Local governments keep making moves to approve housing affordability.

In Tucson, the City Council is moving this week on multiple fronts to approve measures to improve affordable housing stock.

In Marana, the Town Council is set Tuesday to change its land development code to allow for duplexes and townhouses throughout the town.

The council will vote on these changes during their Tuesday meeting.

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The move would require amending the land development code to allow single-family homes that share a common wall but are built on separate lots. If approved, these homes would be allowed within land zoned for “Village Commercial” and “Neighborhood Commercial.”

These projects could be built without a minimum lot size.

Building attached projects, as opposed to single-family homes, can be done more cheaply, which means that that savings can – maybe – be passed onto the buyers.

The council will also vote on the town’s final $473.7 million budget for fiscal year 2024-25.

Employees would receive as much as a 4 percent pay increase and add 31.5 full-time equivalents to the staff. FTE’s are positions budgeted in chunks of 40 payable work hours. Town budget peeps would refer to a 20-hour-a-week position as 0.5 FTE’s.

Crunching comp time

The Oro Valley Town Council is also likely to approve its final budget of $151.1 million.

The only change from the tentative budget is an extra $89,295 for a shade structure at the Steam Pump Ranch Farmer’s Market. The money appears to come out of the capital contingency fund, which will be reduced by the same amount.

Changes to budget policy are also on tap for a vote and they seem very much of the clerical variety.

The Government Finance Officers Association has come out with new “best practices” and Oro Valley’s number-crunchers want them incorporated to the town’s policy.

One provision kind of says it all: “Changed the Community Center Fund balance classification from ‘Committed’ to ‘Assigned’.”

Changes are also coming to the town’s personnel policy.

Employees would be free to turn some of their banked comp time into overtime pay. The policy now requires workers using compensatory time to only take the time and not the money.

Under the new policy, some employees will be able to build up to 80 hours of comp time but will only be allowed to cash out 40 hours in overtime pay during a given year.

When malls ruled retail

The Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District Board of Directors will vote on its 2024-25 budget.

The budget projects to raise $15.3 million in sales tax revenue generated by a special taxing district running from Downtown along East Broadway to Park Place Mall, gobbling up El Con Center along the way. This is a relic of the days of yore when shopping malls ruled retail sales.

The board will vote on a new slate of officers.

The current team is finishing up six-month introductory terms, after Gov. Katie  Hobbs appointed new board members last fall.

Fletcher McCusker has served as chairman for going on 400 years now.

OK. It’s just been since 2012, when the Legislature seized control of Tucson’s Downtown redevelopment efforts. McCusker has done well in getting deals done to help transform Tucson’s historic urban core.

A chair, vice chair, secretary and treasurer are up for a vote.

The South Tucson City Council will also vote on it’s budget for next fiscal year.

The council is working for a $7.4 million baseline budget from last year but has been mulling a bond for public safety and a home rule exemption from state spending limits.