Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

It is August 18, 2026, about 6-ish in the evening. And this is the Paradise Valley Planning Commission meeting. Please call the meeting to order.

I guess, Chair, before we call the meeting to order, I just want to introduce Orly Young. I know you met her through email. She's our new deputy clerk management analyst for the department. And we'll be managing sort of our meeting minutes and things of that nature related to your duties, at least. Welcome. Yes, you're welcome.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Nice to meet you.

Welcome, Orly. We're very excited to have you here and look forward to working together into the future. Great, can we just call the roll?

Yes, we'll call Commissioner Brown.

Here.

Commissioner Covington. Commissioner Curtis.

Here.

Commissioner Nagel.

Here.

Commissioner Nacikas.

Here, yeah, good job.

And chair.

Chair Torgelos. Thank you, Orly. See, there you go. Two Greek names in one night. I think you get a gold star. At one or more times this evening, as necessary, we may need to confer with the town attorney for legal advice. If that happens, we will go into executive session as authorized by statute. We have a few things on our agenda this evening. The first is the approval or amendment of minutes. And then we have a study session item. No public hearings. No action items. Then there's potentially public body reports and staff reports. Future agenda items. Is everyone okay with the organization of the agenda this evening? Do you have any comments? Hearing none, we will move forward to the approval or amendment of minutes. That's 26-200, approval of the June 16, 2026 Planning Commission So moved.

So moved.

OK. Having been moved by Commissioner Curtis and seconded by Commissioner Covington, do we have any discussion about this? Any comments? No. None? OK. All in favor?

Aye.

All opposed? Hearing none opposed, the minutes are approved unanimously. Moving along to our study session item this evening, it's 26-201, Discussion of Vista Church Minor Special Use Permit Amendment. It's SUP-26-06, and it's located at 5230 North Scottsdale Road. Mr. McMahon, would you present, please?

Yes. Thank you, Chair, members of the commission. As stated, this is case SUP 2606, minor special use permit amendment at Vista Church. So the goal this evening, obviously, is to review the application in its entirety. If you have any questions you may have, take any comments, moving toward a public hearing potentially set for September 15 on this item. This place of worship is located north of the northwest corner of Scottsdale Road and Vista Drive, bordering those two public roads. To the west of the church are the R18A zoned lots, their rear yards of the Grosse Pointe II subdivision. To the north of the church is Paradise Valley Medical Plaza. This evening, again, we'll be going over the full scope of the request, why this constitutes a minor amendment, and then next steps moving forward. Vista Church, formerly First Southern Baptist Church, gained SUP approval in January 1969. In September 1970, the town granted approvals to begin construction of the church campus. Various amendments have been approved throughout the history of the church. Again, most recently, 2023, the intermediate amendment to install the solar shade structure in the existing parking lot. The applicant, Arizona Commercial Signs, on behalf of Vista Church, is requesting a new monument sign to be placed along the eastern border adjacent 140 feet, eight feet roughly, from the northern driveway at Vista Church. It's proposed to be set back at the property line along that eastern edge. It's a dual-face sign, seven feet tall from grade, eight feet tall from the Scottsdale Road sidewalk, which, again, is 13 feet away from that property line, the back of sidewalk. The sign is to be 10 feet 8 inches wide. The sign copy itself is 32 square feet in total sign area, but the totality of the sign is roughly 108.64 square feet. The SUP guidelines call for no specified setback, just to be located on property, limited to one sign at each principal entrance, 8 feet max, and again, that 32 square feet max signs for the sign copy. The sign itself, again, consists of a top and planter base. Again, the overall sign dimensions are seven feet by 13.58 feet from the base to the top of the cabinet. The total sign area, again, as mentioned, 108.64 square feet. The base is two feet four inches above the grade, and then that top portion, again, four foot seven inches above that base. You can also see the signed copy there. And on the side that faces Scottsdale Road, you'll see the address number on that side as well. In terms of lighting and color, on this screen, you can see the photo sim on the bottom left of the back internally halo lit sign with the white LED 3,000 Kelvin per town lighting code requirement. The photometric provided that's in your packet displays a 0.09 foot candles at the property line, well below the 0.75 foot candle requirement. There is to be no indirect or additional lighting as part of this request, no lighting of the planter box. And again, automatically timed from dusk to 10 PM to accommodate evening ministries and campus events. These images, again, are further illustrating on the left the light propagation at the property line, showing that 0.03 to 0.04 light output. And then on the right, you can see the color swatch of the materials to be used on the site. The application qualifies as a minor amendment due to the fact that it does not meet the criteria listed on the screen, as well as historically monument signage has been processed through the Planning Commission via minor ASUP amendment. So again, this request constitute a minor event because it does not change or add any uses. It does not increase the amount of floor area. It does not change architectural style of this SUP. It meets the recommended setback in height. It generally meets the recommended size. And I'll go further into that. And it also complies with the lighting code. In terms of the size, again, being that 32 square feet, The town has approved larger signs along non-local streets, such as along Lincoln Drive. Paradise Valley Methodist Church in 2016, located at 4455 East Lincoln Drive, has a primary sign area of 23, which meets that 32 square foot. But the total sign area is, again, 89 square feet, being a dual sided. Sign as well as Ascension Lutheran Church formerly Ascension Lutheran Church located at 7100 North Mockingbird in 2019 the Planning Commission approved a sign that has Again a dual face sign that is 71 square feet in total sign area The draft stipulations tied to this amendment approval are that all improvements are to be in substantial compliance with the narrative and plans that are submitted and found in your packet and The sign illumination, again, is to be turned off at 10 PM outside of special events. And then again, all existing stipulations shall remain in effect, but not modified by this minor amendment. In terms of next steps, the applicant is to send out notice for the potential September 15 public hearing on this item. And then at that meeting, there will be two actions made. One, to determine if the request constitutes a minor amendment. And then two, to take action on the amendment itself to approve, to approve with modified stipulations, to deny, or to continue the request. With that, I now open this item for discussion. Happy to answer any questions. And thank you very much.

So it sounds like everything is compliant except for size issue. And can you explain a little bit more in terms of the flexibility that the commission has as it relates to that? what specifically the ordinance says as to sign size.

Correct. The guideline states that the sign area is to be 32 square feet in total sign area. Again, being a guideline, it's at the purview of the commission to go outside of those bounds. I did provide slides of the two signs that I had previously mentioned that are a much larger sign that has previously been approved. Again, facing those major arterial streets, a non-local street. So these are the two other examples of signage. The guideline, again, is just for sign area. It doesn't specify the totality of the entire sign. So I guess that's where in the past the commission has kind of weighed in and made the determination that a larger sign

Just so, sorry, just so I can understand, the guidelines for sign area, is that generally interpreted to be the area of the sign copy or the sign itself?

Commissioner Nagel, members of the commission, that's correct. Typically it has been the 32 square feet of the sign copy area. And the larger sign is outside of that, is how it's been.

Yeah, well, the guideline is if it's a monument sign like what's being proposed, it would be the whole monument sign, technically. But I know unlike the Methodist church here, a lot that came into play was the speed of the traffic and the large volume of that road, which is probably more so on Scottsdale Road than this. Where we do sign areas, they say a sign's just on a wall, then we'll just look at the sign area typically.

And then this is right on Scottsdale Road. Correct. So it would be different than if it were on an internal street or one of the smaller streets.

This is Commissioner Covington. Is that guideline for sign size include the base?

Yes, Commissioner Chair, Commissioner Covington, typically how we would interpret it on a monument sign, we'd include the whole thing. OK. Well, yeah, we made two exceptions. I mean, there were two exceptions as examples here. But yes, if we're reading the guideline, that's where we're pointing out the sign area is larger than we normally would say to the guideline because it's a monument sign. Now, if that were just on a wall, as some people do, then we'd look at the copy.

I understand.

Right, yeah.

So again, this was the Paradise Valley United Methodist example on Lincoln, and then the former Ascension Lutheran Church example of the sign.

Could you just once again remind us what the differences are in size? I mean, these are examples of larger monument signs that we've approved.

Right, so that, Chair, members of the Commission, Paradise Valley Methodist Church, again, the guideline was still the 32 square feet of sign area, but that sign was approved at 89 square feet dual-sided. The Ascension sign along Mockingbird in 2019 was approved, and that sign had a total sign area of 71 square feet dual-sided. So much larger than the 32 square feet, again, being a monument sign.

Quick question. I noticed on those other signs that have been approved that it's one church brand for each sign. It looks like there might be two church brands on this one. So that was one question. The other one was, this hasn't gone out to neighbors yet. That's another step where people can comment, correct? OK, thank you.

Correct. Yeah. Commissioner Brown, members of the commission. So the signed copy itself, the Vista Church is obviously the name of the church. The Iglesia Vista is their Spanish-speaking ministry. So it is the same church. It's just in Spanish.

It's just church is Iglesia. So yeah, we had the same issue. We thought it was two different churches. And it's actually Vista Church in Spanish and Vista Church in Spanish. No, I know what it means.

I just didn't know that that's how they're branding them now. For instance, there's several Catholic churches that have a Spanish mass, for instance, but they don't brand it separately. So it looks confusing to me. But that's my opinion.

But Commissioner Brown, to your point, again, notice is scheduled to go out tomorrow. The sign has already been posted on site. So some of the noticing has already been in play.

Have you received any input from the community at all? Has anyone contacted us?

Staff has not received any comments.

Thank you.

Now, this replaces a sign that previously And now it's the Baptist Church, I guess, right?

Correct. Commissioner Ntukis, members of the commission, there was a wall-mounted sign on the main building that faces front Scottsdale Road. That sign has now been removed. So this is in place of that sign. Makes sense. Thank you. So there won't be multiple signage. There will just be this one monument sign now.

Any other comments from the commission? Okay.

Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Thank you.

Moving right along. There are no public hearings this evening, no action items. I would like to make a public body report. I just wanted to congratulate on the record our commissioners who are moving on to bigger and better things, and our town council persons elect. We've appreciated the time here, and you're not getting away from us quite so soon. Thank you. you know, remember the little people when you move along to the next thing. No, I just wanted to wish you a heartfelt congratulations. I know that everyone in this room feels the same way and very well deserved and, you know, look forward to seeing what you do on town council.

Thank you, Pamela. Thanks, everybody. Appreciate that.

So, staff reports.

Yes, Chair. Yeah, there's no public hearings or action items. So staff reports, the only item is a staff update on the Smoketree Resort. As you recall, that was last approved with a minor SUP amendment. And it has been demoed, and they're looking for construction. So you were provided some information prior to this meeting. Really not a lot new since that. I think you're all familiar with where it's located on the east side of town on Lincoln Drive towards the border of town with the city of Scottsdale. It was annexed originally in 1964. It had an existing resort, if you recall, a really small and mostly a restaurant. And then it received its first special use permit in the early 70s. Really did nothing for many years, amendment-wise at least. until it was sold in around 2020, where they tried to do a major SUP amendment, if you recall, for those who were around, which was quite larger than what they were proposing, which was approved. And they were through that one. It had 165 guest units. And then they finally got an amendment approved, which was in 2024. That was SUP 2301 for 82 guest units, a restaurant, spa, and meeting space. And then they went through a minor special use permit amendment in 2025. where they reconfigured the same space to get 95 guest units was the main difference there. So shortly after that, they did demo the site. So that was in April of 2025. And then they subsequently, later that year, did submit building permits, more for the groundwork, so utility work, groundwork. There's an underground garage as part of that and some basement area for back of house sort of stuff. Then they ran into a little bit of difficulty with EPCOR, which they needed to work through. They also, if you recall, there's a stipulation. There's a APS cabinet that's right at the street at the corner that they either have to screen or they have to relocate. They needed to get a letter from APS, which APS said, yes, if you pay for it, you can move it. So they're working through those two items. And they're obviously now, I think, gearing back up because they've reached back out to the town and said, no, we need to move forward again on this. And so staff is meeting with them tomorrow. We'll be meeting with them regularly. They probably have mostly building manager sort of questions and engineering questions and planning questions. But they are moving forward with that. We did ask for them to update their timeline. And that's what we emailed you shortly after you got your packet, which is essentially they want to finish off the groundwork permit. That expired, so they'll have to reissue that again so they can start that. They're hoping the end of this year to start that construction work on the basement area and the grading work, and then they'll get their inside building work sort of permits through, and then they'll start, you know, working on the construction of that. And they're hoping that they would be completed with construction in May of 2028 with an opening in summer 2028. So they're about a year behind from when it went to you. And that really had to do, again, with the water and the cabinets sort of stuff. But they are moving forward.

This is Commissioner Rose. I appreciate that update. Did the Planning Commission and the Town Council miss anything on the water? It seems like, or did something change with EPCOR? Because it seems like we want to know that the water was approved prior to our approving it.

Chair, Commissioner Rose, no. We were provided a water impact service study. EPCOR did review it. Their engineer reviewed it. So really, from my understanding, it really was a change on EPCOR, which was a surprise to the applicant to work out that information. But I don't think it's anything that we missed from a town perspective.

OK, thank you.

And then just go on. These are just, you know, the site plan. That was in your packet there. There's, you know, a three-story element, which is the dark blue, and just some of the renderings of, you know, what it will look like. And that's all.

Eighteen months seems pretty aggressive.

Yeah.

Well, to open in the summer. Yeah.

I'm sure that will be a stop. Something tells me they're going to move that a little bit.

But it is promising that they keep reaching out to us constantly. So it tells me they're very interested and eager and want to construct.

So we're happy for that. Are the architectural team from Allen and Phelps still involved? You know, you see, they come to the meetings, no?

No, yeah. T.Y. Lin, I think, right? That's not the architect. No, no, no. I know they're not the architect. It's all the construction crew, basically, that we're meeting with.

Yeah, this is a little bit more get in the ground. Yeah. I guess the architects have done their job. Hopefully. Right.

Thank you very much for that update. Sure.

Thank you, Mr. Michaud. Would you share future agenda items with us?

Certainly, yes. So we have no scheduled items for your next meeting, which is September 1. So we will be canceling that. So your next meeting is September 15. You'll have two items on that. They're both for action. The item that you just heard this evening on the sign will be there. And then remember, your continued action on the Franciscan renewal for the solar canopies. And on that one, you do have to take some type of action. You have to either deny, approve it with or without stipulations, and move it on to council. And then other updates. The only other one I have is, if you recall, we have Doubletree Ranch Hotel. You did that SUP not that long ago. And one of the stipulations where they had to have two neighborhood meetings, one prior to September 15 and one prior to the end of the year. I'll email this to everyone. But just so you know, it's coming. And you can kind of tentatively mark your dates here. They are going to have neighborhood meeting on Wednesday, September 9 at 6 PM at their resort at the Sonoran Ballroom. and then also on Wednesday, October 21 at 6 PM in that same ballroom. But again, I'll email this out to you. We did also a notice of quorum, so don't worry about that if you all want to attend or not. And they're moving forward. And again, that goes out to a notice 1,500 foot range, just like it did with your minors. So that's all right with that.

Thank you, Mr. Mischuk. Do I have a motion to adjourn?

So moved.

Thank you. Second. Thank you, Commissioner Bryant. Thank you, Commissioner Curtis. All in favor? Aye. All opposed? Hearing none, motion carries unanimously, and we are adjourned.

Good night. Pretty good.

Thanks, everyone.