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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAGENDApacket__04-23-25_1123_706       NOTICE OF MEETING REGULAR MEETING STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION      Chairman Patrick Garman  Vice Chairman Geoff Yazzetta Commissioner Polly Bonnett Commissioner Randy Crader Commissioner Bernie Hoenle Commissioner Joseph Reyes Commissioner Paul Smith    TIME:4:00 P.M. – REGULAR MEETING WHEN:WEDNESDAY, APRIL 23, 2025 WHERE:FOUNTAIN HILLS COUNCIL CHAMBERS 16705 E. AVENUE OF THE FOUNTAINS, FOUNTAIN HILLS, AZ Commissioners of the Town of Fountain Hills will attend either in person or by telephone conference call; a quorum of the Town’s Council,  various Commission, Committee or Board members may be in attendance at the Commission meeting. Notice is hereby given that pursuant to A.R.S. §1-602.A.9, subject to certain specified statutory exceptions, parents have a right to consent before the State or any of its political subdivisions make a video or audio recording of a minor child. Meetings of the Commission are audio and/or video recorded and, as a result, proceedings in which children are present may be subject to such recording. Parents, in order to exercise their rights may either file written consent with the Town Clerk to such recording, or take personal action to ensure that their child or children are not present when a recording may be made. If a child is present at the time a recording is made, the Town will assume that the rights afforded parents pursuant to A.R.S. §1-602.A.9 have been waived.    REQUEST TO COMMENT   The public is welcome to participate in Commission meetings. TO SPEAK TO AN AGENDA ITEM, please complete a Request to Comment card, located in the back of the Council Chambers, and hand it to the Executive Assistant prior to discussion of that item, if possible. Include the agenda item on which you wish to comment. Speakers will be allowed three contiguous minutes to address the Commission. Verbal comments should be directed through the Presiding Officer and not to individual Commissioners. TO COMMENT ON AN AGENDA ITEM IN WRITING ONLY, please complete a Request to Comment card, indicating it is a written comment, and check the box on whether you are FOR or AGAINST and agenda item, and hand it to the Executive Assistant prior to discussion, if possible.     Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting of April 23, 2025 1 of 3            1.CALL TO ORDER – Chairman Garman     2.ROLL CALL – Chairman Garman     3.CALL TO THE PUBLIC Pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.01(H), public comment is permitted (not required) on matters NOT listed on the agenda. Any such comment (i) must be within the jurisdiction of the Commission, and (ii) is subject to reasonable time, place, and manner restrictions. The Commission will not discuss or take legal action on matters raised during Call to the Public unless the matters are properly noticed for discussion and legal action. At the conclusion of the Call to the Public, individual commissioners may (i) respond to criticism, (ii) ask staff to review a matter, or (iii) ask that the matter be placed on a future Commission agenda.     4.REPORTS BY COMMISSIONERS AND TOWN MANAGER     5.CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of March 26, 2025.     6.DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Health Welfare and Safety Pillar Strategy of Future Strategic Plan with Community Services Director Kevin Snipes.     7.UPDATE: Commission Workgroups     8.DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Future Agenda Topics.    9.COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIRMAN     10.NEXT MEETING DATE: Wednesday, May 28, 2025.    11.ADJOURNMENT   Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting of April 23, 2025 2 of 3         Dated this ______ day of ____________________, 2025. _____________________________________________  Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant   The Town of Fountain Hills endeavors to make all public meetings accessible to persons with disabilities. Please call 480-816-5100 (voice) or 1-800-367-8939 (TDD) 48 hours prior to the meeting to request a reasonable accommodation to participate in the meeting or to obtain agenda information in large print format. Supporting documentation and staff reports furnished the Commission with this agenda are available for review in the Town Manager's Office. Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting of April 23, 2025 3 of 3   ITEM 4. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 04/23/2025 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Town Clerk Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  REPORTS BY COMMISSIONERS AND TOWN MANAGER Staff Summary (Background) Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 02/20/2025 09:34 AM Final Approval Date: 02/20/2025  ITEM 5. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 04/23/2025 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Town Clerk Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of March 26, 2025. Staff Summary (Background) The intent of approving meeting minutes is to ensure an accurate account of the discussion and action that took place at the meeting for archival purposes. Approved minutes are placed on the town's website and maintained as permanent records in compliance with state law.   Staff Recommendation(s) Staff recommends approving the minutes of the regular meeting on March 26, 2025. SUGGESTED MOTION MOVE to approve the minutes of the regular meeting on March 26, 2025. Attachments SUMMARY MINUTES AND VERBATIM TRANSCRIPT  Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 02/20/2025 09:34 AM Final Approval Date: 02/20/2025  TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION March 26, 2025 A Regular Meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission was convened at 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains in an open and public session at 4:00 PM Members Present: Chairman Patrick Garman; Vice Chairman Geoff Yazzetta; Commissioner Nick Proctor; Commissioner Joseph Reyes (arrived at 4:07 PM); Commissioner Paul Smith; Commissioner Randy Crader Members Absent: Commission Bernie Hoenle Staff Present: Deputy Town Manager Dave Trimble; Executive Administrative Assistant Angela Padgett-Espiritu; Development Services Director John Wesley TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SUMMARY MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION March 26, 2025 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Patrick Garman called to order the meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission at 4:00 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Members Present: Chairman Patrick Garman; Vice Chairman Geoff Yazzetta; Commissioner Randy Crader; Commissioner Nick Proctor; Commissioner Joseph Reyes (arrived at 4:07 pm); Commissioner Paul Smith Members Absent: Commissioner Bernie Hoenle Staff Present: Deputy Town Manager Dave Trimble; Executive Assistant Angela Padgett- Espiritu; Development Services Director John Wesley 3. CALL TO THE PUBLIC No one from the public spoke. 4. REPORTS BY COMMISSIONERS AND TOWN MANAGER Chair GARMAN: Initiates the report section and prompts speakers for updates. Expresses appreciation for various initiatives like the Dark Sky Festival and the art contest. Welcomes new Commissioner Nick Proctor and prompts him for an introduction. TRIMBLE (filling in for Rachel, Town Manager): Reports that the Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) meeting went well and was approved by Council with minimal questions. Mentions they are in the middle of budget season, and the broader Budget Workshop is scheduled for next week, April 8th. Commissioner CRADER: Thanks everyone who participated in the public input sessions and expresses appreciation to Vice Chair Yazzetta for leading them. Commissioner SMITH: No updates to report. Vice Chair YAZZETTA: Welcomes Nick Proctor to the Commission. Thanks those involved with the Public Input Sessions. Promotes the upcoming Fountain Hills Dark Sky Festival on Saturday, highlighting its activities including keynote speakers, a star party, and family-friendly exhibits. Commissioner PROCTOR: Expresses gratitude for joining the Commission. Attended a public session and offered input. Provides a detailed introduction of his professional background: • Former U.S. State Department official with postings in several countries. • Later worked in corporate security in London, traveled globally. • Returned to Michigan, served as City Councilmember and Mayor of Howell. • Now a full-time resident in Fountain Hills, adjusting to the Arizona climate. 5. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of February 19, 2025. MOVED BY Commissioner Paul Smith APPROVE the Minutes of February 19, 2025, Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting, SECONDED BY Vice Chair Geoff Yazzetta Vote: 6–0 | motion passed unanimously 6. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Land Use Pillar Strategy of Future Strategic Plan with John Wesley, Development Services Director. • Strategic Focus: o Land Use is a new pillar in the Town’s Strategic Plan. • Planning Shift: o Moved from detailed zoning to broader “character areas” for flexibility. • State Trust Land: o 2+ square miles owned by the State for education funding. o Zoned but undeveloped; development driven by private bidders via State auction. o High cost to develop; prior developer forfeited $25M. • Land Availability: o Mostly built-out town. o 30 acres of vacant commercial land, 0.5 acre of industrial land. o 70 new housing units/year projected. • Mixed-Use & Zoning: o Allowed via special use permit in most commercial zones. o Innovation District proposed to support light industrial/R&D uses. • Economic Reality: o Town relies on sales tax (no property tax). o Higher-density and tourism-related projects (e.g., Discovery Center) seen as revenue sources. • Strategic Needs: o Balance residential, commercial, and employment land. o Address housing affordability, aging population, and job creation. o Consider redevelopment of underutilized areas. 7. UPDATE: Commission Workgroups • Community Input Sessions: o Two events held (March 15 & 19) to gather public ideas for the Town’s Strategic Plan. o Over 50 attendees submitted 162 feedback cards across key topics like land use, infrastructure, and economic development. o Feedback focused on mid-level strategy ideas, not broad goals or highly specific projects. • Key Themes Identified: o Mixed-use development, affordable housing, redevelopment, and school support. o Data categorized by topic and visualized in a word cloud for clarity. • Commission Takeaways: o Not all public ideas are feasible—need to weigh cost, revenue, and impact. o Town’s reliance on sales tax (no property tax) means land use must support economic return. o Higher-density housing and tourism-related development seen as financially beneficial. • Plat 208 Discussion: o Viewed as a high-potential but difficult redevelopment area. o Legal and ownership barriers (many absentee owners, complex CC&Rs) make changes hard. o Commission may revisit with updated information. • Next Steps: o Refine public input into practical strategies. o Balance vision with fiscal reality in shaping the Strategic Plan. 8. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Future Agenda Topics. • Two remaining strategic pillars to discuss: o Infrastructure o Quality of Life & Safety • These topics will be covered in April and May meetings. • June Workshop planned: o Longer session to review past discussions and develop intermediate signature strategies. o Preparation for the final year of the Strategic Planning process. 9. COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIRMAN • Reminder to plan ahead for the June workshop following April and May meetings. • Chair plans to brief Town Council in June on the Commission’s work over the past few years. • A high-level slide presentation will be prepared for the Council update. 10. NEXT MEETING DATE: Wednesday, April 23, 2025. 11. ADJOURNMENT Chairman Patrick Garman adjourned the meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission at 5:18 PM MOVED BY Vice Chair Geoff Yazzetta to ADJOURN the Meeting of March 26, 2025, Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting, SECONDED BY Commissioner Paul Smith TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 1 of 33 Post-Production File Town of Fountain Hills Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting Minutes March 26, 2025 Transcription Provided By: eScribers, LLC * * * * * Transcription is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. * * * * * TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 2 of 33 GARMAN: Call to order the Fountain Hills Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting of March 22nd, 2025. So our first order of business is roll call today. So Angela, could you do roll? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Sure. Thank you. Chair Garmen? GARMAN: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Chair Yazetta? YAZZETTA: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Crader? CRADER: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Hoenle? (Not present) PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Proctor? PROCTOR: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Reyes? (Not Present) PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Smith. SMITH: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: For the record, Commissioner Hoenle and Commissioner Reyes are not present. That's it; we have a quorum. GARMAN: Okay. So the two are Reyes are Hoenle. Okay. All right. Thank you. Thanks, Angel. Do we move it down to agenda item three, call to the Public. Do we have anything from the Public written or otherwise? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: No, Chair. GARMAN: No? All right. Then we can move on to reports by the Commissioners and the Town Manager. I think we can start with the Town Manager first. All the way to the right, anything for the group? TRIMBLE: I am just here filling in for Rachel, who couldn't be here today. I'm not sure -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 3 of 33 we had our CIP Meeting yesterday, and that seemed to go over pretty well. The Council was approved, I think everything -- they had a few things they had some questions on, but had a pretty good CIP Meeting so I think that's the main thing. We're in the middle of budget season so that's one big piece of it. So continuing on that path. GARMAN: Did the Council do their workshop, their day-long workshop, already this year? TRIMBLE: I think the CIP is considered a workshop. Now the next step, I think, is the Budget Workshop, and that's coming up next week, the 8th. So that's probably maybe the one you're thinking of. That's more of a broad view of the entire budget, whereas this was just Capital Improvement Projects. GARMAN: Oh, okay. Okay. TRIMBLE: So yeah, that's coming right up. GARMAN: All right. TRIMBLE: That's all I have. GARMAN: Randy? CRADER: I just want to say thanks to everybody who came out for the listening sessions. It felt like we had some good input from the community, and it looks like we have a presentation on some of those results. So I'll look forward to seeing some of those. And thanks to Jeff for leading it, as always. GARMAN: Paul? SMITH: Nothing. GARMAN: Nothing for the group? Geoff? YAZZETTA: First, welcome, Nick, to the Commission. Second, thanks to everyone who helped out with the Public Input Sessions. I'll have a report in a little bit that I'll share. And the only thing on my end is if you don't already have it on your calendar. This Saturday is the Fountain Hills Dark Sky Festival. So come on out here to the Community Center and Plaza, and there's all kinds of things for all ages. We're going to have a Star Party, silent auction. There's going to be hands-on exhibits. We've got two keynote TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 4 of 33 speakers, one of them is an astronaut. Should be a good time. So make sure to come on out for that if you're available. Thanks. GARMAN: Awesome. And I like the art contest as well. That's a great thing as well. So Nick I know you were here last month. So this is the time to go around and comment on things that we think are important or experiences we've had over the last month that might be relevant to get on the record and for the other Commissioners to hear. So over to you. PROCTOR: Well, thank you. It's nice to be amongst the group here. Not too much to report; this is my first meeting. But I did attend one of the public sessions that Geoff spearheaded and threw a couple cards on the mat there, to throw some suggestions. I attended Saturday, and it was well attended. So looking forward to hearing your thoughts on how it went. GARMAN: Nick, this might be an opportunity. Could you give us a little bit of your background, too, as far as coming on as Commissioner? PROCTOR: Well, in an attempt -- GARMAN: Or introduction? PROCTOR: -- to keep these meetings short. My career was predominantly overseas. I had a career in security and intelligence. First, with the US Department of State. Had foreign postings in Germany, Sri Lanka, Jordan, and Japan, and certainly Washington in and out. Travelled extensively with them. After leaving government, I worked with British multinational in London as their global head of security and risk, and traveled 180 markets around the world. I was always on the go out of Heathrow. And after retirement, from there I came back, settled into small town in Michigan, Howell, where my dad grew up. I was promptly kicked out of the house. I had no sense of purpose, so my wife kicked me out. I went to City Hall, ran for City Council, was elected to City Council, and eventually served as six years as Mayor of the Town of Howell, Michigan. In that, I was on their Strategy, Planning, Zoning Commission, Strategy sessions, ran the City with our City Manager. So that's really it in a nutshell. And we've had a place here since 2009. But we stayed in Michigan predominantly. We TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 5 of 33 had something here because of elderly parents. Snowbirds for a while, but that didn't work out with parents getting old, and nursing homes, and stuff. So my wife and I were kind of separated, she here, and I in Michigan. So finally, she persuaded me to sell the home in Michigan, and here I am, full time. I survived my first hot summer last year, and see if I can get through another one. That's it. GARMAN: Wow, that's great. I appreciate it. So it sounds like you spent a little time with the Marines over your time at the State Department? PROCTOR: Yeah, I had a lot of interactions with the Marines, the Naval CBs, and certainly a lot of interactions with the more clandestine services abroad, too. GARMAN: Yeah, that's good. All right. Thanks, thanks for that. (Commissioner Joseph Reyes arrived at 4:07 p.m.) GARMAN: Joe, you're here just in time, as usual. We're just finishing up our comments. So I didn't know if there was anything you wanted to relay to the group? REYES: Well, I guess the big -- (audio not captured). GARMAN: Okay. So we're going to move on to Agenda item five for Consideration and Possible Action and approval of the minutes of the regular meeting for February. If you all remember, in January, we talked about Finance, I believe. It's been so long ago. In February, we talked about Economic Development, so that's what the notes are centered around. I don't know if anyone wanted to talk about the minutes before we head on to a vote? No. Okay. Do I have a motion to approve the minutes? SMITH: I'll make that motion. YAZETTA: Second. GARMAN: We got a second. Okay. Discussion on the minutes; I wanted to make sure and add -- Angela, the outline of the minutes at the beginning was great. It's really effective, because we're going to have our workshop in June where we come back and talk about all these topics one more time and try to get them all together. So your outline was really informative, because the verbatim transcript is tough to weed through. I'm sorry, you probably have to do that. But thank you for the outline, it was great. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 6 of 33 PADGETT-ESPIRITU: You're welcome. GARMAN: Any other comments? All those who want to approve the minutes of the regular meeting on February 19th, say Aye? MEMBERS OF THE COMMISSION: Aye. GARMAN: Any opposed? None opposed. The motion carries, the minutes are approved, Angela. All right, so we're going to move on to today. I still have a hard time saying it, it's 2025. But March 26th, 2025. So today we're going to talk about one of the five pillars of our Strategic Plan. I mentioned the other two, Economic Development and Finance. We're onto Land Use. Which is interesting and kind of new, excuse the pun, but breaking new ground for our Commission to talk about and include in this Strategic Plan for Fountain Hill. So John, I'm really glad you're here, and I would just say to all the Commissioners to feel free to ask questions, and have discussions, and bring up things, no matter how far afield they might be. This is our opportunity, and this will all be then in the minutes that we can look back on when we try to put these all together. And Nick, just for you, if you want to say something or ask a question, when you hit the button and the red light comes on, that tells me that you want to ask a question or talk. And then I can be the traffic cop between everybody. All right? So John, if you want to start anything off with this and give a little presentation. WESLEY: Sure. Commissioner, it's good to see you again. So I just have little brief comments here I'll make, and we'll see where you want to go with the conversation, and hopefully I can add some value to what you need to know to help you in your deliberations. And what I'm going to do is just talk briefly about the general plan Land Use map. I have up on the screen for you to see. And I'll start first by saying when we redid the plan that was adopted in 2020, we took a little different approach than what was in the plans prior to this time, which were much more specific to various Land Uses. Very similar to the Zoning Map in terms of where the very low density would go, and the low density, and then the medium density, and TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 7 of 33 then the high density. And this topic commercial, and that topic commercial. And we don't know. There's not really a significant reason for it to be that specific. Things can change a little bit, but also the Town is pretty well developed. And so we know what the Land Uses around so. So in this update, we took a different approach and talked about character areas. What's the character that is there, what character are we trying to preserve, what character do we want to have in different areas of the Town. So again, it's very similar to Land Use, but that little bit different technique or take on it. And so looking at the map that is here and starting up in the Northeast corner, we have this big area of blue. I'll just talk briefly about that, and we'll probably come back to that later. This is the State Trust land. I think we mentioned it a little bit last month. It's a little bit over two square miles in size. As far as the general plan goes, it's -- I'd have to look over here on the table to remember exactly what the blue stands for, but it's basically future planning area. That could be a number of things. We expect it to be primarily low-density residential. But it could have come commercial, it could have some higher densities in it. And when the State is ready to release that for development they will go through the planning process with whoever is interested in it with the Town. It does have current Zoning on it, but that's what somebody wanted a dozen years ago or so. And so that can change. And so we can -- it's kind of an open for us to consider in the future. Yes? GARMAN: Can you give me the elementary definition of State Trust? In other words, when this land was all empty and they were going to create a town here. You have Scottsdale, you have Federal Land, you have Native American communities, and what's the difference, how did that get carved out, and who owns it? WESLEY: And so Dave may be able to provide you more detail than I can on this, because a relative 20-year newbie to the State. I picked up on some of it, but maybe never delved into the full history. But when Arizona became a State, the Commission or Department was established in the State, and they acquired certain lands across the State to be used for education purposes. So scattered all throughout the State are these TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 8 of 33 State land tracks, and so the State Land Commission monitors them. Allows them to be used in a variety of low-intensity ways. But then, over time, developers will want to develop them, and so they go to the State Trust Department, and through them can either lease land or purchase land for development. And then that money goes into the State primarily then for education. TRIMBLE: I think you nailed it pretty well. In the beginning -- and I'm a little rusty, 10 years our from working there. It was a checkerboard. So each section was a section of State Trust Land. Throughout the years, and the Department still manages over 10 million acres throughout the State. The State is in trust in that. That Department manages that land for the use, like John said, of public education. And you'll hear in the media recently. They're talking about renewing this Prop 1, 2, 3 from 10 years ago, to increase the amount that went into that, what we called the permanent fund. And the dividends or the use of investment income from that is what goes to the schools for their usage on a daily basis. That proposition throughout the State increased that amount that could be taken from that permanent fund and utilized. And that needs to be renewed again this year or next year for that money to keep flowing. Otherwise, K-12 education will be -- they'll have to come up with some more money to make up for that gap. I can't remember the exact number that is funded through that new proposition, but it's mainly for K-12 education. And it's the checkerboard effect. Over the years, some of those land swaps have occurred. So you'll see that the checkboard, if you look at the entire State map is not quite a checkerboard anymore, because there's been different tribal swaps and things like this throughout the years. But in general that's who owns it is the State of Arizona. State Land Trust. WESLEY: So again, Chair, maybe we'll come back to that a little bit more after we kind of hit the map in general because there's some things about how that works and how it might be developed before we get into that level of specificity. Let's maybe look at the rest of the map and see where you want to go. And so most of the Town is in this yellow color; those are neighborhoods. And they're TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 9 of 33 the residential areas of the Town. You can see the Town is mostly residential. You've got a few other non-residential areas we'll talk about in a minute. Within the plan, we talk about the residential area in terms of a couple of different levels of residential, whether it's the lower density residential or a little bit higher density residentials. But they're still residential in character and nature. Maybe I'll focus a little bit up here on a couple of them, there's an area right here, on the East side of Fountain Hills Boulevard. Just the Northern border of the Town by Glenbrook. It's actually Commercial use today. It's got a couple of small shopping areas in there. But they're so small to really distinguish them as a Commercial node didn't seem appropriate because they really do need to continue to integrate in with the neighborhood around them. And so that's why they're not called out separately. There's another one down here of Sauro that's the same way. There's a little Commercial node down here where Saddle Brock is. And so we didn't call that out separately, it's just kind of too small. And it's got to always fit in with the neighborhood, so it's a little more kind of Urban density kind of neighborhood. I guess it doesn't show on this map what that other name is. But there's a couple of names there. But you can see the Town. We're a residential Town. The primary areas then of non-residential in the downtown area. And we've got a couple of different categories here. So this is an area where Bash's is and Safeway is, and so this area is a Commercial node that's distinguished from the blue area, which is a more Urban Town center Commercial node. This one takes on a more suburban type form in its development with the parking lots, the way the buildings are situated. As opposed to the downtown, which we wanted to make a more pedestrian, mixed-use kind of environment. And then we Sauro Boulevard Commercial area, which is a kind of Commercial/Industrial kind of area. More intense commercial-type location. So again, it has a different form and feel than the other Commercial areas. And then we move down here on Shay, and Sauro is our other defined Commercial area in the Town, and it combines also here with its Industrial area to the West. So it's a little TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 10 of 33 bit of Industrial Land Use back here in terms of Zoning. Industrial, a lot of the actual uses are more Commercial in nature than they are Industrial, but there's a mix of things going on there. You can also see out here on the West side of the Town here where the Fries is, that's another area of such a small Commercial node that's meant to continue to integrate in with the Residential that -- we didn't call it out as a separate Residential area. And then one more I'll mention is the area here along Palisades for those of you that have been around for a while, you might notice Daybreak. It's been zoned for 20 years for lodging uses. There is a request 4 or 5 years ago to turn it into more an apartment- type development that was initially approved by Council but went to a vote of the People and it was rejected, and so it reverted back to the Lodging/Land Use, or Lodging Zone that on there. And so again, it's meant to fit in with the neighborhood, and so it's not distinguished separately. So that's kind of a quick overview of the Zoning and Land Use pattern for the Town. We've got -- as a side note, we're working on a new development fee study. Development fees or impact fees you may know them as. It's something the Town can charge as development occurs to pay for increased costs for Public Services, and increased costs for Streets and Roads, and Parks, and things like that. And so we have to update that study every little bit, so we're working on that at the same time. As a part of that, we've been looking at what kind of the Land Uses are and what growth is possible in the coming years. Residential wise, again, the Town is just about all plaided. A lot of it's developed, a few lots still, a couple hundred still in Adaro. But beyond that, it's mostly just the scattered lots around Town. There's a school of properties, if they sell those, those will be a couple little bit bigger tracks that might develop. But we're looking at around 70 dwelling units per year for the next 10 years is what we're looking at there. We've got a few spots for multi-family that have been looked at and approved. One is down here by the Target Center where it's been approved for 30 multi-family units and there is one up here on Mountainside that we've just received plans for 70 apartment TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 11 of 33 units at that location right there. And we're certainly working in the Town Center area with the Town Center plan and those changes there, see if we can't increase the intensity density of some residential in the downtown area. But again, given the small lots that's already developed, that's not going to be a lot of units, but we feel like every little bit will help there. Beyond that, again, it's just kind of scattered locations for smaller multi-family type activities to occur. With regard to Industrial. As far as vacant Industrial Zone track, we have a half-acre. We have one half acre of Industrial Zoned Land that's vacant in Town. Half an acre, yeah. Okay. So think big about what we can do with that half acre. Beyond that -- TRIMBLE: So that land behind Target, that back over there? WESLEY: Yes, the one piece is right in this area. It was a little bit over an acre tract that got split. It's still split off the on belt front piece of it. It gives us that half acre. Everything else has something on it. It gives us room to do a little bit more on some of the parcels, yes. Could some of it be torn down and redeveloped with something more beneficial or more intense, yes. And some of these, this particular one here, are storage lots. Could they be someday be built with something more intense? That would be nice, but that's what we got in terms of vacant land. With regard to Commercial Office Zoned Land, we have, as I recall, the number is about 58 acres in Town that's vacant. But about half of that, let's see here, I want to say about 14 acres of it is a Commercial pieces that over here off El Lago, that's owned by the Catholic Diocese. Even though it's zoned Commercial, it's most likely to be developed some type of Residential, probably multi-family. And I think another 14 acres of it is up here in the State Trust Land. And so you take those two out and you're left with some place around 30 acres of undeveloped Commercial Land scattered around town. A lot of it the small lots in the downtown. There's a few lots over off of Sauro. So again, there's a few scattered things down here along Shay. GARMAN: Were those originally zoned Commercial way back, or were the converted to Commercial and then the business went out of business, and now there's just a lot that's TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 12 of 33 Commercial, or how did it get to -- WESLEY: So I'm trying to think through the map in my head. Most of the Commercial Zoning, particularly anything here in the Town center along Sauro, and certainly most this, if not all, of this down here on Shay and Sauro are the original Zoning for the Town. There was, as I think you probably heard, more Industrial early on, but some of that got converted for the Target Center 20 or so years ago. There had been a few additions, such as a rezone out for the Fries when that was brought into the Town. That would have been something a little newer. I think even this Commercial is even original. Yes, it's original up here. So we really haven't zoned anything new to Commercial. There have been some changes, is it C-1, is it C-2, is it C-3? I've had a little bit more Zoning away from Commercial to something else, maybe. Remembering back that the original plans for the Town envisioned a Town of around 70,000 population. There was a lot more of it that was zoned multi-family early on that's been down-zoned to single families. GARMAN: Randy, did you have a question? CRADER: Yeah, John, is there any area, if we were exploring light manufacturing that could be rezoned or converted into something that would -- barring, obviously Public input and all of that, but where would that be? WESLEY: So I think the best opportunities for that would be in this area along Sauro, just given the nature of what's in there currently. It's a heavier Commercial, a lot of it is. It's kind of semi-industrial in a way. Potentially, along here, there might be some opportunity for that. One of the things that we're doing, I think we might have talked about it last month. I can't remember for sure. We're looking at this area North of Palisades in terms of our new overlay District for the Town's center area, calling it an Innovation District. And in that overlay zone, adjusting the CT uses a little bit to allow for some light employment-type uses, RND-type activities, still getting into the Industrial a little bit. Amanda and I have talked a little bit about are there other places where we can do a similar thing in town. Should we, as across the board, go in and amend our C- 2/C-3 zoning to allow some of these light employment-type uses in those Districts as a TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 13 of 33 way to allow them without having to actually rezone land? That's something we will be exploring. GARMAN: Geoff? YAZZETTA: I've heard that 70,000 the number for what the original town was spec'd out to be. Did that include the State Trust Land when that 70,000 number was initially calculated? WESLEY: Vice Chair, I don't believe so. I'd have to go -- I'm pretty sure not, but I'd have to look at the maps again to see. But I'm pretty sure not. YAZZETTA: Okay. WESLEY: Yeah. YAZZETTA: And if all of the vacant parcels were built out today, where would our population end up? WESLEY: So I'm not sure I can really answer that specifically. All I know is we primarily rely on the demographers at Mag because they've got the models for the State. And they do all this kind of work really and project future populations. And they're showing us over the next 20 years or so to increase to around 30,000 population. YAZZETTA: Got you, okay. WESLEY: So that seems to be reasonably accurate. YAZZETTA: One other question. The downzoning from multi-family residential to single- family residential. Did that happen in large sections or was it individual parcels, and was that just occurring over the years? WESLEY: Vice Chair, is that a -- a little bit of each, and it did take place over a number of years. I think as the Town really started forming and the point where it incorporated, and the residents saw the type of Town we were, and what they wanted to see continue in the future. They did see more of that low-density residential is what they preferred and the type of development that was selling in Town. So your developers would come in and take five tracks and down zone them for that type of use. YAZZETTA: Got it. Thank you. GARMAN: Do you still have some more of your presentation? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 14 of 33 WESLEY: No, that's pretty much it. See where you want to go with other comments or questions and get ready to talk about the State Trust Land and how that might proceed, but -- GARMEN: If the State owns it for Educational purposes, why do we think we are going to get that land and be able to control it and do anything with it? Is there something out there that says the State is going to give it to Fountain Hills on a silver platter? Where does that come from? I'm sure there's something. I'm being a little facetious, but -- WESLEY: Chairman, I think it all depends on your plan. If you give them a powerful plan through this Commission, they're just going to say yes. No, here's basically how it works. And again, Dave, you remember from working with them. It happens -- I think it can happen this way in terms of the State saying, gee, here's this parcel of land. We think we can get the State a lot of money if we release it and they try to push it out for development. But more typically, what happens is a developer is looking around for opportunities. They say, oh, there's a great State Trust piece, I think it would be great if I could get a hold of that and develop it. And so they go to the State Trust Department and say hey, let's work on that piece. And the first thing that the State Trust Land Department does is work usually with that developer that's interested, and say okay, put together a plan for how it could be used. And so that developer will spend the money and the time and develop a plan. And State Trust Land says, yeah, we think that might work, so now we're going to put it out for bid. And so that developer that spent all the time and money to develop the plan may or may not be a successful bidder. But anybody who's interested then, in trying to develop that plan, can bid on the land, and State Trust then will select that high bidder if they get someone bidding high enough for it. And then that developer has the opportunity at that point to continue down the process of getting the entitlements in place and purchasing the property. So it never really comes to the Town. It's a private developer then that moves forward then with the development of the property, putting in the infrastructure and doing all the plodding and those things. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 15 of 33 GARMAN: It might be interesting to also go over the history of the annexation process so that land was not part of the Town, and then the Town probably in conjunction with the Land Department and the developer that ultimately purchased the land originally. So it was also important to know that it was sold probably 15 years ago or so now. WESLEY: I would say it's around 2012, if I remember. Some place in that range give or take a little bit. GARMAN: Yeah, in that timeframe. And then at that time, the Land Department was selling land based on a 7-year amortization schedule with a fairly large down payment. The developer made the down payment, of I think, $110 million, and then didn't make another payment. So the State kept the $110 million and then took the land back. That's why the State owns it to this day. So that's where we are. So the Town doesn't own the land, never did. But it was annexed as part of the Town it was zoned -- WESLEY: Right. That's why I pulled up now is the zoning map. GARMAN: So it has the zoning already there. So a lot of work has been done, but it's been done a while ago. So it could -- in terms of dealing with the glacial pace at which the Land Department moves. It could move fairly quickly if there was a developer that had deep enough pockets to do what they needed to do to get it ready to sell. But then, as John keenly and importantly mentioned, there's 12 weeks of advertising that's required. And then there's an auction, that is a public auction that anyone can -- anyone that's qualified can raise their hand and bid on it. So the developer, as John mentioned, that wants to be interested in it to this day, does all of the due diligence, spends all that money, and they might not end up as the high bidder. So -- YAZZETTA: So it sounds to me like the State owns the land, and it doesn't sound like we have any say in its use or development at this point. So if the State wanted to -- if a chip manufacture for another country wanted to set up shop out there, they would negotiate with the State, not us. Should we not even (indiscernible) -- GARMAN: It's Zoning; we have Zoning. WESLEY: Right. Chair, they still need to follow their annex from the Town. They still need to follow our Zoning rules. So if they wanted to be a chip manufacturer, they TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 16 of 33 would have to come through here and get the property zoned for that. And the Town Council would have to approve that. GARMAN: Clear as mud. UNKNOWN: Just a point, if I remember right. Sanitary District said they could provide 13,000 residential homes out there. So it gives you some idea of what that would do for Fountain Hills. I'm sorry, 1,300. WESLEY: Yeah, more like a thousand. UNKNOWN: I'm sorry 1,300 residential homes. What that would do for our growth and our size and everything so that's why we have an interest in that. YAZETTA: Why did -- do we know why that previous developer backed out and left their $110 million on the table, and said we don't want to proceed? TRIMBLE: I mean, I won't speak for them, but they owned a hockey team at the time and were having financial difficulties at the time. And we were coming out of the great recession at that time, I think had a lot to do with it, too. GARMAN: Okay. TRIMBLE: Just speculation, but sure. But it was better for them to leave that on the table then to make the next payment. Which was -- GARMAN: There's a lot of development in the West Valley and then down South East Queen Creek area, is that all State Trust Land? TRIMBLE: A lot of that is. GARMAN: Yeah, because I see -- yeah, it's a lot of these master plan developments. I don't know you'll have a half dozen builders go in a build several hundred homes in a tract. Is that something that would happen with the State Trust Land here? WESLEY: Likely. That's the most likely scenario is that you're going to get some type of production builder that would be able to have the funds and the capability to in and take down a big piece like this. GARMAN: Got it. And has any previous Council or Town Staff made any efforts or reached out to potential developers for plans for this land? WESLEY: I can only speak of the recent history. And we've had a individual starting to TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 17 of 33 come into our office a year, year and a half ago, thinking that he could maybe put together some type of deal and wanted to look through all the files. So we've been accommodating to him and providing him with all the background information. I believe he's been having some conversations with the different utility companies and with the State Trust Land and seeing if he can't try to generate some interest moving forward. A few weeks ago, I had another national builder come in and want to talk about developing in Fountain Hills. And it turned out this was the property they were interested in. And so they are potentially doing that with the State. The Town, to my knowledge, has not really gone and actively tried to pursue anybody for it. The studies that we have seen to date have shown expensive it's going to build. And that seems to make it really cost prohibitive. Talking half a million just to buy a lot type of expense to develop this land. And so here we have it seen as a high priority in terms of staff time to try to promote it. Certainly, ready and willing to help anybody that's interested at this point. GARMAN: Got it. And just looking at the map that you have zoomed in here. Has the zoning already been set? Like do we know how much of this is going to be single-family residential, how much of this is going to be multi-family, or Commercial space, or does that all need to be worked out in the future? WESLEY: So again, when the previous developer was doing their work on this, they got annexed, they got it zoned. And so you can look on here, and the R1s are single family, R135 is a large lot single family, and a R110 is a smaller single family. You can see a little bit of C1 for Commercial and a lot of open space, the OSs. It looks like there's some R16. And so that was their plan. And the curvature you can see, this was going to be an extension of Fountain Hills Boulevard that came through and tied over here. And you start to see some of those things that were their ideas. So if this were to go back on the market, its going to be based on a new plan, which may or may not follow this plan. And if it's anything different than this zoning arrangement, then they'll have to come in and rezone to what it is they would like to do with the property. GARMAN: And does that initial zoning go through P&Z and then Council? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 18 of 33 WESLEY: Right. GARMAN: Uh-huh. Thank you. Joe? REYES: This last question (audio no captured). GARMAN: Nick? PROCTOR: Yeah, Geoff stole my question as well. So it seems the Town is pretty much reactive when people come to us; we steer them up there. Does the State do any marketing of that property and other properties? WESLEY: Again, they might have some better history on that. My belief is that they do, from time to time. But mostly, they are waiting for developers to come in and express interest on different properties. TRIMBLE: Historically -- historically, it's been applicant-driven. So somebody comes in, puts in an application. The State has no -- not a lot of motivation to do anything with it. They don't have any carrying costs like a developer would. Somebody comes in there and buys it's, they're paying on that thing. Lots of upkeep, lots of taxes. The State, 100 years could go by, and it's only going to increase in value, so there's not a ton of motivation. Now in recent years, in the past 10 years, I have seen them putting some land up for auction without a developer. That's the first time I've ever heard of that. Each time there's a change in -- so the Land Department is under the Governor, so it's an executive branch department. So whenever a new Governor comes in, they put in a new Land Commissioner, and the philosophy can change, so -- WESLEY: I had a little bit of experience in Mesa with some of the State Trust Land that was within the borders there. And there's a piece out not too far from Gateway Airport that there's some development occurring around there. And they were kind of interested in maybe getting their piece developed also. And so they make it more marketable, and they kept trying to encourage the city to come make some of the improvements around the property, at our expense, to facilitate their development. And we kept telling them no. When you're ready, you'll do those things like any other developer does. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 19 of 33 GARMAN: Other than the zoning that is put up there. Has there -- and excuse my naïve questions here. Has there been any other visioning by the City or the Town on what they would like to see, maybe other then what is currently zoned? WESLEY: Chair Commissioner, not in my history here. We did the general plan a few years ago, we looked at that and discussed it a little bit. And decided to just leave it in the general category for future planning area. GARMAN: Okay. WESLEY: So we could work with a specific developer at the time. PROCTOR: And Mr. Chair, one more question if I may. Going down on Shay, you mentioned there was a multi-use, multi-residential development going in and Council approved, and it went to a vote of the people and it turned down. Just at a matter of process, is that the policy of the Town to always going on a development to a vote of the People. GARMAN: No. PROCTOR: Why was it done on that? GARMAN: There was a political that the Council approved -- PROCTOR: I see. GARMAN: -- Morningside, I think, was -- right? WESLEY: Daybreak. GARMAN: What? TRIMBLE: Daybreak Morningside. GARMAN: I'm sorry. You can talk from here. TRIMBLE: But the folks did not -- wanted to challenge the Council. WESLEY: (Indiscernible). TRIMBLE: Yeah, they wanted to challenge the Council, and they took signatures and got enough signatures to put it on and have a vote. Cliff notes. It was in all the papers for a long time. GARMAN: Randy, and then I'm going to redirect in a minutes too, so we don't spend the whole time just talking about the Trust. Go ahead, Randy. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 20 of 33 CRADER: Just curious. The State Trust is obviously just one portion of it, but for the population growth, just because it touches on another one of our pillars infrastructure, is our infrastructure set up to handle 1,300 potential homes on the State Trust Land, from sewage, water, or is that something else that's not -- WESLEY: Chair Commissioner Crader, that is one of the challenges of why it would be expensive to develop. It would take some, I think, on the sewer side of things, some new facilities to help accommodate additional land that wasn't anticipated in the original layout of the Town. CRADER: Is that usually done through PPP, or is that usually on the developer, or is that on the City to do it? WESLEY: Usually, it's mostly on the developer. The sewer side, I'm not sure how they work. I think they put it all on the developer, too. CRADER: Okay. WESLEY: But that would be a question for them. That's typically, as they will put in all those improvements. CRADER: Okay. Thanks. GARMAN: So since we're not a Planning and Zoning Commission, when you take a step back and look at it a little more strategic overall, I mean, what are things that you could put into a -- and this is for everybody. And you, John, I know you're standing in front of us. But something we could put into a strategic plan. Do we need more mixed use? And I'm talking generalities. Do we need to preserve certain areas of the Town that could be threatened in the future? Do we need more green spaces? Do we need to plan for more green spaces? Do we need more manufacturing? Do we need more golf courses? I don't know. Do we need -- so take a step back maybe and think of a generality that might be something that the Strategic -- a plan could address within either five or ten years from now. Does Fountain Hills need more apartments? Does it need less apartments? Does it need more residential houses? Or two-acre plots instead of half-acre plots? I don't know. Those are the kind of things I think we should talk about a little bit too. Density is a word that gets tossed around a lot. Affordability is TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 21 of 33 another word that gets tossed around a lot. I don't know if the Commissioners or John, maybe you could kick this off. Bigger topics that we could talk about. WESLEY: Sure. So the first thought that comes to my mind is optimizing the land use mix. We believe, and we can see studies going back quite a ways recognizing that for the population we've ended up with, compared to where they thought we were going to go when we started. We've got too much area zoned commercial. Maybe not enough residential. But what really is an optimum mix of the land uses that will provide the best benefit for the Town going forward, and there some different things that come to play typically. In particular, when you don't have a local property tax. There, I said it. The residential is really a money waster for the Town because you're providing, maintaining the roads, you're providing the Fire and Police, and all these other things, but you're not really getting anything back. As it gets denser, that equation gets a little bit better. But low density as a Town -- dollar wise to the Town is a money draw rather then giving money to the Town. When you get into the Commercial properties, that's maybe where the Town can maybe more break even in terms of the services provided versus revenues received through sales taxes and other types of things. There are different ways to look at it. And what's important for this is Fountain Hills as a holistic Town and that can survive and be a vibrant and good place to live for many years to come. What is that mix that really works here. I think you probably also some discussion about the Commercial side of things. We've got a lot of service, Commercial activities currently. And I think want to continue to have those, the restaurants and those types of activities in Town. A lot of the workers at those types of businesses struggle to live here, so they're having to commute, which makes it hard to get sometimes those people to work here. So that makes it hard to the business here. So how can we have that mix of housing that provides for that wider range of residents to meet all the needs of the town so all the different pieces can work well together. How do you really come up with -- what is that right mix, and how is structured, it's a challenge to understand because it's pretty dynamic and very different in different TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 22 of 33 communities. GARMAN: I'm pausing to see if anybody else -- so I read an article a few weeks ago. So I challenge everybody to consider this. This is kind of a one sided article. But I was reading a bunch of different types of articles. And the main point of this article was a Town or City can't have -- will not have affordable housing or young people moving in. We talk about young families moving in and things like that, unless they make something. Unless there's a manufacturing base. I know this is not -- it's just an article with a point of view. I'm not saying it's right. But was saying unless a city has some type of manufacturing, whatever it is. They're not going to be successful in attracting families. And I was thinking about Fountain Hills when that came up because some people argue that we are a bedroom community and that's what we should plan for. And other people want to entice younger families to come in, places for them to live so their kids go to our schools. They shop here. They can work here, and live here. I didn't know if any other Commissioners have any comments on that. That half acre that we have, we could make something. But it just got me thinking, got my creative juices running, that if we don't make something then it's going to be very hard to get where we want to go. But anyways. Paul? SMITH: I just wanted to comment, us people that have been around since God (indiscernible) or whatever, however that goes. The word manufacturing, I think today's world of manufacturing is a different world then what I remember. And nationally, they want to bring all these car companies and everything back. Manufacturing is a little bit different, and they come in smaller sizes, too. So I think when we do our planning and we get together, I think we need to identify what we mean by some of these things. And as we present that to whoever we're going to present this to, to make sure that we're not asking for a General Motors to move in or something like that. WESLEY: There's another flip side to this, I think. Manufacturing could bring in some folks. And I agree, we are an aging town. I think the average age now is 62, and it's going up a year every year. There's got a way to bring in younger people. Then we have TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 23 of 33 the affordability. Fountain Hills is very expensive for people to buy or to get into the housing market. I look at it a different way. We need all that. But I look at the International Dark Sky Discovery Center as a possible economic tipping point. So if we can't entice younger people to come here because of the affordability, have visitors come here, and I think the Discovery Center will bring in bus loads of kids, education, visitors that will start spending money, generating tax revenue for us on sales tax. If there's another similar attraction that we could bring into Fountain Hills to suck in tourism, like I think the Dark Sky Discovery Center may, then that may be another way to look at this and bringing people into the Town. GARMAN: That's a great idea. One thing that we have that's very successful for the Town is the baseball fields. You see tournaments here on the weekends year-round and it's packed over there with kids and parents bringing their kids in. So kind of think about different things like that, too. It's a pregnant pause. I was waiting on to see if anybody else had any comments. So is mixed use a specific enough term, or how can you promote or not promote? If you promoted mixed-use development, what does that actually mean, right? WESLEY: That's a good question because it means some different things to different people. Mostly, when I use the term mixed-use, I'm talking about a variety of Residential and Commercial development in both those horizontal and vertical grouping that's generally going to be a walkable urban type of environment. But you can also have a mix of uses which I think is what we're trying to move toward at the Target Plaza, by having the Commercial and Residential together and integrated to some degree. And some people would call that mixed use. But again, to me, that's a mix of uses. GARMAN: Are there's obstacles for mixed-use right now in Fountain Hills? WESLEY: A little bit, but not significantly. So the way that our Zoning works is that all of the commercial areas can have residential added to them through approval of the special use permit. And so you can do it without changing the base zoning, but you're still going through the public review process to get it there. The only places that are different from that, are the TCCD District. Which is what we have for Park Places, which TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 24 of 33 just by right allows for mixed use. And then the Platoi Area where the overlay which allows for the residential mix by right, but at a very low density. Currently, we're looking to increase that, otherwise, you are going through some type of other Zoning process to get there. On the flip side, we don't have any allowance in say, the multi- family districts to allow any significant time of non-residential use. There are a few things, but they're pretty minor. So with that be a change that we haven't really considered much before in the R4 or R5 Districts. Adjust those so you can get some Commercial office-type uses occurring in there to get more mix in those. Possibly I've seen that in some Zoning codes. But with an existing development pattern that we have, and generally being considered that we have more Commercial that we really need, I'm not sure that would add much to the mix, but it's -- again, it's a possibility that we could be considered. GARMAN: Okay. Thanks. SMITH: I think there's always been an acceptance of mix-use in many different ways. For example, right of Sauro, there is an industrial area that one time has had a church in it. Now it's what they call a car vault, I guess. There is a 21 condo association within that, and I think they call that a special use permit. But it's the mixed use of that industrial area in there. WESLEY: It's this area here that I'm circling on the map. The Car Vault is here, and the condo/multi-family is here. It's in this -- it's really a Commercial area. But it's that kind of almost Industrial Commercial area with that type of uses in there. But it's across from the park also, (indiscernible) to park. Yeah, and so again, that's got a mix of uses in the area. That kind of happens a little bit here along Panorama. It's a little bit more so because they've not approved conversion of an office building to a multifamily on this portion of Panorama. And then you've had some more up here, and then you've got the Commercial. Kind of along there, so again, kind of a mix of uses is happening there. The trouble is, from my perspective, it's happening in such a haphazard way. There's nothing that's really tying it together as an inviting kind of place. Hopefully, over time that will improve. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 25 of 33 GARMAN: All right. Okay. Thanks, John. So we're going to probably move on to the next agenda item. It's a great discussion. I would repeat for everyone that this is a new area for this Commission to discuss: Land Use. I think Geoff, you were a big proponent, so I'm going to challenge you to think about this some more over the next few months. Because I do think it's -- I keep making puns. But I think there's fertile ground for us to talk about and help the Town move forward with some strategic vision. I wrote down before we came here, Land Use captures the visions, values, and goals of a community in order to create a strategic direction that guides planning decisions. That's kind of what we want to do. WESLEY: Chair, thank you for allowing me to be here today. I'm glad to come back anytime. GARMAN: All right. Thanks, John. TRIMBLE: Chairman, I just want to correct the numbers on the State Trust Land, earlier. GARMAN: Yeah. TRIMBLE: So the down payment that the developer lost was $25 million. I think I said $110. I think $110 was the winning bid in total. The downpayment -- it was still a lot. It was a lot. They lost $25 million, not $110. GARMAN: And the hockey team is gone too, right? I think the hockey team is gone. Okay. So we're going to move on for the last few minutes of the meeting. We're going to the Commission workgroups for an update. And really, we're going to center on the workshops that Geoff led over the last couple weeks, so we'll hand it over to Geoff. YAZZETTA: Okay. Thank you. So we hosted two community input sessions. One was on Saturday, March 15th, and the other was on Wednesday, March 19th. And I just wanted to put together a quick slide presentation to give an overview. I will send all the Excel data over to everyone through Angela. So we'll move on here. Where do I click, Angela? It's too bad you can't -- does your keyboard work? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: (Indiscernible). YAZZETTA: Are you able to advance it or -- PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Yeah. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 26 of 33 YAZZETTA: I can go to the podium if need be. Oh, there we go. I guess that's the trick. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: You can try it again. It will reach for you. YAZZETTA: Yeah, okay. There we go. We're back. The event overview. Our goal was to gather feedback from the community to determine which topics should be considered for the signature strategies section of the next strategic plan. Last year, we held a feedback session, and Patrick coordinated a variety of community meetings just to gather the pillars that we have been hearing from various directors on. So this is that next level down. So the event layout, we had the welcome station and then we had give feedback stations for infrastructure, Land Use and Development which we just covered today, economic development, quality of life, and safety and financial stability. And the directive we gave to the individuals that came to participate was last year, when we came up with the pillars, that was the high-level 40,000-foot view. This we were looking for them to kind of like come down to about 10,000 feet. So we're looking for some focus, but not too specific, and the analogy I would give people is last year, we're looking for things like infrastructure. We've got to pave roads here in Town. On the opposite side of that, where it's too specific, is we need to pave this specific street, so we were directing people to think what types of streets should we focus on paving. So that -- we had a prompt sheet that we shared with the community members to just kind of get them thinking about those middle-ground strategic ideas. Over the two events, we had over 50 people participate, and we collected 162 note cards. To compare, we got 101 note cards. So we had more participation this year. So having two events definitely helped. Moving on, so this was just the raw data. I transcribed all of the note cards word for word, letter for letter, typos and all. The hardest part of this task was deciphering some of the cursive. But I managed to get through it. So again, this will be in an excel document that will share with everyone through Angela. But this is just the raw data. I then took that and processed it a little bit and grouped it by the pillar. So you'll see on the left; this is just a snapshot of part of the economic development notecards and then TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 27 of 33 the infrastructure notecards. And then, if you look over to the right on the other side of the word for word feedback what we received, I pulled out what the theme was. So if you look at the top one, it says support School District. Okay. Well, that's school funding. It's kind of outside of purview, but that's just the one there at the top. Finalization of plans for mixed use of properties on Avenue of the Fountains. That to me sounds like redevelopment, multi-family housing, and there's a variety of other themes that we can then look at when kind of combing through all of this feedback, that will help us come up with those signature strategies. I like that word cloud that we made last year, so I made another one. So all of the feedback and the themes that were gathered I plugged all that into this app that created a word cloud. So the larger something is, the more it came up with the note cards, and the smaller something is, the less it came up. So that's just a quick, high-level visual of where we're at. Again, I'll share all this information with everybody, and this will help guide us in our goal of coming up with these signature strategies. So with that, I will answer any questions that anyone has. I guess the mic, the remote, just had to get warmed up a little bit. Paul? SMITH: I will say, I don't know how you interpreted a lot of that stuff. So you did a wonderful job. YAZZETTA: Thank you. Yeah, and by the way, thank you to everyone who came and participated and helped out, and it was a really successful series of events. So -- GARMAN: I was looking back over the last couple years, before this meeting, to see what we have covered. We did this last year, and you did this this year, plus all the committee -- community organizations that come in and briefed us. The community organizations that we've gone out and talked to. It really -- so I'm trying to say thanks, because over time it builds up. And you look back, and you're like, wow, we've talked to a lot of people. Got a lot of opinions. YAZZETTA: Yeah. GARMAN: We've interacted with the public, which is part of our mission. So thank you TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 28 of 33 for that. And we're going to dig into this more and more as we head into the future. YAZZETTA: Yes, we will. GARMAN: As we finish up this year. Any other comments, questions for Geoff? UNKNOWN: I have one. GARMAN: Just one? UNKNOWN: Just one. According to you -- the last one actually that has all the buzz words that come up on the notes. Boy, I just glanced at the handful of the large ones, and the thing that I saw right off is, when I heard those words a year ago, or six months ago, or even recently, my impression of what that was saying that needed to be addressed in our plans and in the Town, have greatly changed now that we have so much in put from a lot of folks, like our staff here and outside. That when you're all done changes your opinion or impression, or your priority with regard to that particular topic. Because quite frankly, when we look at the exceedingly limited amount of truly commercial land available, we're not going to spend a whole lot of time doing anything about that. However, the public's perception at large out there really, they don't have that understanding. They feel that, oh, there's a big plot here, a lot of land there, pockets around here that we all see and surely with the swipe of a pen merely just do the Zoning, come up with some creative selling plans, and then come up with something that might stick there. But I think we're losing the focus that we're not integrating into that discussion. Those discussions. Is that nothing that we do here will improve the Town's overall situation unless it is focused on having a payback that is first in dollars in cents and some kind of revenue and other byproducts to that. So for example, I remember one problem right off of there, let's say (indiscernible) excuse me, transportation, reaching out, putting more projects in. I mean, we can put a lot of projects in here under that header, but what's going to be the payback? We're never getting enough people coming in, riding in from Mesa or Gilford, even by bus or otherwise, to offset the amount of money and investment the Town would have to make in order to make that a reality. So that's just one example. Putting all that together is it incumbent upon us to maybe TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 29 of 33 put a little focus on some of those or address that these are good plottable ideas and they might work in many places, but the reality is, they're probably not going to gain a lot of traction in our town once the public gets all the facts. I mean maybe if we just do that much, so that people start thinking and sharing more of that. We can maybe start brushing aside some of the ones that are almost really pie in the sky and focusing more on some of the ones that do have some potential for being translated into a real-world project plan. And somewhat to embark upon. That's the comment really overall. But think about that, you see this and go through, because I'm not going to get that much more as look at anything that presented. Where's the payback, how much it's going to cost, how much funding are we looking at, does it impact our capital and other, and so on. We heard a developer is very adamant about this and basically says you can come up with anything you want, but at the end of the day, forget about all the housing except multi-units because those are the only ones that are going to produce enough payback. All of the other ones, you can bring more people in, create the homes, bring more families in, but they're really just actually sapping more of the Town's money, because only for one reason. You don't get the property tax sweet money that most entities have the luxury of. Our main source is what, sales tax? If you start from that, then you know somehow in there, we better make sure that we're going to get sales tax or other types of fees and what not as some kind of a revenue payback. Anyway, that's my thoughts on it, thank you. GARMAN: Thank you. A lot to unpack there; that was a lot. Thank you. So my vision is that our job is take the feedback from the community, the feedback from the director level staff, and come up with the reasonable strategic priorities, because yes, some of the things that people are going to jot down on a note card are pie in the sky. There may not be an appropriate fit for Fountain Hills; even if it was an appropriate fit, it may not be financially feasible. But that's our job as a Commission is to kind of like work through all these details, figure out where the boundaries are, and come up with the next iteration of this plan to give to Council and to give to staff so that they can make TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 30 of 33 those decisions. But yeah, it is challenging to kind of work through all of this. And as Director Wesley was saying, what is the right mix of Zoning that is going to allow this town to not just survive but thrive because with the grocery tax possibly on the chopping block, the Town is going to have some significant challenges to it's finances. And to Commissioner Proctor's point, the Discovery Center, I'm hoping is going to be that shot in the arm for tourism, and brings people to stay in the hotels and eat at the restaurants, and shop here locally. We're a few months away -- maybe more than a few months away, but it's going to open later this year, so we're going to see how that goes. I'm hoping for great things. But yeah, there's a lot of things we need to work through with the strategic -- or signature strategies project here. And then next year, when we get down to the tasks and priorities, so yeah. Yeah, Nick? PROCTOR: Again, I'm new. I would love to see -- and this, some people told me this is impossible. But I would love to see some kind of solution for the dreaded plot 208. Is it 208? GARMAN: Uh-huh PROCTOR: There's a lot potential in land usage there that could be ancillary to the Discovery Center. You have a shop open up selling telescopes, generate sales tax. There's a lot of use there. But I haven't really got my arm around why that is such a dilemma for us. But give me time, I'll try to understand it. GARMAN: So we had the -- first of all, it's a great topic. So 208 came in a briefed us. And we -- I attended their meeting as well, and so I went and briefed 208. And the Town has talked to us about it. So there's a number of issues with 208, but I agree. I think there's something we can do as far as guide the Town as far as the use of that Plat. I definitely do. We have time, and we can always invite them back again for our newer members that haven't heard that want to do something with that. We can bring them back in to brief us again, because it was interesting. We went way over, we went like an hour and a half that day just talking to the 208 folks. So yeah. YAZZETTA: Chairman, do you remember just one of the cliff notes that I seem to TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 31 of 33 remember from 208. The sheer number of people that own a little piece of that makes it unwieldy to make any changes. GARMAN: I think they're going to change the way they vote and the way they work. YAZZETTA: Okay. Because I was kind of shocked at that. UNKNOWN: One of the problems with that also is that the majority of them they're not residents here. Out of state from here to New York. So they have a real challenge just to try to get parking spaces, small things. Yeah, but I think that that town can help out. UNKNOWN: Yeah, I do, too. I think it's a good topic. The large obstacles is there's CCNRs there's certain participation requirement to make any changes. And quite a few of the property owners are not only out of state, they're out of country. And my understanding is that they are unable to get the necessary amount of votes. And some of these votes require 100 percent participation. I have a copy of the CCNRs, I've kind of read through them, but that has kind of created a log jam for improvements in that quadrant. PROCTOR: So any sale of any parcel has to get 100 percent approval? UNKNOWN: Not sale. It's if they want to change something, say in the parking lot. Like if you're going to open a restaurant or something and it's all shared parking. So you can't allocate it. But if I remember correctly, just the placement of say a new dumpster enclosure requires a certain level of participation. You have a government background, I have a government background, this is that times -- exactly, so anyways. GARMAN: I do think Joe and I had a talk over an adult beverage, we could talk about how government truly makes any money at all. Because I my view that all the money has comes from it's citizens. So they don't produce anything in my worldview. So we always have to balance how much we take from our citizens to use for the Town. It's like a reflex -- had to get the -- So we're going to move on from Agenda, so thanks Geoff, and as this comes up again, this will be in the minutes from this meeting, and we can talk about the comments we had there maybe when we have some more time in the future. So we're going to move on to Agenda item 8, which is Discussion and Possible Action, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 32 of 33 Future Agenda Topics. We've already worked through this, so I think this is great in the future. In other words, are there any opinions. We have two more topics to go. And we have two more months to do that in. So one is infrastructure and one is quality of life, safety. Does anybody have any -- sometimes I leave it up to Angela to let us know who can come and brief us from the Town, a target of opportunity as they say. So next month it's either going to be infrastructure or quality of life. If that alright with everybody? Safety? Okay. And then the months after that will be one of the others. So that will be April and then May, and then we'll have our workshop, which will probably be a little longer than an hour. But we'll sit out here, and we'll talk again in June on what we've learned the last six months to a year and try to get our intermediate signature strategies in order before we kick off the final year of Planning next year. So how does that sound? Roger? Okay. So that's the future agenda topics for the next couple months. And so that goes into agenda item 9, which is comments from the Chair. One thing I wanted to mention is just as you're planning ahead, what we've got the next two months, and then in June, along with that workshop for us. I want to make sure everybody is planning that in June. And then I'm also going to get put on the Council agenda to brief the Council on what we've done over the last couple years here. So that will be a -- I'll make some slides, and I'll keep it high level, and we'll see what comments the Council has. Okay. That's agenda item 9. Okay. So for agenda item 10, which is the next meeting date. We have it right now as Wednesday, April 23rd, 2025. Joe, the week after tax day. Good? So Wednesday, the 23rd is the next -- I think that is good for everybody. And like I said, quality of life or infrastructure is what we'll be talking about. SMITH: I can tell you right now that I won't be here. GARMAN: Okay. SMITH: (Indiscernible) California for two weeks. And that's -- it goes to the 25th. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MARCH 22, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Page 33 of 33 GARMAN: Okay. SMITH: Other than that, I'm wide open. GARMAN: We'll let Angela know so we won't expect you. I know -- just for you all to know, Bernie is not here tonight, but Bernie is on the School Board for Fountain Hills. So he is doing a lot. There is a lot going on with the Fountain Hills School system right now. So he is on the Board making a lot of high-level decisions for our District. All right. So I'll entertain any motions to adjourn the meeting today. YAZZETTA: I move to adjourn. SMITH: Second. GARMAN: I have a second. All right, any discussion, anything we forgot, and errors we made? Okay. All those in favor of adjourning the meeting say "Aye." IN UNISON: Aye. GARMAN: Any opposed? The Aye's have it. Thank you all very much, we'll see you next month. Having no further business, Chairman Patrick Garman adjourned the Regular Meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission held on March 26, 2025, at 5:18 p.m. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS _______________________ Patrick Garman, Chairman ATTEST AND PREPARED BY: ____________________________________ Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Regular Meeting held by the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission of Fountain Hills in the Town Hall Council Chambers on the 26 day of March 2025. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED 23 day of April 2025. ____________________________________ Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant ITEM 6. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 04/23/2025 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Town Clerk Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Health Welfare and Safety Pillar Strategy of Future Strategic Plan with Community Services Director Kevin Snipes. Staff Summary (Background) Community Services Director Kevin Snipes will discuss with the commission the health welfare and safety pillar of the future strategic plan.  Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 02/20/2025 09:34 AM Final Approval Date: 02/20/2025  ITEM 7. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 04/23/2025 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Town Clerk Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  UPDATE: Commission Workgroups Staff Summary (Background) Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 02/20/2025 09:34 AM Final Approval Date: 02/20/2025  ITEM 8. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 04/23/2025 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Town Clerk Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Future Agenda Topics. Staff Summary (Background) Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 02/20/2025 09:34 AM Final Approval Date: 02/20/2025  ITEM 9. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 04/23/2025 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Town Clerk Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIRMAN Staff Summary (Background) Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 02/20/2025 09:34 AM Final Approval Date: 02/20/2025  ITEM 10. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT    Meeting Date: 04/23/2025 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Agenda Type:                   Submitting Department: Administration Prepared by: Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Town Clerk Staff Contact Information: Request to Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (Agenda Language):  NEXT MEETING DATE: Wednesday, May 28, 2025. Staff Summary (Background) Form Review Form Started By: Angela Padgett-Espiritu Started On: 02/20/2025 09:34 AM Final Approval Date: 02/20/2025