Planning Commission Unanimously Recommends $58-Million Solar Facility, Advancing Desert Rainbow to City Council Despite Wildlife and Equity Concerns

[music] Heat. Heat. [music] beat up. [music] He [music] Want [music] to dance? [music] That's what [music] There you go. [music] Welcome to the Goodyear Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. We're excited to have you be a part of this important public process. Tonight, you will have the opportunity to address the commission on both non-aggenda and agenda items. The agendas and speaker request cards are located in the back of the council chambers.

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And remember, it's a great time to be in Goodyear. Good evening. The Planning and Zoning Commission meeting for Wednesday, October 19th, 2026 is called to order. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Will the secretary note the role? Okay. Commissioner McClendon is present. Commissioner Roberts is absent.

Vice Chair Hegus is present. Commissioner Booth is present. Commissioner Wang is present. Commissioner Lee is present. Chairman Climber is present. He is attending by phone. We have a quorum at this time. A vote shall be taken to excuse members unable to attend due to extenduating circumstances. Is there a motion and a second to excuse Commissioner Roberts from the meeting. I have a motion from Commissioner Booth and a second from Commissioner McClendon. Please enter your vote. Okay.

Chairman Climber, how do you vote? Hi. Thank you. Okay, motion passes. Item one is to approve the consent agenda. Will the secretary please read the items on the consent agenda by title only? Approval of minutes. Is there a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda? Have a motion from Commissioner Lee and a second from Commissioner Wang. Please enter your vote. Okay. Chairman Climber, how do you vote? I. Thank you. Okay. Motion passes.

Now is the time for citizens who would like to address the planning and zoning commission on any non-aggenda items. Are there any speaker cards? Um, I don't have any speaker cards. Does anyone in the audience wish to speak on a non-aggenda item? Okay. This is an opportunity for commission members to disclose any exparte communications they may have had prior to this meeting on any items scheduled for discussion on this agenda.

Exparte communication is any outside communication commissioners may have had regarding items on tonight's agenda any okay there is one public hearing item on the agenda tonight. As a reminder, the planning and zoning commission is a recommendation board for council. The commission will vote on each item and forward the recommendation to council. Council makes a final decision on all items. Agenda item number two is a special use permit for the Desert Rainbow Solar Project.

We'll now open the public hearing. Principal planner Anne Delm will present. Yes. Um, good evening, Chairman Climber and Commissioners. This is a special use permit request for the Desert Rainbow Solar Project in South Goodyear. [snorts] The project site is shown here in the green boundary and it's approximately 5,50 acres located south of Queen Creek Road and north of Patterson Road, west of 139th Avenue and east of 171st Avenue and Waterman Wash.

There are two small properties that are surrounded by the project site, but they are not included in the project site. Uh, one is owned by Liberty School District and the other is owned by Colonia LLC and combined they're about 2.28 acres. So, the zoning of the site is a straa phase 3 preliminary PA a. This preliminary PAD envisioned a variety of uses for the site, including residential, commercial, mixed use, light industrial, public uses, and open space.

No final PAD has ever been approved, and the site remains undeveloped. Under the zoning ordinance in effect at the time of application, energy generation facilities are allowed in any zoning district with approval of a special use permit. So the project will contain multiple components. Photovalttaic panels approximately 10 to 15 feet in height. Solar trackers to ensure that the panels will follow the path of the sun throughout the day.

A battery energy storage system or best for storage of surplus energy that can be deployed whenever needed. an electrical collection system to convert the energy from DC to AC and bring it to the project's collector substation and that collector substation then increases the voltage to the proper level for transmission.

There will be at least one operations and maintenance building for administrative functions, um, a workspace and for storage, portable water tanks for fire suppression and operations. And then additional infrastructure such as layown yards, uh, water basins, fencing, and internal access roads. So, this project is proposing some unique development standards. Um, here are some of the key ones.

Setbacks around the project perimeter will be a minimum of 30 ft except for the best units which will have a minimum setback of at least 100 ft from perimeters and from all buildings. The project site contains special flood hazard areas or SFHAs. Uh those are the areas with the pink lines on this map. Um, and they're along Waterman Wash.

Um there will be a minimum 30-foot setback from the edges of these flood hazard areas and chainlink fencing will be permitted for the project provided native vegetation remains within the setback areas for screening. So there will be three access points. The first one is for primary emergency access and construction access and that's off Queen Creek Road and 163rd Avenue. There's a secondary emergency access point at Okato Road in 163rd Avenue.

And then once this project is operational, uh general access is expected be to be from Riggs Road. And several roads and road alignments will pass through the project area. Um public roads are shown here in purple. These will be outside of any project fencing, so they'll still be open for um access. It includes Chandler Heights Road, Rigs Road, and Patterson Road for east west corridors and 171st Avenue and Bullard Avenue for north south corridors.

[snorts] And there's also a system of private roads which will also remain outside of any project fencing that's shown here in pink. Additionally, there will be a system of private roads inside fencing. That will just be for project use, not for the public. [clears throat] The project will not require connection to the city's water or sewer. Uh water will be trucked in or will come from on-site wells and will be stored on site in tanks. And there will be a septic system for wastewater needs.

For the best, the applicant will be required to provide hazard mitigation and emergency response plans and there will be an intelligent fire detection alarm and suppression system. So, the site falls within multiple wildlife movement areas and linkages um identified by the Arizona Department of Game and Fish and other agencies. The applicants have been consulting with the Arizona Department of Game and Fish.

They've obtained a biological study for the project which Game and Fish have reviewed and there is one recommendation for a wildlife corridor through the site um that will be provided near Chandler Heights Road. So the applicant will continue to work with Game and Fish throughout the process um as it moves on to the site planning and permitting stages. [snorts] So the applicant is requesting up to 10 years to establish the use.

Uh that's the period of time between SUP approval at council and then issuance of the first certificate of occupancy or certificate of of um completion. Um they also anticipate the project will be operational for about 40 years. They're requesting a 45-year term for the SUP. Um at that point, the solar park must be decommissioned unless they get a new um SUP to extend it.

So, a final decommissioning plan will be provided before construction and then decommissioning will involve removing all equipment and restoring and reveating the property to its natural state. [snorts] The applicant has provided an economic study for the project. Um, there are some numbers in the staff report. They are outdated. Uh, this study was updated very recently. So, the numbers on this slide are the most current.

Um, tax revenues to the city of Goodyear for the solar component will be about $43 million over a 30-year period. Tax revenues for the best component will be about 15 million over a 15-year period. [snorts] A neighborhood meeting was held for this project on April 14th here at city hall. um approximately 10 members of the public attended that in addition to the applicants and staff.

The [snorts] project has been reviewed by multiple external agencies including ADOT, Game and Fish, uh City of Aendale, and Maricopa County. And public notifications for both the neighborhood meeting and this public hearing were sent to property owners within a onem buffer of the project site instead of the typical 500 ft. Um, the city has received comments from 12 individuals and organizations. I believe the staff reports has nine, but we got a few last minute letters.

Um, of these comments, the majority expressed support for the project or were just asking for more information. Um, we did get two comments from neighbors um who felt that the project will have a negative impact on the area in terms of access and attracting more desirable de developments to South Goodyear. So, we recommend approval of the special use permit for an energy generation facility with accessory best subject to staff stipulations.

And we're going to propose some revisions to stipulations 7, 11, and 19. C.2. And I can kind of explain those for you. Um, let's see. For stipulation number seven, the current wording allows a 5-year establishment period for the SUP. And again, that's the period of time between approval and the first certificate of um completion or certificate of occupancy. And then it allows an extension of up to 5 years. So, a maximum period of 10 years.

And we're proposing to change that to an initial 8-year establishment period with extensions up to 2 years. So, it's still 10 years total. Um, but this better meets the applicant's needs for um they need a lot of time for getting their external permits and lining up some financing. Additionally, for stipulation number 11, um this is a scrier's error. The current language says the city's existing rights away within the project boundary shall remain outside of the project's boundary line.

That should be the project's fence line. [snorts] So all existing rights away will remain outside of any project fencing. And then finally for stipulation 19 C.2 um the exist existing language says these areas may be secured with 8 to 12t open wire fencing or an 8ft masonry wall. We're proposing to change that to up to an 8ft masonry wall. And that concludes my presentation. And I know that the applicant also has one. Thank you.

Um I have solar on my home and I love the benefits and this is like 5,50 acres. Correct. That's correct. Um how many GoodJ residents are serviced by SRP? They're the ones that are going to be um banking this energy. Correct. Um thank you Commissioner Hegodus. To be honest, I I don't have that information. I can see if the applicant does. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. There's a solar farm in Buckeye called Sonor and Solar. Do you know how big that farm is? It's really It's huge.

Unfortunately, I don't have that information either. [laughter] Yeah. Thank you. I will look it up though. Anybody have any questions for staff? Would the applicant like to address the commission? and you would have 10 minutes to speak. Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman, commissioners. My name is Andrew Yansy. I'm an attorney with Bergenfrag, Small, and Overholzer. Pleased to be here this evening, uh representing AES Clean Energy on their desert rainbow solar project.

As Ann noted, we're requesting a special use permit for a utility scale solar and battery storage project on uh 5,050 acres of vacant and uh a little bit agricultural land. This is privately owned land. It's owned by Australia South right now. That is the master developer of the Australia community and it's located a couple miles south of the existing Cantameia and Australia communities. Now, this area of Goodyear is lacking in municipal services, but for a solar project, that's okay.

Desert Rainbow will be able to generate 550 megawatts of electricity without straining the city's water, sewer, or transportation infrastructure. That's enough power to power about 165,000 homes. So, this project is a way to make beneficial use of land that would otherwise be unproductive. Uh before I walk through the presentation further, I do want to make sure to thank staff. Um they've been very diligent and we appreciate their recommendation of approval.

We've had many productive meetings, not just with development services, but also with engineering, economic development, uh parks, fire, building. We wanted to get a lot of input from throughout the city on this project. So the applicant here is Desert Rainbow. They're a subsidiary of AES Clean Energy. AES is a national energy company with extensive experience and expertise and they're no stranger to Arizona. They have multiple projects online and under development in this state.

And what that means is they're accustomed not only to working in our climate but to working with some of the state and local agencies like game and fish, like the corporation commission and like the local utilities we have. So in the development world, we do talk a lot about infrastructure and the city typically deals with sewer, water, roads, and those types of things.

But utilities handle electricity, but electricity is still something that projects looking to come in, whether they're a residential community or employment center, electricity is definitely something that they look at. Demand for electricity is growing very fast. Both APS and SRP hit record peak highs this summer. SRP is projecting that over the next decade they need to increase their overall generation by 50%. The process to get picked here is that SRP does an annual competitive RFP.

So different generation resources whether solar or otherwise bid into that process and then SRP evaluates them for cost timelines uh constructibility a number of different items and uh AES has bid into this year's SRP process. So here's a project outlined in red. Uh you can see it is far from the existing development footprint in Goodyear.

Uh, as I noted before, it is currently owned by the master developer of the Australia community who has submitted a letter of support stating they think this project would be uh compatible with the surrounding area. Let's see. Ann addressed the zoning, so I'll skip that. I did want to note that the project is completely within Goodyear. No annexation is required. However, the surrounding area is partially ASL land, partially BLM land, some of it's private land, but in Maricopa County.

So there's kind of a a patchwork there. So with the lack of city services and the patchwork of ownership and jurisdictions, it's not surprising there's not a lot of built structures in this area. Um the closest structures are about a half a mile away from the the project footprint where we're going to start putting the um the panels and they're primarily to the west and southwest on the other side of Waterman Wash. So I want to spend just a minute on how utility scale solar project works.

Of course you have the solar panel as a primary component. It does track with the sun throughout the day and depending on the orientation can be between 10 and 15 ft in height. Once that panel converts sunlight into electricity, it goes to an inverter which can then make it flow either to the battery or directly to a transformer. Eventually, it all goes to the transformer, which steps it up to the voltage needed to get on those high voltage transmission lines the utility has.

Then it goes to a substation offsite where it gets distributed to the utilities customers. So, how does that lay out on our site? Um, you can see here a lot of the shaded area, that's where the solar panels will go. They are broken up in in squares of no more than about 640 acres. there's connectivity either with public right away or internal roads. They will break it up. So, it'll be fenced off areas of about 640 acres and there's roads that cut across.

So, while it's a 5,000 acre project, it gets cut up a little bit with with pathways going through it. Um, we do have the best and the substation on&m building located uh just south of the Rigs Road area. That's where those are looking to be. Um, overall there's a 30-foot perimeter setback like Ann noted.

uh that will be the native vegetation will be left in place there for screening purposes and we will be setting back 30 feet from the Waterman Wash flood area as well um that provides for wildlife movement, habitat preservation and also room for city trails that are eventually planned to go through there. There will also be a wildlife linkage along the Chandler Heights Road alignment. So I want to give just a little more detail about this Waterman Wash preservation.

If you look at this image, that skinny blue line is Waterman Wash itself. The orange outside of it is the flood plane. The purple outside of that is the flood hazard area, the special flood hazard area. We're going to set back 30 ft from the special flood hazard area. So, in some places, that's over 2,000 ft away from the wash. As a result, over 730 [clears throat] acres around Waterman Wash will be preserved as part of this project.

Um, also as Ann noted, there is a some public ride ofway, but but not a lot. There will also be some private roads running through the property. I think Ann touched on access very well. Also, um, I do want to talk about the the battery storage. I know that's been a topic that you've heard some about recently.

So the battery storage technology is just an become an invaluable accessory to solar projects because it stores the electricity generated and then allows SRP to at the time of their choosing inject that electricity into the grid. You can see a chart here that shows um use of electricity throughout a day. Start at midnight, not that much electricity has been using. Get up to 5 or 6 p.m. the peak starts to go up. SRP has to have the electricity to meet that demand immediately.

And what the best does is it allows them to deploy it instantaneously. Other types of generation, they take some time to crank up. The best is a matter of seconds from when they push the button to the power is on the grid. So, it's very important on those hot summer days, meeting the peak demand and preventing blackouts. The batteries themselves are mounted on racks within steel enclosures.

They look kind of like shipping containers and they have all the modern safety requirements ventilation cooling temperature sensors, fire brakes, internal direct injection, fire suppression. And AES will do 24/7 monitoring of the batteries on their site, and they'll comply with all the the national and local regulations. They'll prepare an emergency response plan in conjunction with the fire department here in Goodyear.

Even though we're kind of early at the entitlement stage right now, AES has already met with uh the Goodyear Fire Department and building official. Actually, both of them came out to one of AES's other sites where they have an operational best in Poria and toured it to see what the best looked like and how it worked. Now, throughout this process, we have engaged in public outreach. Uh we've had a publicly accessible website. We held a community meeting back in April.

As Ann noted, we ex extended the notice radius out to a mile. Uh about 10 people from the public attended that meeting. We were able to talk about a number of the project aspects there. Uh some of them lived on sort of the southwest side of the property where I sort of sort of shown those structures before.

Um AES has also participated um in several activities around the West Valley, been on panels talking about solar and best um and they've also received support letters from the West Valley Chamber of Commerce, Harvard Investments, the Arizona Tech Council, and the Arizona Interfaith Power and Light, and several individuals as well. I'm getting low on time. I'm trying to go quick here.

Um, one of the the things we heard from people living to the south and west is they had questions about views and what they look like. So, what we've done is we've done some simulations from a few of those points on the southwest of the project where we understood that people lived and we've basically superimposed the project components into the image. So, I'll walk you through them real quick. The first one, this is from Chandler Heights Road and Rainbow Valley Road.

You can't see the project here. The native vegetation screens it completely. This next one's from 171st in baseline. Uh you got a little more of a clear shot here. You can see some dark spots in the distance, but we can tell with the low profile the panels, it's not blocking mountain views. It's not significantly changing the view there. 163rd Avenue and Rigs kind of the same. You can see the panels in the background, but they're not protruding upward in a way that that blocks anything.

and at Patterson and Bullard uh some just kind of scattered native vegetation there blocks the view completely. Uh Mr. Chair, I see I'm running out of time. I have one slide on community benefits and then I can wrap up. Thank you. I know that's something you asked a question about as well, so I'll try to hit that. Um the the project's community benefits. Um I think you got to start from the standpoint of this is land that is not producing revenue or value right now.

And with this project, there will be um tax revenue in particular. GPEC prepared a report for the Desert Rainbow project. And the the most updated figures based on the you know latest and greatest the 10% design of the project is that there would be $58 million in tax revenue directly to Goodyear. Now that's over the life of the project. So that's that's a 30 plus year lifespan, but that's what goes to Goodyear. The total tax revenue would be about 200 million over that time frame.

A lot of that would go to the county or school district or other recipients of of property taxes. Um there are also jobs that come along with it. Is about 800 construction jobs at the peak. Those are short-term jobs or construction jobs. Uh there would be about 20 full-time employees throughout the the operation of the project. AES also is a great partner with the communities they work in. They own and operate their projects throughout their life.

So they want to become members of the community where where they are. uh they're already working with Westmech on some tradesbased programming and they've worked with the all faith community services providing water and heat relief services. Uh so that concludes my presentation. Um happy to answer any questions. We do respectfully request that you uh vote to recommend approval for the SGP application.

And I I believe uh Commissioner Hegodus, you did have a question on where the power goes that I can address now if you like. Sure. So um this would be power that goes into the grid. The plan is to bid it into SRP. They've already bid into to SRPs. So, SRP takes that if if we're selected. Um, and it just goes throughout their system. There are portions of Goodyear that are served by SRP.

Goodyear is predominantly served by APS, but I think the other component of well, there there's a couple other components. One is just the the general insurance that we have, you know, businesses and jobs and and the economic development keeps coming because of the power grid system overall. But there's also the point and this really comes into play with the best when the electrons hit the grid, they don't know where they're going.

They don't know if they're an SRP electron or an APS electron or TE or whatnot. They go to the closest spot. So when you're looking at what actually happens if like you got to hit that peak demand, the electrons go to the closest place and that's based on a scientific law that I don't know the name of. But so it does help with reliability in the area and plus the the grids are interconnected. I mean APS and SRP share lines all over the place.

Then they have contracts for who can take how much electricity off it and give it to their customers. But the electrons hit the grid and it keeps the whole thing stable for all of us. Thank you. Can you touch on I know my solar panels they generate heat so this is a lot of panels out there. What does that do to the surrounding area? Sure. Thank you for that question. Um and there have been some some studies done on this because because it is a fair question.

Um in the daytime in you know the the hottest part of it if you're in the middle of the array of panels all around you the heat can go up. It is about five or six degrees at the hottest point of the day. at night that cools back down to ambient temperature.

As you move away from the project or or from the the panels, what the the studies show is that worst case scenario, hottest time of day, wind blowing in the right direction, you need to get about 300 yards away to be fully back to the ambient temperature. So that's the the heat effect there. And all the current structures are farther than that right now. Correct. That's correct. Okay. Thank you. I got some questions.

an can you tell me what school district is this going to be the Liberty District that would benefit from the tax revenue I believe so yes thank you and then I don't know I've got some questions yeah okay if Chairman Kimber has questions Chairman Klemer can you um state your question please okay good evening sorry I can't see you but um I'm trying to wrap my head around the fact that there's going to be eight square miles of solar panels out there. How many solar panels are there involved?

Uh, Chair Climber, I I don't have a number on the the panels. Um, the the footprint. That's okay. I just I just I just thought there'd be five million or anyway, but this seems like a lot. Um, in what I read, this used to be a place where they graze cattle. Uh, how how long ago was the last time cattle was grazed out there? Yeah, thank you for that that question. Um, there may still be a cattle operation out there today, frankly. Um, that is not owned by the rancher.

It is owned by Australia South. It will be in the the best case scenario where we go at warp speed, it'll still be a few years until there's even construction out there. So, there's no reason for for the rancher to leave right away. There's still time to work that out. All right. I where I'm going on this, it says that Arizona Fish and Game was involved in this. The only thing I could think of out there that really can't pick up and move wildlife is um desert tortoises.

And if it was a cattle ranch, and maybe still is, there probably aren't a lot of tortoises out there. I suppose that Arizona Fishing Game did a study on that. But um I did look up another large solar facility they put in California. And the applicant turned out they had to do a lot of of uh mitigation to avoid damage to the tortoises, but there were still in the end several hundred of them that were killed. So I didn't know if there were any out there or not.

I didn't take my four-wheeler out there to take a test look. But um if Arizona Fish and Game said it's okay, I guess in my mind I'll say it's okay for that poor little animal. Thank you, Chair Climber. Just to to address that, um you know, you're right on a number of of fronts there and the we haven't done a study where we actually counted species there. We did, you know, look at, you know, the possibilities of and desert tortoise is one of the ones that come up.

Arizona Fishing Game has specific guidelines for how to handle desert tortoises on on these types of projects. So I you know I think this also comes back to where AES has worked in Arizona before. They've worked with fishing game. These are the types of of issues they see. Um there's you know training for the construction workers especially if they're going into an area where they think it might be more likely to have the tortoises. So there are handling procedures.

I believe it was th those fishing game procedures are even attached to our um our biological study that that we submitted. So I think it's part of the record here in this case. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions for the applicant? Hi. Uh just for clarification, we know that it's approximately 5,000 acres in Goodyear and I've heard the number 165,000 homes, but you can't confirm that any of those homes are Goodyear homes. That's correct.

Uh Commissioner Mlennon, that's just a measurement of how much electricity is. I know when I say 550 megawatts, that doesn't mean a lot to a lot of people. So the 165,000 homes is to put it in context. It may not go to homes. It may go to commercial businesses. It may go to industrial project. It goes to the grid. That's it's really just a a method of measurement because most people don't know how far a megawatt goes. I don't know how far a megawatt goes.

So is there any way to say conclusively that any of this will go to Goodyear? It will go onto SRP's system. SRP does have some service to to Goody Gear, but there are also projects that I've I've worked on in other jurisdictions that go to APS even though they're not in an APS jurisdiction. Um I think there is sort of this this disconnect on on the infrastructure where you know water, sewer, roads, the city handles those things. Electricity, they're not handled by the the cities or the counties.

It's handled by the utilities and they have different service areas. Yet the projects from a land use perspective are approved at the city and county level. So there is inherently a disconnect in that from time to time it's about making sure there's enough electricity on the grid overall followup. No. Anybody else have any questions? Are there any speaker cards? I have not received any speaker cards at the dis. Would anyone in the audience like to speak?

Please come forward and fill out a speaker card before you leave, please. Okay. As you come up, um just a reminder, each speaker is limited to three minutes. The screens will let you know how much time you have left to speak. Before you begin, please identify yourself by clearly stating for the record your name and if you are a Goodyear resident. Hi, my name is Caroline Nevett and I am not a Goodyear resident. I'm a Buckeye resident, but I am still right in the middle of that map.

Is there anything else you want me? [laughter] Sorry. Okay. So, I have a couple of things because like I said, I am right in the middle of that map and my home faces the mountain that I'm going to be surrounded by this solar field on. I have a couple of concerns um from the the US Fish and Wildlife.

Um they state there's a large-scale solar construction including vegeta vegetation clearing and grading directly disturbs habitat on an increased scale as the number and size of facilities expand and can cause direct wildlife mortality. 5,000 acres is huge. It's we're surrounded by all of that. We have coyotes out there.

When three years of construction happens out there, what is going to happen to all this wildlife and the coyotes and the packs out there that are now going to be driven into our residential homes as well as the cow farm that is about to start in October of this year. So, it's going to be well established. 5,000 acres of displacement for coyotes, hunting grounds, and the wildlife that's going to be killed out there is going to be detrimental to us.

I don't know on what scale, but I have children, I have animals, we have farms, we have, you know, cow farms. I I'm concerned about what this looks like for us. [snorts] Um, another thing, um, excuse me. Um, I know that this is SRP owned and I I don't know of any Goodyear I I I don't have all the information, obviously. I don't know of any Goodyear resident that receives SRP in any way, shape, or form.

And while I understand that the grid is the grid, um, as APS customers, what benefit does this give us besides a power structure existing, which it already exists. So yes, while it may benefit the structure on a wide scale, what benefit as APS customers, our rates are going to go down. We're not going to get any discounts. We're not going to get any tax breaks. We're not going to get any of this. Our rates are continuously going up through APS. And this is owned by SRP.

So, while I understand it benefiting the grid, I don't understand why every single person that this is going to be surrounded by is going to get no electrical benefit in any way, shape, or form. [snorts] Um, I know they mentioned the jobs, which is fantastic. Jobs are always great. 4 to 800 temp, so about three years. That's fantastic. Is there any guarantee that there's going to be local Goodyear, Buckeye, Rainbow Valley residents that get these jobs, the 20 long term?

Are any of them going to be local? So, as much as we would like to see jobs, it's always fantastic. When it's taking our area, what again, what benefit are the residents that are being surrounded getting from literally any of this so far? I know there's a lot of open desert, a lot that aren't surrounded by housing and property, and I would just like to see some form of benefit for us as opposed to just being the ones that have to sit down and take it. Thank you so much for your time.

Thank you for your comments. We're going to now close. Is there are there any other people in the audience that would like to speak? I will now close the public hearing. Will the secretary please read the staff recommendation? Okay.

recommend approval of a special use permit for Desert Rainbow, a utility scale solar energy generation facility on approximately 5,50 acres, generally extending north to south from the Queen Creek Road alignment to the Patterson Road alignment and west to east from Waterman Wash to the 139th Avenue alignment subject to conditions as set forth in resolution 2026-XX. Is there a motion for the staff recommendation which includes the revised stipulations or you can vote uh voice an alternate motion?

I have a motion from Commissioner Booth and a second from Commissioner Wang. The floor is open for commission discussion. I also wish this was an APS benefit for us since that's who I pay with. But I understand it goes to the grid and we need that especially when it's what 110 degrees today in August. But if there is a benefit for Goodyear and I think they've done the study with the wildlife. That's a concern of mine too and hopefully they construct it responsibly.

I'm just wondering what what percentage of Phoenix Metro is 165,000 homes just for Yeah, exactly. Is it this much? Exactly. That's sounds like a lot, but probably isn't in the grand scheme of things but demand has to be met somehow. I I wish we had more information and maybe it's out there and I just don't have it in front of me on um making a decision today that puts a facility of this size footprint um there for 30 years or more.

uh future development, residential development on that side of town. What in what ways would this prohibit um development down there 20 years from now, whatever it might be? I I don't know if we have any like that. I know that um the map we saw a moment ago showed the closest development would be the Estraa. Am I right on that? Yeah. And it's not that far from at least one part of the footprint of this. Um, this is I'm I'm trying to wrap my mind around 5,000 acres. That's a that's a lot of land.

Chairman, if I may, it's Kate. It's me down here. Um, you may direct some of these questions to the applicant or staff if you wish. I do think they might have some information on your questions on how many residents and then I do think they might have some information too on the residential development impact. It's up to you if you wish to direct those questions to the applicant. To whom do I direct that question? [laughter] Uh the applicant just the applicant in general. Thank you. Thank you.

And I'm I'm going to back up on this presentation to try to show some maps here real quick. when we're looking and I think what I'd like to address first is Commissioner McClendon's question about you know the surrounding area and its potential for for development. I mean, first of all, you know, Goodyear sort of marches south, right? There there's still some residential to be filled in north of the river, but in, you know, 5 to 10 years when we looking south of the Hila River.

The Australia community where it sits right now is about half developed. And just for your record, I also represent Australa, so I'm confident in these numbers. Um, they built about 10,000 homes now. They got about 10,000 more to build. There are a few other um you know potential projects up kind of just to the west and barely southwest of there. But what I really want to point out is that the Australia master developer they own 10,000 acres south of the P coast road alignment.

So if you see here on this map, Post Road alignment is the current boundary of Cantamemia and Australia. So Australia's still got 10,000 more homes to build north of that. When you go south of that, they own 10,000 acres and they're looking to sell 5,000 for this solar project. So, where you see this little arrow that says two miles, that gap, Estraa owns that. Estraa is the one who's going to come right up to this.

They are a master plan residential developer and they are electing to have this land go to solar. So, and they wrote wrote a letter in support of this project saying they think it is compatible. So that tells me that the most likely developer adjacent to this project is okay with it. That that is helpful. Thank you. Any other questions for the uh can I make a point? Yes. Go ahead.

Uh yeah, the you know obviously this is privately owned land as are most of the things that come through here and whether it benefits Goodyear or not uh in a big way uh is a little bit nebulous on a lot of the projects we have but they all give us a tax base. So that's what this is. There are a lot of other businesses in town that don't directly affect Goodyear except for taxes. So, I'm not really um that upset about the fact that it's there and not not going on the Goodyear APS grid.

Not to belabor my questions, but um when just hypothetical, if this could exist tomorrow, if this were developed tomorrow, we've had a previous previous speaker who's acknowledged her concerns. We haven't mentioned noise at all. And and if it could exist tomorrow, I don't know that there are a lot of residents down there to complain about noise. And I don't know where to separate fact and fiction with with the conversation around our country around data centers and these sorts of things.

I'm curious in the work you've done, how have you projected with the developments you just said could potentially take place, the kind of noise that will come from a facility of this size with this much geography taken by either the storage or the solar. Sure. Uh, Commissioner McClendon, the um panels themselves are next to noiseless.

I think the only thing that would really make any noise is is the mechanical components that turn the panel throughout the day that turns at the same pace that the sun goes around. So, it is is very slow as almost imperceptible. Um the battery also the the people that we've taken out to um tour the the West Wing project that AES has in Poria. It's located just a couple hundred feet from a residential neighborhood there.

Um and the people we take out to to visit it say, "Wow, you really really can't hear this." I I do want to distinguish because I think there is some sort of cross-pollination of what we hear about data centers and what we hear about energy these days. The noise issues with the data centers are are primarily from my understanding the backup generators firing. We don't have backup generators. We're generating [laughter] the electricity here.

So I I I just want to make sure to to separate those things. So the noise issue really isn't a problem on these projects. Thank you for that. I have a question as well. Um the the slide that was shown with the peak use I would assume is representing the summer months maybe through September and you mentioned it could be turned on immediately and that energy used at that time when the demand is is is the highest.

So during those non- peak months and so forth is it still producing energy that's still being used during the non- peak? I'm just trying to understand how this works a little bit. I'm not sure it matters, but was curious to know since that's obviously a certain time of the year. No, Commissioner Lee, thank you. And and that's a a good question. So, the way it works is um once the the contracts entered with SRP, um SRP chooses when to when to fire it.

Um I I was actually at the League of Cities and Towns conference earlier today and heard a panel with APS, SRP, and TE and they were were talking about this issue and they were saying that they're starting to see higher electricity use sometimes in the off hours than they were before. Like when they had the those peak days, apparently at at midnight it was higher than they were used to seeing it. Um of course it was 107 degrees at midnight that night. So I think that has a lot to do with it.

So it gives the utilities a a tool that they wouldn't otherwise have. Now the panels are are producing electricity during the time they're producing. It does not all go to to the best. Some of it goes straight onto the grid, but the best is able to store it to give that excess. So when the utility needs to fire it, they can. And the the way it works is like they have to meet the demand immediately. Like if if it doesn't meet, you look at blackouts.

So there's literally a person at each of the utilities who sits at a desk and and they watch the the levels go up and down and they try to make sure they have enough generation on to meet the demand. What happens when they don't have enough is there is actually a market like a commodities market interstate for electricities and we usually buy it from California in in that scenario.

But if you think about just basic supply and demand at the time when everybody needs electricity, it's going to cost a lot more to get it on. So this keeps electricity prices down as well by having that ability when they're looking and and that that level is going up and they've got to put something new on to meet the demand. This is something they already have in the hopper ready to go. So it's reliability and it also is is cost.

So, it's always being used, but then the batteries give it the opportunity when the need is high to take that extra energy from the batteries that where it's stored. Yes, Commissioner, that's correct. And generally the the solar panels do start producing a lot early in the day. In the morning, they're getting getting good sunlight even if it's not quite as hot for the rest of us. Um, so that's more of the time when they charge the battery in the morning.

In the afternoon, you got more of the the power flowing directly onto the grid and they're possibly firing that battery as well. All right, we ready to vote? Okay, please enter your vote. Chairman Climber, how do you vote? I Okay, the motion passes. Recommendation of approval will be forwarded to the city council for the August 31st meeting. Are there any staff communications? Thank you, chair. Yes. Um, welcome back from summer break. I hope you've been enjoying a good summer.

Um, before break, um, the commission considered two items. A use permit for a service station at Lake and Park, which is at Cotton Lane and MC85, and the city council did approve that with the recommendation of this commission. And then also the zoning ordinance went to city council and as recommended by this commission that was adopted and it is now in effect um as well. So that was a huge project. So thank you um for your assistance in that.

I also have a bit of staff news um you know and and you may not be aware we have a um deputy director of planning and the person who's currently in that role is not actually a planner by trade. She um has been working more on our continuous improvement and process improvement efforts, but she is retiring October 2nd. Her name is Kim Bradford.

She has come to a meeting here and there, but she doesn't regularly attend since she isn't a planning professional, but she is retiring and Christian Williams has accepted the role of deputy director of planning. He wasn't able to be here tonight, so um we're very excited for him to be in that role. And so we will be recruiting for a new planning manager. Um it may have even been posted. If not, it'll be posted any day now.

So um you will continue to see Christian here in his role as deputy director. And then we will have a new face as planning manager once we get that position filled. And those are my staff communications. Thank you. Thank you. The next planning and zoning commission meeting will be held on September 16th, 2026 at 6 p.m. at the Goodyear City Hall Council Chambers. There being no further business to discuss, this meeting is adjourned.