e w s [Music] [Music] we'll give Yan a quick minute okay There He Is We we couldn't start without you all right is everybody ready all right with that we will call to order the town of Gilbert's Planning Commission study session for Wednesday April 3rd 2024 uh first up is going to be dr2 24-38 signature at SanTan Village and Mr Keith Newman take us away all right it's on U Vice chair biani members of the commission good evening so as you stated um I'm going to present to you signature at SanTan I don't know okay awesome let's see oh echo's still there hello testing I'll let you guys enjoy my little the water tower background I have there for a minute I meant silos excuse me you're right okay and the clicker yeah oh there it is or will it will it work there we go okay all right so the project that I have uh for you tonight for the study session I believe it's the only item is the um signature at SanTan Village a a design review case for it um so uh we wanted to present this case to you tonight as an introduction as we have a fairly fast uh uh review time frame that we're pushing for to get we're going to try and get this project before you uh uh for final consideration for the month of June so we have a pretty pretty fast track on this one so we at least wanted to get before you tonight and introduce the project and get some preliminary um feedback um and some preliminary input just keep in mind that we have not finished the first review where um by the time the staff report was written we had barely we had just barely started the first review so I don't have tonight um any major concerns or or really any concerns to present toward you for items that we need uh assistance with so it's basically I'm just going to provide you some general information on the project and kind of provide you an introduction to the project um as you can see on the aerial map in front of you the site and I know it's kind of it's turned funny but North is to the right um this um project is about 30 Acres it's 3.34 acres and it's located to the north of the Living Spaces um building which is a part of the original Crossroads uh Park planned area development and part of this part of a master plan that actually includes this site um so it'll this will basically be a continuation of that original master plan to the South and we're right across from the Dick Sporting Goods that big vacant field you can see so um the request tonight is it's it's just a like I stated a design review just to get your input and your feedback in introduce the project to you so as far as the site plan here is the conceptual version of the site plan I'm I'm providing for you the the site plan with more details is is is in your packet and I'm sure you've all seen that it's 30.4 Acres as I've stated the total um you have 11 total buildings on the site totaling about 326,000 square feet of retail and commercial space there's um five six different Parcels that are that the applicant or the developer is going to be creating on this site you got Parcels a a through F and I've got the acreages on here for you how large they are the largest one is parcel D and of course parcel e um and those have um 119,000 and 106,000 Square ft one of them them them is um as of now it's a it's a commercial type retail a large uh Sporting Goods type retailer and parcel D and then we have parcel e is a long inline retail Shop with a building with five tenants in it and then parcel f is a grocery store and you probably have seen on the elevations if you've if um what which uh Brands those are um so so that's the site plan and and I'll go back to that you um the site is bordered by um santen Village Parkway to the East and Coronado road to the north which kind of tails off to the west and there's some apartments and things like that the site is surrounded by obviously I've talked about living spaces to the South the existing commercial development and then to the west and to the north you have some existing single family homes that have been there for quite some time so as stated before this is part of the cross roads uh pad that's been in effect on this site since the um since 1999 it includes um SanTan Village across the street that shopping center and and all that top some of the um area all top golf all the way to Ray Road it's all part of the same pad um the landscape plan um I just wanted to show you that really quick um you have 23% Landscaping on the site and you can see this design I wanted to show you this design because it shows the site um what it will look like with the trees in the parking lot islands and the buffers and the the buffers to the single family residential to the north and to the West they'll have a significant amount of landscaping this plan doesn't do it justice um as far as how much Landscaping they're actually going to really have to buffer this project from single family residential and then obviously the street frontages along SanTan Village Parkway Coronado will be densely landscaped as well but as far as the development is concerned I'm going to go back to the site plan see if it'll let me um who that's too fast so you have I talked about the inline shops in the grocery store and the in the sporting goods store but along SanTan Village Parkway you have um a series of of retail buildings you have um um SE I believe it's two or three drive-through restaurants and then you have um a few other pads one's a financial in a couple Financial type of Institutions you have um another rest a couple other sit down restaurants and then another small building where the a letter a is that shows I think there's four or five Suites in in that building as well so you've got a good mix on this site of shops and restaurant pads and a and a couple of um Quick Serve type restaurants and then the larger um retailers and the inline shops and a grocery store so the site has an overall really good balance and mixture of commercial and Retail uses and you can see all the parking it's not right up along SanTan Village Parkway or Coronado for the most part it's set back in between in the middle of the building clusters to provide plenty of parking and access to each of the buildings in the Suites um so as far as the design of the buildings if it'll let me go there um um the design of the buildings desert Earth Tone type colors um a lot of um obviously main main building materials consisting of of Stucco and brick there's some there's some metal elements um awnings in awnings and canopies and some of the screening on top of the roof there's some different types of block and some Stone on these buildings um very similar to The Living Spaces development to the site I mean to the South excuse me um we feel these buildings will complement that development quite that portion of the development quite well all the buildings are flat roof there's no pitched roofs or or gable type um hip roof type buildings in this development all flat roof uh and all Earth Tone colors so I'm just going to flip through these you'll see some standard 2D elevations and then also you'll see some perspectives in here so this is just block a this is just a strip of of retail buildings this is what four Suites in this building and this is a nice little pretty picture a nice perspective I love these perspectives to show you and give you an idea of what these buildings will look will look like I also failed to mention there's going to be some faux type of wood paneling as well on some of the building elevations so here's a different view of it just to give you a flavor of what these um tenant and retail shops and Pad restaurants type buildings will look like here's block a um another portion of it another building this is a restaurant building obviously here's that building in perspective view nice patio a lot of glass stucco some some faux wood and things like that on this building here's another view of it I'm just going to flip through these another restaurant pad building give you a good idea here and this this building is it looks look like it's a some type of jewelry store and this is in Block B which is a little bit further to the South and here's a here's a bank so we're still in the process of reviewing these elevations as well so this one we're going to get a more colored version um coming at the next review that you'll be able to to see that in uh in color so all flat roofs here's another uh a restaurant type building this one should have a drive through and then here's a um an financial institution here's that one in in um in three in perspective I love the car sitting in front of that another building um Block C building three so you can see how all these buildings complement each other and then we have block D which is which is this much taller um um dicks House of sport building you can you'll notice that this building is about 40 ft tall at the roof line and it and it obviously goes higher than that at the tower element and some of the parit walls um this is along that North property boundary it's set back at least 100 ft away from the residence which is required and um so they have that element um and then there's a field area you'll notice to the right is a field area and you got about a 30 something foot tall fence I can't remember off the top of my head that kind of surrounds a field where they will be using that area to uh test people can run around a track they can put the shoes on and test test their running shoes they can go out there and throw a football around kick a soccer ball what have you to test equipment Sporting Goods that they may want to buy so this is a concept that that they have um mostly in the eastern United States that they're proposing to bring to this site and then here's block e longer ret portion of the longer retail buildings and then blocks block e again with with with additional tenants and I'll show you these in perspective so you can get a little more context lot of stone stuck o a lot of movement in the walls we're pretty satisfied so far with what we're seeing on these elevations okay here's a 2D rendering and this is this is the grocery store um uh building you can see that it's very similar to the rest of the buildings as well and obviously the designs do vary from building to building so okay so those are the elevations um that pretty much concludes my my brief overview and the introduction of this project so so um now I'd like to open it up to you as a commission to provide potential any input that you have on the elevations and on the overall site design so um I open it up to you guys for any questions thanks Keith uh any questions or feedback for staff commissioner Gage thank you chair um acting chair uh Kei I'm just curious why the big rush to get this pushed through um Vice chair biani um commissioner Gage so so the applicant is um um pushing forward with this so that they can meet deadlines for system development fees um so they can remain grandfathered into the current fee schedule um whereas June 1st if they um they don't get site plan approval the system development fees will be will be changing so they want to be grandfathered into the old fee schedule anyone else have I gotten any uh sorry have they gotten any public feedback any input from the public um Vice chair bian uh commissioner Everett so we haven't gotten that far this is just um we're early on in the design review process we have not um reached out to the public yet concerning this project that will happen as we get closer to the final Hearing in June and the applicant will be required to send out Public Notices to all Property Owners within 300 feet and all HOAs within a th000 so that that will happen in another month or so and then we'll we'll uh um find out who comments and who doesn't so with that will be forthcoming anyone else feedback commissioner Davis thank you Vice chair um Keith I guess one of the questions I have it looked like a couple of the buildings as you were going through seemed to have a pretty different pallet than the rest dicks being one of them then there was a restaurant pad is it just a rendering thing or I mean not that everything has to match but I was curious if the bricks that they're using that kind of thing what kind of compatibility we have between all of the pads or are some of them just going with a very different palette um Vice chair biani commissioner Davis we're still trying to assess that um in the review um I haven't gotten through all of the elevations yet to determine um that level of compatibility from building to building but it will be my goal to have all of the buildings be look related to one another right versus versus establishing their own U design theme and their own color materials paletts right and again I don't think they all have to match exactly but think there needs to be some to each in materials or forms or something like that also some of the buildings um have a ton of play in the wall plane and some of them don't so much and I know some have a more simplistic design like what you have in the bottom right corner I just want to make sure we have some of that play in the wall ples we don't just end up with any boxes so that we actually get a little variation not just in parid height but on that wall plane to create some interest in variety and materials and not just changing paint colors on the same wall so as you're looking at it that would just be one thing I'd I'll be looking at so that's it that's all I have thank you commissioner Anderson uh Keith thank you for the presentation uh question for you in the packet that I have I don't know if it's on anybody else's packets but I one of the blowups of the preliminary site plans of the EPS drawings uh there's a few comments on here along Cor auto drive it's over by I think it's pad 4 one of them says entries are not allowed in tapers um and then there's another comment driveway need to align with driveway to the North and then the third comment is must be 2020 ft minimum between driveways are those staff comments or what are those comments have they are they being addressed are they valid comments um Vice chair bian commissioner Anderson yeah those those are comments I meant to delete the comments because we're not ready to release comments but they were accidentally um put on the plans but as far as the com that's neither here nor there the comments that are there are valid comments and we the applicant is um working to right now to try and address those comments um we've let them know already concerning those uh traffic engineering standards so those are that's something that U we're going to be working through with the applicant and we haven't finalized all that yet so so you'll see potentially some uh that entrance potentially moving a little bit further to the to the West um to try and meet our traffic engineering standards as far as a separation from uh uh from the the actual from the corner and also for the driveway to line up a little bit better with the the driveway to the north that is uh for the apartment complex to the north so those are things we're still working on okay thank you for the clarification yep anyone else Comm thank you uh I'm sorry I'm still back on this approval dates thing so if they need to be approved by June is it June 1st or July 1st for the new fees um Vice chair yeah biani commissioner Gage it would be June so that would mean we're going to hear this and make a decision next hearing because the hearing after that would be June 5th um um sorry correction I believe it's I believe it's um has to be by July 1st excuse me but so we're going to bring it to we're going to bring it to you in June okay for final consideration sorry oh no I was just going to really impressed if they could make all these changes by then and because I could never get a project that fast so I was going to see who their team was um but thank you um Vice chair bian um commissioner Gage we we are working with the developer on a on a revised um review schedule that we've all agreed to so we're we're pushing forward thank you anyone else Comm just Kei so we hav an agree it one of the problems and I I understand there's times I've had to rush projects forward and do some crazy things to to meet timelines but it also means we're not seeing the whole packet which means if we do have an objection it blows the the schedule up out of the you know there'll be there'll be factors that we're not seeing we're seeing for the first time when it comes forward next time so um Vice chair bian commissioner Fay um the the plans and things that we provided are pretty detailed okay so I don't think there will be any really any surprises or any additional um details that you're not seeing tonight it'll be it'll be very very similar with some small tweaks and changes but I don't believe there'll be anything major that will uh that will shock you when it comes back in June good super all right anyone else uh uh so Keith I did have a couple questions the landscape buffer especially to the the residential to the West did I read in the staff report is that is that a 40 foot buffer that they've got there wrong direction um Vice chair biani that that is correct okay there is it's hard to see on this plan you don't see the dimensions but the landscape buffer along the whole western boundary and the whole Northern boundary bordering single single family the landscape buffer is 40 feet which is exactly what they have to the South for The Living Spaces portion of the development okay the actual building setb is um 75 ft and there'll be a drive a or deliveries or things like that okay yeah it's hard to see to you yeah there's a drive a in between the Landscaping setback and the buildings as well and that's all around okay good and then has the applicant shared with you are they looking to do this in a single phase or multiphase or have they shared that with you as far as maybe getting at least the the landscaping or thorough fairs in or the streetcape vice chair biani it's our understanding that it will be a single phase okay very good um I think my initial thoughts overall I think the elevations colors and the designs look good I think it's a modern appearance I think there's a variety of designs shown um the one thing I definitely look at with these especially when it backs up to that residential is that there's an adequate landscape buer there uh especially if we've got deliveries or trash enclosures and things like that um that's definitely one thing I look for so hopefully there's enough mitigation here that staff's comfortable but I understand commissioner phas concern on the timing so yeah it'll if you guys are still working on first review comments it looks like it'll be a quick turnaround time on this um anything else from the commission no all right with that thank you Keith we will move on to discussion of regular meeting agenda it's pretty straightforward tonight does have anyone have any issues the only item on consent is item number six the Dr case for Clyde Capital does anyone have any issues or concerns and want to take that off consent no and leave the regular public hearing non-consent calendar as is all right simple enough um if there's nothing further we'll adjourn the study session and take about a f- minute break thank you for e e I've all whole what me e e e e all right good evening everyone I'd like to call to order the Planning Commission meeting for town of Gilbert for April 3rd 2024 uh with that we'll start with the Pledge of Allegiance so please stand I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God individual for all all right next up can we begin with a roll call commissioner ett pres commissioner D gravina commissioner Simon here commissioner Gage here commissioner Fay present commissioner Davis here commissioner Anderson yeah Vice chairman biani here we have a quarum all right very good um there were no changes to this evening's agenda as presented um so with that would I like to have a motion for approval of the agenda Vice chair I'll make a motion to approve the agenda as written okay thank you commissioner Simon do I have a second I'll second okay so I've got a motion for approval by commissioner Simon seconded by commissioner Davis could we all vote please all right motion carries unanimously what I mean I'm notos oh it didn't come up oh I was looking I was look I saw blue checks all right going so fast all right well we got there anyway passes unanimously very good all right next up is communication from citizens so at this time members of the public make comment on matters within the jurisdiction of the town the commission may not discuss the items that are not specifically identified on this evening's agenda therefore pursuant to state law action taken as a result of public comment will be limited to directing staff to study a matter respond to any criticism or scheduling the matter for further consideration is there anyone here this evening out there that would like to speak on a matter not on this evening's agenda all right seeing none we will go ahead and move on to our public hearing consent calendar all items or I should say the item tonight listed are considered the public hearing consent calendar the commission may by a single motion approve any number of the items where after opening the public hearing no person requests the item to be removed from the consent calendar in such a request is made the commission shall then withdraw the item from public hearing consent calendar for the purpose of public discussion and a separate motion other items on the agenda may be added to the consent calendar and approved under a single motion with that I will open the uh public hearing and discuss the consent calendar which is all comprised of dr23 d160 Clyde Capitol Hamilton Court this evening uh does does any commissioner have any questions concerns no all right with that I will close the public hearing bring it back for possible motion Vice chair I make a motion to approve the consent agenda uh including number 6 Dr 23160 Clay Capital Hamilton Court okay thank you I'll second that motion very good so I've got a motion for approval from commissioner Simon seconded by commissioner Fay all those in favor please vote all right consent calendar passes unanimously moving on to the public hearing non-consent items this evening the non-consent public hearing items will be heard at an individual public hearing and will be acted upon by the commission by separate motions during the public hearings anyone wishing to comment in support or in opposition to a public hearing item may do so if you wish to comment on a public heing item you must fill out a public comment form which are located in the back the yellow forms in the back of the room uh please indicate the item number which you wish to be heard and then once the public hearing is closed there will be no further public comment unless requested by a member of the commission so with that we will introduce concurrently GP 22-16 and Z 22-16 the lumber yard um with that I will open up the public hearing and introduce Kristen Divine Kristen right good evening commission the case I have before you tonight is for a rezoning and a minor General plan Amendment for the Lumberyard uh following my presentation the applicant also has a presentation the site is located west of the Heritage District Northeast of NE and cullumber and is bordered by industrial multif family and public facility and institution zoning the applicant is proposing to rezone the property to develop a multif family community the request before you tonight includes a minor General plan Amendment from industrial to residential 25 to 50 dwelling units per acre and a rezoning from General industrial to multif family high with a planned area development for a reduction in open space the site is approximately 9.25 acres and is currently classified as industrial the applicant is proposing a minor General plan amendment to change the site from industrial to residential 25 to 50 dwelling units per acre and again the applicant is requesting a rezoning of the 9.25 Acres from General industrial to multif family High the site is located within the longrange planning area within the Heritage District development plan in that plan the preferred land use at the lumber yard site is multif family Parks retention and Transit the proposed Lumberyard development Falls in line with this land use and will be beneficial to the Heritage District by providing a variety and density of housing within and around the downtown area although the site is just outside of the Heritage District the existing pedestrian bridge provides a pedestrian friendly entry point to the downtown area that lets out just north of the site the proposal has gone through over variety of stages before finally reaching this point when the submission first came in in 2022 uh it was 27 Acres with 668 multif family units proposed at a density of 50 dwelling units per acre the development plan has since evolved and is currently proposing only 285 units with a total of 30.8 dwelling units per acre this has been reduced even since the study session in January where the applicant was proposing 35.8 dwelling units per acre the units will be located within three buildings one building will face neie Street and will be three stories tall another building will be placed at the rear of the site adjacent to the district LS community and it will be four stories tall the final and largest building will be placed Central to the site and will also be four stories tall that building will be um it will surround a pool and amenity areas the development will be accessed from Neely and parking will be located through throughout the site with garages being located along the northern and southern property lines providing an additional buffer from the adjacent industrial uses to the South the applicant is proposing 444 parking spaces which is the exact number required for the site there will be approximately 71 garage spaces 214 covered parking spaces and 159 uncovered parking spaces seen here are some conceptual renderings that the applicant has shared with us these renderings are not part of the review this time and they're just supplemental with the resoning the applicant is proposing a pad with one deviation the requested deviation is for a reduction in open space from 40% to 35% staff is generally supportive of the deviation request right and since this project is located within 1,000 ft of the Heritage District I brought it to study sessions with both the Redevelopment commission and the Planning Commission the Redevelopment commission study session was held on December 20 2023 some of the feedback provided by the commission was that they appreciated the three-story building being Street side instead of a four-story building like the other two they had significant concerns with the site being underp parked at the time and stated that the parking did need to be met on site the commission had also suggested that the applicant look into possibly utilizing rooftop amenities to make up some of the open space deficit the study session for Planning Commission was held on January 3rd 2024 feedback from that session was similar to that of the Redevelopment Commission there were significant concerns with the site being underp parked and it was stated also that parking must be met on site the commission was open to the idea of rooftop amenities for open space but was overall supportive of the reduction in open space as long as the parking was met right five neighborhood meetings have been held on this project questions and concerns from the public regarding the project have included density proximity to the adjacent industrial parking and traffic concerns staff has received two formal opposition emails from the public at the start of the project when the proposal was 27 Acres uh those are included in your staff reports since that time staff has noted any additional emails but has had multiple conversations with the applicant who brought concerns forward on behalf of the neighboring community of Neely Ranch to the southwest of the proposed lumber yard site the concerns from the community include traffic impacts parking and the use of Aviary way by non-residents the community brought forward some suggestions to the applicant regarding the possibility of closing Avary way uh the brought these concerns to us and we discussed the options of a dead end a culdesac pork chop or gating air Aviary way um along with some slowing mechanism ideas as well on February 15th 2024 a meeting was held between the applicant Town staff and representatives of the neie ranch HOA during the meeting we discussed the opportunity to close off a way but ultimately Town staff had determined that the dead end culde saac pork chop and gating options were not feasible the primary reason for this decision is that there is not enough space to accommodate a culdesac on Avary way while meeting current standards Additionally the options would significantly impact emergency response times to that area not only to the proposed multif family development but to the industrial uses that are also located north of aary on the on Neely Road slowing mechanisms such as additional speed humps or chicanes may continue to be discussed but these two have a negative impact on Emergency Response times and staff is not generally supportive of them due to public safety concerns Neely Street connecting over the railroad tracks has also been brought up to staff multiple times uh the railroad has a policy at this time not to allow additional atg grade Crossings without the removal of three existing atg grade Crossings it's within the town's long-term plan to connect Neely across the tracks with the Von ventilator but it's not going to happen anytime soon I would also like to note that at the continuance hearing last month 12 comment cards were received in opposition to the project with many of those residents choosing to also speak out in opposition at the hearing all right and with that that concludes my presentation staff recommends approval of the general plan Amendment and rezoning subject to the conditions found in your staff report and I am available for any questions if you have them thank you Kristen uh does anyone have any questions for staff commissioner Simon please thank you Kristen for the presentation I've just have two quick questions um with regards to density my understanding is they're looking at 3 30.8 dwelling units per acre in a 25 to 50 potential so they're on the lower end of that M multi multif family high is what they're looking at is am I understanding that correctly yes so Vice chair bian commissioner Simon that is correct okay um second question that I have is with regards to the general plan um my understanding is that this was initially slated in the general plan to be multifam is that correct uh so chair Simon it is I'm sorry commissioner Simon it is in the Redevelopment plan for the Heritage District that was put out in 2018 as being multif family okay um but it's currently Industrial in the general plan correct no I understood it's industrial now but the vision was for at some point it was going to become multif family yes okay thank you that's all I have thank you anyone else no oh sorry commissioner Everett what kind of pedestrian connectivity does it have to the Heritage District it I I think along the the tracks there's some connectivity but what kind of distance are we looking at there sure so Vice chair biani commissioner Everett the only pedestrian connectivity that there is currently is going to be that existing pedestrian bridge you can kind of see it um just under the private Street it goes over the tracks and lets out at the north of that lot 375 um and that currently exists in the Heritage District now originally that the 27 acre plan didn't include that lot 375 so the pedestrian bridge let out onto their their potential property but that has since changed anything else commissioner over no yeah commissioner Anderson uh Kristen thank you for the uh presentation just a quick question on the the uh stipulations stipulation D is that common for developments I'll read it to you it's um developer shall create a property Owners Association for the ownership maintenance Landscaping improvements and preservation of all common areas and open space areas in landscaping within the rways so what exactly does that all that entail that's I've never seen a deviation like that before is that pretty common for these types of developments so Vice chair biani commissioner Anderson that was one of the the standard stipulations that are in our ordinance template all right so I'm not sure if maybe no if it's that's might be able to touch on a little what you guys are doing that's that's fine so that's all the RightWay areas that are going to be responsible for the maintenance and improvements of all that adjacent to their property adjacent just to the property okay thank you all right thank you anyone else yeah commissioner Gage thank you um this project was originally going to be about 30 acres and now it's 10 and I know the town was going to purchase some part of this for detention or park or whatever um has that amount of land increased to make up like is the town now going to take 18 or 20 acres and this is the remaining 10 what what's that plan look like sure so Vice chair bian commissioner Gage originally it was 27 Acres from from this applicant um the town purchased well is is trying to purchase 10 acres for a retention Basin which is right off the the tracks at that um Northwestern most corner of lot 375 that you're seeing here um that's going to be a future retention Basin um the applicant came to us a short time later and asked if we were interested in purchasing additional eight Acres which I believe we are also pursuing um so we'll be purchasing 18 Acres as the town and the remainder will be this multif family community thank you anyone else so Kristen the one question I had was for parking um so they are now with this unit count they are now meeting that requirement and they are they right at requirement they are Vice chair bian they are right at requirement 444 spaces and so if Neely will be the only way to get to and from this development I'm assuming any of the existing industrial and related traffic all utilizing nearly now correct yes okay um I think that's it I can say that for the applicant thank you anything else for staff okay thank you Kristen uh with that would the applicant like to come up and make a presentation or comment Mr B is it red usually red means stop so I apologize Adam B 2525 East Arizona built more Circle thank you for your time um maybe the first time I ever get to say recite the name William Bobby Gilbert but when 1902 came around and some of the first tracks of land were dedicated um in the in created what is now the town of Gilbert it happened right in this area particularly along the Rail lines because the rail line was instrumental to a post office and transporting hay among other things and it became our Central Commerce hub and it was the impetus the initiation the origination of the town of Gilbert and when I moved here in 2003 nobody went to downtown Gilbert um and Gilbert itself has proven to be successful in the Redevelopment and creating new energy and enthusiasm and um opportunities in the downtown GT it's the beauty of what it is today because of their strategic Vision but recognizing the importance of that isn't just the frontage along gilber road but was creating a plan that goes with bookends in the north and south and east and the West including this property here so I I'm grateful for the foresight that they had and the presentation by Kristen because as an applicant um we look to those policies those guidelines and those plans as Direction on how to proceed now um what I wanted to share is this is the property today and the reason why it looks like this is because it was next to a rail line and the town didn't have a lot of industrial back then but it made a lot of sense to put industrial next to a rail line back then but as this area has filled out and it has residential to the west and residential to the South and residential to the East and this thriving um downtown area that needs more residential within um approximate distance the town has realized that the heart of GI here doesn't really make sense today like it did um previously and so when you think of all the different uses that can be in the general industrial zoning District it's your most intensive District in the town of Gilbert but the most intensive District might not be best located next to its greatest attractive gem which is the town um Heritage District area and no more important there's no height restriction in the GI either I think recognizing what those impacts could be long-term the town was wise and come up with a plan that looked more appropriate and scale to the long-term vision of the town of Gilbert which is including multif family on R piece which is recognized in yellow at the arrow and then retention green Green Space open space Park in the area um directly north of us when we started that plan we didn't necessarily see that full vision we knew we needed to provide some multif family but we actually were leading with a single family plan for the most part on the south part of this project with a little bit of commercial on the North End next to where that pedestrian bridge would be and these two multif family components the town reminded us this plan is not in harmony with our Redevelopment Vision plan and intention that's been in place for the last 6 years and the opportunity came up that we could facilitate two things at the same time our opportunity to create some multif family here and the town's opportunity to create what they see in a long-term vision for this area and so this plan has gotten skinnier than what it was before with 83 units to uh 282 units and it's gotten skinnier since you last saw it at Planning Commission previously it's it's thinner than what the Redevelopment commission saw part of that is a reflection of the feedback we heard I think the most important feedback from the two committees RDC and yours was do not cut the parking and I wish I there was a a mechanism for that because we do have a we did a parking study and we felt like it was supportive what we need but at the end of the day we can understand that the priority we've heard from you is provide the required parking being that we're located next to what will be a future uh retention Park area it seemed more practical to slightly reduce our open space a little bit recognizing that potential um proximity to that um outdoor amenity in the future but what we've done in consideration that is lower our height Heights along uh Neely Street to three stories and then shifted our in Greater Heights to the center and to the east side and as a result we're able to to satisfy all the required parking um we have uh not yet filed a drb but our drb is ready to go in the door subject to this um outcome of this heing today this would the be the renderings that you we showed previously and that will be moved forward with in our drb package and this is the view at least on the right side of that screen um along uh Neely Street just for some comparative between the two of them it's not only a significant reduction in size but in unit counts and and Building height and in overall trips which I think is one of the biggest factors that you're likely going to hear from some residents today is about trips how the trips work and how the trips may cut through their neighborhood so as with me today is Dean Dean's uh with uh our traffic engineer and I'd love to to give you a lot of the facts on the traffic engineering but um I'd really just have to fake my way through it because he's very capable and I'm I'm less capable so so what I'll share today is what he's been able to um evaluate with his proposal recognizing that Neely street is designed for 8,400 trips based on the type of collector classification it is but the actual number of trips presently is only about 1,400 today and when you add in our trips we're about $26.99 so Neely Street has an abundance of capacity to support the volumes of our development today but I think the the thing that's most important for the Neighbors is what's the impact on Avary way and they experience it uniquely and probably different than I do as just the applicant but one thing that we wanted to make sure we evaluated was the basis of facts and so in December we put down a 24-hour traffic count so we could actually analyze which direction the trips were going and how many total trips were occurring in a day and based on that it showed 240 daily trips and recognizing that a local Street residential is intended to carry about 2600 the 240 is about 9% of the volume that that roadway is designed for now I can certainly appreciate the maybe annoyance that can exist when people who don't live the neighborhood drive through the neighborhood and I think with the roadway construction on Elliot Road and um Cooper Road that's probably been um more frequent than in the past but when I look at the numbers that are on the December 7th date they tell I think more the factual story even if I myself maybe don't experience the same um way that they do what I am appreciative though that I've heard from this um Community is the HOA has been willing to at different times try to help solve it and I think we've been willing to help solve what we could as well I think ultimately they'll be outside of their control and our control are the town's engineering standards and so I think the HOA um really was a fair actor and trying to figure out ways to maybe give up some of their open space tract along U the connection of NE Street and Avary way perhaps to put a culde-sac bulb on there um and we looked at ways that we could even maybe do something like a pork chop but at the end of the day I can appreciate that the streets and transportation department town of Gilbert has engineering wisdom experience and knowledge that might um provide a more expert level of evaluation that I can't um qu qualify myself for and perhaps in the ey of the HOA either so while we proposed a pork jop design that could have allowed just emergency access Vehicles only in solid waste I think I respectfully defer to the Professionals in the town who evaluate this and I think my hunch is when they look at the volume of trips and aary way it might not Merit the need to make changes even though it may um be perceived as um more volume than others would desire at the end of the day what I most appreciate is in an infill parcel like this and as conditions have changed from when it used to be industrial and that was the priority to now this thriving downtown area the town has a desire to not just put more restaurants and more office and more retail but to put residents approximate to that to support and buy those things and so when they set forth a Redevelopment plan like this um I think it's been prudent and impressed upon us to to use that as a guiding tool as we design our plan so at the end of the day we've been able to reduce our density down significant in the beginning and again since the last um U meetings we've been able to bring our project more in line with the Redevelopment District in those plans the area and create opportunities for the town to fulfill their long-term Vision here um at the end of the day I I know that there will be people who don't desire this and I think sometimes the status quo um is hard to um see change but what I what I see us implementing is precisely what the town has had on their long-term Vision um and I hope to be able to execute it with your recommendation today so with that I'll end my presentation thank you Mr B any questions for the applicant no none all right uh Adam the first one I had was just it always seems to come back to parking with me yeah and if we're just on site here um one of the things I noticed in the staff report was says your average unit is 825 Square ft and you're providing a parking space for each bedroom so assuming that it's larger units I would assume there could be multiple people in in you know one or two bedrooms so I'm wondering what would be the plan for overflow parking if we're just meeting what's on site there well well the the first of all the applicant should not be punished for meeting the parking requirements and particularly the town just went through and updated their requirements and they could have added greater requirements and they didn't um and they could have given some uh tools to reduce Park requirements that could have applied to us and we they didn't and we didn't Avail ourselves with that but I think trying to meet the requirement was most important if there was a need to have some type of overflow parking I I guess Neely Street could be an opportunity for on street parking it is a dead end so it's not like parking on there north of a area will impact anybody else because it's a road to nowhere at this at this point in time um but we did do a parking study it was provided to staff previously and actually the parking study showed that we have less of a parking demand than what the code requires but at a minimum we have to meet what the what the code necessitates and then I guess another question I had that just came up it it it may be if I have to ask staff please defer to them so on condition f it says the maximum number of dwelling units shall be limited to the maximum allowed under the general plan so is that based off of the land use category the was at 25 to 50 or they right so could we increase or would you be allowed to increase the amount of units through this we wouldn't because we're doing a pad the pad locks in a development plan the development plan locks in the number of units so short of me coming back and doing a pad Amendment we we couldn't increase the number of units but I think what likely happen is we may actually probably have a it's possibly we might have a bit of a reduction in our units as we think through what a future emergency access might look like that may require a little bit of building adjustment Maybe a little bit of shrinking in order to fit the required emergency access so if anything I suspect will probably come down a little bit okay yeah that could be welcome okay thank you Adam uh commissioner Gage thank you um Adam can you go back to the site plan really fast it it seems like you have an abundance of parking towards the east end of the site is there enough parking on that West End of the site to accommodate the number of units there I know everybody likes to park as close as they can to their apartment and their friend's apartment and it it seems to me a lot of people will be walking the whole length of the development to get to those units along Neely excellent question a couple of things the building along NE is three stories the buildings on the East and are four stories so there's greater density in the middle and on the east side than there is on the west so we we we'd want to shift more parking towards the Middle East than we would on the West Side the other challenge is when you drive in to um from the north exit you have to have room for a turnaround bulb in case somebody can't get through the gates so if I was to put another row of parking it actually would be a shorter run because it would run into the bulb versus me putting that row of parking on the east side I can get the longer length of it um and uh I think that's really the the greatest factor in how we laid it out there's there's not a if I was to shift a road parking to the west side of the building I wouldn't be able to get the same amount of parking space because it would be pinched by the bolt is um parking allowed on NE Street and that might be a question for first staff but I'm just worried that that will become a backup so are you like required parking no like just public parking's allowed okay well Kristen will should clarify but I believe we have to provide all our required parking brck Cod on site but it doesn't prevent someone from parking on a public Street like a guest for example who may come um and if they can't find a space I guess in theory but I don't know if that's a warranted concern hi sorry so for our traffic department um neie is a collector Street which ultimately will have a bike lane if it doesn't already um so parking is not permitted along Neely like I said parking's not permitted along NE stre that's what I thought I heard you say and would that be on both sides or just one side one moment sorry playing telephone here yes both sides of neie no parking okay thank you all right commissioner Evert he one of the um things that gives me pause is the it is the the traffic um and I I I think they do have a valid point about you know if it's uh time when everybody's going to work everybody's pulling out and it's backed up on Neely I could definitely see people going down Avary um so it's not necessarily the number of trips but the time periods where those trips are being made um having kids myself I would be concerned at those you know those times when when those trips would be in conflict with when kids are out playing so I would think I you know I just don't know what what the traffic analysis says in terms of um sorry all right um in terms of what times they expect the the greatest density of of of trips down that that could come down a area there's the do you want to talk about the peak ties of apart multif Family relative to other typical uses um say your name for I'm Dean Chambers with locah and um the the am peak hour uh trips generated are2 the PM Peak are 110 so that's a actually a very low number uh for it this is right on the verge of not even needing a study it it's that low of a of peak hour trips so that it it it's incredibly low when you look at other collector roads okay um I know this isn't necessarily for the the client but in terms of other speed mitigation efforts um speed bumps are kind of out but are there you know choke points that could be introduced as well just to kind of and and those have been proposed and if I'm I I think I have it correct uh uh that was that was one of the options was to uh do bul outs at the intersection of Avary and Neely and that was rejected by staff okay hi again um we did discuss speed humps and chicanes which is kind of like the choke points that you're referring to um there already are I believe it's six speed humps on Avary way so our fire team had had a rough time agreeing with the idea of placing more because then that slows down response times even more um same with the chicanes by adding chicanes in addition to the existing speed humps you're slowing down response times so they weren't overly supportive of the idea but it can it can still be considered thank you all right anyone else commissioner Davis commissioner say yeah go ahead Mr bro we're open to all opportunities for calming traffic um you won't see us object to any idea it's just I think the engineering side has greater expertise than I do Mr Davis thank you Vice chair um I guess I just wanted to note I appreciate all of the efforts that you've put into looking at the traffic out at the site because you know what the neighborhood is experiencing is important but one thing I wanted to note and I'm sure you've looked at it but whether this so if this stayed industrial something else could develop here that could have just as large a traffic impact or maybe more have you taken a look at what the traffic impacts would be if this didn't change over to residential I'm assuming it could be more or the same as a multif family yeah it it depends on the for the use um it's a crematorium no it doesn't right right obviously you don't have that same impact it really depends nature but I will say the question regarding traffic whether we exist or the multi or the uh industrial stays the same it's still the same question as far as neighbor concerned which is Aviary way is a public Street and can be used as the public decides to use it and Neely Street works the same way so I don't think it's a question of if it's our multif family project that's creating the traffic V and the traffic will exist out the way because NE is a dead end and you can't get in out I think the nature of the traffic actually might be a bit different um the size of vehicle the frequency of vehicles um the thing about multifam is and I think some of you are aware of this the reason why the numbers are low in the peak time is because for the most part multif family has a different dispersed traffic pattern through the day that's a little bit more um Regular and spread out as opposed to single family homes which is high high intensity am Peak and high intensity PM Peak but with industrial you have both the am Peak and the PM Peak but then you you also if you have a uh few shifts you may have more overnight traffic or more late night traffic or more early morning traffic and so some of those can be employee Vehicles some can be box trucks or semi- trucks and so I just think the nature of it is probably going to be a little bit more intensive than what you would have otherwise but I don't think it changes the fact that the traffic pattern is what it is today and it will be the same the way it is going forward Avary way still exists now and will still exist that way thank you all right anyone else all right thank you Mr Bob reserve the right to do you I do I do a couple looks like you're not you're not off yet sorry sorry Adam um parking I I I have no problem at all you meet code as I've I've not been shy about some of my criticisms of the code but if if an applicant meets code that's what the code is for to me that's I do think you're going to have some problems with with how heavily you've weighted things in the east side of your lot I think you're but that's a that's the management company's problem to deal with um I I don't agree with your assessment that that traffic numbers are smoother for multifamily you're going to have a big dump in the morning of traffic leaving and going into Phoenix to work or going some I mean it's it's not going to be of 2700 you're not going to have 1300 leaving between seven and 8 but you're going to have to it almost sounds like that at this point you're hour is about 124th it's it's not going to be 124th per hour that said I'm not supportive of any um restrictions on the the public roadways in the area these roadways are have more than enough capacity and um and the fire department's right we we should not be restricting these type things easy and especially if they've already got speed humps in there um I I'm not not I'm I'm actually not in favor I'm I'm with the city's traffic uh engineering department of oo not being in favor of residential restrictions on on those type of things and then um Adam we talked at one point about uh and it might be worth talking a little bit about you've got an emergency access to the north which doesn't exist right now and is that going to be a a crash gate or a knockbox yeah well um as you'll notice one of the conditions of the staff report requires us to be able to provide emergency access before we can move forward with the development and as you know we would love Union Pacific to just let us put that grade crossing but the town cannot give up three other aggrade Crossings somewhere else it just creates choke point so your options are go under the rail line build a bridge over the rail line go east through District Lofts go south through industrial or go north and catch what is considered the Phoenix Avenue alignment um in either scenario however it's planed and designed a I have to do that solve that before I can move forward with any development but B I'd have to be able to provide a crash gate um sometimes it'll have a Knock Lock or something like that but um the reason why I think there's been some slowness and delay on our part is because of the necessity to comply with the fire code requirements and I can't see them relaxing that as we go forward with our development which is why I think at some point as we connect that emergency access point will likely result in some commensurate change in our units of density hopefully it not but I can see it happening yeah I I wouldn't I'm I'm with the fire department I wouldn't be in favor of relaxing that too much and I I understand why develop when it gets to be a headache sometimes it's a real pain to to connect that but it looks like you've you've pulled a rabbit out of the Hat on that one and and may have found a connection that'll work so if that if that works that's far enough away from the main entrance in my mind to provide emergency access it's very close to being resolved all right thank you commissioner F thank you Mr B we'll reserve the right if we need to call you up or we need to respond have you respond to anything um so so next up public comments so what we'll do is we'll call you up I've got three uh forms to speak if anyone else is here in attendance and would like to speak the yellow forms are at the back of the room please feel free to bring that up to us and and let us know that you want to speak uh general rule is we'll give you three minutes um and all we ask is when you come on up give us your name your Municipality of residents um and go from there and first one up is Miss Sally Brier and I understand you've got some photos that town staff is going to bring up for you so do you have do you have the photos for me the for the overhead my name is Sally Brier and I live on Orchard Way in Neely Ranch okay I have to apologized um my husband's the president of the HOA at neie Ranch I'm also serve on the board I've served for the last 17 years there um we moved into that Community for the purpose the main reason was because there is nobody behind us there was the r riparian to the um north of us we had the lumber yard over on the east and it was you know like okay now we're in a place where apartments are not going to go and here we are um I know I can't stop progress but I do feel like even though we've met with the town about the roadway that we weren't really given um I mean we were told that that it wasn't a big enough space to do a turnaround even though we were willing to give up some of our some of our green area for that but I do not understand why it would not be feasible to do a one-way street that you can only go out onto Neely and there I cannot see how that would be a problem for fire to come in um the other option that I maybe you would consider is to take out the speed bump and then to make it a one-way street because the reason the speed bumps are there is that we had um people coming through with just the lumber yard and they were speeding through in the morning and then also we had problems with them parking on in our in our neighborhood which I know we can't control that but it was a problem um so that's the one the one thing I want to say but you know we moved into this neighborhood for the open space and now we're being faced with with um Apartments just down the road on um Cooper is the um oh gosh what is it it's where all the landscapers go now and the and the the parts for vehicles that is so much traffic on that road now on Cooper Road it's backed up with the train often it's very backed up um okay so there's we have some overheads I'll see if I can figure this out all right so we did a drones of um the the use of the land and and you're aware that the lumber yard is um surrounded by the ripan which is the um oh there it's in front of me um okay so there's the the is saying the mo the Moyers Contracting hazardous material um the equipment Crane and rental storage um the railroad tracks I just feel like as for a luxury apartment that's not quite the views that I would be looking for um so I just wonder what the thought is on that um I mean obviously I'm opposed I'm highly opposed and and there's no one in our neighborhood that is looking forward to this happening and you know we understand that we can't stop the wheels of progress but we really feel like there should be some sort of solution to keep the traffic from flowing through it's going to flow through and it's not going to be what we're looking at right now it's going to be a lot worse down the road with when this Apartments come in and who knows what else is going to happen in the future all right thank you any questions for Miss Byer all right thank you all right next up is Dennis Harris and he wishes to speak and his opposed to this item Mr Harris uh I'm a resident NE Ranch and uh thank you for allowing us to have our input here I guess I have a major concern with the traffic flow that's my primary concern I think you started that topic I thought it was a good start but I think it the estimates they're using for these traffic flows when you have a multi-unit a multi-dwelling unit of almost 300 to say that the traffic flow is only going to be in the low hundreds especially during rush hour morning evening it it's totally unrealistic and a single one-ended street with a traffic light you're going to have hundreds of cars every morning every evening there's no way that single Road could handle that kind of a flow I guarantee you they're going to start running everything through Aviary and they're not going to care how many kids live there they're not going to care about the speed bumps they don't know it's been already it's been increased substantially because of the construction at Cooper and Elliott they do the same thing now and it's going to be uh considerably greater with that many dwelling units with only one Outlet morning morning rush hour with a light at Elliott there's no way you're going to get hundreds of cars through there without a huge backup they're going to be looking for a better way and the only other way is Avary we think we proposed a good solution to try to stop him from coming down Avary and still there's there are ways to allow emergency access many other Comm communities have dead ended streets but emergency access and I think we could too it's the traffic flow anybody with kids in there I wouldn't want to be on that street it's an exponential increase in traffic so that's that's it thank you for the time all right next up I've got will Ramel uh is opposed and does wish to speak Mr RL if I'm pronouncing that correctly R thank you take another look before I before you start the timer could we take a look at Mr B's original project proposal before the size was reduced uh staff if you can bring that up if that's possible and I is that part of the points you want to make yes it is okay this one sir uh no the one previous the original he had the uh full size I think you just had it there perfect perfect yeah yeah um I don't speak nearly as uh eloquently as Mr B but uh thank you for letting me speak I uh respectfully disagree with staff's recommendation and ask that the board not rezone this area for high density rental housing um my wife and I actually live in ardina we're about a mile from this property but I think we share the concerns uh of those who live here um you know the one thing I think people are danc around the increased density itself I think drives all of the other concerns um uh traffic obviously and I'm going to come back to that uh increased burden on emergency responders uh noise and then whether it's perceived or real more crime um I think in a a an empty lot there's probably not a lot of crime going on uh but again that's neither here nor there um I have a few questions um I guess kind of bigger concerns with this one would be if this project goes forward uh how would the town prevent any of these prevent these rental units from becoming some sort of short-term rentals I I mean although you can make rules against that enforcement typically takes time um second uh question I have and I don't like conspiracy theories but when I look and see that parcel to the north right by the railroad tracks I can't help but wonder what a future board like this what a future Town Council might want to put in there when I when I squint my eyes when I look at an apartment complex and open space and railroad tracks there's one thing that that jumps to mind more than anything else and that's obviously commuter some sort of Light Rail solution um I I will applaud the the the project for I think it's going in the right direction there's only about 280 2 units too many at this point um coming down to the question of numbers um you know we heard a lot of numbers about traffic about parking spots uh 2700 trips a day 250 trips a day whatever I think the important number is is maybe one to five uh the size of a family that could get squished into the pavement by traffic somebody walking in the morning with their kids they're not paying attention somebody in a car is not paying attention ion and lives change forever and um putting aside every other concern with progress and this of that um the traffic more than anything else and my wife and I live a mile away we we won't have to see this apartment complex Loom up above us it's not our kids or pets that are going to be run over but we still share those concerns um and uh I guess the very last thing I would have to say is is when I look at this first proposal and I look at the updated proposal I see a simple solution I see beautiful uh single family houses down there at the bottom um why not just call it good with with the the lower half of this proposal um thank you for hearing me out I I hope that um and I one last thing I want to say um the most alarming thing I think I can hear from from somebody in planning is that's going to be talking about what going to be in a future project what's going to be a retention Basin what's going to be a par because there's no way to predict what's going to be in that in that space to the north so thank you so much appreciate it thank you Mr R is there anyone here this evening that wish still wishes to speak all right um seeing none does the commission have any other questions for staff or for the applicant no okay commissioner Simon have a question for staff Kristen can you tell me what the process is that the town goes through with regards to the Redevelopment commission and the Redevelopment or the Redevelopment plan does that go to voters or is that just by the plans um the the town's plan is is it clear what I'm asking I'm kind of dancing around that but yeah so Vice chair biani commissioner Simon um I'm going to defer to you or Veronica that's okay uh Vice chair commissioner Yan Simon um the Redevelopment plan is uh something that would be adopted by Council and typically they're about a 10-year um time frame and they typically automatically expire at that time and then can be renewed if there's a desire by the council to do so okay so it's the it's the town's it's within the town's purview to look at where the town wants to be within that time period line out a plan obviously we know that that plan is flexible but basically lay out a plan and then the and then the Town Council votes on and Essence ratifies that plan Vice chair commissioner Simon that's correct the Redevelopment plan lays out um goals and a vision for a particular area once it's designated as a Redevelopment area okay thank you any other questions for staff Mr B did you have anything else you wanted to respond to from the comments yes I'll just I'll close with two things applicants as that come to the town look towards these plans to guide them to me the the question really isn't so much about the land use because this is the policy plan this is the adopted plan this is what's telling people when you come to the area this is what should happen and we're conforming with that in in every regard the second question really that seem to come up most was traffic and I don't think I'm the one to be able to confidently say what it is and I don't know if um this panel has that same level of expertise except for maybe Mr Fay because he works with ADOT but I do trust in the Judgment of Professional Engineers both ours who put together the plan and the cities who evaluate that traffic plan and to the extent when there's a concern regarding traffic it's not showing in the um expertise and the data of the applicants representative or the towns relative to this development so I I can certainly appreciate where the the inconvenience might exist and the annoyance and and the preference that a way be used exclusively only for the folks that live in the neighborhood um but the numbers don't show it being overly burdensome as otherwise stated and I certainly just rather trust the judge of those folks when answering that kind of question so my own personal opinion before it's worth I do get 30 seconds of btle so that's what I share thank you thank you any other questions all right with that I will close it uh public hearing and bring it back to the commission for comments and a possible motion does anybody have any comments or feedback no one wants to be brave enough commissioner Simon so I'm I I mean my my questions are are are quite quite pointed and I'm going to try to eloquently State this as best as I can in fear of probably offending people um and and that being said with respect to community members I very much appreciate you coming out and your voices are heard and please know that that we don't come in with any pre-conceived notion on which direction we want to go looking at this piece of property looking at the Redevelopment plan that the town has this this area is a high growth area with regards to the density that needs to be there in order to support the retail that's going to be there and the and the and the restaurants and whatnot is it the best situation The best scenario with regards to the traffic probably not I'm not a traffic engineer I don't propose to know any of the numbers or understand those numbers I can take a look at at the the ability that that this applicant could have with regards to private property rights and be able to develop to an extent where they started with over 800 units or now under 300 units they could go even higher on this piece of property that they're looking at I commend the applicant for trying to work with the community and with the HOA to come up with a solution and a way to work through this I think that this piece of property is very well laid out I would agree with the parking aspect of it with regards to the the east and west and and where people are going to park and how to walk I don't know that there's a way around that um but with regards to the way that this development has come to fruition through the applicant's ability to work with staff I would support this prop uh property and this and this plan so okay thank you commissioner Simon anyone else commissioner Davis thank you Vice chair um I come down very similar uh similarly to commissioner Simon um I've come a long way on this project from when we first saw it months ago I guess is when we first started seeing this and um as far as a contributor to the downtown I feel like this is going to be something that's much better for that um related to the uses that are out there my biggest concern is the existing industrial subdivision to the South I don't think putting single family next to that is a good idea so I don't like that original plan cuz I don't think being home ownership adjacent to that industrial is a good idea I don't love the views those people are going to have into that I feel like they've mitigated it somewhat with that buffer I also feel like people who move in there can see that's already there um so they can already see the impact that that has but I do think this is a better fit for the neighborhood Southwest of it than that existing industrial so I think this is moving in a better direction for the area um I don't know that that existing Industrial subdivision will ever go away um maybe some of the uses will change and become a little less intense at some point but I think this is progressing in a better way I think you could end up with some industrial user that has a high traffic use up there I think the streets were built to accommodate many possible uses in the area um I do think continuing to explore ways to mitigate traffic excuse me on Avary way is something I would support um but I definitely want to support our fire and medical and police um to be able to have accurate or quick response times for these so I guess what I'm saying is I'm in support of this project as well I think that they've come a long way um I appreciate that they adjusted the parking to meet that and I think the open space is mitigated by the fact that there will be new open space to the north so and I'm not terribly concern concerned that I mean I think that open space adjacent to that going to be a good addition for the town and for this use adjacent to it so that's all I have thank you commissioner Davis anyone else no commissioner Fay please um so I I I think the project is relatively straightforward and it meets almost all the standards the emergency access I mean that's that's a fire code requirement the two points of access that's a inter international fire code whatever I think in addition to inity code I think so I don't think any stipulation is needed I think it's a requirement that's already in code am I mistaken staff am I that requirement is out there regardless right well let's we don't need to answer that right now if if it's not out there we we may need to Grapple with that but I I think it is out there and I don't think we need to address it and just let the applicant and staff work that one out as a requirement hi commissioner Fay um so it is uh a requirement like you're like you're explaining um but for engineering team we would like to keep it as in as a condition just as an extra an extra step so that nothing happens down the road to to change the fact that we we need them to have a secondary access so we've got a a stipulation that says you will do the thing that you have to do on the code any okay I I guess there's no harm in it it's it's not the way I use the operate but okay belt and suspenders good to go um and then I've I've already spoken on as to the rest of it you know mo most of the Aesthetics or the are you next to an industrial or are you too near the railroad to me that's a that's an economic decision that the applicant's going to have to make he's if if the railroad's too loud they won't be able to rent the places for as much and that's that's a you know if you if you my view is if you end up doing great and you make a fortune good for you go buy the Harley and if you lose your shirt I'll Pat you on the back and say sorry dude you swung big but that to me is a that's that's a self-interest capitalism free market Freedom go team go anyway that's uh I'm in favor of the project no I'm sorry sir we already closed the public hearing all right any other Commissioners no um I guess as far as as far as my concern is when we look at the land use cases before us and it's really it's not design review it's just land use tonight so the general plan and the zoning um similar to what commissioner Simon and Davis said when we first saw this in study session it was almost a non-starter I mean the unit counts the traffic any deviations it was we've been pretty steadfast in knowing it was that um that's always been my concern I definitely understand the residents concern especially when we start talking the the dense the high Den it uh zoning classification that was my concern because when we talk about the actual density and we actually want kind of an orderly transition between these uses and to go to MF High which is our highest density however the applicant has continuously revised that down and my initial thought was well maybe we want to look at a medium family or multif family medium but honestly they've come so far down on the density count on the high end it's really just a couple of units even if they went MF uh medium especially if they have to look at providing the the additional uh emergency access as well um so that was my main concern I agree with commissioner Davis I think whatever we have to do to take a look at and I trust the town's engineering sta to traffic engineering staff of if we can mitigate whatever we can on Avary way but um our my concerns have been addressed I understand the neighbors concerns but I think the street capacity can handle it and the density is probably right there where we've requested the applicant to bring it and especially keeping all that parking on site I think the Overflow parking if there's no parking on Neely could prevent could present a challenge um but as long as they can park it on site per code um that's what we have to go with so um with that does anyone have any other comments okay commissioner Everett All right so I do have hesitation on this I'm sorry um I I think a lot of what it's there's a connection to downtown and other than it being close as the bird flies or as the crow flies as they say to downtown it I don't know to me that that that density when you're right in the middle of downtown that makes sense it's it's close but it's there's not really that pedestrian connectivity in my mind like I don't I mean yes you can walk there but if people have to walk more than like a quarter mile they typically don't do it it it doesn't feel like it's that that connected to downtown in my mind um and then yeah the there are externalities in my mind too where yes you you take that that capitalistic risk which I'm in favor of but at the same time that risk fails you arable to rent it out does it become a slum um yeah I don't know if that's anyway um and then one of the other concerns I have too is that in a lot of other places we're trying to get get other land reson to Industrial but then we're in the industrial we have so some of that just doesn't doesn't add up to me um that's just some of my concerns okay right thank you commissioner hert anyone else um if not uh I will entertain a motion if someone wants to bring one forward and we would need the separate motions for the GP case and the Z the zoning case as well Vice chairman bian I would make the motion uh to approve GP 22-16 Lumberyard as written for the minor General plan Amendment thank you commissioner Fay do I have a second I will second okay so I've got a motion for approval by commissioner Fay seconded by commissioner Davis uh please vote well that was fast okay we've all voted okay motion carries six with one abstaining is that correct your abstaining commissioner Everett okay so ju just for the record so you were abstaining yeah okay did I mean it's okay if you vote against it's it's okay we do that we get 61es all the time up here if you accidentally push the wrong button I do that all the time okay so he's gonna change that vote so it's it's going to pass six to one with commissioner Everett voting no all right uh do we want to take a stab at a motion for the zoning case yes uh vice vice chairman Bean chairman biani uh I'd like to make a motion to approve zoning Cas Z 22-16 request to read on The LumberYard item 8 subject to the conditions of course subject blah blah blah blah blah okay do I have a second I will second that okay so I've got a motion for approval by commissioner Fay seconded by commissioner Davis uh please vote okay so if that that's correct the motion passes 6 to one all right is that commissioner voting no all right um with that thank you everyone thank you to the public um as far as next steps in this process it will go to Town Council as well so sir if you had additional follow-ups or responses it will go to Town Council for consideration next and it will also come back to us for design review as well so we'll look at the site there so there are a couple more opportunities if you have additional feedback so thank you all for coming out all right next up is Administrative items and that would be the Planning Commission minutes and study session and regular meeting for March 6th I think the only question I had on that would be under one of the cases it it called out uh Adam Ball and it should be Adam B who spoke tonight so baau GH uh is there any other changes anybody had with that uh does anybody want to make a motion I'll make a motion to approve the uh minutes as written with the one exception to the change in Mr boss's name okay thank you I second that all right so I've got a motion for approval by commissioner Simon seconded by commissioner Fay please vote all right carries unanimously 70 all right next item is Communications and to our vice mayor I apologize profusely because I passed over you earlier so please accept my apologies um with that do we have a report from our Council liaison on current events um and that's fine Mr chairman you did wonderful and just a couple of items um in the springtime we traditionally have a lot of activities that going on in the town and I draw your attention to the website to check out some of the things that are happening in the town probably the most significant is the global village Festival which is coming up I believe it's this Saturday um we we have some things going on in the Heritage District um there's some artwork and Sydney might know more about this artwork than I know about it but uh there's some artwork that uh is going to be placed in the downtown for a a month and one of those pieces looks like a peeled banana I think and is uh is seating and there's a a mushroom I think that has music that plays is that right Sydney and the music is from our own Symphony from Gilbert that is in that can be played and I think that's all located over by Oso is that right right by Oso the other is uh you May uh last night at the council meeting we had uh our chairman of the Redevelopment commission is proposing that the second o building in the in the town which is the uh um clar home which is also known as bergies which has been sold that there's a an effort to save that building now and move it to um the museum property at HD south or some other alternative and they're kind of um scrambling to do that because I think it's scheduled for demolition in a few weeks so if you're interested in contributing to that you might want to uh check that out um I don't know if it's on the website of HD South Yan do you know it's on the website um but that's certainly something that uh uh you may want to check out also and that's that's all I have Mr chairman okay thank you vice mayor good updates um report from the chairman and members of the commission on current events I have nothing nothing to any other Mr commissioner Simon I do have one um tomorrow night at Park University from 6:00 to 8 is Gilbert talk Gilbert talk 14 and it is uh the it's crime in the second safest city is Gilbert really safe if you have not been to a Gilbert talks I encourage you to come I think we still have some spaces available we've got room for a 100 and last I heard we were just over 80 registrant so um they're great events and we're having uh the chief will be there um chief of police will be there we've got uh Maricopa County there we've got the school board there so be a great event great thank you anyone else all right seeing none report from the planning service managers on current events Eva anything for us good evening thank you chair um just to inform you that we now have two vacancies in the planning division with the departure of Noah Schumer and San Samantha nney yesterday so we'll be interviewing this month and hopefully you'll see one or two new faces in the near future okay very good thank you all right if there's nothing further do I have a motion to adjourn I will move to adjourn okay very good we have a second nobody wants a second you guys to stay here all night you're that happy all right motion for to adjourn by commissioner Davis seconded by commissioner Gage all those in favor please vote that we are united on it passes unanimously with that we are adjourned thank you everyone I abstained because the buttons are confusing e e