HomeMy WebLinkAbout2000.0106.TCREM.Minutes MINUTES OF THE REGULAR AND EXECUTIVE SESSION OF THE
FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL
JANUARY 6,2000
Mayor Morgan called the regular session of the Town Council to order.
ROLL CALL: Following the pledge to the flag and the invocation by Pastor Don Lawrence of Christ's
Church of Fountain Hills, roll call was taken. Present for roll call were the following members of the
Fountain Hills Town Council: Mayor Sharon Morgan, Vice Mayor Sid Apps, and Councilmembers Pen
Mower,John Wyman, Sharon Hutcheson,Marianne Wiggishoff and Al Poma. Also present were Town
Attorney Bill Farrell, Town Manager Paul Nordin, Town Clerk Cassie B. Hansen, Interim Town
Engineer Tom Ward,and Community Development Director Jeff Valder.
Mayor Morgan read the Consent Agenda, which consisted of the following agenda items:
ITEM#1 - CONSIDERATION OF APPROVING THE MEETING MINUTES OF
DECEMBER 16 AND 20,1999.
ITEM #2 - CONSIDERATION OF RESOLUTION 2000-01 ABANDONING WHATEVER
RIGHT, TITLE, OR INTEREST THE TOWN HAS IN THE TEN (10) FOOT PUBLIC
UTILITY AND DRAINAGE EASEMENTS LOCATED AT THE WESTERLY PROPERTY
LINE, AND THE TWENTY (20) FOOT PUBLIC UTILITY AND DRAINAGE EASEMENTS
LOCATED ON THE NORTHERLY PROPERTY LINE OF LOT 78, BLOCK 2, PLAT 505D,
(15501 BUMBLEBEE LANE)AS RECORDED IN BOOK 158 OF MAPS,PAGE 41 RECORDS
OF MARICOPA COUNTY, ARIZONA. (BRAD W. KRAUSE)EA99-27.
ITEM#3- CONSIDERATION OF A REQUEST TO REPLAT LOTS 3,4,AND 5,OF BLOCK
6,PLAT 208,TO CREATE LOT 3A.THIS IS A LOT JOIN PROJECT,CASE NUMBER S99-
050.
ITEM #4 - CONSIDERATION OF THE FINAL PLAT FOR THE 9-LOT, 8.230 t ACRE
FIREROCK COUNTRY CLUB PARCEL N SUBDIVISION, LOCATED IN FIREROCK
COUNTRY CLUB, SOUTH OF SHEA BOULEVARD, CASE NUMBER S99-028.
ITEM #5 - CONSIDERATION OF THE FINAL PLAT FOR THE 4-LOT, 6.917 t ACRE
FIREROCK COUNTRY CLUB PARCEL 0-3 SUBDIVISION, LOCATED IN FIREROCK
COUNTRY CLUB, SOUTH OF SHEA BOULEVARD, CASE NUMBER S99-029.
Councilwoman Wiggishoff MOVED to approve the consent agenda and Vice Mayor Apps
SECONDED the motion. Mayor Morgan called for a vote on the consent agenda.
Councilman Poma aye
Councilman Wiggishoff— aye
Councilwoman Apps - aye
Councilman Wyman - aye
Councilman Mower- aye
Councilwoman Hutcheson- aye
Mayor Morgan- aye
The motion CARRIED unanimously with a roll call vote.
ITEM #6 - PUBLIC HEARING ON ORDINANCE 00-01 AMENDING THE SUBDIVISION
ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARTICLE II, SECTION 205.C,
REQUIRING LOT SPLITS TO BE POSTED PRIOR TO THE PUBLIC HEARING.
Mayor Morgan recessed the regular session and opened the public hearing at 6:31 p.m.
Director Jeff Valder reviewed that Ordinance 00-01 had been the result of a request from two Planning
and Zoning Commissioners because of applications received for lot splits. He said that the Planning
and Zoning Commissioners wanted staff to come up with a way for additional public notice, which
would allow neighbors around the lot splits the opportunity to at least participate in the public meeting
process of this administrative subdivision process. He explained what those Commissioners had
requested was the posting of the site much as was done currently for rezones and special use permits.
He said one of the problems was that when the public saw those signs they thought that it was a
Saw process where the Town could say no instead of an administrative process; where, as long as the
regulations were conformed with, the Town had to approve them. So, to overcome that hurdle, staff
suggested that the language on the signs clearly describe the administrative nature of the subdivision
process and the inability of the Town to deny a subdivision request. This action would provide notice
to neighbors that a piece of land in their neighborhood was undergoing or that a lot split application
had been applied for.
Councilwoman Wiggishoff acknowledged this action was a "feel good effort" and came from the
frustration felt by the public. She asked if there was a reason why such action had to even come
before the Planning and Zoning Commission and Council since neither could do anything about the
process. Director Valder responded that in other towns and cities, the subdivision process was one
that was done administratively and never came before a Planning Commission or Town Council. Staff
would issue a permit much as was done when issuing a building permit. He suggested that such a
system could be set up for Fountain Hills. He reminded the Council that, historically, the Planning
and Zoning Commission and the Town Council had wanted to be part of the process. Although it
would be administrative in nature, he acknowledged that sometimes the public hearing/public meeting
process resulted in more attractive projects because the developer wanted to work with the Planning
and Zoning Commission and the Council.
Councilwoman Wiggishoff said it was the "heartburn"projects, such as when one neighbor wanted to
divide one lot into two and off site improvements would not be asked for from that person etc., etc.,
etc., which would benefit from being placed into this administrative form and she would be interested
in exploring that issue in an effort to find a way around"neighbor against neighbor"type projects.
Saw Councilman Poma asked the Town Attorney, Bill Farrell, if the Town Council could do anything to
stop lot splits in new plats. Mr. Farrell said the issue was a difficult one because the basic numbers
that were put into residential zoning districts were minimums not maximums. He explained that staff
and the Council had continued to refine the criteria so that it was more difficult to create very large
lots within those districts, but the Town couldn't totally eliminate them. He gave an example of such
an issue in Eagles Nest. He stated when this development comes before the Council, a number of
those lots were going to substantially exceed 43,560 sq. ft, which were zoned R1-43. He acknowl-
edged that the Town Council had put in controls on width,but because of the lot splits and the height-
ened sensitivity, the Council would see staff and the Planning and Zoning Commission urging the
Council to do something on very large lot subdivisions either through requesting CC &Rs or certain
plat consideration to prohibit it. He said that if someone came in with two five-acre parcels and
wanted R1-43 zoning on them, and the Council said yes, and that was the general plan, the property
owner would be able to split it to 2 '/ without administrative approval. He explained that it was only
when the lot got down to 2 t/acres that the Town had any authority to regulate it.
Town Manager Paul Nordin suggested, in theory, that staff might be able to take a look at the existing
subdivisions where particular areas could be identified for potential rezoning with the current property
owner's consent. He said that was the only way, off the top of his head, to address Councilman
Poma's concerns. He reiterated that this action could only happen with the present property owner's
consent and cooperation, but he didn't know how easily that could be to put it into practice. Council-
man Poma agreed this was a problem that needed to be looked into.
Director Valder addressed this issue stating staff was currently working with a member of the
Planning and Zoning Commission to look at ways to regulate the subdivision code that would
effectively prohibited lot splits. He acknowledged that it had been a problem with a couple of recent
lot splits and he hoped they would be able to come up with something in the coming weeks.
Town Council Regular and Executive Session 1/6/2000
Page 2 of 4
Mr. Nordin reminded the Council of the value of considering this issue as a "neighborhood issue" and
said the dialogue with the neighborhood would be the key to the program if the Council wanted to do
things in a proactive way.
Councilman Wyman asked if, in the administrative procedure, was there any portion of it where
neighborhood CC & Rs would restrict lot splits in any way. So that essentially while the Council did
not control that, it seemed to be an unnecessary process if it couldn't be done anyway. He inquired if
the signage at least suggested that the public should be aware of neighborhood restrictions. He then
questioned whether or not it was even part of the administrative process to examine that.
Director Valder said he had reviewed the restrictions on his own home, which he felt were comparable
to what existed throughout the Town. He explained the restrictions were what MCO had put on all the
lots in Town and in that review neither the Committee of Architecture or the NPOA had the ability to
reject lot splits and it was not something that the Town could administer and enforce.
Mr. Farrell proposed that in the future the Council could suggest that CC &Rs contain that restriction.
He said that once the restriction was in place, then a homeowner or neighborhood had a valid remedy,
exclusive of the Mayor and Council, although it would require hiring a lawyer and going into court.
He said staff could strongly suggest that if someone came in with a large lot subdivision and the
zoning was smaller than the lot size, the Council could suggest this option. He said the best control
was the frontage calculation limitation, so that now someone in a R1-43 zoning the frontage would
have to have two times the allowed 145' or 290' of frontage on the street to get that second lot in. He
said Council would certainly turn down a lot-split request, if it didn't have the 145' of frontage in a
R1-43 zone.
Director Valder said that the plat coming in now could not be split without a Council waiver or
abandonment of the Hillside Protection Easement and approval rested with the Council. He said, in
the past, the Town had been successful in getting developers to put special easements on the property
lines that restricted access onto the lot so that the lot couldn't be split because the access prohibited
anyone from putting in a driveway on that part of the lot. He said referred to the Town Attorney's
statement about making sure the lot widths on these new lots were not more than two times the
minimum lot width of the zoning district. He said those were all controls available to the Town in
order to say no on future lot splits.
Town Manager Nordin explained there had been a time when staff examined the General Plan versus
the underlying zoning and a Town wide analysis had been done as to where the General Plan was out
of conformance. He proposed that a similar analysis could be done to determine how big the problem
was. He said staff could look at those areas in town that were already established and subdivided to
see if there were and the location where potential problems might be. He indicated he would suggest
that Director Valder and the Planning and Zoning Commissioners take that action as they had already
started to address the problem.
Councilwoman Hutcheson asked if the Planning and Zoning Commission had unanimously
recommended this as a preliminary step until they had something that could remedy this problem or
were they looking at this as another source of public input. Director Valder said the Planning and
Zoning Commission had been looking at this as a way to encourage public participation and then,
secondly,recommending some amendment that would regulate lot splits to the Council.
Vice Mayor Apps stated he liked the idea of additional public participation and asked Mr. Nordin to
complete the analysis as quickly as possible.
Mayor Morgan closed the public hearing and reconvened the regular session at 6:49 p.m.
Town Council Regular and Executive Session 1/6/2000
Page 3 of 4
ITEM #7 - CONSIDERATION OF ORDINANCE 00-01 AMENDING THE SUBDIVISION
ORDINANCE OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARTICLE II, SECTION 205.C,
REQUIRING LOT SPLITS TO BE POSTED PRIOR TO THE PUBLIC HEARING.
Councilwoman Wiggishoff MOVED the Council approve Ordinance 00-01 as presented and
Councilman Poma SECONDED the motion, which CARRIED unanimously.
ITEM#8- CALL TO THE PUBLIC
No one came forward.
ITEM#9 -PURSUANT TO A.R.S. §38-431.03.A.3.,AND A.R.S. §38-431.03.A.4.,VOTE TO GO
INTO EXECUTIVE SESSION FOR DISCUSSION OR CONSULTATIONS FOR LEGAL
ADVICE WITH THE ATTORNEY OR ATTORNEYS OF THE PUBLIC BODY REGARDING
THE LOS ARCOS MULTIPURPOSE FACILITIES DISTRICT AND THE BARCLAY
GROUP; AND DISCUSSION OR CONSULTATION WITH THE ATTORNEYS OF THE
PUBLIC BODY IN ORDER TO CONSIDER ITS POSITION AND INSTRUCT ITS
ATTORNEYS REGARDING THE PUBLIC BODY'S POSITION IN PENDING OR
CONTEMPLATED LITIGATION REGARDING THE TOWN VERSUS MCO PROPERTIES
AND THE MCO COMMITTEE FOR REFERENDUM VERSUS THE TOWN;
RESPECTIVELY.
Mayor Morgan called for a vote to go into Executive Session at 7:03 p.m. Vice Mayor Apps MOVED
that the Council go into Executive Session and Councilman Poma SECONDED the motion, which
CARRIED unanimously.
ITEM#10-RETURN TO REGULAR SESSION.
Mayor Morgan reconvened the Regular Session of the Town Council at 8:34 kilo" ITEM#11 -ADJOURNMENT.
Vice Mayor Apps MOVED to adjourn the meeting. Councilman Mower SECONDED the motion,
which CARRIED unanimously. Mayor Morgan adjourned the meeting at 7:23 p.m.
TOW F AIN H S
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Sharon Morgan, a or
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ATTEST: 1A, to , 1
Cassie B Hansen,T wn Clerk 1
PREPARED BY: ,�' O,�.4- J
Bev Bender,Administrative Assistant
CERTIFICATION
I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Regular
Session Meeting held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills on the 6th day of January 2000. I further
certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present.
DATED this 20th day of January 2000. ( b LA-A44-A-)-\
Ci-4-4A--;--
Cassie B. Hansen,Town Clerk
Town Council Regular and Executive Session 1/6/2000
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