City Council - Regular Meeting

We'll call this meeting to order. This is the city of Buckeye council meeting for Tuesday, 02/17/2026. We're gonna begin with the invocation led by pastor Rick Wiles from First Southern Baptist Church followed by the pledge led by council member Hustis. Would you all please stand?

Shall we pray? Father god, we come before you, and we count it a privilege to come and voice a prayer on behalf of our city. Father, I pray that you will protect our council, that you will give them wisdom as they make decisions that affect every single member of this community. May they be respectful and everything that takes place today, be respectful and honor you. In Jesus' name, amen.

Joining our pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of The United States Of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you both. Alright. Can we have the roll call, please?

Priyanka? Here. Council member Berry?

Here.

Council member Hagestead?

Here.

Council member Beard?

Here.

Council member Hustis?

Here.

Vice mayor Goodman? Present. Mayor Oresborn?

Present. Thank you. Item number two is comments from the public. Members of the audience may comment on any non agenda item of interest. Do we have any speaker request cards?

There are no speaker request cards.

Okay. On to item number three, awards, presentations, and proclamations. We have none for tonight. Item number four is consent agenda items and new business. Approval of items on the consent agenda, all items with an asterisk are considered to be routine matters being acted by one motion and vote of the city council. There'll be no separate discussion of these items unless a council member requests. This section may include the approval of minutes from previous meetings. Counsel for the consent agenda, what is your pleasure?

Mister mayor, I'd like to make a motion to approve consent agenda items four a as in Adam, through four j as in John. Second.

Have a motion for approval of the consent and a second. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Opposed? Consent agenda passes unanimous. Onto agenda item five a public hearing or five public hearings non consent new business five a council hold a public hearing only regarding a blank annexation petition requesting to annex one parcel of land totaling approximately 0.89 acres located at 26602 West MC 85. At the Northeast corner of M C 85 and S R 85. Miss Mandy Woods, you're presented.

Good evening, mayor, member members of the council. My name is Mandy Woods, and I am a principal planner here with development services. And tonight I'm going to be presenting case PLZM 25 dash 0100, which is an annexation request for 26602 West MC 85. And just a brief overview of the request. The applicant for this annexation request is Ascencia LLC on behalf of property owner Robert Road Spirit LLC.

And the location is located approximately at the Northeast corner of MC85 and SR85, involves just one parcel totaling approximately point nine acres in size. And just a brief overview of the site location as well as the context surrounding the site. So the site itself is already a developed parcel. It has an existing convenience store with gas sales already on it. To the North is a future industrial parcel.

To the South is transportation and logistics uses. To the East, we have a future convenience store with gas sales that also went through annexation and site planning stages recently. And then to the West across S R 85 is the APS hub west facility. The general plan land use of this property as well as the entire surrounding area is employment. And the zoning of the property currently in Maricopa County is general commercial or c three.

Upon annexation into the city, the initial zoning that would be assigned would be regional commercial, which is the the most consistent with its existing zoning in the county. And there is no future rezoning that's anticipated. I did wanna note that the the current use of the property is consistent both with the general plan land use of the property as well as the anticipated initial city zoning that will be assigned upon annexation. And at at this time, there's no development plans for the parcel, and the intention is for the property to connect to city water. And then just some analysis.

The request does meet eligibility requirements established by state statute. The blank petition was recorded on January 20, 2026. All notices were completed in the time frame as required by statute and by our development code. We've received no public comment on the request, and there are no outstanding issues from reviewing departments and divisions. This first hearing tonight is being held in the last ten days of the waiting period as required.

And with that, the recommendation, is to conduct a public hearing and take no action. Consideration of an ordinance approving this annexation is anticipated to occur at future council meeting, which would be in April. And as previously stated, this is just the first of two required public hearings. And I am available for any questions. Thank you. The applicant is also here tonight as well.

Okay. Thank you very much. Questions from council? I'm not seeing none. This requires a public hearing. As we'll open a public hearing. Do we have any speaker request cards for agenda item five a?

There are no speaker request cards.

No speaker request cards. Anybody from the public wishing to speak on five a? I'm seeing none. So we will close the public hearing and no action on this tonight. Okay. Great. Thank you. Item five b, council take action on ordinance number two four dash two six, authorizing and directing the city manager, city attorney and city clerk to take any and all action necessary to acquire fee title or a lesser interest in, but not including too limited to easements for public utilities drainage and or construction as needed to certain real property including any associated personal property as a matter of public necessity. And Mr. Riley, you are going to take us through agenda item 5B. It's all yours.

Mayor Council, Riley Quinlan, part of the program management office, capital improvement program team. Pleasure to be here tonight going over a refresher of the Watson And Broadway project and specifically the right of way associated with that project. Really, project is stemmed to address traffic concerns and safety indicators in the corridor and primarily improvements to include traffic signals, turn lanes, through lanes at the intersection, tapering back to existing the existing roadway. And the alignment is generally shifted west primarily to stay away from residents in the Northeast corner and RID structures. Really at this point, by moving forward with this project, we'll be able to address those safety concerns and those traffic concerns.

And then our request to counsel tonight is as we continue to move forward with good faith negotiations that council approved ordinance twenty four twenty six. And with that, we're for any questions.

Okay. Thank you for the presentation. Council, any questions? I see Councilman Yonker has already got his finger on the button. How about it?

Yeah. Just to be clear, this is for an interim fix for the roadway. It is not an ultimate build out that we're seeking today. Is that correct?

That's correct. The

ultimate build out will require us to either come to an agreement with the property owner or go through the same process again in the future whenever that is ten, twenty, thirty years whenever that happens to be. So this is not going to be the ultimate buildup of this intersection. We are basically doing what we need to do now for our current projections.

Council Member Yongker, that's correct. This project is really the partial or an interim improvement. As part of this project, we planned the 15% development and anticipating what that would look like, there would be an additional right of way component and half year improvements as a part of the ultimate.

And are giving you this authority. We can still continue to work with the landowner to do the acquisition, or we can go all the way through to condemnation. Is that correct?

That's correct.

Okay. And that's what you're asking for us today, the authority to do so if needed. Not that you're absolutely going to do that, but you want that ability to do that if it's required.

Councilman Yunker, as is typical of these projects, we're gonna continue to engage in good faith negotiations. And we're requesting the authority to acquire all the way up to the exercising of eminent domain.

And we have done everything to within our power to address any safety concerns that anybody has in the is on that corner. And we've done our due diligence to make sure that we have put the things in place to make that as safe as possible, but yet still do the required roadway improvements, correct?

Yes, think our team over the past two years has done a pretty exhaustive work with the different landowners up and down that corridor and feel that the solutions that we are proposing to move forward with will be amenable to all parties.

And that's also important to note that this is two to three year process that we've been dealing to get to this point, right?

Yes, sir.

Okay. Thank you. That's all I had.

Thank you, really.

Okay. Thank you, council member. Good questions. Any other questions from council? Okay. Council for agenda item five b. What is your pleasure?

Mister mayor, I make a motion that we approve agenda item five b as in boy. Second.

I have a motion and a second for approval of agenda item five b. All in favor say aye.

Aye.

And opposed. Nay. And five b passes. Okay. Thank you, mister Reilly. Sure. Item number six, comments from the mayor and council. Any comments tonight from councilman Hustis?

I'm sure there are going to be others, but just a comment to compliment all those involved behind and with our airfare this past weekend. We had a tremendous showing out there. Thank you to the weather also. They gave us some nice weather to deal with out there. And I believe 99% of the people that might have come out there enjoyed themselves.

It was just a very nice event, very well planned out event. I would also, and of course, they're not gonna hear it, but those that were nice enough to fly their private aircraft in for parts of the show, it's quite an event to have people take their time and fly in from, I don't even know, you might have a better idea, mister mayor, how far people flew in here to take part in this air show for us this past weekend. And it was quite a show. Besides that, I wanted to mention the fact that each year for the last twelve years, we've had an event called Lift Up. And, it's for veterans that assist them in registering for the benefits that are provided for veterans.

Now, we started this event in the parking lot right behind us back here about thirteen years ago. And we get the VA to come out, in most cases, to register veterans as they're getting out of the service. The problem is, lot of times, myself and many others like me, we don't register. We don't get registered with the VA. And, we may have benefits available, but we go out and we're Teflon, we're bulletproof, and we don't register.

So, go out and we get a job, and we've got insurance, and everything is just great, until we have an accident, and then we're out of work, and we're out of insurance, and it takes us months, and believe me, months, to get registered and get assistance from the VA at that point. All we try and do is to get people to register so that if they do have that accident or an injury, that they can apply immediately with the VA and they're already registered. So, we try to do this every year, and we have numerous vendors that come out to give away products, dog food, different things for the veterans, all provided for veterans and their families. And, it usually turns out to be a pretty nice event. We've had it down here.

We've had it up at Odyssey several times. And now it's over at Summit Community Church. It's going to be on Friday this year instead of a Saturday, hoping to be able to get the VA out here with a little more enthusiasm from them. If anybody knows, I'm giving them a call. But I already have, and I'm going to some more.

But we'd like to get the VA out here. And they have several departments that can come out and advise on medical, can advise on benefits, can advise on home loans and things of that type. And they usually do get a couple of their different parts of their VA network out here. So, just keep it in mind, it's going to be Friday, March 13, over at Summit Community Church, starting about 09:00 in the morning. If you're a veteran, come on over. The Elks are going to be providing a complimentary breakfast and coffee. I believe Citadel is going to provide the juice and coffee also. So, keep it in mind, and I'll be reminding us of it again in a couple of weeks. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you, Councilman. Any other comments from council? Okay. Just a couple. I'm going to piggyback a little bit off of Councilmember Hustis' thoughts about the Buckeye Airfare and AOPA fly in. Staff pulled off an unbelievable event over the weekend and a a huge, huge success. And Miranda and her team did such an outstanding job. They are already planning for next year's event. And the planning for this year's event started the day after last year's event. And it's not just Miranda and her team.

It is every single department has some touch point on putting this on the public works, airport, police, fire. Every single department has a a part in this and grateful for everyone that did that. In it, the the work that went into it and the the pride that we show as a community was noticed by everybody that is coming in from the pilots flying in to the air show performers and then the crowd that's coming in from out of town. Nothing but rave reviews on just about every facet of of the weekend. AOPA who's a outstanding partner to us that that handles the fly in portion of it, the expo, the static displays, cannot say enough good about the event.

And we just have an incredible partnership and an opportunity with them to continue putting this on and training up that next generation of general aviation pilots. A big thank you to Luke Air Force Base for two days' worth of flyovers, f 30 single ship f 35 flyover by the sixty second fighter squadron on Friday, and a two ship by the three zero eight, Emerald Knights on Saturday, I think, wowed the crowd. And and that's one of the really, really cool things about this air fair and air show event is that you have the most basic of aircraft, training aircraft from the nineteen forties that have no electrical system all the way through the most advanced fighter jet in the world ripping overhead and then everything in between, which is just phenomenal to showcase all of that. Also to Luke Air Force Base, thank you for putting up with me for the entire year. We have the sibling rivalry going on about who has the better air show.

Theirs is in just a couple weeks, and I encourage every single one of you to go out to that because it's unbelievable. Big thank you to Moran and her team for putting on such an event for the air show pilots. We had a number I think just about every presenter or pilot or display that was out there came up and said they they go to air shows and these events like this all over the country. And and not just because I'm an elected official in the city, but they say this is one of the best that they go to. And they're thrilled to come here every year and wanna keep coming back. One of the really, really cool things was Friday,

is

field trip Friday, and we had somewhere between 1,502,000 students that come out and learn about aviation at the Aviation Academy. I learned about STEM careers and opportunities moving forward, whether that's being a pilot or a maintainer or a engineer or air traffic control. But the the community, the education community really comes out and supports. And I think one of the coolest things that happened in the Night Air Show, which you haven't if you haven't seen the Night Air Show, there's some videos out there that show we added Pyro into this this last year. And we had another sponsor that I kept under wraps until it happened on Saturday night.

Tony knows where I'm headed with this week. During the night air show, the mini jet was flying and he's lit up and it's pitch black outside. There's there's fireworks coming off of the plane. He's flying all over. The song that he's flying to is fly me to the moon.

And at the same time that he's flying and that song is playing, Vandenberg Air Force Base launches Falcon nine and SpaceX launches a rocket in the middle of our air show, which I took full credit for setting up. Had absolutely nothing to do with. But just by coincidence, that took off and and what an incredible addition to the to the event. So we we should be reaching out to uncle Elon to see if we could do that again next year. But but a great, great, great success. Are those I got a text with numbers. I can I can share that?

Sure can. I'm checking off everything on my list.

38,000 showed up for that this year. And we're probably under counting, Miranda.

She she

It's a 38,000.

Thirty eight thirty eight and a half thousand, I think, is a thirty and three quarter thousand. So somewhere around 35 last year, so we're increasing this event. Great opportunity this year also to have ASU out. They did a study. We're going to determine what that economic impact is at least picture in time this year. And then as we grow hotels and restaurants and things like that, it'll be even a bigger impact to us locally here in Buckeye. So thank you for everybody that had a part of that. Thanks to council for coming out and supporting that. And I think that's all I have for tonight. So we'll go on to City Manager's report and summary of current events.

Thank you for doing most of my airfare overview, which I really appreciate. One other number to state is that we had a total of about 200 volunteers, 100 from AOPA as well as the city. Those 200 volunteers put in all of our two thousand hours volunteering at their show to really make it work well. I do also want to thank all of our city staff. It was every single department touched this thing and they worked very, very well together to really pull off an absolutely amazing event.

The other item that I have is next Tuesday, council will be holding a strategic planning retreat. It'll be all day on the twenty fourth beginning at 08:30AM at the landing in the Multipurpose Room. We are going to be working with council, the mayor, the leadership team to update and refine our strategic plan with an emphasis on interconnectivity of council priorities, existing master plans and strategic goals. The public is welcome and encouraged to attend this retreat to see how all of this comes together. So thank you very much.

Okay, great. Thank you very much. Item number eight, proposals for future agenda items. Council any? I'm seeing none. Item number nine, with nothing else on the agenda, we are adjourned.