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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2026.0225.SPAC.AGENDA.PACKET NOTICE OF REGULAR MEETING OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION Chair Patrick Garman Vice Chair Geoff Yazzetta Commissioner Polly Bonnett Commissioner Randy Crader Commissioner Bernie Hoenle Commissioner Joseph Reyes Commissioner Paul Smith TIME: WHEN: WHERE: 4:00 PM - REGULAR MEETING DOORS OPEN 15 MINUTES PRIOR TO THE START OF THE MEETING WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 25, 2026 FOUNTAIN HILLS COUNCIL CHAMBERS 16705 E. AVENUE OF THE FOUNTAINS, FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA PARTICIPATION IN PUBLIC MEETINGS Request to Comment Cards To speak or submit written comments, a Request to Comment card is required. Cards must be completed and submitted to the Clerk before the meeting begins. Late or incomplete cards will not be accepted. A separate card is required for each agenda item. Agenda Items (Consent or Regular) Request to Comment cards must include the agenda item number, whether the speaker is FOR or AGAINST the item, and whether the individual wishes to speak or submit written comments. Call to the Public requests are accepted in person only. Request to Comment cards must be submitted prior to the meeting commencing. Speaking Rules Speakers may speak only when recognized by the Presiding Officer and are limited to three (3) minutes. All comments must be directed through the Presiding Officer, not to individual commission members or staff. Request to Comment cards and submitted information are public records subject to public disclosure. Meeting Packet Page 1 of 52 1. CALL TO ORDER AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE 2. INVOCATION Moment of Silence 3. ROLL CALL 4. STATEMENT OF PARTICIPATION Anyone wishing to address the Commission regarding items listed on the agenda or during Call to the Public must completely fill out a Request to Comment card located in the back of the Council Chambers and hand it to the Clerk prior to the start of the meeting. Once the meeting has started, late requests to speak cannot be accepted. When your name is called, please approach the podium, speak into the microphone, and state your name and if you are a resident for the public record. Comments may not exceed three minutes. It is the policy of the Commission not to comment on items brought forth under "Call to the Public." However, staff can be directed to report back to the Commission at a future date or to schedule items raised for a future Commission agenda. To avoid disruption of the meeting, to maintain decorum, and provide for an equal and uninterrupted presentation, applause is not permitted, except during Proclamations, Awards, and Recognitions. All meeting participants must maintain proper decorum as specified in Section 6 of the Council Rules of Procedure. 5. SUMMARY OF CURRENT EVENTS BY DIRECTOR 6. PROCLAMATIONS, AWARDS, AND RECOGNITIONS a. None Scheduled 7. PRESENTATIONS a. None scheduled. 8. CONSENT AGENDA All items listed are considered to be routine, non-controversial matters and will be enacted by one motion and vote of the Commission. All motions and subsequent approvals of consent items will include all recommended staff stipulations unless otherwise stated. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Commission Member or member of the public so requests. If a Commission Member or member of the public wishes to discuss an item on the Consent Agenda, he/she may request so prior to the motion to accept the Consent Agenda or with notification to the Director or Chairperson prior to the date of the meeting for which the item was scheduled. The item will be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered as the first item on the Regular Agenda. The remaining items on the Consent Agenda will be enacted by one motion and vote of the Commission. a. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving the Meeting Minutes of the Strategic Plan Advisory Commission Meeting of January 28, 2026. 9. REGULAR AGENDA a. DISCUSSION: Discussion and Planning for the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Guided Workshops. b. UPDATE: from the Commission Work Groups. c. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Consideration of Future Agenda Items Pertaining to the Strategic Plan. 10. CALL TO THE PUBLIC Pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.01, or as prescribed by state law. Meeting Packet Page 2 of 52 11. COMMISSION DISCUSSION/DIRECTION TO THE DIRECTOR Members of the Commission may (1) request the Town Manager follow-up on matters raised at that meeting; (2) request one two-minute response to directed criticism raised any portion of the meeting; (3) a consensus of the Commission may request the Town Manager to research a matter and report back to the Commission. 12. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS The Chairperson or a Commissioner, with the support of two additional Commissioners, may direct the Town Manager to place an item on the next available agenda within the next three meetings for consideration and possible action. 13. ADJOURNMENT Dated this 19 day of February, 2026. Angela Padgett-Espiritu, Executive Assistant/Deputy Town Clerk The Town of Fountain Hills endeavors to make all public meetings accessible to persons with disabilities. Please call (480) 816-5100 (voice) or AZRelay 7-1-1 the Thursday prior to the meeting to request reasonable accommodation. Meeting Packet Page 3 of 52 ITEM 8.a. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT Meeting Date: 2/25/2026 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Regular Meeting Submitting Department: Administration / Town Clerk Prepared by: Staff Contact Information: Phone: Email: Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language) CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approving the Meeting Minutes of the Strategic Plan Advisory Commission Meeting of January 28, 2026. Staff Summary (background) Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle Risk Analysis Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s) Staff Recommendation(s) Suggested Motion FISCAL IMPACT Fiscal Impact: Budget Reference: Funding Source: ATTACHMENTS 1. SPAC 01282026 Summary of Minutes 2. 2026.0128.SPAC.VERBATIM.TRANSCRIPT Meeting Packet Page 4 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SUMMARY MINUTES OF REGULAR SESSION OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION JANUARY 28, 2026 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 Bernie Hoenle; Commissioner Paul Smith; Commissioner Joseph Reyes Members Absent: Commissioner Paul Smith and Commissioner Randy Crader Staff Present: Deputy Town Manager David Trimble and Deputy Town Clerk Angela Padgett-Espiritu 3. STATEMENT OF PARTICIPATION 4. PRESENTATIONS 5. CONSENT AGENDA a. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the Minutes from the Regular Meeting Held on November 19, 2025. MOVED BY Vice Chair Geoff Yazzetta to APPROVE the Minutes of the Regular Meeting Held on November 19, 2025, of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting, SECONDED BY Commissioner Polly Bonnett Vote: 5–0 | motion passed unanimously 6. REGULAR AGENDA a. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Future Strategic Plan – Signature Strategy: Land Use/Development 1. State Trust Land 2. Flexible Zoning 3. Underutilized Parcels Meeting Packet Page 5 of 52 1. State Trust Land (North Fountain Hills) • Pulte Homes is pursuing development of 2 square miles. • Could support 1,750+ homes (density may increase). • Major challenges: water and sewer infrastructure. • Town controls zoning and approvals. • Development likely within 3–5 years. • Opportunity for mixed-use, employment space, and family housing. 2. Underutilized Commercial Areas • Key corridor: Fountain Hills Blvd / Glenbrook / El Pueblo. • Many vacant or underused parcels. • Outdated zoning and parking rules limit redevelopment. • Projects are progressing slowly due to ownership and financing issues. 3. Zoning & Flexibility • Town is updating its outdated zoning code. • Considering “floating zones” to speed redevelopment. • Reviewing special use permits to reduce delays. • Exploring more mixed-use and higher-density development. 4. Housing & Demographics • Need for housing for families, young professionals, and multigenerational households. • ADUs and mixed-use housing are allowed. • Downtown density rules are under review. 5. Downtown & Plat 208 • About 11 acres remain developable. • Development slowed by old CC&Rs and parking constraints. • Temporary uses now allowed on vacant land. 6. Economic Development • Focus on attracting anchor retailers, offices, and light industry. • Active projects include Sprouts, Four Peaks Plaza, and Eagle Mountain restaurant. • Limited industrial zoning restricts job growth. 7. Strategic Impact • Development will increase revenue and population. • Also increases long-term service and maintenance costs. • Land use decisions are central to the Town’s 5–10 year plan. Meeting Packet Page 6 of 52 b. UPDATE: from the Commission Work Groups The Commission plans to hold community outreach workshops in late February or early March to gather detailed public feedback on strategic priorities. • One session will be held at the Community Center (likely late February). • A second session will be held at the School District (date TBD, likely March). • These sessions will focus on collecting specific, ground-level input, building on earlier high-level discussions. • Feedback will be gathered using poster boards and interactive displays. • Dates will be coordinated and communicated through Angela. c. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Future Agenda Topics The Commission will next focus on economy/business and quality of life/safety, with possible updates on the Blue Zone initiative. Quality of life topics may require multiple meetings. A workshop is planned for June to consolidate findings. A draft strategic plan will be prepared in summer 2026, reviewed in the fall, and presented to Council for approval in early 2027. d. COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIRMAN 7. ADJOURNMENT MOVED BY Vice Chair Geoff Yazzetta to APPROVE adjourning the meeting of January 28,2026, of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission, SECONDED BY Commissioner Polly Bonnett. Vote: 5–0 | motion passed unanimously Chairman Patrick Garman adjourned the meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission at 5:25 PM Meeting Packet Page 7 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION JANUARY 28, 2026 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 Bernie Hoenle; Commissioner Polly Bonnett; Commissioner Joseph Reyes Members Absent: Commissioner Randy Crader; Commissioner Paul Smith Staff Present: Deputy Town Manager David Trimble; Deputy Town Clerk Angela Padgett-Espiritu Meeting Packet Page 8 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 1 of 41 Post-Production File Town of Fountain Hills Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting January 28, 2026 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. * * * * * Meeting Packet Page 9 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 2 of 41 CHAIRMAN GARMAN: All right. I'll call to order this meeting of the Fountain Hills Strategic Planning Advisory Commission at little after 4 on Wednesday, January 28th, 2026. Angela, could you do the roll call for us today? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Chair Garman. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Chair Yazzetta. YAZZETTA: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Bonnett. BONNETT: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Crader not present. Commissioner Hoenle. HOENLE: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Reyes. REYES: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Smith is not present. We have a quorum. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: All right. Thank you. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Okay. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: All right. I don't think we have any public or a statement of participation; am I right? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Correct. We don't. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: All right. Thanks. All right. So that was a really quick. We're already down through agenda item 3. Agenda item 4 is presentations. We don't have any presentations either. We're going to jump right into business, right? All right. So we're going to get down to consent agenda, which is the consideration and possible action. This has to do with the approval of the November 19th, 2025, minutes of the regular meeting of the Strategic Planning Commission. Does anybody have any comments or anything about what they reviewed for that meeting? All right. Any motions on the floor? Meeting Packet Page 10 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 3 of 41 YAZZETTA: Move to approve. BONNETT: Second. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: We have a second. All right. We have a second. All right. Discussion. Thank you very much, Angela. I love them. We're doing the -- you know, we do discussions. It's all a transcript. And then we get the kind of the overview of it. Those two together really give a good record of the past. So it's good we talk about all this stuff and then we have this record to look back at which really helps, so thank you. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: I'm glad to help. You're welcome. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: All right. So we're going to move on to vote. All in favor of approving the minutes for the meeting, our SPAC meeting on November 19th, 2025, say aye. ALL: Aye. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion passed. Minutes are approved unanimously. All right. We're cruising today. Okay. So we are now down to agenda item 6 for those following along at home. That's our regular agenda for today. So that's the main meat of our meeting today and has to do with the discussion and possible action, but really in-depth discussion of our future strategic plan and our -- the signature strategy of land use and development. If you remember, at our workshop last June when we talked about this signature strategy, we carved out, you know, three different areas of emphasis that we were going to talk about today. Last fall, we talked about finance. We started with finance and we talked about all the different strategies underneath them, underneath finance. And then we talked about infrastructure next. And infrastructure actually flowed into two separate meetings. So holidays are over. And now, we're talking about our third strategic strategy which is land use development. First on the docket, we wanted to have a talk about the state trust land. We talked a lot about that. I think last year we had a good conversation about it, and that's why we put it underneath the pillars as a signature strategy. So I didn't know, are we just going to have a discussion or did you want to provide an overview or a map? Do Meeting Packet Page 11 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 4 of 41 you want to set the table for us, I guess. WESLEY: May I? CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Yeah. WESLEY: Okay. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Please do. WESLEY: I didn't click that, I guess. So Chairman, members, thank you for the opportunity to be here today to talk with you about land use. I saw three items on the agenda. State trust land, underutilized land and flexible zoning. And so these may just -- if it's okay just kind of all mushed together as we talk about it a little bit. But we will start with some discussion of state trust land, which is this area on the north side of town, the basically two-square miles of vacant property that was annexed in and zoned into the town about 20 years ago when there was a potential developer for this land that went through the process with the State Land Department to plan it and get it developed. That ultimately fell through. And so it's been sitting out there, various studies and comments have happened with regard to this land over the years. And about a year or so ago, we started receiving some more developer interest in this lands. People kind of coming in and poking around a little bit, asking some questions about it, reviewing the files on it, and starting to reach out a little bit to the state trust land. And so I know over the last few months, some of that's been going on. And when I was asked to come and speak with you today, I thought, well, maybe it'd be a good time to reach out to the State Land Department and see if anything's coming of any of that. And as a result of that, I got a response from that Department that says that Pulte has actually entered into an agreement with -- CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Can you say that again? WESLEY: Pulte. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Pulte. WESLEY: Pulte, the residential developer, Pulte, has submitted an application to State Trust Land to proceed with the planning process for this property. They have engaged Meeting Packet Page 12 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 5 of 41 their attorney. They've been starting to meet with the different utilities to work through some of those issues with regard to that. And based on learning that, we had a very brief pre, pre, pre discussion with their attorney on Monday and have set up a follow up meeting for February the 11th to discuss how they might move forward and what they might look at here on this property. They are certainly aware of what's gone on in the past with this zoning pattern, and they may or may not like some or all of it, and some may be requesting some rezoning. At this point, they are estimating that take about 12 to 18 months to get to the auction for the land. The attorney for Pulte was speculating that if they were successful and ultimately purchasing the property, that they would hope to be ready to turn dirt within about two years. HOENLE: Could you please tell us how the -- what's bounded, what's around the land? WESLEY: So you've got the middle school site here on the end of Fountain Hills Boulevard and maybe it'd be better to go back up to the aerial. Again, there's nothing there. There's this commercial piece here at Fountain Hills Boulevard in Glenbrook. It's kind of the last thing you really see in town as you exit the town and go up on McDowell Mountain Road out of town, but we do have single family residential boarding along the west and south portions of this property. Again, it's about two -- it's a little over two square miles. There's one square mile, another one and a little piece of this next one over here. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: I just want to -- but with the kind of the north is McDowell Park, Regional Park -- WESLEY: Right. Um-hum. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- and kind of towards -- WESLEY: Southern park. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- the northeast, maybe, or to the right. WESLEY: Yeah. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Is that bump up against reservation land? WESLEY: Yes, I believe so. I believe that's all reservation on this side and McDowell. Mountain up here. Then you go on up, you get to Rio Verde and so forth. Meeting Packet Page 13 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 6 of 41 CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So everybody feel free if you turn on your light, I'll look at you and call. And because you've said a lot already, which is awesome. I really appreciate you putting the time in to prep beforehand. WESLEY: Thank you. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So the question is, I wrote down, I kind of looked at this too over the last couple of weeks and it says there's one thing I wanted to read and that is -- oh, the trust, it does not concentrate. This is what it says on the website. It does not concentrate on selling the land that is next to urbanized areas until the land has reached a significant market value. It doesn't define what that is. So has this reached a significant market value several times in the past? Like it sounds like the State Land is ready to sell it. It can get it -- in this subjective verbiage, thinks that it is now worth selling. WESLEY: Chair, I would have to say, yes. That would be a better question, obviously, to ask them, but the fact that they have accepted the submission from Pulte and are allowing them to move forward towards consideration of an auction in a year or so, that would suggest that that would be true that they have believed that it has reached that point. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: But for the auction, anybody can -- WESLEY: That's correct. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- get on it. WESLEY: Um-hum. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: But it sounds like they've been working with somebody who they -- WESLEY: Right. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- think might have a good bid. WESLEY: Right. Right. And so that's the Pulte, in this case, would be their responsibility over the next year or so to go through a planning process with the town and looking at what's been approved with the zoning that's in place today, see if they think that's something they can work with, or if not to propose some rezonings and work that Meeting Packet Page 14 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 7 of 41 through the town and get all that approved. So it has its development ready. And then they hold the bid, hold the auction, and Pulte hopes after they spend all this time and money, they'll be the successful bidder, but it could end up being somebody else. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So when -- still looking at the lights. You guys are pretty quiet here today. How or if or does it ever transfer to being part of Fountain Hills? WESLEY: It already is. It was annexed back previously when -- CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Annexed. Why aren't we interacting with the developer to auction it off? WESLEY: Because it's still a state trust land. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. WESLEY: It's inside our corporate limits for zoning and those purposes, but it's still the state trust land. So they're the ones responsible for it. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: State is the landowner -- WESLEY: They are the landowner -- CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- in Fountain Hills. WESLEY: Correct. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: This is great. So how much of a say does the -- so do we have to -- does it have to go through our zoning -- WESLEY: Yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- commission? WESLEY: Yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So we have a say on how -- WESLEY: Yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- it's -- WESLEY: Absolutely. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- developed according to -- WESLEY: Yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So they're going to have -- they're going to -- Pulte is going to -- if this -- you know they bid, they buy it, or they to develop the land for the State, then that Meeting Packet Page 15 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 8 of 41 package has to go through our planning and zoning -- WESLEY: Correct. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- to take a look at. WESLEY: Yes. Town council have to approve any changes to the zoning as it's shown there today. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. Go ahead, Geoff. YAZZETTA: As it's zoned currently, how many homes can be built there? WESLEY: I'm afraid I don't recall what the -- YAZZETTA: Okay. WESLEY: -- number is off the top of my head. It's been a while since I've seen that. You can see the different zoning districts in there with a lot of the different residentials, a lot of open spaces for the different washes that run through. They're all, for the most part, you know, the medium to larger lot zonings. And it's several thousand homes, but I don't remember really what that number was before. YAZZETTA: I see. There's a lot of development going on in the West Valley and southeast down towards Queen Creek. Have we looked at how those cities and towns are interacting with the developers to try and streamline the process? I'm not saying, you know, bend the rules or anything, but just try to make it smooth because Fountain Hills, in my opinion, needs a shot in the arm as it relates to development. And I just want to know if there's any talk behind the scenes about trying to facilitate this development here. WESLEY: Chair, Vice Chair, we haven't had those discussions specifically. I may be a little bit biased, but from what I know about what goes on in other towns, we're about as streamlined as it gets. YAZZETTA: Okay. WESLEY: We really help applicants as they come in, particularly for a project like this. We will work to get it through as quickly as possible, but also knowing it's a big project that'll have a big impact on the town. We won't want to rush it past the citizens that have an interest and want to have their say in what's going on, but -- Meeting Packet Page 16 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 9 of 41 YAZZETTA: Sure. And obviously, this is predating all of us here in town, but would this be the largest subdivision development in Fountain Hills, or were there larger ones in earlier? WESLEY: As far as -- that's a little bit maybe challenging to ask in terms of tracts, you know, certainly, at the start of the town, see if this curse will pop up, you know, parcels, large parcels were laid out at one time for, you know, the bulk of the town. YAZZETTA: Um-hum. WESLEY: And they came back and did individual subdivisions. So it would be kind of similar in that regard -- YAZZETTA: Um-hum. WESLEY: -- and certainly a little bit smaller than this. In terms of, you know, any recent history. The Adero Canyon up here is the largest single one that we've done. And again, it's smaller. Eagles Nest up here. You know, at the time it was done or even Sunridge Canyon through here. They would probably be fairly comparable in their size. YAZZETTA: Thank you. And one other question. I know the sanitary district is able to accommodate this. Are there any -- do we know of any water or electrical upgrades that need to be made? WESLEY: Chair, Vice Chair, the two big issues for this and the impediments have been both water and sewer. I don't know that electric is necessarily a problem that can fairly easily go anyplace. It's the water and the sewer that are the bigger challenge. That's why they've been meeting with them early -- YAZZETTA: I see. WESLEY: -- in the process to start to work through how those issues would be handled. YAZZETTA: And those obstacles, it creates a financial burden for the developer, which makes -- WESLEY: Correct. YAZZETTA: -- the project maybe not make sense for them to pursue -- WESLEY: Correct. YAZZETTA: -- that issue. Meeting Packet Page 17 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 10 of 41 WESLEY: That's been the issue that we've understood from the State in the past. And consultants who have looked at it is -- it's been a feeling that the cost of infrastructure in here is going to drive the land prices so high that it just wasn't going to be cost effective to develop. And so I assume that that Pulte has looked at it, that enough to think that they can make those numbers work. YAZZETTA: Thank you so much. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: The proceeds from the land are supposed to be dedicated to K through 12, right from the State's perspective. Will the development or the sale of this land from the State to the developer help the Fountain Hill school system? WESLEY: Mr. Trimble, you might know as much about that as anybody here as far as how that works on that end of it, but I don't know exactly. TRIMBLE: It all goes into -- yeah, it all goes into a big to the big pot of K-12 funding, so it's not -- WESLEY: State -- TRIMBLE: The State. WESLEY: Yeah. So it'd been -- TRIMBLE: So it'd be dedicate it to Fountain Hills Unified School District. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. TRIMBLE: Yeah. Thought I'd asked. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: And I looked up to -- TRIMBLE: Thought I'd asked. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- the previous question on how many homes as it was zoned in 2006. Based on an article here, it says 1,750, so they'll probably ask for -- well, I don't know. They may ask for changes in zoning, but that's as currently zoned. WESLEY: Right. Again, that's speculation on my part, but I would think they would probably want to increase the densities a little bit and get a few more homes than that out of this. But that's just speculation on my part at this point. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. I know we all kind of cut you off. Did you have more with the State Land that you want to -- Meeting Packet Page 18 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 11 of 41 WESLEY: That's really it. That's what we know at this point. We will certainly be keeping town management appraised as we go through this process. And at some point, they will -- they'll have actual public applications that will be reviewed and you'll see those happen. But I would it'll probably be next fall, I would expect before we'd see, you know, the rezoning applications. HOENLE: I had a question, but it got answered already. And it was related to the zoning, obviously. I'm assuming that they're going to try to get their maximum amount of homes out of this development. But I was also wondering whether there might be any opportunities for mixed use to add some like commercial mixed, something or anything like that. WESLEY: Sure, Chair, Commissioner, that -- that's a good question. That's something that that we will be discussing with them. And we will talk about this maybe more here in just a second. There is one spot of commercial zoning on the map. It was zoned before in an area up here for lodging for some type of resort hotel maybe. Resort hotels aren't quite as big a thing as they were back then, and the ones we have been struggling a bit. Well, they still want to resort hotel, I don't know. We'll see the commercial that we're going to talk about in a minute. Just south of here is kind of a struggling commercial center. Do we need more commercial in this area at this time? Don't know. That's something we will discuss with them. I did throw out to them based on some conversations we've been having with the Economic Development Committee about, is there an opportunity here for some type of employment land to bring offices or corporate headquarters of some kind or whatever here that would be appropriate for the town. They kind of went, oh, I hadn't thought about that one before. So I don't know if that will go anywhere but throwing that out there. But certainly, from the town's perspective, we will be looking at and proposing things that we think are beneficial for the town in their considerations. HOENLE: I'm assuming what I heard this morning, and the state of the town, that we are continuing to try to find some type of an anchor employer to develop something Meeting Packet Page 19 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 12 of 41 somewhere. So who knows, might be an opportunity for that. WESLEY: Right. HOENLE: Thank you. WESLEY: Um-hum. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So pull it all together, State trust, what would you see, and anybody can speak up. The question is for the room. You know, I was prepping for what's this going to look like in five years, and I had a whole different perspective than what you just laid out. So five to ten years now, what are some of the things that a strategic plan for Fountain Hills might be able to help land use, especially this area, in five to ten years, because you said it might auction it off in a year or so a year or two, and then within five years be, you know, up and developing it. That's a goal. Well, the strategic plan is five to ten years out. WESLEY: Right. And so you know, I haven't thought about that at this point. This is all kind of kind of new. But you know, five years from now, if it goes forward as proposed, we'd be seeing the first homes built and residents, you know, within five years. And so as this continues to build out, and again, depending upon what actually ends up here, you know, the streets, the parks, the schools, all those things, the commercial services and needs of the town all get impacted to some degree. There are certainly short-term revenues that come in during construction that are helpful for the town. Long term, there are maintenance costs for roads and parks, and fire and police and so forth. And you know, what's the balance there that we're going to get out of those in the long run are all things to think about. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. REYES: So I had a long list, and I -- WESLEY: Cut you off. REYES: (Indiscernible). WESLEY: Okay. Yes. Yeah. It's all been new for us. And think about this coming this much sooner. We've all been kind of thinking it's further out. And you know, this may still, at this point, fall through if they really can't make the numbers work, but it's Meeting Packet Page 20 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 13 of 41 promising that they're getting this far and looking seriously at it. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Does the State make any money off of it right now? And like I looked into it and some of the State Trust Land, they put solar panel farms on them to make electricity. They did agriculture. WESLEY: Right. Sometimes they'll have cattle grazing. I don't know that any of that happens on this one. I don't know if you know. I don't think so though. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: They never -- YAZZETTA: No, I don't think there's any cattle grazing out there. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Legally anyways. YAZZETTA: Right now. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Yeah. Maybe some horses passing through from time to time. Yeah. WESLEY: There are some really pathetic looking deer. They're around the -- YAZZETTA: Yeah, there may be some deer out there, but I don't think the Department gets any money right now. It's a cost. It's a little bit of a cost to hold it for them, but not much really. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. All right. Okay. Any other questions about the State Trust Land? All right. We're going to move on to the next topic, which is kind of broad flexible zoning. WESLEY: And if you don't mind, Chair, I'm going to combine that with the other one about underutilized land because I think they kind of go together because we might use some flexible zoning tools to help facilitate the use of some of the underutilized land. And so start by just moving south a little bit here along Fountain Hills Boulevard. We have this commercial node that's there, north of Glenbrook and El Pueblo. If you travel out this area of town, you've seen it. It hasn't changed much in the last 20 years. It's got a little bit of scattered development. Several vacant lots, some zoning that doesn't work very well on it, particularly on the northern piece. And so yes, it's underutilized. Right now, we've had -- over here in this this piece, there's currently an office building Meeting Packet Page 21 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 14 of 41 under construction on this corner with some second-floor apartments. The person who's done that has purchased these properties for some more apartments. There's been discussion about some apartments residential uses and a mixed use over in this area, but that didn't quite work out at this point. It's kind of back on the drawing boards. There were some apartments approved at one point for the corner up here at Glenbrook, but that timed out. They didn't proceed with it before their special use permit expired. So that's not happening at this point. Get periodic questions about these small lots up here. I don't want to get too much in the weeds, but this is Zone C-1, which requires you to have your own parking, but these weren't platted. These were platted like CC lots, which is a common commercial like this, down here, we have a common parking lot, and so it throws a wrench into actually developing these up here. And so we are going to need to do some things with the zoning up here to really make this work. We've got some ideas in mind, one of which would be to take the overlay that we currently have in the downtown area, the planned shopping plaza overlay, and do an overlay here, which would allow it to use the common parking would help it some as one option. But we are considering options for what we call -- names just went out of my head. Floating zones in town. And a floating zone is creating a zoning district or zoning designation, usually through the planned area development process. And the town looks at an area and says, you know, this would really be great if it developed with these types of characteristics and uses. We can't really go in and zone somebody's property. Well, we can, but it's -- you face some legal challenges when you do that, and so you've got to be careful in doing it. And so a floating zone process takes care of that by the town looking and saying here's what we really want to see. Let's make it easy for that to happen. Let's pass the zoning ordinance that allows that. But we don't apply it to the land. It's floating there above the land until -- one of the property owners says, gee, I see where that makes sense for Meeting Packet Page 22 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 15 of 41 me. And they say, yes, town. I want that my zoning change from what it is to that, that you've already approved. And simply by signing a document, we change the zoning. They've got that zoning we want them to have. And so since they end up asking for it, there's no legal issues with that. And so that's a type of flexible zoning that we're -- we've been talking about with the Economic Development Committee about instituting in the town. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So citywide, so I'm going to jump off a little bit, different areas. Do we have a minimum parking requirement for developments? WESLEY: Yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So you know, there's been an emphasis in some places across the United States -- WESLEY: Um-hum. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- especially in the southwest where parking lots mean sun, mean heat, mean, you know, to eliminate any parking requirements. So you don't need a structure that's a quarter full or you don't need an open land that all it is, is has asphalt that reflects heat. Eliminate any minimum parking for the whole town. What do you think about that? I mean, it's a thing. WESLEY: It is a thing. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: I just think that -- WESLEY: It is. Yes. So I've been reading about it. I'm well aware of it going on around the country. Some various changes. The high cost of free parking is one of the things that talked about a lot in planning circles because there are a lot of costs that go with it. Some of which you've named. There are definitely, like anything, there's pros and cons. We've taken a slight step in that direction by establishing maximum parking allowance. Because we have experienced in the past, you park your development for the worst day just before Christmas. And the rest of the year, 90 percent of it sits vacant. And so we don't want all that hot asphalt just sitting there. So we set a maximum as well as a minimum in our ordinance. I think we have to be careful if we were to go down that route because there are because of the small town that we are and the small Meeting Packet Page 23 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 16 of 41 commercial areas that we have. You have to think about if something were to develop or redevelop -- well, I guess, I'll go that way first for a second. One of the things is right now we are mostly developed and so the parking lot is already there. So we put that in. It's only going to apply to new development, and there's not going to be that much new development for it to really make an impact on. But it would mean that you take -- I think one of the examples I used with the person was take the lot there next to the medical center at Trevino and Saguaro got that vacant lot. It's supposed to be an extension of the hospital. If now we say, okay, no parking requirement there, and they come in, now, they build the rest of that medical facility, the hospital, and we don't have parking. Okay. That's great. People can park on all those residential streets around there. Do we want that to happen? Well, most developers will say, well, no, they're going to think of their customers and they're going to put in at least some level of parking. But will they really put in enough or are we going to impact the residential neighborhood around it? So that's one of the challenges we'd have to look at carefully if we were to go down that type of route. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. Thanks. Go ahead, Geoff. YAZZETTA: The floating zone, is that convertible forward and backward? Meaning that if somebody say, you know, buys a property or leases it, they're able to apply for the whatever that floating zone might be, but then say it changes hands in the future. Can you then go back, or is it once you snap it on, that's the new zone? WESLEY: That's the zone. You have to go through the zoning process. YAZZETTA: To revert it. WESLEY: If you can -- you can always apply for rezoning your property wherever, and so you can always do that. YAZZETTA: Um-hum. WESLEY: But no, you couldn't just sign something now to revert back to -- YAZZETTA: I see. WESLEY: -- what it was before you -- Meeting Packet Page 24 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 17 of 41 YAZZETTA: Okay. WESLEY: -- opted in. YAZZETTA: Got it. WESLEY: Yeah. YAZZETTA: Thank you. WESLEY: So again, this is one of our underutilized areas that we've been working with a little bit with some of the property owners there. It's challenging when you've got multiple property owners and they're not all in the same place thinking the same thing about what they want to see happen there. But we have been a man and I both met with them a couple of times and tried to help them think through some options for development there. Yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: What does mixed use development mean in Fountain Hills? How has that been being interpreted within Fountain Hills? WESLEY: So typically when we talk about mixed use, we're talking about some type of commercial ground floor and residential upper floors, but it can be a variety of things. There's mixed use within a building. So again, you've got not just commercial or just residential, but you've got different types of uses, or you can have a mix of uses on a property. And so if once we get to Four Peaks Plaza, where the target is and it's been approved with a portion of it converting to multifamily, so we're getting a mix of uses there and kind of confined area, but it's not really a mixed use in terms of one building having a variety of uses. There are different some different ways to look at it. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Have we been the town has been moving more towards mixed use over the last -- WESLEY: Yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- five years? WESLEY: Yeah. Yes, I would say we have. You know, it started several years ago with the downtown town center zoning and then with the change to the zoning ordinance to allow multifamily or residential in commercial districts through the special use permit process, and then starting to allow that in some cases by right in the downtown and so Meeting Packet Page 25 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 18 of 41 forth. So yes, we have been moving that way. So -- go ahead. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Sorry. I'm just going to keep plowing through. WESLEY: Okay. Got you. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Anybody else have any comments? I'm just going to call on one of you guys and make you talk in a minute. BONNETT: I actually do have a question tied back to the floating zone. WESLEY: Okay. BONNETT: That's the first time I've heard of this. How common is it? Because it seems like it would be really attractive. WESLEY: It's not real common -- BONNETT: Um-hum. WESLEY: -- but I have used it before. And I've seen some other communities that have used it, but it's not real common. BONNETT: So this would be the first use in Fountain Hills? WESLEY: Yes. BONNETT: Okay. WESLEY: Um-hum. BONNETT: Um-hum. Thank you. WESLEY: Yeah. So I guess I'll come back to that one aspect of it with regard to that. And other things we may be doing in terms of flexibilities or modifications is we want to determine what it is that we want and need in Fountain Hills and try to make that as easy as possible and things that we don't particularly want, make those a little bit more challenging to do so that we can hopefully move forward and with what the town wants. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: How often or is it mandated all the zoning codes updated in Fountain Hills? Is there a requirement or does the Commission just work with the town and do it as it comes up, or is it regimented? WESLEY: So Chair, the general plan is regimented for every ten years. It has to be reviewed and updated and reapproved. But as far as zoning goes, no, there's no Meeting Packet Page 26 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 19 of 41 requirement for that. We are constantly either on our own, noticing some things that need some improvement, or we get citizens or counsel members who point out some places that they'd like to see some differences. So it's probably one of the steadiest parts of my job is working on text amendments to the zoning ordinance. But with that being said when the town was initiated as a county development under the county zone, zoning ordinance at the time, that was how the initial development occurred. And when the town was incorporated, they created the town's first zoning ordinance back in 1990. And it started off really as just kind of taking pieces out of the county ordinance and saying, okay, this is all we need for Fountain Hills. And then there's a committee that worked from there over the about three years and massaged it a little bit to be the town's first zoning ordinance in 1993. It still carried a lot of the items from the county, but a few things were added to it and adjusted. It hasn't changed substantially in format and content since then. A lot of tweaks here and there. In response to that, I'm currently working with a Planning and Zoning Commission for a bit of an overhaul of the zoning ordinance to bring it more into today's forums and processes, and kind of packaging things back together. Some things have kind of gotten scattered in there that aren't as orderly as they could be and so forth. So we are working on that update with the zoning ordinance. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So my question would be, first of all, we went 35 minutes without mentioning AI. So I'm going to -- now. So now, I'm going to mention AI. The zoning and planning codes could all be easily dumped into AI and ask AI what part of our zoning codes need updated after reviewing small towns in Arizona or small towns in the United States. So that leads into the question that I wrote down is AI plus zoning equals question mark. WESLEY: That's what it would equal, I imagine. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So that's an open-ended question. Can you help me with the question mark? Meeting Packet Page 27 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 20 of 41 WESLEY: So I'm not sure I want to say this, but basically being maybe a little bit old school, I'm not as versed in using AI as maybe some other folks are. I hear about it. I know it's out there. And it certainly could be an option to go that way. It's not one I have thought of at this point, and there are benefits from doing that. I have seen it in some areas as we have talked about portions of the code and get what AI suggest that we do in this area or that area. We have to be careful with zoning code changes because of land use impacts that go with that and development rights that are in place and how those get impacted. So kind of coming back to this current effort to update our zoning ordinance in a more comprehensive manner. The first steps are kind of the ones I've laid out. Let's get it reorganized. Let's get the use tables to something more usable instead of how they are today. And once we get all that in place, then I think the next step would be to look at the different regulations themselves and see, okay, which ones are these really can be updated and improved upon and meet today's needs a little bit better. I don't want to do all that in one step because I think that would really bog us down for a lot of years. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. Okay. I'm going to keep going. WESLEY: Okay. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: You're good? Is there a minimum lot or unit size in Fountain Hills? WESLEY: Yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Is there a mandated minimum? WESLEY: Yes. Each zoning district has a minimum size that goes with it, as far as what gets built on the property. It seems like there may be something one of the industrial and the commercial districts about a minimum kind of unit size. But for the most part it's the maximums in terms of setbacks and lot coverages and providing all the parking and whatever. Let's see. Wrong one. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Well, you know, the question I'm leading to in a strategic tactical. Why do we need minimums? Seems like an obstacle. Meeting Packet Page 28 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 21 of 41 WESLEY: So the suggestion is we have no minimums. And let's -- let people just build whatever they want. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: No. No. The State would go wherever they want. WESLEY: Okay. Okay. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So we wouldn't have a minimum lot in this (indiscernible) lots. WESLEY: Oh, okay. Just on that one piece. Not in general. Okay. I was about to have a heart attack. Let's see here. So it's probably more interesting down here. So yeah. So I'm looking at the commercial districts. So the office district has minimum 12,000 square foot lot size. We've got one lot zoned office in town. Is it two. Off of Saguaro, west of Shea. The CC zoning district has a 1,125 square foot minimum lot size, and all the rest of them have a 6,000 square foot minimum lot size. So they're pretty small to do anything with. And then some minimum widths that go with those. So they're pretty small. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Bernie. HOENLE: Sort of a tag on that one. There are areas of the country going to small homes development -- WESLEY: Um-hum. HOENLE: -- for one or two people. Okay. You sort of talking about infill. The state trust land would be expansion -- WESLEY: Um-hum. HOENLE: -- and the rest of it is infill. And most of them, I think what you covered has been privately owned. And then we've got some school owned property. And how about town owned. Are there parcels that the town is going to develop and where are they? And are there any thoughts or priorities to do any more town development? WESLEY: So Chair, Commissioner, I can answer a little bit of that, and I might see if Mr. Trimble has some thoughts he wants to add with that. So as far as town owned property and town developments, certainly, we have some land set aside for parks that the towns can develop for parks, but as far as the town developing, I don't know if there are any other facilities. I'm not aware of any. Meeting Packet Page 29 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 22 of 41 We've talked about recently for any town facilities that are needed beyond parks. We do have some town owned land around, and it's one of the things the mayor has brought up are there some of these pieces, parcels that we could dispose of and for private development to move in on. And that's an item that will be coming back to town council. I believe the first meeting in March to look at one tract in particular, just as an example of what it might be like, what the impacts might be to the neighborhood, because that is one of the concerns that a little bit. They've talked about it thus far is most of the tracts that the town does own that are scattered around were acquired largely for various drainage type projects or floodplain or possible future roads or those types of things that just didn't pan out aren't needed at this point, but the neighbors used to them being open space. And so even if it might be a compatible house built next door, are they really going to want us to do that. So again, that's just part of the issue or challenge that comes with that. Do you have any other thing to add at this point? TRIMBLE: I really don't have anything else to add. Like you said, maybe parks, maybe a fire station that is one of the -- WESLEY: A fire station could -- TRIMBLE: -- that new the state trust land if that goes and if that's still a thought, but that was at one time talked about. But Amanda, do you have anything that you've heard of because I haven't heard anything in terms of town developing, items like that, so -- CHAIRMAN GARMAN: How about, like, where is the threshold? Could we increase the threshold? This is about special use permitting. Special use permits. Like, where's the line where you can approve it, or it has to go in front of the Commission to review. And is that line flexible in other towns and other planners across the country? WESLEY: Yes, chair. That's very flexible. That's pretty much a town-by-town type of thing and what they want to do. Again, my other local experience is in Mesa, where we had two levels. We had special use permits that went to the Board of Adjustment and were a little bit rigorous, a little Meeting Packet Page 30 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 23 of 41 bit more, you know, meet these criteria and you can be approved. And then council use permits, which were a little bit more politically sensitive ones, which would then go on to the council. And so that's just one example of the options they use there. We can have options here. Again, the Mayor's Economic Committee has started us looking at special use permits to see if there's some of those that could be lessened. So we don't hold up that development process and add time for something that's not maybe really necessary. The town, in my opinion, has maybe relied a little bit too much on special use permits here for lots of little things that that don't really rise to that level of needing to go to town council. But anything that maybe didn't quite neatly fit in the ordinance says, oh, well, let's make that a special use permit and take things there. So that is something in addition to this overall review of the zoning ordinance that we've been tasked to look at are the special use permits, particularly as they apply to and pertain to commercial development. So we'll be getting back with them. That's on our agenda that we haven't maybe talked about in a little while. JACOBS: Make (indiscernible). WESLEY: Yeah, maybe, but in the long list of things, it require special use permit. I think the ones that are really of primary interest, at least to the Economic Development Committee. There's maybe only half a dozen that I think may be of concern that they would want to see something modified on that really may impact economic development. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Bernie. HOENLE: One other thing that's been considerable discussion with the school board has been density and families. So is there any basically conscious planning towards aiming at -- I don't want to use the term "affordable." That has a different connotation. But housing for families, younger families, young professionals, for some of these properties that we talked about, including the state trust land, because, you know, 1,600 homes or something like that, still a small percentage of the total population of the town with declining enrollments across the Meeting Packet Page 31 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 24 of 41 entire valley. Is there any talk about or focus on trying to look in that direction, whether it's single-family homes closer together, whether it's multi-level dwellings or anything of that nature? FRIEDEL: Chair, Commissioner, I'll start a response. I don't know if Amanda wants to chime in on this one, too, but yes, as we have the opportunity to talk with folks looking at developing in Fountain Hills, we do bring up the need for a greater mix of housing and housing that can be attainable by younger families, young professionals, and so forth to help balance out our demographics. It's challenging because for the most part, we're dealing with a little bit here and a little bit there. The state trust land does give us that opportunity again to look at a larger tract that can have a greater impact, and we will be bringing that up as we talk to Pulte. So I'm not sure what their thinking their target market is at this point, but I know that I did mention to them in our brief initial discussion on Monday that that is a focus of the town to help provide housing for families. HOENLE: Is that an emphasis for the town or is that found? Where's that document that says that's an emphasis of the town? WESLEY: It's in the general plan. HOENLE: It's in the general plan that was from ten years or -- WESLEY: Um-hum. HOENLE: It's getting close to ten years, isn't it? WESLEY: Yeah, we're about halfway through. It was adopted in 2020 by the voters. I think so. Yeah. HOENLE: And it's in there? FRIEDEL: I'm pretty sure. I'm going to say it is. JACOBS: Chair and Commissioners, I'll just add two. It's also included in the 2023, 2026, which will be time for an update, the community economic development strategy. And then just to follow up, too, with the Commissioner of targeted areas right now, again, looking at the community economic development strategy, we've been focusing on the downtown area and then of course, the Shea corridor. And then there's other Meeting Packet Page 32 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 25 of 41 elements. So referencing the Fountain Hills and Glenbrook area, that is included in the economic development strategy. So we call it a "CEDS." But because some of it is already developed, it's a little bit hard. And in the case -- case by case. And so we had a mixed- use property get approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission, as well as council, what a couple of months ago, the Bondy project. But again, that's something. It's now just six units and they're thinking to of selling those for $1 million. Now, of course, I see Bernie's face. So, of course, again, once all of it's approved, it becomes private. We can cite our general plan, strategic plan, what we're hearing from constituents, but again, at the end of the day, it's their product. TRIMBLE: Yeah. It's not in the strategic plan. I know that. JACOBS: Oh, the town strategic plan. TRIMBLE: Plan. JACOBS: Yeah. So remember the community economic development strategy. TRIMBLE: I would say this is -- I'm going to say this, put this in the minutes. But anybody in Fountain Hills who's -- who wants to have more affordable housing is welcome to sell their house for what they paid for it. They'll get people clamoring. So we'll start a line after this meeting for people in Fountain Hills who want to sell their house for what they paid for it. That line is going to be pretty short, so it's not in the strategic plan. It was. The reason I bring that up, it's a joke, but it was in the strategic plan prior to this one, and it was taken out at the council. You know, when we had interactions with the council for this one, so -- okay. WESLEY: So just another part along that line. The general plan prior to this one had a cap on density at 12 units per acre. If you wanted more density than that, you had to get a general plan amendment. We took that out of the current plan. And you may be aware that we've been talking about density for the downtown area as it continues to develop and redevelop. And that's current topic that the Planning Zoning Commission is reconsidering about what should be that allowable downtown density. Meeting Packet Page 33 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 26 of 41 CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So but along those lines, I got a little bit. My question is do we -- what is our zoning like for allowing family homes, multifamily homes in commercially zoned areas? So we have some empty commercial -- WESLEY: Right. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: We have commercial lots that are out of business and -- WESLEY: Right. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- you know, people might want to change those into homes. WESLEY: Right. And so for most of the town to do any type of residential, single family, multifamily in a commercial zone, C0 through C3, it requires approval of a special use permit by town council. The exception to that is downtown. So in the TCCD district, which is along here, where Park Place is, and over here where Plaza Fountain site is, you can't have that mixed use of commercial and residential by right. And in the Plat 208 area where we currently have the planned shopping plaza overlay, you can have eight units per acre by right on a second floor. So you don't have to go through that special use permit process. Again, that's that idea of make what you want to have happen easy instead of hard. The new downtown overlay that's been approved but not yet applied, but is now being potentially amended set that at 35 units per acre, but when council got to the last minute, they thought maybe that's too much. It ought to go back down to 15-ish or something. So that's what P&Z is now considering is what that density should be by right. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. Are folks in Fountain Hills allowed to have a home business? WESLEY: Yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So business out of their home? WESLEY: Yep. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. No -- okay. Thanks. WESLEY: There are certain parameters in Section 5.14 of the Zoning Ordinance, but yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: What's that? Meeting Packet Page 34 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 27 of 41 WESLEY: You need your business license. BONNETT: I understand. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Polly. BONNETT: Since there is interest in more density and affordability for families, has there been any discussion around developments with multigen housing? WESLEY: So Chair, Commissioner, yes, we do get requests along that line periodically. Fountain Hills has maybe been a bit ahead of the game compared to other valley cities in terms of our allowances for accessory dwelling units or the in-house next gen homes, which really is all in one house. We have some parameters for that in terms of the relationships of sizes of those pieces, but they're allowed. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Joe. REYES: Going back a step, I take it that any houses in some of those areas that you pointed to a few minutes ago, some of those lots are not all that large. And I'm wondering, would there have to be special considerations for the parking that would go kind of hand in glove with any -- WESLEY: Right. REYES: -- homes other than obviously multi-level? WESLEY: Right. Sure. So starting first with the downtown area here in Plat 208, it was developed with the idea and understanding that all the existing parking provides the parking necessary for whatever development occurs. And so you want to add apartments to any of these buildings, it doesn't matter. For the most part, residential requires less parking than most commercial uses, so it actually reduces the parking requirement. When we get in other areas, though, it's just part of the mix. Over here, you know, if they wanted to come over here on the Bashas area and add some multifamily in there, we would look at that, you know, what we have in terms of commercial and residential required parking for each use. And look at the parking and make sure it had enough to cover both. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: One other topic, and this is -- it might help. Have you ever heard Meeting Packet Page 35 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 28 of 41 of the term "accessory dwelling units?" WESLEY: ADU's, yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: ADU's. WESLEY: Um-hum. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Is that legal in Fountain Hills? WESLEY: Yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Can you have an ADU, attic or basement or garage? WESLEY: Yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: It's good to know. Thanks. WESLEY: Again, there are certain parameters that go on those, but yes, you can. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. So see, you can have affordable housing in your attic. You can tell why all of us are not on the Planning and Zoning Commission, right? You guys just are all very excited to talk about zoning today, but we could move over if you wanted to also -- I know you wanted to put them together, but underused parcels is kind of what we called it or underused land. WESLEY: Um-hum. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Is there anything specific you wanted to mention on that before I ask you a couple questions? WESLEY: Just a couple of things we wanted to mention is having the downtown map up here is a good one for this is you look at the map, and you can see the number of unused parcels in there based on the discussions we've recently been having with Planning and Zoning Commission. I happen to know that's a little bit over 11 acres worth of land that's available in Plat 208 for development. But while it may be looks kind of challenging and a lot to do, know that also as Staff and Amanda could speak more to this if you want some details. We do have inquiries from people about various parcels, until they really get to the point of pulling the trigger and submitting for site plans or building permits. You know, we really can't say much because things can change. We don't want to get ahead of the game. But there are a number of these parcels that are actively being considered right now for development. Meeting Packet Page 36 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 29 of 41 CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Are most of them are privately owned? WESLEY: Yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Almost all of them -- WESLEY: Yeah. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- do you think? WESLEY: Yeah. Um-hum. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Were you going to say something? I saw you -- JACOBS: I don't know if he -- I got -- YAZZETTA: I was just -- JACOBS: Oh. It's okay. Yeah. YAZZETTA: I'm sorry. No, I was going to ask how much of an obstacle to developing those, say, 11 acres is Plat 208 itself? Do we have any feedback from potential developers? Because I know the CC&R's from Plat 208 are 40, 50 years old at this point. And I know there are some very difficult hurdles that need to be cleared for, you know, some of the voting requirements. I know a lot of the property owners are either out of state or even out of the country, which makes it difficult to find consensus on some things that, you know, might -- WESLEY: Right. YAZZETTA: -- be changing there. WESLEY: Right. So Chair, Vice Chair, I'll give my quick answer, then we'll see if Amanda has anything to add. There are challenges when it comes to doing things with the common area of Plat 208, primarily the parking lots or the little pocket parks. But when it comes to developing the individual lot, there really aren't too many hurdles there. They do have to comply, like anything else, with the Property Owners Association with some of the rules. They have the architectural committee and so forth, but the actual development of a platted lot, as far as I know, that's not any bigger challenge there than it is in place else. YAZZETTA: Thank you. JACOBS: Yeah. And I'll just add. Yeah, that part is not difficult. And then to add on Meeting Packet Page 37 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 30 of 41 what John was saying is, again, so you see some vacant parcels but some of them are owned. There's maybe just a couple that are for sale. And then where we've been approached of, you know. So there's a piece of parcel that went under escrow in the summer and the gentleman plans to build a restaurant. We can't exactly tell you where just yet, but why it's been delayed and has taken so many months. Is he would like to make it larger? He would like to do more. And so when John and I spoke to him over the summer, I was like, do you believe in it may not be for sale, but if the price is right. And so we connected him to parcels that are vacant or maybe a building next door to have conversations. One fell through, another, he's still reaching out to a gentleman. So again, you may see that it's vacant or think, oh, nothing's happening. There's a lot of stuff behind the scenes. And one thing I like to share is an example with council and Commissions and the public is take the former Appian Way, which is now Haan Korean BBQ. So if -- most of the Commissioners I know, hello, Polly. I'm Amanda. Nice to meet you. Is before I started. So it's going to be four years this March. I can't believe it, but it was purchased by the current owners, but it took him almost four years to then open this restaurant. So again, like, there was a lot of talk, like nothing's happening, but it's -- well, you're not seeing a for sale sign. It is owned. And again, the timing has to be right because also there's a struggle as you guys know to get the right workforce when it comes to restaurant and retail. Are they pulling from Fountain Hills or again, the outskirts of, you know, into Mesa, Scottsdale where people are traveling here. So just wanted to add that note. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Thank you. JACOBS: You're welcome. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So can the town declare or have an ordinance that says, you know, this property's been empty for 10 years, 20 years. We're going to decree that it's abandoned. And this is what we do with abandoned properties in our town. Now, is that -- have you -- no, I don't want to get close to what's -- I forgot the term. I'm not Meeting Packet Page 38 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 31 of 41 talking -- yeah, eminent domain. But the town, you know, people -- well, people -- you know, the town has expectations and the direction it wants to go. And I mean, something like that is possible, right, especially if you give somebody time. You're not taking anything from them. You're saying, here's the expectations for being a landowner in our town. And if it's been abandoned for so long, this is what is going to happen. WESLEY: So I've never seen anything like that. I don't think anybody -- CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Well, if your towns don't declare lots abandoned, eyesores? WESLEY: Not like -- not in that regard. You know, there are situations where you've got, you know, a built property with a house on it that truly has been abandoned and is falling down to declare a nuisance and abate the nuisance by going and having it cleared off and then putting a lien on the property. So whoever the property owner is will someday pay for that, but it stays in private ownership and, you know, probably just sits there and maybe becomes an eyesore again because it's not really being taken care of. But beyond that, I'm not aware of any way particularly with just a vacant tract of ground that just hasn't been developed since the town was incorporated. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Interesting. That seems to have crossed the line there. It's just -- everybody's, like, backing away from me. WESLEY: Yeah. Along that line, however when we -- through the downtown revised strategy that was done a year or so ago, one of the items on that list that's hasn't received quite as much attention yet, but we recognize it's important from the input we got from the public, is that level of property maintenance that does go on with these undeveloped, unused properties downtown. Are there some things that could be done to get them up a little bit higher level while they're sitting there vacant? That is someplace on the list to consider at some point, but that hasn't been a high priority yet, but maybe along that line. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: You can work with these, hey, this has been empty for 10 years or 20 years. We have this company over here that could put solar panels on your Meeting Packet Page 39 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 32 of 41 property, you know, and get you some income. WESLEY: Right. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Or, hey, you know, we could make this a community garden until you -- WESLEY: Right. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- decide what you want to do with it. WESLEY: Right. So again, along that line with the new overlay for the downtown area, it does include a provision in there for temporary uses -- CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. WESLEY: -- to make it a little easier for somebody to do -- I don't know if community garden would really be the right thing, but if they wanted to put some kind of community garden on it or something, that's very low in terms of upfront costs to get something started happening on the property. Maybe they put some gravel down and on Friday nights, they have a movie night and -- CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Yeah. WESLEY: -- you know, whatever. Just something to get them using it on a temporary basis. So that is an allowance in the new downtown overlay for the downtown area. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: But that's just for the downtown area? WESLEY: At this point, yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: There's nothing like writ large for the town -- WESLEY: No. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- or anything. WESLEY: So I'm going to go to this map and unfortunately, it's kind of small for you. But if you look at some areas in here, I'm not sure if you can tell what's happening in these lots, but that's a bunch of broken-down vehicles that are stored in some of these areas. And that's on our code enforcement list and our town list to see what we can do, so we're talking about underutilized properties. That's another way that maybe they're really not being utilized to the best benefit of the town by essentially being junkyards. I'm not being recorded, am I? Okay. She's not. Meeting Packet Page 40 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 33 of 41 CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Yes, we are. WESLEY: Oh. JACOBS: What? I'm sorry. Oh. It's -- WESLEY: Okay. JACOBS: I was deep in thought on something. WESLEY: Um-hum. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: But you can look -- WESLEY: Sorry. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- temporary uses. WESLEY: Right. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: I'm going to go research that. WESLEY: Okay. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. Any other comments about anything from a business point of view? I don't know, underused parcels. Sounds polite, doesn't it for these. JACOBS: Forget anything, John? WESLEY: Switched it to the to this slide if you want -- JACOBS: Oh, we wanted to -- CHAIRMAN GARMAN: What about -- are some of these properties -- I looked at some, they would use some of these properties as an easement access and they would say, you know, this property hasn't been used in a while. And these are your neighbors next door, or this business next door needs a bigger easement. So if you're not going to do anything with this property, we're going to take this to the Zoning & Planning. We're going to have an easement so they can drive a truck through it. Well, okay. Easement was another one. I'm sorry. Go ahead, I interrupted you. JACOBS: Oh, no. I think we've covered most of it. And then again, do we dare bring up again the Four Peaks Plaza of -- really to as staff, we're looking at each area case by case. So with this balancing, okay, do we give up the commercial for the rezoning? And then I think you all know that John and I were supportive of doing a partial rezoning at the Four Peaks Plaza, or as I call it, the Target center, to add apartments. And again, it's -- Meeting Packet Page 41 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 34 of 41 some people are like, well, there's no benefit to that, but there is, so -- right. We're growing our population. We get state shared revenues. We're looking at that heavily. And then not to steal Paul's, our CFO's, thunder. But next month, we'll be having our council retreat. And I don't know if you guys are aware, but San Tan Valley incorporated. And so now, guess what? Are we getting the same level of state shared revenues. No, we are not. So that's something that is a loss. And then also just looking at after 2020 with COVID-19 of you're not seeing some of these large commercial plazas being full like it maybe once was, again, way before my time. And then -- so part of that what happened as a result of that. And again, some people don't know unless they hear some of our updates. But the dark Walgreens is what people call it. So there's a former Walgreens at adjacent, that then was purchased by a different developer, and then someone who likes to turn it over, revitalize it. And so John and I have been in conversations with that property owner. There has been some opportunities, but it has to be the right opportunity to potentially split up that space. And then, of course, if some of you were at today's mayor's, the State of The town address, you know that John's been diligently working with Sandor and Sprouts on their building plans and permits. So they're inching very, very close. And hopefully within the next couple of months they'll be breaking ground. And so the mayor, the town manager, and I actually had the opportunity to meet with the Sprouts' CEO and as well as some other executives. And were, they too, feel strongly, you know, about their product that other retailers follow, but sometimes people need to see the reality. Like, okay, this actually is coming. And then they start to follow. So again, looks pretty underutilized, but hopefully things will be taking shape. And we are asked often, have there been any formal submittals for the apartments, and there has not. So it's on our to do list to do a little check in with the property owner, Sandor. Did I miss anything? WESLEY: No, you didn't. I will -- this is a pretty small tidbit that doesn't really have Meeting Packet Page 42 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 35 of 41 anything to do with what your question was. But just as a side note here, with regard to the Four Peaks Plaza and The Target store that's here, they have submitted some information to this -- to us about needing to take up part of their parking lot out here in front on a temporary basis, while they're doing some extensive remodels inside the store. So that's good to know that they are planning that kind of investment into the store. They must be planning on sticking around. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. Joe. REYES: Last related question scoping down to a very small little -- well, not that small, but can you share what the latest is with respect to the view property on Eagle Mountain. A lot of talk going on about it being revitalized and ready to open as a number of things. JACOBS: How about -- let's see. Well, you know, I'm not going to be that quick. So thank you for bringing that up, Joe. So again, you guys may know. So The View Restaurant has also been vacant since I have been here. A couple of years ago, John and I met with the owner at that time that took overlooking to do a restaurant. Everything was super exciting and then he decided to put it up for auction. So the folks purchased it. They approached John and said, well, we want to do offices, and we were not very excited about that. You know, of course we want it to be developed, but if you've been in there, it's like this has to stay a restaurant. And so call it persistence, call it manifestation, but The View Restaurant will be a new restaurant called Trilogy at Eagle Mountain. And so two gentlemen who opened up Ember at We-Ko-Pa Casino Resort are key players in this. They are hoping to open up in a couple of months. So they have obtained their business license. We've spoken directly to the owner, so we felt comfortable, so it's hot off the press. We let mayor and council know today they were hearing stuff. And we're like, until things are formal, we like to wait and keep it under the vest, and then we're working with them because, of course, if there's modifications inside, they need the proper building Meeting Packet Page 43 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 36 of 41 permits. So we're super, super excited. REYES: Coincidentally, I did hear about it at the Embers. JACOBS: Nice. REYES: Thank you. JACOBS: You're very welcome. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Do you have any long-term zoning request that you think would help attract manufacturing? JACOBS: Well, so we have been targeting, and again, so it's still in the works, and I would need your help navigating the maps. But looking at doing some light industrial within the downtown. So we're on our health is, Sonora Quest, if you had your blood drawn. So I've been asking for that for four years. And so we were getting far along with the Planning and Zoning Commission, as well as council. And then we hit a bit of a hiccup, as John mentioned earlier, regarding that the 35 units for the density and perhaps lowering it back to 15. And so John and I have been doing some work with our commissioners, as well as some of our constituents who are afraid maybe or thinking we're giving up stuff to have that type of density. So we're hoping to get it back on track, because unfortunately, since that would be an ordinance and an actual rezoning when the Commission decided, you know, to wait and move it to a different month, it's then it requires the 30 days' notice. So it won't go back to the planning and Zoning Commission until March. And then fingers crossed, they make a decision and then it will go back to council. And then is it just 30 days or is it 60 days to go into effect, the ordinance? WESLEY: Thirty. JACOBS: Thirty. So then 30 days. And what was that? WESLEY: So hopefully in May, we will get that. JACOBS: So hopefully in May. And what I've shared and then -- so some of the constituents who are very involved with the community, what I've shared is if I don't have the zoning, I can't approach a bioscience company light assembly because then look at this as an example. They would have waited four years and then the reputation Meeting Packet Page 44 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 37 of 41 we would have had. And I say this to out of experience from my previous employer we're had something huge. And then the council was like, so again, not here. No thank you. And the developers, the investors were like, Amanda, we will never come back. So again here, it's like, let's really position ourselves so it can be a little bit more turnkey. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Especially if it's I don't know what you want to call it, small scale manufacturing in a residential area that has like low vibrations, low noise that -- I wrote down some towns called artesian zoning. Have you ever heard of that? Is that kind of what you're talking about, the kind of draw a line where it's easier? I know you're talking about like total rezoning, but we should have something that's a little easier for businesses that don't create, you know, don't have a lot of noise and things like that going on. Is there something like that in our zoning code or -- WESLEY: Not -- CHAIRMAN GARMAN: It sounds like about -- WESLEY: Not really. Right now, anything like that would most likely be an industrial zone requirement. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Yeah. WESLEY: We have -- what did I do? There we go. The only industrial zoning we have in town is in this area, and the only tract that's vacant is this half acre right here. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Yeah. WESLEY: Could -- so currently, we're processing a special use permit for this suite in this building right here for a window manufacturer. It's Cone C3. It's not manufacturer. Window assembler. The zoning ordinance allows assembly in the C3. If it takes up no more than 50 percent of the building, and it's just, again, just assembly use in C3. So that's one of those examples, though, of why does this take council approval for something that's really not that different? It's not -- sure. It's not commercial like a commercial you would think that. But in this type of area, that's really not a negative impact. And the other thing, I guess I was kind of hearing Meeting Packet Page 45 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 38 of 41 from what you were saying, is there another tier to home-based business that would allow a little bit more activity out of your home, out of your garage for that start up business that once it gets started, than it is moving off someplace in town to grow, maybe. That's not something we've really looked for or pushed at this point, but is a possibility to consider in the future. We've taken a lot of time. I'm going to come back here just real quick. We're talking about underutilized properties or properties that may be used for something at some point. If you were here for the daybreak discussion. That hilltop is still sitting there, unused. Now, get my cursor back in the right spot. You know, that is a large tract that we haven't heard anything from That property owner now and probably a year and a half. The last they talked to us, they were still trying to find a way to implement the approved resort community on that property. Could it be something else, maybe, but -- CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Nothing right now? WESLEY: No. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. All right. I don't have any more questions. Does anybody else? Anything else you wanted to finalize? Drive a point home. Anything else? WESLEY: That was it. Glad to have the opportunity to let you know what we think we know. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Covered a lot of ground. WESLEY: Yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: I know you probably invite you back when we do the economics later on the spring or this year, but thanks, John. WESLEY: Okay. You bet. Get out of this. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: All right. We got a lot in the transcript for that. I think that we'll be able to review. So I'm going to move down to B now under six regular agenda, which is update from the Commission and work groups. And I want to see if Geoff wanted to give an update on the workshops this year. YAZZETTA: Sure. Thank you. So I'm looking at the community center either late Meeting Packet Page 46 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 39 of 41 February or early March to host another one of our community outreach sessions. I'll communicate through Angela what date that will be. And we'll have the poster board set up, and we'll be gathering feedback for the strategic tasks. So now, we've gone from the 40,000-foot level to the 20,000 foot. Now, we're going to be at ground level looking for specifics from the participants. And then I'll be also working with Bernie to host a similar event at the school district. So we'll have two opportunities for people to give their feedback. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: So what dates will they be after our next meeting like we have one at the end of February? YAZZETTA: Yeah. I'm looking at the last Saturday in February, which off the top of my head, I think that's the 27th or 28th. So that would be after our last or our next SPAC meeting. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: And that one will be, I think, in the community center? YAZZETTA: Yes. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. And then the one in the school will be later, like March or something, right? YAZZETTA: Yeah. To be determined on that one. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Okay. YAZZETTA: Yeah. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: All right. Hopefully, we'll give you good material for that too. You have -- I mean, we have a lot of information to put up for people to -- YAZZETTA: Absolutely. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: -- kibbitz about, discuss. Okay. All right. Any other comments on the work groups or workshops, I'm sorry, coming up? No. Hearing none. Possible discussion on future topics. Just let you know about the agenda in the future. The two, you know, pillars and strategies that we have left to discuss is -- I worked in economics. I know that's not exactly. It's not. It's business and economics -- economy. I always put economy. Yeah. And quality of life/safety, which is a big one as well. So does anybody have any thoughts on what they might want to see next month in Meeting Packet Page 47 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 40 of 41 February? I mean, I can pick and look and see which people in the town can be here, you know, from the town government to help us with it. Or is there any that you guys might want to talk about because you might not be here for a meeting later on in the spring or something? No, no, no. HOENLE: I'd like to hear what the blue zone is up to, because they were working towards fundraising to have the assessment done of the town, and it's all about living healthy and walking between places and things of that nature, so -- CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Yeah. They came and talked to us. It's been a couple of years now. We could get an update, right? Okay. All right. I just know that quality of life and safety is a big topic that might take two meetings so that we don't have a two-hour meeting or an hour and a half like we did tonight. So we probably have at least three topics left to cover the pillars. And then we'll have a discussion probably on the workshops as part of one of our meetings, and then we'll have a workshop again in June to kind of put it all together, what we did this year. And I'll probably put together a draft plan then probably June, July, and to present to you all by August. So you can -- we can start reviewing it, editing it and talking about it, socializing it as we head into the fall this year. So that's kind of the plan right now, where the plan is still to put it in front of the council for approval at the at least first quarter 2027. So probably have a plan socialized and ready for them to vote on very early '27. Right. Okay. Any other comments? All right. Hearing none, we can go down to agenda item 7 which is agenda item 7, possible adjournment. Are there any motions on the table? YAZZETTA: Move to adjourn. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Do I hear a second? HOENLE: Second. CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Second. Okay. Any discussion on the meeting today, any comments? Nope. The motion on the table is to adjourn. We'll move to a vote. All in favor, say aye. ALL: Aye. Meeting Packet Page 48 of 52 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS JANUARY 28, 2026 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 41 of 41 CHAIRMAN GARMAN: Any oppose? Motion carries. Meeting is adjourned. Thank you very much. APPROVED: ____________________________________ PATRICK GARMAN, CHAIRMAN ATTEST: ____________________________________ ANGELA PADGETT-ESPIRITU, EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT/DEPUTY TOWN CLERK CERTIFICATION I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THE FOREGOING MINUTES ARE A TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF THE MINUTES OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA HELD ON JANUARY 28, 2026. I FURTHER CERTIFY THAT THE MEETING WAS DULY CALLED AND HELD AND THAT A QUORUM WAS PRESENT. ________________________________ ANGELA PADGETT-ESPIRITU, EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT/DEPUTY TOWN CLERK Meeting Packet Page 49 of 52 ITEM 9.a. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT Meeting Date: 2/25/2026 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Regular Meeting Submitting Department: Administration / Town Clerk Prepared by: Staff Contact Information: Phone: Email: Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language) DISCUSSION: Discussion and Planning for the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Guided Workshops. Staff Summary (background) A discussion and planning session for the two SPAC-guided workshops anticipated in the March/April timeframe. The Commission will review the proposed structure, objectives, and next steps to ensure productive and focused workshop sessions aligned with the Town’s strategic priorities. During this discussion, members will have the opportunity to provide input on key topics, desired outcomes, community engagement strategies, and potential formats for the workshops. The goal is to establish a clear framework that will support meaningful dialogue around the Signature Strategies related to Economic Development and Quality of Life/Safety. Staff and Commission members will also coordinate on scheduling, facilitation roles, and preparatory materials needed in advance of the workshops to ensure they are well-organized and effective. This planning effort will help position the workshops for success and maximize their value to the Commission and the community. Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle Risk Analysis Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s) Staff Recommendation(s) Suggested Motion FISCAL IMPACT Fiscal Impact: Budget Reference: Funding Source: ATTACHMENTS None Meeting Packet Page 50 of 52 ITEM 9.b. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT Meeting Date: 2/25/2026 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Regular Meeting Submitting Department: Administration / Town Clerk Prepared by: Staff Contact Information: Phone: Email: Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language) UPDATE: from the Commission Work Groups. Staff Summary (background) Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle Risk Analysis Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s) Staff Recommendation(s) Suggested Motion FISCAL IMPACT Fiscal Impact: Budget Reference: Funding Source: ATTACHMENTS None Meeting Packet Page 51 of 52 ITEM 9.c. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS STAFF REPORT Meeting Date: 2/25/2026 Meeting Type: Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Regular Meeting Submitting Department: Administration / Town Clerk Prepared by: Staff Contact Information: Phone: Email: Request to Town Council Regular Meeting (Agenda Language) DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Consideration of Future Agenda Items Pertaining to the Strategic Plan. Staff Summary (background) Related Ordinance, Policy or Guiding Principle Risk Analysis Recommendation(s) by Board(s) or Commission(s) Staff Recommendation(s) Suggested Motion FISCAL IMPACT Fiscal Impact: Budget Reference: Funding Source: ATTACHMENTS None Meeting Packet Page 52 of 52