Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

13, 2025 at 6 PM. Um, we will have the invocation by Commissioner Yokum and the pledge of allegiance by myself. Uh, please rise if you're able to. Dear Lord, daily we live side by side, sharing our community. We take each other for granted, living our lives, not giving our community the attention it deserves or needs. We get caught up in living and providing for ourselves and our families. Community is just there and we take it for granted until disaster strikes. When hardship comes, our weather rages. Then suddenly and desperately, we need our community and it needs us. Lord, it is community that provides the essential safety net that protects us. Let us pray for those who need our help from the storms. Let us pray for the first responders and all they do. Further, let us pray for those in uniform that protect us around the world. Tonight, as this commission sits to do something to help build our community, let us make it stronger for all of our neighbors in Maricopa. With your love and blessings shining down on us, in your name we pray. Amen.

Amen. To the flag of the United States of America and to the stands nation for all. That'll take us to roll call. Commissioner Yokum here. Commissioner Thomas here. Commissioner Robertson

here. Commissioner Clobe, Commissioner Brims here, and Chair Singleton here. Um, chairman, we have a quorum.

Thank you. Uh, this will take us to the call to the public. If you wish to speak, please complete a speaker card and submit it to the chairman prior to the start of the meeting. The procedures to follow if you address the commission are commission requests that you express your ideas in three minutes or less and refrain from any personal attacks or derogatory statements about any city employee, fellow citizen, or anyone else whether in the audience or not. The chairman will limit discussion whether he whenever he deems such an action appropriate to the proper conduct of the meeting. I do not have any speaker cards. Anybody like to come forward and speak? Seeing none, I will I will close the call to the public. Uh that'll take us to item 4.1, minutes. The commission shall approve minutes from September 22nd, 2025 meeting. Do I have a motion to approve?

So move. I have a motion. Do I have a second? Second. All in favor say I. I.

I. All opposed. That motion carries. That'll take us to the regular agenda, DRP2-21. This is a planning commission update major development review permit case DRP25-21. A request from Cigaro Riviera of Vespro for review of narrative site plan elevations and photometrics for a proposed pavilion and storage building on approximately 6.71 acres of land within Panel County parcel number 512-42-7220 within the city of Maricopa generally located west of the southwest corner of West Santi Road and North White and Parker Road. This is discussion only. Larie, take it away.

Good evening, chair, commissioners. Um, as the chair just said, this is an area that's just west of Santi and White Parker Road. Um, this is at the Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church. I'm I'm showing you two stars on the map here. We're proposing today a pavilion as well as a storage space. And this is approximately the stars are where approximately where these buildings are going to go. This this parcel is 6 7 acres. Uh, and the proposal is um a 6,400 square foot pavilion that is open um and a 1,560 foot storage building. Uh, both of these, I just want to note, have um solar panels, planned solar panels on the top. Uh, moving uh closer into St. Michael and St. Gabriel Way. Um, the proposed V pavilion of 6,400 square feet. uh you see a max height at the peak of of 13 and a half feet. Uh in addition to this pavilion, the plan is to extend the 5-ft sidewalk um for accessibility. Uh the storage building, the second location on site, the 1,560 foot building has a max height of 4 and a half 14 and a half ft uh with a uh yeah, just a enclosed storage space just just off of the the side of the church here. This as well will add another five foot sidewalk addition to increase the walkability of the overall site. Um this this proposal um is really part of phase one of the PA AD that was approved in 2011. This continues um ancillary uses within phase one which is church uses. Uh hasn't expanded to to

other areas of of the site. So this is also consistent with the general plan um as well as the PAD I mentioned. Uh staff has determined the proposal to be compliant with the city's development regulations. the P A the P A1-01 um the land uses proposed the incillary land uses and and vehicular and pedestrian connectivity as well as the parking requirements in open space which I believe in the pad is 13 and a half um in terms of public outreach the notification letter went out September 25th the signposting went up the next day um and due to the weekend uh we were able to get the the notice put on the website on the 29th of September. And today marks the planning and zoning commission for thisformational item. Um, sorry, that concludes my report. Uh, if the commission has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them.

Thank you, Lori. Um, this is for discussion only. Commission, any questions, comments, concerns about this item? Oh, just one quas was there a public meeting? No, not not for the DRP. There was uh public notification letters that were mailed out. Have you received anything from the public in the way of emails or No, sir. I have not received any additional queries. Any other commissioners? No. All right. Thank you, Lorie.

That'll take us to agenda item uh MISK 25-24, report to planning and zoning commission. a report from planning staff regarding city of Maroba municipal code requirements for secondary and emergency access compared to other city requirements in the region. This will be presented by Rick.

Thank you, chairman. Uh as you'll recall, I believe it was back in August um uh we'd had a preliminary plat come through. I believe it was the sanctuary. Uh and at the end of that meeting, um chairman, you had directed staff to take a look at some other cities, you know, and and compare our requirements to uh to those around us, comparable cities. So, apologize for taking a little bit to get back to you here uh uh between vacations and not having meetings. Uh apologize. We won't let that happen in the future. So, in looking at this and and I I struggled with, you know, how do we put this together? How do we take a really good look at it? And what really came to mind was, you know, let's start with the basics right from the beginning. You know, what do the IFC, the International Fire Code, what are those requirements? And let's start with taking a look at when we need them and when we don't. So essentially section D107 of the IFC states uh the developments of one or two family develop dwelling. Let me try that again. Developments of one or two family dwellings where the number of units exceeds 30 shall be provided with two separate and approved fire apparatus access roads. Now there is an exception to that and that is where those 30 dwelling units on a single public or private access road are equipped with automatic sprinklers. Then that secondary access is not required at that time. Uh there is a second requirement in there. The number of dwellings on a single fire access road shall not be increased unless fire access roads will connect with future development as determined by the fire uh code official. So, what exactly does that mean? Pretty simple. If you've got 30 or more

and they're not sprinkled, then you need a secondary access uh to that um u to that uh development. With respect to the two different fire access roads, u there are some requirements as to the proximity that those can be to. And in numerous times in our in our meetings as we've talked about preliminary plats, we've you've heard that half the diagonal distance requirement come up. Uh so I thought I would take this opportunity to also take a look and and just kind of explain what that means. And what we're looking at up there on the is the sanctuary uh development, all phases of it. And you'll recall when it first came in, we were looking at just phase one of that. And we know that they've got um uh access out to Hartman Road and then they were constructing the temporary access down to essentially Cassag Grand Highway. So when we talk about the half the diagonal distance that comes into play and this is the actual preliminary plat from that evening. And so when we talk about the half the diagonal distance we're looking at this area right here. All right. And so that's 3,400 square feet from corner to corner. Half of that is 1750 ft. 17 Yeah. Um, and what that means is is that from this access point, you can see where the red line starts, which is the access that's being provided, if you go 1700 feet south of that, you're into the intersection of Cassag Grand Highway, uh, just short of it, which again is not going to be allowed simply because it's too close to the intersection. And then the other portion of this is all that area you see just right of the 1700 feet

is not a part of this development. it's not owned by them. So they don't have access going through that. So that forces them to then, you know, start to construct a portion of that collector road, bring it to the end of phase one or actually not even to the end of phase one, but then construct it uh on a temporary basis um heading south there. Tempor temporary fire access road shall be designed and maintained to support the imposed loads of fire apparatus and shall be surfaced so as to provide all weather driving capabilities. It must meet a 75,000 pound capacity where appropriate. The temporary fire access road shall be designed with a mountable curb and it shall be a minimum of 20 ft in width. Uh it's a situational interim condition. it is life safety versus convenience. Um, and more importantly, temporary fire access roads are to be maintained by the developer. And that's pretty consistent with what we looked at uh and and that's very consistent with what we apply here in the city as far as the requirements uh moving through that. So, let's take a look at the other cities. So, I looked at Aendale, Poria, Tempe, and Gilbert. Uh although Poria is a little bit uh from a population standpoint they're a little bit bigger than we are. Um Tempe and Gilbert uh Aendale I I I felt were all comparable cities to that. What I've created here is a is a graph uh just showing you what the requirements are for the different cities that that go in or that I spoke to and and and talked with. And as you can see when it comes to u you know the total number of units not sprinkled uh meeting the diagonal

distance requirements the all other all of those items that I put on the slide before with the 75,000 pound capacity mountable curb life safety versus convenience and developer or HOA maintained. Um across the board all five of these cities are exactly the same. The only place that I found that was different and and there's one other there's one other thing that I didn't put on this um that I also found that was that was compatible between all the cities and that is if that secondary access road is providing any public access anywhere then it cannot be a temporary or interim condition. So, for example, um if going back to our scenario with the sanctuary, if that road were being used to get to a school or a shopping center or to another community um and it was deemed as as necessary um um circulation, then it would not be appropriate. The city of Maricopa would not allow them to build it in an interim condition. The minimum that we would accept would be a half street improvement. You know, we may not require curb gutter and sidewalk, you know, and street light, but we would require a paved surface with a curb u that is not an interim condition. It could possibly be a throwaway road. Of the five cities that I looked at, I only found one difference in in all of them, and that was with the city of Poria. And I stumbled on it kind of by accident. I just I used to work for them. I was talking to friends there. I was talking to the traffic engineer and he brought up that in their in their u traffic control um management plan, they have a requirement that states that if

you have a 100 plus lots minimum, half street improvements are required. 26 foot collector improvements. Now, we talked about that for a little bit. What does that mean? So, if it's more than a hundred lots in in that situation, when that, you know, going back to the sanctuary, um the moment that that hit a 100 lots in that city, they would be required to build half of that collector road all the way to Cassag Grand Highway. And so, I asked him, I said, you know, do you get a lot of push back on that? He said, he said, they do. you know, that developers do push back on that, but it's codified by council, you know, and so they don't have a, you know, they don't have a a choice with that. It's a it's a minimum requirement that they have to meet. Now, what he also told me was that at that point, what they typically do is they just go ahead and build a half street collector. They'll put in the curb, gutter, sidewalk, street light because at that point, once they're there building it, it's cheaper to build half of it than just build the the the pavement portion of it. You know, come back, tear it out and and start all over again when they get there. But in all the cities that I looked at and everybody that I've talked to, with the one exception from the city of Poria, were all consistent across the board on what we're requiring. So that that's that concludes my presentation. Uh I hope that uh helps shed some light on it. Um you know or certainly helps the conversation moving along. Uh Chairman Singleton, I'll be happy to answer any questions uh to the best of my ability that y'all might have.

Thank you, Rick. Commissioners, any questions? Commissioner Robertson. So, a um a temporary access road is specifically for fire apparatus access and is not for convenience of the folks that live there in the event of an emergency.

Uh Chairman Singleton, U. Commissioner Robertson, that is correct. My understanding of that is you're spot on, sir. If it were opened because of a fire and uh the authorities having jurisdiction at the time on scene, if they wanted to use it for the public to escape or leave the area, that would be situational. Uh chairman, yeah, great question. Absolutely correct.

Um I'm trying to figure how to phrase this. So a half street collector road could serve as a secondary fire access, but if it was fire access only, it's not for public use. Again, Chairman Singleton, uh, Commissioner, uh, yes, sir, you are correct.

That's all, Commissioner Thomas, anything on your end? No, I did have one question. Um can we go back to that comparison slide this one? Yeah. So that was so the 100 plus lots that's the only thing that other cities do above and beyond I'll say the bare minimum for better lack of better terms. Um that's the only thing that any other city did above and beyond.

Chairman Singleton, uh Commissioners, that is correct. um um of the five cities I talked to and they all base it off the IFC, you know, those are it's the fire code that's driving it and then it comes down to um I don't want to say personal preference, that's not the right word, but um you know what their experiences taught them in in in dealing with this. Obviously, um, you know, the question that I asked the city engineer in in Poria is why did they go to this? You know, his response to me was, Rick, I can't give you a specific example. Um, I can't tell you why we did it. It's been in our code for years now. Um, but that was the only difference that I could find uh in the five cities that I looked at. Um, the IFC is what's driving this and the requirements for it.

Got it. And let's say we we thought, yep, 100 plus lots like the city of Maroba wanted to do this. What would that what d would drive that change potentially? Well, uh, chairman, uh, commissioners, it it would ultimately it would be a a council approval.

You know, we would need to go in and and whether we it would probably be engineering design standards manual uh upgrade. Um, you know, we could certainly talk about it. Um, you know, um I and see what the temperature is for that. Um, you know, there's a there's a there's a consequence for all of our actions. You know, we're we're I guess I would be cautious and and it would be a great discussion to have um because, for example, a you know, almost half mile road like that one is, you know, we're talking millions of dollars to build. Um, you know, what does that do to the cost of housing in Maricopa? somebody's gotta, you know, pay that. So, it's, you know, it's it's an interesting dichotomy. It it's and it I think is warranted conversation.

Yeah. I'd be curious to see what the temperature is for something like that. Um, and I and I know you you're like, well, it's millions of dollars at at that point, but like you kind of mentioned, like most of the time the developers are just, we're going to build it full anyways, so might as well build it once and get it right or finalized. Um, versus building something temporary and then coming back and having to tear everything out. Um, yeah, I'd be curious to see what the temperature is from city council or even staff on that. Um, and it could just be as simple as no, right? Like, um, but yeah, just kind of curious to see what that temperature would be. And just because Aendale, Tempy, and Gilbert don't do it doesn't mean we shouldn't potentially look into it,

right? Um because all those cities have their own growing pains and I understand that what does that do to the you know housing market in Maricopa? I would say we're almost comparable to Peoria. But yeah, that's just my opinion on wanting to know what the temperature would be on something like that. But yeah,

chairman, I'll be happy to uh have this discussion with Rudy Lopez, our development services director, our city engineer. Um, you know, there are there are ways to open this conversation and and you know, see what uh you know, what the temperature is on this. Um, you know, there are certainly benefits to what the city of Pory has done. There are cost effective or there are included with what city of Pury has done, but I I don't see I I think it would be healthy to open it up and and have the conversation.

Yeah. Um how many lots is the sanctuary at if you know off the top of your head? I don't recall off the top of my head. I couldn't either. I thought it was like maybe 200. I forget, but I was just curious. Anyways, commissioners, any other questions, comments? No. All right, we're done with that agenda item. That'll take us to MISK 25-25. This is a report to Planning and Zoning Commission. A report from planning staff regarding city of Maroba municipal code requirements for public hearing neighborhood meeting signed postings. Take it away again, Rick.

Chairman Singleton, uh, Commissioners, u Thank you very much. Um u I I I feel like I need to um apologize here a little bit. Again, this is another item from u from an August meeting that uh Commissioner Clobe, you know, had requested uh some additional information on. um sitting over in that chair seat over there sometimes with the way it echoed is very difficult to understand and I completely misunderstood what what he was asking for. Um so I went back and looked at the notes then I was even more confused. So I called him, you know, I said, you know, commissioner, please straighten me out on this. You know, I heard one thing, I'm reading another thing. And so, um, what he was inquiring about and had I understood, you know, the that evening, I would have answered this thing very, very quickly. But again, I thought this was a really good idea to talk about, you know, signposting notifications for neighborhood meetings and for public hearings. Those are the two things that we do them for. So I thought let's just kind of you know for you know not only our benefit but anybody that might be watching in the public maybe we'll just talk about you know what requires it and when it is required you know what are the requirements that the city's expecting. So section 1814050 of the Maropa city code states that a neighborhood meeting is required for the following applications. additional use permits, variances, planned area developments, major planned area development amendments, annexations, zoning map amendments, and general plan amendments. All right. Furthermore, 181406 essentially says the same thing, but now we're talking about uh public hearing notifications. Um, so there are two sets of requirements and they are a little bit

different. So, I just wanted to visit on those real quick. From a notification standpoint, we're require we're required to mail a notice to all folks within 600 foot. Uh, and that for a neighborhood meeting and that has to be out 15 days prior to the neighborhood meeting, but also from a public hearing standpoint, it cannot be more than 90 days before the meeting. So, it sets a window in which there that from a mailed notice standpoint, we have to include that. Uh, y'all might recall that uh probably a little over a year ago, we did a text amendment. We changed that 90-day from from 45 to 90 days uh really to be able to send out one notice instead of multiple notices and and get all the information on on um uh one notice instead of sending two. also says we have on all those applications we need a newspaper notice not less than 15 days prior to but not more than 90 days before the public hearing. Same thing. So we're able to, you know, put multiple notices out in the newspaper for one applica or two applications that are associated with the same site and go from there. And what you see over to the right there is is a copy of a newspaper notice that we had sent out uh for another uh application. And then we get to the posted notice requirements. And again, it's 15 days prior to the neighborhood meeting, 15 days prior to the public hearing meeting. But here's where things get a little bit different. And that is that we have different size sign requirements for different applications. you know, so what I tried to do over here and and so the the big square orange one you see with the QR codes on

it and all that, that's the big 4 by8 sign that goes on all our reszonings, annexations, general plan amendments, and development review permits. And then the 24 by 36 is for your conditional use permits, your variances, uh your temporary use uh permits. And I just noticed I for left one over off of there and that's the map of dedication. That's a small one, the 24 by 36 that you see going out. Um so we do have different requirements for the different applications that we have within the city. Uh and that's fairly consistent in in every city that I've ever been in uh working uh we had the same exact requirements. the reszones, general plan amendments, annexations, all of those required 4x8s and the variances, the conditional use permits were the smaller u 24 by 36. But so if you're out there and and you're about and if folks from the public, you know, wonder why one's a big sign, one's a little sign, uh I hope that clears it up a little bit. Now, before I go on to let's talk about all information on the sign shall be evenly spaced and organized in a readable manner. The sign shall include the proposal, the project description, time, date, location of the neighborhood meeting, the names and telephone numbers that citizens may call and the applicant city contacts and all that uh good information as well. The number of signs and the loc location shall be determined by the zoning administrator or authorized designate. That's me. Uh and and we do this all the time. And and so I want to talk about a couple of things as we go into this next one. First of all, what you're looking at um commissioners are these are the actual maps that we make that we send to the sign company telling them where we want the the sign location to go. So, you

know, for example, the Bolan and Hartman uh reszone came in just a a couple of months ago. um was before y'all u u bowling road dead ends. We put it right there on the corner. Uh anybody turning left, turn right, no matter where you're going from that corner, you're going to have to pass it. And that's a great location, you know, for that sign. Furthermore, in the event somebody wanted to pull over, get closer, take a picture of the QR code, uh there's plenty of shoulder there to be able to do that. Obviously with the Apex Auto Club, you know, much bigger organ uh much bigger piece of property, multiple entrances to it. So clearly we thought it was appropriate to have multiple signs on that. Uh the other thing that you may recall from um uh the Apex um development was because of the size of it, we went to a thousand feet on the on the neighborhood meeting notice um instead of 600 in an effort to try and capture more folks. Uh the industrial triangle on the left, five different those are the locations of the five signs that we used. And then the Terribles reszone on the right, which is the the site that that Commissioner Clobe was actually asking about. Uh we put two on that site for a specific reason. Uh one, right there on the corner, you've got um I don't have a pointer, but right on that that that northwest corner, uh a you've got several uh utility boxes. You've got the light um the signal sitting right there. And then the to make it even more convoluted, uh you've got two big scuppers on there that are taking water off the road there. So, we would have had to put that sign so far back that no one would have been able to read it. Uh you wouldn't have been able

to get the QR code. So, in this instance, we looked at it based on the information we thought it was appropriate to um put one on on Bowling and and another one on Porter Road. And that's how we ended up with the two signs out on that location. So that uh concludes my presentation. Um I would just kind of sum it all up by by stating that um you know we do have specific requirements that we just went through. Um but it really is a case-byase basis. Uh you know every site is is a little unique and may require you know different common sense you know and and you know the whole purpose of this is to try and reach as many people and inform as we can. Um, so we always try and error on the side of good judgment, you know, when putting these out and and the distances we use to try and reach as many people as we possibly can. Um, commissioners, that that concludes my presentation with this. I'll be happy to answer any questions y'all might have.

Thank you, Rick. Commissioners, any questions? Um the only thing for me is I think that actual I think what sparked uh Clo's question for this there actually is four signs for this uh terrible reason. There's two on each side and I think that's why he was like wait why does this developer need to put four 4 by8 signs up versus two. Yeah. Uh, chairman, excellent point, you know, and u what I would say is we try very very hard to piggy back as much as we can, you know, uh they're they're nice big signs. So, if we can get a, you know, a reason, a general plan amendment, and a DRP on one side, that's that's our our our choice we would like to make. Doesn't always work that way. And if you recall on this particular site, we had the reszone going which was going well before the the site plan. So once we posted, you know, the first reszone, we now we're we're we're done. We're into, you know, different signs. Um and so that's why it ended up having to have different signs on different locations. Um and then it just compounds it with the, you know, trying to get the proximity to folks. Um yeah along Porter and along uh Bowlolan it it it compounded it didn't have a question.

Thank you Rick. Commissioner Yoken,

looking at the terrible reszone DRP, we have two signs, but if we were to put one sign at the corner of Bolan and Porter and rather than it being parallel to Boland and parallel or parallel to Porter, if we put it in diagonally, would that satisfy the need for two signs? Uh, chairman, commissioners, u, yes it would. you know, and again, that would be the preferred course of action. Uh, the reason that we chose not to do that in this location was because of the the electrical cabinets, the uh drainage scuppers, and the signal being right there. Um, we would have put it diagonal, uh, Commissioner Yokum, but it would have been so far back that no one would have been able to read it.

So, that is a practice that that we have in place. Well, yes, sir. If I go uh the Bolan and Hartman reszone on your left there. Okay. Exactly what we did in that location. Thank you. Any other questions from the commissioners? All right. Seeing none, that'll take us to reports from commission andor staff. Take it away again, Rick. Just stay right here. And

uh thank you, chairman. Uh commissioners, uh couple of uh neat things going on. And um uh we're working really hard to get the next agenda out to you uh either tomorrow or Wednesday. Uh so we've got um if I recall correctly, we've got a uh DRP, a reszone uh and we've also got the 2025 text amendments coming your way. Um so I hope to have that out uh no later than Wednesday, which should give you plenty of time to uh take a look through that. Um uh I wrote up a really nice little summary for it um that explains each of those text amendments. Um if you have any questions, feel free to give me a call. Uh and we're working on um um some new and exciting things coming down. I don't know the exact time frames on them, but we've got um uh we've got the the non-residential design guidelines getting very close. Um we will probably take um two study sessions on it's a big document. Uh way too much to try and get through in one night. Uh so we'll probably cut that into, you know, trim that into two different presentations. Um we'll get that out to you well ahead and then we'll just we'll come in here and sit down and have a really good discussion on that. We'll try and keep that um agenda to a minimum if we can uh so we can really focus on that. But I'm really excited about it. first set of design guidelines. We've been working on this for a long long time now. Uh and we're anxious to get that out. Um we've also got a couple more study sessions coming your way. Uh we've got we're expecting the uh first draft copy of the general plan update uh in November. Uh so once we get you know are able to vet that uh I see you know early early 2026

coming in with again a couple more study sessions um going over that. So that's really exciting coming through. Um I think we're looking at a uh it's either a December January or a January February uh 60-day review period on that. So you know it it's coming soon and and we're all real excited about that. Um, other than that, I think that's all I have for updates and um, u, thank you very much for your time tonight and appreciate it. Thank you, Rick. Uh, Rick, when when's our next meeting? The 27th. 27th. October.

Do have one other thing to add. Um, um, I spoke with Rudy when I got back from vacation. We talked about some legislative updates. Uh, and he's working on that and he's going to bring that to y'all. Um, I don't have a date on that yet, but uh I know it's working.

That was basically going to be my question that we'd ask Rudy for a legislative update. Um, Rick, I would like to see something like this every quarter. Bring us a section of the code that might be a hot topic in the recent past or coming up, something that we've maybe gotten in the weeds where we shouldn't have, that we need a little explanation from. sometimes I think they're just valuable to us that you know if we had one 15minute deal like this every quarter I think it'd be good for us chairman uh commissioners u commissioner Robertson excellent point I I couldn't agree with you more uh we're already we're in the process of putting that together for 2026 uh as an informational type u uh educational tool uh which is great for everyone. It's great for us as planners and staff to, you know, dive in and get that. It's great for you guys, you know, and and to broadening your horizons as we're coming through with these items. Um and it also helps educate the public, too. So, you know, uh I think it's win-win all the way around. We're talking about it now. Um and uh I I I think I think you're going to be pleasantly surprised in 2026. We don't get into the weeds ever. I don't know what you're talking about. Um I do not see a need for e session. We Anyways, um so that'll take us to adjournment. Do I have a motion to adjurnn?

So moved. Do I have a second? I have a second. All in favor say I. I. We are adjourned.