City Council - Regular Meeting

I'd like to call city of Apache Junction council meeting of 04/21/2026 to order and ask everyone to put their cell phones on silent. Brian? The invocation will be led by congress

congressman. Excuse

me. By council member Solar and the pledge by councilman Heck.

Our father, who art in heaven, we ask thee bless this meeting, endow us with thy spirit. May all our actions and decisions be guided by thy hand that we may be fair and just to all, Bless our council, police, fire, emergency medical, military personnel, city employees, and our citizens. We ask this in thy name. Amen. Amen.

I. I pledge allegiance to

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

Roll call.

Mayor Wilson? Here. Vice mayor Schroeder? Present. Council member Cross?

Here.

Council member Heck?

Here.

Council member Johnson?

Here.

Council member Nimerser is excused this evening. Council member Seller? Here. You have a quorum, your honor.

Thank you. As a reminder, under a consent agenda approval with one motion, if a council member wishes to remove an item for further discussion, requests will be made prior to approving the consent agenda and will be moved to new business.

Your honor?

Yes. I move that the consent agenda be accepted as presented with the exception of items number seven through 12 being pulled for further discussion. Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Council member Sawler. Yes. Vice mayor Schroeder. Yes. Council member Cross. Yes. Council member Heck.

Yes.

Council member Johnson?

Yes.

Mayor Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously.

Okay. Excuse me. I apologize.

At this time, I'd like to address the agenda item number twenty two and twenty three under new business and call Zach to come up forward and do a presentation discussions of resolutions number

Excuse me, your honor. We're gonna discuss items seven through 12. They were pulled from the agenda, so we need to have call on Mike Loggins to come up and explain

that. First?

We have to do those first before we can move on. Thank you.

Alright. So we're gonna be doing seven through twelve. Mike.

Mayor Wilson, council members, Mike Loggins, public works director, city of Apache Junction, 300 East Superstition Boulevard, Apache Junction, Arizona 85019. Just wanna get up in front of you. We pulled a couple items from the the consent. I just wanna make sure you're aware why we pulled those tonight. The first two items that we left alone was the beginning, which twenty six fourteen and twenty six seventeen, which no language changed in those.

Those were the formations of districts that we were changing, and the language in those stated that. What we're changing is in the next one is in 2015, twenty six fifteen. There's language in there saying that we were forming a district again. Well, we're not forming a district. We still are doing the Scribner's error, but we are stating where the street lights are added.

And I provided that detail in the information to you, I guess, in the red line comments I gave to you earlier. And also, twenty six sixteen, again, is whereas clause that we have in there, it needs to change from formation of a district to adopting the budget of that the final budget for that district. So we we had to make those corrections. We wanna make sure we had a clerical error, and we got those cleaned up before we had the final resolutions resolved in those. These two also took place in twenty six eighteen resolution, and then resolution twenty six nineteen on the final budget for those also. So all those were changed, but I wanna make sure those clerical errors you guys seen ahead of time. They were redlined, and then they are in the final resolutions presented to you tonight.

So, Mike, if I could just ask a clarifying question. So nothing changed from what the present what was presented last night as far as the Scrivener's errors? It was just the documents attached to the agenda had some incorrect language that's now corrected so they can vote on the correct language.

That is correct. Any questions?

Any questions? No? Yep. Yes?

Is the correct language on the computer on the website now?

I don't think so at

this point. Once the agenda is published, we can't change what what was uploaded. Okay. But what you will be voting on and approving tonight will be corrected language.

Okay. So do I have a motion on this this is seven or Your honor. Yes. I move

that resolution number twenty six fourteen, amending the correcting amending and correcting resolution number twenty three zero six and resolution number twenty six dash seventeen, amending and correcting resolution number 23Dash23 be approved.

Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Council member Johnson?

Yes.

Council member Cross?

Yes.

Council member Heck? Yes. Council member Soller? Yes. Vice mayor Schroeder? Yes. Mayor Wilson? Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

Alright. Now for eight through 12 or eight, nine, eleven, and twelve items numbers. Mayor? Yes. Do you

want a resolution or

a Yes.

Okay. I move that Resolution Number 2615 amended and corrected Resolution Number 20 three -seven, Resolution 20 six-sixteen, amended and corrected Resolution 20 three-eight, Resolution 20 six-eighteen, amending and correcting Resolution 20 three-twenty four and Resolution 20 six-nineteen, amending and correcting Resolution 20 three-twenty five be approved with the clerical changes as announced by the public works director, Mike Loggins.

Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Vice mayor Schroeder?

Yes.

Council member Heck?

Yes.

Council member Soller?

Yes.

Council member Johnson?

Yes.

Council member Cross?

Yes.

Mayor Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously.

Okay. Now that we got consent agenda all cleared up, I would like this time to address the agenda items number twenty two and twenty three under new business and call on Zach. Presentation is goes discussion of resolution number 26 dash 11.

Mayor, counsel, good evening. Zach Saikas. I'm an attorney at Greenberg, Troy. I serve as bond counsel and CFD counsel of the city. I also serve as special district counsel to each of the CFDs.

Mayor, with your permission, I'll address both both items, if that's okay, since they are essentially very similar. At the time that these two community facilities districts were formed, an agreement was entered into between the city, each district, and the respective developer or homebuilder for the district. And that kind of spelled out the rules of the road for the district, including how infrastructure would be acquired, target property tax rates for each district, assessment amounts per lot, and other provisions regarding how the districts would function and interact with the city and the developer. In light of some recent plaintiffs' class action lawsuits, the county assessor has changed how it assesses new homes when they're put on the property tax rolls, resulting in lower valuations and therefore reducing the bonding capacity of these districts. The developer or homebuilder in each group has requested an increase to the CFD property tax rate no city property tax rate, just to be very clear.

The CFD property tax rate in each district from in the case of District 1, from $3.3 to $5 and in the case District 2, three 0.85 to $5 Each district will also continue to levy a $0.30 operation and maintenance tax for district operations. So the total property tax levied, again, solely within each district would be 5.3 Each developer has also requested an increase in the assessment amount per lot to increase that to $12,500 per lot. And in the last portion of this, the proposed amendments in front of council tonight, The at the time that the land was auctioned by state land, the state land department imposed some some heavy requirements that the winning bidder constructed some significant infrastructure improvements. Right now, the CFD development agreements permit payment for projects completed, and you have to sort of submit them for CFD financing within a ten year period. Some of these projects are so large, it's referred to as the backbone infrastructure in the agreement from state land, that the backbone infrastructure only would be permitted a fifteen year submittal period for CFD financing.

Representatives of both Doctor Horton and Brookfield are here tonight to speak to CFD number one or CFD number two as applicable, and then happy to answer any questions that counsel may have.

I would like to know if they would be willing to amend that $12,000 to $9,000 and look at it again in the future, should they decide that that is not enough in the future after actually deciding where those costs are rather than anticipating what they're going to be for five full years.

I'll I'll let the developer group respond to that, council member.

Thank you.

Mayor, members of the council, Patrick Brown, city manager with Doctor Horton. The address is 7689 North Pinnacle Peak Road, Scottsdale, Arizona. Council member Johnson, at this time, we wouldn't be here if we thought further ahead when this was originally formed and gave us the wiggle room. As as we do special assessment issuances, we will come to the CFD board for those approvals based off of those amounts. The other thing I've failed to mention during the CFD board meeting was we still have to have the property valuation in the district in that, you know, this special assessments is smaller areas.

It's the individual lot assessments. And to issue up to those dollar amounts, you have to have either a four to one or a six to one valuation on the property to meet those as well. So there's another governor on the ability of us to issue up to that twelve five. So I can tell you that is our request is to go to the twelve five. I think we, as I mentioned earlier, we are going to take it step by step.

In our case, section 19, we are not increasing those amounts because we think that that's gonna be a a challenge from a sales perspective to say one parcel right down the street from the other. But when we go North of Warner, that's when we anticipate those additional costs to be levered. We are the homebuilder. We are very focused on making sure that our property tax rate is not out of line. We are here to try to sell 500 to 600 units a year. And the last thing I'm gonna do is try to turn it off by taxing those residents more than that is their fair share.

Mayor council, any other questions where I could be helpful?

Anyone else?

Thank you.

Okay. Do I have a motion on resolution number twenty twenty twenty six dash 11? Your honor?

Yes. I move that resolution number 26 dash 11, resolution of the mayor and city council of the city of Apache Junction, Arizona, approving and authorizing the execution and delivery of a first amendment to district development, financing participation, waiver and intergovernmental agreement for Supercision Vista's Community Facilities District Number one and authorizing other actions in furtherance of this resolution, whether heretofore or hereafter taken, be approved. Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Council member Cross.

Oh, man. I do agree with council member Johnson. The jump is exceptionally high. But I also know that we need to move forward. So I'll say yes.

Council member Solar?

Yes.

Council member Heck?

Yes.

Council member Johnson?

I'll vote no because I think five to 12 going from 5,000 to twelve five. It's too high.

Vice mayor Schroeder?

Yes.

Mayor Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes five to one.

I'm gonna ask a question on our side. Our next one is the resolution, and the number is 2613?

You are correct.

Okay. Because it's wrong in our notes here. Alright. I have a motion for resolution number twenty six thirteen. Mayor? Yes.

I move that resolution number twenty six thirteen, a resolution of the mayor and city council of the city of Apache Junction, Arizona approving and authorizing the execution and delivery of a third amendment to the amendment and restated district development financing participation waiver and inter government agreement agreement for the Superstition Vista's community facility district Number 2 in authorizing other actions in furtherance of this resolution, whether hereto or herefor or hereafter be taken be approved.

Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Vice mayor Schroeder?

Yes.

Council member Heck?

Yes.

Council member Solar? Yes. Council member Johnson?

No. Same reason as before.

Council member Cross? Yes. Mayor Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes five to one with one abstained.

Okay. Now we'll go on to presentations of awards and proclamations, and

I have

two here. First one is gonna be National Arbor Day. Whereas in 1872, Nebraska Board of Agriculture established a special day to be set aside for planting of trees. And whereas this holiday called Arbor Day was first observed with planting more than a million trees in Nebraska. And whereas Arbor Day is now observed throughout the nation and the world.

And whereas trees can be a solution to combating climate change by reducing the erosion of our precious topsoil by wind and water, cutting heat and cooling costs, moderating the temperature, cleaning the air, producing life giving oxygen, providing habitat habitat for wildlife, and whereas trees are a renewable source for giving us paper, wood for our homes, fuel for our fires, countless other wood products, trees where they are planted are a source of joy and spiritual renewal. Now, therefore, I, Chip Wilson, mayor of City Of Apache Junction, do hereby proclaim April 26 as National Arbor Day. I was just gonna ask who I give it to.

Thank

you, Mayor. Liz Langebach, Parks and Recreation Director for the city. We just wanted to share a couple of quick points with you. So we've celebrated this week. Our staff had a tree planting at Desert Vista where they also did a major education opportunity for the students there.

About 60 students got to join in. And additionally, previously on April 11, had our annual Earth Day and Ladybug release where staff shared a lot of really great information about tree care as well as tree recommendations that folks can do in their own homes, as well as guidance and planting of those. This week, on Friday, we will be having our Read and Rec with the fabulous library, and the Parks and Rec department will team up where they'll be learning more about Arbor Day and then also doing planting activities at Prospector Park. That's from 10AM to 11AM. And then myself and staff will be at the State Capitol, this Friday as well accepting our, renewal of our Tree City USA recognition that we're super proud of.

Again, for the second year in a row, we also received the Growth Award, which is doing, above and beyond activities and events, in the categories in order to be able to get that. So thank you so much for this.

Thank you. Very nice. Okay. Youth week. Whereas, relevant and protective order of the elks has designated May 2026 as youth week to honor American's junior citizens for their accomplishments and to give fitting recognition of their services to the community, state, and nation.

And whereas Apache Junction Elks Lodge number twenty three forty nine will sponsor an observance during the week to contribute of junior citizens of this community. And whereas no event could be more deserving of our support and participation than one dedicated to these youth, young children, or young people, excuse me, who rep represent the nation's greatest source and who in years ahead still assume the responsibility for advancement of our free society. And whereas our youth need the guidance, inspiration, and encouragement, which we alone can give in order to help develop these qualities of character essential for future leadership and to go forth to serve as serve America. And whereas to achieve this worthy objective, we should demonstrate our partnership with youth, our understanding of their hopes and inspirations, and sincere willingness to help prepare them in every way for responsibilities and opportunities of citizenship. Now therefore, Chip Wilson, the mayor of the city of Apache Junction, do hereby proclaim the week of May as excuse, youth week, one through seventh.

May week one through seven. Regional inter government updates. Regional meetings from updates from the council. Yes.

I know it's gonna be brought up probably several different ways to some. I just wanted to thank everybody that participated and put together the Boys and Girls Gala event this last Saturday for fun. It's our major fundraiser for our boys and girls club. And it was a huge success with, at this point, over a 196,000 have come in with still more monies trickling in. And so hats off to everybody that participated and all the hard work that went into putting it together. So thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else? Alright. I've got a few in the aspect on it. Today, we did the Apache Junction Water Festival out at excuse me.

Keep getting a tickle here. At Prospector Park, and we had an opportunity to see well over a 100 kids out there. And I have a short video showing them getting a wonderful spray down. And the kids love it. And it's something that's fun to watch in the aspect on it for the kids, but it's something for them to to learn about how we, you know, basically get and treat our water, how it happens.

And it's fun to even listen in on some of the the classes as the kids are going through. And it is we had the unified school districts here, and then also Superior was in as well. And it was a great and I've forgotten now how many

you said for a number

of kids. But there was a lot of kids there, as you can see. Okay. Then this past week, had the Americanism Awards dinner from the American Legion. And we were presented a check for grand total of $6,000.

It's gonna be given to the friends of Apache Junction. And it's 2,000 for Parks and Rec, 2,000 for wounded officer, and 2,000 for AJ Police Department. And if I can get Park and police. Yeah. Can give it to friends at the Apache Junction.

Then

the at the awards, we had the three ward participants or ward people that were awarded. We got the person for education, Tara Williams, and firefighter paramedic from the Superstition Fire District, Matt, and police officer of the year was Richard Rivera. And it was really unique in the aspect of, you know, what was going on there, and they were talking and what all they were involved in. I would have had a long speech for each one of them as to what they were doing, but it was a unique aspects of recognizing outstanding performance as well. And one of the things that I, unfortunately, I guess, was singled out in this one, And I can't say unfortunately, it was surprisingly okay.

And I did not know it was coming. I was recognized for my service. And I was given this wonderful cane that I'm gonna be using here in a few months and the aspects on it. But it's showing my service in the military in the number of years that I had. And Eagle handle is fantastic.

And it was really a surprise. They also presented me with the award for a commitment to the city and to the military or US service in the aspect on it. And it was very unique in the aspect on it. It totally surprised me. And got a little bit of the war story and then the speech was that they had to go to China to get my DD two fourteen.

Well, come to find out, they made a telephone call to my wife and she hid it from me so I didn't know it occurred that they wanted a copy of it. And when I went out on one of the meetings I was at, she stuck away from the house at the World Run, gave it to them and everything. That's how they got my service record.

You want to say something?

Yeah. One other thing we all attended was most of us attended was the Lost Dutchman Days Marathon dinner, and it was really nice. At that dinner, they give out checks to everything from sports, youth sports, the food bank, and I think it's new parks and rec. It was really nice. They bring in money all year long, and then they generously give the money back out to the community and the groups that support our community and our residents. And it was really nice to attend that again this year. So it's a really, really worthy cause and it was a lot of fun.

And it's something that's really unique in the aspect of the amount of money that they have gone given back to over the twenty five years.

Twenty five years.

They've done is slightly over a million dollars that they have given to our different use groups and involvements throughout our community. So it's been something that they have really been fantastic with in the aspect on it. So this was something that was really fantastic to see and continuing on for some more in the near future. Okay. City manager's report.

Thank you. Your honor, Brian Powell, city manager, and just a huge thank to the Parks and Recreation Department, Police Department helped make this happen so well and without any injuries and the amount of support is just incredible. And then I just wanted to highlight one of our own, in economic development. Brock Severson was honored within his own peers, and we did not submit this. His own peers submitted him to be the, bias peers of the neighboring Arizona municipalities in Arizona Association for Economic Development as the, young professional of the year. So I wanted to highlight him, and he and he and Ryan are doing great work in in that world of economic development. And then I'd like to turn the rest of my time over to Eli for current events.

K. Good evening mayor, city council. Two things to highlight tonight. First being it's free dump week again. This is gonna be May on those dates at our Apache Junction Landfill.

This is a quarterly event. Most people are pretty used to the requirements here. It's one truckload of refuse and few other things to make sure safety equipment, proper identification. So if this is your first time attending, take the time to go online and and make sure you have a plan to take advantage of this and have everything straightened out so that you can get one free truckload of dump at our landfill. This next event, something that a lot of staff are excited about.

I believe this is our third year of this construction expo. Third year, third venue. It's it's gonna be this year just behind the Rusty Buckle near Flatiron Park. There'll be a better map that comes out here in the next few days, but just to give everyone a rough idea of what we're looking to do with parking, some of that land south of the event space will be actually some heavy equipment will come in and flatten it so that there'll be some parking there. We're hoping people can enter and off of the trail, keep things nice and smooth coming in and out of the event.

As for the event itself, Leslie, who's kind of our mastermind here told me that, you know, this is a flyer. We wish it was we could put more on here. There's a lot that she's doing here for this day and and some new sponsors, some new activities. Really the goal is to engage youth all the way from, you know, toddlers to teenagers and and also to to give people a chance to be informed a little bit as to as, you know, what what we do safety within the community with construction and and how we create partnerships to to a better Apache Junction. Junction.

So a lot here to look at and consider, but a really favorite event among staff. And that is it for current events this week.

Thank you, your honor.

Okay. Public hearings. Consideration application for a new series 10 beer and wine store liquor license for a Circle K store number 9288. Evie.

Thank you, your honor. Evie McKinney, city clerk. This evening, we have a new series 10 beer and wine store liquor license application that was submitted by agent Maria Burgess representing the Circle K store number 9288. This is a brand new Circle K on the Northeast Corner Of Ironwood And Ray Road. The Arizona Department of Liquor License and Control received the application on March 16 and forwarded it to the clerk's office the same day.

The applicant was notified by a first class letter and email of the public hearing tonight and was encouraged to attend. We also posted the public hearing notice at the establishment on 03/23/2026 to comply with state law requirements. I would like to add that because this is basically a dirt lot, there was no fence, no structure, there was nothing there to post our public hearing notice on. By statute, it does have to be posted, and so we had to contact the the business and ask them to go out and put something up for us, and so it's the first time that we've had to do that. It was interesting.

Correspondence related to inspections of premises from our four safety entities, the police department, building and safety, planning and zoning, the fire district all responded with compliance within their inspection requirements and recommend this for approval. Tonight, you have the option to make the recommendation for approval or denial to the Arizona State Liquor License and Control on this application. It does need to be submitted back to the Liquor Board by 05/15/2026, and I'm happy to answer any questions. I am not certain if there is anyone here. Doesn't appear to be anyone here for representation.

Alright. Any discussion from city council? Oh,

I'm sorry.

Okay.

Mayor and council, Jordan Rydberg, Circle K Stores, 1130 West Warner Road, Tempe, Arizona 85284. Before you tonight is our series 10 beer and wine application for a brand new store at the Northeast Corner of Ironwood And Ray. It will be a 5,700 square foot convenience store with seven fuel dispensers. Happy to answer any questions that you have about the project.

Any questions? No? Welcome to the area. Okay. Since we have no questions from you. You. I will now open the public hearing. There's a five minute time limit with a one minute warning that you will hear. Please state your name and address for the record. Anyone want to speak on this? And I see no movement. I will now close public hearing and ask for a motion. Mayor? Yes.

I move the application for a new Series 10 beer and wine store liquor license for Circle K store number 9288 located at 10351 South Ironwood Drive, Apache Junction, Arizona be recommended to the Arizona Department of Liquor Licensing and Control for approval.

Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Council member Heck?

Yes.

Council member Cross? Yes. Council member Johnson?

Yes.

Vice mayor Schroeder? Yes. Council member Soller?

Yes.

Mayor Wilson? Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. Welcome. Presentation, discussion, public hearing, and consideration of ordinance number fifteen seventy four. Nick.

Thank you, your honor. I'm Nick Leptrich, planner of the development services department of City of Apache Junction. I'll be presenting the staff presentation for p twenty five fifty nine p z, the Diamante Homes Adequation Project, and the relevant ordinance fifteen seventy four tonight. After which the applicant is also here, and they have an they have a presentation as well to be able to answer questions. The subject property of this rezoning is approximately eight acres located between Southern Acacia, Star, and Old West Highway, which De Monte Homes intends to develop with a 129 lot townhome subdivision.

As a matter of clarification, as I've gotten some questions, this is not apartments. This is not a build to rent community. Each of one of these, townhomes would be on a individually platted lot for individual ownership for ownership occupancy. The property that is excuse me. This is a zoomed out image just showing a little bit more context.

We have Goldfield on the East Side. The property is is eight parcels that are currently split between three different zoning districts. There is, on the West Side, four parcels that are zoned, high density resident, multiple family residential by planned development, arm one PD, which was approved for a townhome subdivision about twenty years ago that was ultimately just never developed. And there are three vacant b one general commercial properties that have never been developed. And then there is the last parcel is a RSGR, general rural low density residential property that previously had a single family home on it that had since been demolished.

Shown here is the general plan land use designation. With what was previously noted about the zoning, half of the site is already designated for high density multiple family residential, and this rezoning would just convert the commercial portion to be high density residential as well to accommodate this rezoning. Shown here is the site plan. Again, it is 129 lots. Each home would have a two car garage. The site itself provides amenities such

Mr. Mayor, real quick.

I'm sorry to interrupt. Just make sure your mics are on. We had a little re reset again. So if they're showing red, just click it again. So

we have to make a stipulation as to it being on Acadia in the motions or what?

The planning and zoning commission within the staff board and the conditions of approval as noted in ordinance fifteen seventy four was with the original 01/26/2026 site plan in mind. Now condition nine did indicate that they would work with staff to provide an alternate plan, and that is still the case. They did so. But if if the April 7 plan is to be adopted, then it would need to be done by amendment to the recommended conditions of approval on the ordinance so that it is ordered to include the approval of this site plan.

So Acadia is the one from January what? January 26.

That is correct.

And that is what the conditions of approval were or though.

Or to lock.

And on that one, you can only go when you're going out the whole the highway, you can only go right.

On Star?

On Star.

Only go right.

Which is the one that you

can cross over?

Yep. No.

The original plan, the January 26 plan has the primary access being on Acacia, which would allow for movement would go northward, but they would be able to access the turnaround on Star. But if we look at the Star access on the second plan, because it doesn't align and right now, there is currently a drainage structure right here. So we looked at, at the at the questions that we received from the city council at the work session two weeks ago. We looked at what could be done with a different median break, but we see that there there are a lot of traffic conflicts that occur right here where we need to introduce a second median break. There's currently a drainage structure that is what routes this wash through.

And so with the Star, with the second site plan, if they were to exit out onto Star, they would need to go southward towards Goldfield in order to turn around.

The same Goldfield area that we've had so many issues with?

That would be correct.

Thank you.

So Acacia, they're gonna put the road all the way through and up? No. Or you you're gonna have to go south? You're have to go south.

No. It goes all the

way up. With Acacia, there is currently access on Acacia, and so they would be able to go northward and to be able to turn around at the star median break, which just because of the alignment and the way things are, is further west than where the star axis would be able to get to.

So it it's not dead end right there. It's gonna go all the way up the Old West Highway.

That's correct. Yes. Okay.

Your honor?

Yes. Obligation.

So on the March 24 meeting, the four to three vote to approve, was that approved on the star entrance No. Or the Acadia entrance, or is it either one we're fine with?

They they had proposed a condition to consider the Star entrance, but they recommended the approval as it was being presented that night with the Acacia entrance.

So they recommended approval with the Acacia entrance. And then now that Acacia Road that goes up, is that not an extinguished right of way? Does that that fall into someone's private property?

There is an extinguished right of way as we, on half of the road, and we have worked with our public works department in order to to determine what would need to be done to

So to say they can use that road to go up is not accurate right at this time.

It has been we went through the documentation to find it's been in use for forty years, even with the status of the extinguishment. So there is still active roadway right of way that extends northward to Old West Highway, but there are some ownership issues that need to be worked out with the city as we as we look at Acacia Road right there.

Okay. So the the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended to change change the layout to have the Star Road entrance, to use Star Road as an entrance. And the developer created that layout for them. But you're saying now that approval is based on the Arcadia entrance?

They provided the Planning and Zoning Commission introduced a stipulation. They they added a recommendation that the applicant would work with staff in order to create a second site plan. It was not something that they had seen and voted on that night, but they they provided this as an alternative. And the way it was worded in their forwarded recommendation is that they would at least they would consider they would work with to show what alternate access on STAR would be. But the plans that were presented and that were voted on in condition one would have been the original January 26 plans.

But the applicant did comply with that recommendation to create another plan to see what what could be so that that could be forwarded to the city council tonight.

And that was presented at the planning and zoning meeting, both options?

No. No.

The second option had not it had been prepared.

Could you allow him to answer me?

Ahead. Vice mayor Schroeder. The the second option had only been created after the planning and zoning created their forwarded their recommendation of approval in compliance with the recommendation of condition nine.

Thank you.

Now, Acacia, that section can we go back to that picture, Matt? That road that goes up from where it stops here, what's the condition of it, and who's going to fix it so it can support all the traffic coming up and going north?

I may have to right

there, and it doesn't look like it's a well maintained road to me. Who's gonna fix it, and who's gonna make it a well maintained road for all these people coming out

that wanna go north. Do you mean this portion?

Yes. That portion right there. Who is who is gonna be in charge of that?

We have our our city engineer, Emil Schmidt. I've driven that road myself, and I know it is it needs some work, but it has been maintained by the city. And so if I could bring up public works as Emil Schmidt to be able to more properly identify and answer that question.

Mayor, council members, Emile Schmidt, city engineer. There is an existing road surface on Acacia. It is on the West Side, which would be technically in trespass on private land. I believe that right of way was vacated back in the nineteen eighties, if I if can my memory serves me correctly. But one of the comments that we typically have for developments is that they build their half street improvements along their frontages, which in this case would mean Star Road, Southern, and Acacia on the east side of what would be the ultimate road centerline.

I also asked as a a comment that they extend that off-site improvement on Acacia North to Old West Highway. We required the same of the Gold View Subdivision years ago on Star Road where they extended the east half of Star Road north to Old West Highway in anticipation of that traffic from that neighborhood being used. Same condition, same requirement was being applied here. That road that they would build would be on the right side of Acacia where we do still have an existing federal patent easement that we can use for road purposes.

And that could be wide enough for two two way traffic?

We could make it work for two lanes of traffic. Yeah. We would need a minimum of 24 feet of pavement width for two way traffic in either direction, but we can make that work. So that might, you know, help eliminate or alleviate that trespass problem on the existing road.

Thank you.

To be the city that that takes care of that road.

To my understanding, it has been operated as a city road and under city maintenance.

You're on.

Mayor Cindy Rice, development services director. Sorry. I'm a little bit sick. Brendan has additional insight. He is the attorney who is representing his client for this development. It'd probably be helpful to have him up here and present what they are proposing. Okay.

Your

honor, I still would like to ask Nick a couple of questions. On Star Road, from this picture right here, you have a a turn to the right so that it's obvious you're gonna make a right turn. From that point there, could they make a dedicated crossover to go north or westbound on Highway 88. And the debt right here cheaper option than rebuilding the road all the way up Cache.

It my email back up.

Excuse me.

If I may It's probably your

question. Yep.

It is an item that we discussed with the public works department as it's one of their development items. If I could ask him to help answer that one.

Mayor, council members, yes, it would appear that that possibility is there. The way that that Star Road northbound lane is aligned, we wanted traffic to approach Old West Highway in a perpendicular manner so that you're not at a skewed angle and not being able to see oncoming traffic. The intent with this arrangement was Star Road northbound traffic would take a ride on Old West Highway. When the Gold View subdivision came in and developed that part of Star Road, there there weren't any there wasn't any discussion either way, you know, for or against of having a median break or crossover at that location. But technically, as we look at it now, yeah, it would be possible to do that.

And if we choose not to do that because of the way the the ground is right there, Anybody in a high clearance vehicle can just drive right across that, or are we gonna put up, you know, guardrail or cable barrier to prevent people from crossing over the median?

Sure. We we could prevent we we could put up some type of traffic control device to prevent that crossing movement.

Do we have to as a city, or is that something that they're gonna have the the contractor do?

So is that our standard to do? Let's be careful how we answer that.

Exactly.

I think we're going down a path that we're not sure of.

I would have to drive out there to see, because typically on a situation like this, when you're approaching intersection where you can only go one way, there would be a sign posted on the other side, one of those black and white that says one way with an arrow direction pointing to where you should go. That should be there at a minimum.

If we look at Tomahawk and Old West Highway, we have put up a lot of cable barriers along there because a lot of people were forever in their day cutting across the median Mhmm. Going to the restaurant that used to be on the Southwest Corner there. You know, now that the cabling's up and the restaurant's gone, it's not an issue. But I would see that becoming an issue here. Or we put a dedicated crossover.

Yeah. And there and depending on how we wanted to mitigate that particular issue, you know, there's a thousand ways to skin a cat.

I can think of a 100. Thank you.

You bet.

If

there's any more, no more questions for staff.

Good evening, Chair, sorry. Good evening, Mayor, members of the council. Brendan Ray, two thousand three hundred and twenty nine East Camelback here on behalf of DeMonte Homes. We're certainly very excited to be able to talk to you tonight about a for sale owner occupied platted development. We believe that this is providing another ownership opportunity within the town within the city.

Know you guys have been request. I've stood before you and requested for rental product, but this is, again, 129 owner occupied product as we look at it. Certainly grateful for staff and their work with us. I know things got a little bit jumbled there, and so I'm going to try to do what I can to kind of talk about access. I won't talk about the zoning.

I can if I need to. You're all familiar with the site. I can talk about the site plan in detail if you would like, 129 units, huge drainage channel running through the middle of the site that affects its viability. I can go into a lot of depth to the extent that you all would like me to about the development itself, but I think Nick has done a good job describing it. I can certainly talk about the architecture as well, but what I really want to focus on is where I think the discussion ended relative to access as we look at access and what it is.

So this, you're all very familiar with the site today. This is kind of a zoomed up closer view of it taken from the Pinal County assessor's website, with the site being in the lower hand side of the screen, the right hand side. And so as you look, this is Acacia Road that goes north. And one of the things that I'll point out is there is a roadway there, but as you all are very familiar, just because a road's there doesn't necessarily mean it's legal. It doesn't necessarily mean that it's legal for the public to use.

There are various roadways that can be obtained, whether it's through public rights of way or whether it's through prescriptive easements through use of private property. But with a prescriptive easement, that runs to and over the property. It doesn't necessarily give the public per se a right as you look at it. So when you look at this site, what I've illustrated here is where there is public right of way. That area that's grayed out with a black box, that's on the assessor's website is public dedicated right of way.

What you see to the north, that is private property that is to the north of there. I certainly can't speak to any federal patent easements and access and stuff. All I know is that's private property today. I can't speak to the title of what might exist on it. We understood, as your engineer stood up, that that right of way had been vacated a while ago and that there was no access that was planned to Acacia from this site as far as public rights of way.

The property, that little triangle that's immediately east of it, that too is private property as well as you look at it. So let's talk about the different access points because at the commissions, the discussion was kind of focused on with Acacia Road, again, being a road that's there. There is a pavement surface that's there, but people wanting to drive out of there. We don't have any problem agreeing via another stipulation to put signage. If I can go back one.

Give me one second. We have no problem stipulating, agreeing to signage that says private property at the edge of this line, you know, public right of way this way, that kind of thing, to help the public know what the city owns and controls versus what actually is private property today. So again, as we look at Old West Highway and Star, you can see there that it's kind of this interesting configuration. As was pointed out, there is what I will call a pork chop there that forces the traffic to the east, that right hand turn. People are able to make a ride in heading southbound on STAR, or they can make a ride out.

There is no full movement access. And as you look here, it'd be quite a feat, an engineering feat, complying with standards and safety regulations to try to make Star Road a full access movement. Again, notwithstanding people driving across center medians, as I heard Councilmember Cross say or someone else might have said it, but I can't speak to that. But I know that what you've got is you've got a road coming in from the North. You've got another road over in this area. And so when you talk about road and access and full movements, you

want

to make sure everything lines up. And so there is a number of conflicts here that would, not impossible, but greatly impede making this a full movement access. Because part of the discussion at the commission was, how do we get also people back to city center and back west as well. So let's just say somebody takes a ride out of there on Star Road because legally that's what they're supposed to do. Then it comes down to, I'm not even sure how you would describe this intersection.

I believe council member Johnson pointed out the perils of this intersection and how it operates as it comes off in there. I can't even call it a three legged intersection because there are so many legs and so many angles to this thing that conceivably having an access on Star Road thereby might encourage people to take Star Road and then come down here. Your only opportunity to take a U-turn, really if you wanted to make a U-turn, which would probably be inadvisable at this location, would be here at Old West Highway and Goldfield. And you can see it's pretty fraught with people coming north and making that following the bend in the road to get onto Old West Highway as you look at it and head that direction. So a lot of challenges there.

So that as we look at this, if we say, hey, everybody go to STAR, and that's your best chance to get to the city center, you can kind of see here I've kind of mapped out the natural path of least resistance. If somebody wanted to go back to the city center, again, using Star Road. And you can see there, there's one option. You head down to Goldfield, and then you're on the 60. And there's no guarantee that anybody's going to get off at the 60 to be able to head north.

The other option for them would be to head south, and then you're going to come across 28th Avenue and then jump on Goldfield to be able to head back north. That certainly is a viable option when we're talking access and Star Road. But as we looked at it, we kind of felt that there was a better option, which is why we initially had lots of discussions with staff about the Acacia Road entrance, because it gives us a number of different options. The first option for somebody to make left hand turn at a full movement access would be at Old West Highway and Cortez. You can see there there's a full median break that's there.

Someone could very easily head out of our Acacia entrance, head south, then go west on Southern, and if they wanted to go north they could easily go up to Cortez and make that left hand turn at an already established existing full movement intersection. From there you can kind of see bigger picture wise, we believe the path of least resistance is actually southern, and that someone takes southern all the way and you can see there's a number of North South Roads that would allow them to get up to Old Highway in a safe manner, where we're not worried about U turns, where there's existing full movement median breaks on Old West Highway. You can see that with Cortez, with Royal Palm, with Tomahawk, then of course obviously Idaho Road to be able to get you to the city center as we look at it. One of the things that we talked about, and I noticed this as I come to City Hall and you drive up Idaho Road, there's a number of signs that designate various things. The top one is the Rodeo Arena, the next one deals with the college, and then obviously Lost Dutchman's historic monument.

And so as we've looked at this and contemplated it, we think it'd be great and we're happy to agree to a stipulation that we put signage coming out of our development on Acacia, that we put signage on Southern similar to what you see in the picture that says downtown that way, and point people in the best direction, the best path to be able to get to downtown along Southern. Again, various options, safe options for people to get north south through any number of roads to be able to get there where it exists today. So I've spent a lot of time talking about the access, and I've got a feeling we might have some more questions relative to it, which we're happy to talk about. But we think the Acacia Road is more appropriate. We understand why the discussion occurred at the Commission.

We did not have the ability to present this information to the Commission. That was something that came up during the course of that hearing about possibly shifting our access to Star Road, and since that time have had an opportunity to look at it a little bit deeper. I'd known this was an issue, or potentially an issue before the Commission, I certainly would have briefed them on this as well so that we could have had that discussion before them. Nevertheless, we're grateful for their recommendation for approval, grateful for staff's recommendation for approval, and we would request your approval, again, with the kind of two additional stipulations I talked about, about putting signage of private property and signage of a downtown that way. Happy to answer any questions that you guys might have.

Any questions? More

statement. The Cortez alignment, where it crosses Highway 88. That's a very dangerous intersection because of the way it's laid out. You're having to look over your shoulder possibly if, you know, if you don't have, you know, side window here, like if you're in a van or something. You have to square up on that in order to turn and and make that turn.

And by nature, those kinds of intersections are very dangerous. I mean So I don't see that as being a a better option. I just see it as something. And also I noticed that your that one slide shows that it's not a dedicated right away on both sides of the road.

Through the mayor, council member Cross, I presume if I go back to this slide is that the one you're Go talking

forward.

Keep going. Right there. So Cortez Road. It looks like those properties come out to the center line of the road or not? The the West side Yeah. Cortez.

Through the through the mayor, council member Cross, without looking at the assessor's website, I couldn't tell you definitively if I was to to guess, which I could get in trouble for guessing. It looks like there is public right of way on the East half Yes. Port That's what

it looks like to me.

For a portion of it. And then when you get into the new community, newer community, I guess, up on the left, it looks like there is The rest of that half street is is dedicated up there coming off all those highway. So there is a stretch. I think I know how to do this. And no. It's this stretch kind of right here. Actually, it's probably just these one, two, three, four

Yeah.

About four and a half lots where there's not right of way. Again, if I was to guess, I think this may be right of way down here, but for certain, I know that there is the East half of Cortez, it looks like, judging from what I know of assessors' websites.

Okay.

Your honor. Yes. So I I guess looking at this, I the the access or egress from Star Road to me seems not an ideal scenario, because you're making the right turn, then you're heading east on or West Highway, and then you're make that really dubious left hand turn or go on to 60 and head west to get back down back to town. And yet it do you had mentioned that if you come out of a on Acacia, the exit, and then you make the left on Acacia up to Southern, you make the right, you have you have access. I mean, it's it's a straight shot all the way down to shoot.

You can all the way down to signal Butte at that point. So it seems to me without creating a lot of without creating a dangerous situation, that seems to me the way you do this. And if you're willing to put signage in where it would clearly demonstrate what the, you know, what the plan would be. I don't know. I that seems to me like the way that would be most would be achievable and certainly pretty simple, you know, up to southern, west on southern, and you have access to downtown, you know, any number of routes. So I don't know. It just seems to me to be the a better choice.

Thank you. Mayor, if I may, council member Cross, what Sydney whispered to me is that Cortez is fully dedicated right of way. Okay.

Anyone else? Thank you.

Thank you.

So this is a public hearing. There's a five minute time limit with a one minute warning that you will hear. Please state your name and address for the record. Anyone like to speak on this? Oh.

Good evening, mayor, council. Great to have a project where you can actually buy a house. The placement of it way back in a corner, access iffy. But you got Southern there, and you can take Southern to Tomahawk, go wherever you want. If Cortez is a full right of way, time for a traffic light.

Cortez, just like Tomahawk, and that way that area is undeveloped there, that'll get people's eyes open, and they'll start developing it. And they'll put more houses in there. So mean, yeah, it's a no brainer. Need it done. And I think that the star, about all you could do is do a frontage to get you over to the crossover and then deal with it there.

Then Acacia, where you have to deal with the property owners there. Now if the applicant was able to purchase that triangle, that'd be the end of the question right there. He could just make his own road. But as far as that plan sits, as far as access to the place, if you're going to access ingress and egress of the plan, I would do both Star and Acacia. Acacia is going to be shut off.

But what that gives you is you're not all packed up trying to get out of one exit. I hate those neighborhoods where you get in and you're driving around and around and around trying to get out and you can't do it. Well, if you had two exits, two entrances there, off of Star and Acacia, great. But they got to dump on to Southern and just head west from there and figure it out from that point. But once that place goes in, if Cortez can be developed, that's great because all that stuff that's right next to it, people are going to start putting stuff in there.

And it's going to take care of the infill, going to get more houses. And I think it's a good plan if you straighten out how you get in and out. And I mean, so what if you've to drive down Tomahawk to Southern to get there? That's great. Well developed, access at that point. Because you get it right off of sixty, two minutes you're home. Or go down Tomahawk or head to town, it doesn't matter. It's a good place. But it's my opinion. Thank you.

Anyone else like to speak?

Good evening, mayor, council members. Lisa Kryselik, 476 South Ironwood Drive. I'm really excited about this project too because I was doing a little looking into our townhomes, and they are the second most popular form of housing in The United States. Very, very affordable, easy to maintain. It's a very modern urban lifestyle. And I'm excited to see a lot of these developers come to Apache Junction with a housing alternative to what we have a lot of, mobile homes. And it's nice to see something that'll give people homeownership and bring in a little bit higher average income to bring more people to Apache Junction. So I'm very excited, and I hope you are as well. Thank you.

Anyone else? Okay. See no movement, so I'll now close the public hearing and ask for a motion. Your honor. Yes.

I move that ordinance number fifteen seventy four be read by title only and the reading of the entire ordinance be waived.

Second. Second. Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Council member Heck.

Yes.

Council member Cross.

Yes.

Vice mayor Schroeder.

Yes.

Council member Johnson.

Yes.

Council member Saller.

Yes.

Mayor Wilson.

Yes.

Motion passes.

Your honor? What? No.

I'm gonna read the ordinance first. Thank you.

Hold on. Yes. Yes. I'm right there.

Ordinance number fifteen seventy four, an ordinance of the mayor and city council of the city of Apache Junction, Arizona, amending the Apache Junction, Arizona zoning ordinance by amending the zoning district map, city of Apache Junction, Arizona. Changing the zoning district classification for the property described in rezoning case PDash25Dash59Dash p Z, a request by Dai Monty Homes Incorporated, represented by Brennan Ray of Ray Law Firm, from high density multiple family residential by plan development, general commercial, and general rural low density single family detached residential to high density multiple family residential by planned development, and a minor general plan amendment from commercial to high density residential repealing any conflicting provisions and providing for severability.

Your honor.

I have made motion now.

I move that ordinance number fifteen seventy four as read by the city clerk be approved with the following added that we go on the one twenty six twenty six site plan that was approved by PNZ with the addition of the directional signage.

So I have a second. That's the

one with the entrance on Acacia. Correct. Okay. Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Council member Suller?

Yes.

Council member Johnson?

Yes.

Vice mayor Schroeder? Yes. Council member Cross?

With apologies to vice mayor Schroeder for stepping on his toes. Yes.

Council member Heck?

Yes.

Mayor Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. Excuse me. Old business presentation discussion of status of week's wash project. Emil. Thank you.

Wait. I promise it's good.

Yeah. Like rats jumping off a ship.

Good evening, mayor Wilson, vice mayor Schroeder, council members Emile Schmidt, city engineer in the public works department. I've been invited here this evening to provide you an update to our efforts and desires to build a large flood structure along Weeks Wash in the Northeast corner of the city of Apache Junction. Over the years, in past presentations, I provided a somewhat detailed summary of events starting shortly before 2022 towards this effort. I just wanna provide a a brief summary, for tonight. We are all aware of the severe flooding events and the, that occur here in the city and the havoc and the damage that they can create.

We know that Weeks Wash is the largest source of floodwaters for the city. It's roughly a 10 square mile watershed area that you see on the left side of the image there in blue. After pursuing several FEMA grant opportunities, with the help of Pinal County and their engineers, we were awarded flood mitigation assistance or FMA funds in the amount of $44,500,000, and this was in August 2023 with a preliminary design that looked something something like this. Our primary goal with this project is to remove many properties as possible downstream from the structure from flooding, protect protecting the lives and properties of our residents. Initial estimates by the design engineers projected over 4,200 parcels of land will benefit from this flood protection that this structure will provide.

In addition to that, this project will also enhance public safety, reduce risk to utility infrastructure, reduce the burden of post storm cleanup, not only for us at Public Works, but also for residents on their properties. And it'll also provide future opportunities for multi use public amenities or features. The structure will be roughly 30 feet tall with about a 70 acre storm runoff surface area upstream or behind it. It will hold or detain about 1,100 acre feet of water. And to kinda help visualize what that looks like, 1,100 acre feet is about 358,500,000 gallons or 543 Olympic sized swimming pools or 2,700,000,000,000 bottles of water.

So you're 16.9 ounce bottle of water, 2,700,000,000,000 of those. To to kinda give you an idea of how much water this could hold, We've seen that amount of water and even greater come into the city without this kind of a structure in place. Land ownership, at this point, the the green area shows what was used to be owned by the Arizona State Land Department. In June, we were successful in at an auction in Florence for purchasing 76 acres, roughly seventy six seventy six acres, which is what you see in the green. And that's one of the big changes from on this map here.

And the city is working with the Bureau of Reclamation on the east side of the Goldfield Road alignment. That would be the area that's in purple. We're working with the Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, and the Salt River Project. They each have an interest in this purple area for permission to use parts of the purple area for portions of the flood structure. So it wouldn't be a purchase outright like the state land area.

It would be permission to use, and this will be achieved with a signed long term lease document. A draft of that document has been prepared already and has been submitted to FEMA for for their review. You've seen this image before. It's a timeline that I've used in the past, marking major milestones for this project. I don't want to go through this entire schedule, but I want to focus on the area in the yellow box and some of the items below that.

The green the yellow diamond on that timeline is where we are today, roughly. I'd like to talk a little bit about funding. We are aware of the funding gap between the grant amount of $44,500,000 to the current construction cost estimate of 90,000,000 to $100,000,000 And that is a conservative cost estimate. We will approach regional partners when final design for the structure has progressed to the point where the design is substantially complete, and we are confident with what the actual construction costs may be. Right now, would be too early to approach them because we really don't know what the final construction cost is.

But in order to start the final design, FEMA needs to complete their environmental historical preservation review that has been underway since the grant was awarded in August 2023 so that we can get on the land to do a soils analysis, which is critical to the design of this structure. So we can't go out there and turn a teaspoon of dirt. And we need to dig and do soil borings to analyze what's underground to really know how to to design this thing. I'd like to talk about FEMA a little bit. In my October update, I reported there were that there was no time frame or indication where FEMA was at with their EHP review.

This morning, I spoke with the state hazard mitigation officer with the Arizona Department of Military Department of Emergency and Military Affairs, AZDEMA, and that is a state department that administers federal funds for mitigation projects such as this. And she reported that the EHP is almost complete and will expect a notice later this summer that FEMA has completed their EHP review. She also reports that she hasn't heard of any changes or hold ups for the FMA grant funds that we've been awarded and that everything in the queue for this grant fund has is expected to be awarded. A few comments about Pinal County, our regional partner with them. A week or two back, Mike Loggins and I had a long chat with assistant county engineer and flood section chief Joshua Plumb.

Among other things, two of the major points that we discussed were the timing of the procuring and starting of the final design, which will begin after the FEMA EHP is done. And we also discussed procuring a construction manager at risk or a CMAR, which means getting contractors on board very early in the final design of the project to work closely with the design engineer. And the final design would proceed and construction will be started simultaneously in order to meet the aggressive schedule requirements of the FMA funding, which is two years plus a built in one year extension to design and have everything done and have the last piece of equipment removed from the site. Very aggressive schedule. But having the engineers and the contractors work together will serve two purposes.

Working side by side, they will provide value engineering. The engineer might propose a design element, the contractor might say, it's kind of tough to build. The contractor might say, hey, we've done this before in the past. And the engineer might say, okay, that would work, but let's tweak it a little bit. That kind of side by side coordination and working together will accelerate the design and the construction process.

It'll shorten the overall process. Joshua Plumb has been coordinating with Pinal County procurement folks to make sure that every single rule is followed for procurement. We don't want to do anything with the procurement of design and the procurement of construction that would jeopardize the $44,500,000 that we've already been awarded. I'd like to talk a little bit about the engineering team. I met with members of the engineering design team at the site in February.

And what they're working on now, or have been for the last couple of months, is they are updating the geotechnical or soils investigation plan so that when the FEMA EHP review is done, that we can hit the ground running immediately and get the day the data that we need to start the final design. They are also updating the Arizona Department of Water Resources to fill us to facilitate future reviews. Why ADWR? Because of the size of the structure that this is and the amount of protection that it will provide, that puts this structure in a whole another jurisdictional level with additional federal requirements that we as a city will need to follow. So they're already anticipating that and working with ADWR ahead of this final design.

Another item that the engineering team is working on is applying for the water rights of the week's wash surface water that will be collected by this structure to promote groundwater recharge. And that's a whole different regulatory animal that needs to be maintained after the structure is done. But there we are looking into that, and we anticipate doing that. Again, you know, collecting that water and recharging the ground. Just go back to that 2,700,000,000,000 bottles of water that I was talking about earlier.

When the final design is underway, it will include public outreach, public meetings, and continued coordination with partners and stakeholders such as FEMA, Arizona Department of Emergency Military Affairs, Department of Water Resources, Arizona State Land Department, Salt River Project, Bureau of Reclamation, Bureau of Land Management, and the US Army Corps of Engineers, in addition to the Pinal County and Maricopa County flood control districts. So that is a lot of regulatory players that are sitting at the table and have an interest in making sure that this project is is done right for the city. That is what I have for an update for for this evening. Thank you for the invitation and for the opportunities I've had to come here to talk about this particular project with you for this very important regional flood control project. I'd be happy to answer questions.

Let me rephrase that. I'll try to answer questions. You may have questions that are pretty technical that I might have to take back to the engineering team who knows their stuff.

Any questions?

Statement. Alright. Trillion gallons of water is a lot of water. We don't want it to go south.

No kidding.

We want it to go south.

Yeah. That's right.

Thank you for your time.

And thank you very much in the aspect for doing this. I appreciate it. Okay. Presentation and discussion regarding Water District's portfolio.

I'll just kick this one off. Mike, thank you for coming in. We've been asked to to come in and not just talk about this water portfolio. We get asked a lot at the staff at the council level and in the community, where does the water come from? And we just wanted a nice basic slideshow. I don't know if council member Cross wants to add anything, but we wanted it in a council meeting. Right?

Yeah. You know, we have a lot of people that complain about our lack of so called lack of water in our community, where they just don't understand that over the years, our city has has done a phenomenal job in securing water rights and continuously looks for additional water rights on a on a almost a daily basis. And nobody ever comes to water district meetings. So I invited a lot of people on social media over the last few couple weeks to come to this meeting tonight. You can see the place is packed because they really are concerned about water.

And anyhow, Mike, let us know. What do we have for water? How long will it last? How many more homes can we build? How many more cups of water can we drink?

Absolutely. Mayor and council and council member Cross. I know I know you just have a lot of questions on the community about water resources here. Kind of give you a little background, brought in our water portfolio here, and I'll explain it a little bit. Originally, back when the district was purchased, it came along with some Central Arizona project allocation, which is roughly about 2,900 acre feet of water, which that would roughly service about 9,000 service connections.

It's a renewable resource. Obviously, people have heard some that the Colorado Rivers were in the drought conditions, but currently, we have no restrictions of that water supply we have for that currently. At that same time, we applied for a designation of a shared water supply, which we go to the Arizona Department of Water Resources, and they look at your service area, and it's not services that you proclaim or anything like that. It's service area. Any pipes surrounding your surrounding area within 660 feet is considered your service area for the Department of Water Resources.

So that time, roughly ten years ago, when we did our designation, we had available 2,372 acre feet of groundwater available to us for the next one hundred years. We currently have used very little of that because we have a renewable resource that we've been using. So we still have that one in our bank. Also, as part of we move forward, roughly ten years ago, the district brought forward to council and the board at that time to lease a thousand acre feet of Gila River Indian community water. At that point, it's relatively cheap, dollars 3,000 an acre foot compared to what we're talking if we lease it today between 20,000 to $30,000 an acre foot.

City council and the board at that time approved that. We moved forward with it. We added that to our water portfolio at that time. At that roughly a few years later, some non Indian agricultural water came open that was sitting on the books with the Central Arizona project. We went out and showed that we have development coming in the future. We'd like to have some of this water. Put in our proposal to them. We got 817 acre feet of water during that procedure. This is all over the last ten, fifteen years of what the Water District has done. Also along with that, there's effluent credits.

So as people use water here in the water district service area and in Arizona Water Company service area, it is delivered to the sewer district via their collection system, and then it's pumped down into the ground. We can earn credits on that. So the sewer district earns those credits, the water district purchases those credits, and we can use those for future as because there's water in the ground that we can use now. So in total, we roughly have about 7,500 acre feet of water in our portfolio. What does that mean?

So currently, we mentioned our Arizona Department of Water Resources report that we do annually. We're only using about 2,400 acre feet of water to service our existing customers. So that's our 9,000 service connections, roughly about 30,000 people that we're serving currently. Back up one slide, we have 7,500 acre feet in our bank currently. So this is available for the next one hundred years as we move forward.

We're only servicing about 2,400 acre feet today. So on average, about that is about 2,000,000 gallons a day. The district has 7,500. Again, our as we discussed earlier in our water board meeting, we're our demands per capita are going down from about roughly about a 105 gallons per capita per day to 98. So our water conservation efforts are working.

We're saving that water. We're saving this for future development. The city has planned for this based on the leases we went after, not any agricultural water we went after, purchasing effluent credits. We're working with Salt River Project on the Verde Dam currently to get additional water supplies here for the city of Apache Junction. We're working with state land on additional CAP supplies.

And as our service area expands out there and we reach down south to new development, now our groundwater supplies expand also. So within once we receive our new DAWS, we'll be reaching back out to Arizona Department of Water Resources and looking for additional groundwater supplies as part of this also. So that water portfolio is gonna keep growing, and what we the city has done a great job of doing so far is going after those water supplies so that we can be available or have the water resources available for those future customers, our future development, commercial services, different things that will happen, and it will not affect our existing customers is, I guess, the biggest key here is we're not taking water away from any of our customers because over the years we have planned for this future growth, and we've planned for this. We want to make sure that we reserve those rights that we have for existing customers and not take it away from any of them. Again, we reuse our renewable resource on the CAP.

So our Central Arizona project to Colorado River water, it's 99% that we delivered. We use 1% of our groundwater currently, and that's really just keep our wells ready to go. We were talking about drilling our well earlier. Right now it's a redundant supply, so if something happens to a renewable resource, which we hope never does, we have that supply to back it up in groundwater. And again, as we talked a little bit ago, we're constantly looking for additional water supplies.

What else can we do out there? Councilmember Solar asked about our direct potable, our advanced water purification trailer. We're looking at a pilot program to take that effluent instead of putting it into the ground, possibly bringing it back to our customers maybe five, ten, fifteen, twenty years from now as another water resource that we have out there. So these are all the kind of different developments that we have going on to make sure that we have water for the future and our existing customers. Any questions on that?

Yes.

When it comes to multifamily, how to they're not required to have the 100 guaranteed water supply. But how do you manage that as part of our overall portfolio

of water.

So we have a couple different things that happen. Multifamily, we talked about earlier, is a platted subdivision. Even though it's multifamily, they still have to get their assured water supply. If they were to master meter that same 129 units as a designation of assured water supply as the district has, we report it at the end

of the year. So it

goes into our calculation. As a nondesignated provider, as Arizona Water Company is, you should you do not have to get an insured water supply. So it's just slightly different on what happens as people get an insured water supply. On their side, they would have to get apply for Central Arizona Groundwater Replenishment District to replenish that water for them rather than being a part of it. That's you can get around it by these master meters most of the time as we do it as a district because we are designated as assured water supply.

We have to report it in our annual report that shows up that we're self supplying that. Know Arizona Water Company is working on their ADOS, which is an alternative designation of assured water supplies. That may come in the near future, but they're working towards that also so that some of these multifamily or commercial developments still have to be accounted for as they grow too.

Cool. Thank you. Okay,

Mike, tell me explain again what lost and unaccounted for water is. How does water get lost?

So lost and unaccounted for water is, say we have a leak on one of our pipes, it doesn't really surface, it's in a wash and it's sandy and it disappears, and we don't know where that water supply is going. So that's why it's lost and we can't find it, we don't know there's a leak out there, so we can't account for it. So that's some of it. Sometimes people pull up to hydrants that don't have a hydrant meter and they steal our water, so it's lost. We're not sure what happened to it, it disappeared. Say you have a leak at your house and we don't catch it or leak at the meter in your front, it's not going through a meter service. So again, that water is lost to us, and we can't account for how much water has disappeared. We know we produced it, and we know we haven't sold it, so it's somewhere in between there by the time it reaches our customers. So that's why we'd consider it lost

in the coming quarter.

Okay. Cool. Thanks.

Once again, you for all you do for us. Our water is looking good right now.

Yes.

Thank you for the support of all the council as a board, also as a water done a great job of making sure that we have enough water for our future here. As we move forward, you know, I hope we continue in that direction as the city grows, it only helps.

I will make a quick comment near the aspect. When I first came on being on the water board in city council is when we purchased that Indian water. And it was something that I looked at and said, wait a minute. Why are we do we need this water? And the answer was no. And I said, well, why are we getting this? And they said it was for the future. Well, when I voted on it, I made my statement. I reluctantly vote yes on this. And it was because of the fact that we were spending all this money to purchase this Indian water, but we didn't need it.

And now if you look at what it would cost us today to buy that same amount, it would be tremendous in the aspect on it. So it was a, you know, foresight that they, you know, your predecessors looked at and gave it and pushed it and got it through and we purchased it. And I want to say thank you for looking ahead and not looking at strictly at what the costs were at the time. Your honor. Yes. Oh,

I just want to point out, councilman Cross is absolutely correct. This is a very hot topic situation all through the social media. So it was a great idea to have this put on the agenda. And I put a little levity into this. I find it kind of ironic that it's coming off the heels of about a $90,000,000 project to build a retention dam so we don't flood out. And then we need to defend the fact that we're not going to run out of water. It's kind of weird. But, yeah, it was very useful. We should probably put this in the rotation at least yearly.

Yeah. Or I agree.

Seven or eight.

Every six months or something.

You, Mike. I really appreciate you staying late tonight and doing this for us.

Yeah. I appreciate it. Thank you.

Yep. We'll do it. Keep updating. Keep updating.

Okay. Yep. Direction to staff. Direction to staff regarding city council pay. Joel.

Mister mayor, city council. Human resource director, Alan McCray, presented a work session for you regarding council compensation.

This is Micah.

And yeah, it's green. Oh, I'm sorry.

Okay.

And right now if you want to do a direction to staff on that issue, we would ask what your direction would be. And it would be how much do you want to

raise it?

And it would be a direction to the city attorney to draft the ordinance.

Comments from counsel. Yes.

Jerome, we go ahead and read that.

Is that

I can't

hear you. Wanna know if there's any comments concerning

Do you have any comments regarding this?

Not comment. My only thing is that, you know, if if we have more people that understand, you know, we're at a rate that they don't have to take away from the income they are earning. You know, maybe there'll be more interested parties that will step up and run for city council, for mayor. You know, you hear a lot on social media that not enough people are involved. Maybe we have also have to remember to be worthwhile too.

Yes. I just wonder why councils of yesteryear didn't put parameters in place that kept council pay up to, you know, the standards, whether it just be a simple COLA increase over the years or on an annual basis or every couple years. But, you know, that those weren't my decisions, and it's been 2004 since I need this has been addressed. So that's where we're at.

Mister mayor, if I can since I've been here since 1997, there's been attempts to do this probably three or four times. And 2004 is the only time since I've been here that it actually went to an ordinance. And I think there was a reluctance at the time. There was a lot less funding available for the city. That was a big one. The public didn't like increases for some reason. I think those were the items and you're right there was an attempt to set some kind of schedule, but there was just no support. Not enough support I should say.

I also feel that when you have a rule that's like this, sometimes one of the hardest things is that regardless of how you look at this under state law, people would have to be reelected before it comes into play. We have seven people who sit on this council. So at one point, at some point, when this goes into play, part would be at a higher rate than the people sitting beside them. I for one, and I believe a lot of my council members as well, understand that sometimes you gotta stop kicking the can down the road and start doing the right thing regardless of that.

Your honor. Yes.

I agree with councilman Johnson and councilman Cross. This you know, it's been two decades since this has even, you know, been addressed. I would say as far as the motion goes, I would be more in favor of not doing the motion that included the COLA, doing the motion that does not include the COLA, the cost of living increase and every time the comp study comes out, then reassess it. And if it needs to be adjusted, it needs to be adjusted and if it doesn't, it doesn't. That's that's where I would stand on this.

Mayor? Yes.

It's high time that we really take a look at this. We're at the bottom with other councils, smaller councils. We need to get into the at least a median area because I agree with council member Johnson. It's a lot of work. I know a lot of people out there think that we get a ton of money or we're overpaid. But it is a lot of work, a lot of meetings. Most of us have jobs, full time jobs, and we're doing this too. It's time that we do this and move the council forward. And again, hopefully it will attract new people to run next time.

I would like to say regarding the Vice Mayor's comment, If we look at doing the COLA increase in the actual direction to staff, once you get through a couple of election cycles, you would always have all of the people on the same level. If you did not do that, every time that there is election, you're gonna have people, again, go a little off track. But once you get through two cycles of elections, everybody would have the same COLA, so everybody would remain where every single person sitting here would be on the same basis.

That's a great point. I'll leave that to your discretion.

Your honor? Yes.

With COLA increase, that would not have to be approved by the council, or are we still when a COLA comes into place, we're making that decision at that time. So we'd be how would that work?

Mr. Cost, I think it would have to be in the ordinance that allows for the goals.

Okay.

And so it would be would be part of the direction of staff that there'd be a provision in the ordinance that would include the COLAs.

I like your idea. Every two years.

I'm just waiting for two cycles.

Of the things I'm going to say is the aspect is that, you know, really and truthfully if we had had something like that where we had it in the past where it was, would not be the big issue that we have today in the amount of it. I for one, I know even though I'm getting quote $1,000 a month, it's of course I have to take taxes out of it too. So I said less than 1,000 that I actually did bring in. But it is something that, you know, you're doing a lot of representation for the city of Apache Junction, and you're over, you know, different places. And it is something that, you know, your your expenses are much higher than that in the aspect of it.

And I'm all for the idea that when our council members are sitting here and and the vice mayor and mayor, when they're representing the the city and they all represent the city, that they're being taken care of in the aspects on it so that they can actually are doing that job. That's what we elect them to do to represent all of us to our, you know, to other areas and to other, I'll say, government agencies and everything. And it's something that I think that needs to be definitely pushed and is continued on. So I have a motion to give direction to staff.

Your honor.

Yes.

I move that direction to staff be given to draft an ordinance amending Apache Junction City Code volume one chapter two article two dash one two dash one dash five compensation, adjusting mayor, vice mayor, and council salaries consistent with what was discussed at the 04/07/2026 council meeting to also include a provision setting forth a cost of living or base wage increase, general citywide increase, or other pay increment, however else characterized in the city's payroll system, which full time employees also typically receive on an annual basis.

Second. Move, seconded. Roll call.

Council Member Johnson? Yes. Vice Mayor Schroeder?

Yes.

Council member Cross?

Yes.

Council member Heck? Yes. Council member Solar?

Yes.

Mayor Wilson?

Yes.

Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. Excuse me. Selection of dates and times and location for budget work sessions, public hearings, and adoption of tentative and final budget for fiscal year 2026 and through 2027? Heavy.

Mr. Mayor, I'll actually take this one. This is an annual thing that we do required by state law to select the location and dates and times of all the budget meetings. You 'll see them on

the screen in front of

you, pretty standard in how we approach it every year. We just need to you to adopt these dates so we can move forward with the public facing side of the budget process.

Okay. Do I have a motion? Your honor. Yes. I move that a

budget work session be held at 7PM on Monday, 05/04/2026 in the counts in the City Council chambers, and that a public hearing and adoption of the tentative budget be held at a special city council meeting as required by state law at 7PM on Monday, 05/18/2026 in the City Council chambers, and that a public hearing and adoption of the final budget be held at a special city council meeting as required by law at 7PM on Monday, 06/15/2026 in the City Council chambers located at 300 East Superstition Boulevard. Second.

Moved and seconded. Roll call.

Council member Johnson?

Yes.

Council member Cross?

Yes.

Council member Heck?

Yes.

Council member Soller?

Yes.

Vice mayor Schroeder?

Yes.

Mayor Wilson? Yes. Motion passes unanimously.

Okay. Thank you. Public call to the public. I'd like to remind everyone the call to public is a courtesy and not required by law. It's a time for the public to express requests, communications, comments, and suggestions.

Request to speak forms must be completed and handed to the city clerk before the end of the city manager's report. All issues shall be presented in a professional matter without personal attacks. Under the open meeting law, council cannot engage in discussions on issues presented, but may respond to criticism, may direct staff to follow-up with the speaker directly and or place the matter on for future agenda for council discussion. There's a three minute time limit for each speaker. Andre?

Good evening, mayor, consul. Andre Meek, 1327 South Bel Air here in AJ. Now that we have Winchester Road all blocked up, doing some work on it, I was wondering if there could be one more correction done to it. And that's at Desert And Broadway, basically where the entrance to the college is. You have a left turn lane there, and it's just a left turn going west.

Now if you come out of the college and you go right and you want to make a left turn on the desert, you don't have any turn lane. The rest of Winchester is a two way left turn lane all the way up and down. And so it's that one section. Like I always come out of the college there, make a right turn, and then make a left on desert. But if there's traffic coming, that means if it's coming both ways, that means I'm stopping traffic behind me so I can make a left turn.

But everywhere else on Winchester, you don't do that. And I'm just wondering why and can it be changed? And also there's a big island right there at the college. I don't know what it was ever put there for, but it just right in the middle the road there in the left turn lane. I guess all it does is block you from going through, but why there and why nowhere else?

And then one other thing that I brought up a while ago with dark skies, you drive down Royal Palm and it's a divided road, got islands, and you make your left turns. Well, in the dark, you can't see where those cut throughs are because there's no street lights. And so you don't catch the left turn until you're almost past it. And little reflective paint right there at the very corner on each of those islands so your headlights would catch it as you're coming up so you know where to turn would be great for us old folk that can't see nothing at night. That's all I got.

Thank you.

Okay. Well,

we'll definitely be in conversation. We'll have staff look into that. I mean, to clarify, the Desert and the college and Winchester.

And and then areas where reflective paint would

be Maybe some reflective paint. On

the streets.

So that K.

Yeah. We'll look into that.

Got it.

Okay. I will adjourn this meeting. Thank you.