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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPZ_2026_0413_MinutesTOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS PLANNNING & ZONING COMMISSION APRIL 13, 2026 A Regular Meeting of the Fountain Hills Planning & Zoning Commission was convened at 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains in open and public session at 6:00 p.m. Members Present: Chair Dan Kovacevic; Vice Chair Peter Gray; Commissioner Mathew Corrigan; Commissioner Charlie McDermott; Commissioner Nick Proctor; Commissioner Scott Schlossberg and Commissioner Phil Sveum Staff Present: Development Services Director John Wesley, Senior Planner Farhad Tavassoli and Executive Assistant Paula Woodward. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 1 of 36 Post-Production File Town of Fountain Hills Planning and Zoning Commission Meeting Minutes April 13, 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. ** * * * TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 2 of 36 KOVACEVIC: All right. Here, let's get her going. Are we ready? GRAY: You're the boss. KOVACEVIC: All right. I like to call to order the Monday, April 13th, 2026 meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission. Let's rise for the Pledge of Allegiance, and a moment of silence. ALL: I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. KOVACEVIC: Thank you. Paula, can you please take the roll? WOODWARD: Chair Kovacevic. KOVACEVIC: Here. WOODWARD: Vice Chair Gray. GRAY: Here. WOODWARD: Commissioner Proctor. PROCTOR: Here. WOODWARD: Commissioner Sveum. SVEUM: Here. WOODWARD: Commissioner Schlossberg. SCHLOSSBERG: Here. WOODWARD: Commissioner Corrigan. CORRIGAN: Here. WOODWARD: Commissioner McDermott. MCDERMOTT: Here. KOVACEVIC: Okay. With -- statement of participation. I'll read the 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. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 3 of 36 Once the meeting is started, late requests to speak cannot be accepted. When your name is called, please approach the podium, speak into the microphone, state your name, and if you're 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, and 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. Okay. Agenda item 5, Summary of Current Events by Director Wesley. WESLEY: Good evening, Commissioners. Just a couple of things that I will bring you up to speed on. At your last meeting, you had consideration of the rezoning for Toll Brothers up on Aspen. That will be on Town Council next week. Also, some items that you have dealt with previously. One is the overlay district for the downtown, and the other is the rezoning of the downtown to apply a new overlay district. Those items will also both be on next week's Town Council meeting. Some of you who have been here for a while. I remember maybe almost two years ago, considering a rezoning request over on Morningside, south of Palisades for some multifamily. That was ultimately denied, but the applicant has continued to work on that, and we have now approved a site plan for the apartments on the part that stayed the multifamily piece of that. So they'll be moving forward with the building permit on that soon. Looking forward to next month. We do have at least one text amendment that we expect to have on your agenda, and then possibly picking up some of our consideration of the reformatting of the zoning ordinance. And also, I think you're aware that the town engaged a consultant to help with the rewrite of the wireless communication ordinances. I've have had recent communication from them. They're expecting to get TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 4 of 36 us a first draft of that here sometime in the next few weeks. Just don't know that we'd have that in time for a May meeting, but hopefully in time for a June meeting, at least, for your review and consideration. KOVACEVIC: And agenda item 6, we have no -- CORRIGAN: Can I ask a question? KOVACEVIC: Go ahead. CORRIGAN: What's the overlay zoning item that's going to be on the Council next week? WESLEY: For the downtown. CORRIGAN: For what -- can you elaborate a little bit on what -- WESLEY: So again, there's two items. One is the modification to the overlay district itself that you discussed at your meeting last month. And a motion was made to approve the ordinance, which was defeated five to two. And so that's going to Council now for their consideration of any amendment. Then after they've acted on any changes to the overlay itself, the rezoning of the downtown to take off the two existing overlays and apply the new one. And also would like to remind you -- thank you, Paula -- that there's the open meeting law training coming up on the 21st. Also, that is mandatory for all Commission members to attend, at 4 p.m. KOVACEVIC: Okay. Item 6. We have no consent agenda. So moving on to the regular agenda. Consideration of possible action. Approving the regular meeting minutes of the Planning and Zoning Commission. March 9th, 2026. I have a couple of typo-type changes that I want to bring up. On page 22 -- well, it's 27 of the meeting packet. The speaker was Richard Rutkowski, R-U-T-K-O-W-S-Ki. I just want his name correct for the record. Page 32 of the meeting packet, speaker Barinov refers to the NPOA, but it's several times in his text, it's typed as MPOA, M as in Mary. And on page 28 the speaker Wolf, it reads Idaho Canyon. I believe he means Adero Canyon. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 5 of 36 I'd like to see those changes in the minutes. We can approve the minutes subject to those changes. So anybody want to give me a motion subject to those changes? GRAY: Chair, prior to motion, I'm going to abstain from a vote on this one, as I wasn't present. KOVACEVIC: Okay. PROCTOR: Mr. Chair, I'll make the motion. I'll make the motion to approve the minutes with the amendments you suggested. KOVACEVIC: Looking for a second. CORRIGAN: Second. KOVACEVIC: Let's do a roll call. WOODWARD: Okay. Scott -- excuse me. Commissioner Schlossberg. SCHLOSSBERG: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner Corrigan. CORRIGAN: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner Proctor. PROCTOR: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner Sveum. SVEUM: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner McDermott. MCDERMOTT: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner Kovacevic. KOVACEVIC: Aye. WOODWARD: And Commissioner Gray abstained. GRAY: Abstain. WOODWARD: Five-zero. KOVACEVIC: Six-zero? WOODWARD: Six-zero. I'm sorry, six-zero. KOVACEVIC: Agenda item B, Public Hearing with Consideration and Possible Action relating to a special use permit to allow up to six residential units on a 6000 square foot TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 6 of 36 property, generally located 150 feet west of the southwest corner of Saguaro and Park View. 16865 East Park View in the C2 commercial zoning district. Farhad. FARHAD: Great. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the Commission. Good to be with you this evening. So the subject property for these proposed six residential units on a commercially zoned property is, as you said, a couple hundred feet west of the -- west of Saguaro Boulevard, just south of Parkview Boulevard. And the zoning is C2, with the overlays. Identified in the general plan as being within the character area of the town center, obviously. And the surrounding uses are as follows. Listed here, got the two story office building right at the intersection there where -- is home to the Greek restaurant. Immediately to the west and a bit outside the scope of this photograph is the -- is a consignment furniture store and the outdoorsman hunting equipment store as well. And to the south is the plat 208 to common parking area with a vacant property to the north, also part of the plat 208 development. So details of the special use permit proposal, as I said, six for sale -- well, actually, I would revise that and I call it townhomes, but six residential units ranging anywhere between 1300 to 1400 square feet each on the second and third floors. And I'll show you a floor plan a little bit later. A conceptual floor plan. And 1000 square feet of commercial on the first floor. But this special use permit, again, I want to emphasize, is for the six residential units, as it's already zoned commercial. It will also feature six private garages is featured here on the rendering to the -- on the lower right. Those garages will be facing the driveway to the -- immediately to the west. There will be access also via track 208 as well as from Park View. And there's also shared and on street parking for commercial. Shared parking being of course, the plat 208 common parking area. Architecture will feature a desert modern design, and incidentally, the applicant has solicited the services of the same architect that proposed the six residential unit condos immediately across the street that came before you. Right next to the Zap Thai TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 7 of 36 restaurant. And the height is -- will be limited to 40 feet. Here's a conceptual floor plan, with the first floor being on the right. As I mentioned, the applicant is proposing six garages for each residential unit. They will be single car garages with a commercial component on the ground floor as well, of about 1000 square feet. And on the second and third floors, with three units on each floor, you'll see a one to two -- actually a two bedroom units being proposed for the -- for those upper floors. So as I mentioned, and as you -- as you well might know, residential and C2 is allowed in a -- with a special use permit. Parking requirements, one space per 275 square feet of commercial is required. Residential requires two and a quarter spaces for each unit, some of which is being provided by the garage door, but also the plat 208 parking area, which is intended to provide parking for the entirety of plot 208. But mathematically it would require -- and in any other situation would require a -- 50 spaces. Solid waste is required within 250 feet of the -- would be required within 250 feet of a residential development. And in this particular case, coordination would be required with the track 208 Property Owners Association. And there is in fact, a trash dumpster located well within that 250 foot radius, but perhaps the applicant elaborated a little bit more on the trash receptacle that is also provided in the in the building. Public -- as far as public outreach is concerned, the applicant did provide written letters sent out to landowners within 300 feet of the subject property, in which the applicant invited landowners to provide written comments or questions and contact the applicant directly for those questions. As of the publication of this report, there were no written comments received there. We did receive a letter of concern from a landowner within plat 208 that mentioned some of the concerns being driveway accessibility, site visibility, especially considering that the -- where the building footprint is, and how it might visibility turning in and out of the driveway, as well as some parking concerns. And so more on that in a little bit. As far as our analysis concerned, as of the publication of the report, we believe the application is consistent with the general plan and the downtown vision by supporting TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 8 of 36 mixed use and pedestrian scale development. We find it to be compatible as far as the land use is concerned, with the surrounding uses and meets the zoning and overlay district intent. So our recommendation as stated in the report, is to move to approve subject to the stipulations listed, there is a setback on the documented -- on the plat for this dating back to 1970, that would affect the footprint of this building that would -- and that would need to be amended through an administrative lot line adjustment. And then site plan approval would be required if the Commission recommends approval and ultimately town Council approves the project. And also, we would need solid waste confirmation from track 208. Now, all that said, there is a provision in the zoning ordinance, and this kind of touches upon one of the concerns that the one of the landowners had with regard to the garage locations. And let me see if I can zoom in a little bit on this footprint. As I mentioned, the garage doors, as you can see in the rendering here, would be facing the driveway, providing access between Park View Drive and the common parking area to the south. What came to light is a zoning ordinance provision that requires a minimum of 30 feet between the property line fronting a street, and any parking space. So therefore, if I remember correctly, with my -- some of my earlier measurements, the garage door, the closest to Parkview Drive is only about ten feet. And so in light of that provision, that would significantly alter the site plan with the full understanding that this is very conceptual at this point as the -- as what's coming before you is consideration for the six units and the density. But, certainly following that recommendation, we would -- certainly would support a continuance to allow the applicant to rework some of the details with regard to the conceptual site plan. With that, I'll conclude my presentation and I'll open it up to questions. KOVACEVIC: Any questions for Farhad? SVEUM: Farhad -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 9 of 36 FARHAD: Yep. SVEUM: -- were you -- aside from the last portion of your comments, so the ten feet versus 30 feet, were you -- were you concerned at all about the access into the in and out, ingress egress into these garage units? FARHAD: Yes, certainly. That was -- Mr. Chairman. Commissioner. Certainly, that was a concern, given the given the circulation between the Parkview and the plat 208 common area. There is a we did notice -- at the very initial submittal that there wasn't enough of a setback between the garage doors and the driveway. The garage doors need to be set back six feet from -- at least six feet from any drive aisle. The applicant since made those corrections. Still, there are concerns and -- especially in light of this provision. Uh-huh? KOVACEVIC: Does the applicant have a presentation? FARHAD: I'm not -- I'm not sure if he has a presentation, but I'm sure. GURCZAK: I don't have a presentation, but I can answer any questions. KOVACEVIC: Okay. Do we have any speaker cards, Paula? WOODWARD: Yes, chair. We have one speaker card. Roger Isaacs. ISAACS: Yeah. FARHAD: If you want to use my slides, feel free to do that. ISAACS: Oh, that's fine, thank you. Yeah. I'm Roger Isaacs. I've been a resident here for about 26 years. I own the building across the street that used to be the bank. You may remember me from six, or eight months, or a year ago, which strangely still hasn't finalized, I guess. But some of these things take some time. So let me just quickly I think you got a copy of some analysis work I did. I apologize, I'm an engineer. And I was asked actually to look at this. I don't live within 300 feet, but the people that own the five adjacent properties approached me and talked to me about the letters they got and some concerns they had. After the analysis, I think there's two key points that you should take away if you don't TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 10 of 36 want to read the whole thing, or if it's very confusing to you. Number one is, I personally think you should approve the special use permit for the density. Number two, you need to recognize that there are very valid concerns, I think, and also some other balls in the air, if you will, that involve the garage placement and parking for the other owners around the property. There's never really been anybody step forward and explain how 24 hour parking mixed in with existing commercial parking, which is shared parking, will work out. And so there's obviously concerns, even though there's not a lot of spaces required by the building. I think it's eight if they use the garages fully. Of course, there's no -- nothing that says they have to use their garages. So you could have 14 24-hour a day cars parked out in that area and left all summer, for example. And since there's no existing policy or procedures about that, that's a real concern. It's something everybody up there should understand is when you talk about 208, 208 has a lot of parking spaces, but 208's parking spaces were needed to be all shared parking spaces. When you bring mixed use in, you make those shared parking spaces disappear. Each parking space that comes in that's allocated to a residential unit becomes a 24 hour parking space, which takes a five to one factor. So when people tell you that these mixed use actually take less parking spaces, that's absolutely true in terms of count. But when it comes down to code requirement and what you're going to see out there in terms of congestion, it's quite the opposite. It's a five to one multiplier, okay? So that's I think the key thing. And if you went through all my analysis, what you'd see is two things. One is that if everybody did what John is offering to do, which is to put at least one private parking space in their building. And we built out down in this area, which is probably the most congested parking space area we'll have in terms of mixed use and stuff. We would still have what I feel is an acceptable ratio. That falls apart, though, if they do what they're allowed to do and not put parking in. If they don't put parking in, then we'll be very congested. We'll be over a five to one ratio. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 11 of 36 So that's -- so I want to just make clear that I wasn't not in support of this, but there are some parking issues. And also, I would point out that the thing that happened on Monday with the -- UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: The streetscape. ISAACS: The streetscape, also, is another concern that I don't know if they've reached out to John and talked to him, but one of the things that the streetscape people are planning on doing is doing some modifications along Parkview and across the front of that, which involves a sidewalk, and that becomes their primary means of getting people from parking. That's going to be placed on Parkview into plot 208. So again, that throat there becomes very contentious right now. And so I think there needs to be some communication to figure out how that could all be worked out. Thank you. KOVACEVIC: Thank you. Any other speaker cards? WOODWARD: No, Chair. KOVACEVIC: Okay let's close the public hearing. Commissioner comments? Okay. I have an issue. And the issue I have is that this is commercial zoning. It's C2 zoning, and we're considering a special use permit for residential. Residential should be a secondary use in, in C2 zoning. And what we're looking at is a residential building with primary -- where the use is -- the secondary use is commercial, but it's a commercial zoning district, and commercial is an afterthought here. It's a 6000 square foot commercial lot, and there's only 830 or 890 square feet of commercial space. We're charged with a recommendation on the site plan as well. Am I correct? And I just I can't support a site plan in a commercial district with -- only on a 6000 square foot lot with only 800 square feet of commercial space. So I'm willing to consider a continuance. I don't have a problem with residential going in there on the second and third floor. I don't like the idea of having all the utility space and everything else taking up commercial space. And so those are my comments on it. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 12 of 36 I don't know if the Commissioners want to add anything to that. Commissioner Corrigan. CORRIGAN: Just the -- adding on to what you were saying. Chair, I noticed that the 890 square feet is really at the back of the property, and I wasn't quite sure what anticipation the developer had in terms of retail clientele. But that's not my real concern. My real concern is that -- to share what the Chair said, this is more of a residential property, rather than focusing on the commercial for the C2 area. And so I am also concerned about that. I did notice there was a recommendation from Mr. Isaacs for curb cutting, to kind of mitigate the issue with, with the garage doors. But now I think Farhad has revealed that now the setback needs to be more like 30 feet rather than the ten that's existing. So I think there are a number of issues here with this particular development. And so I have those concerns and other concerns about the access. And my real contention here is that the access -- it looks like a singular access into the public parking. And that shared eight driveway situation, I see as possibly a detriment to that flow of traffic. And that's all I have. KOVACEVIC: Commissioner Gray. GRAY: I concur with all of those statements and more. It's hard. John, it's a nice product. The render is beautiful. If you propose this on the other plat that's commercial, but vying very heavily to be a residential plat, I would -- I would stamp this through instantly. The problem that I have is the more macro problem here. This is the opening salvo into 208 becoming Swiss cheese. And I can't do it. I don't know. I mean, I also would support a continuance, but to introduce private residential garages. Commissioner Corrigan makes all the points related to the -- just call them conflicts between what's a primary access way in and out of 208 and these and these garages with the short throat that doesn't -- that doesn't end well. And that's not how we should be planning. If we were ever going to entertain a development like this, the private parking spaces TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 13 of 36 need to be in board. Which means, yes, single roll-up door and all that parking stacked underneath the building. This parcel can't support it. It's not big enough. But to consider a residential biased development inside of 208, that's what I'm looking for. I like the idea of residential in 208. It just can't be developed this way. And I make the pitch again, we need a more macro lens on this, because this this is the opener into absolute Swiss cheese of this corridor. KOVACEVIC: Commissioner McDermott. MCDERMOTT: Yeah. I just want to echo what the Chairman and the other commissioners have said. I think it is slanted incredibly heavily on the residential side and not on the commercial side. I mean, when you look at the floor plan, the commercial -- I'm not even sure how that works. There's no utilities or anything shown, no kitchen or bathrooms or anything in the commercial. So is it -- is it just an open box? So I'm just not sure even the commercial portion of it is viable. But I think the parking is an issue and needs to be further evaluated. But I would support a continuance. KOVACEVIC: Commissioner Proctor. PROCTOR: Well, I'll jump on the bandwagon. I concur with everything that's been said particularly the macro aspect of this. I don't know if there's anything that can be tweaked to this, but I'd be willing to make a motion to defer this to the next meeting to allow the developer, the applicant, to work with staff to see if you can address some of the concerns that you've heard here tonight, and we can address this at the next meeting. So I'll make that motion. CORRIGAN: I'll second that. KOVACEVIC: Okay. We have a motion and a second. Do we have time in the next meeting or do we need to go out two meetings? FARHAD: That's precisely why I came up here, Mr. Chairman, I wanted to know if the applicant would be okay with a continuance to a date certain, or continuance indefinitely. Perhaps -- okay. So the -- so the -- well, it would have to occur in May, I TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 14 of 36 believe. Yeah. The first commission meeting in May. Which -- WOODWARD: May 11th. FARHAD: May 11th. Thank you. Yeah. KOVACEVIC: And we can get it on that agenda. FARHAD: I don't see why not. I don't think we have a full agenda yet. KOVACEVIC: All right. I think our motion and our second is good then, because they said the next meeting. So May 11th it would be, Commissioner Gray. Okay. So we have a motion and a second. Can we get a roll call vote, please? WOODWARD: Commissioner Schlossberg. SCHLOSSBERG: Aye WOODWARD: Commissioner Corrigan. CORRIGAN: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner McDermott. MCDERMOTT: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner Proctor. PROCTOR: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner Sveum. SVEUM: Aye. WOODWARD: Chair Kovacevic. KOVACEVIC: Aye. WOODWARD: Vice Chair Gray. GRAY: Aye. WOODWARD: Seven-zero. KOVACEVIC: Okay. Moving on to item C, Public Hearing with Consideration of Possible Action relating to ordinance 26-06. Amending sections 1.12 and 2.04A and F, and adding section 19.06H to provide for site plan modification and murals. Director Wesley. WESLEY: Chairman, Commissioners. Good evening. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 15 of 36 I'll cover this fairly quickly, I hope, but a little bit of background. Currently, our town ordinances do not regulate the opportunity or options for murals to be placed on the exterior of buildings. And as we've done some murals in, in the area downtown, some place making painting the various utility boxes, that's created some interest in murals going on buildings. Town staff have been approached by a couple of businesses that would like to do so. And discussing with the town Council, asked staff to look into programs and any requirements that might be necessary to help regulate such an activity. In doing so, we have recognized the need to make some amendments on our zoning ordinance to give us an ability to address that possibility. So what you have before you this evening are changes to three portions of the zoning ordinance. First, in the definitions, to create a definition of mural, we looked at several options and what other communities have used and are able to develop this definition that we think will work well for us. Maybe I should stop there and see if anybody had any questions about the definition. If not, we can move on. Okay. And then the second is the ability then to review buildings and modifications to existing buildings to -- if they want to paint the building. So that required two changes in our site plan review requirements. First is what requires a site plan review. So that's applicability section in 204A. So some slight tweaks there. Most of it's just moving some wording around, but the main change is to add the words exterior site or building modification, if you're doing that would require then site plan review. And then for site plan amendments to add a new provision there. So change the paint colors, materials, themes, or exterior treatments of a facade would require site plan review. Again these would be done administratively. And then finally, to go into Chapter 19, which is the architectural review standards in the 1906 materials and colors. Currently 1906B limits any exterior building to a maximum of five paint colors, which may work for murals and may not, but wanted to point that out. It gets addressed then in the new section H, for murals. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 16 of 36 So we then have the specific provisions that would apply to murals. So they must meet the definition. They are exempt from the limitation on the five colors in 1906B, and then some specific requirements. They must fit with the and complement the architecture and other design elements of the building, fit the context of the area, and utilize the design themes in the town's most recently approved Call to Artists program. They cannot cover doors and windows, use metallic paint and other items, containing new electrical or lighting components, containing profane, gory, or violent material contain words except for maybe the artist's name, people, or images of people extend beyond the surface of the wall plain. Murals cannot contain signed copy or logos, and goes into a little bit more detail on that -- or be installed on designated historic property. They must be maintained in good condition, and artists used to paint murals must come from the town selected list of qualified artists. So those are the provisions in the ordinance you have before you. KOVACEVIC: Commissioner Gray? GRAY: Two questions, John. One, I assume with all the exclusionary guiding language in here, you feel protected in relation to the famous Gilbert content Supreme Court case? WESLEY: Yes, of course, that had to do specifically with signs. And one of things we're trying to do here is avoid these being used as signs. We have discussed this with the town attorney in terms of any First Amendment rights for free expression. And she feels like that these criteria will follow with that. GRAY: Okay. And then second question, you got basic maintenance criteria in the language. Eventually, it's all going to fade and degrade and so on and so forth. How do we -- how do you enforce that? Is there a -- is there a bonding component or a public art fee that's contributory when you solicit your mural license? WESLEY: Chair, Vice Chair, at this point, we have not included anything like that in the ordinance. We would consider it the same as maintaining compliance with any other zoning ordinance standard for parking lot maintenance or landscape maintenance, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 17 of 36 those types of things. If it comes out of compliance, they'll get a letter notifying them of the violation and given a time to correct it. If, for whatever reason that doesn't take place, then we can go talk to the judge or consider appropriate action to remedy the situation. GRAY: So you would have -- that's ultimately, you would have some ability to go in through town authority and cover it, I suppose? WESLEY: Yes. Chair, Vice Chair, I believe we would if it got to that state. GRAY: And then as does -- last thing. Does there need to be any sort of -- we call it in another context -- reasonable accommodation escalation criteria for content appeals or anything of those sorts? WESLEY: We don't believe so. KOVACEVIC: Commissioner Sveum. SVEUM: Who's going to approve the design and the mural itself? WESLEY: So Chair, Commissioner, they would submit site plan modification to the planning department, just like any other site plan modification. And so it would be the planning staff primarily that would look at it. If we have any questions that we might need to involve any other staff, we could, but -- SVEUM: Well, this is art. WESLEY: Right. SVEUM: And I realize that some design is considered art, but it seems like there should be an art commission to people that are artists in the community that should review these with the color combinations and the design itself, and provide an approval or disapproval. I was surprised, I guess, that there wasn't -- that wasn't part of this. WESLEY: Chair, Commissioner, again, given the criteria in the Call to Artists, that kind of set some parameters on what types of things are being allowed or expected and parameters that way. And then the other criteria about what you can and can't do, we feel like we'll handle those issues without needing to get a committee involved. SVEUM: Well, there's some big building sites. For instance, the 12 unit we approved Page 18 of 36 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES about a year ago that now is a six unit on the avenue. That side of that building was all stucco. And who knows when, if -- when and if Chase would ever, develop their lot. That would be a very large canvas that would be there for a long time. And I think it's important to -- personally, I think it's very important to have those that have artistry backgrounds to have some input. UNIDENTIFIED: I mean, I'm not looking for that. KOVACEVIC: Commissioner Schlossberg. SCHLOSSBERG: And I think you scrolled through it pretty fast, but you said no people or -- I don't know, the way it was on the on the murals. There's no people. WESLEY: No people or images of people, correct. SCHLOSSBERG: There it was okay. Yeah. And I mean, that's for political reasons, not to offend anybody one way or the other? WESLEY: Correct. SCHLOSSBERG: Okay. Yeah. I mean, I take it -- I'm speaking from Wickenburg. Obviously, I've got another office there and they've engaged in this mural program, which is amazing, and it's really revitalized the historic downtown area. And there's, indigenous peoples, there's miners, there's a lot of people on the murals, and I haven't heard any negative feedback on that. So I mean, that might be something to reconsider, possibly. KOVACEVIC: Commissioner McDermott. MCDERMOTT: Yeah, I'm just curious, so who owns the mural? Would it be the building owner or -- WESLEY: Chair, Commissioner, it would depend. There have been some situations where building owners have approached the town and encouraging the town to step forward and have the mural done. If that were done, then it would be -- the town would certainly have more authority over it and to change it. There's also been some discussion about 50 over 50 kind of match program between the property owner and the town. Those are things that the Economic Development Office is working with and developing program kind of as a parallel to this. And so that TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 19 of 36 could happen. But otherwise, if it is just a property owner painting their building, than it is totally their responsibility to paint it and maintain it. MCDERMOTT: And maintain it. But if but if not, if it was some other mechanism that produced the mural, then then there could be an issue with ownership of -- ownership and rights of the mural itself? WESLEY: Correct. And again, that's what economic development department would be working out in their programs. MCDERMOTT: Yeah. I'm just curious and -- to the other Commissioner's point about, perhaps you could limit the size of it, and the mural could be a maximum square foot of something, but to your point, if you had a pretty large side of a building, you could end up with a pretty large mural that not everybody may love it and mount it, and everybody may not love it. And it's -- and it's there. And if it's owned by the building owner, it's to their discretion to do with it as they please. So I'm just curious. Maybe a size limitation would be appropriate or a maximum percentage of a side of a building or -- so. WESLEY: Yeah. Chair, Commissioner, we did give some thought to that. We came down on the side of not including that because each situation can be so unique and different. MCDERMOTT: Yeah. WESLEY: We put in arbitrary size, and maybe times we regret that it couldn't be larger and better fill a vacant space and provide more of an attraction by having that, again, that arbitrary limitation. MCDERMOTT: Yeah. But also to the Commissioner's point, I think it seems like there should be some someone to approve it and say that's a mural that's suitable for the community, or somehow get community input or so -- but it sounds like that's -- it's considered that right? Okay. Okay. KOVACEVIC: Commissioner Corrigan. CORRIGAN: I'll yield to Commissioner Gray. I think he might have been first, Chair. GRAY: No, that's okay. Go ahead. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 20 of 36 CORRIGAN: Is that right? Okay. Great. I've seen this just -- maybe I should have stayed in art school. The 3000 to 4000 sounds really attractive right now. But in all seriousness, I've seen this happen in other areas where they paint the murals on the side of the buildings, and I can think of a particular small town in Oregon where there are six of these. And although I like art, I love art, and I love the utility boxes. I love renderings all over town. I want to see that continue. And I'm 100 percent in support of it. And there's some fantastic work out there. And those people should be commended, complimented, and encouraged. What I have reservations about is the building of murals, and again referencing this small town. Now it's out of state, it's in Oregon. But I've seen what started off as a historic rendering, which was representative of history and the chronological order of from beginning, in this particular case, Native American beginnings up to current contemporary industrial, commercial enterprise type things true capitalism. But what happened -- what I saw happened was that it became artistic interpretation, and it went a different direction. And I'm concerned about what could potentially happen with that palette, with that building being the size, it is, number one. And then with the artist freedom and interpretation, which I've evidenced. And not everyone -- art's art. Some love, Norman Rockwell, Pablo Picasso, Cezanne. So the list goes on. But it's not everybody's -- one man's art is another man's -- Anyway my point is that I'm very concerned about the building murals, and I think maybe we should take a second look at that, and maybe consider confining it to just the utility boxes and other smaller venues. There you go. KOVACEVIC: Thank you. Commissioner Gray. GRAY: I don't have the same reservation that Commissioner Corrigan has. I also want to say I do support Commissioner Sveum's thoughts on a commission of sorts. And the reason, I think, is if -- I think it's Clause H that kind of bridges us into trademarks, copy, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 21 of 36 logos, advertisement in general. And H starts out as underneath -- and maybe I'm just misreading this, but H starts out as underneath mural shall not -- and then halfway through it, it kind of makes you think, well, maybe, maybe you can put an abstract Chevy emblem into your into your mural. I guess I -- my thought is maybe H needs wordsmithing or needs to come out. And maybe you temper everything by saying a mural can only be flora, fauna, and landscape or something. Like, let's just let's remove all of the -- I must have hit a nerve. WESLEY: So Chair, that's why I look back at Amanda to talk about that a little bit, that comes back to the Call to Artists Program and the themes that are in there. That's one of the things will help control that. But you can talk about some of those things you had in the past. JACOBS: Chair, Vice Chair, Commissioners, Commissioner McDermott. We haven't met yet but I'm Amanda Jacobs, the economic development director. And John went like this and told me to come over. So a couple of things. One, through the Call to Artists Process, right now we have two staff and we invite a business person in to help us select our artist and themes. So when we talk about maybe another commission, I would say too, to Commissioner Corrigan's point, be careful what you wish for. Art is in the eye of the beholder, I think, is what you were you were saying. So to get five people or seven people to try to approve art might be hard. And then two of some of our business people that have helped with the Call to Artists Process. Sometimes it's -- they're wanting to push the envelope. And I think trust staff and we know our commissioners and the public. And so with the Call to Artists Process, Vice Chair Gray, we actually specify exactly what you said, adding also into their Dark Sky, anything fountain related, or events, et cetera, to just to try to keep those themes very focused. When we started a couple of years ago with utility boxes, everyone was afraid. And I'm like, we have to just dab our toe in it. And as many of you have mentioned, everyone loves it on a weekly basis. We're asked for more. And to director Wesley's point, we TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 22 of 36 have several businesses who need us to get through this process with the Commission as well as Council, because they're ready to get through this process to actually pay for their own mural, and not on huge, large walls. Some of the folks that have approached us it's a small panel. Some of it could be hidden in a -- in a walkway. But I hope that answers some of your questions. And I think John added a third attachment, which shows that Call to Artists -- what we did last year. But each year we go through that, we actually work with a third-party called Art State, Arizona. And so they'll initiate the Call to Artists Process. We'll get national, local, regional submittals. We had over 18 artists submit last year. And then just based off of what we were looking for we then commissioned four artists, and then we ensure with what they provided us, that they meet what they provided. So there's a couple times last year with one of the artists who was newer of, hey, Amanda, I was thinking of adding this. Can you come on site? Can you look at that? Am I authorized to do that? So the artists too, want to make sure that they're doing right by the town. KOVACEVIC: Commissioner Proctor. PROCTOR: Amanda, I think you answered one of my questions. Did I hear correctly that the town's public art committee -- commission will be in the process of reviewing this? JACOBS: No. So Chair, Commissioner Proctor, it's actually with the utility boxes. It's an -- excuse me. I didn't bring my water. So we've got two people from staff, and then we invite in or rotate a business to sit on that process with us. And then what John is referring to is -- with the submittals for the business ones, it will go through Development Services. So John and his team. And then he mentioned if he needed to pull someone in. Economic development is ready. But we're strongly against -- or at least I'll say -- I won't speak for John -- of having a commission look at this. Just because we're not sure if people will be able to decide on the art, or if they'd be willing to push the envelope, which we've seen happen when we invite a business owner. PROCTOR: Okay. Just pushing back just a little, this public art commission is doing the TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 23 of 36 same thing with the art that goes in the community, the structural art, the different things. The same problem applies there. I'm just curious why we're not engaging a commission that's already up and running to look at this stuff. JACOBS: And I'll say Chair, Commissioner, of what we're seeing with the utility boxes, just -- we'll say from experience -- that we think the easiest and fastest way is for this to be an internal process. It's the same -- so take with a business that just wants to paint their building. John, do we give that to a commission or is that administrative approval? WESLEY: Administrative. JACOBS: He said administrative for the microphone and the record. PROCTOR: Okay. JACOBS: So following along that path. PROCTOR: Okay. I argue that painting a building is a little different than public art, but I do have another question. If I could, Mr. Chair, one more. And being on the Dark Sky Discovery Center Board that I kind of honed in on that there was some specificity on lighting to B and C uplighting I was wondering, is uplighting also something that we could prohibit here, or does that fall into another ordinance that the town has on lighting? WESLEY: Chair, Commissioner Proctor, that would fall under chapter eight of the zoning ordinance, which is our outdoor lighting control ordinance, which regulates the lighting that you -- shot on the building. PROCTOR: Thank you, thank you. WESLEY: Yeah. KOVACEVIC: Commissioner Sveum. SVEUM: I just think, even if it's a three person committee to review these that are people from the art industry, would be a good idea, because you're absolutely right. Half the people won't like it, half the people will like it. It's art. And if it's -- if it's a big piece of art, it's going to be a big problem. I don't -- I think these the boxes are awesome. What Laura the muralist does extremely TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 24 of 36 talented, but those are all natural. I should say, not all of them, perhaps, but most all of them are from a natural theme, whether it's desert scape or birds or animals, so on. Except for Dark Sky, I think that's even natural. But I think it's it really would behoove you to have some other people review these things that are experienced artists. It will take a lot of the burden off of you if there's a problem. And I think that there's -- if there's three people and they're only -- did you say they're limited to three -- five colors, or something there? WESLEY: Chair, Commissioner, the current ordinance limits if you're just painting a building, to five colors. But if you're doing a mural, there's no limit. SVEUM: Okay. But I think some ideas that they could provide the artists that's going to be -- that has been contracted to do that work. It'd be very helpful. And I think it would -- you could end up with the best product possible by having that input from people. And I'm not looking -- I'm not -- I'm not suggesting a big commission. But if there's two, or three, or four people that have that live here that have experience, it would behoove you to include that in your requirements. KOVACEVIC: Just a quick question. There's art required for a -- in a new development situation. Somebody wanted to come in and build a shopping center. When the Bashas Center was built, there was a requirement to put in art. Do you happen to know off the top of your head what that requirement is? WESLEY: Chair, I won't be able to cite it exactly, but it's based on the cost of the building. And it's a percentage of that. I don't know if you remember the first million, it's like a three quarter percent. And above that it goes to half, and then above that, it goes to a quarter percent of the valuation of the improvements. KOVACEVIC: And is the art -- so that I mean, in the center that might cost -- I'll pick a number, a million dollars to build, so they would -- there would be 100,000 or $75,000 worth of art. Is that is the art that gets is the art to satisfy that requirement? Is that at developer's discretion or -- WESLEY: That does go through the Community Services Department and they review that and it goes ultimately to Council if they're actually doing the art. A lot of TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 25 of 36 developers go ahead and pay the fee in lieu of the art itself. KOVACEVIC: Again, I'm thinking of the Basher Center with the sculptures that are that are out there. Is it the same -- the Community Services, that the same people that review the murals? WESLEY: No, that's Community Services versus Development Services. KOVACEVIC: Okay. Thank you. Okay. Commissioner Corrigan. CORRIGAN: Just general curiosity question, John. I know this is restricted to Arizona artists, which is fantastic. In the qualifications -- that's correct, right? I think it's only Arizona artists. I thought I read that somewhere. Maybe I'm wrong. JACOBS: Chair, Commissioner Corrigan, so with the Call to Artists process, it is national where we received. Yeah, we actually received artists that submitted from Tennessee and other states. But a lot of preference is placed on Arizona also too, because it's cheaper. If you're giving just 1000 or 3000, and then you're going to fly from Tennessee, no one's then going to pay for your airfare, et cetera. CORRIGAN: Okay. Just maybe a suggestion that we make that restriction to keep it to Arizona artists. We have a lot of talent here in Arizona, and I'm very much in favor of not only, keeping Fountain Hills -- doing business in Fountain Hills, but doing business in Arizona. And I just don't like exporting -- I'd rather have the theme consistent with Arizona, Artists consistent with Arizona, and why should we go outside Arizona? Let's keep the dollars in Arizona. And I'd like to keep them in Fountain Hills. But maybe we don't have that many gifted artists. I'm sure we have a lot, but maybe not that many. And just a tag on question. Do we know how many of the total artists that are represented here in town? How many are from Fountain Hills? JACOBS: So I can say, Chair Commissioner Corrigan, the last couple of times we've done a Call to Artist, I don't believe we've received any submittals from Fountain Hills. So it's been from the Phoenix region who then ultimately have been selected. CORRIGAN: Okay. Thank you. JACOBS: You're welcome. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 26 of 36 KOVACEVIC: Any further comments? Seeing none, we have an ordinance. We talked about a commission. We've talked about enforcing the appearance when they -- as they get faded. We talked about restricting Arizona artists. What else am I missing? WESLEY: Chair, there were some size limitations mentioned also. KOVACEVIC: That's right. Commissioner Gray? GRAY: I'm just -- KOVACEVIC: Oh. So do we want to make a motion and modify the ordinance as presented, or -- what do you want to do here, Commissioners? Commissioner Corrigan. CORRIGAN: I'd like to have my microphone work. Okay. Oh. Thank you, thank you. I'd like to make a motion to add three contingencies to the existing requirements -- or ordinance. And that would be have the all Arizona submitted artists on only from Arizona. And the other two -- remind me, Chair. What were those other two? KOVACEVIC: There were three. CORRIGAN: Three. KOVACEVIC: There was a mechanism to enforce the appearance, that it was kept fresh, or if it faded that there could be some sort of mechanism to -- some mechanism to refresh it, that we have an appointed art commission, and size limitations. CORRIGAN: Great. So I would like to amend that existing ordinance to include the size issue. So have a size limitation. The second would be only Arizona artists and then have a bonding process or some sort of protection process to protect the integrity of the art. I think that was the third thing. And there was one other, I apologize. KOVACEVIC: A commission. CORRIGAN: The commission, which I think Commissioner Sveum suggested three to five, maybe. Keeping again -- well, anyway -- a commission -- SVEUM: Two or three. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 27 of 36 CORRIGAN: Two or three, whatever number. Number to follow. And that would be the -- my proposed -- yeah, that's my proposal. Thank you, Chair. KOVACEVIC: Commissioner. Do you have that, Paula? WOODWARD: I do. SVEUM: Second. KOVACEVIC: We have a motion and a second. GRAY: Chair, can I propose an amendment? KOVACEVIC: Yes, please. GRAY: I'd just like to propose -- not convicted, but propose we remove the recommendation on size restrictions and let that default to either the appointed commission that we're recommending or back to staff. I just don't think we should dabble in that, or if we're going to dabble in it, we need to set some boundaries around it. KOVACEVIC: Okay. Commissioner Corrigan, do you accept the amendment? CORRIGAN: Yeah, I would accept that amendment. KOVACEVIC: Commissioner Sveum, do you accept that amendment? SVEUM: Yes. Yes. KOVACEVIC: Okay. So we're striking the size limitation and leaving that at the -- to the discretion of the Commission. WOODWARD: Okay. KOVACEVIC: Okay. We have a motion and a second. Commissioner McDermott? MCDERMOTT: Oh, no, no. I was just -- KOVACEVIC: Okay. Can we have a roll call vote, please? WOODWARD: Commissioner Proctor. PROCTOR: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner Sveum. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 28 of 36 SVEUM: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner Schlossberg. SCHLOSSBERG: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner Corrigan. CORRIGAN: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner McDermott. MCDERMOTT: Aye. WOODWARD: Chair Kovacevic. KOVACEVIC: Aye. WOODWARD: Vice Chair Gray. GRAY: Aye. WOODWARD: Seven-zero. KOVACEVIC: Okay. Moving on to item D, Public Hearing with Consideration of possible action relating to ordinance 26-03, amending zoning ordinance, Section 5.13 community residences to remove sections moved to town code, article 8-8. Director Wesley. WESLEY: Commissioner I think that was my whole report and presentation here, but I'll summarize quickly. So again, some months ago, the town Council asked staff to look at amending our community residents ordinance and requirements to allow for inspections and insurance. When we did so, it was determined that it would really be better for our whole registration provisions to be moved into the business regulations in town code, rather in the zoning ordinance. So we prepared that ordinance amendment for Town Council. So it moved -- many of the provisions that are currently in section 1.5.13 of the zoning ordinance over into a new section 8-8 of the town code and provided for the inspections and insurance as Council was asking. And so that means we need to come back now into section 5.13 and take out all the things that we moved over into the other section of the town code. So that's what this TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 29 of 36 does this evening. Ordinance 2603 removes those provisions. It adds one provision, which tells people they're looking at how to register, to go to section eight of the town code to find those provisions. Any questions? KOVACEVIC: Commissioners. MCDERMOTT: Make a motion to approve. KOVACEVIC: We have a motion. PROCTOR: I'll support. KOVACEVIC: Okay. We have a motion and a second. KOVACEVIC: Any comments? Commissioner Corrigan? CORRIGAN: All right. By the way, I self-muted myself. My apologies. I'm concerned about some of the community housing issues in general, and I don't know if we should delve into this at this point, item by item, or are we just ready to move ahead? KOVACEVIC: All this -- all we're -- all this does is it takes language out -- CORRIGAN: Okay. KOVACEVIC: -- that was already moved. So we're not -- there's really no action regarding the housing issue. It's just a matter of striking items -- CORRIGAN: Okay. KOVACEVIC: -- that are redundant in the ordinance. CORRIGAN: Thank you, Chair. And just an add on question. Will we be addressing some of these issues later on, or does this then move to Council? KOVACEVIC: I don't know that we have anything coming on our agenda related to housing. CORRIGAN: Okay. I mean, then this is not the time to discuss -- KOVACEVIC: I don't -- CORRIGAN: -- specific issues about community housing. KOVACEVIC: Right. The specific issues aren't agendized. CORRIGAN: Correct. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 30 of 36 WESLEY: Only housekeeping amendment is on your agenda. CORRIGAN: Okay. Thank you. KOVACEVIC: Uh-huh. Okay. So we have a motion and a second. Can we have a roll call vote? WOODWARD: Commissioner Proctor. PROCTOR: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner McDermott. MCDERMOTT: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner Sveum. SVEUM: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner Schlossberg. SCHLOSSBERG: Aye. WOODWARD: Commissioner Corrigan. CORRIGAN: Aye. WOODWARD: Chair Kovacevic. KOVACEVIC: Aye. WOODWARD: Vice Chair Gray. GRAY: Aye. WOODWARD: Seven-zero. KOVACEVIC: Okay. 7E, Annual Update for the 2020 General Plan. Farhad. FARHAD: Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Members of the Commission. So I think this is my maybe my sixth year, or maybe fifth year presenting the annual update to the general plan before you for the calendar year -- in this case, calendar year 2025. The last time I presented this, I think -- I think two of the Council, or rather the two of the Commissioners that are up here probably weren't part of the Commission at that time. But -- and as many of you know, I'd like to start off my presentations with just TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 31 of 36 highlighting some of how the general plan is organized. And so to some of you, it'll be repetitive, others might be a good refresher. So apologies in advance for sounding like a broken record, but I think it might be important before I start talking about some of the achievements or the milestones we've reached in 2025. So the purpose of this presentation is to present before you, progress that the town has made on the general plan. Partly because it's a state statute requirement to not only have a general plan, but to update the governing body every year. And so the report that I've provided in your packets there, it talks about the adoption of the 2020 general plan and the three overarching principles which contain the eight general plan elements, but particularly the report before you talks about the implementation project progress. And as I mentioned, the report is -- that you have is in regards to the 2025 calendar year. General plan, as many of you already know, was approved in May -- on May 2020 by town Council. It was ratified in November 2020 by the by the voters. So the plan is organized according to three overarching principles. And those three are -- and you might want to add the word thriving before this, because that's how it's how it appears in the general plan. But thriving neighborhoods, thriving environment, and thriving economy. Those are the three overarching principles. It also identifies various character areas, such as the town center, various gateways to the town, such as those on either end of Shea Boulevard, as well as Fountain Hills Boulevard to the north by the State land piece. And it also establishes amendment procedures and requirements for an annual report. And by the way, there have been no amendments to the general plan in 2025, and as you'll -- as I'll discuss later, that may change for the upcoming calendar year, not this calendar year, 2026, but maybe next year. The -- it also, at the very end of the general plan, and perhaps might have been beneficial to have a copy of the general plan before you, but there's also an implementation strategy that outlines how the goals, policies and objectives are to be TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 32 of 36 carried out, and the steps to achieving those goals. This is a page out of the implementation strategy. As I mentioned, it lists the goals, policies, and implementation actions, as well as the lead agencies. In this case, it talks about the connectivity using various access -- using the access and mobility plan to be carried out by public works. It is a short range goal. More on that in a minute. It mentions some of the potential funding sources, and there are footnotes to go with this that are not on this slide, but it does identify various funding sources, as well as some private and public partnerships that might be beneficial in achieving those goals. There are anticipated time frames for each of those implementation actions, ranging from ongoing and immediate. So very short time frame for some of those goals to be achieved, as well as long range goals to be achieved within ten years, and everything in between there. The annual report requires a review of the plan amendments process. During the previous year, I already mentioned there have been no amendments, as there haven't been any in the past six years since this -- actually, since the general plan was ratified. Progress and status of implementation, as well as some a review of some policy issues that have been identified, as well as some recommendations for amendments. Some highlights from 2025 that I've listed in the report that touch upon those overarching principles and the -- and the subsequent elements. So in 2025, we've completed about one mile of sidewalk, much of which is right here adjacent to us along Montana Drive, along the Keystone development and the Bashas shopping center. We completed about one and a half miles of new bike lanes. As many of you know, Palomino Boulevard is currently under construction, but earlier in the year the -- a $5 million budget was approved to make those improvements along Palomino -- Palomino, rather. 3.2 million, not $3.2, but $3.2 million was approved for the Shay widening construction. That 3.2 million was to hire the contractors that are currently performing that widening. Two new trails were completed in our trail system in the mountain preserve area. That TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 33 of 36 completes our trail system for the entire town with those two miles. There were over $126,000 in grants that were awarded to -- awarded to the town, most of which came from the salt River Pima Indian Reservation, as well as the Arizona Office of Tourism. The permanent mural project, as many of you know about, was completed at Fountain Park, replacing the Pump House Art Project, which was rotating. The design phase for the Verde River Drive and Parkview Drive intersection was initiated. In fact, we had a very recently had an open house. There's a new effort now to add the fountain to the National Register of Historic Places. Our initial effort last November, failed. And so our Community Services Department is taking another stab at it with a -- just starting from scratch and perhaps learning from the previous process. And multiple -- there have been multiple inquiries about the State land piece. Already talked about the anticipated time frames, because I wanted to go into some of the actions that have not been completed. And many of you have heard this over and over again. And just in case there's any new discussion that you wish to bring up, I'll present them again. But amongst some of the immediate actions that we have not yet been able to accomplish, is employing a part time grant writer, and also establishing a general plan monitoring system coordinated with the -- with the -- a review of the cost of development or the Capital Improvements Program. Due to some I guess feasibility and logistical issues as well as like the very interdisciplinary nature of -- particularly this last bullet, having the general plan monitoring system established, kind of creates some logistical challenges across various departments. Policy implementation issues, some short-term actions that have yet to be accomplished, I've listed here. I'm not going to read from read them word for word, but you have them before you in your in your in your packet. I'll just skip down to the last two bullet points real quick. The safe by design concepts and low impact development. The general plan contains a -- contains goals to implement those through our zoning ordinance. And I will say that Safe by Design TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 34 of 36 Concepts and Low Impact Development, they're very -- yeah, those are proper names associated with a certain set of standards. But they haven't been formally implemented in the zoning ordinance, but they are, in some form or another, already established or provided in the zoning ordinance in various chapters. So -- and mid-long-range actions particularly preparing a feasibility study for the State -- for State -- for the State Trust land based on the results of a cost recovery study. It's kind of hard to do that when we don't have any prospective developers. However, that may very well change soon as we've had a series of meetings with various developers interested in pursuing the State land piece. And as I mentioned, we're it's very possible that an auction will be scheduled in the coming year, if not by the end of the year. Decided to put this up here for purposes of discussion. Many of you already know the State land piece, which originally went up for auction back in 2008. It was bought by the Ellman Company, and that was right around the Great Recession, and they have since gone -- or I should say, any fruition of this development has since gone belly up. But the zoning, as you can see here, is very established and it's some very specific areas establishing very specific zoning designations. That is almost certainly going to change once a new developer gets on board. So I'll leave it at -- I'll conclude with that and open it up to any discussions you might have about 2025, or the general plan in general. KOVACEVIC: Commissioner Sveum. SVEUM: You're looking for grant writers to employ, or are you looking for independent contractors that could come in and -- FARHAD: Yeah. SVEUM: -- help write specific grants that are in need? FARHAD: Right. The general plan simply states that we are to consider employing a part time grant writer. I think as a -- particularly as you can see parenthetically here, an economic development goal would take advantage of things such as like CDBG block grants among other things that our folks in Washington pass every now and then, and TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 35 of 36 we like to pounce on it, but -- SVEUM: I think you'd have luck reaching out if there was a need for someone to write a specific grant. FARHAD: Absolutely. SVEUM: Yeah. FARHAD: Yeah. SVEUM: You wouldn't have to hire. FARHAD: Correct. Yeah. SVEUM: Except for like, an independent contractor. FARHAD: Yeah. Our public works department takes advantage of -- particularly takes advantage of all the grant opportunities out there. And so -- yeah. KOVACEVIC: Any other comments? I just have one -- a type of -- typo comment on page five of the of your report. You're talking about the farmers market and an increase in number -- in the number of vendors. And this says an increase of approximately in vendors. It doesn't give a number. I was wondering if you knew what that number was. FARHAD: Yeah, it should be -- it should be ten. KOVACEVIC: Okay. Farhad: Ten new vendors. But I don't know what that brings the total up to. So -- yeah, I'll fix that typo. And I also did notice a series of bullet points here that was repeated. And so I'll be sure to remove that. KOVACEVIC: Great. FARHAD: Yeah. KOVACEVIC: All right. Thanks. Anybody else? And there's no action on this, right? FARHAD: The only action really is -- I guess we're looking for you to, I guess either revise and resubmit, or just approval to forward it to the town Council, and it will most likely be communicated to them via email, rather than coming before -- formally before the Town Council. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS APRIL 13, 2026 PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES Page 36 of 36 KOVACEVIC: Yeah, the agenda doesn't call for action. Director Wesley, do we -- do we need to take a vote on this or -- it just says you're going to give us an update. FARHAD: I think in the past we've asked you -- WESLEY: We've asked you to revise and resubmit a few times. So, chair, usually we do just look for an acknowledgment of receipt of it. And you're right. However, the agenda didn't specifically state that. So I'm -- we're probably fine just saying thank you for the report and moving on. KOVACEVIC: Thank you for the report. Do we have anybody for the call to the public tonight? WOODWARD: No, Chair. KOVACEVIC: Does anybody have anything for the director? And you talked about future agenda items already at the beginning of the meeting. I'll take a motion to adjourn. MCDERMOTT: I move to adjourn. SVEUM: Second. KOVACEVIC: All right. All in favor? ALL: Aye. WOODWARD: Did we get a second? KOVACEVIC: Commissioner Sveum. WOODWARD: Thank you. KOVACEVIC: Okay. Having no further business, Chair Kovacevic adjourned the Regular Meeting of the Planning and Zoning Commission held on April 13, 2026, at 7:25 p.m. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS Dan Kovacevic, Chairperson ATTEST AND PREPARED BY: Paula Woodward, Executive Assistant CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Regular Meeting held by the Planning & Zoning Commission of Fountain Hills in the Town Hall Council Chambers on the 13 of April 2026. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DA TED this 11 Day of May 2026. Paula Woodward, Executive Assistant