City Council - Regular Meeting

will be led by Councilman Soler and pledged by Councilman Peck.

Our Father, who art in heaven, we ask thee to bless this meeting and dial us with thy spirit. May all our actions and decisions be guided by thy hand, that we may be fair and just to all. Bless the council, our police, fire, emergency medical, military, and city employees, and all of our citizens. We ask that in thy name. Amen. Amen.

Amen.

Roll call.

Mayor Wilson.

Here.

Vice Mayor Schroeder.

Present.

Council Member Cross.

Here.

Council Member Heck.

Here.

Council Member Johnson.

Here.

Council Member Nesser. Present. Council Member Seller.

Here.

You have a quorum, Your Honor.

Thank you. Consent agenda. As a reminder, all items under consent agenda will be approved with one motion. If a council member wishes to remove an item for further discussion, the request will be made prior to approving improving consent agenda and will be moved to new business. Do I have a motion for the consent agenda?

Mayor?

Yes. I move that the consent agenda be accepted as presented.

Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Council Member Nesser? Yes. Council Member Johnson?

Yes.

Council Member Cross?

Yes.

Council Member Heck?

Yes.

Council Member Soller? Yes. Vice Mayor Schroeder?

Yes.

Mayor Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously.

presentations, an awards presentation proclamation.

Matt. Thank you, Mayor and Council Members. We have Arizona Water Company here with us tonight to provide a presentation about their upcoming rate case. We'll invite Fred up to take the presentation or whoever else is coming up. Come on up. Go ahead and introduce yourself and I'll pull the presentation up.

Good evening, Mayor Wilson and Vice Mayor Schroeder and counselors. My name is Nick Liu. I'm the Vice President of Rates and Revenues for Arizona Water Company. On behalf of the Arizona Water Company, I'm here today to provide you an update of our recently filed rate case. With me today is the company's President, Fred Schneider, and a few other members of our executive team and our local Apache Junction Division leadership as well. So before getting to the details of the pending rate case I want to talk to you about today, I would like to provide some background on the company, our Apache Junction water system, and the general rate case process in front of the Arizona Corporation Commission. So Arizona Water Company, or AWC, just celebrated its 70th anniversary last year. And our Apache Junction water systems have been serving the communities for more than 60 years since 1962. Our Apache Junction water system currently has approximately about 23,000 customer connections, of which about 8,000 are within the city limit, and serving about 25,000 Apache Junction residents. Our current water rates in the Apache Junction area were made effective on July 1st of 2024. The rates were authorized by the Arizona Corporation Commission, or the ACC, based on historic data from 2022. Under the ACC regulation, our rates are used to recover utility plan or our general infrastructure investment already placing service at the time when the rates were approved, and it does not fund any new constructions. That's why we're here today to give you the foundation of why we need to file the rate case and why we need to increase the rates. So I also want to talk about just generally the rate case process in front of the Arizona Corporation Commission because it's a little bit different from how the rates is being set, for instance, like the Apache Junction Water District. So once the rate application is filed with the ACC, it will be reviewed by the ACC staff of accounting, engineering, and legal professionals. IN ADDITION, THERE'S ANOTHER STATE AGENCY CALLED THE RESIDENTIAL UTILITY CONSUMER OFFICE, RUCO, THAT ALSO INVOLVED IN THE RATE CASE AS AN INTERVENER. SO THE RUCO WAS JUST A LITTLE BIT OF INTRODUCTION ON RUCO. SO RUCO WAS EDABLISHED BY THE ARIZONA LEGISLATURE BACK IN 1983 TO REPRESENT THE INTEREST OF RESIDENTIAL UTILITY RATE PAYERS IN FRONT OF THE ACC FOR ANY RATE-RELATED PROCEEDINGS INVOLVING UTILITIES. SO BOTH THE ACC STAFF and the RUCO, they will review our rate application. And at the end of their review, they will issue their respective recommendations of our rate case in the format of written testimony and verbal testimony. As part of the rate case process, the ACC will also be hosting some public comment sessions for customers or any interested parties to provide their inputs or opinions on the rate case. So currently, those dates are still being set by the administrative law judge assigned to the case. So once those dates are set, we will send customer notices to our customers to informing them about those upcoming public meeting dates. So I also put together a rate case timeline to better illustrate the process. So the ACC sets rates, like I mentioned earlier, based on historic data or what they call the historic test year. So in this case, we're using the data from 2025. We filed the case with the ACC on April 3rd of 2026, so a little over two months ago. And that started the year-long process with the ACC. So currently, we're in the discovery period, as you can see in the purple boxes here. So this is the period that will last probably through the end of this year. And this is where, you know, the commission staff and the RUCO, they will ask us a lot of questions, data requests, and we'll provide responses, you know, through a large volume of operational data, accounting details, invoices, engineering reports to support our rate applications. So after the review and the ACC staff and the RUCA will complete their review process and issue their respective recommendation probably towards the end of this year. And once that's done, we'll get into a hearing. The hearing will be conducted in front of the administrative law judge I mentioned earlier that's being assigned to the case. And the hearing is probably expected to start in the first quarter of 2027. So once the hearing is down, then Mr. Law Judge will actually issue, you know, her recommended opinion order to the commission to consider. So basically, even though we filed the rate case now, the rates would not be effective. The new rates would not be effective until it's been finally approved by the commission, and that's going to be expected in the second quarter of 2027, a year from now. So one of the things I really want to talk about today is, you know, really the factors that are causing the rate increase or, you know, the question why do we need to file this rate case in front of the commission. So as I said earlier, the current rates were based on 2022 costs. And it's currently not adequate enough for Arizona Water to recover its costs to serve the customers in today's cost environment. We have made substantial capital investments since 2022, including replacing aging infrastructure, constructing additional treatment facilities, and implementing a new customer information system. And those investments were not reflecting our current rates as of today. Similar to other water providers in this state, including the Apache Junction Water District, Arizona Water has also experienced increases in operating costs including insurance, labor, vehicle, electric bills, and chemical expenses. So this rate case will help us to align our rates with those capital investments I mentioned together with the increased operating costs. So I do want to talk about what does that mean to our customers. So currently, for what we call typical residential customers, a customer using a 5-inch meter, with a median monthly usage of 3,000 gallons. Currently, the customer pays about $41.32. With our proposed rates, the same customer with the same usage will end up with a bill of $51.30. It's a less than $10 increase. But we do understand the increase of increases. And, you know, we do want to help customers in need. Currently, we do have a customer bill assistance program that basically provides a $10 monthly discount to qualified customers based on low income or active military members. So what we're trying to do in this rate case, like I said, we want to help customers see needs. We requested the commission to allow us to continue this program and also to increase the bill discount with their approval. And one of the things I also want to highlight is, like I said, we made a very significant capital investment over the past few years. And I do want to invite our division leadership to come here to talk to you about some of the projects we've done over the past few years.

Mayor Wilson, council members. James Wilson, the assistant general manager for the Apache Junction system. And I just wanted to highlight a couple of projects that we've constructed either within the city of Apache Junction or that directly affect the customers here. So I kind of wanted to start off with our new warehouse and equipment storage canopy, 6,000 square foot. Part of having these facilities, we kind of had equipment and materials stored at multiple sites across the city. Having this new facility really helps us increase our operational efficiency and response times when there's an emergency main break or something like that. Along with that, there's a total of 15 wells and well pumps and booster pumps that we've had to replace, again, just to maintain our system reliability. And then we've also got a tank maintenance program, kind of does the same thing. Keeping our tanks maintained basically reduces the need to perform emergency repairs or reduces that cost. A couple sites here I kind of want to point out. That picture in the upper left corner is a temporary tank that the company purchased. This is at our baseline site, just north of baseline off of east of Ironwood. It's a single tank site, that large reservoir there on the bottom photo. But purchasing and constructing this temporary tank allows us to take that large tank offline, do the necessary maintenance, and then we can repurpose that tank. It's a bolted tank. We can move it to our other sites and already have plans to go to our OASIS site next, which is the other main facility that provides water to Apache Junction. And then last but not least, there's various main replacements that we've done throughout Apache Junction and the Gold Canyon area. But I wanted to focus on a couple that you guys are probably most familiar with. The photo on the left is the main break that you and I sat on out here in front of the town hall here about a year ago. And then the photo on the bottom right is the Delaware drainage and road improvement project that you guys did that we had to relocate a couple of our mains to accommodate. And that's pretty much it for my part. Do you have any questions? Thank you.

No questions?

Yeah. Oh, okay.

Do you have plans to improve? Any of your underground and service supplies for the rural parts of Apache Junction?

Yes, we do have a SID program whereby we go through every year and replace mains in different parts of our system. Right now we're kind of focusing... mostly on some galvanized steel mains that are up in the sort of northeast part of our system. I think it's just outside the city, but it all works together. And do you have plans to put any fire hydrants in? um we do um if if we have a request or if we see a need in that area um and the system will support it so like in this case we're going from um two inch mains to six inch mains so yeah we are looking at uh putting a hydrant the one i'm thinking of right now is on hildago is what we've been looking at and we would be putting a hydrant in there hildago is not in the city a little too far north yeah i mean like there's

There's a lot of areas in the rural part, in our horse community, that do not have fire hydrants reasonably spaced. It would be nice to get some. Whenever we make an improvement, we do look at that, adding fire hydrants.

Thank you.

Thank you.

So this is my last slide. So some of the investments I mentioned, those infrastructure within the community, But we are also trying to, you know, improve our, you know, customer service to our customers. So that's why we have, you know, invested in this new customer information system. It actually went live, you know, a little over two months ago. It was April 6th of this year. So this is a system that was used to replace our previous customer system that has been purchased by the company back in the late 1980s. So we have been using the old system for quite some time. And this new system is used to really to keep pace with the growing customer needs and their evolving needs as well. Because, you know, nowadays customers are expecting something that's a little bit different from what's in the past. They want more things to be done, you know, kind of a self-service, you know, online. So that's what this new service will provide. But we're also trying to balance You know, this and our traditional values of serving our customers in the communities. So when not, you know, probably one of the very few utilities that's doing Arizona maintains customer walk-in centers in all of the community we serve. We still have our customer service centers here in Patch Junction where a customer can walk in and talk to our customer service representatives, pay a bill. or get question and answers. So that's kind of our approach. We want to, you know, we want to improve our customer's experience while maintaining the experience or, you know, the service they love. Because we do have a lot of customers who still prefer to walk in and just, you know, to have that in-person experience. So that concludes my presentation. And I'm available to...

Could you flip back to your timeline of the process for me real quick? Yes. Near the front. So you had talked about that there would be the customers would get a notification for public hearings. That's right. Where in this time frame would I be seeing those? The customer notice? The one where they could, you said they would have some public meeting. Oh, yes. Where would those be on here?

So there will be a few dates. So there will be some dates around here in 2026. So because those dates hasn't been set by the AOJs, I cannot give you the exact date. What I'm trying to find out is, are they going to be before the final review?

For sure.

So there will be several before the final review. There will be one actually before the hearing starts. So probably, like I said, towards the end of this year in 2026. And also at the beginning of the hearing, the administrative law judge will also have another session to do public comments. And then when the commission finally get to vote on the final result of the Ray case in second quarter of 2027, they will have another chance for public to make comments. And also, this year, it depends on what the administrative law judge will decide. Sometimes they have one or multiple, depends on the number of customers who are covering. So just to make sure, you know, all the customers will be able to, you know, to find the time to make the comments. They will try to do one in the morning just for the general public and then for people who have to work during the day so they normally have another session in the evening. So that's up to the judge to decide. Thank you.

Yeah. I have one question too. Okay. You have a six-inch line, and this might be more for you, a six-inch line that runs up just east of Winchester up north to basically the city line, but you can't hook a fire hydrant up to it because it's too small of a line from what I understand. Do you have any plans of ever updating that pipe to a 12-inch pipe?

Outside of our micro-sip projects, we're looking at aging infrastructure and replacing that. It's usually, it's predominantly driven by development. So if the development were to come in there that needed a higher flow rate, it would be responsible for making whatever upgrades were necessary to meet that fire flow requirement.

Okay. We just want fire items out there because if we do have fires out there, a tanker truck runs out of water really quick. Thank you.

Any other questions?

Thank you. Thank you.

Matt, do you have anything else? Not about this, no. Okay. Regional intergovernment meetings and updates from the council. Anyone have anything they want to present? Okay, I'm going to do a quick little things in the aspect. I had attended two meetings today and the first one is a superstition regional public land managers group and we had the Arizona Department of Forestry give a presentation to us. And they mainly were emphasizing the fact of how some of the cities, to include Apache Junction, have been called Tree City and what it takes to become a tree city. And Apache Junction has been classified as a tree city for a few years now. And then we had the A presentation that was given by Liz as well is the Dark Sky Initiative that we have here in Apache Junction and what they did and how they were able to acquire the dark sky classification for it. The National Forest from Tonno, they had talked through in the aspects of the OHV permits that they're requiring now for some of the areas that you're in. And they went into effect in January of 2025. And how the funds from that have really helped them out in bringing on more staff to help in the aspects of doing some of the work. There was a huge cutback on employees. And they lost a lot of people because of the cutbacks. And they were able to replace. several of them, and been able to move forward in doing that. State historic preservation, they went through and talked through some of the things and aspects of what's going on. And when you find an artifact and everything, Of course, I have to raise my hand that I did pick up one that was illegally, and I kept it for a while and then brought it back to the area and redisposed of it in the same area. And it's something that they're trying to make people aware of the programs and to make sure that we're properly preserving history. And then the final one on that one was the American 250 celebration for Pinal County. If you go on Pinal County's website and would type in the 250 and the aspect on it, it will come out and it will list over the entire county of what the areas are having event in the dates that they're having it and everything so It's something that they're using that to help I'll say publicize everything and of course we have ours and here in Apache Junction as well and you can go to our website and get that as well. But Pinell County has got one as well. And if you want to do a little traveling in Pinell County, there's a lot of places that are having the celebrations. Then this morning, early this morning, I was at the Mesa Gateway board meeting. And to make a long story short, we had a short meeting. And where we ended up electing the new positions in the board. And guess what? I am now the secretary of the board. So as long as they don't ask me to take notes, that's fine. Okay. Bring everyone up to date what's going on around us. City manager's report. Matt.

Thank you, Mayor and City Council. Just a couple items I want to note tonight. One, you'll see noted here, this is just a screen grab from a website. Just yesterday, Fitch Ratings posted our annual affirmation of our bond rating. They affirmed that the city of Apache Junction has a AA credit rating with a stable outlook for the future. So this is great news. It's one of the highest ratings available to municipalities. In their report, Fitch cited our strong financial position, ample reserves, stable revenue base, and continued population growth as our great strength. They also noted strong debt service coverage and expect the city to maintain solid operating performance moving forward. So why does this really matter to residents? Strong credit rating for us means that when we do, if we ever take out debt for city infrastructure or buildings, we get better interest rates on that debt. So it shows that we can pay off our debts if and when we choose to use that method of financing. As you recall, the first time we got this rating was for our pension obligation bond, which we are still paying off. And so each year, we're required by Fitch to re-up this. They work with staff, ask for a lot of information, a lot of questions. And we send that all back, and they make this determination. So we're very excited that we got this affirmation again from Fitch Ratings. Next, you all should have gotten an invitation to this yesterday from our library. Our great library is coming up on 40 years at their Idaho location. They are calling it our, let's see, where's the name of it on there, our big 4-0 on Idaho. And so this is an exciting opportunity to celebrate this great asset. We all know and love our library and their staff. They do a great job. And so I know it's a little early, but I wanted to get this out in the public mind. and save the dates so they can join us to celebrate this great accomplishment. And we'll, of course, do more reminders as we get closer to that date. And then related to America 250, Mayor, as you mentioned, I wanted to share this. We just got these. We did several of these America 250 flags in our downtown road streetlights. You'll see the American flag ones up for this time of year, Memorial Day on July 4th, but we also added some American 250 signs just to to add to that celebration this year. And as the mayor said, if you just type in Apache Junction, America 250, it'll show up on Google or whatever your search engine is and take you right to our site to show you what activities are going on. So with that, that concludes my report.

Thank you. Public hearings. Presentation, discussion, and public hearing in consideration of ordinance number 1576. Hudson.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, City Council. My name is Hudson Meyer. I am an associate planner with the Development Services Department, and I'll be presenting the facts for case P-26-6-PZ, which is a proposed rezoning of approximately one and a quarter gross acres located at 275 South Cactus Road, rezoning from RS-10M to RS-GR. This property is currently zoned RS-10M, medium density, single family, detached residential. To the north, there are three RS-10M properties. Same thing to the south. To the east, there is Weaver's Needle RV Resort, zoned RVP, recreational vehicle park. And to the west, there are more RS-10M single family homes, as well as RS-GR properties. This is a site plan of the property currently. The only change on here that will require any permitting is the shipping container proposed in the southeast corner of the property. The applicant has complied with all public notification requirements, including a signposting, mail notification, and newspaper ad. A neighborhood meeting for the case was held at the Apache Junction Multigeneration Center on Thursday, January 29th, 2026. Ten neighbors attended in total to discuss the proposed rezoning and how the neighborhood nature of the property would change under the new zoning. Staff has received comment via email from five residents in total, three in support and two opposed to the rezoning. Two members of the public appeared at the Planning and Zoning Commission public hearing and spoke in support of the proposal. And additionally, staff has received a follow-up from one of the objectors, noting that their concerns were addressed by the Planning and Zoning Commission and they no longer object to this rezoning. Staff recommends the approval of P-26-6-PZ, finding that the proposed rezoning brings the zoning of the property more in line with that of similar parcels in the area. On May 12, 2026, the Planning and Zoning Commission evaluated the proposal and voted 6-0 to forward P-26-6-PZ to the Apache Junction City Council with a recommendation of approval subject to the conditions found in the staff report. As city council work session on June 1st, 2026, the council reviewed the case information and held discussion on the nature of the property's use, as well as the public's concern about potential commercial activity at the property, in addition to the potential re-inclusion of the previously removed condition of approval too. And now the applicant, Kimberly Bergman, is going to come up and speak.

Hello, Mayor Wilson, Vice Mayor Schroeder, other council members, city employees. And I basically went through, I do appreciate your time and consideration for this. So I've had a lot of time for preparation for all of this. As Hudson indicated, I've done the letters, the notes, the maps, and everything. But I do want to clarify some things as far as the whole project rezoning, because there's misinformation or misunderstanding, I'm not sure. This complaint that we received, there was one complaint, one only. It was about the Connix container. I'm not quite sure where it veered off the track so much onto a business-related issue, but it has. The CONIX container, this was going back to 8-5-24, just to clarify, because there was some question the last time I was here when this started. It actually started two weeks after we moved on to the property. We had met all the neighbors, essentially, and we didn't seem to have any issues with anybody, really. But then my husband went on vacation, and I went back home, and there was a letter in the mailbox. So that's kind of where we started. When initially the first and only complaint came in from the I don't know how to address the plaintiffs, I guess. I'm not sure. Kimberly Wilson was my point of contact in code compliance, and she was very helpful. She did, at that time, tell me that they questioned if we were running a business. I'm not sure why they would have thought that. We were moving in on the property. There was nothing really going on other than moving in. But she actually had them, or they had her verify where our business address is, where our license is, where Bond is, everything. We live at 1860 North Thunderbird Drive. That's where all of our business-related things are. However, there are a few things that have been stored on the property that are business-related somewhat, partly because there's shade there for my husband to work in if he has to, you know, his tools or whatever. And also that it's funny you mentioned the tree thing because the piece of property that we live on, we're very fortunate. There's probably, I don't know, 60 to 75 trees on the property that we live on off a teepee. And so, and rather than rip out all the trees, we put a shade structure in the conics container over at Cactus. So when initially this whole thing went down, we immediately called Planning and Zoning and met with one of the, I don't know which the term is, but we met with Nick Leftwich. And so it was determined that our best route would be to have it rezoned. And we fit all the parameters together. And so we kind of started on that process and kind of went from there. He did at that time tell us that we were maxed out on the property as far as putting anything else on it, and even the smallest shed, never mind a garage or anything. So the rezoning was the only way to go. So when I went through the meeting, you know, kind of like person by person, so I'm kind of looking around, but I know that I've made a list of some things that people had specific questions on. It's been sort of... I'm not quite sure. I mean, I guess everybody's perception of things is different. But there seems to be some misinformation about there's trucks coming and going all the time and the forklift is running all the time. That's actually just not true. So if you are sensitive to noise, then that may be any truck that drives onto the property. has been a problem, to be honest with you. I mean, we drive three of the five vehicles that my family drive are all diesel. So anytime we pull onto that property, they think it's noisy. And we're just driving in, like, on a regular day to see our kids, our grandkids, pick up something at the house, drop something off, or whatever it is. 12-24 was the last time that we had any material dropped off. And that was basically for a weather or a shade-related thing. We don't have any place to store things that aren't covered where we live. On cactus, we built a small shade structure. Everything is underneath the shade structure. It is out of sight 99% of the time, actually. The material that's used is actually in a pallet. It's a four by four pallet. We are not talking about sheets of drywall. We're not talking about pallets of drywall mud or whatever. It's a pallet. It's four by four. It is not flammable. And then the containers are metal. So as far as a fire hazard, it's minimal at best. The material that we use is not sold to anyone else. My husband is a drywall contractor. He leaves the house to go to work just like all of you do. He drives someplace, works, and then goes home. It's simple as that. There's nothing sold there, made there, bought there, none of it. So I'm not quite sure why they... I guess just when we moved in, I mean, it was kind of noisy. It was. There was... We were moving in the kids and everything. And so I knew that from the previous owners had kind of intimated to us that there was some issues with them about a side-by-side noise thing that they were. So we kind of figured maybe that might be an issue. I didn't think it would be two weeks after we moved in. I've never met these people until the neighborhood meeting. So if they would have come over to us, all the other neighbors that many of whom have spoken on our behalf have not indicated that there's been any problem. We're not running a business. We have business things. We have a business. I'm the majority owner of Drywall Texture Specialists Incorporated. My husband is the other owner. There are one other employee occasionally. There are not employees all over the place. So do we have friends that are in the trades? Absolutely. Do they come to our property? Absolutely. So it's up to interpretation for somebody else who's not in the trades or doesn't know anything about building. You're in a pair of jeans and a safety shirt. Does that mean you're working? I see people at the ranch market and safety shirts that are older. They're clearly not in the trades, still wearing safety shirts. So as far as the fire department, they did not support or deny it. And so I actually went back through the notes, and I also spoke to several people, and the buildings are metal. And the materials that are stored inside of there, we have some Christmas decorations, some tools, some business records. That's it. I mean, there's really nothing else there. So the drywall material is not flammable, by the way. Let's see. All righty. And you are indeed correct. I heard you mention about a fire hydrant. There is not a fire hydrant. However, there are two hoses that are relatively close to the existing conics container and the house, they would have no problem getting onto the property. There's the easement. It's never been an issue about the easement being public, ever have we discussed that, not being public. But the fire hydrant, we don't have. However, within my own personal, my family's personal experience, we did have a fire hydrant at the previous residence we had in Ahwatukee, right across the street. And when our house caught fire at 3 o'clock in the morning, then we discovered the fire hydrant didn't work. And we stood in the street and watched our house burn to the ground, along with our neighbor's house. And the caveat to it is, if it's another one in close proximity, a fire is a crazy thing. You can think it's going to be, but all you can do is try with the hoses and hope for the best. Okay, so Vice Mayor Schroeder, I'm sorry if I addressed you guys incorrectly, by the way. I've never done this before. We are definitely maxed out at the square footage on this lot for RSM 10. That was confirmed with planning and zoning before we even started this. This is what started it, actually. We don't have a garage on the property. We have a small workshop. I don't know if any of you have driven by the property or have seen it, but there is a small workshop. The previous owner was a woodworker, and he had all his tools in there. There's another shed, but there is no existing garage on this property, so if we wanted to park a car, we can't do it. We cannot, unless we take the patio covers front and back off of the house and take the sheds out, then we could build a garage. Well, this time of year, those patio covers are pretty important because it was 111 degrees when I walked in here. We have made, you had indicated, asked if we had done any improvements. We have done no improvements on the property whatsoever outside of doing the conics container and the shade structure, which we will, provided that we get the zoning, we will permit those through the city. The public actually, outside of a few people, have been very supportive about this. We know most of the neighbors around us. They've been very friendly, very supportive. If they had any questions, they came over. There was one complaint that I find somewhat, I don't want to say problematic, but concerning, because it was entered into the public record. And I would like to clarify for the public record, as far as Mr. Harshman's letter, which I know he's now rescinded. I understand that. But it's been introduced to the public record, so I'd like to correct it. When we first moved into the property, Weaver's Needle behind us, we had our fence, the fence between us blow down. So I went over there, spoke with Angie, gave her my phone number. We've had a really good relationship since then. I've been over there a couple of other times just talking about the fence or whatever. We repaired it because it was a holiday weekend, of course. And at that time, I gave her my phone number. I said, if you have any problems, you know, the fence is down or whatever, just call me, you know. call me. So in two years, I have never heard from her ever, not once, neither has my daughter or her partner, about complaints. So I'm not sure who Mr. Harshman is speaking to about complaints, but when I spoke to Angie, she has never spoken to Mr. Harshman about complaints. There have been no complaints through Weaver's Needle. So I don't know who is complaining to him and what avenue he was going to go with that. That was kind of a mystery to me, but no complaints from Weaver's Needle. Also, this was a little bit problematic. I'm not sure who, he lives three-tenths of a mile from us. His space 98 does not back up to us. He lives all the way around the front of the park. Well, it's not quite the front of the park, but it's towards the front of the park. So I'm not sure how or why he thought there was noise or dust or any of those things because he doesn't live near us. Additionally, when he sent the letter at the last, I don't know, it was an hour or so before the meeting, that included the pictures. So we have a six-foot fence that divides Weaver's Needle and our property. The pads behind us on Weaver's Needle are very small. There's very rarely anybody on them because the pads are too small for somebody. to be at. So there's been a couple people camping back there. However, that is not Mr. Harshman's space. His space is 98. So he did not ask for permission to go on the rest of the property. He also, this fence is six feet tall. I don't know how tall he is, but my husband is 6'2". And he would have to stand on his tiptoes to stand over the fence. There's a privacy screen. So he stood at the fence. and took pictures. Coincidentally, the one day Eric was there, and I had called the city and said, hey, Eric's going to be there just to let you know. So he stood on a box, a chair, a ladder or something, and took a picture over into the fence into our private property from his not private property, and took the picture, sent him into you. And I don't know what part of that is illegal or unethical or whatever, but I do know that it was very problematic for us because a grown man taking pictures into somebody's backyard with two minor children in it when, quite frankly, none of this concerned him, he could have gone over to the easement, which is public property, and stood in the easement, took the picture, but that's not what he did. So I just want to clarify that had he come over and spoken to us, we would have been glad to answer any of his questions. I had no idea who he was. And I don't know why he rescinded the letter, but I'm very glad he did. But I do think it's sort of a little. He didn't represent himself to be with the city, but I do think according to the code conduct for Board of Adjustments, it's a little bit of a conflict of interest, I guess. I don't know. It just seemed really odd. But at the very least, it was problematic for us because we have two small children in the backyard and a grown man taking pictures into it. Ms. Nesser, you had asked about, there's got to be, you said something as to the fact, maybe there's more to this about us wanting to rezone. It was really a simple thing, like Hudson has said repeatedly. It was a simple thing. We were trying to share a piece of property with our kids. I don't know how old any of your kids or grandkids are, but it's pretty tough for a younger person to afford a house. And so we chipped in as a family. and worked all together to make sure that that could happen for our kids and our grandkids. That was as simple as it was. That's it. Like I said, we have lots of trees on our property, which we didn't really want to tear out, so we built a straight stage structure. It doesn't block anybody's view, by the way. We were very careful about that. It's at the back of the property. So as it stands, was really that simple. We can't use it for anything else at this point. And I don't even know if we can actually sell it because of that on top of the fact that we were just informed fairly recently that it's now in a flood zone. We asked that question before we bought the property, but we weren't told that. So between this and the, it's definitely a little bit of a quandary. So the city attorney actually, he actually talked about diminished value. I don't know if that speaks to this, but we can't even put a larger home on this property at this point. So there's two toddlers, well, not two toddlers, one toddler and an almost six-year-old, and then my daughter and her partner. So there's three bedrooms. So if anybody wanted to have any more children or a guest room, we can't do that because we can't put a bigger house on the property. So it definitely is a little bit problematic. I guess the house is about 1,100 square feet, which isn't a gigantic house, but it's not small either. Mayor Wilson. Commercial activity is not occurring. I don't know how to make that clear. My husband gets up at 4 o'clock in the morning. gets in a truck and drives away. That's it. He's not driving away from this property, although he has been to this property. We've housed that and things like that, but not on a regular basis. Anytime we drive on the property with a diesel or any vehicle, we are surveilled across the street. There are five different cameras on the property. We did put some things on the property to block that due to the fact that we have two minor children. It's a little bit... Uncomfortable, we'll say, to have somebody videotaping you every time you go in or out of your property. That's just me. I realize privacy is a rarity in this age, but this is a little bit Bambi. We are not selling anything. We are not selling anything. We are not buying anything. We are, it's a four by four pallet, basically, that, you know, there's nothing to sell. My husband goes in and sprays drywall on walls. That's all, you know, so it's not something he does on site. The footprint is maxed out. I think I've gone over that already. So if I'm skipping around a little bit, you kind of, it was, I did watch this meeting several times. And most surrounding homes do already have a garage, either on larger parcels or smaller parcels. So the other parcels that have already been divided up, I guess they're all a third of an acre. I don't see. Mr. Heck. Just to clarify for you, and I stated all of this in the narratives, and I realize everybody's really busy and there's so much going on that it's hard to remember all the details. However, my father is not old pops. He doesn't have anything to do with this property. Did he help us acquire the property? Absolutely. He is not a part of the business in any way, shape, or form. He is not part of the property in any way, shape, or form. He's 86 years old. He is not driving the... forklift around anymore. I don't think that would be a good idea. So anyway, the forklift, when it has been used, five minutes, it's the same decibel as a lawn leaf blower or a lawn mower. It runs for five minutes when it runs, which is rare light, to be honest with you. I think that's pretty much it. I think I've kind of just covered everything. I did, like I say, the one day that Eric was over there working on something, I called Hudson and said he'd be there for an hour or two hours, whatever it was, in the shade. That, coincidentally, was the day that Mr. Hirschman decided to take the pictures. The one day there was something sitting out. And we're just terrified, to be honest with you, to make noise or just live normal lives. because we don't want to disrupt these people anymore. We like to live and let live. I mean, it's just as simple as that. There was nothing more to this than just that. So I don't know if you have any other questions for me. I don't know if you want to see a picture of what it looks like. I have a picture that I could provide, but outside of, it's just a basic house with a conics container. There isn't stuff everywhere. It's sort of been portrayed in the documentation that other people have sent in. Anyone got any questions? This is what we're talking about.

Go ahead. I'd like to see that. And where at does this other gentleman live that's looking over your wall? In the RV park to the east? Can we go back a couple photos and bring up the picture of the lot? Right there. He lives in by Weaver's Needle.

He lives in Weaver's Needle in space 98. So in Weaver's Needle, there's like a drainage ditch that goes through it and a dog park. He lives on the other side of that.

He lives up in the northern area.

Yes, you are right. He lives in the northeastern. And he lives in between two other... I went over and spoke to Angie, and I asked for permission. And I wanted to make sure. I thought it was odd that somebody would take pictures when Eric was literally in the backyard. And so I thought it was curious. I thought, if you lived right behind us or whatever, it's still not noisy. We're still not doing business. But somebody who lives completely someplace else, I thought was kind of interesting. And also, I don't have any idea. I did my best and did all the documentation when I was supposed to do it. Everything was turned in in a timely fashion. And it was a little bit of a, to have a letter like that dropped an hour before the meeting, I thought, you know, I had to adhere to a time frame that would have been kind of nice to know that that was happening. But I was honest with the city when Eric was working over there. It wasn't like, you know, it was a surprise. The letter was a surprise, but.

question.

I do, yes.

Yeah. I did drive by the property earlier, so I have, I think, a pretty good sense of it. So you, in all the narrative for this, indicated that there are benefits to rezoning from RSM 10 to RSGR. Is one of those that it will allow you to remain and have that container, that cargo container?

We could build a garage. I mean, it's not... Pardon? We could build a garage instead of having a... That is not a conics container. Honestly, when we looked at the property, and before we bought this property, we had looked at other properties, and several of which he had looked at said no conics containers. So I really honestly didn't know. I that we weren't supposed to have one until I got the letter. But we need to have something on the property in order to park a car, those types of things. That piece of property, if you look at it, is huge. And there's hardly anything on it. So we don't want to use the whole piece of property. We just want to put something at the back of the property that's a garage you can put a car in or something like that. That's all we ever need. intended it for.

So you're saying that making it the RSGR, you could keep the cargo container and then build a garage?

Well, one or the other. We wouldn't do both, I don't believe. Right, okay. So, no. We just want to be able to have some place to put stuff. You know, I mean, you can't get a car into the, even a small, tiny car, you would, do you want to say something? You look like, Ms. Nesser, you look like you're going to say something.

Okay. Yes.

So, in your basically your introductory letter, I think what's caused a lot of this confusion is right in your second paragraph at the end, you say the storage container to store our business material. And that throws up the red flag. So I understand from your conversation tonight that some of that business material is records, right?

Or tools or things that you have in your garage.

Exactly. I mean, at any given point in time, I may have a couple pieces of pipe on my property that may or may not get used for a job. And so I get that. I mean, if the perception was that you're having, like, lifts of drywall, you know, full sheets of drywall delivered to your property, offloaded from a semi, delivered to the back of the property and stored.

And if that's not the case... My husband's been a drywall contractor for 40 years. My husband and I have been together for 40 years. At no time has my husband ever hung drywall. The only thing he's done is spray it. We've never had sheets of drywall anywhere. That is...

So based on the pictures that I saw, it looks like it's dry powder mix.

That's correct.

And, I mean, I don't know if that's specifically an issue for a pallet of drywall powder mix to be stored at your facility or at your property, or if there's another place that you could store it to alleviate the issues.

Well, yes, but the problem that was underneath, the one day it was out when Mr. Harshman took the picture, when Eric was over there working on something, it's always covered up or away. We don't buy... I mean, there's not pallets and pallets stacked up on the side of the conics container. We're talking one or two pallets. That's it. And most of the time, they're in the back of a pickup truck. They're not sitting out visible to the community or anything like that. So I don't know if that... Yeah.

I mean, the company truck I drive is full of material.

Exactly. Anybody who's in the trades, your truck is never empty. The backseat's got stuff in it. The floor's got stuff in it. I mean, that's just kind of the way it is, but... There's never been a time outside of the one picture that Mr. Hirschman took that there was material. It was literally. And Eric didn't want to turn the forklift on because he didn't want to make the noise. Because any time we make noise, the neighbors come out of the house to address us or address each other, I should say, not us.

regarding the comments made by Superstition Fire Medical District needing a fire hydrant. You know, you talk about spigots. That's just a garden hose hookup. It's not for fighting fires. Yeah, you could put a small grass fire out or if you're Johnny on the spot. I'm not concerned about that. The accesses to the property made clear that there's plenty of access for

Fire fighting equipment even the back part of the property while there's not a gate It's the there's never anybody there's two or three campers And that's it because those pads are too small so the fire department can access it from the front the side and the back well Kind of what concerns me You know they're sitting there saying they would prefer to have a fire hydrant close by and There's not but then

Number eight, substitution fire department and medical cannot enforce fire codes on residential properties. So adding additional buildings on the residential property is not ideal for fire suppression activities with a limited water supply in the area. But the very first part of that sentence, they cannot enforce fire codes on residential properties. So why were they even consulted?

They have to be, they all are, every department goes through, every department.

Just that statement alone. Yeah. Why were they even consulted if they don't have enforcement authority?

Councilman Cross, Sydney Rice, Development Services, Deputy Director. Great question, Councilman Cross. When Development Services receives an application, We route it to all applicable agencies and departments for review. They provided that comment. And so because they provided that comment, we have to note it in the official record.

It would be nice if that was comment number one and zero comments afterwards. Anyways, thank you for your explanations. Appreciate it.

You're welcome. Anyone else?

Thank you for your time. I appreciate it.

I will now open a public hearing. There's a five-minute time limit with a one-minute warning indicated by a yellow light. Please state your name and address for the record. Anyone like to speak on this?

My father's Paul J. Abrahamson, and I'm Paul W. I'm his son. He owns 303 South Cactus Road right across the street and next to the complainants, 1226 East 4th Avenue and 1250 East 4th Avenue. In fact, we were one of the first trailers there on that open parcel when it first got split up. So dad's been there since the beginning. We're in favor of the zoning change. We don't see any problems with it. To us, I'm a contractor, too. I have paint in my truck. I drop my rigs off of the truck, the sprayers. I clean them on the property. I put them back on the truck.

I have a diesel. It makes noise.

I mean, FedEx makes noise. Amazon makes noise. They have the electric cars, but they still make noise making deliveries. Apparently, if they deliver next door to their neighbors, it's too much noise. I really don't understand it. But I've been here for just as long as I'm his son. And I've never met him personally, because they're not that sociable. The only one I know is Sparky. They're the brother of one of the ladies. And he's renting the trailer they have on the property, the little travel trailer. And he's constantly complaining that in the heat of the summer, he can't go into the air conditioning. But he keeps the oil in the enders really tall so he can shade his trailer at the same time. Now after we've been in favor of this, we've been flipped off. We've had stuff spoken to us in disrespect. We had a key that they used to be able to use to trim their oleanders that they use for privacy. So being good neighbors and appreciating good people, we are now probably going to be in front of you guys for zoning violations of some sort. I've been accused of not being on the property when I am. I mean, we've both been on the property. The noise isn't there. I'm not sure. I mean, I get woken up at 530 in the morning when the guy on Cactus Road starts his Harley, warms it up, and tries to limp it down the block to be respectful, but it's loud. I mean, it's just what happens. I mean, it happens for 10, 15 minutes, and life goes on. I mean, if all you do is going to live in a trailer and pick apart for 15 minutes what somebody does with their own property three or four times a week, I mean, what type of life do they have? I mean, it's making us miserable and making Bergman's miserable. And it's actually nice to have a neighbor that actually talks to us. So I mean, I have a whole thing here that I could read off. But basically, we're under constant surveillance. They've got cameras everywhere. They've had fights with all the neighbors. They've driven people out of the neighborhood. The ones next to us, they've had three dogs removed from constant complaints with the cops showing up at 2 o'clock in the morning asking my father to sit there and add complaints in at the last minute, just like they probably had that guy taking pictures over the fence the moment Eric comes onto the property with his pickup truck. Wow, it's awfully nice to have that last second picture come in. They always ask my father to try to do the same thing. It's just the way they are, because they can't sit there and just go and talk to somebody if they have an issue. We need more people to just talk. That's what neighbors are about. We shouldn't be here arguing about stuff like this. I understand two cargo containers might be an issue. But if you go up on the junction less than a half a block from where we are, there's two 40-foot Connex containers sitting on a lot with no houses. So if they're going to have two 20-footers that are desert color, that blend in, that store and are clean. The property is clean. And they're trying to be respectful to the rules and the laws that we have. It's better than somebody that's over here complaining about everything, that's got a travel trailer, that's got a guy paying rent. It's hiding from everybody. And then they're breaking the rules. Used to be a thing where you don't throw stones if you live in a glass house. Well, we've actually been very nice and not said a thing all these But it's getting to the point where it's miserable when we have to sit here and try to defend good people because two people that decide that the only good part of their life is making other people miserable is the point of their existence. So we are in favor of having the zoning changed. We don't see anything. We've been both there when the delivery came in. They drop off one pallet and it goes out that day because they missed it. just like dad's FedEx deliveries comes with stuff that he does prospecting with, that we go out into the desert and dig and have fun. So, I mean, I don't understand.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

One of the things that I notice is sort of like the, uh, Hatfield's and McCoy's situation with the cameras and the bright lights that I brought up before is when you've got a bitchy neighbor who chooses to turn you in at every corner. I mean, shit, I haven't even turned my neighbors in for poison in three of my trees because they shaded her orange tree. The thing is this. I know that the city is the homeowners association when you don't have a homeowners association. But they don't show up unless they get a call from somebody who's complaining. And usually it's somebody that they just don't get along with. But back in the day, I was a tree trimmer. I owned my own business. And when I backed my truck into the yard and I had buckboards on the side and it was full of palm leaves, nobody complained. When the cops bring home their cars... And they can bring their gun home, bring it into their house. Nobody complains. But if someone has drywall products, I mean, come on. You're going a little bit overboard about listening to bitchy people bitch and give people a break. You know, some people actually are trying to work for a living and not sit there and mooch off the system. Thank you.

Andre Meek, 1327 South Berlera Road here in A.J.

Mr. Mayor, Council.

I think that these people need to be given a break. You know, how many ADUs could they throw on there without your control? And, you know, really get the neighbors riled up. I think the zoning would be great. They You know, one thing that always sticks on my craw here, Connex. You know, you can throw some siding on a Connex, you don't even know it's a Connex. So, you know, we need to really revisit that whole premise of what a Connex is. It's a storage unit, whether it's a shed or whatever. Now, I think the zoning would be the right thing to do for these people. You know, they want to expand their house. They want to put up a garage. You know, a garage goes up, and the nasty-ass connex goes away. So another thing is noise. Isn't it like 85 decibels at a certain amount of feet is a noise violation? And these people are complaining about a truck. It's like a pickup or something like that. And when they call in and complain over and over, why aren't they tagged as a nuisance for complaining about something that isn't a complaint? It isn't right. And there's so many things here. I've dealt with zoning. I've had zoning tag me when I moved in. here to A.J. You know, because I rented a Connex while I was moving and put it in my driveway so I could store some stuff. After I got broken into in the middle of my move, they broke into my house or in my garage and stole a bunch of stuff. So I figured, okay, well, I'm going to drop a secure Connex in the driveway, and as I'm moving, because it took me over a year to move, I can safely store stuff under lock and key that they're not going to get into. City got me for that because I needed a permit to put it in there. So, you know, it was a rental. But also I've gotten tagged because people complain. And, you know, the complaints were easily remedied by me. But the thing is, it's like somebody complains and, you know, zoning or whoever, like, jumps on them. Okay, starts... Why is it that, you know, you can drive down the street, and I could pick out 30 violations of the code in my neighborhood, but nobody gets tagged for it until one person complains, and then all of a sudden it's an issue. You know, there's something wrong with the system here, you know, as far as this. Now, these people, you know, beyond just complaining, they're being harassed. you know, noise-wise, camera-wise, stuff about popping over the fence, taking pictures of all that, you know. That could be, and especially if there's kids there and all that, whoa, you know, there's, you know, grounds for let's talk to this man. What's he up to? So, you know, I'm all for letting these people live their life in peace without being bugged by everyone. And if that's a zoning change, great. If he can resolve it without the zoning change, save them money. But they've gone this far. Let them finish. Thank you.

Mayor Wilson, City Council. I'm the much maligned Mr. Harshman. And I was not going to speak tonight because basically at the Planning and Zoning Commission hearing that was held for this particular thing, I thought that all the issues were addressed very well. I thought the chairman of the committee and the vice chairman of the committee addressed my issues. Hudson and the folks here addressed these issues. And I was satisfied that This is, if there's a problem with noise or with the things, it's a code enforcement thing. This zoning change is a zoning change. It's two different issues. And I kind of convoluted them together a little bit, I know. But partly, I kind of objected to this, basically, to begin with, because I know that the city refused or denied a zoning change for one of the RM10 lots. or the two RM-10 lots that are across the way that Weaver's Needle had, where they wanted to continue to use that property as it had been used for years and years and years. And the city said no. And if we're going to maintain the neighborhood, I thought originally, I just thought, well, we want to be consistent. And so this zoning change shouldn't go through. But I've been convinced that the zoning change is OK. I am not the person who has cameras on them. I'm not the person who's calling the city on them. I do not know what all their issues are with all their neighbors. I only started down this path because I thought the city should be consistent in how we address the zoning changes on Cactus. And again, like I said, by watching the zoning hearing and seeing that and having all these issues laid out there, I thought it was a result. I'm happy with their zoning change. I'm not real happy with having more containers out there, but that's just me. They'll be fine, I'm sure. But I just wanted to stand up and let you guys know I'm not a pedophile. I did not stand on some kind of goddamn box.

Mr. Harshman, please talk into the mic.

I did not stand on a box. I just walked up to the fence and took pictures of the property the way it was that day. That's all I did. And anyway, I thank you for your indulgence, and I'm sorry if I caused these people undue stress. I was just trying to see that we were consistent in our zoning application. Thank you.

Hello. Oh, sorry. Hi, I'm Hannah Bergman. I actually live at 275 South Cactus, the property that's in question. I just wanted to speak a little bit to my personal experience. Like has been mentioned, there are about five cameras pointed directly at our property, which I definitely feel like is an intrusion. Monitoring our comings and goings from our place, that's not OK. Sorry. The main reason that we wanted to rezone was to be able to add more structures to the property, whether it's... Sorry. The only property... The only storage units that we have are really small, so in the future, if we want to be able to build anything, the rezoning was the was the path that we were recommended to go. So we were just wanting the option to be able to do that in the future for our family because myself, my partner, and our two boys live there. So do you have any questions? Okay, thank you.

Well, I don't see any more movement, so I will now close the public hearing and ask for a motion.

Your Honor.

Yes.

I move that Ordinance Number 1576 be read by title only and the reading of the entire ordinance be waived.

Second. Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Council Member Heck.

Yes.

Councilmember cross yes vice mayor Schroeder. Yes councilmember Nesser. Yes councilmember Johnson Yes, councilmember solar yes, and mayor Wilson. Yes motion passes unanimously I Ordinance number 1576, an ordinance of the Mayor and City Council of the City of Apache Junction, Arizona, amending the Apache Junction, Arizona zoning ordinance by amending the zoning district map, City of Apache Junction, Arizona, changing the zoning district classification for the property described in rezoning case P-26-6-PZ A request by Kimberly Bergman from medium-density single-family detached residential RS-10M to general rural low-density single-family detached residential RS-GR, repealing any conflicting provisions and providing for severability.

Do I have a second motion to adopt ordinance 1576?

I move that ordinance number 1576 as read by the city clerk be approved and adopted second moved and seconded roll call Councilmember Saller.

Yeah councilmember Johnson. Yes vice mayor Schroeder. Yes councilmember Nusser. Yes councilmember cross Yes councilmember heck yes mayor Wilson unanimous yes Motion passes unanimously in favor of ordinance number 1576.

Thank you. Okay. Now we'll go on to the public hearing. I'd like to remind everyone the public hearing is a courtesy and not required by law. It's a time for the public to express requests, communication, comments, and suggestions. Requests to speak forms must have been completed and handed to the city clerk before the end of the city manager's report. All issues shall be presented in a professional manner without personal attacks. Under the open meeting law, counsel cannot engage in a discussion on the issues presented, but may respond to criticism, may direct staff to follow up with the speaker directly, or place this matter on future agenda for a council discussion. There's a three-minute time limit and a 30-second warning light. Yellow will come on. And I have.

Your Honor.

Yes.

I'd just like to make a clarification on the record that this is for the call to public, not public hearing.

Did I say public hearing? It's a call to the public. I thought I said, okay. I'm sorry.

Thank you.

Van Brasshaw.

My name is Pam Bradshaw. I live at 3405 South Tomahawk Road. Good to see you, Chip, and Vice Chair, and you council members. In regards to a steel building at 2341 North Apache Trail, it's yet to be built. That would only have bathroom facilities that meant to be a venue to bring many new people out to AJ for weddings, for corporate meetings, and for holiday events, if not other little meeting things. Why would a builder have to have a fire hydrant put at a facility? I was told that this needed to be done. at a facility where there won't be any stoves, there's no fire going to go on, hazardous equipment's not going to be in the building. We in AJ need a venue like this. keeping helping with previous event attendees to come back and maybe visit some of our other businesses that they've seen on the way out to something that they have attended at this building. It would have the Old West ambiance that y'all want to have. It's not going to be something that's stark with just a window and a door. It's going to be a nice venue. I'm asking that you please stop throwing roadblocks at Mo and let him build this venue. He's already talked to you about the noise that might happen. He's going to make sure that doesn't happen. This would give AJ tax dollars. Am I correct there, that we're going to get tax dollars from this venue? It doesn't obstruct the view for anyone to see the mountain. So that shouldn't be a problem. It wouldn't be in use every dadgum day. So water usage wouldn't be a problem here, as I can tell. So why would this gentleman need to have a fire hydrant in front of a steel building that would only have chairs and bathroom facilities? And by the way, who would pay for this fire hydrant? I don't understand, but I just wanted to bring it to y'all's attention that this building and this venue that's trying to be put up would bring other people to AJ that would maybe use the restaurant somewhere else. They've seen maybe an antique store that they might want to shop at. So please help Mr. Mo get this done. I'd appreciate it.

Moe 2341, North Apache Trail, Apache Junction, Arizona. Mayor, city councils, managers, attorneys, all the staff. I want to thank you to development services, especially Rudy and Sydney, they've worked very hard on this one to make this happen, and everybody excited about it. Now we've ended the problem with the fire department. Their fire code is 2018 international code require a fire hydrant. We are willing to put a fire hydrant, but the problem with this one, the pipeline is over there is only six inch. Even with the fire hydrant over there does not meet the code for the 1,500 gallons per minute flow, water flow. And there are, we have been fire protection engineers. We talked to them and all that stuff. The code, this fire code in 2018, there's some municipality, they amend the code before even they adopted it because the rural area, It does not provide that kind of stuff, the water or sewer or that stuff here, yet they amended it. And I'm not sure if the city of Apache Junction adopted that code. And now we're looking for different options. Hitching Post has a fire. Hitching Post has fryers and all that stuff over there. But the fire department recommended it. If we can put the security system in a monitor by the security company and they would allow to open it up, that's another option. And that event center, we're building it up. There is no kitchens. There is absolutely nothing else to create in the steel building. No food product, no nothing on it. Maybe we can sign a contract when the water arrived. We will attach it. Maybe the city can force them or ask them to maybe change a code. I'm just asking to help me out. That's all I'm asking for it. City work very hard. spent a lot of hours to approve that building. Now we are stuck for six months discussing all that stuff going on and see what we can do, what you guys can do to help to start the new business over there. And that's going to help everybody, the town, city, Apache Junction, everybody else. We are already worldwide known people coming in. We already got the award for the best of 2025 in the city of Apache Junction, the first restaurant. got the award from the Nationwide or International Reviews. And we are going to do some more stuff. And just asking and requesting if you guys can look into it or help me out to do this, get this one resolved, we can start the construction. Thank you very much. I appreciate your looking out.

RICK BERKELEY JR.: Kathleen Campton? Did I blow your last name?

I'm here to speak on behalf of Good Shepherd Horse Rescue and Learning Center, located at 288 West Smoketree Street. We're asking that the city seriously consider the potential flooding impacts created by the massive commercial-sized building masquerading as a barnuminium currently under construction adjacent to our property. This structure is approximately 5,000 square feet with four commercial-sized gutters on each side. During monsoon storms, every square foot of that roof will collect and channel water into the existing wash that already struggles to handle stormwater runoff. We are gravely concerned that the additional runoff generated by this structure will overwhelm the existing drainage path, resulting in flooding not only on Smoke Street, on the street, but also on our property as well as others. The wash already floods during heavy rains, and Smoketree Street can become difficult and impossible to navigate safely. Having thousands of square feet of impervious roof surface raises serious concerns about increased water volume, erosion, property damage, and public safety. The question remains, where is all that water going to go? At Good Shepherd, we have invested significant time and resources to be responsible stewards of our property. After taking over the rescue, we had the property laser leveled and installed proper flooding footing and ground materials to promote drainage, reduce erosion, and protect both the horses and surrounding properties from stormwater issues. We took proactive steps. So should everybody else. We respectfully request that you allow us to reclaim the existing easement and require the new property owners to complete a professional engineering drainage study and install any drainage improvement necessary to safely manage the increased stormwater runoff. generated by this building. The burden of solving this problem should not fall on the neighboring residents, because we did not create it. And our tax dollars should not be used to fix it. At Good Shepherd, we serve our community every day. We have 29 rescue horses, 70 to 85 active volunteers. We host educational programs, clinics, youth tours, and opportunities for seniors, low-income individuals, and those living with chronic illnesses. We are creating something Apache Junction can be proud of. And when I hear somebody say that we're saving the West, there is a warehouse sitting next to us now. We understand that growth is inevitable, but growth must be planned responsibly. We are not asking to stop development. We are asking that proper engineering, drainage mitigation, care for neighboring property values, and public safety measures be required before neighboring properties use community resources and public pathways that put us at risk. Losing our view of the Superstition Mountains and the loss of our property value was disappointing and preventable. However, our primary concern today is not the loss of the view and the loss of our property value, although that is concerning. It is the very real possibility of flooding, property damage, and safety hazard for our residents, the visitors, volunteers, and the animals that are entrusted to our care. We ask that you help protect existing residents, preserve our safety, and ensure that the responsibility drainage suits are in place. Thank you.

Thank you. Donna Carr.

Donna Carr, Apache Junction resident. North Carolina just got done passing a bill, 730, which limits the amount of data processing centers going in due to the power they use and the water that they use. I think we need to get a bill passed in the state of Arizona to take care of that problem here as well. Now, I was listening to Arizona Water, and they want to increase it by $10, when actually that's 24 points, almost 25% increase. You know what Social Security got last year? 2.8. So that's a pretty damn big increase in a water bill. I'd also like to thank Bambi for mentioning me to Resolution. Copper, I do have a... Tore with them on the 29th of this month. And I'm bringing some other people with me as well. So I appreciate that. And the only other thing I have to say is, because I'm not going to see you before the 4th of July, is happy quincentennial.

Andrew. Andre. Excuse me.

I'm trying to give you a new name. Andre Meek. 1327 South Bel Air here in A.J. I'm going to kind of take it a different direction. Politically. Need everybody get out there and vote. We got some crazy elections coming up. And I just want to say Your ballot means something. And on that vein, Mark Lamb, where are you? A lot of people wanted to vote for you, still want to vote for you, but we've got to hear from you. And you're being Mr. Incognito. Do I have to vote for the other guy? Please come out of your... hiding, and address your public. Or send me some pictures. Thank you.

Okay, any comments from the council?

Go ahead. Can we look at that situation at Good Shepherd?

Yes, please. Which one, I'm sorry? Good Shepherd. We will get you a staff update on that.

Please give us an update. Yes. On the fire hydrant issue, can we have the city look at, if there's no water out there, how is he supposed to put a fire hydrant in? And can we have a contract done that if a 12-inch line does go in, he has to pay to have that put in for Moe? Because there's no water out there. There's a six-inch line. You can't put a fire hydrant up to a six-inch line. It collapses.

It's strictly an issue with the fire district.

But it's our code.

But we can get you an update on that as well.

Right, but the code is ours. They're using our code. We adopted the international 2018 fire code.

We can have a staff write up and get you the information.

Yeah, because it says right in there it can be modified.

We'll get you an update, yeah.

OK. Well, in similar regards to that, I don't see why if the fire department can tender services to residential neighborhoods in the rural area, they surely can tender to our commercial businesses in the rural areas. Thank you. Okay.

I'll adjourn.

Thank you.