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HomeMy WebLinkAbout231113 Summary Minutes & Verbatim TranscriptTOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 1 of 20 Post-Production File Town of Fountain Hills Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting Minutes November 13, 2023 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 NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 2 of 20 GRAY: All right. It is 6:02. This is the November 13th version of the Fountain Hills Planning and Zoning Commission. If you would, please rise for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence. ALL: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. GRAY: Thank you. All right. In a little twist of events, under the supervision of the Chair, Commissioner Corey is going to run Agenda Items 2 through 9 for the commission this evening. Commissioner Corey? COREY: All right. Thank you, Chair. So, we'll start with a roll call. Paula, can we have a roll call? WOODWARD: Chairperson -- oh, excuse me. Chairperson Gray? Chairperson Gray? GRAY: Present. Your blue one's on. WOODWARD: Chairperson -- nothing's on -- GRAY: Take the blue one off, put the red one on, maybe. There you go. WOODWARD: Chairperson Gray? GRAY: Present. WOODWARD: Vice-chair Watts? WATTS: Present. WOODWARD: Commissioner Corey? COREY: Here. WOODWARD: Commissioner Kovacevic? KOVACEVIC: Here. WOODWARD: And Commissioner Schlossberg and Dapaah and Dempster are not present. GRAY: I believe Commissioner Dapaah, just by cell, said he was going to try and dial into us here. So, we may -- WOODWARD: Oh. GRAY: -- we may add him over time here. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 3 of 20 WOODWARD: Okay. Thank you. COREY: All right. Moving on to call to the public. Paula, do we have anyone from the public that wishes to speak? WOODWARD: No, Commissioner Corey. COREY: All right. And Agenda Item 4, consideration and possible action approving regular meeting minutes for the Planning and Zoning meeting in September. However, there's just been a change there. The minutes are not ready yet. There -- were not posted so we can't technically vote on those, so we'll do that at the next meeting. Agenda Item Number 5 -- GRAY: Commissioner, would you like a motion to continue? Commissioner, I'll make a motion to continue Agenda Item 4 to the next scheduled meeting. COREY: Oh. Do we have a second? WATTS: Second. COREY: Thank you. WOODWARD: All in favor? COREY: And all in favor? ALL: Aye. COREY: Thank you. WOODWARD: 4-0. COREY: Item Number 5, this is the public hearing. This is consideration and possible action of ordinance 23-15, amending zoning ordinance section 1.12, definition and section 2.01, amendments, or zoning changes. And I'll -- and John, do we have a presentation? WESLEY: Chair, Commissioner Corey, yes, of course, we do. We have got to justify you coming all the way down here this evening. So, I'll make it as long as I can. So, as you're aware, Commissioners, been -- embarked on the process of reviewing entire Chapter 2 of the Zoning ordinance, which is the procedures chapter. It lays out the various TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 4 of 20 procedures and processes to handle different types of applications. The Commission and Town Council have already reviewed and approved changes to section 2.02, Special Use Permits, and 2.04, Site Plans. Tonight, we will be discussing Section 2.01, which is rezonings and amending the zoning ordinance. We follow up over the next few months as we have time with 2.03, temporary use permits, and 2.07, appeals and variances. So slowly getting there. As we worked on this particular section, we were reminded that, back in the definition section, it still refers to community development director versus development services director. That was a organizational change that was made five or six years ago and thought it was time that we to correct that definition, also correct that title. And part of the reason for doing that too was we noticed that in the ordinance itself, several places we just refer to the director. And so we want to clarify that back in the definition to see director, it means development services director. So that's the first change that's included in the ordinance is that change in the definitions. Moving on then to the actual section of the ordinance. 2.01 deals with, again, amendments to the ordinance itself and zone changes on property. And to that'll become important a little bit later on. So, we talked about some of the different sections. As stated before, one of the goals here is to get a little bit more consistency amongst the different sections, try to organize them all so there's a standard sequence of subsections within them, use the same language as much as we can in different sections so that if you're reading one, reading another you don't get confused by why that might be different language, just trying to really accomplish the same thing. We've tried to follow the standard procedures that we use today and then also comply with state statutes. So we'll step through these. I'll go probably fairly quickly, but stop me if there's something have questions about that I don't cover enough. So Section 2(a) deals with the basic purpose. Slight adjustment here that also comes from some other sections. But previously, the code has allowed people within an area to petition for, apply for zone change even if they weren't the total owners of property, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 5 of 20 and also allows the town to rezone other people's property. Given some changes in the state statute, that's really not a likelihood anymore. So I've reorganized this a little bit. Owners of property, or their authorized representative, may apply for a zone change. This is also a change that we'll see a little bit more later. But under the current code, an individual could apply for an amendment to the zoning ordinance text. We're eliminating that with his change. I've never seen that before, and it can be rather problematic if somebody wanted to come in and just randomly request changes to portions of the code. It's best if it comes from the Town Council, from the Commission, or from staff. It doesn't prohibit a citizen who has a concern from going to one of those bodies and pointing out the problem and requesting through them that a change be made. But here we're limited to, just then, the Town Council or the town being able to do the text changes. KOVACEVIC: And do you want questions as we go or do you want -- WESLEY: That's probably the best way to handle it, rather than try to remember and come back. KOVACEVIC: Okay. So what this -- what you're saying, though, is that right now, without this change, I could walk in and say, you know that property at the corner of Fifth and Main, I don't like the zoning there, I want it changed? WESLEY: No, what you could do is you could walk in and you could say, you know, I think the single-family residential districts ought to allow gas stations, and I'm going to submit this text amendment for you to process the Town Council requesting that you make that change to the text of the zoning ordinance. KOVACEVIC: Wow. WESLEY: Or whatever you want that -- KOVACEVIC: And so -- WESLEY: But if you don't like about the zoning ordinance text, you could request a change to it. GRAY: But there's -- there is a pretty hefty fee associated with that -- WESLEY: There is a -- it's -- do you remember what it is? It's a couple thousand dollars, I TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 6 of 20 think. GRAY: I mean, I wanted to -- WESLEY: So it's -- GRAY: -- change several areas of text, and I've been deterred by the fee. WESLEY: Yeah, so it's not really likely to happen willy-nilly because there is a fee that goes with it. But -- KOVACEVIC: So the -- it's -- so you have to have a ownership stake? WESLEY: Right, or be authorized by the owner to -- KOVACEVIC: Yeah. Okay. WESLEY: -- to make the actual change to property. KOVACEVIC: Thank you. WESLEY: Here we go to subsection B, which is actual application. So it requires the complete application -- GRAY: John, could I ask on the previous slide -- WESLEY: Oh, yes. GRAY: We've had a couple, I'd say, I guess, applicants. I'm not sure if it was directly related to this or not, but we've had some renters come in over time and have made their case. I don't know if they were the applicant or not. But do we define the authorized representative in the Chapter 1 somewhere? I mean, I guess my question is do we -- does a renter automatically qualify for as an authorized representative? WESLEY: No. GRAY: No. Okay. WESLEY: No. We need something from that owner, their signature saying, I've authorized this person to file this application, or something along that line. So in the application, the change here is consistent with the change we've made in other sections to recognize current processing using the electronic system that we have. And then again, here's some of that language allowing portions of property owners to submit applications that is being eliminated. Project narrative itself is not new but reorganized here a little bit, and more clearly TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 7 of 20 defined what we're looking for in that project narrative and some of the things that can go with that. And this -- and these provisions here were located elsewhere in the current code and relocated here and be part of the project narrative. Tentative development plan, again, it's a current requirement, but we've reorganized and restated it a little bit in trying to be more specific that if you are actually going to develop property when you -- as part of that rezoning, we do want a tentative development plan. If you're rezoning and the buildings there are not changing, the building you just want different uses that are allowed, then we don't need a development plan. But if you're doing anything that's going to change the land. then we need that tentative development plan to come with it. And then subsequent site plans will need to be similar to that tentative development plan. They don't have to match exactly because as you get into details, things can change a little bit. But if your concept changes significantly, then you're back to consideration of the zoning itself. COREY: And it looks like we might have a couple -- Commissioner, do you have a question? WATTS: Yeah. I'm curious. On 3, right below D which is 5 stricken, off-street parking, why was that stricken -- why was it there in the first place? And then why is it now stricken? Because off-street parking has such an impact on the overall project -- can have an impact on it. So can you explain why and why not? WESLEY: So the off-street parking is not really -- it's not calculated into the parking requirements for development. It's only the land itself that counts towards that required parking. So the off-street parking doesn't really matter. WATTS: Why was it there originally, then? WESLEY: I don't know. WATTS: You just were fixing it? WESLEY: Right. WATTS: Okay. WESLEY: But did add -- the one thing we added was the preliminary landscape plan. We talked about that before when we talked about the special use permits and brought TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 8 of 20 that language over here also to make sure we get that concept of what they're going to do with the landscaping on the site. WATTS: Okay. Thank you. WESLEY: And the other items being struck here are included elsewhere. And then of course, we've added the citizen participation requirement. It's not in the current code, so brought that in. List of names of property owners, that should be located from elsewhere in the code. And in the filing fee, I didn't pull in the full paragraph there, but just added that heading, filing fee. Chairman Gray? GRAY: John, in, let's see, 1B, tentative development plan, on B1 topographical descriptions showing existing and proposed grades, do we need to dial that into a -- an interval of five feet or even ten? WESLEY: We do that when we get to the site plan. We don't necessarily require it to be that specific here at this stage. Commissioner Watts? WATTS: I think I'm premature. I'm waiting for section C. WESLEY: Okay. WATTS: So once we get to that -- WESLEY: Okay. WATTS: -- then I'll have a question. WESLEY: I think we're almost there. There are some things that we struck out, again, mostly being relocated elsewhere within the ordinance. C, again, the section on reviews is the same as we've added in the other section, particularly the special use permit, same language copied over. WATTS: So C's where I thought that throughout there's a -- there's -- a good job been done on timelines. But C is open-ended. When we talk about applicants being notified of missing or incomplete items, what is the duration of, I'll call it, the pre-bid, pre-work on an application and how long should that take? And should we have a timeline in this TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 9 of 20 particular section? WESLEY: Not sure to say chair or commissioner. So we have a policy timeline that we adopt every year, or establish internally, that gives us typically two weeks from date of application receipt to staff providing first comments back. WATTS: Should we identify that in this section, though, so it's clear? Because it's clear everywhere else what the timelines are. WESLEY: Right. And so it gets challenging to be too specific about it because different applicants will have different time constraints they're under, different issues they're involved in. The item that you're going to have on your application -- on your agenda next month most likely was submitted, I don't know, four or five months ago, and they have taken their time in in terms of pushing it forward. And some things are more complicated and take a little longer than others to review. And so we don't want to hamstring ourselves by putting something too rigid into the ordinance this early in the process. WATTS: Well, I can certainly understand when an applicant drags their feet, but I'm not so sure I understand. When we're not able to do a plan review or an application review within a certain period of time at a high level, we're not getting into the granularity at that point. But the missing components, should that -- should there be an accountability component is what I'm looking for. WESLEY: Again, we can go back and try to look for something along that line if you'd like. It's worked well. I don't have any issues with the way it's -- it works. Most like -- most times, it really is that give and take between staff and the applicants, not that we're dragging our feet. But we -- as we are reviewing and getting those comments together, we have discussions if we see issues or problems before we might finish a first review. And again that can take a little bit longer sometimes than others to do. WATTS: So if you say that -- and I think I understood you said it takes a couple weeks normally. If we gave if we gave a 30-day maximum where there has to be some sort of communication back to the applicant, either what the deficiencies are in the application or the missing components in some manner, would that be reasonable? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 10 of 20 WESLEY: In most cases, it would be. We do have the regulatory Bill of Rights time frames that we operate under that are really rather lengthy, but they're still there in place, that if we don't meet those time frames, things are automatically approved. So that -- that's motivation that's out there already. WATTS: Okay. Thank you. WESLEY: Paula? WOODWARD: Commissioner Corey, Chairman Gray, Director Wesley, don't we have the time frames in Citizenserve where it prompts us when we take in an application, when I assign that application to whomever is going to be the case reviewer, they have what's like 7 days or sometimes it's 14 days? So it's all tracked online electronically, which is really helpful because you can see if something hasn't been touched. But also it's tracked for the applicant to look at it as well. So I don't know if that answers questions for you. I also will forward the timeline that we use when we meet with an applicant, like you said, the pre-application process, to give them idea of, depending upon what the application is, what the time frame would be, provided that they're giving all the correct submittal information. WATTS: So then maybe just a reference to that timeline here so that it's clear where to go. Because if you're looking at an ordinance and the content of the ordinance -- WOODWARD: Yeah. WATTS: -- without any reference to some timeline that exists -- because the timelines exist in other portions of this ordinance and are very clear. Even if we had some sort of reference to your -- the timeline that you're referencing to, that -- I think that would be sufficient, then some -- everybody know. WESLEY: Commissioner Kovacevic? KOVACEVIC: So Commissioner Watts, then you'd lock us to -- in 1 and/or 2, look for a place to appropriately add in the language per standard review timelines or something -- language along that line to reference that? WATTS: Yes. Whatever the timeline, however it's referred to that Paula referenced, then then that'd be satisfactory, then you'd have something definitive. This is just, on TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 11 of 20 the surface, pretty open. I'd like to see something more definitive, so that would be acceptable. WESLEY: Okay COREY: All right. Thanks, John. WESLEY: Thanks. So moving on to the last part of C, this is the part that does have the more specific time frames in it, I think that we're looking at. So if no other questions on review, we go to D. notice. Again, most of this is the same as it is today, just reorganized. A bit -- a few changes clarifying that we can provide one notice for both PNZ and Council, which is what we typically do anyway. It also divides out the notice requirements for zone changes versus text amendments a little bit more clearly. And the current ordinance provides some modifications of the type of notice that we might use, depending upon some different criteria for types of applications. In my history here we've always done all three types of notification for every case. We post the site, we mail the notice to property owners within 300 feet, and we publish it in the paper. And so that makes it clear, you don't have to worry about do I do this one this time or that one that time; do all three every time, and then we know that we've covered all the bases. So that's what the ordinance is being slightly adjusted to require every time. The one change that we are making here is that instead of staff being responsible for going out and posting the property, we'll switch that to an applicant requirement to do. We did that with the special use permits. It's been working fine. So we modified the language here just a little bit so the applicant would have a little bit clearer direction on what should be on the sign that they need to create and post on the property. COREY: So John, quick question on that. So we would expect that the applicant is capable of installing the sign there? It's not some special type of post sign or something -- they can just -- WESLEY: Doesn't have to be. Some other communities use rather large signs. And they do -- it would be a big poster board sign. And there are companies there -- I think they go and make sure those are put in. The ones that we have used here traditionally and TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 12 of 20 can still be done with these -- use the little wire frames that you can push into the ground. In fact, we would -- we have, with a special use permit, allowed the applicant to come get one of our signs and put the stuff on themselves and post themselves. COREY: Okay. WESLEY: We could still do that here. COREY: Okay. Chairman Gray? GRAY: No reservations with applicants being late with their postings or does Code Enforcement then go around and val -- they do? They'll validate? WESLEY: And so here's the last piece of that, with a mailed notice to property owners within 300 feet. And then, if it's amendments to the zoning ordinance, it's published in the paper, but it has a requirement for the eighth-full-page display ad. Now, if somebody has asked to be notified through mail, then we would do that also. WATTS: Is that new, the $5 fee to be notified? WESLEY: No. WATTS: That's been there before? WESLEY: Yes. WATTS: Okay. WOODWARD: May I interject regarding fees? You asked about the rezoning fees. They're $3,620 for the first five acres, $725 per acre thereafter. And then a special use permit's $2,000; a site plan review is $680 for the first five acres and then $130 thereafter. So the rezone is really the one that's the $3,620. WESLEY: So some things that we moved from the section on hearings, there was a situation where someone other than the property owner could request a rezone. We don't do that, so we remove that language. In the current 201C, 4, 5, and 6 -- and that's what I was referencing a minute ago -- there are some criteria there where could -- we could use different notice provisions depending upon what the cri -- situation was. We've just removed all that and just do the same notice for every type of application. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 13 of 20 And then also going on in the notice, if a -- clarifies what we already do again. If we send out the notice, you hold the hearing. You continue it to a date certain. New notice is not required; you just continue that hearing. And then we get into the hearings themselves. And again, most of this language is the same, reorganized, or has been similar to what we put into the section on special use permits. Then we have a section that's unique to rezonings. It's about the effect of written protest and what constitutes what's often called a legal protest. It requires a supermajority of the council to approve it if we get a written protest that meets these criteria. The state amended the statute requirements for this several years ago. The town stat -- the town ordinance was never updated to be consistent with the state statutes. So at this point, that's what we're proposing to do, is adopt what's in the state statutes. And this is kind of what it would look like in a case. So if I have that parcel there in the middle, number 2 and I'm wanting to rezone from something to something, the property owners within 150 feet are eligible then to submit a petition and protest. In this -- per the state statute you use all the area that within 150 feet, as well as the subject property. You get that total land area; you get the total number of lots. And then to be a legal protest, you have to have both 20 percent of the area and 20 percent of the properties protesting. And so in this case, it would take three property owners owning at least 55,130 square feet to get at that bar of being a protest that would require, then, a supermajority. So for example, the four property owners across the street, even though that's four, it's more than three, they don't have 55,000 feet of land. So that wouldn't be sufficient if it was only those four protesting. Or if it were the one immediately to, I'll say, the east there, that lot number 3, and maybe the one right next to it, that lot number 38, if it were those two lots together, they're probably more than 55,000 square feet, but it's only two owners. So that wouldn't be sufficient. You'd have to have both area and owners. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 14 of 20 COREY: Looks like we might have some questions here. Commissioner Watts? WATTS: I'm curious. So if the green area touches a lot, any portion of a lot, then they're included? WESLEY: Right. WATTS: Okay. WESLEY: As far as the number of lots. But it's only that portion that's within the green that is part of the area of calculation. WATTS: That's a square footage. That's -- so it's a cumulative thing for all the lots, but the owners have a vote based upon ownership -- WESLEY: Right. WATTS: -- not necessarily square footage? WESLEY: Correct. WATTS: Okay. Thanks. COREY: Commissioner Kovacevic? KOVACEVIC: Yeah. So just so I understand -- I'm going to dive into the weeds here. So there's -- the green area is 215,650 feet in this example, right? WESLEY: Correct. KOVACEVIC: So the balance of lot 4, 5, 6, 39, 40, 36, and 37 would make up the difference between 215 and 276? WESLEY: No, it's only -- it's the yellow area in the middle that make up makes up that difference because you count the area being rezoned also. KOVACEVIC: So if I'm on Lot 5, am I just -- do I just represent the green area or the whole lot? WESLEY: Just the green area. WATTS: Oh, I didn't interpret it that way. I don't like that. WESLEY: That's what the state statute says. KOVACEVIC: Okay. So lots 4, 5, and -- 4, 5, 6, and 7 aren't -- I mean, they can't -- WESLEY: See, so you get to the number that you need. You need at least three in this TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 15 of 20 case; you have four that won't have the area. KOVACEVIC: Wait. Say that again. I'm sorry. WESLEY: You have to have both area and number. KOVACEVIC: Right. WESLEY: And so they would have the number of owners because that's more than 20 percent. You only need three owners in this example. So you got four owners, so they meet that criteria, but they won't have the 55,000 square feet of land that they -- within green area. KOVACEVIC: Right. So I mean, you really need lot 3 or, you know, somebody that has a lot of the property? WESLEY: Makes it easier. KOVACEVIC: Okay. I understand now. Thank you. COREY: So -- and I think that makes sense because you wouldn't want, say, lot 5 and 6 to have the same vote, if you will, as the owner of lot 3 because they're closer to that property, right? Is that what we're -- why we're doing it this way? WESLEY: We're doing it this way because it's what state statute tells us to do. COREY: John, do you have an example of what it looked like before this? WESLEY: No, I did not prepare one. It's -- it was similar, but it's been a while since I've applied it to remember the exact differences. COREY: Okay. WESLEY: I think it was -- I think the main difference is it's in -- just on any one side of 20 percent. COREY: Okay. WESLEY: I think it separated either area. It might have only been area. COREY: Okay. Chairman Gray? GRAY: It's too far into the weeds, but I remember when there was a three-story 600- foot-long nursing home that was going to go in where the Fountain Hills Medical Center was, and the adjacent residents had gathered up, like, a 70 percent participation rate in TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 16 of 20 a protest. And it was thrown out by the development director at the time as not being conforming with statute. So I think -- I think the old language used to read quantity of -- it wasn't area driven, but was quantity of within 150 feet. And the state must have preempted between -- prior to that hearing, anyway. WESLEY: Right. Yeah, this has been in in statute for a number of years, so I'm kind of surprised it had -- never had been updated here. GRAY: I mean, for what it's worth, I don't really think it's fair to lots 4, 5, and 6 to have only their front porch count, but preemption is preemption at the end of the day. WATTS: John, is there any flexibility on changing the square? I mean, we've got rounded corners, so it kind of implies that we can move that around a little bit. So could an applicant massage the numbers to get the -- to the percentage of that square footage in addition to the number of participants? WESLEY: So not sure this is exactly what you're asking, but I'll answer it this way and we'll see. First of all, in this example, I couldn't really round my corners correctly because I didn't get our GIS guy -- WATTS: Right. WESLEY: -- to do them for me. So those are actually kind of small on the radius in what they'd actually be. That's not probably 150-foot radius. But -- so it is possible that an applicant, if they think they're going to have challenges, would look at ways to massage the area that they are zoning so that it would make it less likely if they knew -- if this were possible, if the land area were big enough, they knew, well, this person that owns Lot 3 is going to protest me, so I'm not going to zone the eastern 100 feet of my property. So that pushes them out of, you know, any or some of their area, that type of thing. They can do that. It has been done. I've seen in some cases that type of thing. WATTS: Yeah, I think going back to the 150 feet, keeping that in mind that there's an anchor point and from that anchor point the 150 feet goes out, so I understand why you can't get the square corner, so to speak. But the graphics part is different, so makes sense. Thank you. COREY: Chairman Gray? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 17 of 20 GRAY: Just because it's fun, is there any precedent to jump the public right of way? Wouldn't, you know, basically consider that null and extend that 150 feet further up lots 3, 4, 5, and 6? WESLEY: So yes, I struggle with that too, and it seems like either you do that or you -- it's public, so you count it pro and con, or you do something with it. Here's what the statute says: the area within 150 feet, including all rights of way. So it's very clear in the statute. GRAY: Okay. WESLEY: Moving on, then, to actions. So this was, again, just a little bit, but it's still pretty much the same as it is today. Section on your action as a zoning commission to recommend approval, approval conditions denial. We have increased the amount of continuance time from 60 days to 90 days. We did that with the special use permits because we've seen -- while 60 days maybe sounds like a lot, once somebody, you know, goes to looking at it and gets back for staff review and preparing a report, 60 days goes very fast, so we want to make sure we have ample time for that and then including the rationale for the recommendation. Town Council, again, can approve, deny, send back the Planning and Zoning Commission. COREY: So John, I'm just curious, did you hear any feedback that the 60 days was too short or are you just trying to follow, like, more guidelines that are available to you, or did you hear from people that it was -- yeah, sure. WESLEY: Chair, Commissioners, as we have experienced this with some of the bigger cases that we've had, and if you think back to the Daybreak case in particular, it seems like that there was a desire to continue, but we were kind of hamstring by that 60 days to act and didn't really give us enough time to do the work that was needed. COREY: Okay, thanks. WESLEY: Let's see. So actions. So the -- if the development does not occur, if the -- if the Town Council puts a time limit on it, when the project needs to start, if it does not occur within that time, then we can go back through same rezoning-type process with notice to a hearing to revert the property back to its former designation. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 18 of 20 WATTS: Does the applicant have any recourse for an extension to stop that reversal of the zoning? WESLEY: It's a public hearing, so they can come and argue their case to the Council and say, here's what the problem's been and why I haven't been able to move forward; I still plan to. And Council can then decide whether to revert it or not revert it. WATTS: But there's no other process other than appealing to the Council? WESLEY: Right. WATTS: Okay. WESLEY: Again, that's if the -- there was a timeline adopted -- a schedule adopted with the zoning. If there wasn't one, then there -- this doesn't apply. So again, the property I think that Chairman Gray referred to earlier there at Trevino and Saguaro, we had that situation on that property where they had certain time to get it zoned or it would revert, and we did that there. And then lastly in the ordinance, Section H, reconsiderations, no change to that section. There was a section about exceptions for signatures, for text amendments; that's not needed under the rewording, so it's deleted. And then requirements for rezone for open space was not changed. And so staff recommends approval. COREY: All right. Thank you, John. Commissioners, do we have any additional questions? And Paula, was there anyone from the public who wishes to speak? WOODWARD: No, Commissioner Corey. COREY: Okay. WESLEY: Well, I guess, in summary, then, Chair, it sounds like of the language on the review -- we'll look for a place to kind of tweak that language just a little bit to hold our feet to the fire on a time frame there. And so that'd be part of a motion if you're ready to make one for -- COREY: Yep. Thank you, John. I think that specifically was adding verbiage for the standard review timeline? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 19 of 20 WESLEY: Correct. COREY: Okay. All right. So we will close the public hearing. And do we have a consideration for approving the changes? We have a motion? WATTS: I move to approve with a stipulation to add the timeline for the review -- COREY: Do we -- WATTS: -- otherwise as stated. COREY: All right. Thank you. Do we have a second? KOVACEVIC: I'll second. COREY: Thanks. Paula, can we have a roll call? WOODWARD: Commissioner Kovacevic? KOVACEVIC: Yes. WOODWARD: Commissioner Watts? WATTS: Yes. WOODWARD: Chairman Gray? GRAY: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner Corey? COREY: Aye. WOODWARD: 4-0. COREY: Thank you, Paula. All right. Moving on to agenda item number 6, commission discussion requests for research to staff. Commissioners, do we have any topics? I keep getting misled by your red light over there. All right. Agenda item 7, summary of commission requests from the development services director. Do you have anything for us, John? WESLEY: No summaries of your requests because I didn't hear any, but I do have a report when we get to number 8. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 13, 2023 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 20 of 20 COREY: All right. Number 8, report from the development services director. John? WESLEY: Okay. So we do anticipate at this point that you will have a December meeting. At this point, we've gotten the remaining parts of the application in for the rezoning next to the Target store. And so again we anticipate that being your December meeting. KOVACEVIC: Rezoning next to which store? WESLEY: Part -- the Target -- KOVACEVIC: Oh . WESLEY: -- shopping center. KOVACEVIC: Okay. WESLEY: There at Four Peaks Plaza. WATTS: And that rezoning is for what rezoning? What -- the classification, do you know at this point? WESLEY: The rezone to PUD or PAD, planned area development. WATTS: So multi-family, then? WESLEY: Well, it could be anything but as a PAD. But yes, that's what they're requesting the PAD for is a multi-family. WATTS: Got you. Thank you. WESLEY: There's a second component to it dealing with signage. COREY: Okay. Well, looking forward to that. And if we have nothing else, then we will adjourn the meeting. Thank you, everyone.