Planning & Zoning Commission - Regular Meeting

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Good evening everybody. I would like to call the March 9th Planning and Zoning Commission meeting to order. Mr. Clausmo, would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance, please? I pledge algiance 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. [clears throat]

Thank you everybody. I'd like to start with an opening statement. Good evening. My name is Ted Herb. I'm the chairperson for the planning and zoning commission. I will be proceeding over the commission's uh deliberations and hearings items this evening. The planning and zoning commission sits in an advisory capacity to the town council. As such, the commission reviews planning zoning issues and forwards recommendations regarding these important issues to the town council. All members are appointed by the town council and volunteer their time. If you wish to speak this evening during the comment period regarding the hearing item or during the call to the public or on any other matter, you need to have pre-registered with your name with the clerk in order to speak this evening. When you're recognized by the clerk, please proceed to the microphone and state your name and address for the record. I ask that you direct your pertinent comments to the commission through the chairperson and not to staff or individuals within the audience. There is a threeminut time limit that will be imposed. I would like to express in advance the commission's appreciation for fostering an atmosphere with respect and cordiality uh this evening. And as such, I ask that all speakers tonight adhere to the 3minut time limit when speaking. During this time, please complete your sentence if you hear your timer or the bell go off to end your statement and and proceed back to your seat. I ask that we all be courteous to other people who have either registered to speak or to the people online this evening and stay within our three minute time limit. If you exceed your three-minute time limit, I'd be forced to gavvel you off the podium. And I really would not like to do that. So I ask that everybody's adhere to their three minute time rule, please.

Regarding the public hearing items on the agenda this evening, we will uh conduct in the following manner. First, I will read the public hearing item into the record. Second, staff will then present the agenda item. Third, the commission will have the opportunity to ask questions of staff and the floor will then be open for comment from the public regarding the hearing item. After all pre-registered comments have spoke, commenters have spoken, the chair will close the comment period on the hearing item. after public comment has closed on the hearing item and the hearing item will return to the applicant for any clarification or comment and then the commission or uh for comments and or direction. So right now I proceed to the call to the public. At this time, any member of the public is allowed to address the plan and zoning commission on any issue within the jurisdiction of the commission except for items scheduled for a public hearing this evening. The speakers may have up to three minutes to speak. Any person wishing to address the commission must first register with this to speak and can be excuse me register to speak. Uh registration can be completed online or in person with the clerk prior to the start of the meeting. Chairperson Herb, we need to do roll call.

Oh, my apologies. I did miss that. Can we do a roll call, please? Cl. Commissioner Graci here. Commissioner Joe Colosso here. Commissioner Brianna Keane here. Commissioner Sandy Griffith present. Commissioner Bruce Evans here. Vice Chairperson Joe Huat here. and chairperson Ted Herb here. We have a quorum. My apologies for that. With the completion of my last statement for the call to the public, do we have anybody registered this evening? Yes.

Yes, we do. Uh we first have Miss Sandy Graham. Good evening, Mrs. Graham. Can you state your name and address for the record, please?

Good evening, chair and commission. I'm Sandy Graham, chair of Prescat Valley Citizens Alliance representing PVCA here tonight. I'm a resident of Viewpoint North. Again, Commissioner Joe Colossimo has made another deliberately liable statement in regards to PVCA and all other packs in Prescat Valley in a written statement on Next Door. We are not sponsored financially or in any other way by George Soros, including any and all of his numerous business entities. PACs are required to adhere to strict Arizona state guidelines when filing their financial statements. If anyone has read and reviewed this 149page guide and review the public financial statements filed by the packs, they would know that George Soros does not sponsor PVCA or any other Prescuit Valley pack. Again, we are asking Joe Colossimo to stop his hateful, false, and defamatory statements against PVCA. PVCA's mission and purpose are not political. We are a board of concerned citizens with a commitment to the betterment of our community. And I have left a copy of this along with Joe's posted statement for all of you to review. Thank you, Mr. Scrim.

Carolyn Zern.

Mrs. Zern, can you state your name and address or excuse me, your address and name for the record, please?

My name is Carolyn Zern. I live at the villages at Lynx Creek in Prescat Valley. and I am the chairperson of the COOTC pack and I just want to emphasize what Sandy has said. Uh we are in no way sponsored by anybody actually and um I don't know where he gets his ideas from but I just want to say that we are like uh PVCA we are concerned citizens of the community and we came together to um fight against a particular uh item and that's what we have done and we don't appreciate being maligned all the time on on um uh social media or being driven by and yelled at out of his car, which happened when we were sitting out in front of the library collecting signatures. And I know it was posted on social media and probably all of you have seen it, but it it was disgraceful. Thank you. Thank you, ma'am.

We have no other speakers signed up to speak. Thank you, clerk. Announcements. Do we have any announcements? No. Commissioners.

All right. So, approval of uh regular meeting minutes for January 12th and our study session meeting for February 9th. Do I have a motion? Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to approve the regular meeting minutes of January 12th, 2026 Planning and Zoning Commission. Do I have a second? I'll second that. Commissioner Evans. Yes. Commissioner Graci, yes. Commissioner Colossimo, yes. Commissioner Griffith,

yes. Vice Chairperson Hiwatt, yes. Commissioner King, yes. Chairperson Herb, yes. Motion passes unanimously. And can I have a motion for stud approval of study session minutes February 9th, 2026? Move to approve the study session meeting minutes of February the 9th, 2026. I'll second call. Commissioner Graci, yes. Commissioner Evans, yes. Commissioner Coloss, yes. Commissioner Griffith,

yes. Vice Chairperson Hiwatt, yes. Commissioner King, yes. Chairperson Herb, yes. Motion passes unanimously. Clerk. Okay. Now for tonight's uh public hearing. Like to open the hearing. We do have one more approval of minutes. It's the study session meeting minutes for February 9th. We just voted on that one. Um, and then the town council and planning and zoning special joint study session meeting minutes. Oh, I do not have that on the agenda. Okay. Uh,

all right. Do I have a motion? So, I move to approve the minutes of the joint uh town council planning and zoning commission study session of whatever date it was. Second. Can you call the vote? Commissioner Graassi, yes. Commissioner Evans, yes. Commissioner Kosmo, yes. Commissioner Griffith, yes. Vice Chairperson Hiwatt, yes. Commissioner King, yes. Chairperson Herb, yes. Motion passes unanimously.

Thank you. So, now I'll officially open the public hearing for item ZMC 25009 or the I'm going to pronounce this wrong. Harlequinn Drive duplex. Thank you, chair, vice chair, commissioners. Uh yes, this is uh you heard this zone map change and with a minor general plan amendment on the January 12th meeting. Uh the commission requested a modification to allow for turnaround maneuvers in the driveway. Um town code section 1314060 reszoning procedure outlines procedures for when the commission requests modifications to the plan. Um 1314060M states that a decrease in setback or any setback change 10% or more that was necessary for the modification is considered substantial and any substantial modification does have to come back to you um to be approved before going to council. Um, as you can see on the site plan, the duplex was shifted towards the rear so that the front is now 35 feet to the property line to accommodate the driveway request and the rear has now went from 25 to 15 ft. The duplex is still uh two units uh which with each two-bedroom, two bath, singlecar garage and still the onetory 16 ft high as well with the seven foot landscape order in the front. Um, we did renotice the people within the 300 feet. Um, so they were aware of this change. Um, and that's that's what we're here for tonight is just that that change in the setback. So, I'll take any questions and the applicants are here uh via Zoom as well.

Do we have any do we have any comments or questions from commission commissioner? Um there was a late submission of a letter from a resident and uh always take those things seriously. They were quite concerned that it was out of character for the neighborhood to have a duplex approved and they're correct as far as Harlequin Drive is concerned. Uh but I drove down Arnold which is right across the street from from the subject site and that street is on one side almost entirely typified uh by duplexes. So, while we appreciate the uh the resident's concern, uh this change would be very very consistent with the nature of the neighborhood.

I'd like to make a comment on on that as well. Um yeah, I mean regret regrettably, if I had known a little bit more uh on the previous approval, I would have voted no. When we look at the makeup of what's happened in the town over the years, we have created um kind of a menagerie of multifamily mixed with single family homes. And um uh from personal experience in my family knowing that my young children had to go outside the town to buy a home, otherwise be nestled in the middle of a bunch of duplexes. I find it kind of disheartening. So although we did make this approval before and this is just uh um kind of a setback review um I did drive the neighborhood as well and Harlequinn doesn't have any rarely maybe one duplex on its route. Um I would just suggest in the future uh that we we look at this a little bit closer. Um, and in light of the applicants, I don't know, several several uh of of properties, probably single family resident properties that were changed to multifamily. Um, I think we, in my opinion, it's enough. Uh, we got to start making room for people in our communities, the younger kids in our communities to be able to afford to buy something and not rent from duplex owners. So, that's just my statement. And uh um I after reading the item regrettably I'll I'll have to support it but be because of our past decision but going to have a little little different look on this in the future. So

Mr. Chair Griffin Commission Griffin Chris thank you for your presentation. I do have a question on the um proposed conditions of approval. Do you think that we should reference the revised site plan as being part of the package when it goes to council because it doesn't reference a revised site plan? Um, I believe it references exhibit A and exhibit A should be that updated site plan. So I it says exhibit A, but is my site plan exhibit A? Exhibit A is a blank sheet of paper

and which says a preliminary development plan and then attached to that should be that site plan which would be the the next document I have. We can definitely reference that. It's not called exhibit A. It's just has a little lowercase A on it. We'll definitely clarify that going to council.

Okay. So maybe for clarification we could name it exhibit A so there's no confusion. please. And then one final, you know, I'm such a stickler about this. Um, it says, "Cathma has reviewed this project and has no comments. In as much as this is a new hearing item going before council, please attach a CAFMA letter that says they have no concerns or comments." Yeah, we'll attach the same one that was attached to your packet this time as well because it wasn't in the package. Okay, I'll make sure.

And then one more comment to um support Commissioner Evans and to support my Commissioner Huat next to me. Um, I am a firm believer in duplexes and I feel that Prescat Valley because of the housing nature that we're in, we do need a wide range of housing types to meet the needs of all purchasers, families, single children, elderly adults. I supported this the last time it came before us and I will be supporting it this evening. And I want to Are the applicants on Zoom with us?

Yes, they are. Mr. and Mrs. Merrill. Yes, we're here. Thank you very much for your consideration to move the house, the duplex back. I really appreciate that you genuine genuinely understood the nature of doing that. So, thank you very much.

You're welcome. So, I would like to take a minute tonight to express the reasons behind my vote when it does come that time. In the last hearing, I did vote no for this. And I I feel there's a there's a a reason for some clarification for my vote because my vote will stand tonight as the same. And the reason for this is is when I looked at this, I felt, you know, what in my mind, what was to keep the next adjacent property that's designated single family residential from selling their property for a higher value in the future and someone chooses to purchase that, bulldoze the home, and then come in in this very similar situation, propose a zoning map change to put in a duplex. So, where do we draw that line? And I think that line was drawn when these parcels were identified as single family residential and the adjacent I believe the the corner lots I believe are RL10s, but don't quote me on that. Um, that's where I I tend to draw the line. We did this for a reason and said at some point we need to specify single family versus single family limited or what I would call multif family. uh such as a duplex. So that's the reason for my vote this evening.

Any other comments from any other commissioners?

Yeah, chairman. And to that point, um, you know, certainly I know that there are CCNRs in the newer developments here in the town, but, um, I mean, in until the town is willing to begin to then change those requirements to require multifamily mixed in with single family residents in these new developments when new developments come in or potentially uh, and of course it would uh, probably not happen, but until they're willing to change those designations possibly on lots within uh, the subdivisions that have recently been built. I don't I I think you pepper single family resident communities with these duplexes to the point where, you know, everything turns into a rental or it becomes unaffordable or unsustainable. So, that's my that's simply my point. We wouldn't go into Stone Ridge and and begin to change a whole area mixed in with their single family residence to multif family. The residents would never allow that. I'm just suggesting that we have to give the existing people that own properties in the town the same consideration. If I may, I'd like to go back to October 9th with the open to the public meeting for this. Um, once again, I want to clarify. Were did anyone attend this meeting?

Um, there was no one from the public that attended this meeting. That's what I read, too. So, it doesn't seem like anyone in the surrounding area, they were notified by this. I'm correct on that. They were notified by this about this meeting. Yeah, they didn't know thousand thousand ft. But no one in the surrounding area up until just recently with this letter has objected to this. Am I correct in saying that? That's correct, Commissioner.

Okay. Thank you. Uh, chairman, um, just for the point of record, that doesn't make this any less valid a concern for the neighboring property. And I would say and I would hope that the the people that are developing this property would engage with that neighbor since there has been an objection to at least um, open up some dialogue to maybe address uh, their concerns uh, because it'll be a neighbor. If I may, uh, chair, vice chair, um, I did reach out to the, um, person that sent the letter and we did have a short communication back and forth and gave opportunities to have a discussion in case they had more questions or concerns or needed clarity. Um, and I, that person hasn't followed up with me yet, but the opportunity is still there and I've sent more opportunities for that person to talk with me. So, I hope they do connect with me so that we can have conversation, but um, we do follow up on the letter. So, I just did want to let you know that we did that.

Yeah. And to your point, you did let us know that earlier and we appreciate that involvement for sure. No problem. Thank you.

All right. Um, if there's no other comments from the commission, do we have anybody who registered to speak tonight on this matter? No, we do not, Chair. All right, Mr. Chair. I'll make a motion to approve zoning map change 25-009 Harley Drive duplex. I'll second that. Can you call the vote? Commissioner Graassi.

Uh before I I vote, I I just want to provide an explanation for it. Uh originally I had voted yes. uh given the scrutiny that we had to place this under just to make it safe for the residents to back out to have ample parking. Um you know, I I I've taken this time to reconsider. Um you know, I I I share the same sentiment as some of the other commissioners in u where do we draw that line? And again, that line has been drawn. Um, and I I don't see the substantial need to move that line. So, for this evening's vote, I will be I will be voting no.

Commissioner Evans, yes. Commissioner Kosmo, yes. Commissioner Griffith, yes. Vice Chairperson Hwatt, no. Commissioner King, no. Chairperson Herb, no.

Motion does not pass. Four nos and three yeses. Right. I close the public hearing for ZMC 25009. We have any action items this evening? No. Right. Any other comments from the commission? If not, uh, entertain a motion to adjurnn. I'll move to adjurnn. Commissioner King, I'll second. Sojourn.