added to existing uses.

(c) An analysis of how the demand for water that
will result from future growth projected in the comprehensive plan will be
served by the water supplies identified in subdivision (a) of this paragraph or
a plan to obtain additional necessary water supplies.

4. Planning for energy use that:

(a) Encourages and provides incentives for efficient
use of energy.

(b) Identifies policies and practices
for greater use of renewable energy.

(
b
) Designates
the proposed general distribution, location and extent of the uses of the land
for construction and operation of thermal and nonthermal electric generating
units appropriate to the county, including small modular reactors.

C. In addition to the other matters that are
required or authorized under this section and this article, for counties with a
population of more than two hundred thousand persons, the comprehensive plan
shall include, and for other counties the comprehensive plan may include:

1. Planning for open space acquisition and
preservation. The open space plan shall include:

(a) A comprehensive inventory of open space areas,
recreational resources and designations of access points to open space areas
and resources.

(b) An analysis of forecasted needs, policies for
managing and protecting open space areas and resources and implementation
strategies to acquire additional open space areas and further establish
recreational resources.

(c) Policies and implementation strategies designed
to promote a regional system of integrated open space and recreational
resources and a consideration of any existing regional open space plan.

2. Planning for growth areas, specifically
identifying those areas, if any, that are particularly suitable for planned
multimodal transportation and infrastructure expansion and improvements
designed to support a planned concentration of a variety of uses, such as
residential, office, commercial, tourism and industrial uses. The mixed use
planning shall include policies and implementation strategies that are designed
to:

(a) Make automobile, transit and other multimodal
circulation more efficient, make infrastructure expansion more economical and
provide for a rational pattern of land development.

(b) Conserve significant natural resources and open
areas in the growth area and coordinate their location to similar areas outside
the growth area's boundaries.

(c) Promote the public and private construction of
timely and financially sound infrastructure expansion through the use of
infrastructure funding and financing planning that is coordinated with
development activity.

3. An environmental planning element that contains
analyses, policies and strategies to address anticipated effects, if any, of
plan elements on air quality, water quality and natural resources associated
with proposed development under the comprehensive plan. The policies and
strategies to be developed under this element shall be designed to have
countywide applicability and shall not require the production of an additional
environmental impact statement or similar analysis beyond the requirements of
state and federal law.

4. A cost of development element that identifies
policies and strategies that the county will use to require development to pay
its fair share toward the cost of additional public facility needs generated by
new development, with appropriate exceptions when in the public interest. This
element shall include:

(a) A component that identifies various mechanisms
that are allowed by law and that can be used to fund and finance additional
public services necessary to serve the development, including bonding, special
taxing districts, development fees, in lieu fees and facility construction,
dedications and privatization.

(b) A component that identifies policies to ensure
that any mechanisms that are adopted by the county under this element result in
a beneficial use to the development, bear a reasonable relationship to the
burden imposed on the county to provide additional necessary public facilities
to the development and otherwise are imposed pursuant to law.

D. The water resources element of the comprehensive
plan does not require:

1. New independent hydrogeologic studies.

2. The county to be a water service provider.

E. In applying an open space element or a growth
element of a comprehensive plan, a county shall not designate private or state
land as open space, recreation, conservation or agriculture unless the county
receives the written consent of the landowner or provides an alternative,
economically viable designation in the comprehensive plan or zoning ordinance,
allowing at least one residential dwelling per acre. If the
landowner is the prevailing party in any action brought to enforce this
subsection, a court shall award fees and other expenses to the landowner. Each
county shall incorporate this subsection into its comprehensive plan and
provide a process for a landowner to resolve discrepancies relating to this
subsection.

F. The policies and strategies to be developed under
these elements shall be designed to have regional applicability.

G. For counties with territory in the vicinity of a
military airport or ancillary military facility as defined in section 28-8461,
the commission shall also consider military airport or ancillary military
facility operations and shall identify the boundaries of any high noise or
accident potential zone as defined in section 28-8461 in its
comprehensive plan for purposes of planning land uses in the high noise or
accident potential zone that are compatible with the operation of the military
airport or ancillary military facility pursuant to section 28-8481,
subsection J.

H. For a county that
contains any portion of the influence area of a military installation or range
or Arizona national guard site, the commission shall also consider respective
installation, range or site operations and shall identify the influence area
boundaries in its comprehensive plan for the purposes of planning land uses in
the influence area that are compatible with the operation of the
military
installation
,

or
range or
arizona national guard
site. For
the purposes of this subsection, "influence area" and "military
installation or range or Arizona national guard site" have the same
meanings prescribed in section 11-818.01.
END_STATUTE

Sec. 2. Title 40, chapter 2, article 6.2,
Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 40-360.14, to read:

START_STATUTE
40-360.14.

Nuclear generating unit; nuclear-ready communities; preference;
definition

A.
Notwithstanding
any other law, an applicant for a certificate of environmental compatibility
for a plant that is a nuclear generating unit shall make an effort to
prioritize the siting and development of the nuclear generating unit at a site
that is located in or near a nuclear-ready community. If the application
for a certificate of environmental compatibility is for a site that is not
located in or near a nuclear-ready community, the application shall describe
each nuclear-ready community the applicant considered for siting and
development of the plant and explain why the applicant did not select a site
that is located in or near a nuclear-ready community.� The applicant's
selection of a site for the siting and development of a nuclear generating unit
that is not located in or near a nuclear-ready community does not automatically
disqualify the site for a certificate of environmental compatibility.

B. Notwithstanding section 40-360.06,
when evaluating the suitability of a site for a plant that is a nuclear
generating unit, the committee shall consider, as evidence of the site's
suitability for the plant, the content of all resolutions a nuclear-ready
community has adopted pursuant to section 41-1530 or; if the
nuclear-ready community is an unincorporated census-designated place, the
content of all resolutions the county board of supervisors has adopted on
behalf of a nuclear-ready community pursuant to section 41-1530.

C. For the purposes of this section,
"nuclear-ready community" means a city, town or unincorporated census-designated
place that has been awarded a nuclear-ready community designation by the
arizona commerce authority pursuant to section 41-1530.
END_STATUTE

Sec. 3. Title 41, chapter 10, article 1,
Arizona Revised Statutes, is amended by adding section 41-1530, to read:

START_STATUTE
41-1530.

Nuclear-ready community designation; criteria; application;
process; award; definition

A. T
he
authority, in consultation with the corporation commission, shall develop and
adopt criteria for awarding a nuclear-ready community designation to a
community that demonstrates that the community is willing and ready for the
siting and development of a nuclear generating unit in or near the community.
The criteria to attain a nuclear-ready community designation must include
all of the following:

1. The community holding local public
educational meetings to educate residents and property owners in and around the
community on nuclear energy technologies, the nuclear energy ecosystem and the
role that nuclear energy-related development could play in the community.

2. The availability of one or more
sites in or around the community that may be suitable for the siting and
development of a nuclear generating unit.

3. If the community is a
municipality, the municipality's governing body adopting a resolution that
declares that the community is willing and ready for the siting and development
of a nuclear generating unit in or near the community or; if the community is
an unincorporated census-designated place, the adoption of a resolution
by the board of supervisors of the county where the unincorporated census
designated place is located adopting a resolution that declares that the
community is willing and ready for the siting and development of a nuclear
generating station in or near the community and indicating the board of
supervisor's endorsement of the community's declaration. The resolution adopted
pursuant to this paragraph must include all of the following information:

(
a
) The
community's willingness and readiness to facilitate the application for and
procurement of early site permits, construction permits or combined operating
licenses from the United States nuclear regulatory commission for the siting
and development of a nuclear generating unit in or near the community,
including, if applicable, an identification of the public, regulatory,
permitting or infrastructure support the community is willing and ready to
provide.

(
b
) The
identification, location and previous use of each site in or near the community
that the community believes is suitable for the siting and development of a
nuclear generating unit.

(
c
) A
description of the economic and demographic condition of the community and, if
known, the economic impact that the siting and development of a nuclear
generating unit in or near the community would have on the community, including
all of the following:

(
i
) The number
of jobs that could be created.

(
ii
) The amount
of infrastructure that could be developed.

(
iii
) The
amount of additional capital investment that could be made.

(
iv
) The amount
of additional public revenues that could be collected.

(
d
) A statement
indicating whether the community or the community's residents or property
owners have opposed or rejected any major infrastructure projects or employers
in the last five years that sought to locate or develop in or around the community
and, if any were opposed or rejected, the reasons why the community or the
community's residents or property owners opposed or rejected the project or
employer.

B. The governing body of a
municipality or the county board of supervisors on behalf of an unincorporated
census-designated place may voluntarily apply to the authority for a
nuclear-ready community designation in the form and manner prescribed by the
authority. The authority shall evaluate the application and award the
designation based on the criteria established pursuant to subsection a of this
section.

C. For the purposes of this section,
"community" means a municipality or an unincorporated census
designated area.
END_STATUTE

Sec. 4.
Comprehensive
plans; amendment; counties

Each county that meets the population
threshold prescribed by section 11-804, subsection B, Arizona Revised
Statutes, as amended by this act, shall amend the county's comprehensive plan
pursuant to section 11-805, Arizona Revised Statutes, to comply with the
requirements of section 11-804, Arizona Revised Statutes, as amended by
this act, within four years of the effective date of this act.