About - Darin A. Sender

Darin Ann Sender is a zoning attorney and President of Sender Associates, Chartered, a woman-owned law firm founded in 2000. Ms. Sender received her Juris Doctorate degree from DePaul University College of Law in Chicago, which was preceded by a Bachelor of Science in Design of Architecture from Arizona State University. For over twenty years, Ms. Sender has been involved in the development and entitlement fields, first assisting her family’s development company with project management and entitlements, then later as an attorney helping developers obtain zoning entitlements for many diversified projects.  This diversification includes entitlements for multi-family and single family residential, commercial, mixed-use infill and industrial projects.

Her entitlement approval experience includes appearances in front of municipal and county appointed and elected boards, commissions and councils including various City Councils, Boards of Supervisors, Planning Commissions, Boards of Adjustment and appellate hearing bodies. In addition to those oral argument and presentation capabilities, Ms. Sender also has extensive experience in the often-necessary lobbying of elected and appointed officials on behalf of her clients, as well as the public participation process.

Ms. Sender also has many years experience on the other side of the podium serving as a seven year Mayor-appointed member of the Tempe Board of Adjustment hearing many use permit, variance and ordinance text interpretation matters. Ms. Sender then served a five year appointed term on the Tempe Planning Commission which carried the authority to make recommendations to the City Council on many development project entitlement requests.  During this time, she was closely involved in the four year process of rewriting the City of Tempe Zoning and Development Code as a lawyer-member of the Mayor’s citizen committee, then as an instrumental member of the Planning Commission drafting the final Zoning Code. 

Currently, Ms. Sender sits as an appointed member of the City of Phoenix Ahwatukee Village Planning Committee.  Ms. Sender obtained invaluable insight into municipal policy and decision-making processes as a result of her service on these boards. Additionally, Ms. Sender has recently been awarded an RFQ from the City of Maricopa to provide legal advice during their zoning code rewrite process, and has been named Chairman of the Development and Planning Expert Committee for the Discovery Triangle Development Corporation.