Minutes of the regular meeting of December 10, 2001 held at
7:00 P.M. in the Council Chambers.
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Mayor Ronald Drake and Council Members Marie
Lopez Rogers
Peggy
Jones
Raymond
Shuey
Betty
Lynch
Albert
Carroll, Jr.
ALSO PRESENT
Scott Schrader, City Manager
Andrew McGuire, City Attorney
ABSENT/EXCUSED
Stephanie Karlin
STATEMENT BY THE CITY CLERK
Linda Farris, City Clerk read the
statement regarding public appearances.
It is the policy of the Mayor and
Council not to comment on items brought forth under Unscheduled Public
Appearance. However, staff can be directed to report back to the Council at a
future date or to schedule items raised for a future Council agenda.
CITY MANAGER’S REPORT
None
RECOGNITION ITEMS
None.
UNSCHEDULED PUBLIC APPEARANCE
Sharolyn Holman thanked the Council for allowing her to
speak. She said she wanted to come to Council before the end of the year to
say thanks to them for their support of Billy Moore Days. She noted that many
more people came to enjoy the event this year, the revenue was higher and plans
are going forward for 2002. She said some new ideas have come forward which
they plan to include for next year.
She said that she hoped the Council made it to the carnival
grounds and noted that the Purina Cat Chow people were thrilled to join the
event this year and the exciting part of that addition was that they were
invited to the State Fair but chose to stay with a smaller community event.
She indicated that their feedback was that the people, the committee and the
City were great and they were very pleased. She said that was high praise for
our community event.
Ms. Holman noted that Council was in the parade and saw the
number of people that were there. She said thank you to Linda Farris, Jeff
Ross, Carlos Cabrerra, Paul Adams, and the Police Department. She said they
have amazing folks on their staff that worked so hard and so well that she has
to say good job and how much she appreciates their partnership.
She then encouraged the Council to participate in another
event, which is a Ginger Bread Contest. She said the submissions have been
delightful and the town of Buckeye won first place. She said they are on
display in the Merchant Windows on Western Avenue and the awards will be given
out at the tree lighting ceremony this Saturday night. She thanked the Council
again for being a partner with the West Valley Chamber of Commerce.
Mayor Drake said that if it were not for Sharolyn it would
not have been a success and thanked her for her efforts.
PUBLIC HEARING – GENERAL PLAN
Mr. Schrader said that they were starting the formal Public
Hearing process before City Council with regards to the update to the City’s
General Plan and updates to three Specific Area Plans. He said that it has
been a very lengthy process that has been followed to update all of these plans
but the length was well worth it in terms of trying to maximize the amount of
public input. He noted that the public involvement included the formation of a
Public Advisory Committee that met on six different occasions to provide input
as to how the City’s General Plan and the Specific Area Plans should be
updated. Mr. Schrader said that there was also technical input provided
through the Technical Advisory Committee throughout the process. He indicated
that there were four different Town Hall meetings that were held to gain
further citizen input. He said that there has been a good amount of citizen
input up to this point and two Public Hearings were held before the Planning
and Zoning Commission in the month of November of which Council has the minutes
of that which can give them a good flavor for the discussion that took place.
Mr. Schrader indicated that at the Commission level there
was not many changes recommended to the Plans and submitted to them but one
exception to that dealt with the Lakin Property and their minutes captured some
of that discussion. He noted that representatives from the Lakin Property are
present to further discuss their thoughts on the best potential future use for
their property as we go through the public hearing process before Council.
Mr. Schrader indicated that staff has allocated time on four
dates for Council to consider this subject matter starting tonight with meetings
being advertised for December 13, December 18 and maybe January 7th
which gives staff enough time to prepare for an election that must be held for
the citizens to ratify the General Plan. He said that prior to that it would
require approval of 2/3 of the City Council.
Mr. Schrader said that this evening they are looking to
focus on an overview of the General Plan document, as it has been prepared
through the process he had just described by focusing in on the key elements
that are contained within the General Plan Document. He said that he would
call upon their consultants Cornoyer-Dedrick to lead them through an overview
of the different plan documents and would open the meeting up for public input
and Council input if time permits or reschedule that input for December 13th.
Mr. Schrader noted that staff tried to provide Council with
a copy of the plan as much in advance as they could and they got a copy of the
Plan at the same time as the Planning and Zoning Commission did. He said that
staff did ask for comments if Council had any and have received some and
recognize that vocal comments will be made during the course of the Public
Hearing process starting this evening. He then called upon Nathan Crane to
introduce the City’s consultants and begin the presentation.
Mr. Crane introduced the City’s Consultants noting that they
are now known as DFD and represented by individual staff members Leslie
Dormfeld, principal; Don Cox mapping and analytical; and Michael LaBianca,
technical. He then turned the meeting over to them for their presentation.
Leslie Dormfeld thanked the Council and said what they are
going to do is to go through the plan to try to give Council an overview and
familiarize them with why the plan was done and what is in it and the process
they used to get to where they are currently and then they will be happy to
respond to any questions.
Ms. Dormfeld reminded everyone in the room about what a
General Plan does and does not do because one of the things that they noticed
through public meetings is that a lot of people would bring up ideas and
concepts that by law the plan really does not address and has not been given
the authority to address. She indicated that there was also a concern about
the level of detail of a plan and what is shown in it because a lot of property
owners were concerned about specific rezoning cases or existing zoning that
they might have.
She said that a general plan is exactly what it says because
it is a very general document that contains policy guidance and action steps
for a community to achieve a future that it desires. Ms. Dormfeld indicated
that it contains a vision which expresses the community’s intentions for it’s
future and hopefully it will be used by a council as it makes decisions not only
about land use but also transportation, open space, public services and
facilities and housing and development and as a guide over the next ten years.
Ms. Dormfeld noted that cities and towns over 2500 are
required to have General Plans. She then reminded those present about things
that General Plans do not do. She said that they are not rigid documents and
the law allows the Plan to be amended every year in terms of a major amendment,
which is defined by the community. She noted that in addition to that small
housekeeping things and minor amendments could happen any time through the
year. She said that council gets a chance annually to look at the plan and
fine tune it and revise it so this is not the only time they will be coming
back to the Plan and looking at it. She indicated that it is not a Zoning
Ordinance in that it does not deal with specific site plans or things that are
done as part of zoning but is a general guide to the types of zoning a
community might like to see. She said that it is not a detailed policy for
specific areas, not a Capital Improvement Plan, and it does not promote special
interests since the purpose of the plan is to look at what the community values
and provide a road map to get there. She noted that it is not a day-to-day
decision-making guide or a management plan but it is a broad policy document.
Ms. Dormfeld said that in the City’s Specific Plan case they
have used a common process that does not mean that what is in the plan is
typical of other communities but the process is a fairly standard process. She
said that they had a public workshop to identify the vision for the community
and they did extensive research and provided the Council with an existing
conditions report that talked about where they are today and identified some of
the challenges they are looking at in the next decade. She indicated that they
used community input obtained through the visioning meeting to establish goals,
objectives and policies. She said that what makes the City’s plan the plan of
the community is what people in Avondale told them they wanted for the City and
not something where they come in and said the City needs this or that but it is
what people told them that they wanted.
Ms. Dormfeld said that what they hope to do as consultants
is to add some value to that in terms of ways to get it and provide some
innovative approaches or enhance some of those ideas to move the City to the
next step forward. She noted that they prepared the Existing Conditions Report
and presented that to the public at a workshop to make sure they did not miss
any ideas or concepts and did get some good feedback.
She indicated that they prepared some base maps and land use
alternatives which were presented at a public meeting and received a lot of
input. Ms. Dormfeld said that they then prepared the plan text for review and
comment which was reviewed twice by the Technical Advisory Committee and is
also available for public review on their website. She noted that the
developed implementation strategies, which went out for a 60-day regional
review period by not only adjacent communities, cities and towns but also to
other regional entities, like SRP and school districts. Ms. Dormfeld noted
that members of PAC had been asked for their comments and several were included
in the council packets.
Ms. Dormfeld said that they had two planning Commission
public hearings where they received good input and are now before City
Council. She said that if Council chooses to adopt the plan and prepare it for
ratification it would be going to public vote in May of 2002 depending on their
actions.
She said that she wanted to talk a little bit about the
public participation in the plan process because it is important not only to
the City but also in terms of the state law. She indicated that “Growing
Smarter Plus” which is the law that the plan was prepared under mandates
communities develop a public participation plan and that has been done and
adopted as part of the planning process many months ago. Ms. Dormfield said
that what they did in that process was to try and involve as many people in the
meetings as they possibly could. She noted that they put reader boards out on
the streets; PIR put out things in newsletters; and provided updates in them;
some good press coverage was obtained and the Technical Advisory Committee
spoke to those they were involved with as well. She said that they had four
public meetings that they put the word out to come to and those were very well
attended.
Ms. Dormfeld said that they had about 50 people at the first
meeting at Aqua Fria High School which is where they asked people to talk about
their community’s past and their present and their future and was the meeting
they used to develop a vision statement draft and ideas for goals in the plan.
She said that the second public meeting they had on February
8th at Estrella Community College had well over 100 people in
attendance which coincided with the stadium so many came that were interested
in the stadium but when it became clear that they were not only talking about
the stadium just about all of them stayed and talked about the plan. She said
that there was an interactive process where at that meeting they got a
consensus from those 100 plus people on the vision statement and they also used
that meeting to present the Existing Conditions Report to people who found that
enjoyable because they really got to learn about their community.
Ms. Dormfeld said that the third public meeting they had at Westview High School was where they presented three land use alternatives and there were
about 60 people in attendance. She indicated that those in attendance were
broken into four groups of about 10-20 people with land use alternatives on the
wall for each group and the people talked about each land use alternative as to
their likes and dislikes about them. She said that the three alternatives they
had were ones that stressed economic development; one of Avondale as it is
today; and one that looked at the environmental and agricultural low-density
approach to Avondale. She said that they got wonderful comments from the
people at those meetings and they were able to come up with a recommended
alternative.
Ms. Dormfeld noted that the fourth public meeting was not
well attended with only 8 people. She said after the third public meeting
after they talked about the land use alternatives they got people to talk about
every one of the goals and objectives in the General Plan. She said they
printed them out on large 26 X 30 sheets, pinned them on the wall and people
wrote all over them with markers and they really got to see what was in their
plan. She said the final meeting was where they presented the final draft
plan. She noted that in the public involvement world that was good news
because when a lot of people do not show up that means they are comfortable
with everything to date and have not found anything that concerns them and
would rather do something else with their evening.
Ms. Dormfeld said that likewise at the Planning Commission
hearings they have had very few people come to those, which they had done their
work in the first three meetings, which is where the meat of the plan was
developed. She noted that in between those broad public meetings they had TAC
meetings and TAC/ PAC Meetings, which were held on the same day in that the TAC
was City Staff and the PAC was the public. She said the Public Advisory
Committee included about 20 people and grew as the process went on and was a
very productive committee in that when they went over the goals and objectives
they also broke into groups and worked through the goals and objectives.
Ms. Dormfeld said that they have received good comments from
them via e-mail and good feedback when they presented the draft plan that lead
to some changes that she will point out later. She said that overall it has
been a very thorough public involved process. She added that the City staff
has been wonderful and helpful to them through the process and at one point
they actually met with many of the City staff members individually to go over
the elements and their input was very valuable and helpful to them too as they
worked through the plan.
Ms. Dormfeld showed the Council a slide indicating dates and
meetings as they went through the process and one of the condensed comments
received from the attendees. She said that there was a website maintained by
the City throughout the process and the general plan was posted on that website
and was available for anyone to download and read.
Ms. Dormfeld moved on to how they structured the plan and
said that it is a little bit different then other communities because they did
it from what they heard from the public meetings. She indicated that they
heard there were five areas important to the community, economic development,
neighborhoods, open space, and things about the community and what they did as
opposed to just having a document that had State mandated elements in a list
was to give the plan some meaning by putting those elements in places where
people felt they could relate to them.
She said that by law the City, which is under 50,000, but
over 25,000 with a growth rate of more than 2% per year for the past ten years
is required to have a cost of development element, a growth area element, an
open space element, a land use element, an environmental element and a water
resources element. Ms. Dormfeld said that because the City is growing so
rapidly staff wisely put out the contract requiring that 15 elements of the
plan be done which added to the requirement a housing element, a recreation
element, conservation rehabilitation, and redevelopment element, a bicycling
element, a public services element, a public buildings and facilities element
and a safety element. She noted that the plan has the full compliment of state
required elements by law and when the Avondale reaches 50,000 the City would be
in conformance with those required plans.
Ms. Dormfeld said that the first thing they do with a plan
is try to come up with a vision that gives them a direction for the plan and
tells them where the community wants to go which they did at the first
meeting. She said the way that they came up with the vision was using those
themes when people come up with them and when they looked at them they broke
into to those areas of economic development, community, open space and
neighborhoods and also Luke AFB that is very important to the area and
agricultural preservation which also is very important to the area.
She then went on to what a general plan is made up of which
are goals, objectives, and policies. Ms. Dormfeld noted that goals are desired
conditions and are broad in definition; objectives are measurable things to
attain a goal and there may be many objectives to achieve before getting to a
goal; and finally policies are the action steps that one takes to obtain the
objective. She said that policies are what gets moved into the implementation
program and are the specific things that a City might do to accomplish their
goals.
Ms. Dormfeld said that during the 60-day review process they
did get many comments on the plan from the public, the Planning Commission,
adjacent entities, the Department of Commerce, and the Multi-Family Housing
Association. She said that the legal sheets Council has documents every single
comment they received with some recommended to be included when they make a
decision on the plan which are shown in gray. She then said that she wanted to
talk about each of the elements in the final draft plan. Ms. Dormfeld
indicated that each element is formatted the same way so as they go through the
plan they will see the same information for each element presented. She noted
that there is an introduction in each element where they talk about the purpose
of the element and the legal requirements that were met by that element. She
said they then talked about past, present, and future trends so people could
get an understanding of why the element was important and what some of the
issues were that the community faced.
She said that the planning area was where they really
itemized the things they should think about in the next ten years and the
goals, objectives, and policy section is where they provide the policy
direction. Ms. Dormfeld said the land use section contains the land use
element and they have not listed every goal, objective and policy because they
would never get out of here tonight so they have been summarized and she will
be happy to respond to any questions on specific goals. She said overall these
kinds of goals were sustainability and demographic and the cultural diversity
of the community, which came out loud and clear.
Ms. Dormfeld said that there were some concerns about
conflicts between land uses and how they could address those. She said that in
looking at mining, regional land uses and dealing with border issues and
schools become important and how they would deal with annexations. She noted
that one of the things included in the land use element is the land use map,
which they should have in front of them and is the thing that everyone turns to
first in the plan to see what happened to their house and property.
Ms. Dormfeld said that they did a suitability analysis,
which is an analysis that used G.I.S. modeling to determine what the best use
is for different pieces of land in a community. She indicated that the model
determines which piece of land is best for multi-family residential,
industrial, open space, housing, or commercial uses based on its proximity to
rail or major streets near to a flood plain or steep slope for open space;
proximity to public transportation or major arterials for multi-family and
distance from noxious uses for single family. She said that they put that all
in the model and came up with different maps for each type of land use and
ultimately a land use-planning map that was developed after the public meeting
on the three alternatives.
Ms. Dormfeld then went into the unique characteristics of
the map. She said that the first thing she wanted to point out is the North
Avondale Specific Plan and the concerns from the public about the amount of
multi-family housing in the City and where it is located. She said that the
North Avondale Specific Plan ringed Indian School Road and 99th
Avenue with multi-family and was not very well placed and was sort of a
narrow strip type of development. She said that what they did was look at the
existing development in that area and the character of the area and increased
the amount of medium density residential uses.
She said that they also recognized the potential for some
kind of large regional site at loop 101 and at 99th Avenue and
Thomas or 99th Avenue and Indian School along the John F. Long
properties. She said that in understanding the importance of economic development
along 99th Avenue; the proximity of the 101 and the border with
Tolleson they used 99th as a very strong commercial base for the
community.
She said that they also emphasized the Agua Fria River in the North Avondale area and through the community as an open space corridor and
included the new park area there on McDowell as well.
Ms. Dormfeld said that in moving south a little bit, they
kept the Freeway Corridor Specific Plan as is with the core at 115th Avenue, which has also been maintained. She noted that the set of dots
along 115th Avenue which represent a concept of a commercial
boulevard for Avondale. She said 115th Avenue is one of the only
streets that goes across the river currently and it is also a direct line to
P.I.R. and a lot of people said that they should take advantage of P.I.R. and
the traffic that P.I.R. gets which gave them an opportunity to create some kind
of a commercial boulevard in Avondale so they did that to 115th
Avenue.
She said that the area around the airport south of Lower
Buckeye was kept as an industrial use but also designated it as a growth area
and should take advantage of the Goodyear Airport for industrial uses.
Ms. Dormfeld indicated that they also added the concept of
the south core at 115th and Broadway and noted that this was an area
where there was a need for higher intensity with retail services in south
Avondale and they also felt that it could benefit from P.I.R. so they created a
higher intensity core of commercial uses at 115th Avenue and Broadway
with some higher intensity residential land uses to support that higher
intensity commercial use.
She said that they also tried along Southern and close to
the river to preserve the rural feel of that community and also there is a
largely undeveloped area that will be left for the higher and executive housing
that people have said is important for future economic development. She noted
that the stars along the river near P.I.R., which indicates opportunities for a
resort because they bring in a lot of people for, short stays. Ms. Dormfeld
said they also emphasized the canal as a trail and connections to open space
within the land use map. She said the area to the south and also throughout
the connects all of the development along the river to open space and take any
advantage of all the existing trails system along the Roosevelt Irrigation
Canal and St. Johns Canal were also emphasized in the Plan.
She indicated that the south Avondale area is very
undeveloped and has no infrastructure but it is likely that Council will be
receiving development proposals for this area within the ten-year span of the
plan. She said that what they did recommend is that specific plan be prepared
for this area and noted that the plan includes a lot of recommendations about
hillside development and how to treat open space so that this area does get
developed in a way that is appropriate with the resources that it contains.
Ms. Dormfeld said that they also suggested some connections coming in from some
existing arteries in Goodyear and the concept of a scenic drive along the
mountains and the balance of the area has been left as low density
residential. She noted that there is a lot of State land in that area and the
homebuilders were especially concerned that the low density residential did
allow them to develop at one dwelling unit per acre, which is what the general
plan states.
Ms. Dormfeld said that the other thing that is included in
the land use element are amendment criteria for a major amendment and that the
Growing Smarter State Law requires that a major amendment be any significant
change in land use density to a community’s general plan and the community gets
to determine what “significant” is. She noted that major amendments can be
heard once during the year at a single hearing and must be approved by a
four-fifths vote of the Council. She said that these are the major amendment
requirements that were developed with staff for the Avondale Plan in regards to
any PADD larger than 80 acres that is not in compliance with the general plan
or if the net change in the land use designations in that PADD are more than
25% of the total area and also any land use designation that is not in
conformance with the general plan or any rezoning of 40 acres or more that is
not in conformance with the general plan. She indicated that for areas located
within a specific plan, if there is any net reduction in the non-residential
designation or any rezoning larger than 20 acres where the change in the
residential land use portion of that is greater than 25% a major amendment is
required for any of those criteria.
Ms. Dormfeld said that the Economic Development Section
includes the growth area element, cost of development element and an economic
development element and talks about making sure the City can support a diverse
range of sustainable economic opportunities and that it continues to
participate in regional economic development efforts.
Ms. Dormfeld relayed that the growth area element tries to
encourage the creation of growth areas like the freeway corridor and the area
near the Goodyear Airport as well as the south core and within those growth
areas they wanted to make sure there is some economic diversity so they could
add to the overall stability of the City. She said that the cost of the
development element shows a community how to address how new development will
pay for the fair share of services and infrastructure that it requires and
noted that most of those things really talk about maintaining the development fee
ordinance and continuous updates to it and looks at other ways to pay for the
cost of development making sure the City can continue to preserve and enhance
the existing level of public services for residents and businesses of the
City.
Ms. Dormfeld said that the neighborhood section talks about
the housing element and conservation, rehabilitation, and redevelopment
element. She noted that in the housing element they want to preserve and
enhance and expand the existing housing stock so there is a range of housing
opportunities in the City providing housing for citizens with lower incomes as
well as executive type housing without having either pockets of poverty or
pockets of wealth. She indicated that they wanted to make sure that a lot of
the existing neighborhood organizations, which are very active and provide
housing, are maintained and enhanced and that neighborhood stabilization
programs are maximized in terms of their efficiency and effectiveness.
She relayed that the conservation, rehabilitation and
redevelopment element is an element required by law that deals with
redevelopment and noted that the conservation portion is a misnomer in that it
is not environmental conservation but more of neighborhood conservation. Ms.
Dormfeld said that this is where they looked at a lot of redevelopment plans
that the City has already adopted and tried to reinforce those as well as the
redevelopment of the downtown business core. She said that in maintaining
existing residential neighborhoods, housing stock that is now ten years old and
in ten years will be 20 years old means the housing stock is aging which is
something in Arizona we are not used to thinking about because everything is
always new but we are maturing as a region and our housing stock is aging so we
want to make sure that some of those older planned communities are maintained
and the character gets maintained as well.
Ms. Dormfeld said that there were a lot of comments about
the fact that Avondale is a wonderful community with a small town feel and they
want to make sure that is not lost so they talked about neighborhood
organizations to make sure people had opportunities to stay involved in their
neighborhood.
She indicated that the focus on “Old Town” and some of the
cultural and natural resources that people were very proud of was important as
well as are the rivers and Western Avenue which looks great. Ms. Dormfeld said
that beginning to get the community focused on some of those more traditional
places it has as well as the new development along the freeway and that will
occur on 115th Avenue is important along with supporting the
redevelopment of target areas.
Ms. Dormfeld noted that in the open space element, one of
the things the City has to its credit, which makes it a unique community in the
state, is its three active rivers. She said that the open space element
contains a lot of goals and objectives to make sure that open spaces and
hillsides are protected and preserved as development occurs. She noted that
the city is lucky because most of the new developments occurred on the flat
lands but as it is moving south and to the west a lot of those resources are
beginning to be brought into the urban fabric and they need to make sure that
those resources are not lost because there are some challenges with mining;
flood plain preservation to eliminate channels along the rivers restricting
access; and the preservation and expansion of trail systems in the City.
Ms. Dormfeld noted that a lot of the trail system has been
started south of the freeway and along the canals, which can be enhanced, and
the Tres Rios plan is a wonderful plan for trails, which is also talked about
in the plan. She said that they want to be sure that as communities are built
those open space amenities have access provided from those communities to them
and that communities do not block access to those resources. She said that
they also want to make sure that people are aware of open spaces and there is a
real opportunity to promote Avondale as a eco-tourism type of a place
especially with the rivers and the opportunities for trails.
Ms. Dormfeld indicated that the environmental planning and
conservation element asked them to look at how development will impact the
City’s natural resources such as air and water quality. She said that it says
that the City will continue to work with the Flood Control District to make
sure that the community is protected but those resources are enhanced and they
also need to make sure that they continue to meet water quality standards and
reduce the amount of waste sent to land fills as well as businesses are not
brought in that harm those resources and that the natural habitat areas along
the rivers are enhanced and preserved.
Ms. Dormfeld noted that the recreation element deals with
parks and recreation facilities and they wanted to make sure the City continues
to maintain and improve the high quality parks and recreation facilities that
it already has been planning and has in place. She relayed that they know the
City is developing a parks and recreation master plan so a lot of the goals
were to support that plan as it gets developed. Ms. Dormfeld said that they
want to make sure the community’s resources are maximized using schools and
colleges collaboratively and connecting them to the larger regional systems so
there are some shared linkages.
Ms. Dormfeld indicated that the community theme talks about
City services and is the nuts and bolts part of the plan and the circulation
element talks a lot about transit making sure the City has a multi-modal system
in place and that the City is promoted and becomes a player at that regional
transportation table. She said that they want to make sure that current and
future development are connected into the City and into the transit and
transportation web as well as making sure the transportation system is
efficient and works well to reduce residents reliance on the automobile and by
making sure the transportation system is integrated regionally which will allow
people to be less reliant on the automobile. Ms. Dormfeld said that they
wanted to figure out ways to provide non-motorized options by asking for
trails, pedestrian circulation plans or non-vehicular circulation plans as part
of development getting people to think about how they can make those
developments work in ways that the car does not become the only transportation
option. She said that they want to make sure they maintain the efficiency of
the City’s street network and enhance opportunities for non-motor transportation.
Ms. Dormfeld indicated that the bicycle element recommends
that a bicycle plan be developed to make sure that is safe so that people can
connect to those facilities and that their street system is safe and convenient
for bicycle travel.
Ms. Dormfeld said that they are recommending that Council
consider some of the amendments to the water resource element but the point of
that element is to prove that the City does have adequate supplies for current
and future development. She said that Avondale is doing a lot of aggressive
things to make sure that they will and Tres Rios and the recharge project alone
has put the City on the map in that respect.
Ms. Dormfeld indicated that in the Public Services and
Facilities element they want to make sure the City provides for new development
while maintaining and improving services in existing areas and they have goals
and objectives that talk about consistent support for those facilities and
services and protection from floods for the community in working with the Flood
Control District and when making sure as the community grows it might consider
developing some sort of fiber option or high tech infrastructure that allows
the City to be wired into the future economy of the 21st century.
Ms. Dormfeld said that the public buildings element includes
library, police, and fire buildings and making sure they keep education as a
priority. She said that while the general plan does not give communities the
authority to direct schools because they are in a separate district they have
included a lot of information in the plan that will ensure ongoing coordination
between the community and schools as development occurs.
Ms. Dormfeld said that the Safety Element is really the
City’s safety plan like in a natural disaster safety issue and they want to
make sure residents are protected from natural and man made disaster because
you do not want to build projects on sink holes or on shaky bridges and they
want to make sure there is an emergency response plan that is maintained and
the City is required to do that.
Ms. Dormfeld said that in summary what Council is going to
be asked to consider over the next series of meetings is the repeal of the old
plan and adoption of the new plan and when they consider making that recommendation
and sending the plan to ratification that they include the items on the legal
sheet that are marked as staff report to Council and there will be some
additional amendments to the plan. She said that they are also suggesting that
they have a second sheet which is a specific plan compliance matrix with “yes”
meaning there is no change necessary but in the “no” column a group of
suggestions and amendments that they are suggesting be made to the Specific
Plan and then also amending the Freeway Corridor and the North Avondale
Specific Plan Maps to conform to the General Plan land use maps.
Mr. Schrader noted that the date indicated for the election
was incorrect and should be listed as May 21, 2002 and not March 12, 2002.
Leslie Dormfeld said that she was sorry and that was their
mistake and that they would fix that.
Ms. Dormfeld went on to say that the Freeway Corridor
Specific Plan was kept pretty true to the original plan and the North Avondale
Specific Plan removes a lot of the multi-family that ringed Indian School and
99th Avenue and there was also low density component south of the
Roosevelt Irrigation District Canal on the north side of Thomas that got
changed to medium density residential to reflect current development patterns.
She said that some of the existing low-density development was maintained with
the addition of some of those employment opportunity areas along 99th Avenue. She said that was the end of their presentation and asked if there
were any questions.
Mayor Drake asked if Mr. Schrader had any additions to the
presentation.
Mr. Schrader replied that it was a good overview and in
terms of the process there will be several meetings to cover a lot of
information and asked the Mayor if he wanted to ask for public input at this
time.
Mayor Drake said that he had a card from Jack Rose who wants
to speak at this time.
Jack Rose, 3200 North Central Avenue, Phoenix, Arizona. He said that he was there representing the Lakin Family and Lakin Cattle
Company. He noted that the Lakin family had been a part of the community for
approximately 80 years and have been involved in many charitable and community
endeavors during that period of time and have gained the respect of people in
the community.
Mr. Rose said that he is here tonight in support of both the
staff of the consultant’s report and the recommendation from the Planning and
Zoning Commission. He noted that they did have a couple of issues that came
before the commission and he wanted to highlight those for Council and noted
that they will be attending the other public meetings on this and at the next
hearing they will have Father Joe Corporo who will be talking about Lakin
Community Park and the programs he is implementing there which has a relation
to the General Plan.
Mr. Rose then passed a copy to the Council and said the
Lakin Property will be negatively impacted by a number of uses. He noted that
the Lakin family did not plan on developing their property any time in the near
future because they are happy to be farming it and producing their agricultural
products but unfortunately they have been hit by a number of negative uses.
He said that they have a number of electrical easements
running through the property east to west with some as wide as 510 feet and
include a number of overhead transmission lines which are in place or planned
for the area. He said that SRP is planning on condemning the property located
north of their existing substation amounting to about 40 acres. He indicated
that this was something that did not make the family very happy and even though
APS and SRP have provided $ 6,000,000 for mitigation to the City a substation
is not an attractive use in their view. Mr. Rose said that SRP has the ability
to condemn the property and they are trying to work that out with them
currently but they do the ability under their agreement to place temporary
generating facilities on the property which is something the family does not
view as positive.
Mr. Rose indicated that another item that is not particularly
positive is the City’s Wastewater Facility and the associated easement that
goes with it. He said that when the City needed to annex the property at some
point in the past, about 15 years ago, the City approached Mr. Lakin and asked
him to annex in the 40 acres directly to the west and assist the City in
placing the facility there and he cooperated with them.
He said that the other easements include the Palo Verde
Wastewater line and the additional easements for the power lines and finally a
330 foot easement is needed by County Flood Control for the Buckeye Feeder
Diversion Channel and even though the Lakin property is a small portion of that
they are being burdened with the bulk of the cost.
Mr. Rose said that his point in mentioning this to Council
is so they realize the constraints that are upon the project and consider their
input in light of that.
He indicated that they have three issues and said that
originally in the plan there were four commercial corners on Broadway Road and
El Mirage and they have done some analysis in the community and found that this
is going to be a very low density project and they do not think there is enough
demand in the area for four commercial corners. He said that they have
analyzed it extensively and there are some large commercial corners at 115th Avenue and Broadway already.
Mr. Rose said that the second issue is the Lakin Community Park and that originally the parks were concentrated next to the proposed
substation. He noted that the Lakin Community Park is a facility that Chuck
Lakin has been providing through the Catholic Church to the community for a
number of years and said that it is ten acres with athletic fields and ball
fields and is something that he would like to continue because they believe it
has strong community support and they would like to have it designated as such
on the General Plan. He said that Mr. Lakin has recently offered to expand the
park by adding ten acres and Father Joe will be talking about his programs on
that facility. He indicated that in addition they are planning another 35
acres in parks and school sites located just south of the drainage channel off
of El Mirage and Broadway Roads. He said they have reached an understanding
with Littleton Elementary School District where Mr. Lakin has agreed to provide
approximately $1,000,000 in land donations to them because they need two sites
one of which has been determined but the other has not yet been determined. He
said that initially they were going to put it next to Lakin Community Park but
after discussing it with the School District, the Parks Department and the
Catholic Church it was determined that it would be better to have the City and
School District facility be away from the park because it would be difficult to
delineate who would have responsibility for the various areas.
Mr. Rose said that they are 100% in support of the
commission recommended plan and they will have Father Joe here later in the
week and Dr. Williams from the Littleton Elementary School District is also
planning on attending one of the public input sessions to voice her support of
what they have done here. He then concluded his comments and said he would
answer any questions from the Council.
Mayor Drake asked Council if there were any questions of Mr.
Rose.
Council Member Jones said that she agreed that the Lakin
property had been severely impacted over the years but in looking at the items
such as the odor easement, channel easement, electrical easement, and Palo
Verde easement she asked if Mr. Lakin had been compensated for them.
Mr. Rose said the initial easements were to WOPA in the
early 30’s and he did get some compensation for them but when it originally
started it was a very limited easement and when one line went in then everyone else
wanted to locate next to it. He said that he did not think Mr. Lakin would
have agreed to let the first line go in if he had realized that it would have
such a wide impact but he has been paid something for those over the years.
Council Member Jones asked if he had been compensated for
Palo Verde easement.
Mr. Rose replied he had been.
Council Member Lynch said that Mr. Rose stated that Mr.
Lakin has no thought of developing this in the near future and noted that one
of the things that the TAC and PAC group and consultants have put in the
general plan is to stop giving up the commercial property for multi-family or
homes. She said that since there are no plans to develop this in the immediate
future and he knows as well as Council does how things change in the
development process these days and how there becomes demand for commercial
sites that never would have been thought of before why would they want to lock
themselves in with the general plan and say that they will give up two of those
corners and just leave two when if in fact down the road Mr. Lakin decides to
develop his property that is something that could always be changed. She asked
why Council would want to do that now when they do not know what the future is
going to bring whenever he develops it.
Mr. Rose said that he wanted to clarify his previous comment
stating that Mr. Lakin had no intention of developing the property until all of
these negative uses were heaped upon it but right now he would like to get it
zoned so that it becomes more difficult in the future for additional easements
or other negative uses to be imposed upon him and noted that he wants to lock
in the property. He said that when the property will be developed is hard to
determine whether it be five or ten years or a shorter period of time and they
will not be coming in next year and building on it but they probably will come
back through with some sort of zoning request.
Mr. Rose said that to answer Council Member Lynch’s question
he thinks everyone shares her concern that Avondale have adequate commercial
space available for the future because the residents need those services and
the sales tax base is a major source of revenue for the City. He said that
they took a look at the proposal and noted that one of the reasons they had not
come in and complained about the large amount of low density residential with a
large amount of Mr. Lakin’s property is going to be general planned for less
than two units per acre and in fact a large portion of the low density residential
in the entire City is on the Lakin property. He indicated that the reason he
has not objected to that is because they are not going to be able to get much
density on the project because even if they City would let them they could not
fit it on because of the easements and Flood Control issues.
Mr. Rose said that in going through that process and
figuring the number of households that will be going into the area, they had
Stantec do some analysis about the need for neighborhood commercial and noted
that the commercial hub is going to be at Broadway and 115th Avenue
and they have a couple of parcels set aside for commercial there. He said the
corners at El Mirage and Broadway were originally designated as small or
neighborhood type commercial uses and in looking at the numbers of households
their engineers are telling them that the area is only going to accommodate a
couple of corners there and they do not know what is going to the south which
could have more density but rather than having two vacant corners sit there for
a long period of time they felt it would be more attractive to develop them
out. He said that it is a decision that is up to the Council and they would
prefer two commercial corners but that is not a huge issue for them and if the
Council felt strongly about that they could live with four.
Council Member Lynch said that is it not also a fact that
those home owners that can afford the larger sites and larger homes or the type
of property that is there are also willing to pay more for those lots and
therefore Mr. Lakin would be adequately compensated and maybe even more so then
if they were broken into smaller sites for smaller homes.
Mr. Rose replied that you would certainly think that but the
economics are that the larger lots because of the infrastructure costs and land
costs associated with the larger lots really do not pencil out, at least not in
this area.
Mr. Rose said that they are proposing a number of very large
lots which staff will see when they come in next year which are 35,000 square
feet buffering the property to the south and equestrian facilities in the
property which will be open to the public including equestrian trails along the
canal and a trail system as outlined in the General Plan Document which
connects all the neighborhoods with the parks, schools, river and equestrian
trails. He said that he thinks it will be something that is quite impressive
and they do expect to have a higher end segment of the project.
Mayor Drake asked if there were any other questions for Mr.
Rose and there were none.
Mayor Drake asked Mr. Schrader if there were any other
presentations by staff.
Mr. Schrader replied that there were none.
Mayor Drake asked if there were any other questions or
comments by Council.
Council Member Lynch said that she had one more comment and
noted that they all have land use maps in excess currently but not one of them
that she can find has a date on it and it is confusing finding out which is the
most recent. She asked if there are land uses as they are now or are they land
uses according to the plan.
Mr. Schrader asked Nathan Crane to address the land use map
that was sent out along with the plan that was the most recent prior to the one
he had handed out and if this one is more recent based on Planning Commission
input.
Mr. Crane said that the most current map that staff
distributed was with their General Plan and is the one the Commission
originally heard and incorporates the comments from the Commission so they
could see the difference between the two maps and see where the changes were.
Council Member Lynch said that the maps that they have in
their packet are to go along with the plan and are not the current land use
maps.
Mr. Schrader replied that the map that Council Member Lynch
has that was submitted along with the Plan a few weeks ago was the recommended
one at that time before there was Planning Commission input. He said that the
one that was handed out tonight reflects the additional changes coming out of
the Planning and Zoning Commission Hearings process.
Council Member Lynch said that in reading through the packet
that she has Planning and Zoning had asked that same question and they were
told that the maps that they had were the current use and staff was going to
get the ones that went with the Plan for them on November 29. She noted that
since they got their packet when she got hers then she must have the current
Land Use Maps and not the ones that go with the Plan.
Mr. Crane replied that he informed them that the current map
was within their General Plan so it was the map they were asked to consider at
that time.
Councilman Carroll asked why a date was not put on the maps.
Leslie Dormfeld replied that it was their mistake and not
done intentionally.
Council Member Jones said that she is pleased to see after
attending the meetings that a lot of things that went into the meetings came
out of them and she is pleased with the outcome so far. She said that there is
a slight disagreement in the vision statement on Page 4 paragraph 1 under
Avondale Vision.
Mr. Crane replied that if Council would supply the language
they would be happy to change it.
Council Member Jones said that on page 4 it should say “as
well as transit links to the metro area”.
Council Member Lynch said that she is not sure how to handle
it but she has one or more questions on almost every page in the book and asked
if they wanted to take her book and take it from there as they did with the
responses included or some other way.
Mr. Crane replied that it probably would be appropriate and
if Council Member Lynch would hand them those comments they would be happy to
look over them and have them incorporated.
Mr. Schrader said that if there were a comment in staffs’
mind that is of a major policy type of issue they would want to bring that back
so all of Council would understand what it is.
Council Member Lynch said that the only thing that she would
like to have seen is a table identifying the changes in land use from the old
plan to the new plan because it is a little difficult to put them side by side
since she did not know which map was which and asked them to spell out what
those changes were.
Mr. Crane replied that they would have that for Council in
the next couple of days. He said their goal is to have all the comments from
the public, Council and from any other staff by December 18 so they can make
those changes to the document so the document they see on January 7 will
actually be the document incorporating all the changes.
Councilman Carroll said that on page 5 the second from
bottom paragraph it says “correcting all past mistakes” and since he does not
find a definition in there he would like for them to define for him what the
General Plan considers a mistake.
Ms. Dormfeld replied that it is not what the General Plan
considers a mistake but it is just a generic comment about plans so that if a
citizen were to pick this up and say that they do not like the fact that my
community did this in 1947 they would not find a statement that says that they
are changing that was taken in a period of time ago. She said that they could
delete the sentence if it is confusing.
Councilman Carroll said that he just wanted clarification of
it in his mind.
Ms. Dormfeld said that they would clean up the language so
it was not misleading.
Council Member Lynch said that maybe they could say, “If any
exists”.
Mayor Drake said it would take a few days to digest all the
information they have been given tonight. He said he had a memo dated October
8 that they were going to have the second meeting December 18.
Mr. Schrader clarified that there is a meeting scheduled on
both December 13 and December 18 and if Council feels they do not need both
meetings they could let staff know.
Council Member Lynch said that they may need them but she
does not know that they can digest everything in the next two days.
Mr. Schrader said that it is for Council to decide and that
is why staff tried to get the document out to them several weeks ago.
Mayor Drake asked if Council wants to have a meeting on
December 13.
Vice Mayor Rogers said if they are going to receive more
public comment and they are expecting a 13th meeting does Council
wait for that until the 18th or continue with the 13th
because she knows there will be more public comment then.
Council Member Lynch said that she or Council Member Karlin
would not be able to be there on the 13th.
Mr. Schrader said that in terms of focus if Council can get
comments to them so that they can incorporate them and if there are larger
policy issues like questions about actual designations or any of the policies
or objectives that are already stated that would be a good area to initially
focus on for the 13th if they have had a chance to look at the
initial material that was sent out.
Councilman Carroll asked Mr. Schrader what dictates that
they must vote on the 7th of January.
Mr. Schrader replied that they need enough lead time in
order to prepare ballot language to submit to the County for them to be able to
coordinate with staff to hold an election in May. He said that the election
does not necessarily have to be held in May. He said that February 5 is the
actual drop-dead date so they could push it back further than the 7th
in terms of Council taking action on it. He noted that they could push the
election back to November but they have been trying to work through the land
use issues and it would be better in terms of trying to eliminate the element
of uncertainty that is out there as to people’s expectations as to what they
can and cannot do with their property and it would be good for both staff,
Council and the general public rather than wait until November but it is a fall
back option.
Councilman Carroll said that the reason he was questioning
why it is necessary for them to vote on January 7 is because of the short time
span between the meetings in December and the amount of information they need
to read and digest and asked for a few more days cushion to go over the
material.
Mr. Schrader said that they will confirm that between now
and the meeting on the 13th and if they can have an extra meeting
after the 7th they will let Council know.
Mayor Drake asked Mr. Crane why he thinks it is better for
the City to reduce its planned commercial uses and specifically the Lakin
Property and increase the densities which taxes City services in a greater way
then what you have developed prior to the proposal by Mr. Rose.
Mr. Crane replied that he thought it was important that
Council understood what they had proposed because they are in the process of
taking a look at the densities and looking at the increase for this particular
project.
He said that his own feelings are that it is important that
if they are planning on commercial that they show those areas so that it is up
front and everyone knows that there is commercial in those areas where you
would like it to be so that when people buy homes there is not any
miscommunication on the commercial. He noted that having said that, it is also
important to have rooftops to support commercial. He said that is one thing
they are looking at currently and would be able to provide a better answer on
the 13th regarding their proposal.
Council Member Lynch said that recently Elliot Pollack, a
very highly regarded economist in the State said that if they brought high end
homes they would bring in commercial so the commercial will follow and it does
not always have to come first. She said if they start to give the people what
they are looking for then the City is more apt to get what it is looking for in
the line of commercial and office space.
Mayor Drake went on to item 6 PUBLIC HEARING – SPECIFIC
AREA PLANS UPDATE.
Mr. Schrader said that the presentation provided by the
consultants has already covered those three specific proposed area plan
updates.
Mayor Drake asked if there was anyone in the public that
would like to address item 6.
Council Member Lynch asked Mr. Cox if in the minutes from
Planning and Zoning he made a statement to the effect that he continued the
multi-family housing in the Freeway Corridor where it has already been
established and asked him to explain that comment.
Mr. Cox replied that it was in reference to the area south
of McDowell and adjacent to the freeway and east of the community park there.
He said they had shown some commercial in there and staff advised them that it
had been recently rezoned or planned for multi-family and that they should
change it to reflect that use.
Council Member Lynch said that she was concerned because she
believed the only thing that some of the Council approved was part B of phase
one of the Crystal Springs Apartments. She said the commercial as far as she
knows still remains on 115th Avenue and McDowell.
Mr. Crane replied that the specific case was the Crystal
Springs Apartments that is up there. He explained that the original map showed
a commercial portion but when they looked at the original zoning case for that
map the original zoning was R-4 so they felt it was appropriate to match the
existing zoning with the land use map. He said the rest of the commercial as
far as when that project was approved was not changed.
Council Member Lynch asked how far east it took it.
Mr. Crane replied that it was to 117th Avenue or 119th Avenue alignment just to the east of the piece that just got approved.
Council Member Lynch asked Mr. Crane about the section of
land between those apartments and I-10 and if those had been made apartments
also.
Mr. Crane replied that it is shown as a Multi-family on the
General Plan and does not affect the zoning or any condition on the zoning. He
said that if they were to do congregate care as shown in the zoning case they
would need a conditional use permit to do that.
Council Member Lynch stated that nothing further will happen
to Rio Santa Fe Apartments and said the reason she brought that up was they had
talked about protecting the view of the mountains. She said that one of the
things that happened when Rio Santa Fe was approved was that the sitting
Council specifically asked the developer when he wanted to put on a third level
he indicated that he would provide more open space. She noted that one of the
Council questions was if Rancho Santa Fe would lose the view of the Estrella Mountains and they were told they would not. She said that not only did Rancho
Santa Fe loose the view of the mountains there was no additional open space
because you can barely walk around in that complex and she wants to be sure
they do not give away any more views of the mountains by these kinds of things.
Mr. Crane replied that one thing the General Plan does do is
identify the need for a sensitive land ordinance which will discuss flood
plains, hillsides, and those types of things.
Councilman Carroll asked Mr. Crane if this would take place
in time for other development.
Mr. Crane replied that one thing the General Plan will do is
take affect upon ratification by the voters and will not change any existing
zoning cases that they have on the books currently but they will be able to
review future zoning cases and provide for those things that the plan
identifies that are important to the community.
Councilman Carroll said that the view of the mountains is
very important and if there has been a promise made to them by a developer he
wants to see it in stone and the time for them to do that is before hand.
Council Member Lynch said that Councilman Carroll is saying
that they need to follow through and at the point that staff sees what is going
on then they stop the developer and require them to do what they promised
before adding a third story because they said it was not going to block the
mountains.
Mr. Schrader replied that if it was something that was
specified in the way of a plan that was approved and it specified density and
number of stories that would be something they could go back and if they are
building something that is not in conformance with approved plans that would
not be appropriate.
Vice Mayor Rogers moved that Council go into Executive
Session.
Council Member Shuey seconded the motion
Motion carried unanimously.
______________________
Mayor Drake
_____________________________
Linda M. Farris, CMC
City Clerk
CERTIFICATION
I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and
correct copy of the minutes of the special meeting of the City council of the
City of Avondale held on the 10th day of December 2001. I further
certify that the meeting was duly called and held and that a quorum was
present.
_____________________________
