City Council - workshop

I'D LIKE TO CALL THE WORK SESSION TO ORDER FOR JUNE 15, 2026. PLEASE READ THE ROLL CALL.

LET THE RECORD REFLECT THAT ALL MEMBERS ARE PRESENT.

OKAY. THANK YOU. WE HAVE THREE ITEMS TONIGHT. I WOULD LIKE TO REMIND COUNCIL STAFF WE'LL BE PAUSING EVERY SO OFTEN TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS. FIRST UP, TO RECEIVE AN UPDATE ON THE FISCAL YEAR 2026 STRATEGIC PLAN PROJECT UPDATE ON TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT CENTER OPTIMIZATION. PLEASE GO AHEAD AND INTRODUCE YOURSELF, PLEASE, FOR THE PUBLIC.

Mayor and Council, Keeney Canoesom, Deputy City Manager. One of the departments I oversee is the Engineering Department, and they're going to take you through a presentation this evening about traffic management center optimization. It is a very important topic, obviously, for a growing city that we are, and making sure we're dealing with traffic in the right way. I think we can all know that those who have been here for many, many years, that the experience we have on the roads, the routes we take, the travel times that aren't necessarily going to be the same as they used to be. So I will tell you from my experience working in another city, you can't build enough lanes of travel to be able to handle the traffic that may or may not come. So the important thing is to be able to move traffic as efficiently as possible. And the way to do that is to make sure we have the right infrastructure, but we also leverage technology in the right way to be able to take care of traffic that is actually happening out on the streets, not that we predict or estimate is going to happen. So the project here, the optimization project, is very important in making sure we're taking advantage and leveraging that technology before us. I will tell you also in my experience at another city, we had over 1,200 traffic signals, and they were built over decades. So you can imagine having technology that advanced over the 80s, 90s, 1000s, and 2010s. Here in Goodyear, we have invested in technology. Our traffic signals have good technology. They are able to talk to each other. And I think we have a good story to tell. It's not something new to us, but I think the important thing is that we have a creative and innovative staff that are looking at ways to be able to leverage that technology for the future. So it is a fiscal year 2026 strategy plan project. And they're going to be giving you an update on where we stand on that. And so I'll turn it over to Steve Sento, our Director of Engineerings. and Logan Hopp, our Deputy Director of Engineering. Thank you.

All right. Thank you, Keeney. Good evening again, Mayor and Council. Steve Sinto, as he mentioned, City Engineer, and I'd like to introduce our Deputy Director of Engineering, one of them, Logan Hopp. He's of our Transportation Groups and Engineering, and he'll be presenting with me this evening. Tonight, we'll be providing Council an update on our strategic plan item for fiscal year 26, Traffic Management Center Optimization. SO THIS TOPIC FALLS UNDER THE SAFE AND VIBRANT COMMUNITY FOCUS AREA AND THE DESCRIPTION MORE SPECIFICALLY IS TO INTEGRATE OPTIMIZED TRAFFIC SIGNAL SOFTWARE TO IMPROVE TIMING, SYNCHRONIZATION AND TRAFFIC FLOW IN THE CITY. SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR US? SO PRACTICALLY THE FOCUS OF THIS ITEM IS ON PILOTING WHAT WE CALL ADAPTIVE SIGNAL TIMING SOFTWARE TO TRY AND FURTHER IMPROVE TRAFFIC FLOW IN THE CITY. On our agenda this evening, first I'll give council a quick refresh on some of the traffic signal background in the city, including some terminology. Then I'll go over some of the upgrades to our technology that got us here. Then I'll turn it over to Logan to go over implementation of the adaptive software, our general findings from the pilot to date, and our planned path forward. So I presented on a related topic just a few months ago, but wanted to give council a quick review on some of the traffic signal terminology we're going to use. Let's start with vehicle detection. So just recapping, we have two main vehicle detection types. First is video detection, which uses the cameras and the green detection boxes like I've gone over a few times in the past. The second is radar, which uses radar and has a much further detection range and can count large amounts of vehicles better. For signal operation types, there are two main ways signals are programmed to run in the city, fully actuated and coordinated. So as council may recall, fully actuated is where the intersection is programmed to react to vehicles as they arrive. So think that example right out front here of Goodyear Way and 150th that I kind of walked us through last time. And coordinated signals, much as the slide shows, are where signal timing is coordinated to where we maximize green time in a corridor. So think Estrella Parkway from I-10 down to MC-85. And I walked us through an example at Elwood in Estrella last time to kind of illustrate what that looks like. Okay, so let's this slide put some order of magnitude numbers to Goodyear's population, signals, and traffic volume since 2008, so close to 20 years ago. So if you were one of the 60,000 people living in the city back in 2008, we had 42 signals to help manage traffic. Fast forward to today, the population's roughly doubled, and we have nearly three times the traffic signals to manage the roadway network in the city. And so for three of the main corridors that we're focused on today, I've got some numbers for you. Traffic on Litchfield since that time has increased by three times. Cotton Lane is over four times the amount of traffic. And Estrella, as our busiest corridor back then and now, saw a 50% increase in traffic volume since then. So I think for anybody who's been here since then, or even the last five to 10 years, it feels different out there. There are more vehicles on the street. AND WHILE WE'VE IMPLEMENTED OTHER TOOLS OVER THE YEARS, LIKE COORDINATED CORRIDORS, SOME OF THE THINGS KENI MENTIONED, ADAPTIVE IS THE LATEST TECHNOLOGY WE'RE PILOTING TO HOPEFULLY HELP US FURTHER COMBAT CONGESTION IN THE CITY. SO BEFORE WE GET INTO THE DETAILS OF THE ADAPTIVE SOFTWARE PILOT, IT'S IMPORTANT TO TALK A LITTLE ABOUT HOW WE GOT HERE. WITH CONSISTENT COUNCIL SUPPORT OVER MANY YEARS, WE'RE ABLE TO MAKE CUMULATE ENHANCEMENTS TO OUR BACKBONE INFRASTRUCTURE AND TECHNOLOGY THAT REALLY PAVE THE WAY FOR BEING ABLE TO IMPLEMENT ADAPTIVE SIGNAL TIMING. The foundation of this was set way back in 2008 when the city completed its first traffic management center, the TMC, with the goal of being able to better manage traffic flow through a central hub in the city. Also in 2008, the city partnered with MAG to complete our first fiber project, which enabled us to connect our signals to the TMC directly. This was the first of many projects of the past 18 years to expand our fiber throughout the city, which was essential for communication between our signal technologies and also allowed us to start coordinating our traffic signals at that time. Fast forward to the past couple years, and the next crucial step came with the installation of radar detection on multiple corridors within the city. AS I MENTIONED, THIS TECHNOLOGY HAS ALLOWED US FOR MORE ACCURATE VEHICLE DETECTION OVER LONGER DISTANCES, WHICH REALLY OPENED THE DOOR FOR THE EFFECTIVE APPLICATION OF OUR ADAPTIVE SOFTWARE. DURING THE SAME TIME FRAME, WE SWITCHED TO A NEW TRAFFIC SIGNAL SOFTWARE THAT INCLUDED THE OPTION FOR ADAPTIVE SIGNAL TIMING MODULE THAT WE PREVIOUSLY DIDN'T HAVE AVAILABLE. AND THAT'S THE SHORT VERSION OF THE GROUNDWORK THAT WAS LAID THAT ENABLED US TO REALLY START LOOKING AT PILOTING THIS ADAPTIVE SIGNAL TIMING IN THE CITY. SO NOW I'LL TURN THE PRESENTATION OVER TO LOGAN WHO WILL WALK US THROUGH THE IMPLEMENTATION. A little more detail. Logan?

Thanks, Steve. Logan Hoff, Deputy Director of Engineering. Good evening, Mayor and Council. I'll be discussing the adaptive signal technology and how we've implemented this as a pilot project in the city. So the adaptive technology is a software that makes signal adjustments to match what's happening on our streets in real time. It analyzes the traffic and then it gives more green time to keep vehicles moving in our city. So I'm going to talk a little bit about how this works. So in a nutshell, the live data from the detection is sent over to the TMC through our fiber network. And from there, it's sent up to the cloud. That's where Adaptive lives. It calculates those timing adjustments, sends it back to the TMC, and then that updated timing goes back to the traffic signal. And that entire process happens almost instantly. So our goal with the adaptive signals is improve the everyday experience for residents and people driving on our city streets. And I'm going to go over some of the benefits that we're hoping to get out of this technology. For daily commutes, the goal is to lessen the congestion and keep those trips more predictable. For construction, the goal is to mitigate delays during lane closures and then return it to normal as soon as those conditions improve. For freeway detours, we're looking to support quicker recovery on city streets. For school peaks, the goal is to reduce wait times experienced on those side streets during pick up and drop off at those signalized intersections. And for events, quicker clear out and arrivals after games and gatherings. So for the pilot, we focused on the city's highest volume corridors with that reoccurring congestion. And these locations were chosen due to their traffic volume, the proximity to the I-10, and their closely spaced traffic signals. Now, ultimately, the following roadway segments were chosen as we felt like this technology would do best at these locations. From Cotton Lane, along Cotton Lane, from Yuma Road to Canyon Trails Boulevard, along Estrella PARKWAY FROM VAN BUEREN TO MCDOWELL AND ALSO LITCHFIELD ROAD FROM VAN BUEREN TO MCDOWELL. SO IN DECEMBER 2025, WE ACTIVATED THE ADAPTIVE SIGNAL CONTROL AND IT RUNS SEVEN DAYS A WEEK STARTING AT 6 A.M. TILL 8.30 P.M. AND BECAUSE THIS IS LIVE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT, WE ROLLED THIS OUT VERY STRATEGICALLY. SO WE STARTED WITH SOME TIGHT OPERATING GUARD RAILS ON HOW MUCH THAT SYSTEM COULD CHANGE THE CYCLE LENGTHS. AND THEN LOOSENED UP THOSE GUARD RAILS A BIT AS WE GOT MORE COMFORTABLE WITH THE RESULTS AND MORE COMFORTABLE WITH HOW IT WAS CHANGING OUR SIGNALS. SO NOW WE HAVE SIX MONTHS OF DATA AND WE'RE COMPLETING A FULL YEAR OF COLLECTION. AND SO THAT'S SO THE RESULTS ARE NORMALIZED BECAUSE THINGS LIKE CONSTRUCTION, SCHOOL SCHEDULES, WINTER VISITORS AND EVENTS ALL IMPACT THESE TYPE OF RESULTS. So this approach also gives the adaptive system time to learn Goodyear's traffic patterns, so its adjustments become more predictable and stable with the goal of improving performance over time. So the preliminary results show a win for the drivers. On Cotton Lane, the average speed in that project corridor increased by 17%, which equates to about 20 seconds of drive time saved per mile. ON LITCHFIELD ROAD, THE AVERAGE SPEED IN THAT CORRIDOR INCREASED BY 20 SECONDS, WHICH CAN EQUATE TO ABOUT 30 SECONDS OF DRIVE TIME SAVED PER MILE. NOW, ESTRELLA PARKWAY IS NOT INCLUDED IN THIS BECAUSE AT ESTRELLA AND I-10, IT FREQUENTLY RAN IN THAT FULLY ACTUATED MODE LAST YEAR, RIGHT DURING ALL OF THAT CONSTRUCTION, AND SO DURING ALL THOSE LANE RESTRICTIONS AND RAMPS FROM THE WIDENING. AND SO THAT INFORMATION SKEWED THE RESULTS, SO THAT'S WHY IT'S NOT SHOWN UP HERE TONIGHT. Now, what this really means is that the vehicles are spending more time moving and less time idling at red. So those trips are feeling more smoother, steadier, and they also use less fuel. Now, I want to talk a little bit about another recent success story. And that is during the roadway construction from a highly anticipated development where Bullard and I-10 ramps have been closed. And that really pushes all of that traffic on Litchfield and Estrella when you can't get on and off the freeway. And so how did Adaptive support this? Well, it responded in real time, lengthening the green lights along the Australia and Litchfield corridors, and it also adjusted the ramp signal timing, which helps people get on and off of the freeways. And that also helped that increased traffic on Australia and Litchfield keep moving. So despite all those additional vehicles, the impacts to the drivers were minimal. THERE WEREN'T LENGTHY DELAYS AND THERE WAS STEADY MOVEMENT MAINTAINED DURING THOSE CLOSURES. SO ULTIMATELY OUR RESIDENTS BENEFITED AS IT HELPED MINIMIZE THE DISRUPTION AND KEPT THAT TRAVEL TIME RELIABILITY IN CHECK. NOW I'M GOING TO GO OVER A FEW MORE ADDITIONAL BENEFITS. THE FIRST ONE IS IT'S A COST EFFECTIVE SOLUTION. IT'S $500 ANNUALLY PER INTERSECTION. HOWEVER IT IS DESCRIPTION BASED SO WE DO EXPECT THAT PRICE TO INCREASE WITH TIME. ANOTHER BENEFIT IS IT MAXIMIZES THE USE OF OUR EXISTING INFRASTRUCTURE SUCH AS THE EXISTING DETECTION DEVICES, OUR SIGNALS AND OUR EXISTING FIBER NETWORK. AN ADAPTIVE IS MANAGED THROUGH A CLOUD-BASED SOFTWARE. SO IT'S BENEFICIAL BECAUSE THESE UPDATES HAPPEN SEAMLESSLY AND THAT REDUCES THE NEED FOR ONGOING MAINTENANCE AND REQUIRES MINIMAL STAFF SUPPORT ONCE IT'S ESTABLISHED. And something else that's very neat about this is the software can be deployed relatively easy as there's no additional physical infrastructure needed to activate it at additional intersections. So going forward, staff's going to continue to evaluate the pilot corridors through the end of this year, December 2026. And as discussed on the previous slide, it's important to normalize that data to ensure that accurate conclusions are being drawn from this information. NOW IF THE RESULTS ARE SUCCESSFUL, WE'RE GOING TO IDENTIFY ADDITIONAL CORRIDORS FOR IMPLEMENTATION THAT WOULD MOST BENEFIT FROM THE USE OF THIS TECHNOLOGY. AND THIS WOULD BE IMPLEMENTED USING FUNDING AVAILABLE IN FISCAL YEAR 27 WITH ANY NEEDS BEYOND THAT REVISITED WITH THE NEXT BUDGET CYCLE. AS TECHNOLOGY ADVANCES, WE'RE GOING TO CONTINUE EVALUATING NEW TOOLS THAT CAN STRENGTHEN TRAFFIC OPERATIONS, IMPROVE OUR SAFETY AND KEEP PEOPLE MOVING. Now, while we're hopeful that this adaptive technology will enhance traffic flow and support congestion mitigation, it's simply not going to offset the increases in traffic that come with Goodyear's rapid growth. However, when you combine this technology with some of the other city's investments, such as all of our roadway widening projects, ongoing detection upgrade, and expanding our fiber network, these efforts position the city to manage traffic more efficiently. and respond more effectively to those evolving traffic conditions. So that includes our updates to Mayor and Council, and now we're here for feedback and to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

Before I open it up, just real quick for you. Say, for example, Bullard Avenue, north and south, and one of the side streets there at Virginia. There's nothing moving north and south, but there's two cars sitting at the side street. Is the software capable of letting those two cars through and shutting it down and then reopening so traffic is flowing north and south? Does it have the capability of doing that?

IT DOES HAVE THAT CAPABILITY. IT'S NOT IN THAT PARTICULAR CORRIDOR YET, BUT IT DOES DETECT THAT TRAFFIC LIVE, AND THEN IT EVALUATES THOSE MAIN THOROUGHFARES WHERE THERE'S GAPS, AND THEN WE'LL LET THOSE PEOPLE OUT MORE QUICKLY THAN IF IT WAS IN AN ACTUATED MODE.

OKAY, GOOD QUESTION. QUESTIONS? COMMENT? GO AHEAD.

I KNOW WE'VE TALKED ABOUT TRAFFIC FOR A LONG TIME IN INFINITE DETAIL. for a long time. And anywhere you go in the valley, you're running into traffic construction. It's just gotten hard to get around. But I just wanted to thank you for the advances that you're making. You know, like you said, couldn't measure Estrella because all the work being done there. I mean, just everywhere you go, there's work being done. But continuing to use technology to just keep improving the resident experience in terms of driving, I just want to say thank you for that.

ANYTHING ELSE? YOU GOT YOUR LIST? CHECKING IT TWICE, NAUGHTY OR NICE? GO FOR IT. I'VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS.

OKAY, SO CAN YOU SHOW ME A SLIDE THAT SHOWS THE RADAR DETECTOR SO I KNOW WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE?

Mayor, Councilmember Campbell, we don't have the detection picture on the slide, but I can certainly send you one of those.

That would be nice, because if we're going to have radar, I want to know what it looks like and where it is. And then what is the traffic count for Bullard?

We don't have that with us available today, but I can certainly follow up with that.

That would be good. The mayor and I travel Bullard all the time, and anyone coming out of gate SIX, NO, FOUR. I'M SORRY, GATE FOUR OUT OF PEBBLE CREEK. IT'S EXTREMELY BUSY. I KNOW YOU TOLD THE MAYOR THAT AT VIRGINIA AND BULLARD, IT HAS THE ABILITY TO DO IT, BUT IT CAN'T DO IT. AND I'VE TALKED TO STEVE FOR YEARS ABOUT CAMBRIDGE. THE SAME THING. WE SIT THERE, AND THERE'S NO CARS GOING UP AND DOWN BULLARD ON THE WEEKEND OR EVEN AT NIGHT. nothing is done, we still sit there. And I don't care if there's 15 of us lined up to turn left on Bullard, the light still stays red. And you keep telling me that it's doing what it's supposed to do, so whatever. Can you please tell me what the count is on Indian School? That seems to be a very, very, very busy entrance into the city of Goodyear. When you hit Dysart on Indian School, YOU STOP AT THE LIGHT GOING INTO LITCHFIELD, YOU STOP AT THE LIGHT AT THE POST OFFICE, YOU STOP AT THE LIGHT AT THE CHURCH, YOU STOP AT THE LIGHT ON LITCHFIELD ROAD. AND THE SAME THING IS ON INDIAN SCHOOLS WHEN YOU'RE COMING DOWN from probably, I would say, well, even past the hospital, from Dysart, you stop at the hospital. No, you stop at the tire store, then you stop at the hospital, and then you stop one more time, and then you finally get to Litchfield Road. It seems that we're just not doing anything on those particular. Maybe to you it's not an arterial, but those of us using Indian School to get into Goodyear, to stay off of the freeway because the freeway is so god-awful, And it's dangerous. So are y'all watching those lights? Is somebody looking at them?

Mayor, Council Member Campbell, absolutely. That's one of the coordinated corridors in the city. And it is one of the areas that once we go through this pilot, we'll be looking to expand the technology if it's working as we hope that it'll work.

Okay, do you have any traffic signals that when you drive up that it'll change the light, that there's a strip, I guess, buried and it comes up like some of the other cities do? Do we have that capability anywhere in Goodyear? And if so, where is it?

Yes, Council Member Campbell, we do have that capability. It's not detected in a strip, but the cameras and or the radar for our fully actuated intersections, absolutely. The detected vehicles as they arrive, and there is timing associated with it, so it doesn't change instantly if you're not on a... a main thoroughfare. For the side streets, you can expect to wait longer, but there absolutely is that technology. And that's what aids us with this new software in allowing us to do essentially calculations on it much more quickly.

Okay. Do you have, do we have the capability anywhere in Goodyear to drive on any street and make every light if we go 27 miles an hour or 32 miles an hour or something?

So there are scenarios where you can make every light on a certain coordinated corridor in the city. It depends highly on the amount of traffic at the time, how long it's been since you entered the corridor and things of that nature, but that is possible. That's what it's designed to do. But there are times where you might have different scenarios where you only make three or four lights, then you have to wait for one, and then it starts over.

Yeah, sometimes the most complaints we get is the traffic and the lights and the inability to move quickly. Of course, I've lived here 26 years. I know what it's like. And I don't mind that we are busier. But what I mind is I don't want to sit in traffic and wait and wait and wait and wait. And it seems to me that because the Dysart corridor has been so busy around Walmart, In-N-Out, they've changed those traffic light signals where they're moving traffic right very quickly through that intersection. And I don't know if Dysart's considered an arterial because I thought Litchfield Road would be an arterial, but apparently it is not an arterial. So I don't know if we could ever do anything like that.

Absolutely. It is considered an arterial and Litchfield Road is coordinated. They are directional. So depending on what direction, you'll have a more, I guess, more green time in the mornings heading to the freeway and then the evenings heading away from the freeway in general. But we do review those. TO MAKE SURE THAT IT'S KEEPING UP WITH THE CHANGES IN THE CITY. SURE. THIS ADAPTIVE SOFTWARE, HOWEVER, CAN MINIMIZE THE TIME ON THOSE REVIEWS BECAUSE IT DOES THE CALCULATIONS FOR US MUCH MORE QUICKLY. THAT'S THE IDEA.

I KNOW THOUSAND OF PERSONNEL ON LITCHFIELD ROAD TO GET THEM TO LOOP EVERY DAY. AND SOME OF THOSE FOLKS HAVE BEEN COMPLAINING THAT IT JUST TAKES THEM FOREVER TO GET. BUT THEN, OF COURSE, I TELL THEM AFTER THEY PASS WIGWAM, IT'S NOT OUR RESPONSIBILITY. THEY CAN TALK TO LITCHFIELD. So they just are still concerned that it's taking them a lot longer because we do have some of our airmen that live up in EMR, and they come down on their motorcycles to go to work, and they just want to get there safely and quickly. So, okay, I'll be anxious to see the pictures that you can show me. And we have 122 traffic lights, huh? No. That's not very many for a city as big as we are. We have 165,000 people, I don't think. Okay. Have we got more planned in the CIP in certain locations? I think we're still waiting for one for Citrus and Indian School for Microsoft. And of course, we've been waiting on that, what, five years now? And maybe someday it'll be in there and also Perryville. Because Indian School is very, very busy going into Buckeye. A lot of people go up there and go into Verado that way. So I just hope we can get those lights in to safely move these people so they're not sitting there for half a mile in a line.

Absolutely. And we do have at least ten signals in the current five-year CIP. Development's installing some as well. We can get you that information if you'd like.

Okay. Thank you. That'd be great.

Thanks. Anything else? I can imagine, though, Litchfield Road, when the city of Litchfield Park gets done with their roundabouts, the traffic is going to be a little slower getting up to the base. All right, well, thank you. Number two, next item to receive an update on the zoning ordinance rewrite. I guess Kenny's coming back up.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. This is the next item on here. Katie Knutson, Deputy City Manager. One of the areas I'm over responsible is development services as well. The item before you this evening is another fiscal year 2026 strategic plan project. This is related to rewriting our zoning ordinance. We are nearing the finish line of this 18 month effort. It did start right after we had gotten the general plan adoption back in 2024, about two years ago when we had 75% voter approval of our general plan the whole intent of this is obviously this our existing zoning ordinance isn't from 1999 so we've not updated significantly like this or rewrite since then but we are trying to modernize our codes and also do it in and get while engaging with our customers and so that's part of the effort of the length of it is to make sure we're talking with the development community and property owners to make sure that they are engaged in the process SO ONE OF THE THINGS AS WE'VE COME BACK A NUMBER OF TIMES TO COUNCIL IS TO TALK ABOUT ONE OF THE KEY PARTS OR TWO OF THE KEY PARTS OF THE UPDATES TO THE ZONING ORDINANCE ARE ABOUT BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS AND DATA CENTERS WHICH ARE NOT CURRENTLY INCLUDED SPECIFICALLY WITHIN OUR ZONING ORDINANCE. SO I KNOW THE TEAM IS GOING TO BE PROVIDING AN UPDATE ON THAT. AND OUR LAST TOUCH POINT WITH YOU ON THIS, IF EVERYTHING GOES WELL THIS EVENING, WE'LL BE COMING BACK FOR COUNCIL ADOPTION ON JULY 6TH. SO I'LL TURN IT OVER TO PLANNING MANAGER CHRISTIAN WILLIAMS AND DEPUTY DIRECTOR KIM BRADFORD.

THANK YOU. THANK YOU, KEENEY, AND GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND COUNCIL. CHRISTIAN WILLIAMS, PLANNING MANAGER. I LEFT YOU SOMETHING FUN ON YOUR DESK. IT'S A BINGO, JUST TO HAVE SOME TERMS THAT WE'RE GOING TO BE GOING OVER IN THE PRESENTATION. SO IF YOU DO WIN BINGO, I HAVE SOME SWAG FOR YOU AT THE END, BUT YOU DON'T NEED TO CALL IT OUT. JUST WRITE DOWN THE TIME AND I'LL GET TO YOU AFTER THIS. SO WE'LL GET RIGHT INTO IT. So the project kicked off about 18 months ago in January 2025, and during the update process, various community workshops and roundtables with the development community were held. We've also been holding one-on-ones with the council in one-on-one sessions and providing updates to that means as well. So drafts of the ordinance began to be released in March, with the full draft becoming first available in April. WE'VE ALSO RECEIVED FEEDBACK FROM RESIDENTS, WE'VE RECEIVED FEEDBACK FROM VARIOUS AGENCIES AND ORGANIZATIONS, PRIMARILY ON THE TOPIC OF BATTERY ENERGY STORAGE SYSTEMS AND DATA CENTERS, AS KENI MENTIONED. AND THIS IS DUE TO THE FACT THAT THE CITY DOES NOT CURRENTLY HAVE FORMAL STANDARDS FOR THESE USES. WITH THE UPDATE, THE USES AND THE DEVELOPMENT STANDARDS FOR THESE USES WILL ALL BE CODIFIED. AT THE MAY COMMUNITY WORKSHOP, ATTENDEES WERE ALSO MOST INTERESTED IN REGULATIONS RELATED TO BESTS AND DATA CENTERS, AND WE BELIEVE THE COMMENTS PROVIDED BY THE DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY BOTH ONLINE AND AT THE COMMUNITY WORKSHOP HAVE BEEN EVALUATED AND INCORPORATED INTO THE FINAL DRAFT. SIMILARLY, WE'VE RECEIVED FEEDBACK PROVIDED BY THE COUNCIL AT PREVIOUS WORK SESSIONS, AND WE BELIEVE THOSE COMMENTS HAVE BEEN ADDRESSED AS WELL. Today, we would like to summarize the modifications made on the topics that we brought before you at previous work sessions and highlight any additional major changes with the zoning ordinance update. So if you'll recall, we've had two previous work sessions related to the zoning ordinance update. At the first work session in November, we spoke about additional temporary signage allowances for businesses, expanded requirements for noticing area to reach more residents, and reviewed the use permit uses which can be permitted by right or with conditions with standards. And we also spoke about expanding housing opportunities in our single family districts. We did not receive significant comments from the development community on the proposed changes to those items. And at the second work session, which took place in March, we focused our discussion on standards and distance separations for battery energy storage systems as well as data centers. And we touched on other topics such as off-street parking and convenience uses. As mentioned on the last slide, a large portion, again, of the comments received were on battery energy storage systems and data centers. Thus, we'd like to provide an update on those specific topics and our proposed regulations. So to start off, let's kick it off with BESS. So BESS, or Battery Energy Storage Systems, has been a major topic of interest, as it has not previously addressed in our zoning ordinance. And since our last conversation, we have met with several members of the development community, and we believe that a compromise has been reached on our standards. We believe the compromise is acceptable to our fire department. It follows EPA regulations and guidance, and it also follows fire national standards. Of note, a major change that was made to the regulation since we last spoke is that when BEST is located next to industrial zoning districts, the distance that we are proposing is 100 feet. IT WILL RETAIN THE 150 FEET NEXT TO COMMERCIAL USES AND THE STARTING DISTANCE WOULD BE 330 WHEN ADJACENT TO RESIDENTIAL DISTRICTS. THAT NUMBER CAN BE REDUCED DOWN TO 150 THROUGH THE SPECIAL USE PERMIT PROCESS WITH THE INCLUSION OF A PLUME AND TOXIC GASES STUDY. AND AGAIN, THOSE ARE ALL AT COUNCIL'S DISCRETION. THEY WOULD GO THROUGH THE SPECIAL USE PERMIT PROCESS, AND THOSE ARE PERMITTED USES IN I-1 AND I-2, WHICH ARE OUR INDUSTRIAL USES, OUR DISTRICTS.

CHRISTIAN, I GOT A QUESTION. YES. I HEARD FROM APS TODAY, AND IT'S MY UNDERSTANDING THAT BEFORE THEY DO ANYTHING, THEY DO A PLUME STUDY. SO MY QUESTION IS, IF THEY'RE GOING TO DO A STUDY, AND WE'RE GOING TO DO A STUDY, Is there a possibility that the two can go hand-in-hand and do those studies as opposed to two separate studies?

Great question. So the city is not conducting the plume study. It's a requirement of the submittal. So if APS is going to be doing a plume study, they would provide that with the SUP application for staff in the fire department to evaluate.

Thank you.

You're welcome. All right, and that's a high level on this. Moving to data centers, that's our next topic we received the most comments on, mainly from our existing customers whom we are working with, and we're confident that they meet our proposed standards. Since the last work session, we have retained the 300 foot separation from residential uses to protect our residents, particularly from noise generated at those facilities. The distance is consistent with the existing 300 foot residential separation we have for other noise sensitive uses. and such as live entertainment and things of that nature. And the existing data centers in our city all exceed currently that 300 foot separation from residential. We've also addressed overall noise more broadly in our zoning ordinance. So it's not targeted just at data centers. It is a general noise provision for any use that might have noises that would impact your residents or our commercial uses.

Real quick, on your noise, is it decibels? You have certain levels of decibels that you're setting for that? We do. For certain distance? Yes. And what is that?

It varies based on the use type that it's adjacent to, but one of the things they'll do is they'll study what is the existing noise in the area and how are they... IMPACTING THOSE NOISES IN THE AREA.

IT'S MY UNDERSTANDING SOME OF THOSE DIESEL, I GUESS, GENERATORS CAN GET KIND OF NOISY.

ABSOLUTELY, YES. AND OUR RESIDENTS ARE A PRIORITY WHEN WE'RE MAKING SURE THAT THOSE ARE KEPT TO A MINIMUM.

Okay, go ahead.

How does that affect like events around the ballpark for the housing that we're proposing around there? I assume housing wants it to be a quieter decimal use than maybe another use like agriculture. So as I make sure that you have anything around our entertainment areas, we're bringing density into that means a higher level or something like that where they're notified that, hey, this is a higher level noise area that before you rent or purchase a home here that this is going to be a normal area. normal thing so yes all that's in there or not so i'm just thinking the ballpark around just around here things like that that we want entertainment our parks any park could be live music things like that too so just to make sure that that's there's leeway in there that we're not shooting our foot giving ourselves enough enough leeway there yes and just for your information on the ballpark there are actually a lot of developments in there with disclosures that let them know you're

WE'RE LETTING YOU KNOW THAT THERE WILL BE FIREWORKS, THERE WILL BE ROAD CLOSURES, THINGS OF THAT NATURE. SO A LOT OF THE DEVELOPMENT, PARTICULARLY IN GSQ AND BALLPARK. the residents are made aware that it's a noisier area and it's meant to be a noisier area.

Yeah, I just want to limit things in the area because we put a housing development there and now we can't do an outdoor event. I don't know what that could be. I'm trying to think. What would be the loudest monster truck? I don't know. I don't know what would be the loudest thing I can think of that would be potential entertainment use in an area that's near residential. So I'm just trying to make sure that we... that we have enough leeway in there to do any entertainment thing that we might want to potentially do in the future. Thank you. Great comments. Appreciate it.

Anything else before we go on data? Anything? Go ahead.

All right. So we're moving on to noticing requirements. So although we did not receive feedback on the proposed changes for noticing requirements, we want to highlight this topic as well. With the update, we propose to increase the noticing area from our current 500 foot noticing buffer to 600 for all application types that require a public hearing, with the exception of planned area developments. WHICH DOES NOT INCLUDE PAD OVERLAYS. PADS WOULD REQUIRE A NOTICING DISTANCE OF 1,200 FEET, CONSIDERING THAT PAD APPLICATIONS REQUEST DEVIATIONS FROM ESTABLISHED ZONING DISTRICTS AND STANDARDS AND ARE VERY UNIQUE IN THEIR NATURE. OTHER IMPROVEMENTS WERE ALSO MADE SUCH AS CODIFYING THE FACT THAT WE CURRENTLY NOTIFY HOAs. WE DO THAT BY PRACTICE. WE'RE EMBEDDING THAT INTO THE CODE, SO IT WOULD BE EXPECTED THAT WE'RE ALWAYS NOTICING THOSE HOAs WHEN THEY'RE WITHIN THOSE DISTANCE BUFFERS. AND HERE'S A COUPLE OF ADDITIONAL HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE ZONING ORDINANCE. THE NEW ZONING ORDINANCE WILL INCLUDE ADDITIONAL HOUSING OPTIONS, CREATING HOME BUILDER FLEXIBILITY WHILE PROVIDING HOUSING DIVERSITY. TEMPORARY SIGNAGE TYPES AND DURATIONS ARE EXPANDED TO PROVIDE BUSINESSES AND MULTIFAMILY WITH MORE OPTIONS TO PROMOTE THEIR MILESTONES AND SPECIAL PROMOTIONS. SOME OF THAT REFINED LANGUAGE AROUND SIGNAGE IS ALSO NOW AVAILABLE IN THE PUBLIC HEARING DRAFT, WHICH I WILL TOUCH ON ON THE NEXT SLIDE. We have reviewed the parking standards to meet industry standards and create opportunities to reduce parking requirements for mixed-use walkable areas and affordable or age-restricted communities with the support of parking studies and parking management plans so that we can create flexibility where a parking study demonstrates the need for reduction while also protecting our residential neighborhoods nearby. Staff reviewed recent rezonings for use permit cases as well as past council decisions to ensure this update reflects current expectations and directions. And with that guidance, we've modernized and clarified our convenience use standards, including drive-throughs, auto repair, and car washes. We've examined PADs and PAD overlays related to industrial height and to reduce the need for case-by-case overlays. We've added flexibility directly into the base industrial districts to help users such as data centers who have previously relied on PAD overlays to achieve height necessary for screening of mechanical equipment that is now baked into the zoning code. And for multifamily project, we also looked at some recent height requests intended to support those higher floor luxury ceilings heights and more distinctive roof lines. And we refined where and how we add height so that it's not impacting our nearby single family residential areas, but we're adding design into that additional height so that we can maintain the residential character our Goodyear residents have asked for and not have a boxy appearance of buildings if we're offering that additional height. And again, to streamline the process, if a property is already zoned and an applicant is only seeking minor changes to development standards through a PAD overlay, we've streamlined that process a little bit. And any changes would still come to council for adoption. TAKEN TOGETHER, THIS ENTIRE UPDATE REDUCES THE RELIANCE ON PADS AND PAD OVERLAYS. WE'VE CLARIFIED EXPECTATIONS FOR THE APPLICANTS. WE PROVIDED MORE PREDICTABILITY FOR OUR COMMUNITY. AND BEYOND HEIGHTENED DESIGN, THE UPDATED ORDINANCE INCLUDES UPDATES TO LAND USE AND OUR GENERAL DEFINITIONS. IT MODERNIZES RESIDENTIAL, COMMERCIAL, AND INDUSTRIAL LAND USES. THEY'RE NOW IN TABLES, WHICH IS HOPEFULLY EASIER FOR OUR COMMUNITY COUNCIL AND THE PUBLIC TO UNDERSTAND, AND WE'VE CREATED MORE GRAPHICS THROUGHOUT THE DOCUMENTS SO THAT WE'RE BEING MORE OBJECTIVE IN OUR STANDARDS.

I THINK YOU HAD A QUESTION.

SO ON THE MORE HOUSING OPTIONS, I KNOW MANUFACTURED HOMES ARE IN THERE. IS THERE A LEVEL OF QUALITY OR LOOK THAT WE HAVE BAKED INTO THERE AS WELL?

YES. MANUFACTURED, IF IT'S NOT IN A MANUFACTURED HOME SUBDIVISION, IF IT'S ON AN AG OR AU LOT, STILL NEEDS TO MEET THE DESIGN STANDARDS. HOWEVER, IT DOES GIVE THE ZONING ADMINISTRATOR SOME DISCRETION ON CERTAIN DESIGN ELEMENTS BASED ON COMMUNITY CHARACTER.

OKAY. THERE'S A LOT OF DIFFERENCES BETWEEN SUPER HIGH END AND THEN A SINGLE WIDE OR LESS. SO I'M JUST TRYING TO MAKE SURE WE HAVE HIGHER QUALITY. DOES THIS HAVE TO HAVE A GARAGE WITH THEM?

YES, THEY WOULD FOLLOW THE GARAGE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE UNDERLYING ZONING DISTRICT. SO IF A SINGLE FAMILY HOME IS IN AN AU DISTRICT AND REQUIRES A GARAGE, A MANUFACTURING HOME WOULD FOLLOW THE SAME STANDARDS. OKAY. I WAS TRYING TO THINK OF WHAT THAT WOULD LOOK LIKE.

I'M OKAY WITH OTHER OPTIONS BECAUSE THERE ARE SOME SUPER HIGH QUALITY. I JUST WANT TO MAKE SURE WE'RE NOT CREATING a county island look and feel to it. So make sure that we're actually, it still looks like Goodyear when you drive into it. Absolutely. All right. Thank you. Vicki?

Just while I'm thinking about it, is a carport considered a garage? It is not. Covered carport?

It would not be considered a garage.

It's not. And we make that very clear to people.

Absolutely. Okay.

Just a real quick question. If they are, I'm just throwing out a number. If they have 14 units on the multifamily, to go above that, if that's what it's zoned for, they'd have to come back before us. Regardless, the height that you're talking about is just, what do you call it? Like top, not flat roofs, but, you know, pitch roofs and that type of stuff. But if they were already zoned for 14 and they want to come back to 20, they have to come before us.

Yes, sir. Okay.

Anything else at this? All good? You got a question, Bill? I have a question.

I'm sorry. Christian, I should have asked you. You said that when we're going to send out notices to 1,200 feet?

Just for PADs. Right.

So how big is that? How many football fields?

Oof.

Divided by three?

Four? Three to four?

So it could be development that's a mile away from whatever they're talking about.

It wouldn't be a mile. It's about a fourth of a mile.

About a fourth of a mile? Yes. Okay. I just don't want us to overdo it. I mean, if it's going to impact them, that's one thing. But if they're far enough away, I don't know if we needed to go to 1,200 feet versus 600.

It would be almost the distance from, if I'm doing the math in my head right, I-10 in Estrella to the light to go into Wal-Mart. ABOUT THAT DISTANCE.

OKAY. I GOT IT. ALL RIGHT. AND ARE THERE OTHER CITIES AT 1,200?

THE CITIES RANGE, BUT FOR SOME OF THE OTHER CITIES, WHEN THEY HAVE LARGER LAND AREAS, THEY GO UP INTO THE 1,500, 1,200 RANGE, AND THAT'S WHY WE CHOSE A P.A.D. BECAUSE THOSE TYPICALLY ARE LARGER MASTER PLANS.

THEY ARE, RIGHT.

YES. AND THEY'RE DEVIATING FROM OUR STANDARDS MORE SO THAN NOT.

OKAY. GREAT. AND MY LAST QUESTION, I'M SORRY, AND I SHOULD HAVE ASKED THIS ABOUT THE FLUME STUDY. Who does a flume study? Do we have a flume company anywhere in Goodyear or Arizona or what?

I'm not certain if we have one in Goodyear, but the applicant, the onus of that study would be on the applicant to hire that third party that's willing to stamp and state that this document has been verified and they've looked at all the modeling and the wins and all that to give staff the ability to then research it with our friends in the fire department.

Okay, then does that flume certificate come before council to talk about it, or does fire have the final say-so?

Council always has a final say. It would be a consideration we would have within the special use permit, but that would come before council, and you would also receive a copy of that narrative, which would have some information.

Okay. We just need to be sure that fire is absolutely included in all of this because they're the ones that are going to be responsible should they have to respond to it.

Absolutely.

And I don't want us to make any shortcuts or make it easier for a developer to build something and make it harder for our fire department to respond.

Yeah. AND THAT'S, AGAIN, A LOT OF THESE STANDARDS ARE BECAUSE THEIR LIVES ARE VERY IMPORTANT, AND WE WANT TO MAKE SURE THAT THEY'RE ALWAYS SAFE.

OKAY, THANK YOU. THAT'S IT. ARE WE OKAY? YOU GOT A QUESTION ON THIS PARTICULAR?

ALL RIGHT. SO NEXT STEP. SO IN FOLLOWING STATE LAW, THE PUBLIC HEARING DRAFT WAS PUBLISHED TO INCLUDE SEVERAL REFINEMENTS BEYOND THE WORK SESSION VERSION THAT HAPPENED OVER THE WEEKEND SO THAT WE ARE IN COMPLIANCE WITH STATE LAW. SPECIFICALLY ADDRESSING INFRASTRUCTURE CAPACITY DISCLAIMERS, CLEANING UP NOTICING RADIUSES, STAKEHOLDER DRIVEN BEST REFINEMENTS, ADMINISTRATIVE FLEXIBILITY FOR MULTI-PHASE DATA CENTER POWER LOAD DOCUMENTATION, AND MODERNIZED STANDARDS FOR RESIDENTIAL ASSEMBLY, HOUSEKEEPING, AND PROPERTY MAINTENANCE and updates to signage to make sure we're fully in compliance with Reed v. Gilbert. Following this work session, the draft rewrite of the zoning ordinance will be presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission during a public hearing on Wednesday, July 1st, for a recommendation to the City Council, and the City Council will be provided with an opportunity in a public hearing to make the final decision on Monday, July 6th. And at the public hearing, if there are any further clarifying revisions that happen between now and that meeting, you'll receive a red line copy to show any changes between the public hearing version that's now published and what is being brought before you for a recommendation. We're just making sure we're crossing our T's and dotting our I's. And in conclusion, our goal of this zoning ordinance update is to take a proactive, comprehensive look at how our community is growing and how we can best support growth. The ordinance, again, has not been fully updated since 1999. I was in elementary school then. So this is definitely an opportunity to modernize the document, align it with our current needs, and to ensure the community's long-term vision is supported. THROUGH THIS PROCESS WE'VE BEEN MINDFUL OF SEVERAL KEY PRIORITIES SUCH AS SUPPORTING DIVERSE HOUSING OPTIONS THAT MEET BOTH THE CURRENT NEED AND OUR FUTURE RESIDENTS NEED AND PROVIDING OPTIONS FOR THE STATE SO THAT WE CONTROL LOCAL CONTROL, ALLOWING SPACES FOR NEW BUSINESSES AND ECONOMIC INNOVATION, STREAMLINING THE DEVELOPMENT PROCESS TO IMPROVE PREDICTABILITY AND EFFICIENCY FOR OUR APPLICANTS AND ENCOURAGING CREATIVE AND INNOVATION IN HOW WE DEAL WITH LAND USE. AND AGAIN, THE GOAL'S BEEN TO STRENGTHEN OUR TRUST WITH OUR RESIDENTS OR DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY AND FOLLOW OUR GENERAL PLAN. AND WHILE THIS UPDATE WE THINK IS VERY FORWARD-THINKING, WE RECOGNIZE THAT WE'LL ALWAYS FIND SOMETHING AFTER THE FACT. SO YOU CAN ANTICIPATE THAT WE'LL COME BACK BEFORE YOU WITH SOME ZONING ORDINANCE TEXT AMENDMENTS. WE'LL BE KEEPING A RUNNING LOG, AND WE'LL MAKE SURE THAT WE'RE NOT DOING A 1999-STYLE UPDATE 27 YEARS LATER, BUT WE'RE BEING A LITTLE BIT MORE PROACTIVE AS WE LEARN MORE AND TECHNOLOGY EVOLVES. WITH THAT, HAPPY TO ANSWER ANY QUESTIONS.

VICKI? OKAY, CHRISTIAN, I HAVE A COUPLE OF QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BEST PROJECTS. YES. Okay, so the plume study for sure, I know an applicant that's going to be coming to us, they're doing that study. They're going to have that study. And then that comes to us. Now, I know that several people on this board, on this panel, have gone to the Pluto project and checked that out. I went and saw that not long ago. And we went, we did pictures, we checked in the gate, out of the gate, 100 feet, 300 feet to see if we could hear it. IS THAT WHAT IS REALLY COMING BEFORE EVERYBODY IS THE NOISE LEVEL? IS THAT WHAT THEY'RE TRYING TO SAY, THE NOISE LEVEL? OR IS IT THEY'RE AFRAID OF TOXICITY OR WHATEVER'S GOING ON THERE? WHAT EXACTLY IS THEIR QUESTION?

SO WE'VE UPDATED NOISE BECAUSE THERE ARE GENERAL COMMUNITY CONCERNS ABOUT NOISE THAT INDUSTRIAL USES OR NEW USES CAN CAUSE. SO WE'RE MAKING SURE THAT WE'RE JUST STANDARDIZING THAT NOISE LANGUAGE ACROSS ALL OF THOSE TYPES OF INDUSTRIAL USES. AND THEN WE'RE JUST BEING MINDFUL THAT TECHNOLOGY IS EVOLVING. We've been looking at all the research and the distance requirements we're setting to make sure that we're being conservative, but also being practical with what the market is, with what safety and market is saying.

Right. Because as I've told you before, I wasn't for these in the beginning because I've been dealing with these in Washington state for over two or three years now. Now with the technology and everything that's come along, I am much more EXCITED ABOUT THEM AND WHAT'S BEING OFFERED AND WHAT WE'RE GOING TO NEED EVENTUALLY BECAUSE WE'RE RUNNING OUT OF POWER. I REALLY BELIEVED WE WENT 100 FEET, WE WENT 300 FEET. I WAS IN THE WEEDS TAKING PICTURES LITERALLY TO PROVE THAT WE HAD DONE THIS. THE GATES WERE CLOSED. I WOULD LIVE NEXT DOOR TO ONE OF THESE. I COULD HEAR NOTHING. AND THAT WAS MY MAIN THING IS FOR CONSTITUENTS. CAN WE HEAR THIS? 300 feet seems like, 330 feet seems like a lot, just because I think they said 150 feet is what they were trying to go for, and that's what you're going for for commercial, or is that correct?

150 for commercial, yes.

Right, that's what I said. And so why can't we do that then also with residential buildings?

They can through the plume study. That is our safety net.

So when that comes back, that's what really tells us what's going on then.

That is a very helpful tool for the city to understand how that's been modeled and what the impact to residential could be.

And so it's to the applicant's, obviously, discretion and to their good to do that study.

Absolutely.

And we need that study to... DO THIS, CORRECT?

IF THEY WANT TO REDUCE BELOW 330 NEXT TO RESIDENTIAL, THEY'LL NEED TO PROVIDE THE PLUME CITY, ABSOLUTELY.

OKAY, THAT'S WHAT I WANTED TO KNOW, BECAUSE TO ME, 150 FEET WAS Plenty. 150 feet, we couldn't even hear it. And the thing is, have we had people, has the staff gone out there and checked that Pluto project out and walked through there and checked the noise level themselves?

We've had several. And noise is generally with the batteries is not the main, that wasn't the main driver of the noise.

No, we were not. Yes, yes. Yeah. So you guys have done that?

Yes.

Okay. That would be my main thing is that we know what's going on before we start, you know, casting judgments. Okay, so this will come back to us on the 6th, you said?

Yes, ma'am.

Okay, and is that when the project's going to come back to us, possibly, too?

We do not have an application in right now, so that is, if there's a pending project, there's no application in today.

Okay, so we'll know more after that. Okay, thank you. Anybody else?

Yes. Christopher, I'd like to see whatever they have, everyone else apparently has seen. Did they do a tour of another battery storage area?

I'm not aware of any tours. I would say our team, though, the planning, the development services staff, as that facility was inspected and went online, several members of our building team and our planning team went to the site to make sure that it was built appropriately. I'd like to see it.

We'll get you a tour, Wally. Go ahead.

Thank you, Mayor. I guess top level here on the stakeholder process, I know I came on board in January of 25. It was probably a month or two later we started having meetings on this. So I know this has been a process for a long time. Since we've had KIND OF A SOLID DRAFT OF THIS UPDATE. WHAT HAS OUR STAKEHOLDER PROCESS BEEN THROUGHOUT OUR COMMUNITY AND THE REGION AS FAR AS BEST PRACTICES? I KNOW THE COUNTY JUST DID A ZONING UPDATE THAT THEY FINALIZED I THINK LESS THAN SIX MONTHS AGO, MAYBE SOMETHING LIKE THAT. WHERE HAVE WE FALLEN IN THAT? AND THEN SINCE THERE HAS BEEN A, I GUESS, NEAR FINAL DRAFT, ARE WE CONTINUING TO ENGAGE WITH STAKEHOLDERS THAT MAY BE FINE-TUNING SOME THINGS HERE AND THERE? IS THAT STILL HAPPENING, OR ARE WE PRETTY MUCH MOVING WITH WHAT WE HAVE BEFORE US?

GREAT QUESTION. SO OUR CONSULTANT WHO'S IN THE ROOM ACTUALLY WORKED WITH THE COUNTY ON THEIR CONFERENCE OF PLANS. MY OPINION WOULD BE WE'RE VERY COMPARABLE TO THE PROCESS IN PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT OUTREACH THAT WE'VE DONE. WE WERE REFINING IT AS LATE AS, WELL, I WAS IN CITY HALL UNTIL 6 O'CLOCK ON FRIDAY SO THAT WE COULD GET THAT POSTED. SO WE'VE BEEN INCORPORATING COMMENTS AS LATE AS FRIDAY NIGHT. SO AT THIS POINT, THE DRAFT THAT WE HAVE, REALLY, THE REFINEMENTS YOU'RE LIKELY TO SEE WOULD BE ANY RED LINES WOULD BE A LITTLE BIT MORE CLEAR IF THERE'S COMMAS OR M-DASHES THAT NEED TO BE ADDED IN THERE. OKAY.

I DID HAVE, I THINK, TWO STAKEHOLDERS REACH OUT OVER THE WEEKEND JUST ASKING FOR CONTINUED TALKS ON A FEW THINGS TO BE FINE-TUNED, SO I WANTED TO AT LEAST THROW THAT OUT THERE. I CAN GET WITH YOU SPECIFICALLY ON IT. just want to make sure that when we have this out there and, you know, it's pretty clear this is where it's moving. I know early on in the process, you know, everybody wants an updated zoning ordinance. Everybody recognizes the need to, you know, move into this, you know, NEW CENTURY OR MILLENNIUM. BUT IT'S WHEN YOU GET TO THOSE FINE DETAILS THAT I KNOW PEOPLE GET A LOT MORE OPINIONATED. I CAN GET A LOT MORE OPINIONATED. SO I JUST WANT TO ENCOURAGE THAT I do want to encourage that we continue to hear out any major issues any stakeholders in our community could possibly have. Whether it gets added or not or whether there's amendments in the future or it's just a case-by-case basis, that's fine. I just want to make sure that we're not shutting it off because I know just looking at the timeline since last summer, a year ago, making sure that we've BEEN DIRECTLY ENGAGED AT THAT LEVEL, I THINK IT'S QUITE IMPORTANT, ESPECIALLY ONCE THERE'S DRAFTS ALREADY OUT THERE. SO THAT'S ALL I HAVE ON IT.

ALL RIGHT. A COUPLE THINGS. SO I'LL START WITH THE DATA CENTERS. KIND OF PIGGYBACK ON WHAT TRACE SAID. Just want to make sure that we're talking to the stakeholders again before we finalize it, specifically Microsoft. I don't know if you guys can work with Microsoft between now and then, but just some little points I think that they're working on.

Yes, they're one of our existing users, so we're working with them directly and working with our director, Katie Wilkin. We have no doubts that we can...

accommodate whatever they're trying to continue to do great yeah i appreciate it because there's gonna be more and more of this like i said i appreciate your your flexibility also and then with the this kind of data center with a noise study are we going off I know the BESS had noise study also, so maybe conversation for both, but are we going off of steady state times, or are we going off of peak, where the peak noise might be, like if a backup generator fires off, that's different than it operating normally. So are we going, is there contingencies, or is there anything like, hey, wait, wait, Maybe you shouldn't run your backup generators for a month or whatever. Whatever it is, that creates a lot more noise than, for example, just a steady state running facility. I know you can't control always backup generators and things, but just curious how that works with the data centers. I don't think best centers, they might have maybe a backup generator, but I doubt it. But just kind of curious peak times versus steady state times and if we thought of both of those.

We have. There are specific guidelines in there specifically concerning the backup generators, the time of their operation, and the notifications to the community as it relates to those generators going off. And we actually, as late as Friday, in looking at Microsoft specifically, have looked at the language as it relates to their distance from residential. So we've made refinements that are now available in the public hearing draft that address the generators.

Yeah, because, I mean, there's... I know APS, I think they have mufflers, they have different, I mean, they produce a lot more pollution, for example, other things like that. They have systems in place that you can limit some of those as well. So that's to make sure that they're learning from other users when they're doing that as well. That's what I have for that. Yeah, just different noise types. And then, YEAH, I THINK THAT'S ABOUT IT FOR SOMETHING ELSE, BUT I CAN'T REMEMBER RIGHT NOW. BUT, YEAH, THE FLEXIBILITY WITH EVERYTHING THAT YOU HAVE GOING ON HERE. I COULDN'T FIND EXACTLY WHAT THE EXPANDED DISTANCES OR TIMES WERE FOR GRAND OPENINGS AND THINGS LIKE THAT IN THE in just the short list here. So I might want just more information on that, too, as well, just what that would look like. So I want to make sure our business owners have enough time to be able to highlight their business for certain special events or purposes or things like that also, without being limited, like compared to other cities. All right. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Laura?

I remember when we started this process, it seemed like a long way to go. And we've had these work sessions. And while we haven't been a part of your stakeholder and community sessions, the things that we've talked about here at the council level, it's really gratifying to see them incorporated. So we've been heard and appreciate that you've taken the time to really delve into that. For the public listening, BESS is a whole new realm that has entered our vocabulary. And I've spent a lot of time, probably this last year, really delving into water and energy to a new level and have come to find out that if you're going to have renewable energy, you really have to have BESS. Because if you've got solar, you've got to have somewhere to store the energy. And I've also learned that our utilities TO HELP THE RATE PAYER SAVE MONEY, THEY WILL BUY ENERGY ON THE MARKET WHEN IT'S AT LOW OR NEGATIVE PRICING WHICH IS WHEN CALIFORNIA PAYS YOU TO TAKE IT. AND THEN THEY'RE ABLE TO DO THAT TO HELP KEEP THE RATE SLOW BY STORING IT IN THE BEST TO RELEASE IT LATER. AND SO IT REALLY IS A PART OF ARIZONA'S WHOLE ENERGY APPROACH TO HELPING TO FUEL THE TECHNOLOGY, THE SILICON DESERT OR WHATEVER WE'RE BECOMING KNOWN AS. AT OUR MARCH WORK SESSION, I DID ASK WHEN WE TALKED ABOUT DISTANCE, WOULD YOU COME BACK WITH STANDARDS THAT REALLY WERE BASED ON INDUSTRY STANDARDS, AND YOU'VE DONE THAT. SO I WANTED TO THANK YOU FOR the work in doing that, because I know you had to dig in and to research, but appreciate it. And I also just wanted to thank, we have a lot of regional partners that have also gotten involved in the topic of water, energy, data centers, and BESS. SUCH AS ASU, THE SOUTHWEST VALLEY REGIONAL CHAMBER, WESTMARK, LEADERSHIP WEST. WE'VE GOT GREAT PARTNERS AT APS SRP THAT HAVE SPENT A LOT OF TIME MAKING THEMSELVES AVAILABLE, ANSWERING QUESTIONS, AS WELL AS PEOPLE WHO ARE ACTUALLY IN THE ENERGY BUSINESS, EITHER TOURING PEOPLE OR, YOU KNOW, ALLOWING US TO ASK THEM THE HARD QUESTIONS ABOUT THINGS THAT CONCERN US. AND SO THAT HAS BEEN REALLY GOOD. I DO HAVE A QUESTION, AND WE HAVE PROJECTS UNDERWAY THAT ARE GOING TO BE IMPACTED BY THIS ZONING ORDINANCE. SO WHAT HAPPENS WHEN WE ADOPT IT AND YOU'VE GOT PROJECTS UNDERWAY? HOW ARE YOU GOING TO CONSIDER WHERE THEY FALL UNDER THE STANDARDS? AND I'M NOT, MAYBE IT'S DATA CENTERS, MAYBE IT'S BEST, BUT IT COULD BE ANYTHING. SO JUST IN GENERAL.

Yes, if they're approved projects and actively being constructed, they would not be impacted by this ordinance.

Is there a percentage of how far along they are, or what is your standard?

Great question. Well, you ask a very interesting question, and I did look at some of the projects we have in the queue right now, and even with our updated standards, I don't believe any of them are truly going to be impacted because the standards didn't drastically change. Even when we look at the data centers, for example, THE ONES WE HAVE CURRENTLY IN THE CITY MEET THE STANDARD. AND MICROSOFT HAS SOME UNIQUE QUESTIONS, AND WE'RE GOING TO BE WORKING WITH THEM CLOSELY. SO I DON'T ANTICIPATE MANY PROJECTS EVEN FLINCHING THAT.

EVEN COMMERCIAL OR OTHERS UNDERWAY?

ESPECIALLY IF THEY'RE APPROVED, YEAH.

OKAY. VERY GOOD. I DID NOTICE THAT PUBLIC ART WAS ENCOURAGED IN DATA CENTERS OR BEST, AND THAT WAS VERY EXCITING. THE HOUSING DIVERSITY CONSIDERATION, THAT DOES INCLUDE MOBILE, OUR GOOD NEIGHBORS DOWN SOUTH IN MOBILE. SO APPRECIATE THAT. AND THANKS FOR THE WORK. AND YOU'RE RIGHT, AS SOON AS YOU'RE DONE, IT'S NOT GOING TO BE COMPLETELY FINISHED BECAUSE THE WORLD WILL CHANGE OR THINGS WILL COME UP. IT'S BEEN QUITE A TREMENDOUS PROJECT, AND WE'RE DEFINITELY GETTING CLOSER. SO THANK YOU.

I'M SURE WE'LL BE BACK.

YES.

ARE WE GOOD? WE STILL GOT ONE MORE. THE LAST ITEM IS TO RECEIVE AN UPDATE ON THE AMENDMENTS TO THE GOODYEAR CITY CODE OF ORDINANCE CHAPTERS 1, 14, AND 18.

GOOD EVENING, MAYOR AND COUNCIL. BACK UP HERE AGAIN WHILE BARB AND MICHELLE COME UP TO THE TABLE. THIS IS ANOTHER VERY IMPORTANT TOPIC THIS EVENING. WATER, AS YOU ALL KNOW, IS A PRECIOUS RESOURCE. AND FOR A GROWING CITY LIKE OURS, IT'S VERY IMPORTANT THAT WE'RE NOT JUST THINKING ABOUT HOW WE'RE GOING TO CONTINUE TO PROVIDE WATER TO OUR EXISTING USERS, BUT HOW DO WE MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE WATER RESOURCES AVAILABLE FOR UNDEVELOPED PARCELS FOR THAT FUTURE GROWTH TO BE ABLE TO SUPPORT THAT. AND LIKE MANY OTHER CITIES IN THE VALLEY AND IN ARIZONA, WE'VE TAKEN STEPS TO BE ABLE TO TAKE A DIFFERENT APPROACH ON HOW WE ARE GOING TO ALLOCATE AND ENSURE FAIR ALLOCATION OF WATER THROUGHOUT OUR CITY. And if you remember back in April of last year, a water allocation policy came before you. Council did adopt that. So what we've been working on over the last year is the enabling ordinance, the legal framework to be able to enact the policy that was Council adopted last April. So it does take a while to be able to review what other cities are doing and have done, and also to be able to work with our stakeholder partners in the development community and property owners to be able to come forward with an ordinance that has been vetted with that group as well. So tonight to present the ordinance changes, and I will tell you that if everything goes well, we'll be coming back on July 6th as well for adoption of those ordinance changes. But we have Barb Chappell, our Water Services Director, and Michelle Van Quatham, our Water Policy policy outside council as well. So they'll take you through the presentation. Thank you.

Thank you, Keeney. Tonight I want to go over some background on these ordinance updates, the purpose and scope, some of the key provisions, and the outreach that we've done over this past year. Then we'll follow up with next steps. SO AS YOU MAY RECALL, IN FISCAL YEAR 25, THERE WAS A STRATEGIC PLAN ACTION ITEM TO DEVELOP A WATER RESOURCE POLICY. AND THIS POLICY WAS TO PROACTIVELY MANAGE OUR WATER RESOURCES AND THERE'S A COPY OF THAT POLICY ATTACHED TO YOUR PACKET THIS EVENING. IT WAS ATTACHMENT B. SO WE UNDERSTAND WATER IS A FINITE RESOURCE AND THAT SOME OF THOSE WATER THAT ARE LEGALLY AVAILABLE TO THE CITY TODAY ARE UNDER JEOPARDY, ARE IN JEOPARDY DUE TO THE NEGOTIATIONS ON THE COLORADO RIVER. SO THOSE MAY BE BEING REDUCED. AND ANY AUGMENTATION PROJECTS THAT WE ARE SEEKING OR THAT ARE TRYING TO BE DEVELOPED WITHIN THE STATE ARE STILL MANY YEARS OUT. SO WE THOUGHT IT WAS IMPORTANT TO ADOPT THIS POLICY, AS DID MANY OTHER CITIES. SO ANOTHER ATTACHMENT IN YOUR PACKET THIS EVENING IS A STUDY THAT WAS DONE BY ASU'S KYELL CENTER FOR WATER RESOURCE OR POLICY, AND IT WAS ATTACHMENT C OF THE PACKET THIS EVENING, AND INCLUDES A SUMMARY OF SOME OF THOSE CITIES, NOT ALL OF THEM. SO THAT WATER RESOURCE POLICY WAS DRAFTED AND IS A MUCH EASIER WAY TO READ THAN TRYING TO READ THROUGH THE ORDINANCES WITH ALL THE STRIKETHROUGHS. SO WE ALSO INCLUDED THAT IN YOUR ATTACHMENT THIS EVENING. SO ONCE THAT POLICY WAS ADOPTED LAST MAY, ON THE 19TH, MAY 19, 2025, WE THEN TOOK THAT FRAMEWORK AND WORKING WITH LEGAL COUNSEL, GOT THE ORDINANCES WITHIN THE CITY'S CODE AMENDED. SO THE SCOPE, AGAIN, JUST FOR REMINDER, IT COVERS THE SCOPE OF THE UPDATES. primarily to enable us to implement and enforce the water resource policy that was adopted last May. And then also it covers the city's service areas, and specifically I wanted to point out the boxes here. Those are the areas we're talking about. So I'm going to let Michelle go over some of the key provisions of the ordinance.

So the ordinance really is consistent with the water allocation policy and it just fleshes out how does the city handle from point A to point B in the allocation process. We have made some definitions. The first one is for the existing user. We're grandfathering the existing water use, so people who are currently using water shouldn't be impacted. In order to figure out what that number is, we'll average their average water use over the last three years, so 23, 24, 25, and that will be sort of what they get to keep using. If somebody wants to, who's an existing user, wants to increase the use above their historic amount, they would then be essentially in the same categories, a new user for that delta, and they would have to apply to the city. And then we also did a new definition of a large water user that would cover somebody who's an existing user that increases above their allowance, or a new user that comes in and wants to use water in excess of what the city has put in the plan for their allowance. So really we're treating existing and new users very similarly. The process that they would go through, a couple different ways that could hit if you're a new user or you proactively want to come to the city and say I'm an existing user but I'd like to put in a new building and it's going to use X number of acre feet per year. then the city would be able to review that. If the use is within the plan amount, the maximum plan amount, then the staff could authorize the increase. If the increase is proposed above, though, the allocation in the plan, then it would have to go through the new large water user application process. And really whether water is given above that would be sort of initially determined by the staff, and it would be done based on a number of factors that are in the ordinance, cost benefit analysis, do we have the water, If we give the water to this use, what are we not able to do because the water's been given to this use and not that use? So all of those factors could be taken into account in determining whether the city wants to dedicate additional water resources to that use. If the city says no, the user would still be able to do the use if they want to, but they would be responsible for finding the water to support the amount over the city's allocation. And then, of course, I just want to point out in that description I did that it will ultimately be the council that will be deciding, you know, if there's going to be an overage in that large water use council because the ordinance requires that they have a city council approved agreement. So you're going to see those in probably a draft agreement form. And then, oh, I'd just add the last couple of bullets there. You'll see a lot of little tweaks in the statutes because, of course, you had lawyers reading them, and we needed a lot of little cleanups that we saw. Like, we noticed that all the appeal deadlines were inconsistent, so we tried to make those more consistent. We changed some definitions to match current practice. We updated the private well use a little bit to reflect the that we aren't automatically going to provide service to somebody if they can't get a private well, that they have to go through the process. So just some tweaks in there to kind of make everything consistent with current practice.

So once we got the draft together, THROUGHOUT THIS PROCESS. WE'VE DONE SEVERAL OUTREACHS. OBVIOUSLY LAST YEAR THE POLICY ITSELF WAS WORK SESSION AND ADOPTION. AND THEN DURING THE ORDINANCE DRAFTING OF THE AMENDMENTS, WE DID SEVERAL PRESENTATIONS AT THE DEVELOPER FORUM. THAT'S A QUARTERLY MEETING THAT DEVELOPMENT SERVICES HOSTS, AND THEY HAVE SEVERAL PEOPLE ON THEIR It's kind of a listserv, like their email address. They can attend. It's a hybrid, so we had people virtual and in-person. We followed up with some in-person meetings with the Valley Partnership, met with them a couple times. They even brought some others, so some folks from the Home Builders Association and the NAIOP also attended some of those meetings. And then we posted the draft ordinance online. and had a comment period for people to provide comment. We got those comments. Michelle helped us draft, like, main topics. And we addressed the comments. And there were a couple where we actually made revisions. So, to Michelle's point, there was one suggestion about the appeal timeframe or the application response. IT WAS INCONSISTENT. SO WE FIXED SOME OF THAT STUFF. SO IT WASN'T ALL JUST IGNORE. YOU KNOW, WE DIDN'T, WE ACTUALLY AMENDED SOME OF THE ITEMS. I DO WANT TO POINT OUT THAT DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS ARE NOT IMPACTED BY THE ORDINANCE. SO WE DO HAVE SOME EXISTING DEVELOPMENT AGREEMENTS WHERE WE HAVE COMMITTED TO SERVE CERTAIN amounts of EDUs or equivalent dwelling units. And so those are not impacted by the ordinance. And any future deviation, as Michelle had pointed out, through the application process would wind up being an agreement that would be adopted by council in order to deviate. And so following this up, our next steps are we will be back on July 6th. SO IN ANOTHER FEW WEEKS, SEEKING ADOPTION OF THE FINAL ORDINANCE UPDATE.

I'VE GOT JUST A REALLY QUICK QUESTION, AND ATTORNEY, TELL ME IF IT'S NOT PERTAINING TO THIS OR NOT. IT'S OUR UPDATE OF OUR 100-YEAR WATER SUPPLY. WHERE IS THAT RIGHT NOW?

So we are still working with the Arizona Department of Water Resources. We think we're really close to getting a draft decision in order, which will then begin the public process. So they will advertise it, and we'll have to follow a public comment period.

Any timeline when you think that may come to fruition?

We're hoping before the end of this calendar year.

Okay, that's perfect, because I know you've been working on this thing for quite a while to try to get that thing through. And I guess the Colorado River allocation stuff is still going on, right?

Yes, the Bureau had originally told us they thought they would give us some information and post-2026 operating guidelines by the end of June, and now it's being postponed to July.

Okay, thank you. Anybody else? Okay, good. GO TO TRAIN AND RICKY. ALL RIGHT.

THANKS, MAYOR. I GUESS SINCE WE'RE TALKING COLORADO RIVER, I DID WANT TO ASK, YOU HAD MENTIONED BEFORE, MAYOR JUST BROUGHT UP, OBVIOUSLY THAT COULD HAVE A MAJOR IMPACT ON WHAT WE'RE talking about. I think you addressed it at the beginning, but I want to kind of highlight, re-ask it, or maybe allow you to explain a little bit more the purpose of getting this through when we could have something in July, or we could have something in August, we could have something like that. THAT COULD, I MEAN, IT UNDERPINS KIND OF WHAT OUR TOTAL ALLOCATION IS. SO WHERE ARE WE WITH THAT PROCESS WITH THE CAP, FEDERAL NEGOTIATIONS? I KNOW IT'S COMING, IT'S COMING, IT'S COMING, BUT WHAT HAPPENS IF IT COMES IN JULY, YOU KNOW, A WEEK OR TWO AFTER WE SEE THIS? OR HOW DOES THAT AFFECT THE LONG TERM?

So right now, if our decision and order, so if the Department of Water Resources issues our designation of Assured Water Supply, as we've applied, we will have enough water in our portfolio for the next 10 years. That does not tie up all of our legal available Colorado River water. We purposely did not put it all in this designation because we know it's going to go away. If it goes away at 95%, we've got a problem. We'll have, some of that will be in the, if we see these 30% cuts that they've told us to plan for, we'll be fine for the next 10 years. If it starts getting into 50, 60, 70% cuts, there's gonna be a different situation. Our allocations are gonna be adjusted. And the whole idea of this policy was for us to try to provide certainty to those individuals who have vacant parcels in the city of Goodyear and let them understand, like, we have water set aside that we're planning for, and we're protecting the people that are here today that are already using our water resources by not over allocating for future growth. So we're trying to manage those two things at the same time.

Okay. I guess similar to the zoning ordinance that we were dealing with before, looking at THE TIMELINE ON THIS, WHICH, AGAIN, I REMEMBER THE MEETINGS LAST YEAR ON THIS, BUT KIND OF A SIMILAR, I WON'T CALL IT A CRITICISM. I WILL CALL IT A SLIGHT CONCERN IS WE HAVE THE STAKEHOLDER MEETINGS AT THE BEGINNING, BUT THEN ONCE THE DRAFT GOES UP, YOU KNOW, IT'S BEEN A MONTH, I THINK, MAYBE TWO MONTHS. I FORGET WHAT MONTH IT IS SOMETIMES, MYSELF. How have we reached out to not only potential developers, existing ones here in Goodyear, folks that we work with all the time, not just Valley Partnership, but we have a lot of folks right here in Goodyear. So how have we interacted with them to ensure that any concerns they may have, not just They don't have to be assuaged. They don't have to be coddled, taken care of. But they're at least addressed or brought forth so that we know on the council, when we approve something, we know where the stress points are. We know where somebody may have a concern. And then potentially it's up to us. Do we need to change something, or do we leave it how it is? That's my concern with the zoning ordinance and strongly in favor of you know Updating it have been its need same thing with this so I don't want it to be seen as a criticism of that but my concern is that coupled with What if we do get a big Colorado River announcement in July or August? Does it hurt? you know, making sure we get it right to the extent we possibly can, which even if we do, we're still going to need changes in the fall. We're still going to need changes next year. I know how that goes. I just want to know what has been our stakeholder process once we've had something written down because, again, like zoning, EVERYBODY LIKES THE IDEA OF IT, THE CONCEPT. IT'S AMAZING. BUT WHAT ARE THOSE FINE POINTS? WHAT ARE THOSE STICKY DETAILS?

Yeah, so this is a list of dates that we had interactions with and those developer forums were attended by numerous property owners in Goodyear as well as the Home Builders Association and the Valley Partnerships. We've had additional meetings beyond these with other entities that we work with on a regular basis, Harvard being A MAJOR PROPERTY OWNER IN GOODYEAR, WE'VE MET WITH THEM SEVERAL TIMES.

THE POINT OF MY QUESTION WAS BASICALLY SINCE MARCH 20TH. NOW IT'S BACK UP THERE. SO BASICALLY SINCE STUFF HAS BEEN WRITTEN DOWN, I WANT TO MAKE SURE, AND THAT'S KIND OF WHERE MY CONCERN WAS WITH THE ZONING ORDINANCE AS WELL, BECAUSE IF THINGS ARE IN CONCEPT, EVERYTHING SOUNDS GREAT. IT'S JUST ONCE IT GETS ON PAPER, You know, let let's hash that out. Let's get those concerns met or at least Acknowledged and even if they're not assuaged and be able to Move forward in a way where we don't have to Continuously fix stuff, you know through the fall next year and over the next ten years And again who knows what's coming with the Colorado River. I

I AGREE WITH TREY 100%. WHY ARE WE HURRYING TO PUSH THIS THROUGH BEFORE OUR BREAK? WHY CAN'T WE DO THIS WHEN WE COME BACK AND THINK ABOUT THIS? IF WE'VE GOT MORE QUESTIONS AND MAYBE A FEW STAKEHOLDERS, MAYBE A FEW OTHER STAKEHOLDERS NEED TO BE CONTACTED AND FIND OUT IF THIS IS EXACTLY WHERE IT'S GOING. IS THERE SOME REASON WE HAVE TO PUSH THIS THROUGH BEFORE OUR BREAK?

I DON'T KNOW OF ANY STAKEHOLDERS THAT HAVEN'T BEEN. I MEAN, THE DEVELOPERS ARE NOT A QUITE BUNCH. SO WE'VE HEARD FROM A LOT OF PEOPLE AND FREQUENTLY. I THINK MOST OF THE COMMENTS I'M HEARING, NOT ALL OF THEM, AND WE'RE TRYING TO WORK ON SOME STILL, BUT

Because I've heard a few, that's why I'm asking.

Yeah, a lot of the comments are in the nature of I need more water, you need to give me more water, and you need to tell me I'm going to have it in 20 years. You know, those sorts of comments, and it's like, well, we really can't do that. But, you know, if there's something that we could make the policy better to achieve the goals in the water allocation policy that the council provided, then we're happy to do that. But I think this ordinance, as we proposed, are consistent with the policy.

So we can't hash it out a little more, as Trey said.

Just to be sure that we covered that. We will continue to look at all the comments, but they seem to be repeating.

Okay, because I'm not real comfortable with doing this before our break. I think we're being pushed. Thank you.

I would love any direct comments from anybody listening that they think need to be changed that aren't in the line of, you know, give me more water or that sort of thing, because that kind of defeats the purpose of making sure that there's water for everybody, so.

Well, I've not had any complaints, but I think I'm the outlier. None of the developers are calling me over the weekend and complaining about anything. So I think you've done a great job in meeting with everyone. And I think even if we met them next week or next month, something else might come up. And I know you're doing the best you can do. And I personally do not feel like we're being rushed because Once the Colorado PAC is done, there's going to be a major overhaul on everything because I don't honestly have the confidence they're going to rule in our favor since we're at the bottom of the totem pole. And I think we need to have the people that are currently using our water given the assurance that we are protecting them and the ones that own the land THAT ARE NOT READY TO DEVELOP THAT WE'RE TRYING TO HELP THEM MAKE SURE THAT WE HAVE WATER FOR THEM. WE MAY NOT HAVE THE 100-YEAR WATER AS WE HAD HOPED, BUT I THINK, YOU KNOW, YOU HAVE TO GIVE THEM SOME ASSURANCE. AND I THINK YOU'VE DONE A GOOD JOB MEETING WITH, I CAN'T IMAGINE WHO ELSE YOU HAVE NOT MET WITH, BECAUSE EVERYBODY, I'M SURE, WAS NOTIFIED THAT YOU WERE HAVING THESE MEETINGS. unless they expect you to go through the phone directory and send a letter to every developer known to man so everybody's included. I don't know. I don't understand that part. But on the other hand, we have to do what we have to do, and we have to protect our water, and we have to protect the current users and the people that currently own land in Goodyear the best we can do. AND I THINK Y'ALL ARE DOING A GOOD JOB. AND YOU'RE ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. WHEN A BUNCH OF LAWYERS GET TOGETHER, YOU CHANGE THE X'S AND THE Y'S AND THE COMMAS AND THIS, THAT, AND THE OTHER. SO AT LEAST YOU'RE TRYING TO MAKE IT UP INTO CONFORMITY, AND I APPRECIATE THAT. SO THAT'S ALL I HAVE, MAYOR. ANYTHING OVER HERE? GO AHEAD.

WELL, WE TALK ABOUT WATER A LOT. WE'VE HAD A LOT OF CONVERSATIONS. SO JUST TO HELP ME UNDERSTAND, The water ordinance update, is that the water resource allocation policy or those two different things? Those are one of the same?

They're actually two documents. So the water resource policy was the document that was approved last year, and it's written in a way that I find easier to digest. The ordinance update was taking the specific parts of the city's code. Okay. that pertain to water and revising them to incorporate the terms that allow us to implement and enforce this document that unfortunately the ordinance gets difficult to read because it's just not organized as simply and it covers everything water.

And I know you said that at the beginning, but it just is now starting to make sense. And we also have the integrated water master plan. So what is that? Because, again, we're taking all these, we're trotting them out to the public. All right.

the integrated water master plan is a large document that we use to plan for infrastructure across our service area and it does look at demands and how the city's going to grow so that we can plan for that infrastructure and essentially those allocations that are in that document are what we're using currently in this policy allocation and I think that's The piece that a lot of people find difficult to understand is that those demands are based on our land classifications use that we have in our system today. So when we say we're allocating water, we're not purposely giving them a really small bucket that they can't do anything with. We're giving them an industrial user, the average across our industrial users today. We're giving commercial properties the average across that land classification today. So we think it's a reasonable amount. Now, it's not going to support a huge user. It's not going to support a bottling company. But I don't know that in this day of water challenges that that's a smart use for Goodyear anyway.

So anyway. So there is the ability then for council to make some decisions based on economic benefit. and whatever. So what you are proposing are guidelines, but like everything else, it's something that we can talk about further. Okay. And then recently we had a work session on a comprehensive water plan. So that's more of what the cities So can you just, again, a ton of water policy coming through here.

You're right. And I'm glad you remember all of these different things that we've presented on. So, yes, the comprehensive water strategy is more how the city is managing the resources and how as a user of those, so as our customer, how are we working with them to be more efficient and to look at other alternatives and ways that they can maybe diversify their actual usage.

And as the city itself is a user. Yes. As a big user of the water. Okay. So we've got a lot of different plans. And so you can see it's pretty daunting to, well, just the residents, I guess, who are, and there's a lot of interested residents who do like to learn more about it, but also the DEVELOPMENT COMMUNITY AND THINGS LIKE THAT. SO WE HAVE ALL THESE DIFFERENT THINGS. AND I UNDERSTAND THAT WE HAVE BEEN CONTACTED BY SOME INTERESTED TAKEHOLDERS. WE'RE GOING TO HAVE A MEETING SHORTLY, SMALL GROUPS, TO HEAR THOSE CONCERNS. AND SO WE'LL CONTINUE, I MEAN, I MEAN, PEOPLE ON THIS COUNCIL HAVE ALWAYS BEEN INTERESTED IN HEARING FROM STAKEHOLDERS, AND SO WE'LL SEE WHAT THE ISSUES ARE AND THEN WORK WITH CITY TO FIGURE OUT WHAT WE'RE GOING TO DO. SO ANYWAY, THANK YOU. IT'S A LOT. IT'S A LOT WE'VE GOT GOING AND ALL SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITH THE RIVER ALLOCATION, BUT WE'VE GOT TO PUT A STAKE IN THE GROUND SOMEWHERE AND SAY, OKAY, THIS IS WHERE WE ARE NOW, AND THEN, LIKE I SAID, Trey said, you know, by the end of the month or soon, we could get a whole different thing. But I know that you guys have been preparing for that worst-case scenario, and we'll deal with what we get. So, all right, thank you for that.

Brandon, do you have something? Did you have something, too? Okay, then.

Okay.

Give her a hug over there. So, yeah, no, I appreciate it. I was looking through all the notes and everything as well. So I just want to make sure, to Laura's point, that we have flexibility, especially for economic development opportunities that might present itself. Obviously, I don't think we need or want a bottled-in company, but I just want to make sure there's any other user that might use slightly more that we're not saying, sorry, you don't even look at Goodyear because we're very restrictive for whatever reason. So I just want to make sure that there's enough flexibility enough flexibility that this doesn't choke hold us into certain users or things like that. So obviously I think we need to be smart with our water. I like that we're putting some numbers on there too. And I was looking at also, so you talk about redevelopment in here as well within our city code. So for different users using a different, different user comes in to the space that's already been allocated Do they have, we have flexibility, are they locked in to the old one, or do they get a new designation, or how does that work?

So for our existing customers.

They switch out, if one switches out.

So what we're doing, we do have some customers that are already what we would call a larger water user. And so they are grandfathered so that we'll take their historic last three years average of what their demands are until before January 1st, 2026, we just had to make a cutoff. And that is what is allocated for that property. SO THIS COULD BE A SITUATION WHERE IF THEY MOVED OUT AND SOMEONE WAS TRYING TO LOCATE IN GOODYEAR AND THEY NEEDED A LITTLE BIT MORE WATER, WE COULD SAY, HEY, HERE'S A PLACE THAT HAS A LARGER WATER ALLOCATION IF THIS ONE DOESN'T WORK FOR YOU. THAT'S ALWAYS SOMETHING WE CAN HELP PEOPLE FIND IF IT'S A POSSIBILITY AND IF IT'S NECESSARY. BUT, YEAH, THAT STAYS WITH THOSE PROPERTIES. AND THEN MOVING FORWARD, If there's an existing user and their redevelopment needs to increase their historical demands, then they would follow the same as a new customer coming in. They would still have to request the additional water. They could be denied. It'll go through the whole process.

Okay. And then with multifamily residential, too, so you said it's considered commercial accounts now. Do we... Do we tie their water different than a residential home?

So, there is a different allocation for multifamily, yes.

Is it more or less? Yes.

So, they get, there's more allocated to a parcel that's planned to be multifamily because the individual units might use less water than a single family, but combined there are so many more units on the parcel that they'll use more water than a single family. So, yeah.

And I just want to make sure this is maybe a myth or something, but if someone was, do they have the same 100-year water for an apartment complex than it is with a neighborhood?

Yes, I think what you're referring to is, according to statute, so the state, defines people who need to get the 100-year designation are subdivisions, and subdivisions are defined as something that's five or more lots. So if you went out and you bought a 10-acre parcel and you didn't want to subdivide it, you could just put in a well and use water and you would not have to comply with the 100-year water supply.

Okay. But we as a city would still say maybe we don't need that user or that user doesn't fit that use.

Yeah, because the city is designated, every water use you serve, every meter has a 100-year assured water supply, and so if a subdivider comes in and he needs to make that demonstration, all he needs to do is get the city to provide the commitment of water service and it's home free. If you were in another city that didn't have a designation like Buckeye and you had a parcel that you wanted to subdivide, you could not do that by going to the city because they can't provide you with the 100-year assured water supply. So that's where you get into the parsing. Oh, okay. And then you could either develop it as a non-subdivision and not have the 100-year assured water supply or you could develop it as a subdivision and get a certificate of your own.

Okay. All right. As Kara said, I know water is super complicated. A lot of this and that in there, too. So, no, I appreciate it. I think we need to definitely be able to be prepared as much as possible. So, I thank you for the forward-looking. I hope that we get some amazing federal deal that comes in and we don't have to worry about it anymore or for quite a long, much longer time period. But I don't know if I trust how fast the federal government is going to move with some of those things. So, thank you.

All right, Benita, you want to give a shot?

I'm going to try to give this a shot. I can't talk. Basically, I understand a little bit of the complications of this working, having come from a water environment. But it just looks like at this point, moving ahead, IS BETTER THAN MOVING AHEAD WITH THE ORDINANCE IS BETTER THAN STOPPING IT BECAUSE WE JUST DON'T KNOW FUTURE-WISE WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN. WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN WITH IT'S LIKE I DIDN'T WANT TO SAY, DANGLING A STRING UP THERE, AND WE DON'T KNOW WHICH WAY IT'S GOING TO GO. SO I THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU PUT INTO ALL OF THIS TO GET US TO BETTER UNDERSTAND, EXCUSE ME, BETTER UNDERSTAND WHERE WE ARE WITH WATER. BUT, YEAH, I THINK IT'S JUST BETTER JUST TO MOVE FORWARD. THAT'S ALL I HAVE TO SAY. THANK YOU. THANK YOU.

I HAVE A COUPLE QUESTIONS. LARGE COMMERCE AND INDUSTRIAL PARKS, ARE THEY ABLE TO TRANSFER ALLOCATIONS AMONG BUILDINGS WITHIN THE SAME COMPLEX?

IF THEY'RE ON THE SAME PARCEL.

OTHERWISE?

NO.

WHY IS THAT?

THAT WOULD, THE POLICY SAID THAT THERE WOULD BE NO TRANSFER AMONG PARCELS SO THAT WE INCORPORATE THAT INTO THE ORDINANCE. BUT I THINK IT'S A GOOD IDEA BECAUSE IF YOU DO NOT, PEOPLE WILL GAME THE SYSTEM. AND THIS ALREADY, AND I KNOW JUST AS AN EXAMPLE, I WORK WITH A PRIVATE WATER COMPANY AND THEIR LARGE WATER USER SET UP IS VERY INARTFUL. IT JUST GIVES EVERYBODY THE SAME AMOUNT OF WATER. AND SO A LOT OF USE IS JUST CONSTANTLY GOING OVER BECAUSE EVERYBODY GETS THE SAME AMOUNT OF WATER NO MATTER WHAT THE USE IS. But they will not let you transfer from parcel to parcel either because immediately people went in and started gaming it and they were leaving parcels without water, which is a terrible way to leave a parcel. Now they have no solution whatsoever. So we're trying to avoid that. However, if somebody was in an industrial park and it was a cohesive development, they could come to development people and ask for a development agreement where we could look at a cohesive plan that doesn't just move water, but it makes sure that there's water for every use in the development area that needs to be served so that it would be a responsible development. And then that would go to council and you'd see that.

So what you're saying, so if there was one that was smaller than the others, obviously the developer shouldn't be penalized for that. And so they would come to you guys and then you guys would come to us and then we could give them more water. Is that what you're saying? Yes.

They could either go through the large water user for the parcel that wants more water. And there may be, somebody brought to my attention, there may be some errors that we spot in the way that the IWMP was done that, you know, they would have the opportunity to go through the process. And the cost-benefit analysis may be that, oh, you should have gotten what everybody else is getting, so let's get you an agreement and put you through council. How long does that take to do that, though?

Okay. We haven't done it yet, so. So that would stop development. I mean, literally if they. No, no, no. How long would it take to get that?

I don't know what the answer is to that because I don't work at the city every day, but.

Barb. Again, we haven't done one yet, so we're not 100% sure how long that process will take.

When are our small group meetings? I'm not sure. They're coming up, aren't they, Brian? The small group meetings for this, aren't they soon? No.

When you say small group meeting, what do you mean with development community?

Yeah, don't we have small group meetings coming up here pretty soon? I thought. Well, I think we've already had a lot of those.

Mayor, Councilwoman Gillis, members of council, we were just made aware this afternoon before the meeting that there was a request for small group meetings with the council. I think your council assistants are working on scheduling those on your calendar. We're not sure exactly whether they'll be this week or next week.

So within the next couple of weeks.

The goal would be to try to have this done before July 6th if there's going to be action.

Okay, that was my question. That was my question because I think we should at least have those meetings before we pursue this. And so that we at least, if there's any more questions that we have, we can deal with that. Because I am involved, unlike some people. I am involved with the local development community. And we have a very fast-growing development out here. AND IF THEY HAVE SOMETHING THAT THEY WANT TO GIVE A LITTLE MORE OUTREACH OR DISCUSSION ABOUT, I THINK WE SHOULD LISTEN TO THEM. THAT'S KIND OF WHAT I WAS TALKING ABOUT. AND IF WE HAVE THOSE MEETINGS, AND WE'RE ABLE TO GET THROUGH THOSE MEETINGS, AND WE HAVE QUESTIONS, AND WE THINK THEY HAVE QUESTIONS, THAT WOULD BE AN EASY WAY OF WRAPPING THAT UP BEFORE WE JUST PUSH THIS THROUGH. I DON'T THINK THERE'S ANYTHING WRONG WITH THAT.

THANK YOU. KENNY, CAN YOU TELL US WHO IS REQUESTING THE MEETINGS? BECAUSE NONE OF US KNOW.

I don't have the exact answer on that one, Council Member Campbell. But we can get that information.

Can we get it in the morning, please?

Yes.

Thank you.

Before we close it up, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think we're, as a result of some forward thinking by our water people, we're kind of ahead because we've got both below ground and above ground water, okay? There are some cities and jurisdictions in Arizona that only use CAP water. I WOULD SUGGEST THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE BIGGER CHALLENGES MOVING FORWARD THAN WE DO ONLY BECAUSE WE HAVE BOTH, YOU KNOW, CAPABILITIES. AND I APPRECIATE THE FORWARD THINKING OF THE WATER DEPARTMENT KNOWING THAT BECAUSE NOW WITH THIS DEAL GOING WITH THE COLORADO RIVER WATER ALLOCATION, YES, THERE MAY BE SOME TURNING BACK, BUT WE'RE IN BETTER SHAPE THAT WE HAVE TWO SOURCES AS OPPOSED TO JUST ONE SOURCE. THOSE CITIES THAT ARE JUST USING COLORADO RIVER WATER ARE GOING TO PROBABLY FIND SOME CHALLENGES IF THEY FIND OUT THERE'S CUTS. YEAH. SO WITH THAT, I WANT TO THANK YOU. WE'VE GOT THE MEETING, WHAT, NEXT JUNE 22ND? IS THE NEXT MEETING? WITH THAT, THIS MEETING IS OVER.