Planning and Zoning - Regular Meeting

I now call to order the meeting of planning and zoning commission for the city of Apache Junction. Today's date is July 22nd, 2025. The time is 7:03. We please stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisibley and justice for all. Rudy, can I get a roll call, please? Yes, Mr. Chairman. Chairman Henry here. Vice Chair Barker

here. Commissioner Gage here. Commissioner Star. Commissioner Mikeland here. Commissioner Kalen. Here. We have five present, one absent. We have a quorum. Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Rudy. Do we have a motion to approve the agenda and the minutes? Sure. Mr. Chair, I move that the Planning and Zoning Commission accept the agenda as presented and approve the minutes from the June 24th, 2025 regular meeting.

I'll second. Rudy, I have a motion in a second. Can I get a roll call, please? Commissioner Callen, yes. Chairman Hansie, yes. Vice Chair Barker, yes. Commissioner Gage, yes. Commissioner Mikeland, yes.

So move, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Rudy. There's one public hearing this evening. Consideration of case P-25-4-PZ appro uh proposed reszoning of parcel 101-19-0220 and 101-19 023B and 101-19-023 C located at the northwest corner of Winchester Road put in Junction Street. Erica,

good evening, commission members. My name is Erica Hernandez. I'm a planner on staff. This is a presentation for a proposed resoning of three parcels uh requested by Reese Anderson with Pew and Lake representing Skyline QZB LLC to facilitate a multifamily development. We see that the properties are located on the northwest corner of Winchester Road and Junction Street. This uh resoning request uh is for resoning for the parcels um from low density RSGR and city center um B3 to high density plan development RM2PD to facilitate a two-story 100 unit multifamily rental development. Okay, we see that the properties are surrounded by B3 and RM2 to the north. RM2 to the east, B3 and RM2 to the south, and B3 to the west. Now, because these parcels are designated as downtown mixed use in the general plan, the 2020 general plan, which encourages retail, office, and multifamily uses, a general plan amendment was not required for this application. All right, here is the landscape plan. Now, this is a gated community. The main entrance is off of Junction Street and the exit only is off of Winchester. There is a 6ft perimeter wall and a total of 400 parking spaces. that is a combination of garage parking, driveway parking, guest parking, and ADA parking

spaces. Um, I will note that they do exceed the required parking. Okay, here are the amenities. We've got a clubhouse, pickle ball courts, pool and spa, a tot lot um and green spaces, as well as a dog park here in the northwest corner and an 8 foot multi-use trail along Winchester and Junction Street. And here are the um elevations for the triplex in your classic um Spanish um architecture. We've got vegan tails, decorative shutters, red clay roof tiles, uh your Spanish archways here, and your uh Spanish tiles. They did agree for to the Monterey finished stucco for all the units, and the driveways have pavers as well. Uh here are the fiveplex elevations. Um, I will note that all of the units have um well, all of the um the the 3plex and the fiveplex both have two and threebedroom options. Okay, here's the elevations for the clubhouse. Um now, I will note that they agreed to the sand finish stucco for the uh clubhouse. Now, for um public input, a sign was posted at the site. Notices were sent out to property owners within 300 feet of the subject site and the case was advertised in the newspaper. Um the applicant held the neighborhood meeting on June 9th. No, I'm sorry. Two neighbors attended. Both were supportive of the project. One person came to the development services counter and asked about the site plan and the elevations. Um they had no

reservations about the product or the proposal. Another person asked um to do a public records request for the first and second and middle elevations um and also for the traffic report and also had no reservations about the proposal. One resident uh from Weaver's Needles sent an email yesterday. You have a copy in front of you. I also sent an email to you all and they were supportive of the project. The applicant is requesting the following setback deviations for the front. They are requesting a from 20 feet to 15 feet to accommodate a 6-ft decorative CMU wall. on the side from 10 feet to five feet to accommodate a five- foot rear covered patios and for the rear 20 ft to 5t to accommodate also 5 foot rear covered patios.

A question on those setback. Yeah. Yeah. Go for it. Can we go back to those real quick? Yeah. So, we're going to five foot for the covered patios only. So that'll be the only thing that intrudes into that setback is the patio, none of the building or anything. Chairman HJ, you are correct. Okay. So, do you have a visual of that? I do. I would like to see a visual of that.

Sure. Oh, I'm looking right there. Um, actually I have it in the staff report too, but this is good. So here on the site plan, here on the site plan on the side, here's the covered patio. Here's the setback. But in the rear,

it's tight. Here's the rear. Let me show you. So, there's the five feet here. There's a cover patio here. [Music] So, it's 10 foot to the building. It's 10 foot to the building. Okay.

Yeah, that's what I wanted to be. Yeah, it was it was uh difficult to envision. The verbiage was Thank you.

You're welcome. Staff is supportive of the requested setback deviations for the following reasons. Setback deviations are not an uncommon request when it comes to resonings. Plan developments do allow for the flexibility and code requirements if approved by city council, of course. um in meeting the standard setback requirements would reduce the total unit count or eliminate covered patios. Um now I just wanted to note that the revised condition of approval number four. Um I did go over the elevations noting the Monterey finished SECO for the units um and the sand finished SECO for the clubhouse. Um and this is just a revised condition of approval to reflect that change. With that, planning staff recommends approval of case number P-25-4-PZ subject to the conditions of approval found in the staff report with re revised condition number four for the following reasons. Um, the use is compatible with the downtown mixeduse designation um of the 2020 general plan which is intended for commercial uh recreational and multi-use uses. I'm sorry, multif family uses. Uh, the use supports multiple general plan goals, including diversifying stock, housing stock, improving walkability, um, increasing the city's financial sustainability, and encouraging infield development. Um, this case will be heard uh by the planning, I'm sorry, by city council during a work session on August 4th and also uh for a public hearing by city council on September 2nd. The applicant does have a presentation as well. And afterwards, the applicant and staff will be available for questions.

And I do have a motion available if you'd like to use it as well. Um, when you're ready, if you're ready. I just would want to clarify something because there's one of the emails I believe is the one you sent out latest. They were saying something about no sidewalks on Winchester, but everything I've seen there are sidewalks there, right? Correct. Try there will be sidewalks on both Winchester and Junction. Yes. Okay. I just want to clarify. They sent one out late today. Oh, and it's printed here somewhere. Thank you,

Mr. Chairman, members of the board. For your record, my name is Reese Anderson. I'm with the law firm of Pew and Lake. Can you raise the mic? I sure can. Thank you. Should I start over? No, you're good.

Uh, so Reese Anderson with Pew and Lake. My address is 1744 South Al Vista, number 217 in Mesa. With me this evening is Hud Hassel, the president of Bellafloor Communities. or the owner of of this property and we're pleased to be here this evening. Um the staff did an excellent job summarizing it. My presentation almost mirrors theirs and so I would rather not uh waste your time with a very similar presentation but perhaps focus on questions that you might have. Um as far as I know we're in front of you this evening with no known opposition and we're supportive of the revised condition four. And so with that, Mr. Chair, maybe it's better if I just answer questions you might have or if there's members of the public here, I answer their questions. But

yeah, if you don't have anything further to add to what Erica presentation and honestly, I would just be mirroring what she said. She's hard to follow. Yes. Yes, sir. Absolutely. She did an excellent job. Do you have any question? No. For the commissioners online on the phone, do you have any questions?

I do not. Yeah, this is Jesse. I I don't have any any questions. I I think this resoning is a good fit with the general plan. Um I hate us giving up setbacks, but the uh the uh justifications for it that you put in your report on page seven um made me quite happy. It's good to see that. So, I'm happy with it. Thanks,

Commissioner Eric. Ari, um, I guess my only question would be, would there be any possibility of turning these into uh like a kind of a rental, maybe more of a condo or a town home, uh, something that people could buy? So, Chair Hy, the question was whether or not these could be turned into rent uh for sale units. The answer is they could they could in the future. Right now, these are planned for rental units. Thank you. Any other questions?

All right. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, this is a public hearing. I am now going to open up the public portion of the hearing for case P-25-4-PZ. If anybody'd like to speak, please come up, state your name, address, and you'll have three minutes to speak. I just want to remind you too, we can't answer any specific questions, but you're more than just you come on up and if you want to say anything and we can't, like I said, we can't directly answer any questions, but

Okay. My name is Deborah Stone and I live in Apache Junction. This first time I ever been to a meeting like this. Can you state your address, please? 2137 South Tomahawk Road.

Thank you. I don't live near that area, but we do have a home on Junction and Star and all these other communities popping up are very concerning to me as cuz I moved here not to to get out of the city and I don't I don't like it at all and I don't like it feels like it's undermining all the people around and I know how some people approve things without really they're just bought and paid for. They don't they're not the real people. So, I I just want to scream to the top of my to my friends that this shouldn't happen. We need our desert. We need our horses. We need communities, people who want to stand by the desert cuz that's why we live in Arizona by the mountain. All these all these all these developments are driving me crazy and I feel like I don't have a voice. They just happen. And I'm starting to get involved because I'm tired of it. Like, oh, heavenly. You can lease a house. Like, who wants to do that? And all these people are in 400 people. 400 cars. Imagine double that or triple that. How many people are going to live there? That small little block over there over there. My fries. I'm just sorry. It bothers me a lot. That's all I have.

Thank you. My name is Howard Stone. I've lived here in Apache Junction for 35 years. And my address is 2137 South Tomahawk Road. And I've seen a lot of changes in this town. And I hate to say it, but a lot of it has not been good. I've seen a lot of my icons that brought me to this town disappear. I've seen a lot of development going on around here that really concerns me because we have water issues as it is and how they're stepping around and getting around this is beyond me. But there's a lot of this stuff that's going on that I don't think is going to be to the betterment of Apache Junction because most of us moved out here to be out in a rural area, not to end up being another Tempee, another Gilbert, another Phoenix. And that's the thing that concerns me when I start seeing all this is we're taking away what Apache Junction was all about and what drew people to Apache Junction. That's all I have to say.

Thank you. Anyone else like to speak? Going once. Going twice. I now close the public portion of the hearing. Um, would you like to say anything, Commissioner Barker, at this time? Any discussion points? Um, yeah, I would. You know, and then we still have some factf finding, too, right? No, we don't. Yeah, we do.

Oh, okay. Um, I too have lived in Apache Junction for a long time. As a matter of fact, I've been here for over 50 years. And watching it grow is both sad and wonderful. It's going to grow. We can't stop the growth. We cannot put a gate around our city and fence it off and say, "No, no, no. Sorry." So our best bet is to do the very best we can of having the growth be as much for the betterment of the future as we can. Uh this particular development fits right in to that area whether we like it or not. it it slots right in there and it does not um take away from the surrounding area like some of the some of the projects we've seen. So yeah, um this project will work. Hopefully it will eventually uh be something that people could consider buying. Um we don't have a lot of housing for sale here. have a lot of fancy stuff for sale that people can't afford. So hopefully apartments would be a little less less costly for folks. And that's all I have to say. Any of the commissioners on the phone? Would you like to add anything before we do the finding effect?

I'll I'll say something. And pretty sure most of you who know me know my stance on a lot of uh the direction of our city and all that fun jazz. And I just want to remind everybody that especially that has been here for a long time is that we know what a gem we have here. And at some point we have to take a stand because there's a lot of voices in the city. I hear every day about the stuff that keeps growing. But yeah, we're going to grow. It's going to happen. But we need to be super selective and careful because people want to come here. It's gonna happen. We're Sedona. We're Cage Creek. We're going to be North Scottsdale. So, we got to remember we can't just the opportunity to grow. It closes here grow, you know. Um, we've got a beautiful new southern expansion of AJ that fits a lot of the stuff that we've been looking at. Fits perfectly down there where historic AJ can still be a rural, quaint, exciting, different kind of feel for a city. The reason why, like we heard the first lady and the other people, why they moved out here, we still have an opportunity to try to maintain as much of that as we can, especially with the new south expansion. We're going to have space for all the new suburban high building max people within one acre. We're going to have all the space down there to do that. And we need to do our best to preserve what we have here in historic AJ because the secret's been out. We used to say when we were kids that we lived, at least our football coaches would tell us, you live in the jewel of the desert and one day it's going to be discovered. And we've been discovered. But we have to be careful because once we pull everything in, we're just going to be hot like every other city. And we could be super unique

like Sedona, like uh historic Prescuit area. They have tested valley which is all like our south AJ. We're in that opportunity to maintain what we have here in historic AJ but still grow to the south. That's it. Thank you. Any other commissioners on the phone? I'm I'm fine. Thanks, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Commissioner Gage. I'm I'm good.

Go ahead. Okay. And then I was mistaken. There is no find in the fact. Uh my script said there was but there isn't. Um I will add my two cents. Um where this is going up with the the general plan with this downtown corridor. You know, this is what this area is intended for. It's what the voters elected for. Um I'm not always crazy about it, but you know, it's it's what the majority seems to want. Um it fits in with what the city has planned for the new downtown area with the land that was purchased and the long-term goal of that. This will put a lot of people within walking distance to that area. It also flat iron park right across the dog park right there. Um even though they do have their own dog park as well which

absolutely Commissioner Barker approved. Yeah, absolutely. Must have

never have too many dog parks. Um but I you know seriously I think this fits in. Um, we have a couple other plans going through the process right now right next to this. Um, we just had the other project right on junction right there, the retirement home. It fits with that as well with the the look, the densities, everything. So, you know, I think this fits in well for that area. Do we want these everywhere in Apache Junction? No, definitely not. I mean, and I think we've made that clear with how we try to approach these things. And you know, we don't want to plop this down right in the middle surrounded by horse property 1acre lots. So, and this is not going into any of those areas. If you really look at the area around there, um, this is not what I would consider horse property or I would think most people wouldn't. And yes, protect the deserts and all that, but you know, this is private property as well. So, they have rights to build what they want on that property. And as long as they do it within the guidelines of the city and make something beneficial to everyone, I think, you know, as a commission, we have to back that.

So, you want to do the motion? Sure. It's easier in person. Choice to do it.

I can do it if you want. I move that the planning and zoning commission recommend to the Apache Junction City Council the approval of case P-25-4-PZ a resoning request by Skyline QoZB LLC owner represented Reese Anderson with Pew and Lake applicant of approximately 9.4 4 acres of N&P 101-9-0220 101-9-23B and 101-9-23C from city center B3 uh and general rural low density single family detached residential RSGR to high density multip multiple family residential by plan development RM-2/PD to facilitate a lot combination and the construction of a twostory 100 unit multifamily rental development subject to the conditions of approval in the updated staff report and I will second it. So we have a motion and a second. Rudy, can I get a roll call, please?

Commissioner Callen. Oh, can you say again? I'm sorry. What did you say, Commissioner Ken? He said no. No. Okay. Chairman Hansen, yes. Vice Chair Barker, yes. Commissioner Gage, yes. Commissioner Mikeland. Yes.

The vote is four in favor, one against. Your recommendation uh to city council will be for approval. Mr. Chairman, city council work sessions on August 4th. City council public hearing is uh September 2nd. Thank you, Rudy. Uh there's no old business, no new business. I don't have anything to report. Rudy, do you have anything to report? No. Do you have anything? No, sir. All right. Uh, can we get a selection of meeting dates?

Sir, I move the planning and zoning commission hold a regular meeting on August 12th, 2025 at 700 p.m. in the city council chambers located at 300 East Superstition Boulevard. In the event there are no items to be brought forward to the commission, these meetings may be cancelled. Notification of cancellation properly posted and the commission notified by staff. I'll second Rudy. I have a motion and a second. Can I get a roll call, please? Commissioner Mikeland. Yes. Commissioner Ken. Yes. Commissioner Hanche. Chairman Hy. Yes. Vice Chair Barker.

Yes. Commissioner Gage. Yeah. So move, Mr. Chairman. Thank you, Rudy.