All right, everyone ready? >> All right, I can tell by the enthusiastic yes that we are. Therefore, I will call to order the uh study session here. Welcome everybody. We have two items on the agenda this evening. First up, we will go with item one, DR25161, tracks at Kulie station. And welcome up the one and only Mr. Keith Newman. >> Uh, chair, I need to excuse myself from this one. >> Yes, sir. Thanks, Brian. Commissioner Anderson. Uh, chair, members of the planning commission, good evening. So, my only um project that I'm bringing before you tonight is for, as you stated, tracks at Kulie Station. See if I can get this to work. Is there an on switch on this thing or something? Okay. Nope. We had problems at council a couple weeks ago, too, with this Is there another one? >> Is that it? >> I guess you have to like turn the on switch on on this thing. That's interesting. >> Thank you, Veronica. I appreciate it. >> If we can commit that to the record for all of us to now know that in order for it to work, we must turn it on. >> Yes. Thank you. >> Yes. Perfect. Perfect. Okay. So, the project site is located, as you can see in the aerial map in front of you. It is located um on along Williamsfield Road in the in the heart of Kulie Station uh right just west of what we call the uh Kulie Station Village center. Um and you can see it highlighted that the project the project site actually looks like a home plate. I I've I've urged the applicants several times to change the name of the project to the home plate, but they won't listen to me. But but there it is uh right there. Um and this is you've this project has come before you before. A couple of years ago you re the project site received zoning approval for a PA amendment. Um so and we showed you the design of the development plan at that time. So some of you were on the board on the count on the excuse me the planning commission then. So you should be a little bit familiar with the design. Soon as we go over that I'll show that to you in just a minute. But a little bit of Kulie Station context. As I said, this is um just west of the the main area of Kulie Station, the retail and commercial portion, which we call the village center. Um and you can see the site highlighted. There is um a couple apartment complexes across the street to the immediate to the east is parcels 20 and 21, which which that design is no longer that's an old design. I'm just showing it to you for context. Um that design never got approved, but there is um uh Verdie at Koolie Station development further to the east with a lot of retail. Then you have some more apartments south of that. You have the fries marketplace with retail shops and and some apartments and some loft units approved across the street from Verdia Culie Station and and just so so I just wanted to show you some context. And then there's single family in the immediate area as well. And this is all north of the railroad tracks on the south side of Williamsfield Road. Um, as far as the request before you tonight, the applicant is obviously requesting design review approval in the future uh to construct a new 568 unit apartment complex on a site that's about 20 acres in size and that's net acres. So, the site plan, here's the site plan, which some of you may be familiar with. Um, 568 units like I stated, um, sorry, that's the gross acreage, 22 uh acres. Um, and the site has 10 residential buildings. And as you can see on that site plan, you have your main entrance off of Williamsfield. And then all that parking, you can see that it leads right to the clubhouse. And then up along Williamsfield Road, you have and it's the building is hatched, the big large building. It's a very large building. Um, and it has um about a,000 about 700 ft of street frontage if I remember correctly. And it's five. It's a five-story building with a parking garage in the center of it where all the residents will have access to their units internally through the parking garage which has about 600 I believe parking spaces in it. And then as we move further east along Williamsfield Road is another fivetory uh building which is much smaller. And then to the south of that, of course, I already talked about the clubhouse. And then you have some additional four-story buildings. South of the clubhouse and all the rest of the apartment buildings that are the larger buildings are fourstory buildings. Along the eastern perimeter, there are four twostory carriage units that have a garage on the ground floor and apartment units on the on the second floor. And then in the far south corner of the building, right where it comes to a point, are a couple of garage buildings. The site also contains um it's about 22 dwelling units per acre, 22.6. Um about,00 parking spaces. The other access location to the site is along that southern boundary off of Summerton Boulevard um which will curve. Right now that road doesn't exist. It will be extended from Verie Drive which is further to the east. The town has a CIP project and they're going to be building out that about Summerton Boulevard all the way out to Williamsfield Road. So that the development will have two street frontages. So that's kind of the site plan in a nutshell. Um, I did want to make mention of a um some one item uh of concern that staff has that we're work we're going to work through this with the applicant. Um some our bu our fire department/building department brought us up up a concern and I know the applicant has seen these comments and they're working through them. Um is fire apparatus access. We have some fire apparatus access issue. There's a lot of canopies, parking canopies up close to the buildings on all actually all of the buildings, even the fourstory buildings. So, they're going to have to make some changes to the fire apparatus access where they need one whole side of the building to have uh access where they can park a put a fire truck so they can get on top of the roof of these these tall four and fivetory buildings. So, we have some issues with that that we're trying to work through with the applicant. We're confident we'll be able to solve those issue, those concerns. Um the landscape plan, um I know it's kind of hard to see, but a majority of the landscaping, which there's 44% landscaping, a lot of it along the perimeters of the site and and within the parking areas and along the along the the parks and around the or the the two amenity areas. There's two amenity areas with two pools and and this development actually has for a 568 unit apartment complex has more amenities than I've pretty much ever seen for an apartment complex of this size. It has an indoor clubhouse with indoor pickle ball courts, indoor basketball courts, weight rooms. It has outdoor two pools. It has outdoor tennis courts, outdoor basketball, outdoor pickle ball courts. I think it has a volleyball. It has a lot of amenities. This development does more than we typically see for any apartment complex. So, so we're very thankful for that. Um, here's the open space plan that shows you where all those open spaces are, um, including the clubhouse. So, you can see that this has it exceeds the 40% open space that's required by code. The ele building elevations. Um, so this is one of the items that I just wanted to bring up these elevations to you to kind of show them. There's quite a few of them. Um, the design of the buildings. There's six types of residential buildings. This one's type one. Um, there's kind of a key map on the site plan that kind of or on each page that shows you where they are. Um so so these elevations a lot of wall plane movement um brick materials of course stucco they have like three different types of styles of brick and of course the station uh brick which we call it's fuego red brick is is on these buildings as well. Um not necessarily as much on this building but on some of the other buildings there's a lot of the fuego red brick and other types of brick. Um, the paint colors, most of them are are fairly typical of Kulie Station, but I did want to bring up there are a couple of paint paint colors that I mentioned in the staff report that we have some concerns with, and we wanted your feedback on on that today. That's the pinkish looking color, which is actually called um red bud. And then the yellow color, I I think it's called butterup. Those two colors are not colors that we typically see in Kulie Station, especially in the village center area. I know that there is an apartment complex across the street that has a maroonish reddish type color. I can't remember the name of it off the top of my head, but that's more of a reddish maroon color. Uh this is more pink. So, and it's very bright. So, we're concerned with that. It's a color that doesn't exist anywhere else in Kulie Station. So, we have made a a recommendation to the applicant or we've requested that they eliminate that color and the yellow color and use more warm earth tone colors that you see that are found in other places in Kulie Station in the village center. So, we would like your comments on that. But other than that, we the design is is we think it's very good. Um, and I'll show you some of these other buildings. Here's one of the elevations that has a lot of that brick and that that Fuego red brick that I'm talking about. It's typical of Kulie Station. Um, a lot of, like I said, lots of wall plane movement and different finishes and really good cornises. So, so we think these designs of these buildings are are are pretty good. So, I'll just go through these. There's quite a few of them. Building type three. Lot of buildings, so just bear with me here for a second. Most of these are the the four-story buildings. And then here's the five-story building that's along Williamsfield Road. And that north elevation has a lot of wall plane movement, a lot of different um articulations on these buildings. It even has limestone on that far right hand side. But and you can see that rose, that red bud color, that pink color that we're concerned with. But overall, the design of these buildings is we believe is is um is really good. This is the back side of the building which you can't see the movement but there's a lot of movement and it set steps way far back and goes way far in at certain points. Okay, here are the carriage units. Um flat roofing. Um again there's that yellow color. We've actually made a recommendation that the applicant um change that color and add some uh some of that fuego red brick or some other brick on this building to kind of complement the other apartment buildings. Here's the clubhouse. Very nice clubhouse and this is a two-story clubhouse. Um here's the garage elevations again. Here's that pink color that we have concerns with. Um so that's it for for my presentation. um requested input input, excuse me, elevation designs, colors and materials, and I already talked to you about the fire apparatus access. So, I I don't know if we necessarily need input on that. I did put it on here, but um but we have just wanted to mention that concern. So, I am open for any questions if you if you have any from me. Uh so, thank you very much. >> Thank you, Keith. It's a wonderful presentation as always. And uh so, we need a couple questions or comments. I'd like to see who'd like to get us started. Maybe talk about the uh warm butter color or some other >> uh Commissioner Gage is that or >> Commissioner Dearina. Go ahead. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I was I agree with you 100% Keith on on that uh red butt. I think it would get old and it's way out of place and I think you should do your best to try to convince them to do something differently. Uh my questions don't really relate to what your concerns are. You know, when the few know that I'm on the planning commission, I get asked all the time about the water issue and apartment buildings. Now, we have another 568 units coming into Gilbert. My question is, do we do demographic studies to see if these units are full that are already built? What the uh flow of people coming into the town of Gilbert? Because we have an abundance of them. And I was just concerned if if there's any kind of studies required by the developer to to prove that this is going to be full and it's adequate for where we need to be now and in the future. Um, Chair Mont, Commissioner Dervina, we we don't do those studies typically. Uh, we rely on the applicant to to do those inter studies on their own. We don't request the um that they provide that information. um we can in this situation if if if that's something that um the commission feels is necessary, but we typically don't require the applicant to provide us studies on vacancy rates on apartments and whether or not they're viable or needed um in this particular area. >> Well, I I think it would be a good idea for them to do that, but then again, they're the ones that are liable if the buildings don't get filled up. >> Correct. That's correct. >> Yeah. So it's then again you got a lot of aggressive developers out there and a lot of bankers that want to lend money at a higher interest rate. So it's a nice balance that we have to meet. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner. Commissioner Gage, would you like to go ahead now? Thank you. >> Thank you, chair. Um I I love color um but not this pink. This is really shocking and the pink and white garages. Um, I can only imagine what was going through that architect's head when he put this together. Um, it looks like um my Barbie playhouse from when I was a child. So, um, I would like to see that changed, please. And then it almost on the elevation of the larger building, it it just looks like too many different materials and colors and changes. And I don't know if that was on purpose. um that like my eyes don't know what to look at first. Usually we're asking for more and like some variation or and this looks like they just put everything in and then it met the guidelines and it's kind of confusing. So I don't know if there's like a method behind that madness um or what. The the pink is um it was a bold choice. >> Keith, could you remind us again what is the name of the pink? Just >> um Chair Mont, uh the pink is called it's called uh Red Bud. >> Red Bud. Okay. So, let's I just want to make sure we're talking that's not pink, it's red bud. >> Chair Chair Mont. Um, if if you look it up on I believe it's Sherwin Williams um website, it's a little it's a little bit darker than what these rep than what these elevations are portraying, but not much. It's still very pink, >> right? >> A little bit darker than that because these these elevations, it's hard for them to probably match it exactly, but it is still a pink color. >> Okay. And do you know Keith just you know when we have we seen this we've seen this before years ago right this project uh chairman yes a couple of years ago they came before you to establish a development plan and asked they asked for some deviations on height of the buildings to go above this is in the vertical development overlay district so they can go up to 69 ft with the buildings and then they had a landscape set back on the eastern boundary but yes you have seen the design of this site before >> but This is the first time you're actually seeing the design of the elevations. >> Okay, that's what I was wondering. I was just I wanted to make sure this wasn't something where we told them these colors are too bland to go get them and then they came back with the hot butter and rose bud. So, okay. Thank you, >> Commissioner Wang. >> Thank you, Chair. Um, my question is uh with the traffic. So, we have 565 unit. That's a lot of car coming out and I bet a lot of them will make left turn to go on the freeway and looks like there are two access point on Williamsfield. Is either one of those going to be signalized? >> Uh chairman, Commissioner Huang, um we're currently going through a TIA reviewing the TIA on this property to see what the impacts are on the surrounding street network. I don't believe uh a in the TIA that they are requiring a traffic signal. So I that will not be at that entrance because I think there's I Clint Clint is here and Clint can answer that question. But if you want to go ahead and answer Clint, but I don't believe we're recommending a traffic signal, but Clint is here and can answer that question better than me. >> Yeah. Hello. Good evening. Um chair, commissioners. So So Wade is to the left of your screen right here. That's going to have a traffic signal. they will have access. Um you can see at the very pointer >> off of Summerton there at the Wade was right there. That's where the traffic signal is going to go. So the development will have an option using Summerton. There's an access to the to the south there. >> Do you want to show them that the access off of Summerton? >> Yes, there >> right there. Yeah. But yeah, the but the main one off of Williamsfield will be unsalized just because of the close proximity of the signal. >> Okay. that that make me feel better. >> Okay. >> Because >> otherwise you're going to put a lot of U-turn on >> Yeah. >> on Williamsville. >> So it does give them an option to use a signal during peak hours. So >> thank you. >> Thanks. >> Very well. Commissioner Davis, did you have anything you wanted to add? >> Thank you, Chair. I do. Um I was um also not supportive of the the red bud. Um, it's kind of funny depending on where you look on what screen it shows up a little different. If you look at that screen over there, it comes across more like that darker red that's across the street. Um, I think on our on our iPads here, it probably I looked at the Sherman Williams site as well and this seems more accurate versus what we see here where it's pretty bright. Um, I think there's a lot happening on these buildings. There's, as Commissioner Gage said, there's you almost don't know where to look. We've got the really heavy whimsical cornises. You've got a lot of push and pull, which I appreciate. I think adding that all that color with it, I think something has to balance. If we're going to have that much movement, that much happening, it would calm it down to maybe not be going with such bright colors. Um, so that would help, but it maybe I mean if I could see if they want to use it in much smaller amounts maybe as an accent somewhere, but in the large mass amounts they're using that red bud, it just seems like a lot. And I'm not as averse to the yellow shade, but also I just think this building has so much going on that it might benefit from just toning it down a little bit with the colors and going a little more neutral. Um, even though I too like color, but this just seems like quite a bit happening. Um, some of the detailing on this I think is going to be really important how this comes across. Um, for instance, like on those patios, it looks like those are stucco where they have the the rhythm of squares going across there. just making sure we have proper score lines or paint, you know, to define the paint changes so it doesn't just get done poorly. Um, I agree on the garages. I don't think it's appropriate to use red bud on those. You want garages like that to just kind of go away. I agree with staff that on the carriage buildings, they could probably pick those up a little bit, add a little bit more variation in color, and maybe that's with the brick. Um, and then let's see. I think that's all I had. So, >> thank you. >> Thank you. >> Very well. Thank you, vice chair. Anything to add? >> I I take no position on colors. That to me is a commercial decision. If they paint it a bad color, then they're going to have a harder time renting it. Um and and I I as far as the fire department, I don't even know that we we need to me it's there's times I disagree with them, but the the reality is the fire department signs off or doesn't sign off. if they sign off, whether I agree with them or not, it's it's a done deal. And if they haven't signed off, it's this project's dead in the water as far as I'm concerned. But that's that's purely so I I don't take a position on colors and I don't essentially take a position on the fire department either. Um, in terms of the other question, the use is already entitled, right? The >> So we're we don't need to waste any time >> dealing with that, right, >> Chairman? Um, Commissioner Fay, that's correct. Vice Chair Fay, the use is already entitled, right? And this development plan's already been approved right >> by council. So >> So yeah, that's so u essentially you've got two items that I basically take no position on. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Bold. Thank you, sir. Okay. Well, I uh I don't know. I happen to like the rose bud, but I think you know that's that's fine. >> Anyway, I I like the rose bud. I and I really like on the left side on the lower one where there's the brick on top and then the the less colored brick. So I like the use of that um brick and so maybe they can find some ways um I I think I'm sure the architect can find some ways to do something with that but other than that I think it's a great uh great job. So >> the fact that the least colorcoordinated member of the planning commission is the only one who likes the colors probably the most stinging indictment of the color we've heard tonight. >> Yeah. And I don't think that as commissioners we have HR, but if there were, I would probably um ask them to check that. But anyway, hopefully that's all you needed, Keith. And uh you know, if you need anything else, let me know. But otherwise, thank you, sir. >> All right, that's it. That I think you guys did a great job. Thank you. I appreciate it. >> All right. Thanks. Okay, moving right along into item number two, Z2601, LDC text amendment for data centers. And we get to hear from Mr. Sal Des Santo. All right. Good good evening, chair and commissioners. Almost said afternoon there. Uh the item we'll be taking a look at is case number Z26-01 uh which is an LDC text amendment related to data centers. So, the request we're ultimately searching for tonight is to begin an initiation for the LDC text amendment and also conduct the citizen review. Um, but I wanted to provide a little bit more detail as to what sections we are anticipating um amending for the language for data centers. And essentially, you know, what we're trying to accomplish here is to um you know, establish new data center development standards um that we can apply in the LDC for future development. Uh the sections we're looking at is terms, the base zoning districts and use regulations, the employment districts, and additional use and site regulations. Uh so I also wanted to add this slide as to you know why we're starting to begin this discussion um associated with data centers. Um through you know the last few years we've definitely grown in our um development needs for internet-based services and data centers being one of them. um they host a number of operations for online services from cloud service or you know even application um success right so as these technological pieces start to develop we also need built infrastructure that can help these pieces along so the first piece was you know recognizing that these infrastructure needs are growing and needing to establish standards for these forms of development Uh the other piece of that is also balancing this new form of infrastructure with uh the community members in mind. Uh with data centers there are typical issues related to sound scale uh the potential utility demand as well as the um architectural character of these developments. um because they're typically unmanned um can range in size and are just essentially looking like employment development without the amount of employees on site. Uh we're also looking to establish these clear standards um and predictable standards for when these applicants and developments decide to move forward with something like this, they have a base guideline of what the town is expecting and anticipating. Uh another piece is also ensuring compatibility with the surrounding neighborhoods. Uh we want to establish standards that allow data centers to operate effectively uh while protecting nearby residents and maintaining the community quality of life. And then that last piece also is creating predictability for applicants and the public. Um establishing, you know, clear regulations helps developers understand the requirements upfront and it also provides neighbors um some confidence in the impacts that town will be looking at. Currently in our code, data centers are only mentioned a a couple of times. Uh we have our data center definition which is shown on screen and it's also mentioned in our use regulations table where it is uh permitted with a conditional use permit in the BP or business park and light industrial zoning districts. Uh looking at data centers as a whole, staff has identified a few areas that we need to examine and research further uh to ensure that we're providing the best development standards for the development of these data centers while also protecting the the neighbors that surround a proposed project. Um, so one of the first things we want to look at is permitted uses and whether or not data centers um should be permitted in all employment zoning districts, limiting it to LI and GI. So there's just some ongoing discussion as to whether or not data centers will be permitted in specific zoning districts. Uh the other piece that we're looking at is a special use permit. Uh as I mentioned, currently our code only requires a conditional use permit associated with data centers. uh but giving some of the impacts um surrounding data centers and practices for establishing um substations or SRP areas. Those are typically going through a special use permit process. So we figure that data centers would follow the same um line of application process. Uh another big item we're looking at is setbacks associated with data with data centers. Uh currently we're thinking that the buildings themselves must comply with the setbacks associated with the uh zoning district. Uh but we've also discussed whether or not if any kind of data center data center equipment uh related to um electrical cabinets, battery packet cabinets, cooling equipment, generators. um if those are shown in the in proposed structures, we want to ensure that there are enhanced setbacks to protect adjacent property owners. And another area we've been taking a look at is whether or not proposed data centers need to be within proximity to an electrical substation or proposed electrical substation given the demand uh needed for this type of use. Uh we've also been thinking about different design and screening requirements, ensuring that these developments do follow through with our employment design guidelines. Um that all this associated equipment is properly screened from public streets and adjacent properties. Uh we also want to establish a limited height on data centers as well and we're still in the process of examining, you know, where that number might be. Uh, additionally, we're looking at landscaping requirements and whether or not we want to enhance those, uh, depending on the surrounding properties. Uh, we've talked about implementing a 35 foot long, I'm sorry, 35 foot wide landscape uh, setback adjacent to streets as well as increasing the setback to 50 ft if the project is adjacent to residential areas. And the last piece is sound mitigation. While we've been researching uh data centers, it has come up that these do uh create a decent amount of noise given all the cabinets and equipment on site. Uh so we thought it might be beneficial to um include a sound study with any data center um application. As for next steps with this text amendment, uh following the work session tonight, we will plan for a future planning commission hearing uh where we will then make a recommendation uh for council. we would have a study session there and then that final council hearing. Uh and that brings us to the end of my presentation and our recommended motion from staff is to uh for the planning commission to initiate the amendment to the land de development code and to conduct a citizen review and I am open to any questions you all may have. >> Thank you very much S. Who would like to kick us off with any questions for S? Commissioner Davis. Thank you, chair. Um, S, how many data centers do you know how many Gilbert has? I tried looking it up today and I only found one, but I didn't know how many existed in Gilbert currently. >> Uh, Chair, Commissioner Davis, I don't know the exact number off the top of my head. I do know we do have that one in town, but other than that, I I don't have an exact. >> I was just curious. Um, I guess my comments relate to more when you're adjacent to residential. I would caution that you look at that a little further and maybe even go more restrictive. Um maybe consider the height adjacent when it's adjacent to residential. I'm less concerned when it's adjacent to other industrial or commercial. But I think consideration of you know lowering the building adjacent to residential because those buildings are massive. They're really long. You can end up with just this huge wall behind residential. 50 ft is really not that far. um when you consider, you know, where your homes are, what your backyards are looking at. Um so I think that's something to look at. And then maybe considering that all of that mechanical electrical equipment goes on an opposite side of the building from residential. So maybe making sure that it's cited in such a way that it impacts the neighbors. Maybe their offices are what's adjacent to residential or something like that. I just they really aren't a good neighbor to residences. And I think the more mitigation we can put there, the less trouble there will be in the future when they come through public hearings. So, and just to create better neighborhoods and keep our neighborhoods good quality. So, those are my comments. >> Great. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Commissioner Davis. Commissioner Hong. >> Oh, Commissioner Dervina. >> Yeah, thanks for the presentation. So, um I got some curiosity questions. Have you had requests to build data centers because Gilbert is basically landlocked but not built out? Where would they be going? They're huge. Uh Chairman, Commissioner D. Garvina, uh at this time we haven't had any applications for um a formal data center. Uh we are just anticipating um the growth of these uses and trying to establish some of those development standards that if they do decide to come to town, we do have some um standards provided in our code to protect neighbors and promote a quality development. But to your question of where they may be located, um I don't have an exact answer for you. Um there are still some vacant pieces, but there are also still the ability to uh redevelop an existing site uh where we do have some some larger pieces in town of that nature, but um nothing in the pipeline yet for a formal application. >> I'm just thinking why would someone come here? It's more expensive to do that when they could go further out. The other thing too is that your presentation is great. It covered most everything, but I think as critical as everything you covered there is the water and electricity use. It uses a ton of water to keep them cool and a ton of electricity. How are we going to balance that out? uh Chairman, Commissioner D. Gravina, and I think that's some information that we're going to um dig into a little bit more uh once we get the ability to um initiate the the LDC text amendment. Um because to your point, staff also has some concerns related to utilities, power, water uh and we want to ensure that these uses don't create any impacts on the residences of Gilbert. >> Thank you. Yeah, thank you sir. Commissioner Hong. >> Yeah, I just want to echo with uh Commissioner Egoina with the water usage because on one of your slide with the area you exam I don't see exam for water usage and I know they use a lot of water >> and our town you know being in the desert you know water is precious. So I would say look into that deeper. They need to prove the water consumptions that we can support them you know in our town and and I know you mentioned about you know some of the uh benefit uh but they don't employ a lot of people. >> You got you got a huge data center they probably have two people operating the whole thing. So they don't really bring in a whole lot of uh employment. So um that's what I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you sir. Commissioner Anderson. >> Um, just great presentation. Thank you. Just to kind of throw some information out there regarding the questions on utility usage. So, every major development that happens um they the owners go and meet with each wa you know they'll meet with the water service or electric company and what they they do is they get these things called will serve letters and essentially what they do is they tell the utility company that hey we have this development that's going in this area. Let's say it's multif family because I'm pretty familiar with that process and I've seen it. They'll contact the utilities and say this is what we're doing. It's x amount of units. Do you have the capacity for this? So they'll research and say yes we do. Um water lines are sized correctly. If they're not, they'll say water lines need to be increased. So there is a process in place that developers need to go through to understand if before they commit to a site, do they have the utilities that's going to be provided to them. So that I think we should be feel comfortable with that that that is covered. Um and then the second thing that uh was brought up was regarding you know it we all know these things do take a lot of water but they recycle probably 90 95% of the water that they bring in. I mean a good example is as a TMCM TSMC project up north in North Phoenix. Um they have a ton of water but they recycle like 95% of the water there. So they're not drawing a whole lot of water from the system. So there are places in there. I think we should feel comfortable with that. But I agree with town that we should have something in place to kind of protect the neighbors. Um so when these facilities if they choose to come to Gilbert that you know we are protecting you know their neighbors you know that people that are here and making sure that 80 foot tall um you know data centers you know 500,000 square foot not being built direct next to a single family residential. So that's just kind of my soap box. Thank you. >> Thank you, sir. Anyone else have any comments or questions? >> Vice Chair. >> Yeah, I agree with um Brian kind of stole my part of my thunder, but at the same time, right now, our council is getting kicked in the teeth over water issues. I would encourage you to keep very close from a political standpoint. Keep your department stay very close to at least the city manager and and the council so that any of the messaging doesn't end up hurting council at a time when they're already getting black eyes and beaten over water issues. Um I I don't think it's again it's not that huge of a water drain >> and and ultimately that yeah they I don't think it's that big a deal, but that's hard that's a hard political cell to make right now. So stay close to keep keep this one close to your city management leadership, please. >> Understood. Thank you, Commissioner Fay. >> Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Yeah. Well, S, I'll just say that I, you know, and I I agree that I think that from water and energy, there's clearly implications um that on a macro level need to be evaluated very carefully. And I think that this is a step in the right direction um for a municipality to be able to manage some of those uh questions that otherwise might have been uh an impossibility to be able to manage. So I think we're doing the right thing and uh you know I'd say is this a is this a vote thing Elena or do I just shoot the the race start gun fake gun remember? that >> sorry if you could uh ask for open it up for public comment and then it would just be an initiation. >> Okay. Very good. Thank you. All right. Well, thank you S. With that then I'm going to open it up for public comment. I don't have any cards here. Is anyone in the uh crowd looking to speak on this matter? Perusing everyone. I don't see any. So um I'll I'll close that public comment. Uh does anyone have any uh issues with setting up and initiating this uh citizen review for this? All right, not seeing any then. I will go ahead and initiate citizen review authorization. Okay, very good. Well, thank you all very much. It's always an exciting time to talk about LDC text amendments and we'll move to item number three, which is a discussion of the regular meeting agenda. So on our regular meeting agenda, if we take a nice look, we have a consent agenda that is absolutely barren and empty, lonely, and then a non-consent that consists of two items. Item seven, DR2554, NWC Val Vista and Queen Creek, and item 8, DR2507, Desert Sky Park phase 2. Anybody have any uh information other than I know that on number seven I think it was that S mentioned that there might be people here to speak on. So I'm assuming that one will stay. Did anyone have any intentions or reasons that they would want to move number eight or that they wanted to hear it? Okay. Did we have anything um that would require number eight Ashley that to stay on? >> No, we would be comfortable with that moving to consent. >> Okay, then I'll reframe that question. Is anyone uncomfortable with moving number eight to consent? Well, then consent might be less lonely. Very good. All righty then. We will uh move on and adjourn the study session and uh we'll be back here in 16 minutes for the the the show. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you all very much for joining us. I'd like to call to order the regular meeting here. If you would all please, first order of business will be to stand and uh do the pledge of allegiance. Thank you. Thank you all. If I could please have a roll call. Ashlin. >> Uh, sure. Um, Commissioner Wong here. >> Commissioner Lion. >> Commissioner D. Gravina. here. >> Commissioner Gage >> here. >> Commissioner Davis >> here. >> Commissioner Anderson >> here. >> Vice Chairman Fay >> here. >> And Chairman Munt >> here. >> We have a quorum. >> Thank you very much. Okay. Following that roll call, we will go into discussion and approval of the agenda. If you may remember in the study session preceding this, we discussed this and there was some discussion of possibly moving number eight uh into the consent uh for those who joined us. I just want to do a check before we open it. Is anyone here to speak on number eight? Okay. Not looking like it. So it looks like we are open to it. So I would be open to a uh motion. Uh chairman in the I would like to move to move I to make item 8 into the consent agenda that is DR2507 to move it onto the consent agenda or make it into the consent agenda. >> Very well. We have a motion on the agenda's approval to move item 8 to consent and leave item seven on the non-consent. Do I have a second? >> I have a second. >> Second from Commissioner Wong. Please cast your vote. All right, motion carries 70. Okay, we got some communications next coming right up. Item number five, communications from citizens. At this time, members of the public may comment on matters within the jurisdiction of the planning commission. The commission may not discuss items that are not specifically identified on the agenda. Therefore, pursuant to state law, action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study the matter responding to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration. I don't have any comment cards. Is there anyone here who wish to speak on things not on the agenda this evening? Okay, very good. Then we will move on to item number six and the report from the council leazison and current events and council member Lions. I just want to encourage you, all of you, we have a veterans uh softball day that we're going to be doing February the 17th at 6 pm. U this is for family members, anybody over 18 years old can participate and give a chance to meet some of the veterans in our community and uh just kind of network there. So, I would encourage you if you know if you want to come and and participate in that, it's free and uh open to the public and I think it'll be a good time that evening and also it'll give those of you who want to avoid a council meeting an excuse not to be there. >> That sounds lovely. Uh I mean heartbreaking, too, but all right. Thank you very much, sir. Okay. Next up, we will move into the public hearing consent. All items listed below are considered the public hearing consent calendar. Commission may by a single motion approve any number of items where after opening the public hearing no person requests the item be removed from the consent calendar. If such a request is made, uh commission will then withdraw the item from the public hearing consent calendar for the purpose of public discussion and separate action. Other items on the agenda may be added to the consent calendar and approved under single motion similar to what we just witnessed here today. Okay, with that we have item number eight which has been moved on to the consent. I will entertain a motion. >> Chairman Mont, I move to approve the consent agenda consisting of item 8 DR25-07. >> Thank you, sir. Vice Chair, with the motion. Do I have a second? >> I have a second. Commissioner Wong coming through with a second. Thank you, sir. If you could, is there any other discussion? No. Okay. Cast your vote. Motion carries. Consent approved. Thank you all. Okay, on to the non-consent. Non-conent consent public hearing items will be heard at an individual public hearing and will be acted upon by the commission by a separate motion. During the public hearings, anyone wishing to comment in support of or in opposition to a public hearing item may do so. If you wish to comment on a public hearing item, the item, please fill out a public comment form found in the back uh indicating the item number on which you wish to be heard. Once the hearing is closed, there will be no further public comment unless requested by a member of the illustrious commission. With that, we will move into item number seven, DR25-54, NWC Val Vista and Queen Creek. And everyone's favorite, Mr. Sal Danto. >> Hello again, chair and commissioners. Appreciate those kind words. Uh, the application we'll be taking a look at next is DR25-54, the northwest corner of Val Vista in Queen Creek. Uh, just to provide a bit of context here, uh, the subject site is outlined in blue, uh, and is located within the Vista Del Oro planned area development overlay. Uh the sub subject site is located at the northwest corner of Val Vista and Queen Creek and that outlined portion in blue is roughly 8 acres uh a part of the overall 12.95 acre uh master site plan. The entirety of the site is zone shopping center and is directly adjacent to single family residential to the north and to the west. Uh just beyond Queen Creek Road to the south we have some more shopping center and just beyond Val Vista to the east we have some more single family residential. Um before diving into the plans um I wanted to provide a bit of timeline of what the original application looked like when the master site plan was amended with Walgreens uh and where we are today. So on the screen was that application associated with Walgreens where they made those amendments to the master site plan establishing six pads on the subject site. Uh when the application was resubmitted sometime last year uh this iteration on the screen was the site plan that was brought to study session. Uh there was that centralized retention on site. There was an increase of drive-throughs to five from two. Uh there is that addition of a daycare facility centralized there on site and that drive-through pad up in the northeast corner uh was closer to that residential zoning district to the north. And here on the screen is the most recent um site plan that we have been working on with the developer that we'll be discussing tonight. I just wanted to identify some of those key items compared to the other uh iteration. Uh the first being is that that centralized retention has been removed and has been established elsewhere on site. Uh the kitty academy or that daycare has also been transitioned to a major a tenant along that uh eastern I'm sorry that western property line uh which is consistent with the Walgreens approval that came back in 2022. Uh, another thing to add is the orientation of the drive-thru facility up in the northeast corner. It has been flipped so that the building and drive-through lane are further away from those residences, creating uh more of a sufficient buffer there. Um, another thing to mention as well is there has been a reduction of drive-thrus on site. Um, so in the previous iteration up along Val Vista Drive, we did have four drive-thru uh businesses. So that pad C has been transitioned to a standalone um creating um a bit more uniformity for that shopping center zoning district. Um a lot of the concerns from that previous iteration felt that the shopping center site had been um almost separated into individual parcels instead of acting as a true cohesive master site plan. So working with the applicant and establishing that centralized parking some of those key pieces to the orientation giving some more um breathing room to those neighboring residential uh developments. Uh we feel that we've hit a um a comfortable design on the site plan uh while meeting all of the applicable development standards for the shopping center site. Uh looking at the the landscape plan, the selections for trees and shrubs are consistent with the already existing uh Walgreens and storage facility located in the master site plan. Uh the types of trees included are desert museum palo verde, red push pistache and evergreen elm. And some of those shrubs include red bird of paradise, breakite red yucka, and Rio bravo sage. Uh the street theme street themed tree um for this area is going to be Chinese pistach and evergreen elm. Um and I also wanted to make note that there are some SRP easements along Queen Creek Road there um that prohibit the ability to make certain plantings there on the street frontage. Uh but working with the applicant, we were able to meet the landscaping quantities up along the street frontage and along the western property line as well. I also wanted to add that the landscape plan looks a little separated than what we're typically seeing. Um but this master site plan has also developed in a unique way. Um where typically whoever the first user is is in the site is responsible for those um those site improvements. This one didn't follow that that game plan and with each piece that has been coming through the application process, we're just ensuring that those missing landscape pieces are shown on the updated site plan. So, with the Walgreens site and the proposal with this application, all of the street frontages, um, perimeter areas and, um, parking lot landscaping have all been implemented on site. Again, just wanting to make reference to the elevations for Walgreens because this is a master site plan and just wanted to showcase the um architectural features for what's existing and what these proposed buildings are going to be looking like. So, the first building we have is Valene, which is pad F, which is the um building directly adjacent to Queen Creek Road. Uh the proposed valve is roughly two 22 1/2 ft to the top of the parapit and utilizes a mix of ephus, CMU block, nichiha and thin brick. Uh ephus is the primary exterior material with two different shades there to add some contrast while we also have some uh niha paneling that is applied to that entry tower feature. Uh and then we also have some thin brick proposed at the foundation of the building um just to provide some um contrast as well as a um feeling of foundation and grounded to the structure itself. Uh moving over to pad T or I'm sorry pad D. This is going to be the HTO site um which is a a beverage service user. Uh the building uses a similar architectural design um but it is only going to be 19 ft to the top of the parapit. Uh again this structure will utilize ephus as the primary material. Um while you'll see accent pieces such as composite wood, nichi brick veneer um and some more of that accent block. Although these structures do carry similar materials, colors, we as staff do feel that the u differentiation between these pads does create uniqueness while still complementing the master site plan as a whole. Um, as for public participation, um, an official notice was posted on site and mailers were sent to the adjacent property owners and HOAs. Um up until roughly noon 1:00 today, we had not received any um communications from the public. But like I'd mentioned um earlier today, we did receive a call about the proposed project and some of the concerns were related to existing architecture on site and the uses themselves. And with that, staff is recommending um an approval of DR25-54 to the planning commission subject to the following conditions. And I'm open to any questions you may have. Thank you. >> Thank you very much, S. All right, bringing it up here to podium. Anyone have any questions or comments for S? >> Vice Chair, I hear mic is on. Is that >> No, that was just just hot mic. Okay, no problem, Commissioner Wong. >> Um, thank you, Chairman, and thank you S for the presentation. I um I remember this case and I really happy to see they turn the drive-thru on the norththeast corner away from the resident and also reduce the number of drive-thru. I I you know, I I like this design much better than the Pierce one. So, with that, I no problem with this one. Thank you, sir. Mr. Davis, >> thank you, Chair. Um, S, I'm looking at the elevations for um it's for pad not F. I think that was Valvaline, the one up north of Walgreens. And the color material board seems like it has more materials on it than I'm seeing on the building. And maybe I'm just blind, but it seems to me that the Wayne's coat is that is it because it's representing there's a split face split face brick, but is that painted the iron ore? I guess I'm just trying to figure out where the brick is and where the split face is. >> Uh, chairman, Commissioner Davis, that is correct. So, they are proposing um the thin brick as the foundation material, but they are proposing to paint it that iron or to create that stronger contrast. >> Okay. So, it'll have texture. It'll just be painted. Okay. And because there's two thin brick veneers shown here. Are they both on the building or I was just take a look at that that I just wanted to be sure that that color material board's correct. But I appreciate that that's got some texture on the bottom. I didn't want that to just be just stuck or ephus. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Very well. Anyone on the other right flank over here? No. Okay. Well, in that case then, uh, is the applicant here to speak or is it >> They are here. I don't know if they have a presentation, but they are happy to answer any questions you may have. >> Okay. Um, does anyone have anything they wanted to ask or see from the applicant? Lovely. Okay. Uh, well, and then I don't have any comment cards. Um, I'll open up the uh public hearing. Anyone here to speak on this item that did not fill out a card? Okay. Not seeing anyone. All right. Then I'll close the public comment, bring it back to the dis here and uh have discussion or a motion. Vice Chair. Uh, Chairman Munt, I I felt this item come somewhat barely, but made m met standards prior to the revision. So, I I think that this one's uh relatively straightforward to me. >> Yeah, I and I agree with you, sir. >> Anyone else have anything they wanted to uh cover? Okay. Well, then >> then Chairman Munt, I move to approve item 7, DR25, TAC 54. >> We have a motion for approval. Do I have a second? >> I'll second it. >> Commissioner Wong going for the hattick. That a boy. No more discussion. Please cast your vote. Motion carries 70. Thank you very much. Continuing on down the line here, we go into administrative items. And uh the administrative items are for the commission discussion and action. and it is the discretion of the majority of the commission regarding public input requests on any administrative item. Persons wishing to speak on an administrative item should complete a public comment card indicating the item number on which you wish to address. The commission may or may not accept public comment. Scanning the crowd, I don't see anyone that's here, but if you are here to speak on item nine, the minutes, please let me know. Okay. And uh item nine then we'll consider the approval of the minutes from last month January 7th 2026. I'm sure we've all reviewed them thoroughly in our package. Does anyone have anything or a motion? >> Chair. I'll move to approve the minutes from the January 7th, 2026 meeting. >> We have a motion on the table to approve the minutes from January 20 January 7th, 2026 from Commissioner Davis. Do I have a second? >> A second. >> Second from the vice chair. Please cast your votes. >> Stellar motion carries. Thank you. Okay. Going in then into on the communications. We do not have an executive session. So we will go right into item 10. Report from chairman and members of the commission on current events. Who's got a current event they'd like to discuss? Nobody. Okay. Usually I would fill this in. I don't have a lot going on, but uh it's a lovely lovely time of year here and uh you know, enjoy it while you can because it's going to get hot soon enough. And uh other than that, you know, I don't have much else to add. So then we'll go to Ashley on item 11. Report from the planning services manager on current events. No current events for me either, but uh thank you for your service tonight. >> Always a pleasure. Thank you, Ashley. Okay. Well, then I'll open it up to uh a motion to adjourn. Oh, >> I'll make a motion to adjurnn. >> We have a motion from Commissioner Gage to adjourn the meeting. Do I have a second? >> Second. >> Second from the vice chair. Please cast your votes. Okay, motion carries 61. Everyone can see I didn't want to leave. I love you guys that much. That's the thing. All right, very good. Thank you much. The meeting is adjourned. >> It's a 6:21.