all right hello and welcome everybody to the April 24th 2024 city of Mesa Planning and Zoning Board public hearing we actually are starting with a special meeting today and we'll Begin by taking a roll call so chair SS is here Vice chair pitcher here Vice or board member Crockett here board member Peterson here board member Montes here board member blakeman here board member Carpenter here all all right we're all here and we appreciate it as part of uh today actually we do the consent agenda later don't we so never mind oh there's another blue card all right so as as I said we have a special meeting to start where we're going to discuss the general plan uh updates um and so we'll begin with that and Mary ran away oh there she is we'll turn the time over for staff for presentation members is this mic on okay we're very excited to be here today for our second hearing for the general plan recommendation to city council I will um preface this with this is a very similar presentation to what you saw on Monday so hope we won't bore you too much but we think it's beneficial for the general public to be perview to this as well but I'll let Jeff start off the presentation here today very good thank you uh chair board great to be with you tonight um I'm going to start a little bit about the background of of the plan taking us from where we've been when we started started since 2022 and then I'm going to talk about the community engagement then I'll turn it over for to Rachel for the rest of the presentation um so let's start with the basics why why do we do a general plan a general plan is required by Arizona State Statute that uh cities update their plan or adopt a plan every 10 years uh we did our last plan the 2040 General plan back in 2014 so we are we are up for Renewal and that's why we started this process two years ago in anticipation of of a deadline for adopting a new plan the general plan is a very important document uh for the city for both residents for Developers for especially the planning department and thinking about how we we uh plan for the future and and develop longterm for our city it expresses the values of the city and our aspirations what we want the city to become and it also outlines future plans programs uh Investments and it it can be a reference point for boards like the planning zoning board also the city council um it also helps us to continue to have continuity uh we know that there are there are crisises that pop out uh all the time and um having a plan that's long term that helps us to keep our Focus even when we may want to neede JK and pivot in a different direction is incredibly helpful for the stability of a city of this size and complexity uh when we began this process we we reached out to the Mesa city council heard their feedback met with them we met with um we have a a general plan citizen advisory committee that's our residents that were appointed by the mesa city council to help guide this process especially the public engagement portion they've done a fantastic job uh they gave us feedback and then uh we met with um boards appointed boards throughout the city to hear their feedback and and these were some of the objectives that we heard from these bodies about what the plan needed to achieve uh it needed to establish a compelling vision for the city it had to be user friendly something that any Resident could pick up and understand it was not to be written in legal ease it's it's it's understandable we want it to be visually appealing something that's that's exciting to read that really shows the the uniqueness of our incredible City it it also needs to L Verge technology and how we engage with um with our residents and and explain the different concepts that are um within a planning document such as this it also provides clear guidance for develop that helps our developers know what the rules are and we all know have the same set of rules and um and then it also needs to interface seamlessly with other City plans uh I'm going to talk about this for just a moment we had multiple other plans at the city that were moving in parallel so the transportation plan the transit plan uh the Water integrated master plan arts and culture plan we do a lot of planning at the city don't we um but all of these plans are incredibly important that they sync with the general plan that they're all moving in the same direction that they all have support the same vision and values and so we put in considerable effort to work with these other plans to ensure that what they're saying and their specific plans aligns perfectly with the 2050 General plan and this will be of great value as we as we move forward and again establishing that continuity that same voice for the entire city and then lastly of course um this goes without saying that everything we do has to meet stat State uh stat stat State Statute say that three times uh the St the state gives us a lot of guidelines of what needs to be in the plan and and we have worked closely to make sure that the plan achieves all of those uh requirements I'm going to pause here real quick because I think this is a great image this is uh what you're seeing here this is part of our engagement with the public this is the first in the nation um immersive experience with youth that's using a real General plan we went over to the studios or excuse me to the ASU mix Center here um in in downtown and we worked with uh the the fantastic and Innovative Folks at ASU to create uh scarios where youth could come in and actually walk through the different place types that are being proposed in the general plan so we we we took the description we mocked it up threw it into a 3D environment and we had over 500 youth um over 10 different high schools that's nearly I want to say I want to say every High School in the city came to participate in this process and we we gained a lot of great experience and feedback from students who could instead of just filling out a survey got to live inside what we what we envisioned for for different parts of our future city so it was a a very great and innovative um way of doing engagement um this is our this our Loop uh diagram that tells us about our public engagement process all I just want to talk about the process the thought process behind how we came up with the plan we started off with our community context in early 20123 and that was aimed specifically just asking residents what what do you think of Mesa today and then we went back a few months later and said okay now we know what you think about Mesa today what do you want Mesa to be in the future and not just about changes it's also asking the question what do you love about Mesa that you don't want to change what do you want to exist um 30 years from now in Mesa and then once we had all those ideas we came back with the public and said okay we can't do everything that you want to do and some of these things conflict so what are your priorities what what's most important to you and then after we went through that process we finally had enough information to start writing the plan so I want to emphasize that we did not start writing the plan till after we had a solid foundation of public feedback telling us what the community wanteded and then we put pen to paper um so we did that throughout um the fall um Rachel especially had some very late nights and weekends and our consultant doing just incredible work um to try to synthesize and then capture all of these uh public sentiments uh then we had our draft draft plan we put that out to the public earlier this year for a 60-day review and now we are coming to you um a board to to give you the plan and say okay did we did we get it right and and we have have met with you several times to go over the plan our thought process and and putting this together this all leads to the culminating um event which is uh the the city council taking action on the plan if they approve the plan it will appear on the November 202 2024 ballot for ratification by Mesa voters um which is required by state law um our public engagement uh we we had over 14,000 engagements this is what we mean when we say engagements we talk about individual contact act with residents um so that's people coming to a presentation like this or coming to one of our public meetings or run into them at a booth at one of the many uh public events we attended and having a real interaction with them and talking to them about what a general plan is and and why it why it even matters uh over 28,000 people came to our website since the beginning of the project when we had over 4,000 uh contributions these are tangible pieces of feedback that we could use interpret and try to understand the the vision and the priorities of our residents our social engagement uh was also very strong we had over 1.5 million impressions These are times that people saw our content online and then we had over 4,000 clicks so that's people seeing our content and then saying oh that's interesting I want to learn more and then navigating to our website and then we also advertised quite a bit in Spanish and we had just under 4,000 clicks with a total of 17,000 so um these are different metrics but if you were to combine them together and say okay let's the 14,000 people we engaged in person and then this online engagement emerged that together we had over 31,000 engagements um now we we have a city of over half a million we would love to engage with every single resident on this it is a very important document but the important thing that we're trying to convey here is it gave staff enough of an understanding to be able to write the plan and to feel like we we were able to capture it um accurately um and that was very very important as you're as you're getting from what I'm communicating here so at this point I'm going to pause and see if you have any questions and then we'll turn it over to Rachel Jeff and Rachel thanks for the presentation for the the long work on the plan too what how would you summarize the biggest uh Vision differences between this plan and the existing 2040 plan as you've gone through the process um I have some thoughts do you want to start Rachel no go ahead because I need to think about okay we we've done um that's a it's a good question so when we looked back at the 2040 plan I want to start with this it's similar because in 10 years we haven't completely changed who we are so when we look back and and and see the vision and the values back then there's a whole lot of alignment one of the things that was incredibly important to us in this plan had to do with Community character and and the the 2040 plan talks about Community character a lot um it's not vacant in that plan um but we wanted to create additional tools um to really um protect areas with unique character throughout the city and and so we did um a lot of extra work for example one of the communities we worked with was the Lehigh community and they said we are we are unique in in who we are and and and the way we live and we want to be able to protect this neighborhood so um part of all of that engagement led to um the strategy map the growth strategy map that's that was not a creation that was that existed in the 2040 plan but it's new in the 2050 plan and it gives us an additional layer to be able to look at an area and say Okay this may be the play type but are we looking for really transformative growth in this area are we looking for more more moderate growth and so that extra tool that extra overlay that in in the plan is incredibly important for the planners and being able to interpret how much we want um a scale of change so that that was new and we think it's going to help us to um really hit home on this theme that's been existing for for many years is we want unique places and Maes that feel unique that are special when you go into them you just you know you've come into a different Community we want to protect those and and and help them to continue to to be what they are and not only that but to maybe find new areas that um have some budding character and to be able to really help develop those into their own Standalone special places in the city right um I agree with everything Jeff said but I'll add a little bit of a different perspective so when we were going going through the visioning process we looked at our current General plan and we looked at some of the the key topics that were coming out of our public engagement and when we started creating our um our strategies and our guiding principles we looked at how those aligned and you can see if you look back they are very similar in a lot of the topics that they cover but I'll say the one aspect that I see a difference in is the difference between the 2014 there was very much an emphasis on growing jobs within the city and so if you can see in the general plan there they talk a lot about the job to housing ratio and when we went into our new general Plan update there was much more focus on housing in this General plan from the from the community outreach so you can see there was kind of a shift there where at one point we were really in the need of you know creating an economic situation and creating jobs with the city whereas we see now that the the kind of vision and the focus kind of shifted more towards addressing our housing needs so I'll say for me that was one perspective that I saw a difference and kind of a shift between the two if if I could add chair and board I think um one of the other shifts that we really looked at was and and it sounds structural but it's really not but the organization of it so that with that vision statement we wanted to make sure that all of the guiding principles were helping us to achieve that vision and that all of the strategies that then came in in each of the different elements that were required that everything is feeding up into that Vision which is what we heard from the community so I think that structural element is a little bit different and it will also help us with like our reporting out to the state or or I'm sorry our reporting out to the city council in terms of what the general plan accomplishments are each year so I think that was also a big difference um in this plan from the last one hey Rachel and Jeff thank you for that presentation my my question is we're going to vote on this today it'll go to the council in may assume the council approves it in May what what type of public education happens once you have an approved plan that is now going to the ballot what happens between May and November to to educate the public on this plan and what's in it and maybe why they should support it uh great question uh chair board member I'm going to look carefully over our attorneys here because there are some limitations on what we can do as a as a public agency and and Sarah please stop jump in and step on my toe if I get any of this wrong but we cannot use public funds to promote a ballot item that is prohibited in the state of Arizona so um what we are doing we are working very closely with our Channel 11 um they're fantastic um at what they do for for for video work and and um uh digital engagement and we're creating a video that uh we work very closely with legal to make sure it's not promoting it's just providing information saying these are the facts and we're not leaning you one way or another it's just where do you find information what is the general plan and we will be promoting that video um throughout one of the other things that's very important is that we we do lean on our our our partners who are outside the city to help be the voice of the plan if if they are supportive of it uh because we cannot be the ones leading that we we we hope that to a certain extent our general plan advisory committee who are our citizens um Can can stand up and say hey we were part of this we believe in this U or other parties can can help be the voice um but but ultimately we we are somewhat Limited on we we as a government can do and we have to be very careful of of those um restrictions okay board chair members there any more questions before I okay well I wanted to go through the the structure and give you an idea of how the plan is structured in some of the basic content of the plan and just leading up into that just to kind of circle back to the public engagement section that really helped and formed of the vision and really the content of the general plan and on the slide before you you see some of the key themes that came out of that public engagement and what that did was that really informed what our vision statement is for the future so for the 2050 vision statement that's on the screen before you it's that Mesa is a safe desirable family centered community that celebrates Our Heritage and Innovative Spirit seeks economic prosperity for All prioritizes Quality places and offers choices where we live work Play and Learn so those that Community feedback along with that Vision that really built in we saw these core values that emerged from a lot of those Concepts and those revolved around the people the land and the economy and so we use those core values as a way to organize the plan so you'll see that those serve as the main chapters within the plan but we do have five chapters overall so that includes an introduction and a implementation chapter as well but within each one of those chapters they contain a section that's an introduction to the chapter itself and then there are the section elements So within the land the people and the economy there's certain requiring elements required by the state that are covered within those um sections and you'll see on when we go further into the presentation that you're going to see some asteres because those are required elements per state statute that we must cover within our general plan and then whichin within each one of those sections we have a guiding principle for them so how what is our vision for achieving and accomplishing the goals of of those each one of those sections what's the what's the intent and vision for that and then finally we have a set of strategies to help accomplish that so for the introduction chapter it starts by giving an an overview of what a general plan is and why we're doing the general plan process it then goes into our community engagement summary and discusses what we did for Community engagement in the development of this plan then we go into a kind of contextual section where we talk about Mesa history some all the way from its creation up to where we are now and giving current statistics on the current status of the city then we give a description of the overall plan structure to help someone kind of navigate and understand when they continue on reading the document what they're going to be looking for and what they're going to be reading um and with that there's also a description of what the vision statement is what a description of what the core values The Guiding principles strategies and actions are so within the first chapter which is the people well it's chapter two but it's the first one of the core elements of the the plan the people it has four sections and within that chapter um it describes great neighborhoods history Arts and Cultural resources Human Services and Public Safety within the next chapter chapter 3 it is the land this contains four sections which describe housing circulation and Mobility parks and open space and land use and Urban Design chapter 3 is a little unique because it also contains our future land use plan which consists of a place type descriptions are Place type Maps a growth strategy map and consistency criteria for find consistency for development proposals with the general plan when we talk about Place types those are descriptions of the future land use and you'll know them in terms of our current General plan as character areas but what those do is they describe the character of a place they describe the typical land uses that you would find within them they um they specify the density and intensity of the developments that are anticipated to to be developed there they describe Urban Design characteristics of how we want these places to eventually evolve and develop and then finally it it has a growth strategy for each one of those um Place types which describes kind of more specifically what the grow strategy for that place type means and looks like um there are 12 Place types within the city and so that place type map is just that depict depict of where those are located getting into the growth strategy map as Jeff was um was mentioning earlier this is a new element within the general plan um it's actually um a required element from State Statute as we're required to have a growth element within our general plan um previously we just identified some Economic Opportunity zones um and we decided that it would be a great opportunity now to really help us evaluate and and plan for future development within the city so there are three growth strategies that are they're specified within this this growth strategy um map and plan so the first one of those are conserve areas so those are areas within the city that we want to preserve and we want to remain largely in their current conditions you may see some Home Improvements within those areas you may continue to see development of vacant lands within those areas um in accordance with their place types and you may also see some very um small kind of um um reaped reuse in those areas um the next one of those is sustain sustain are areas that are encouraged to remain generally in their current condition a lot of those areas you'll see within our neighborhood so we know that we really don't want to see some full sale Redevelopment of those areas we really want to see them remain how they are but we would like to see some general um Redevelopment and infill in appropriate places as they Age and and um as they age and become a little older so the last one of the growth strategies is evolved so these are areas that are vacant they're blighted they're really primed for redevelopment so these are areas that we want to see growth be Focus within the city before I move on are there any questions about any of these before I move on to the economy okay so chapter 4 the economy has three sections which Describe economic development environment conservation energy and water and public facilities and services and then lastly we have our implementation chapter so this describes the city's implementation tools such as our city codes our design guidelines and our various other City plans so these are the tools that we use to implement the general plan and other various Subara plans specific plans um within this chapter it also introduces our companion action plan so it is not part of the general plan that's being adopted and voted on now but it is our implementation guide for the future so after fingers crossed the citizens ratify and vote the general plan in what will happen is the city will work we'll work with our city council or city manager to really align this with our budget process and with Council priorities to determine what are the actions that we're going to focus on within the next 3 to 5 years and then lastly the implementation chapter describes our general plan amendment process so if there are desire changes to the plan what does that look like if there are text amendments to the plan it describes that process if there are desired changes to the place type map or to the growth strategy map it also defines what the process is and what the thresholds are for that as well okay so we did meet on Monday for our first one of our um public hearings and we did have quite a bit of discussion with the board and we had some citizens show up on specific items and we wanted to follow up on some of those items tonight with um some recommendations based on on what we heard on Monday night and a few of those had to do with specific Place types that were brought up by the public so we had some recommendations or um kind of requests to have a couple of the place types changed so I wanted to go through through those and describe what staff's recommendation is for those um the first one of them was up on McDow and Val Vista that I have circled up on the screen there so if you're familiar with that area there is a memory care facility and an assisted living facility on those Corners so it was designated as a local employment center um and you can see that the current General plan designation in that area is neighborhood with the Citrus subtype um the current zoning on those properties is office commercial um those uses as I described were the memory care Assisted Living and then there's a vacant parcel that's on the southwest corner so we are proposing based on analysis that we could change that to traditional neighborhood that we could bring those Place types just into what the place type is for the surrounding area the the zoning would be compatible with with what is allowed in the traditional Neighborhood Place type and it also is compatible with the description and designation of that place type which allows for some commercial uses along arterial frontages um for the strategy we are not recommending any changes to that property the next property that was brought up was um just kind of this longer stretch that's off of Lindsay and melops as you can see on the screen um it also is a local employment center currently the general plan has a designation of neighborhood suburban and also neighborhood Village on on that um those properties there the current zoning is very much a mixture of of zoning we have office commercial neighborhood commercial local commercial and we have single residents 43 as far as the uses there are offices restaurants there's kennel car washes and also some single residences within that area so what staff is proposing is to change that to an urban center um and with the growth strategy revision would be none but with the urban center that I allow for a mixture of of commercial uses there that would be more compatible with neighborhood there wouldn't be that concern for any industrial zoning that might have some incompatible um uses in the future the next area that was discussed was a property it's north of um the north of the 202 and east of Gilbert Road you can see it kind of circled it's a little more internal towards the the 202 so that current Place type designation is um the place type designation is rural residential um for the current General plan that's designated as neighborhood with a large lot rural agricultural subtype um it is within the County right now so it is not within the city's jurisdiction but it is zoned r43 within the county currently it appears to be a citrus Farm I'm not sure if it's still under operation but it appears to have been or still it has Citrus on the property um we are not proposing any revisions to this place type we feel that the the rural residential is the most appropriate um designation for this property given the current General plan designation um considering the the surrounding zoning in the area considering the proximity to the Lee High sub area and also because of some of the development constraints of that property itself but what staff is um recommending is that we change the place type designation of that property in the property just directly to the to the north of it here from conserve to sustain to really uh more fully encourage the infill of that site the next property um is generally in the same location um This was um also discussed when we were discussing this last property um but it's just south of the 202 so um two properties were brought up and question about their designation as rural residential and possibly changing those to another place type So currently we were recommending that they are rural residential um the current General plan character area designation is neighborhood Suburban subtype um it is a mixture of some pieces are part of the city some are still within the county so we have Maricopa County r43 zoning we have single residence 43 zoning and we have agricultural zoning um on the property we think there is a nursery there and there's also some vacant land um what staff is proposing is to change that uh Place type to traditional neighborhood to be um to match what's surrounding that property as you can see just to the East and kind of in between these properties where we have a smaller not a small lot subdivision but a more more dense single family residential subdivision to to match those we think that the 202 is a good buffer there between of a more R rural residential character and what a traditional neighborhood on the south side of that property and also we're proposing a change to or we are not proposing we are proposing a change in the growth strategy I just don't have it up on the screen right but to sustain rather than conserve so we also there was quite a bit of discussion when we were discussing these properties about in general the local employment um Place type and some questions about whether to change um the industrial as a secondary use versus a principal use within that type um we went back and and and thought about this and we do have concerns that there are bigger imp implications to do an overall change to the site without really being able to analyze this in more detail and see what the impacts of that would be but what we did is we we singled out all of the local employment areas and we we took a look at those in the context to surrounding residential to see if there are ways that we might be able to adjust some of those Place types to make them more compatible and to try to eliminate some of the concerns that we heard for encroaching industrial or possible industrial zoning on those properties so on the screen I have um several um places where we would recommend changes to those Place types so the first one of those would be up on Power and McDow which we're recommending that that be changed to a neighborhood center first as a local employment um the next one um down we would we would suggest that it just be considered part of the neighborhood center down on Power and Brown versus part of um local employment and I'm trying to read all these streets on the map but they're very small so bear with me if I get them wrong um moving on to number three um there's also another property off of University and a looks like signal but that um we would also recommend to change that to traditional neighborhood going to number four which is off of the 60 and crisman our recommendation would be to incorporate that with the urban center that's just located west of the property number five is down off of it looks like it's around Guadalupe and El worth but the recommendation would once again be to incorporate incorporate that within the traditional neighborhood that's surrounding that property number six is off of Greenfield and Southern Avenue and once again recommendation would be to change that to tradition or to um a neighborhood center we have seven which is off of brown and Val Vista and that would be recommended for Neighborhood Center down off of it's about Longmore and um about Baseline recommendation is to make that an urban center and it's hard to see because of the scale but they do have adjacent urban center so it' be just kind of pulling that property in with the surrounding urban center and then finally on nine um somewhere around extension and Southern the recommendation would be to make that urban center as well I have chair Bor and Rachel because your making recommendations to the board that might be considered in your recommendation to city council is it possible for you to pull up an interactive map or somewhere where you can actually zoom in on these nine parcels and show just because I don't know if it's clear to all the board members and the public exactly which areas you're recommending changes to the place Types on Rachel if you pull up the um General the the plan and you go to that page you can zoom in on it so I might have to switch back and forth a little bit so you'll have to bear with me but number one was up right up here off of power and Thomas can I also ask while we go through this are you are are there changes in the sustain the Evolve versions as we the growth strategies simultaneously on sheet is that so is it the same like this one they're they're all different for these these so I'm going to have to go back and forth a little bit um so bear with me this might take a take a little while so Brown and Power looks like so Brown and Power would be that second property that we're recommending the changes on so incorporating that with the neighbor neighhood the surrounding traditional neighborhood University and Signal the third one that was discussed was University in signal but so once again incorporating this within the traditional neighborhood number four is the 60 and kisman so number four this is right over by Mountain vist Mountain Vista Marketplace so making this part of the the um urban center here number five water loop I'm sorry I'm speaking to myself while I do this too so slightly south of Guadalupe on Ellsworth so making this little pocket just this is just North of the Elliot Tech Corridor area so making this part of the traditional neighborhood as well let's see number six green fi here's number six Greenfield and Southern and going back I think this one was supposed to be a neighborhood center was a recommendation for for that one if I go back to the map number seven is up [Music] on very small pocket up on Vista in brown is number seven making that part of the traditional neighborhood or actually the let me let me double check on with the neighborhood Center sorry I knew I was speaking wrong okay number eight is we get into the West Side here number eight are some there's some um just an office complex that's right here off of Alma School and Baseline so making this part of the urban center and then lastly this pocket over on Dobson south of Baseline as well and making that um urban center as well that help provide some context for the board okay and chair board members just for clarification we're not looking at making changes to the growth strategy this was about the whole concept of potentially having industrial uses in those residential areas so this still allows for that mix of commercial uses which is what we want in those centers but not allowing those industrial uses so the growth strategies have not been modified based on that on and those other propos yeah and then so also because of the discussion we had on on possibly changing some of the typical land uses with within the the various place types we are making a recommendation to a couple of the place types and those typical land uses we heard from the board the desire to see more eating and drinking establishments permitted within the various place types across the city so what staff is recommending is that within the mix residential that it it was a secondary or supporting land use for recommending that it be a principal land use instead and then the other change that we are recommending is within the local employment center um currently it did not allow for retail but making this a principal land use in the local employment center as well so that ends the recommendations based on our conversations the other night um going over our next steps so we have our second hearing tonight for your recommendation to city council and then we meet with them on 20th for for their action and their um hopefully their adoption of the plan but after that it still requires a vote in ratification by by citizens of Mesa so that would be uh November 5th with that ballot that General ballot but with that we're we're happy to answer any further questions that the board may have questions go for it sure uh thank you for taking a look at that I really appreciate it I think a lot of those changes are are good ones I think the only thing I have and it kind of ties to the next meeting but maybe making that sliver of that Greenfield and south of the us6d portion that we're looking at the hotel maybe looking at something whether like urban center downtown Regional Center that has that entertainment Recreation that now pulls that one into compliance with the hotel use okay chair board members we can look at that and that's the the one that we're seeing for the Green Field F and as part of our other meeting chair board members um what we'll do is we'll identify a place type for that that would pull that entertainment into it before we leave today so that can be part of your recommendation um just because of the timing so uh again so that we can address that concern go for will you just clarify Rachel that and thank you also for for uh those considerations on evolve versus sustain as far as growth strategies on evolve it says uh vacant land and so is it if it's vacant land it it defaults to evolve or that there was a and and I think specifically on the the uh 202 and east of of Gilbert on the inside of the curve where you have Blandford and then you have the pieces next to it that are that are essentially vacant or undeveloped and so I I guess what's a thought on sustained versus evolved there yeah so um chair board member Peterson so if if if a land is vacant it does not automatically um revert to an evolved strategy but that was a way for us to describe how those areas were determined for the evolved it's if we looked at areas that were vacant that were blighted that we're really in the need of Redevelopment for areas that we want to see growth we do understand throughout the city we have lots of of vacant Parcels that are primed for infill and Redevelopment but those would fit into their other categories with opportunities for infill and Redevelopment based on what the grow strategy is um you may not see um in conserve for example this helps staff when they're evaluating um development proposals if they came in and they wanted to do a density that was higher than what was than what was um permitted for their place type we would know that's not appropriate because that's a conserve area so we know that's really an area that's supposed to remain largely as it is whereas if you had a property that was in an evolved area and they were looking to increase the density above what was recommended by the general plan we can say well in that case that makes sense we're really wanting to see this area grow and have Redevelopment opportunities so we might encourage you know greater density and intensity in this area okay gotcha so what then for future what triggers the need for a general plan Amendment does it change to growth strategy change that or it's only changes to the land Place type that would be so General plan Amendment would be a change to either the place type map or to the grow strategy map it could be either or so an applicant could request a change to either one of those designations um and within the implementation chapter there is there is a matrix that shows for the place type Maps what and it's based on acreages what would make it be a minor versus a major Amendment got that starts on page 133 okay I can look at that while you're talking thank you yeah so based on based on that chart it would let you know based on the acreages and what place type you're wanting to change to and from if it's a major or a minor Amendment but as far as the place type map amendments or I'm sorry the growth strategy map amendments that's just considered a major or a minor General plan Amendment and there's there's a difference in process for those that the major amendments can only be um applied for once a year they require two hearings um for State Statute per our our zoning ordinance we require two hearings regardless but there's a difference in the time Fram as far as how long it takes an applicant to go through that process because a minor General plan amendment can be applied for any time throughout the year whereas that major amendment is just throughout the one the one application period through the year okay gotcha thank you any other questions no no NOP chair board members if I could ask grel to bring up that parcel at 60 in Greenfield on the place type Mount sorry Rachel in the place types oh you don't want the you're not looking for the parcel number you're wanting the place type okay mine's very blurry can't see it they're different Maps I'm sorry that's why we are looking at that so let me get my bearings you probably see it before I do it's kind of where that X is under 60 after that little chunk out of the city Greenfield so chair board members um we were able to look at that and if you can see we have Regional centers on either side of thatx residential area I think staff would would if if Planning and Zoning Board is recommending that that also be a regional center I think that that's something we can agree on that would allow that hotel in that entertainment area so we would we would make that boundary Bel right where I'm pointing to here because this is where right just west of this Loop Road here all right no other questions from the board right now you do no okay I think we're good we'll go to the okay we'll open it up and have a public comment um and so I have some uh first off I'll start uh we have several comments that were issued uh electronically to the board and so just to those people that if they aren't you know listening later um Annette Williams uh Cynthia wood cat black klyn Griffith and candra plug and Steven Wood we we did read those comments those are all there I do have one in particular that she did ask to have the comment read aloud so this is Kimberly van rer on 505 East Lehigh Road Apartment A and her comment was I am so wonderfully pleased with the general plan it is so well written and enjoyable to read I live in Lehi and just am so thankful for the rural residential zoning it is so very appropriate for this area and his historically very was promised at Lehi in the form of urban Ranch zoning thank you so much the zoning is exactly appropriate to help us maintain and enhance our neighborhood character thank thank you and um obviously she has some support of that jar if I may excuse me um we did re receive um 14 additional online comment cards however they were submitted after the 2 p.m deadline um but I just wanted to make you aware again they are very similar to very similar to those comments to the ones that you have received and were able to review okay thank you I also have a number of comment cards here today and so uh we'll go through these um just to kind of let you know as I call you up if you could please uh let us know your name and your address and then we'd ask you to keep your comments to three minutes just so we could get through these all and we will begin with Michelle macrosi welcome and thank you thank you um my I live at 3021 North chest net Circle I live in the Northeast area of Gilbert Road to McDow so the comment that was made earlier about um changing the I'm not going to get this right changing changing it from conserve to uh sustain um first of all let me back up and say that this whole General plan thing has been terrific I can't applaud City staff enough they've been super open um very understanding worked really hard to understand the character of our neighborhood so kudos to all of them couldn't have been a better experience for us the one little piece I'm concerned about is changing that parcel that was brought up earlier from um conserve to sustain um it's currently a it's currently in the county but it's right next to our neighborhood at r43 any any zoning on that parcel other than r43 would be catastrophic for our neighborhood because one we're all acre lots we all have septics there is no City s um City uh sewer on that and it's just an it's one of the last agricultural neighborhoods so I'm kind of hoping that changing it from conserve to sustain isn't isn't going to negatively affect um our neighborhood um I I guess that's all I can say on that hoping that we're really really careful when we change that I would have preferred it have been conserved but I can understand um why you would have felt I'm getting the nod okay I'll Trust you on that one but kudos to the staff because it couldn't have gone better thank you thank you for your time um next I have Kathy Livingston well we kind of have the same situation as the lady before us we're on could you just tell me your address I'm sorry uh 2942 East Jasmine thank you um we have the same situation we have a large empty plot of land behind us we're all on acres and we've had lots of different people over the years we've been there for 39 years coming in to want to put high density behind us and I want to make sure that the changes that you've made are not going to allow somebody to come up behind us and put in you know 10,000 Apartments it's only how many acres is it five less than five I think so the change that you have done I need to know if that will affect uh the the pop the density behind us we we'll have some responses at the end for you okay thank you thank you appreciate your time uh next I have Cara Jones hi my name is Cara Jones my address is 1845 North 29th Place and that was my nextdoor neighbor Kathy who would be greatly affected in what I think is a loose wording of urban center can you guys tell me what you think of the word Urban but does that and anybody what what I don't think we can can we make any comments yeah we answer questions usually I would say high density um and we're not wanting anything on that lot on Lindsay and melbs to be anything less than r43 certainly nothing less than R35 and so when I think of urban center I think that would allow for high density housing as we've had to repeatedly fight off and so I guess my next question that I have is why does it seem like the burden is placed upon current homeowners who I might add made their home purchases predicated on the zoning of their property as well as adjacent of properties to prove that a zoning change is not appropriate it seems like the burden should be placed squarely upon the proposer with the preponderance of evidences and examples of how the zoning change and development proposal is a complete value ad for all parties another question I have why is it that the developers are allowed to operate via proxy only for these proposals and proceedings if they really cared about the community feedback they would get their data directly and offer their Solutions and rebuttal directly um I thought it was interesting that the uh 10-year plan when asked what the differences were it was said they was similar I think it's interesting that it's a similar plan when we went through a major lockdown and covid and people are different about how they go about their work and it seems like these some of these proposals are remiss of that there's people that work from home that have figured out how to not have to go and build more buildings and find more places to work and I would think that there's an invit I mean I I know husbands who are making their own sourdough now there's a bigger setup for setting up Roots at home and it seems like Mesa keeps rendering smaller and smaller Footprints which is an ideal for building families so some of my questions I have what do you think of urban center I think it shouldn't be um added to the amendment for the Lindsay and melp Slot I think it should be Asis and certainly nothing less than r43 or R35 thank you thank you m John and I'm one of those I learned how to do sourdo I I admit to that fully uh next next up Ron Williams hello chairman Eris and board members thank you for the opportunity to speak my name is Ron Williams I live at 2318 North pomoy Circle I'm in Arizona veterans hall of fame and duct D class of 2022 so I can certainly appreciate service to the community as I've received a Lifetime Achievement Award for service I'm here to speak in support of the plan that is were originally presented by the staff as uh from the day that I got the call from Mayor John JS to serve on the general plan advisory committee to the day the mayor and city council voted me in on the general plan advisory committee to the day the committee voted me in as chairperson I would tell you that all the hours all the community meetings all the time that we spent working on this General plan has been worth it so I just wanted to make sure that I came and Advocate and spoke on behalf of this General plan I can't say enough about the city staff Jeff and Rachel are champions they're true assets for this city um and of course I had to resign from the general plan because I've submitted my paperwork to run for Mesa city council district one but it's been a joy it's been a pleasure and uh I hope that uh and I know that the city can specifically Advocate uh but I just want to make sure that we get the facts out to our citizens and I'm hoping that we can get this across the finish line so and I also want to thank uh Marilyn Crosby and her leadership team from Lehi I live in Lehi as well so it's been a pleasure thank you for the opportunity to speak appreciate your service as well next up Marilyn Crosby good afternoon my name is Marilyn Crosby I'm at 2560 North hornn and 2566 northorn um I first I I want to be honest in the fact that I am not always the greatest Ally of City staff um and I had in the beginning of this plan I had been incredibly critical and I will own that um and I I think that they have done nothing short but rise to the occasion that all of us should be proud of um I I do hope that you'll take a look at what the citizen was saying about Lindsay and melops is I can't speak as an expert on that um but it sounds like maybe there's something to look at there um the uh the leadership that I witness um by Jeff and by Rachel and uh and by Ron Williams in this process I think we should all be proud of truly um as I mentioned I have been cynical and I I am one of the only only citizens I think in Mesa that has read both General plans cover to cover multiple times and that is a that is a badge that I will claim for many years to come because I really don't think there's many citizens that read it um the past plan I'm I'm going to say that the plans are incredibly different um the last plan was a bane of my existence uh it caused me many hours of heartache and frustration in defense of my neighborhood because of the lack of clarity I believe that it put City staff in an awkward position because it didn't give clear understanding and the pictoral illustrations to see what was necessary and wanted in neighborhoods while it claimed the importance of the importance of a a sense of place and achieving the character of the neighborhood it didn't actually create the road map that made it possible for them to achieve the goal this plan does and uh and I I endorse it highly I am so grateful for the hours that have been put in by all those that have mentioned I I wish I could mention every Committee Member by name I can't I could identify them by face but um but I I believe that they Rose to an occasion that I'm not sure that anybody really would ever want to um I think that seeing Rachel actually pull up the map and be able to go to each of these Parcels that are in question at a moment's notice attest to how well she knows every single parcel in m I cannot imagine that I'm a realtor I can't do that okay so anyway um I just I want to just thank everyone present and let you know that I do endorse this plan and and I am just grateful to be able to do that I'm not sure that I ever believe that I would have been able to so thank you for your time appreciate it thank you for your time as well appreciate it um Mary Grace mcneer thanks perfect thank you good evening chair board members my name is Mary Grace mcneir I'm with the law firm Gilbert blly and our address is 701 North 44th Street in Phoenix um I am here to talk about the 50 acres um that um see if I can get it to appear up there can can we get it on the screen oh there it is I'm sorry oh man and now I there we go okay so I am here to talk about this 50 acres right here we spoke about it a little bit the other day thank you for your um and there have been some developments that I wanted to talk about um very appreciative of staff for taking another look at that and moving the uh growth strategy to sustain I'm still going to try to persuade you to move the place type to um traditional neighborhood so um let me go through my three minutes and I'll try to get through this as quickly as I can we're talking about the 50 acres north of the loop 202 and a little bit east of Gilbert Road the property is the county and it's currently being leased for citrus farming historically it was farmed for cotton as well as citrus uh the property is zoned agricultural and has a special mining exemption in the county um kaser citruses plan is to entitle and sell the property to a developer for residential use and although the property is in the county we've been working very closely with the city because that's how we will get sewer and water um we've had some pre-application feedback on we're under contract to sell the property now to Horton we've had some pre-application feedback on Horton's plan that was generally positive um as you can see the surrounding property is some large lot residential and some farmland and if you look south of but if you look south of the freeway and if I could show you more of an areal you'll see there's already um smaller lot development in that traditional family area there traditional residential area there south of the freeway so that's already been um zoned and has some small lot development which is appropriate for next to the freeway that's a transitional area area so inside the Free Loop there's already Redevelopment happening and the Farmland all around this area is getting is slowly transitioning to residential development that's that's what we think should happen to this 50 acre property here so let's talk about the change in the general plan designation that's suggested as the current General plan is neighborhood and we have confirmed that we could do the Horton plan under the current zoning and general plan designation um in the county we're zoned RS 43 one dwelling unit per acre the proposed 2050 designation is rural residential with a gross strategy of con conserve which I guess now it's going to be sustained but just let me tell you why it should not be rural residential that's one dwelling unit for every for every 1.3 Acres so automatically you're losing density in this new designation um conserve growth strategy means the area should experience little change and be limited to Home Improvements that's a quote the conserve Grace growth strategy should be used for land with quote significant development constraints we do have some development constraints but they're not significant to prevent an offer and a proposal for the development of this property for residential um also going back to the uh General plan historic resource they aren't there uh neighborhoods with significant Heritage it's it comes up to the Lehi neighborhood but no one has that that land has been farmed or mined since it was developed um School sites none of those public lands or park lands none of no none of those um I want to talk just a little bit about go ahead oh I apologize I apologize I'm sorry so I want to talk for one minute though about the notice um it seems like we're late to this notice but we are in the county um I understand that um they didn't reach out to individual property owners and I get that and I think the Outreach has been great but um we don't read the East Valley Tribune or LA prena and um we didn't know until very recently so there were some neighborhood meetings in Lehi to which we were not invited and um I I it just seems to me that if you're in a neighborhood meeting and your city staff and you're talking about property that is not owned by the people who are offering opinions that it would have been nice for us to know that that was going on either before the meeting to be invited or after the meeting for someone to reach out to us even though we're not City residents it would have been nice to have that conversation okay so um we still would like to have the more traditional family residential um but I will thank you for your time and go back to my seat good evening comments respond to yeah chair board are there any comments in particular that you'd like a response to I'm if any of the public commentary I mean from the um you don't necessarily was it this one Lindsay chair board members Rachel can you pull up that site again at Lindsay and mccallops I'd like to just and actually talk a little bit about the current land use designations and the current zoning on the site that we are proposing is the urban center because it doesn't touch that residential area so if we look at our the let me get this all full screen here for you okay and I can't see it fully on mine I know you talking about that uh just reiterate the difference between rezoning and general plan that nothing's being rezoned in this project so that was going that is correct so there is there is one one little kind of sliver that kind of cuts up into this area that is RS 43 which I think might be the parcel that is being being discussed um so there is a potential if the board would like to try to carve that out of the urban center um but I believe that is the the piece in particular that's being that's being brought up and chair board um to board member Peterson's comment and for the benefit of the public the general plan does not reone any property um if any property were to be rezoned they'd have to come through and do the complete resoning process and get approval from the city council so there is no change in zoning districts on property made with this General plan okay anything else you guys have any other questions or anything okay no all right I think we're good thank you so with that I'm going to close the public hearing and open it up to a board discussion or if there's anyone that would like to make a motion uh for recommendation to City Council on the plan um with the one caveat are we do we have any language or anything that we include for the Greenfield site if we I'm seeing a piece of paper so that any any discussion from the board any the motion is for all the changes that they discussed today you can read it like that perfect thank you we can discuss yeah I I I guess just to to clarify there's the with the recommendation there there's the the layer of all the recommendations made by staff in response to the the the last meeting as well to if if the motion includes those right or or I believe they do yes everything yep and and then any modifications to the so that'll be this language here once we is that specific to the hotel site or is that or does that also include staff in today's hearing yes but it's only the Greenfield everything else does the motion need to identify each of the just because was part of the presentation today we're good right yes so if the motion is to include all of the changes presented by staff in their presentation as well as that additional change um to the Hotel Site the language up there will cover that if there's a different motion not to include some of those changes those would have to be pointed out specifically so that's the question whether anyone has anything anybody else has anything that they want to discuss I'm not hearing that are you getting ready to say something there no I mean I can someone needs to make a motion on this right you counsel I'm already signed up for the consent agent on the next one yeah I I will take a crack I'm sorry I'll turn my mic on I'll take a crack at this so um and and U so are we we are on 2A the 2A and 2B need to be moved separately or can they be moved together it would just be one motion okay yeah so um I about the recommendation yes okay so I will move that we adopt in case P pz well agenda item 2A case pz 24064 conduct public hearing on a new city of Mesa General plan moving forward together tomorrow's Mesa 2050 General plan and agenda item 2B which is case pz 24065 discuss and make a recommendation to the city council on a new city of Mesa General plan moving forward together tomorrow's Mesa 2050 General plan I move that we approve the general plan as it was presented today with the additional modifications and recommendations discussed by by staff in the staff presentation plus the following uh the following modification that we adopt weion to we include the revisions to the place types growth strategies and typical land uses presented by staff at today's hearing gotcha and just to clarify for the board the motion is to recommend adoption of the general plan with those changes to the city council correct thank you thank you is it second thank you very much all in favor please vote we're all here today we don't need to talk to anybody online so unanimous with all the board members here voting in favor recommending the adoption of the general PL so appreciate that and so now we will be actually we have to do we have to do an adjourn we do okay so to request a motion to adjourn the special meeting today for the general panel so moved second second all in favor and again that's unanimous so we will adjourn that meeting