A variance in Arizona zoning is granted by:

Zoning is fundamentally a local government function in Arizona, not a state function. The state legislature grants municipalities and counties the authority to enact zoning ordinances, but the state itself does not administer individual variance requests, which are inherently local land-use decisions requiring knowledge of specific neighborhood conditions.

ADRE (Arizona Department of Real Estate) is a state licensing and regulatory agency for real estate professionals and subdivisions. It has no authority over local zoning decisions, variances, or land use planning, which fall entirely within the jurisdiction of local governments and their boards of adjustment.

The governor of Arizona has no role in granting individual zoning variances, which are administrative and quasi-judicial local decisions. Gubernatorial involvement in individual land-use decisions would violate the principle of local control over zoning and would be administratively impractical given the volume of variance requests processed annually across the state.