Goodyear Council Approves Desert Rainbow Solar and Australia Parkway Widening; Property Owner Challenges Cost Recovery as Unconstitutional Taking

Heat. Heat. N. become. Heat. Heat. N. Heat. Heat. Welcome to the Goodyear City Council meeting. We're excited to have you be a part of this important public process. Tonight, you will have the opportunity to address city council on both non-aggenda and agenda items. You must fill out a speaker request card in order to address the city council. The agendas and speaker request cards are located in the back of the council chambers.

Please drop your completed card in the tray next to the blank speaker cards. If the meeting has already begun, please hand it to the city employee at the back of the room. You may check the I do not wish to speak option on the card. This allows you to let council know your opinion without having to speak. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, please contact a staff member if you need any assistance.

Public comment on a non-aggenda item will take place during the citizen comment portion of the evening. These are items that don't appear on tonight's formal agenda. The city clerk will call your name when it's time for you to speak. At that time, please approach the podium and tell us your name for the record. You'll have a maximum of 3 minutes. The timer is on the screens visible from the podium.

Note that you may also choose not to speak if other speakers before you have said what you wanted to say. Shouting, cheering, and loud noises will not be tolerated and violators may be removed for disrupting the meeting. Goodyear city council meetings stream live on Facebook, YouTube, X, and online at goodyearaz.gov. Follow the city's social media pages so you don't miss out on all that's happening in Goodyear. Thank you for coming to this meeting and being an active part of your city.

And remember, it's a great time to be in Goodyear. like to call the regular meeting to order for August 31st, 2026. Please mark everybody present. City clerk, we're all here. We're all here. All right. Thank you. Um would you please join council member Beckles in the pledge of allegiance and invocation? I I pledge algiance 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.

Let us pause for a moment of reflection as we begin this evening's meeting after our summer break. Gracious and loving creator, we gather together with grateful hearts for the privilege to serve the city of Goodyear. We ask for your wisdom, humility, and understanding as we guide the future of our growing community. Fill this chamber in our hearts with deep love for all people. Remind us that our strength lies in our unity and in our shared commitment to one another.

May our decisions tonight reflect a dedication to kindness and respect for every resident, neighbor, and visitor who calls Goodyear home. We lift a special prayer for those lives lost and especially the wife of our former police chief Jimmy Rodriguez and a wonderful blessing to our little league champions. Watch over our neighborhood and schools.

protect our first responders who work tirelessly to keep us secure and and grant us the foresight to build a city that remains safe and peaceful for generations to come. Finally, bless our deliberations today. May we lead with a spirit of collaborative love in God's name. Amen. Thank you. Amen. Thank you there, Council Member Beckles. Uh, now is the time for members of the public who wish to address the city council on any non-aggenda items when the jurisdiction of the city council.

Any speaker cards? Yes, mayor. First up, I have Bob Rya. Good evening, guys. Yeah, before you start, Bob, the council will listen to comments and make uh any of the following. respond to criticism. Request that staff investigate and report the matter. Request the matter be scheduled on a future agenda. It's limited to three minutes. It'll let you know as it gets closer. Okay. So, if you just tell us, you don't have to tell us your address, just whether you're a good year resident. Okay.

So, I've never done this before. It's my first time up here. Um I took a couple of notes. So, I'm here um asking the city city to consider a recreational outdoor pickle ball league um for residents age 60 and older. Presently, we don't have one. Um pickle ball, as we all know, is very popular among Goodyear seniors. Um a league would provide organized exercise, friendly competition, and opportunity for older residents to remain active and socially connected.

Um currently, many of us travel to different cities. surprise Aenddale for example or they have to go to private um clubs to play. Uh I think it would be we all think it would be a great idea. Presently we have probably 30 people that that have already shown an interest and that's without it going public. That's just word of mouth. Um I play at the Goodyear Recreation Center indoor right now. Um the recreation center's been phenomenal with us.

They've offered us a third net um on the inside, but we all feel a good recreational program outdoor as it cools off in October or past would be wonderful for the seniors. Um and we wouldn't have to take our business elsewhere. We could keep it here in town. Um it'd be low cost, minimal cost to all. Um, and uh, I'd like just everyone to just um, to take it in consideration and I just came here on behalf of the rest of us. Um, was kind of I'm not going to lie to you.

It was kind of a spur of the moment. We've been talking about it, but no one's ever come forward with it. Um, I did leave a message today for the director. I think she's the director, Deanna, at the Goodyear Recreation Center, letting her know what we're doing. Um, so that we're all on the same page. I just think it'd be a great thing to do and if you guys could consider it, we'd greatly appreciate it. Thank you, sir. Uh, Mr. Manager, you get somebody from the reach out to him? Yes, sir.

Glad to. We have his information. Okay. Thank you. Okay. So, somebody get back to me or I don't know this is going to get back to you. All right. Great. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Anything else? Yes, Mayor Chris Mclofflin. Hello, Chris. You heard the uh previous spiel there. Just uh whether you're a resident, you don't have to give the address. Go ahead. Yeah. Uh good evening. My name is Chris Mclofflin. I'm I live here in Goodyear.

I'm here because I have a serious problem with the Flock cameras being used in our city. I think Goodyear should cancel its contract with Flock and not replace it with another contract. I'm also requesting that that this be added to the agenda. I understand why police like these cameras. I understand they can help find stolen cars, locate someone suspected of a serious crime. I'm not arguing they have they have no benefit. My problem is what are we giving up for that benefit?

These cameras aren't just watching people suspected of crimes. They're watching everybody when I drive to work, go to the doctor, visit somebody, go to a political event, or just drive around my own city. My vehicle can be photographed, and that information can be put into a searchable database. I haven't committed a crime. I'm not under investigation. Nobody got a warrant to track me. And we keep being told there are safeguards to prevent this technology from being abused.

Well, clearly those safeguards aren't enough. In Apache Junction, an officer used Flock to track his own wife and ch in Chandler. An officer resigned after admitting he misused the system. Surprise investigated potential misuse and ultimately canceled its flock contract. Now, we have an officer right here in Goodyear on administrative leave after an audit found concerning flock activity. The situation was serious enough that it was referred to for an outside criminal criminal investigation.

I'm glad the audit caught it. I really am. But that doesn't make me feel better about Flock. It makes my point. If the system can be abused, eventually somebody's going to abuse it. And we're seeing examples of that exactly happening across the country. This isn't about whether I trust our police department. I don't think the government should have this kind of surveillance power in the first place.

The Fourth Amendment is supposed to put limits on the government's ability to search and monitor us. I don't think those protections should disappear because technology has made mass surveillance easier. So, I'm not asking for another policy, another safeguard. I'm asking you to cancel the Goodyear's contract with Flock and remove the cameras and not replace it with another vendor doing the exact same thing. Surprise did it. Tempe did it. Other cities have done it. Good can do it, too.

We shouldn't have to give up the p our privacy. Just drive around our own city. Um, also, I want to know if there was an investigation into the Quanico incident. Um, I haven't seen anybody do that and where they block their own employees from leaving their building. And I think that there should be some sort of accountability for that. And that's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, city manager, you reach out to him. Okay, there you go. I have one more speaker, Jason Chavez.

You've heard the previous there, Jason. just uh name and whether you're a Goodyear resident. Hello, my name is Jason Chavez. I'm not a Goodyear resident, but I do have family here, so I visit here very often. I would like to like speak against the uh flaw cameras that are in the city. As we all know, an officer has been caught misusing it. So that should be reason enough to like cancel any like contracts and or anything.

But I would also like u to like make the following point that these cameras are set to be there for our own safety. But I would like to say that monitoring is not safety at all. What what actually guarantees safety is like trust in our community, community trust. And having cameras around in the first place just showcases a mistrust in the community itself. And this may or may not be justified. But the answer to that is not spying on us. It is trying to establish uh more community trust.

Whether it be just through community events such as you guys are all doing or just or just uh throughformational campaigns about like how to like treat your fellow neighbor or again stuff like the Amber Alerts where you know the citizens themselves can keep an eye out on everybody else. Other cities have canled their flock cameras such as Chandler who chosen not to renew it. There's Tempe and there also the city surprise in the west valley.

So these cities are taking the lead and I would like good year to also follow that lead as well. I would also like to speak on the quantico incident as well. Well, where the U manager like blocked their own employees from exiting the warehouse effectively detaining them all through because of rumors of ICE like in the area so that they could presumably like detain like the immigrants that are in that work in the warehouse.

Um thankfully the police like have said that you know that was illegal detention for them and hopefully you know there is consequences and accountability for that. But it does speak to a like certain culture within here in Goodyear that somebody even thought that was even a justifiable thing to do and I would like the city to make more of a comment on that as how that is just simply unacceptable. Thank you for your time. Thank you, city manager. Okay, thank you. Anything else? No, mayor.

Okay, thank you. We have uh two communication items tonight. First item is to recognize Benalian Chief Darren Green's retirement and 24 years of service with the Goodyear Fire Department. Go ahead and introduce yourself, please, for the public. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Paul Louise, fire chief. Tonight, if I can get the presentation open, um we'll be uh recognizing Battalion Chief Darren Green, who's here with us. So, a little bit about Darren.

Um 21-year Navy veteran, 24 years with the Goodyear Fire Department, 12 of of those as a battalion chief. He served as a battalion chief in operations, in training, and then lastly in logistics and support services. He's been the founding member of our honor guard in addition to our firefighters local charity, which has served thousands of people within our community. He also started our uh 911 uh pancake breakfast that we have as well, raising money for the community.

In addition to that, he's also spent over 20 years teaching at Glendale Community College and fire science program and has trained over 600 firefighters in his career. Darren had a hand in the design, modernization construction and remodeling of our fire stations. He's helped construct and design countless apparatus that he has been involved in. countless hours in the middle of the night when something broke and his wife Heidi can attest to that.

And while the leaders get credit for all that we do in our department, the real credit actually goes to Darren and his team for all that he's done. Darren's 24 years of nuance things uh can do attitude will always remaining a defining part of our culture and our department. What an amazing career and such an immense impact on how you have shaped this fire department and the fire service. So Darren, thank you for all that you have done for us in making us better.

And then on behalf of the fire department, we do want to present with Darren with a plaque. So says presented to Darren Green recognition of your years of outstanding service to the city of Goodyear 2002 to 2026. Congratulations Darren. Thank you, Chief. When I started here, we were uh in many ways a speed bump on the way to California. Sleeply little bedroom community. Over the course of my career, had the pleasure of watching us grow into a vibrant and uh thriving community.

You could say that I didn't have a uh normal fire service career. Not standard in any means. uh very fortunate with the opportunities, the challenges beyond anything I could have imagined. These changed me, they challenged me, shaped me, ultimately helped me make me who I am today. Very grateful. I'm honored and humbled to have been part of this organization. play a small role into what we have achieved.

I'm proud with the work that we have done, proud of the people, grateful for the opportunities. Thank you. Oh, thank you, Councilwoman Gillis. Darren, I'm grateful for you. You are one of my faves. You know that. And so you have been so wonderful to me since the first day I was elected four years ago. Always respectful, always kind. You are you are involved, accountable. You do everything for everybody. You don't have to ask you more than once. And I think the world of you and I always have.

And like I said, you know that. So, I say thank you for your service to this city. 24 years. That's a long time. And I hope you and your wife go off and retire and have fun and do something really meaningful for you now. It's that time. Thank you again for everything. Thank you, Council Member Campbell. Well, Darren, I've known you long before I came on council, so we go back a long time. And those were the days when I didn't know what I was doing, and you were always bailing me out of trouble.

So, I appreciate that. and I thank you. But most of all, I really have to thank you for all the service that you did to my family. When you would come on scene, I knew my husband would be fine. You and your crew were always wonderful. And 24 years is a long time to give your heart and soul to a city. And I want you to know how grateful all of us are.

we the countless hours that you worked, the count the meals you miss, the parties you miss, the birthdays you miss because you were all dedicated to take care of Goodyear and all of its residents. I know that this is bittersweet. Everybody kind of likes to keep working forever, but it's kind of nice to take a step back and now you don't have to answer the call in the middle of the night, which is really going to be true. You'll probably wake up anyway thinking you heard it. Yeah, I know.

But anyway, thank you so much for everything and I know that you've got a wonderful future planned for you and your family and we just wish you the very best. You'll always have a home here in Goodyear. Thank you, Council Member Kano. Well, I've been in public service and I know sometimes when people retire like, oh, that's good, but that there's other people like you and like uh Council Member Campbell said, it's very bittersweet. um you have had such a huge impact on this organization.

Your investment of 24 years is just paying off dividends beyond what you'll even ever know. And through your leadership and even the work you've done in building and refurbishing fire stations, you've just got your fingerprints all over uh the city of Goodyear Fire Services. Just wanted to thank you and I know that we're a better department for your service. Thank you, Council Member Beckles. Yes. When I saw you come up, I was like, "Oh, no, not him.

He's not leaving us." But um you have brought such value to Goodyear and all the years that you've been in as the city began to grow. You have certainly your contributions have certainly been immeasurable and um it and very much appreciated. So, I want to add my thank you to all that you've done for a good year, but also um blessings to you as you move on to another phase of your life. Thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor. A lot of the same. Thank you so much for your years dedicated service.

I mean, you're of a lifetime of public service being in the military and then also bringing that knowledge to the city of Goodyear and sharing that here as well. So, uh just a lifetime of helping out the community and serving others. So I really appreciate uh all your public service and also training said 600 type people throughout the fire service. So you have a long history and uh helping helping people throughout the community.

So like they said your fingerprints are over everything in the city from 2002 till now. I mean I was in the community back then as well and we were a lot smaller. So, you've definitely helped us and grown us and I think the department will will definitely miss you because you've probably left a outstanding positive positive uh mark there. So, thank you so much for your service. Hope you enjoy retirement. It's a it's a good thing. So, thank you. Thank you, Council Member Terry.

Um I'll just point out I was a sophomore at Millennium when you started. Um, but aside from that, and I know a lot has been said that I could just echo, but you may be leaving, but your fingerprints aren't. Um, you can't be with an organization as long as you have without, you know, having such an impact on the way we do things and the way we will continue to do things. So, you know, enjoy retirement, but uh, no, your fingerprints aren't leaving. Thank you.

You know, last, it's hard to add other than to say thank you. We do go way back and I can tell you for your crew and a lot of them that are standing out there, uh, you're second to none. I mean, unfortunately, I've had to call them a few times and I'm a firm believer they actually saved the life of my wife more than once. So, uh, again, the professionalism you and your crew established second to none. So, again, enjoy your retirement.

Uh, I'm sure we're going to see you around because, uh, you'll find something else to do. I know, maybe a short stay, but uh again, good luck and have a happy retirement. Take care, Darren. Awesome. Thank you very much. You want You want to get a photo with the council? Sure. Should we stand? Let's go down. No, let's let's go down. Come on. Right here in the well and get a shot. Although I like being taller up here. I know. We'll do this. We'll do this. I need a stool. a little bit tighter.

Everybody second item. is a proclamation recognizing the Goodyear Little League 11U for winning the state championship. Go ahead, Bruce, and introduce yourself. Bruce Gman, deputy director of parks and recreation. And actually, come on up, guys. So, this team that's with us here tonight, the Grew Little League Allstars. They had an incredible championship series this year. Uh, started off in district play. This team went undefeated 3 and 0, scoring 35 runs while only giving up eight. Whoa.

They continue that momentum into the state championship uh series. Uh they were 4-0 going into the championship game versus Chandler National Little League. And this uh that uh championship game showed exactly what this what made this group special. After falling behind five to one in the third inning, the team came together, battled back, and talking with the coach, he was talking about how infectious hits became with this team. They manufactured run after run.

They ended up tying the game and went on to win 17 to five and became the Arizona State Champions. And that capped off that capped off a perfect 5-0 record. They scored 48 runs in this uh championship series while just allowing just 13 runs. Overall, they went 8-0, becoming both District 11 champions and Arizona State champions, outscoring their opponents 83 to 21 throughout the entire tournament season, batting an impressive 416 with 84 hits in just eight games.

This team demonstrated determination, grit, teamwork, and the never give up attitude through the entire season. They represented Goodyear with tremendous pride, and I'm incredibly proud to recognize them as the 2026 Arizona 11U Little League state champions. All right. And to commemorate Yeah. Don't go anywhere. Got a resolution. Yeah. And to commemorate uh this team, each of you have a signed baseball in front of you. Thank you.

And you never know, we might see a few of these uh kids playing in the Cactus League in a few years. All right, let's hope for that. And we also have a slideshow here capturing some of the moments from this special season championship game. Oh wow. No. That was the out one. Good. And then as the slideshow starts to uh conclude here, we're going to invite the team into the well to receive the proclamation. Hold on. She's going to read the proclamation. Okay.

Whereas the city of Goodyear mayor and council members recognize Goodyear Little League's 9 to 11year-old a all-star team for becoming Arizona State champions. And whereas on July 19th, 2026, Goodyear Little League secured a thrilling 17 to5 victory against Chandler at the Tempe Sports Complex. And whereas this remarkable accomplishment reflects the determination of the players, their coaches, and families who supported them throughout the season.

And whereas our allstars competed in the winners bracket over a 10-day double elimination playoff tournament, beating each of their opponents and finishing undefeated as the state champions in their division. And whereas the outstanding dedication, hard work, determination, sportsmanship, and talent of this team has established an example of excellence and brought distinction to the city of Goodyear and the West Valley.

Now therefore, be it resolved that I, Joe Pizzillo, mayor of Goodyear, Arizona, do do hereby honor and extend congratulations to the Goodyear Little League 11U all-star team on this exceptional achievement. In witness whereof, I have set my hand and cause the seal of the city of Goodyear to be affixed this 31st day of August, 2026. Okay, you can do that. Yeah, little guys in the front. I know. I'm telling you. Wow, look at the paparazzi. Good. Good everybody. Last chance. All right.

Congratulations team. Everybody comment. Anytime you can beat Chandler, a good day. Yeah, Chandler's good. Anytime you beat Chandler's good in East Valley, good day. I give him a chance for I Is it good? Okay. Will the city clerk please read consent agendum items 3 through 12 by title only? Item three, approval of minutes. Item four, approval of new series 12 restaurant liquor license for Rock and Roll Sushi.

Item five, approval of series 12 restaurant liquor license for Feder Rico's Mexican Food. Item six, approval of permanent extension of premises patio permit for Lakeside Grill Australia. Item seven, approval of budget amendments and related expenditure authority. Item eight, approval of amendment one to the intergovernmental agreement with Maricopa County for the Goodyear Police Department recruit training.

Item nine, adopt resolution number 2026 2534 authorizing the acquisition of real and personal property interest needed for CIP number 300014 fire station 187 mobile remodel improvements project. Item 10, adopt resolution number 2026 2535 designating the chief fiscal officer for officially submitting the fiscal years 2026 and 2027 annual expenditure limitation report to the Arizona Auditor General.

Item 11, adopt resolution number 2026-2536 approving an intergovernmental agreement with the Kila River Indian Community for mutual aid response for fire protection and other emergency services. Item 12, adopt ordinance number 202653 amending Goodyear City Code section 3-1-5 department heads to create a customer service and innovation department providing for correction, severability, and declaring an emergency. Thank you. Um, anybody like to remove an item off the agenda?

Seeing none, any questions? None. Got a motion and a second up on the board. You go ahead and open it up for the vote. Passes 70. Thank you. Um, let's see what we got here. Next, we have two public hearings tonight. First public hearing is to review and consider approving a use permit for Desert Rainbow Solar Energy Generation Facility. I'm going to open up the public hearing. Please introduce yourself for the public. Yeah, good evening.

I'm Ann Dalmidge, principal planner, and this is um Good evening, Mayor Pazillo and council members. This is a special use permit request for the Desert Rainbow Solar Project in South Goodyear. So, the project site is shown here in the green boundary and it covers approximately 5,050 acres located south of Queen Creek Road, north of Patterson Road, west of 139th Avenue, and east of 171st Avenue and Waterman Wash.

And there are two small properties that are surrounded by the project site but are not included in the project request. One is owned by Liberty School District and the other is owned by a private owner named Colonia LLC and combined they total about 2.3 acres. So the zoning of the site is is sorry is a stray phase 3 preliminary PA a planned area development.

The preliminary P AD envisioned a variety of uses for this site, including residential, commercial, uh, mixed use, light, industrial, public uses, and open space. However, no final P A has ever been approved and the site is still undeveloped. So, 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. The project will consist of multiple components which I'll go through here.

Photovalttaic panels approximately 10 to 15 ft in height. Solar trackers to ensure that the panels are following the track of the sun throughout the day. A battery energy storage system or best for storage of surplus energy for quick deployment when needed. an electrical collection system to convert the energy from DC to AC and bring it to the project's collector substation which is the next item.

The collector substation then increases the voltage to the proper level for transmission and there will be at least one operations and maintenance building um for an administrative area workspace and storage. Um there will also be infrastructure such as layown yards, water basins, fencing and access drives and portable water tanks. So the project is proposing some unique development standards and I'll go through some of the highlights here.

Uh setbacks around the project perimeter will be 30 ft except for the best units. Uh best will need to remain at least 100 ft from the perimeter and from any buildings. The product site contains special flood hazard areas or SFHAs along Waterman Wash and these are shown in pink on the map on the slide. The project will keep a 30-foot minimum setback from the edges of these flood hazard areas.

And finally, chainlink fencing is permitted for the project provided native vegetation remains within the setback areas. So, three access points will be provided for the project site. The first is for construction access and primary emergency access and that's at Queen Creek Road and 163rd Avenue. There will be a secondary emergency access point at Okato Road in 163rd Avenue. And when the project is operational, main access will be from Riggs Road.

Additionally, several roads and road alignments pass through the project site. And shown here in purple are public roads um that will remain outside of project fencing. Includes Chandler Heights Road, Rigs Road, and Patterson Road for the east west alignments and 171st Avenue and Bullard Avenue for north south alignments. Additionally, there are several private roads also outside of any project fencing shown here in pink.

And there will also be a system of private roads inside of the project fencing. They're not for public use. So the project will not require connection to city sewer or water. A water will be trucked in or come from on-site wells and stored in tanks on site. And there will be a septic system for wastewater needs. For the best, the applicant will be required to provide a hazard mitigation plan as well as an emergency response plan.

And the best units will also include an intelligent fire detection, alarm, and suppression system. The site does fall within multiple wildlife movement areas and linkages that are identified by Arizona Game and Fish and other agencies. The applicants have been consulting with Game and Fish and they've obtained a biological study for the project. Uh Game and Fish have reviewed that study.

One recommendation of the study is for a wildlife corridor through the site and that will be accommodated uh near Chandler Heights Road. And the applicant plans to continue working with Game and Fish as this moves through the site planning and permitting stages. So the applicant is requesting up to 10 years to establish the use and that's 10 years between SCP and approval and approval of a certificate of occupancy or certificate of completion.

They also anticipate the project will be operational for about 40 years, but they're requesting a 45-year term for this SUP. um at which point the solar park must be decommissioned or an SCP extension must be obtained and a final decommissioning plan will be provided before construction. Uh decommissioning will involve removing all equipment and restoring the site to its natural state. So the applicant has provided an economic study for the project.

Tax revenues to the city of Goodyear for the solar component will be about $43 million and that's over a 30-year period. Tax revenues for the best component will be about $15 million over a 15-year period. And the project will also generate revenue for the county, state, and local school districts as well as personal in excuse me, personal income. A neighborhood meeting was held on April 14th. Approximately 10 members of the public attended.

The project has been reviewed by multiple external agencies, including Game and Fish, as noted earlier, as well as AOT, City of Aenddale, and Maricopa County. Public notifications for both the neighborhood meeting and for this public hearing were sent to property owners within a onem radius of the project site instead of the usual 500 ft. and the city has received comments from 14 individuals and organizations about this project.

Um, of these comments, uh, most have expressed support for the project or simply requested more information about it. Uh, we did receive three from project neighbors who are concerned that the project would affect their access um and would not promote desirable development in South Goodyear. Finally, the project had a public hearing before planning and zoning commission on August 19th and the commission voted 6-0 to recommend approval.

So, our recommendation is that you approve the special use permit for Desert Rainbow, a utility scale solar energy generation facility with accessory battery energy storage systems or BES. And the applicant is also here tonight and has a presentation for you. Where's the applicant? Thanks. Uh, good evening, Mayor Pazillo, Vice Mayor Hampton, council members. My name is Andrew Yansy. I'm an attorney at BergenFen, Smallley, and Overberholzer.

I'm pleased to be before you tonight representing AES Clean Energy for their desert rainbow solar project. As Ann noted, we're requesting a special use permit for a utility scale solar and battery energy storage project on about 5,000 acres in South Goodyear. Uh this is private land. It's currently owned by Australia South LLC. It's approximately 2 miles west of the existing communities in Australia in Cantameia.

Now, this area of Goodyear lacks municipal services, but for a solar project, that's okay. Desert Rainbow will be able to produce approximately 550 megawatts of electricity without any real impact to the city's water, sewer, or transportation services. The project is a way to make beneficial use of otherwise unproductive land for the next 40 years or so, and to provide additional electricity to help Arizona's uh economic growth overall.

Now, before I walk through my presentation, I do want to thank city staff for their diligent work on our application. Uh, we've had numerous meetings, not just with development services staff, but also with engineering, uh, fire marshall, building official, economic development, and parks department to really get the the full view of the city's view on this project. Uh, and we are also very appreciative of planning and zoning commission's unanimous recommendation of approval for SUP.

Now, the project developer here is AES. They're a national energy company with extensive experience and expertise. Their model is to develop, own, and operate their projects. So, they like to make sure to become members of the communities where their projects are located. And AES is no stranger to Arizona. They have multiple projects both in operation and under development in the state.

And that means they're accustomed not just to working in our climate, but also working with state and local agencies like Game and Fish, the Corporation Commission, and the statewide utilities. Now, in the development world, we talk a lot about infrastructure. The city typically deals with water, sewer, and roads. But electricity is another critical component of the infrastructure picture that fuels development and growth. And that's managed by separate public utility companies.

And the demand for electricity is growing fast. Both SRP and APS broke their records this summer for their peak demand in a single day. SRP is anticipating that over the next decade they need to increase their generation by at least 50%. And the way the public utility system works is that the utilities buy electricity from various different sources that generate the electricity. Then they transmit it through a shared interconnected grid.

Then it goes through substations where it's distributed to their customers to Arizona businesses and homes. The way they select their generation projects is through competitive RFP processes that usually occur just once per year. And they base their decisions on a number of factors including constructibility, reliability, and cost. Now, AES has submitted a bid into SRP's RFP process for this year, but I do also want to note that APS has expressed support for this project as well.

Now, let's look at some maps. So, this is the project is outlined in red. You can see it is far from Goodyear's existing development footprint. The project is entirely within the city. However, much of the surrounding land is either uh state land department land or BLM land. And some of the private land around is actually in county jurisdiction, not city jurisdiction.

Um the land that's going to be adjacent to the Northwest is owned by Australia South, the same entity that's selling the land to AES. Now, with the lack of city services and the patchwork of ownership and jurisdictions in this area, it's not surprising that there has not been a lot built here. The closest structures are over a half mile away from the project footprint, almost exclusively to southwest, so on the other side of Waterman Wash from the project.

Now, I want to walk you through how we plan to lay this project out. The solar panels are the primary component. These are mounted on uh tracking racks. They rotate throughout the day with the sun. Depending on the sun's orientation, they can be between 10 and 15 feet in height. Uh those panels are set up in a rays. There will be no more than 640 acres that are then fenced off so that they're sort of independent.

Um there's also a best component in a substation that's located toward the southern end of the project along Riggs Road. There's also going to be an O andM building in this vicinity. The project will have a 30-foot perimeter setback with native vegetation remaining to screen it. Um, Waterman Wash runs along sort of the southwestern edge of the site here.

And the proposal is to preserve not only the wash, but a lot of area around it to allow for wildlife movement, habitat preservation, and future city trails that are in the parks and open space plant. There's also going to be a wildlife corridor along the Chandler Heights alignment like Ann mentioned. Now, this slide's a bit more detail about the proposed Waterman wash preservation. That skinny blue line you see is actually the wash itself.

Now, we're going to preserve that, but we're also going to preserve the orange area, which is the flood plane, and the purple area, which is the special flood hazard area. So, that means in some places there's going to be land over 2,000 ft away from the wash itself that's going to be part of this preservation. Altogether, that's 730 acres around the Waterman Wash. that'll be preserved as part of this project. As Ann mentioned, there's actually very little public rightaway existing in the area.

That's the the green lines you see here. She had a slide as well. Those are going to remain outside of the project fence line. You can also see some images on the right and the top. That's uh an example of what the open wire fencing will look like around the project. And the bottom is a photo of existing Rigs Road. You can see the extent of the native vegetation that'll be left in the area for screening. Let's see.

Now, regarding BES, I know you've heard a lot about this technology recently, and battery energy storage has become an invaluable accessory for solar projects. It can store some of the electricity generated from the panels and then put it on the grid when the utility needs it. So, here on the right is a chart of electricity usage throughout the day. You can see at midnight there's not that much being used, but then it ramps up when you get to like five or 6 pm at the peak time.

So SRP has to have enough electricity to meet that peak demand at that time or else we get blackouts and they can't just turn the knob on their generation facilities. They have to bring new resources on. So best can meet that demand almost instantaneously. That's one of the benefits of it. It ensures grid reliability which is just essential for our way of life today. and it's why they require best to be part of any solar project that bids into their RFP.

Now, the batteries themselves are mounted on racks within steel enclosures that kind of look like shipping containers. They're going to have all the modern safety requirements, ventilation cooling temperature sensors, fire brakes, and internal injection fire suppression. AES has 247 monitoring of these containers. They're going to comply with all the applicable regulations and they're going to prepare an emergency response plan in coordination with uh Goodyear Fire.

And even though we're early in this process, they have been meeting with the fire marshall and the building official who actually attended a tour of uh AES's operational best facility in Poria. Now throughout this process, our team has engaged in extensive outreach. There's been a publicly accessible website. Um, AES has been active around the West Valley participating in multiple panels on energy generation.

Desert Rainbow Project has received letters of support from the West Valley Chamber of Commerce, Harvard Investments, APS, Arizona Technology Council, Arizona Interfaith Power and Light, the Arizona Climate Action Coalition, and a few individuals. We also held a community meeting in April and sent mailers to all property owners within a mile around the project site. um about 10 people attended, most living on the uh southwest side of the project site.

So, one of the things we heard from those people was questions about what the project might do to their view. So, what we did is we created some visual simulations where we uh put project components into photos from areas where we understood property owners uh might be looking at it. So, that's these four locations you see noted here, and I'll walk you through them. Uh the first one's at Chandler Heights Road and Rainbow Valley Road.

Uh with the native vegetation there, you really can't see the project on the other side. This is at 171st Avenue in Baseline. You can see kind of a darker color of the panels in the distance, but their profile really doesn't impact the mountain view. This is 163rd Avenue in Rigs. Uh it's similar. You can see the panels in the distance, but it's really not not impacting the overall view. And then this is Patterson and Bullard. uh just some minimal native vegetation does screen the uh the site.

So finally, I did want to touch briefly on the project's community economic benefits. Uh currently this land's generating almost no revenue and providing little value for Desert Rainbow. AES partnered with GPE who prepared a report and found the project would generate approximately $ 58 million in direct tax revenue for Goodyear over the life of the project. It'd be about 200 million in tax revenue. Uh overall that would benefit the county and local school districts and a few others.

The project will have up to 800 construction jobs, 20 full-time positions. Um and AES also plans to invest in the community. They already work with Westmech on some tradesbased programming and all faith community services providing water and heat relief services. So that concludes my presentation. I'm sorry I went just a little bit over. Um, but we respectfully ask that you vote to approve the special use project so that we can put this land to a beneficial use.

Of course, happy to answer any questions you have. Okay. Thank you. Uh, any cards? Speaker cards. Yes, Mayor. We have a few. Okay. First up, Anna Smith. Yeah, for your record, state state your name whether you're a Goodyear resident and that's it. Thank you. Good evening, mayor and council, vice mayor, members of council. Uh Anna Smith. I am a Aendelle resident and I am representing Arizona Public Service. I'm here tonight to express APS's support for the Desert Rainbow Project.

Uh, as Andrew stated previously, uh, this is an SRP project. It's not an APS project. Uh, but APS's support is based on the broader value that utility scale solar generation and battery energy storage can provide to Arizona's energy infrastructure. I don't have to tell you that the West Valley is experiencing tremendous growth and with that growth comes increasing demand for reliable energy.

Solar takes advantage of Arizona's abundant sunshine while battery energy provides flexibility that allows energy to be stored when available and dispatched during peak usage times when it's needed the most. As an Arizona electric utility and the utility serving Goodyear, we recognize that continued investment in diverse generation and energy storage resources is an important part of supporting a reliable, resilient electric system and long-term economic growth of communities like Goodyear.

We appreciate the city's consideration of this project and APS respectfully supports approval of the special use permit. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Uh any other cards? Yes, Mayor Cristiana Fedo Pepper. Hello. Good evening. My name is Cristiana Fedul Pepper. I am a resident of Buckeye, um, but a frequent visitor of Goodyear. Um, thank you, Mayor Pazillo, uh, uh, uh, Vice Chair Hampton and city council. Um, I don't know how I'm going to follow up such an informative presentation.

I'm going to try not to be too repetitive, but I am here as a community member who cares a lot about energy storage um, and solar. I was here a couple weeks ago to speak in favor of the battery energy storage ordinance.

And so now hearing that Desert Rainbow is up for its final vote, I wanted to make sure that a community member was coming to show that we do care about the clean energy in this community and how we're taking care of the future of all of our residents with the growth that we're seeing. So although I do live in Buckeye, I have spent the last 25 years in and out of Goodyear as a visitor, a shopper, and someone who generally really loves this community.

Um, for example, my husband and I are always at the Harkkins in Australia Parkway or we'll do a midnight run to Bies for some barbecue and snacks. Goody Gear is very important to us. We're here almost as often as at our own home in Buckeye. So, one of the things that I love so much about this city is seeing how much that this community has grown over the last couple of decades.

And as we know, with that growth comes that responsibility to make sure that our infrastructure is indeed growing with it. We need that reliable electricity. We've seen how hot these summers have become, how they are going to continue to be because of climate change and all the wonderful things that we're dealing with out here in the desert. But we are going to need to keep our ACs running, the lights on in our homes. We need to care about our communities in this way.

So clean energy is a way that we will accomplish that. And so also in a desert community like our own, we know that we need energy and resources that will not be at the expense of any other important resources like our water. So solar and energy storage require very little water to operate pretty much just for cleaning the solar panels when that needs to happen. And I think that's a very smart choice when we plan for a future where every drop of water really counts for our community.

And so that investment, as we've already know, uh can also really benefit this community economically. We're going to get that tax revenue, millions of dollars, uh all these new jobs, all these skilled trade jobs. We're going to support workers, support local businesses. And so we know that it's a safe system. We know that it's going to support the community in many different ways.

Um, I also really appreciate the environmental impacts of this project, 730 acres alone, uh, in Waterman Wash, protecting the wildlife, wildlife corridors. It's really nice that there's been a lot of that thought into not just protecting the people, but protecting the environment and the ecosystems here in Goodyear as well.

So to me, this project is a really good example of how Goodyear can continue to grow while protecting the things and the people and all the reasons that this community is so special. So I respectfully ask you to approve this project, help Goodyear build a safer, smarter, and more reliable future that is going to be resilient um and really is going to be what we all have to do out here in Arizona.

So thank you all so much for this time and space and for allowing community members like myself to come and share my love and support for clean energy and for this city. So, thank you. Thank you. Any other cards? Yes, mayor. I have two cards uh in support of the project, but they did not wish to speak. That is Manuel Gutierrez on behalf of Veteran Powers America as well as Ashley Carroll. Anything else that want to speak? No, mayor. Okay. Thank you.

Uh with that, um anybody else want to speak out in the audience? Seeing none, I'm gonna go ahead and close the public hearing. Uh, city clerk, can you go ahead and read the resolution? Yes, sir.

Adopt resolution number 2026-2537 approving the special use permit for an energy generation facility with an accessory use of a battery energy storage system located 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. Thank you. We get a motion and a second for resolution 2026 2537. I see a motion and a second up on the board.

With that, first up, uh, Council Member Terry. Thank you, Mayor. Um, and I don't know for you or for Katie, but I have a couple plans. Starting off with our general plan. I know that was mentioned in some of the documents. Uh, the 2035 general plan was approved what, two years ago. Um, and it designated, you know, neighborhoods, business and commerce, open space, uh, for this area. And I know this is a 45-year lease.

So, can you speak to at all how this, um, use permit alters or supersedes in any way that general planned um, designation, or does it keep it? And what, if anything, preserves that vision after this project's life? Uh yes, thank you, Mayor Pazillo and Council Member Terry. So, the project does not override the existing general plan designations.

And I do want to note the development is going to avoid the open space designation since that follows Waterman Wash and there's the proposed setback for putting all um features at least 30 ft away from the special flood hazard areas. Um, other than that, energy generation facilities are allowed with a special use permit in any zoning district under the zoning ordinance in effect at the time of application.

And the current zoning of the site is a stray phase 3 planned area development for a variety of use types. And that PD was found um consistent with the general plan designation at the time that that reszone was approved. Okay. Um, speaking to adjoining property, I know residents were notified within one mile. Yes. Do we have an idea how many? I can't imagine it's much. I I believe Did we mail anybody? I believe it was a little over 200 people total. Oh, 200. Okay.

Um, and then there were two spots in your presentation. You had two spots inside. Are there any structures involved with the two parcels that are not owned by this? I think Liberty Elementary District was one of them and then there was a private. Yes, that's correct. Council member Terry. Uh those two sites are both undeveloped. There's nothing on them right now. Have as far as the private owner, I assume they've reached out to them. Hopefully made contact at some way. Yes, that's correct.

Can you characterize maybe those discussions at all just since they're completely surrounded? Yeah, and I believe there were talks early on to try to purchase those properties. uh Mr. Yansy might be able to explain it better, but yeah, they're they're aware of the proposal. Okay. Yeah. Um I would hope I'd hear from them if they were up in arms. Um well, Andrew is can you characterize those discussions at all? Is that possible? Uh yes, Council Terry. Thank you for that question.

And yes, we'd love to buy those properties. um that that would make things a lot easier. The uh privatelyowned parcel, it's about a quarter of an acre. Um attempts to reach out to the land owner earlier this year and late last year went unresponded to. Uh in fact, upon further research, they hadn't paid their property taxes in 5 to 10 years. It does look like there is a new owner who bought it through a foreclosure sale through a county um you know the tax foreclosures they do from time to time.

That is that has been fairly recent. Um but that is a quarter acre property there. The other property is about 2 acres is owned by Liberty Elementary School. Uh the issue with that one is a deed restriction that requires the property to be used for a school or revert back to the grtor. I came here from a school district. I'm kind of familiar with the restrictions there.

And obviously, they would wait for the neighborhoods and residential component to come someday, which is not anytime soon, just somewhere along down the road. Um, I did want to speak a little bit to decommissioning. Um, I don't know if it's probably for both of you. I know there are discussions going on with what the decommissioning agreement looks like.

I know the idea is to get it the land back to kind of how it was uh when you started which you know above the wash but down below the state land in the foothills of the mountain. I I could see that happening, but is there a financial assurance mechanism at all possible? Are we discussing bonds, escrow? Essentially, what happens if AES disappears in 10, 15 years? Are we stuck with a bunch of metal plates out in the middle of the desert with who knows what to do with them?

like is there a financial hold or something to ensure that should AES disappear or you sell it to somebody who sells it to somebody else, how does that work? Sure. Thank you, Council Cherry. And this is a a question that we get a lot of times on on solar projects all around the state. I will say um you know in in the the various types of uses I I work on. Other than mines, I I'm not aware of other uses that need to plan out all their their decommissioning in advance.

Usually, you know, one person builds something and then if they want to sell it, somebody else wants to build something else. Two private owners work it out, you know, based on on market conditions. But I understand this one's different and AES is accustomed to dealing with it. Um, we do have a preliminary decommissioning plan that has been part of this submitt. Of course, it's very early right now.

the closer you get to actually building something, the more you know about how it's going to look and especially if you're talking about decommissioning, the further along you get um the more you know then. So, this is something that is revisited from time to time. Um AES has done, you know, financial asurances in in the past. There is a stipulation in the case today that prior to uh construction, they'll come back for an updated decommissioning plan to be approved by the city.

So, it's one of those things they'll continue to work through. I I saw there was going to be a plan coming forward. So, I just wanted to hope that um just for the protection of the city and to maintain flexibility for people up here 45 50 years from now, I can't tell you how many things um you know, I'm sure you're familiar with the uh Estraa area where since I've been up here, I realize my hands are tied since decisions made in the 1980s.

So, um, the less we can tie hands of folks 50 years from now, I I think the better. Um, as far as the decommissioning goes, I know the technology is quite new. I don't know if you can speak to it or um, but have we seen any decommissioning in practice of a solar farm in the United States? I don't has that happened before? So, as you pointed out, uh, Council Member Terry, this is a a, you know, newer industry and on the on this scale, no, there really hasn't been anything decommissioned yet.

However, it's similar to a lot of other types of of demolition. There's, you know, structures fixed to the ground and and they're demolished. Um, I I think something that that's not always as well known is there is a recycling possibility. Uh AES actually partners with a company called Solar Cycle who aims to uh recycle up to 95% of the valuable components. A lot of the panel is is steel. It's a steel, you know, tracking. So that's that's recyclable. There's copper in it that's recyclable.

I think that as you see more of this technology being decommissioned in the future, there's going to be a burgeoning market for recycling for it. So I would anticipate we're going to see a lot more opportunities for that. Okay. Um, that was my presumption is that it hadn't happened before. So, we're halfway in the unknown, which is speaks to my question about the financial asurances. And then I know I think it was during our report from PNZ.

Um, to my knowledge, I believe there are some cattle ranching leases out there. Um I I don't know how much, but you're obviously not starting to go vertical with solar panels tomorrow if this is approved. What sort of I guess discussions would you plan to have with the lease holders as far as what happens when? I know the first pad on this I think was 2009 when it was slated for potential development.

So obviously it's been known for anyone operating on this land for a while that development is slated to eventually come. It's just a matter of when. Um my assumption is this isn't coming in the next few weeks, not in the few months. So can you speak to any potential cattle grazing leases? What sort of notice knowledge? Um and then my assumption is there's the state land kind of next door where I know they do cattle grazing leases as well.

So, can you speak to how AES would potentially approach that situation? Yes, Council Member Terry. U regard to the offsite land, the state land, nothing we do on this side would would impact that. Um, there is a grazing lease on the land right now. Australia South is a land owner. They have a lease with a a cattle rancher. Is it just one? I I believe it's just one and that expires in 2028. The earliest best case scenario everything goes AES's way. They start construction is 2029.

So um there's opportunities to to you know work through what will happen afterward, but that that lease does not extend into the period when they start construction. Okay. So worst case scenario, we're talking a few years notice. Um, and my assumption is with an active lease, you should be able to get a hold of them um to to discuss or the current property owner uh would I think that is all I have for you. Um, and I do have a couple more for you. Thank you, Andrew.

Uh it it was mentioned the water on site is groundwater and there you know working on emergency plan with fire marshall everything else. Can you or potentially a chief speak to how does fire response work when all you have is maybe a couple wells um especially with the best facility. I it's a slight concern just worst case scenario or is it going to be burning worst case for an hour before somebody gets out there or what what does that look like? I know we have a station down there in Australia.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Paul Louise, fire chief. Good question. Uh it is certainly a distance from both station 186 and fire station 187 down south in Mobile. Uh we would certainly respond to any res you know call for service that we we have in that area and then evaluate what is burning and you know what's the potential for life loss and then certainly property after that. So um you know there are it's limited access into that area.

Obviously, there are no hydrants in there, so that would necessitate a much higher response, and we would look to our auto aid partners that may have tankers. Um, obviously, we would more than likely require water storage on site for any fire protection, but that will only last uh so long.

And you know, we do appreciate that the the best buildings will have uh fire um response at least from a monitoring standpoint, but then also uh the ability to knock down any initial fire that that may happen uh in in those buildings. Okay. I I appreciate that. My concern obviously, you know, if it burned too long, little gust of wind and then it starts moving some direction off site and then becomes a huge problem.

Um, I know you guys are having discussions about potential fire suppression services. I would hope that remains top of mind to you know from some sort of water storage fire suppression something to where um I know we will see a some sort of financial agreement in regards to decommissioning before this goes vertical. I'd love to have a little bit more detail on what's agreed on that fire or emergency response plan. Um, and then I guess general energy question.

Yeah, I I got an email a little bit ago, I assume some other council members did, from a resident concerned in Cantamemia. Um, one of the questions they would ask is why would Goodyear allow an SRP um energy site when almost every Goodyear resident is an APS customer? Can you I know it was mentioned in the applicant's presentation a little bit, but can we expand on that slightly uh as far as are they competitors or do they service the same grid? How does that power transfer actually work?

I don't know answer that for you or the applicant or I know a representative from APS is here but I I think that that is a question that you know I reading about this over the weekend and driving to my sister's house mentioned to my wife and she asked me the same question. So it it's out there in in the public um to where I got an email about it a little bit ago. So I' a little bit of conversation on that I'd appreciate. Okay. Yeah, I can address that. Uh, Mayor Pazillo and council member Terry.

So, um, APS did write a letter of support for this project and they did indicate in the letter. So, the two organizations do pretty much support each other in times of high need like in the summer. So, here's a quote from the letter. Um, although the proposed AES project will be connected to the SRP system, it will still greatly benefit APS and its customers. Utilities help each other balance load. So electricity put on SRP system can also be used to balance APS's system.

Uh this cooperation is particularly important during times of peak demand during summer months to ensure a reliable power for customers. So there is there is some cooperation there between the two agencies. Okay. Is it accurate to say that they are not competitors and that they are two separate service providers within the same grid? Um that's probably how I would describe it. Yeah. Okay.

Um because the way I've always understood it and obviously it's important here when I'm being asked directly is, you know, we have a relatively strong grid in Arizona. We we need it especially for the summer. And you know, if you're in SRP's area, yes, their logo's on the box. They do their thing. If you're in APS's area, their logo is on the box. they do their thing, but the electricity is all connected to the same grid.

And as you were mentioning, when you're supporting one, when in need, they can support each other. Is that's true. I'm trying to dumb it down as much as I possibly can, which is my wife would say the only way I speak. But um I love you, honey. Um but I I I just wanted to get to that point that you know just because SRP it's an SRP project you know APS I believe has a solar farm in you know way south in Buckeye and they kind of provide a very similar function.

Um I believe that is all I have as far as questions go. I I do just want to say um you know whe whether it's solar or any type of energy source, we we do kind of need the power with the growth. I characterize myself a little bit as an all of the above and all of the below approach when it comes to energy whether it's oil, natural gas, you know, nuclear we support our guys out there paldde um and solar especially if you're not asking for our tax dollars to build it.

That's something I would appreciate. So, as far as this project goes, I'm interested in seeing what some of these final agreements look like, especially the financial asurances, fire suppression, and um I'm pleased to know that any current lease on the site will be several years of discussion before anyone has to move anything. So, appreciate that. Thank you, Mayor. Vice Mayor. Yeah, thank you. I have quite a few questions.

So, um I probably should get them someone earlier, but um so a quick question on the on those parcels that uh Council Member Trey mentioned the is there access to those parcels, those private owners, will there be access to it? Uh yes. Uh Mayor Pillo and C and Vice Mayor Hampton, um access will be retained for those parcels. Okay, that's what I figured. They're not going to be lay locked in uh in fencing. So, okay.

And the decommissioning, I know um APS does that already or the nuclear industry does that already. So that should be pretty easy to follow suit. I mean, every nuclear power plant, that's what they have already baked into when they create a a a field or or they create a a nuclear power plant, there's a fund that they have to put into. So if any point they get decommissioned, they have the money there to do it. So I think they should look into that.

I know that's not a requirement today, but a requirement later on, but it's there's a there's a blueprint out there. I've seen decommissioned happen at nuclear power plants. So, when they have the money, it's ready to go and it's used for that. So, be lot way cheaper decommissioning a solar field than it is a nuclear power plant. So, um and then for yeah, grid civilization, I'm I'm okay with that, too.

I mean, we should probably the rest of these guys should probably take a tour down at APS at the trade floor because having another set of power on the actual grid. Um, everybody uses that in Arizona. So, um, it's good for grid stabilization and it's good for the for the grid as a whole. So, um, and then also the wildlife quarter. I know we said we're going to be connecting those.

I'm I'm sure you're working I know you said you're working with the wildlife department, so I'm not an expert in that. I just want to make sure they're wide enough. I understand these panels give off a certain amount of heat. So I have to make sure the animals are they don't not go through that area because of the heat load, but I'm sure that the wild your game of fish probably already has familiar with this.

So make sure the mountain I know the wild white the white takes conservancy is very concerned with make sure the mountain doesn't die by having the game trails and things with their community. I also make sure that the estrayas also have the wildlife corridors to make sure the mountain doesn't die over at Estustrala as well. Um, what's the other ones I'm looking for? And then the This is more of a personal thing. Do we And I should have looked at earlier.

Do we have is there a path to Quartz Peak for uh that recreational mountain that's there? Do we know if there's a path to there? Because right now it's all unimproved unimproved dirt roads to get there. There's a parking lot with a vault toilet. is maintained by I think the county, but it's a recreational asset that's out there. Um, it's a fun hike. So, I know it's out in that area. I also make sure that if I want to go hike that that I can still get to it. So, um, yeah.

Thanks, Vice Mayor Hampton. To be honest, I'm not sure. Um, but that's something we can definitely look into. Okay. I know I brought it up during the initial conversations. Yeah. Yeah, I just didn't know if if anybody could help me with that. That'd be that'd be great because I might want to hike it again. So, it's a it's a great amenity out there. So, and then I do appreciate you guys protecting the the wash itself with making it you're not taking all the land.

Is that fence going to be is your property fence going to be in outside of the wash or is it going to be blocking the wash? Could I walk could I walk through the wash? Okay. Okay. Good. I know with dove season opening tomorrow, there will probably be a lot of people there. So, that's a pretty popular place. And what else we got here? That's that, there, that there. Okay. I appreciate the trail in the future, too. Um, I know our chief talked about the uh fire or fire mitigation.

So, I appreciate that there's already systems in place for that. I know we've gotten way smarter with fire mitigation with the best type facilities, which is good. And then um and I'm sure because I if you pull up the map, it sound like one of the structures are in the middle of the project which will be completely cleared of any vegetation for probably quite a ways.

So, I imagine if worst case scenario, one of the best facilities burns down, it's not really going to spread unless the wind is really, really, really good because I think that because not there's no visitation underneath the solar panels. I think you guys really make sure there's nothing growing on that or underneath or things of that nature. I imagine, correct me if I'm wrong, I I would imagine it'd be easier. So, um, and then and I looked at the, uh, stipulations as well.

I appreciate your guys's concern with the light mitigation, too, that they're going to be uh shaded. The lighting will be shaded. Um it'll be pointing down. The sensors that turns off the lights when they're not in use. So, I think that'll be good for just residents not seeing spot spotlights, worst case scenario, from that area in the future. And I think my last Oh, I appreciate the one mile as well. Getting as many residents as possible in there and opening that up.

So, thank you to staff for that. And I think my last question is for the the actual lease itself, how long is the lease for right now? Is it 40 years? They're selling the lease. They're selling the land. Okay. I just know at one point when we talked about our initial conversations, it was going to be like a 30-year project and they're going to decommission it because there wasn't going to be any land any use for that land in the next 30 years.

That's why I was curious how long that duration was foreseen. Vice Mayor Hampton, thank you. No, the the plan is to to sell the land. Um, so, you know, the the project is expected to have a 30 to 40 year life and then, you know, after that, uh, unless AES gets into another development world, they would probably sell it to someone who would develop it for something else after that 30 years.

But our special today, our special use permit is to allow the solar to be there and it's for forever or is it for a certain amount of time? our special use permit. It it is 45 years. The idea is 40 is about the max that that the project could go and then it leaves an extra few years to decommission. So we don't have to come back halfway through decommissioning and ask for an SGP extension or something. Yeah, that's what I was curious.

So in councils in the future, they would see this again in max 45 years. That's correct. Yes. Yeah. Unless AS is like, "Hey, we can find another better technology. There's going to be think we can put a gas fire plant here or something else. We can put something else here that's makes more power." Then they could come themselves obviously because they're private land owners. So, okay. I was just curious a timely timeline.

I want to set up councils for the future for success, whatever that looks like. So, and I think that's all I had. So, so yeah, no, I appreciate all the thought and the hard work um going into all this, the staff and also to the applicant as well. So, I think we could use more power in the city or in on the grid as well. So, thank you, Council Member Kano. We covered the fire safety pretty extensively when we did the zoning ordinance.

And I was wondering, Andrew, if you or somebody from a AES would like to just cover um that a little just a little bit detail. um council or vice mayor Hampton made a comment about a a bees burning down and I I think the technology has evolved from that. So if somebody would be willing to speak to what happens so it doesn't burn down. Uh yes, Council Member Keno, thank you for the question and that's obviously something that's that's on everyone's mind is making sure there's there's fire safety.

um in particular with the best component the technology really has come a long ways in recent years. Uh there's a regulation called NFPA 855. Um that's National Fire Protection Association. It's a a group of people who've looked at fire safety for 100 years before any of this technology even existed. And when they saw the proliferation of this type of technology, they took an interest and looked at, you know, how do we we do it most safely?

They said, you know, you need to make sure it's set back 100 feet from anything, which which we're doing, and we're going to be well more than 100 feet from any actual structure. Um, and so they also looked at layouts. Want to make sure the battery containers are outdoors now. They're not in housed in units anymore that where pressure could build up. Um, the other big regulation I like to look at is called UL 9540. It might be 9450. Please don't quote me on that one.

But um so UL is underwriters laboratory. They um are who underwriters look at financial underwriters, insurance underwriters, and they test the the components themselves. They make sure that all the pieces of it are are working how they're supposed to and those are all things that are in Goodyear's ordinance. They're all things that AES complies with across the board anyway. There's there's a number of redundancies to make sure they're they're complying with that.

Um, we do have uh Brendan Cuff who's a a best fire safety expert from AES and I mean he can maybe tell you just a little bit more about about how it works, what happens if there is a a fire on the site. If you'd like to hear from him, we'd be happy to bring him up. Is there anything you'd like to add briefly? Uh, sure. Yeah, I can address Could you go to the microphone, please? Uh, yeah, thank you.

Um so yeah to address the specific question of you know what happens if the fire spreads how we plan for that. Um so it starts uh back before any of the project is actually even built um the OEMs and the third party labs will actually do a series of large scale fire tests.

Um, and as part of the certification process, we'll design the enclosures and the actual site layout so that in that worstc case event when you do have a fire and if the worst case scenario were to happen um, in the prevailing winds and within basically all of like if everything were to happen at once, we want to make sure that there's really the minimal chance that it would propagate.

And so we we space out the enclosures such that uh the propagation risk is effectively minimized according to the standards and the and the UL standards as well. And understand you have remote monitoring. You can isolate. You can shut down the rest of it if one happens to get hot or whatever. I mean you you've got technology to to monitor your equipment. That's correct. Okay. Thank you.

So the likelihood of the whole thing burning down is is I would say it's as low as low as reasonably achievable. Okay, good. All right. Thank you, sir. Appreciate that. Well, I just want to make some comments for the public listening. This whole energy conversation's been so interesting because it's been going on uh gosh for a long time. we have uh might elect one president that is pro oil and invest that way.

Then another president in their administration is uh pro- renewable and and invest there. And so it's gone back and forth. And so we've got our our power providers APS and SRP who have to figure out how to provide power to the state of Arizona when it's obvious that uh national sentiment is is kind of swinging both ways. So ultimately they have to make decisions about what what assets they're going to keep, what they're going to uh you know invest in.

And obviously they have made a big investment in renewable energy. Um and and it just makes sense because that's the the direction that uh there's a lot of interest in that. But we all know now that electricity doesn't come from air and the cloud is not in the sky. So everything takes infrastructure and infrastructure is all this hard stuff that that makes things happen and um and truthfully Arizona's economy depends upon energy.

Well, and water too, but but energy is is just as an important conversation as um as water is right now and especially that Arizona is emerging really as a tech leader regionally. And so keeping making sure that we have energy is is going to be really important. So we see that people really want the benefits that technology brings u and energy. Um the the problem is we don't want the things that make it possible.

And so that's sort of the the dilemma we we're in is that people maybe don't want infrastructure near them. They don't want it far from them. But regardless, uh infrastructure for the um for renewable resources, energy is is essential. We have to do it. Um, you know, projects like this do benefit Goodyear. Uh, there's land down there that is not really accessible. We we have no infrastructure down there.

We have, uh, you know, just there there's really not not much and and maybe by the time that this lease is over, uh, you know, the world will look different and, uh, we'll we'll have different things. But um but the fact is it does bring revenue into the city and a lot of times that is listed like that's a negative thing. But money comes into the that comes into the city whether it's through taxes and such goes back is invested in the city and it's invested into fire and police.

It's invested into roads. It uh you know maybe we get a second library, more recreation, uh alternative water sources. So, the money that comes in is is important to Goodyear.

And I know eventually uh council member Terry's going to bring up discussion about uh the property uh tax rate and the fact is that projects like this um make that conversation more feasible um uh because there's additional revenues coming in and companies like AES, they do invest in local and regional community benefits just like they showed us. Um and whether that's from their own goodwill or the utilities make them do that.

Um they're demonstrating that they're good corporate citizens and that that is important because money that goes into resources like the food bank and Westmart Westmech um help us and and that uh alleviates even taxpayer money helping to support things. Um, I love that you've engaged uh Arizona uh fishing game into this discussion and that you intend to keep them engaged. I think that's just really critical. And um I've done a deep dive in this topic of energy over the last year.

I've asked a lot of questions. I've met a lot of the people from the utility industry or the industries that do this and um I I I will be supporting this project. So just wanted to share that. Thank you. Council member Beckles. Uh yes. Uh most of my questions have been answered, but I want to try just kind of go over uh some of them again.

Um I basically had to do did my due diligence in learning about solar energy and batteries energy storage and um those technologies I am very much in favor of. Um, but I do have some concerns about this particular project. I um am thankful and grateful for AES and all the information they've provided for this project. Um, but uh ju just let me get to my questions. Um just for the public's clarification cuz I it came out but not directly.

Uh if you were to start this project in terms of in terms of uh construction, it would start when? What year? Uh yes, Mayor Pazillo and Council Member Beckals. It's expected to start in 2029. if everything between now and that year goes well for AES in terms of getting their outside permits approved. Okay. So 2029 probably at the earliest. Yeah. And whatever happens today should we get approved? Should this probably get approved? This is the last time council will see this project.

Yes, that's true. Okay. Um was it somewhere? Did what was I dreaming or was there is somewhere in the projects where it said that it would be conveyed to the city two years after construction and what does that mean? Um yes of um council member Beckals that's some boilerplate language in the fiscal impact section.

Um I believe that the only the only areas within this project site that the city would be maintaining are probably the rights of way between you know outside of the project fencing and and we do have some engineering has some stipulations that deal with like how to how to handle things like dedications and um utilities that are running through those those um rights away.

So, um, that's might just be some language in the fiscal impact statement that maybe we shouldn't have included, but it is something that that goes in most council action reports. So, Okay. Yeah. Um, and we've talked about the decommissioning forever. So, um, I think my questions regarding that have been answered. And finally with the Goodyear Fire Department, have they completed a project specific risk assessment? Uh they have not, but uh Paul Luis may be able to speak more on that.

Good evening, Mayor and Council. Paul Louise, fire chief. Uh we have Nom. Um but as part of the project, obviously they would have to develop an emergency response plan. So we would work uh in collaboration with them on that plan. Okay. Thank you. I I don't have any further questions, but um I am not in favor of this project, Council Member Campbell. Thank you.

I don't really have any questions, Ann, because the Lord knows we've talked about this for the last hour, but I just wanted to say that the land down there generally doesn't give us any money hardly at all because it's undeveloped. It's just like Mobile. We get zero tax dollars. And I appreciate them finding this area in Goodyear and being able to put it to good use. I think it's critical that we work on renewable energy, that we do have a battery storage area, that we do have solar fields.

I mean, Lord, we have sunshine 360 days a year. We need to save it and use it. I've lived through the blackout in California and it is awful. You don't want to do that. And I've always worried about Arizona thinking because we're building so quickly and there's more people coming. I know that every time we have some of these uh tech centers coming in, we have to put in more power, the bigger lines.

APS just has done a tremendous job bringing things together from Australia all the way down into Goodyear. We work cooperatively with both SRP and APS. They're both wonderful power companies and we're very grateful that they're able to provide for this state and we're not really necessarily relying on the Tucson grid because we need to take care of our own people. Katie knows that years ago when Joe was here, we did an EIR.

We put in an EIR request through the federal government because we someday, not in my lifetime, we want to extend Pebble Creek Parkway over the Estrellas into Mobile. And we have got a wildlife corridor already there. We pass the all the horn sheep or whatever they were. Katie, I've almost forgotten what all was there, the tortoises and all of that. So, they're aware of of our area. And Fishing Game is wonderful to work with.

they know that we're trying to protect whatever's there and the maybe we tie in this corridor to that quarter or this quarter didn't know that we already have this quarter. Maybe we can work together and figure that part out. It should be really simple. Also, the area where we are going to have it, it's far away from everyone.

It's a perfect use for that land and I just want to thank this company for coming into Goodyear and giving us an opportunity that we can provide for the power for these for the entire state. That's it. Thanks, Ann. Councilwoman Gillis, um I want to thank the staff for for really getting involved and and figuring out what's going on here. This has been a long process.

Um and we've been doing a lot of battery storage um uh different battery storage areas and we've been talking about them for the last year or two. I have been working on these battery storage things and everybody knows it for the last three or four years because I've been working on them in another state as well. I feel that we are at the point now where if we don't step up and start doing the things that we have started to do and what we need to do, it's all happening around us.

And like Wall-Ally said, she's been through the blackouts. If you get the blackouts and you're 118 degrees and you don't have air conditioning, that's a problem. And it also could be go as far as being death for the elderly or babies or whatever or people that need special needs on machines or whatever. So, you have to think about keeping up with the times and keeping up with what's going on. We've talked about this and we have talked about this. I'm absolutely in favor for this.

I was not in the very beginning when these projects came up. I was not in favor even a little bit until I educated myself. Now, I've been educating myself. I've been doing, as Laura said, a deep dive, but I've been doing it for about three or four years now. I've been going to these different sites. I've been touring them. I've been asking questions. And I, like I said, I was not for it. And I am so for it now, I can hardly stand it because I think we need, if not now, then when.

And we need to get going. and we need to keep up with what is going on so that we know what's happening around us and we're ready for it if something else happens. So, I'm absolutely in favor of this project. Thank you for all the time you guys have put into it and everything everything that you guys have put into it, too. Andrew, you guys have put a lot of time into this. I'm very excited about this company coming APS and SRP. I'm very excited about what you guys have been doing.

And I'm I I really like the fact, Anna, that you stepped up and that you spoke about how you were in favor for SRP to to go with this. It it just shows, you know, let's work together to get something done. Thank you very much, Vice Mayor. Sorry, I had one more quick followup. It' be very quick. This is for Ann. So the gas line road, dirt road that as that Sus Gas uses, is that farther south than this entire project?

I know at one point in the in one of my old plans there's we were talking about potentially building a road from Goodyear up here to Mobile South Goodyear and I didn't know where the alignment was there. Does this is this any close to that? Oh yeah. Thank you, Katie. Welcome, development services director. Thank you, mayor. Vice Mayor Hampton. It is It's on the other side of Waterman Wash, so it's gosh, I want to say like at least two miles away. It might be way far south. Okay, good.

That's I was curious. I'm just thinking one day maybe we might connect all of Goodyear by a road. So, I was just curious. So, thank you. Thank you. Great discussion. I'm not going to add anything more except to say I have toured the facilities. I know technology is constantly changing. Make it a little easier to shut it down. I'm waiting for the day.

I don't know how close you are with AES to be able to control by cell, you know, because if you can control by a cell that's going hot, you can shut that down, you stop everything. You know what I mean? And I I suspect you're not too far away from doing that. But uh uh I'm in in favor of this project. Go ahead and open up the vote. Passes 61. Thank you. All right.

Next, next public hearing is to review and consider establishing a special public improvement project area and authorizing cost recovery for CIP project number 42026, Straa Parkway from Vineyard Road to MC85. Open the public hearing. Please introduce yourself for the public. Good evening, mayor and council.

I'm Logan Hop, deputy director of engineering, and I'm here this evening requesting authorization to establish a special public improvement cost recovery area for the Australia Parkway widening project. So, tonight on the on the agenda, I'll cover the background and the purpose of cost recovery. Then, I'll briefly describe the project scope. Then, I'll go over the details of the cost recovery process. and then I will end with staff recommendation.

So we presented to council on cost recovery in November 2025 for Camelback Road as well as in June for Cotton Lane. But tonight I'll briefly recap that process for those in attendance tonight. So under chapter 24 of the city code, the city may deliver capital improvement projects and recover those eligible costs from the benefited parcels at the time they develop. We only recover costs for the infrastructure that those property owners would be required to build at the time of development.

The recoveries are capped at a maximum probable cost. And the payment happens at time of development. So the final platter pyramid stage. All right. So now I'll go over the project scope. We're widening Estraa from MC85 to south of Vineyard Avenue and expanding the current two lanes to six lanes. This project has been identified in our transportation master plan as one of the top ranked priorities due to the limited existing capacity in the growth in the area.

So, some of the project improvements will include expanding the bridge over the Buckeye Canal, widening the existing bridge over the Hila River, and then adding an additional bridge next to that one. Two new traffic signals at Roger Road in Vineyard Avenue shown on your slide here. And then your typical roadway improvements. These are things like pavement drainage landscaping. Uh there's also some cool art features included with this project. There's significant land acquisitions.

Over 45 different land rights are needed for this project and there are complex utility relocations that are needed to accommodate the widening. I also wanted to note that during construction, we will maintain one lane in each direction. The total project cost is estimated at $114 million and the construction is planned to start by the end of the year and it will take about two years to complete. So there are eight developable parcels that are included in this request for cost recovery tonight.

All eight of these parcels are currently undeveloped and there are three separate property owners highlighted in the different colors here. So now I'll briefly go over the cost recovery process. First, we hire a design consultant to develop our plans in accordance with the city standards. And then we start a collaboration with the property owners once we have that initial design established. From there, we take the cost recovery to council for consideration.

And then that project design is finalized. We secure all the permits and the land rights needed and it moves into construction. And then after that construction is complete, we true up the actual costs and that will not exceed the initial estimates that that we're voting on tonight. Now, I'll go over some of the collaboration that we've had with the property owners.

So in December last year, we first issued our introduction letters which described the project as well as um the that the city would be pursuing cost recovery. And then from February through April, we held meetings with the owners where the project costs were presented and reviewed. And then in April, staff issued a 30-day notice which included updated cost estimates to address the comments that we heard from the property owners.

And then May and June, staff notified the owners of shifting the hearing date to address some additional comments that we received and to further coordinate with the property owners. And then in July, staff issued the final 30-day notice for the council hearing this evening, which included updated costs based on contractor pricing. So the cost allocation is based on an estimate developed by an independent contractor.

So each parcel share is based on the cost to complete the improvements that they would be required to build when they develop. Now it's important to note that the regional cost have specifically been excluded from these estimates. These regional costs includes things like the bridge as well as the regional travel lanes or those third travel lanes. The detailed cost breakouts are provided in the resolution as well. So the total proposed recovery across all eight parcels is $20,845,000.

Again, this is the maximum probable cost. So after construction, the the actual cost will be tred up. And in closing, staff recommends approval of establishing a public improvement project area and authorizing cost recovery for the Australia widening project. We're happy to answer any questions that you have at this time. Thank you. Any speaker cards? Yes, mayor. We have one speaker, Noel Carter. Mr. Mayor, uh, council, my name is null Carter.

I'm a resident of Buckeye, but I represent Pioner 2005 LLC, which was indicated in in this map, uh, for the cost recovery program. Um, we have had many conversations with city staff regarding this uh this matter. The issue lies is within a essentially a taking of the property. This property has 40 developable acres on it between the flood plane and transmission projects that have gone through this property.

So if a developer was to come in and purchase the property, they have 40 acres that they could potentially build on. If this cost recovery program of $4.7 million to this property makes it to where we cannot sell it. Makes it unmarketable. Um we understand the position of the city to to recover costs, but we are going to essentially be sitting on a piece of property that we're never going to be sell be able to sell.

And Pioneer has recently um prior to all these these letters coming out started the process of marketing all of their properties for sale to dissolve Pioneer 2005. If we can't sell our property, we can't dissolve and the prop the property value is going to continue to to diminish.

As a matter of fact, I do have a a potential buyer right now, but he can't buy it because with this cost recovery potential, and he's the only pe the only person that right now currently is interested in buying that property. But he won't buy it if he's got to spend $9 million, 4.7 on cost recovery and $4 million, $5 million is right around there to purchase the property. doesn't doesn't pencil off for anybody.

So, with that, I I would like to ask the council to reconsider this based on four aspects of um doctrine of takings doctrine, specifically one that happened here in Arizona with Arizona Home Build Builders Association and the city of Scottsdale.

Um, the Arizona Supreme Court upheld the municipal regulatory fees and infrastructure plans are given a presumption of validity, but explicitly noted that in an event in an individual property owner can approve can prove the cost completely lacks a nexus or heavy heavily diminishes the property's underlying value. The individualized Nolan Dolan challenges apply and your city attorney will know what that means. Um, I know I'm about out of time, so thank you for your time. Thank you.

Anything else? No, mayor. Going to go ahead and close the public hearing. City clerk, please read the resolution number 2026 2538. Adopt resolution number 2026-2538 approving and establishing a special public improvement project area that includes properties receiving special benefits from improvements to widen Estraa Parkway and authorizing the city to recover an allocated share of the costs of the special public improvements from the owners of the specially benefited properties. Thank you.

Can we get a uh a motion and a second to adopt? I have see that up on the board. We got a motion in a second. We'll open for council discussion. First one up, Council Member Terry. Thank you, Mayor. For for staff, what is the reasoning that we use for the collection of fees that it costs to repair or to build these roads or widen these roads now instead of when they develop? Mayor, council member uh Terry. Yes.

So, the intent for the cost recovery is to be able to expand our roadway network while um adjacent to these undevelopable parcels. We don't have insight on the timelines when these are going to develop. And so, what happens is it creates a bottleneck until those properties develop.

The cost recovery gives us the opportunity to expand these roadways, keep our traffic flowing in advance of development and then when they come to develop, uh they're required to pay back into that because those are obligations that they would be required to build at the time they come and develop. Okay. If they were to develop this 5 years ago, they would be required to develop the road in front of them as well as part of a development agreement. Is that correct? That is correct. Okay.

Um, obviously we've heard from one owner, there were eight parcels. Have we had conversations with others? Um, have we been able to reach others? That that sort of thing. Um, h how have those conversations been? Sure. Yeah. And as you see in the car, they're similar. We've we've detailed we've spent a lot of time coordinating with property owners. We've even detailed it in the car and how much effort we've spent. Um, three different property owners. We've been in contact with all of them.

We've coordinated with all of them. We've followed our title our um cost recovery ordinance to make sure that we're doing things according to that ordinance. And in the conversations were, you know, they're they're always about cost. So, you know, we're very transparent in this process. We've provided them all the costs up front. We've provided opportunities to review those costs and then um you know, made revisions based on some of those comments where where we could. Okay.

Um, I know one of the reasons we do this is our mayor is a big fan of scalp streets. Uh, he talks about it often. Um, what would the impact of improving each parcel over the course of the next 15, 20 years do as opposed to why we we front this as a city? We front the development as a city instead of waiting for the development to come in which then as part of any development agreement would be required to um develop the road in front of them. Yeah. So, so it would look like the unknown, right?

We don't understand exactly, we don't have a timeline on exact when properties are going to develop, right? So, you could have one property come in and develop a piece of that roadway. then you get your scallop street condition. Um, as you have future growth in the area, it just compounds the issue. So, so the ability to utilize cost recovery to expand that today. It really benefits everybody, including those adjacent properties. You're getting locked into a price at today's costs.

Um, you're going to be required to build this anyway when you come to develop. So, so we really think it benefits everybody involved. Okay. Um I did read through the documents you mentioned a timeline. If there's no development in 15 years, what happens to the cost recovery mechanism? Great question. So the cost recovery ordinance expires after 15 years. So if there's no development within 15 years, we're unable to recover those costs. Okay.

So that leads to the question does this just disincentivize any sort of movement of land development for 15 years or what what is the thought process beyond that? I know some jurisdictions have had sunsets of you know after 10 years it starts sunsetting by 10% every year or so like that. Is is this standard for us as a city? I haven't I've done a few of these, but not that many. But that's kind of what I'm getting at. What's the point of the 15 years?

I know it wasn't in the presentation, but it was in the uh subsequent documents. Yeah. So, the point of the 15 years that that's what is established in our cost recovery ordinance, right? So, that's what we're allowable to hold it to. So, that's what dictates that 15 years. Okay. So even if property transfers something like that cost recovery mechanism still uh goes away in 15 years. So even though we as a city over the next I don't know Steve how long is this project going to take?

Three years I I want it sooner. Two years about about years starting towards the end of this year it take about two years. Okay. Um so even any development that would have happened 5 years ago, 10 years ago would have come with some sort of development agreement of the road in front of them. But in 15 years that expires and the city essentially covers it. Is that pretty much flatly what it is? That is accurate.

after 15 years it will expire and we would be unable to recover those costs unless there was other agreements in place and inflation's a big thing. So you had mentioned that costs are locked into today's prices. So someone might think, oh well, we're waiting 10 years, but then we only have to pay, you know, the cheap prices of 2026 instead of 2036, which is, I'm sure, going to backfire someday.

But the point of that locking of that price is because now is when the city is paying those costs essentially. Correct. So, it's not really a loan or any or not a loan, but getting a discount on development 10 years from now. It's essentially disincentivizing development for 15 years or come pay your part now. That that's in layman's term what this is asking as far as cost recovery. Yeah, good good question. my words.

I I think it's important to note that when they come to develop, right, this this is the same cost that that they would be expected to contribute to build their infrastructure. So development is obligated to build half street improvements whether they develop today or in 15 years or whenever it is. So there's going to be a cost to that. And what I'm saying is we're going to build this we'll say today. Those costs are locked in.

So if they come to develop in the future, they're getting the benefit of not only economies of scale of having this all built with one big project rather than piece by piece, but also locking in that that rate today versus who knows what escalation is going to look like in 10 years. Then I don't know if it's for you or for Katie, unfortunately, but do we know the zoning of these parcels or is there a pad on them or do we just have a simple layer of zoning? I do have some insight.

I looked into the zoning. So it varies across it, right? So closer to the MC85 alignment, it's zoned commercial right at those corners. As you head south, there's industrial zoning. And then as you head further south towards the river area, agricultural zoning. And then as you get closer to the Rio 1900 area, that is a a P A so planned area development. Okay. And this is all south of the future state rep 30, correct?

The future state route 30 actually splits the industrial the the industrial zone properties essentially in half. All right, that's all I got. Before I go to council, just real quick question for the uh attorney. Since this has a 15-year life, uh is there any value in putting the road in our impact fee study? uh which at that point you got the cost you can recover forever and it also depends on zoning what's being used as well. Mr.

Mayor, members of council, you could look at that but the road adjacent to a property is typically a condition of development that weo impose across fall apply the impact fees. Okay. I just wanted to throw that out before going on. All right. Council member Kano, I know we talk about this every time, but I I just want to ask again. Um, in the picture you showed that there's a separate bike lane and a pedestrian. Is is uh have we factored in bike bicycle safety into this road or this bridge?

Mayor, council member Kano, absolutely we have. So, so this will have a separated bike lane with a with a barrier in between on the bridge itself. Appreciate that. Thank you, Vice Mayor. So, can you pull up the slide? Can you pull up slide number five for me? Can So, I think I understand the direction here. So, this is going from Estraa and this is uh does the canal I think is the red or am I confused there? Mayor, Vice Mayor Hampton. So, the MC85 is over here to the right of your screen.

What you're seeing here in red is the future SR30. Oh, okay. Okay. And then where is our public works? Is that the north side of this? Is this north or sorry, uh, west? You're correct. It's on the west side here. It's not shaded, but it's it's this area over here. Okay. And then is the canal right there? That's correct. That makes sense. Okay. And then his that Pioneer property is right along the almost a wash or Yeah, the Heila River. The Hila River. I mean, right there. Okay.

And that parcel's on the other side of the the parcel one and two. Is that in the river? That's on the other side of the bridge. That's on the south side of the bridge. Correct. Okay. Okay. No. Yeah. I mean, I know that's why we did this was to for cost recovery. I mean, we we but this is a policy before because of Scalllet Street. So, I think it's a good idea. Um I'm looking forward to this bridge.

I think the residents are pretty excited about a more safer, especially the vineyard intersection, making that more robust and safer. A lot of accidents happen right around that area as well. Be less dangerous for the entire community and having more of that in and out. And I saw on your on your graph with the the bike the bike lanes, which would be great on both sides of the bridge. So, which are great as well. So, um yeah, definitely long uh long long anticipated for residents.

And on this next slide there, what are those little fences you got going on there? That's our attempt for for the picture of a bridge, right? So, there's there's two bridges here. The larger one is over the Hila River and then the other one is over the Buckeye Canal. Got you. Okay. Okay, that makes more sense now. Okay. Thank you. I'm I'm excited for this. Thank you. Thank you, Councilwoman Gillis. to the gentleman that has the property.

Would you do me a favor and hang around for a few minutes afterwards after the session's over and talk with our city manager, please? I don't want you to leave here without understanding some of this or us understanding what you're really dealing with. Um, I think it's important that we listen more to what you have to say because we are thinking about your property, too. We're listening. Thank you, Council Member Beckles. Yes. is a resident that lives up there.

We are really anxious for this project to get moving. Hopefully, we can get over the hurdle. Uh thank you, um Councilman McGillis, for bringing that up. So, we we are definitely interested in getting over the hurdle of getting this project moving along. We've been talking about it for even before I got on council.

Um but my only question is just to refresh my memory um money that's recovered where what pot does that go in money that when once we recover money in advance mayor council member Beckles um I'd have to defer to finance on that. I'm not sure exactly where that bucket goes back into. So, um, but but it is collected and and I'll I'll defer I think she's going to come up to finance to help me. Thank you. First time, I'm sorry. Uh, good evening, mayor and council members.

Uh, it does go back into the budget for reallocation and future budget cycles. Okay. Thank you. Um just one other point, the vineyard area has been just such a sensitive area for the residents that have to come up that um come come across that bridge. And so we really really really are excited about moving this forward. That's all I have. Thank you. We good. Yeah.

The the problem though is is like I say, if we kept the scallop streets and say five or 10 years from now they decide to develop, I would suspect the construction cost of the front is going to be a lot larger than what it is right now. Uh because obviously construction costs are are going up tremendously. And uh I I guess from the city manager, I mean from the mayor uh Ror's perspective, we've had this ordinance in place for how long? We we've utilized it a couple of times.

Uh we had a one down on Van Buran uh 15 18 years ago that was fairly successful. So it's not unusual. It's not necessarily unusual throughout the state this cost recovery. Okay. Thank you. All right. With that, I don't see any more um questions up on there. Go ahead and open up for a vote. Pass 70. Thank you. All right, with that, uh, council have any comments, commendations, or reports on current events? Okay, go ahead. I would like to take just a few minutes just to thank everybody.

Um, I heard the league was wonderful. I heard the staff did a lot of work and I heard it was a real fun time as well. I'm I'm um really really sad that I wasn't able to be there, but I heard there was some comments about why I wasn't there. And um I will say this, I was in the hospital and I had a little surgery and it was private and as most things are private, you don't put it out there, but people did find out about it.

And I will thank everybody for their flowers and when they found out and their cards and their food and I just I'm so lucky. I'm a lucky girl here in Goodyear. Like I said, I tried to keep it private. It didn't end up being that way. I am on an 8week recovery. I've got three weeks to go, but I'm here with you tonight. So, I thank everybody for everything that you did. People out in TV land, because some of you are out in TV land.

I was, like I said, trying to keep it private, but since there were some comments made about me and why I wasn't there, I wanted to make it clear. Hospital and recovering. Thank you. Anybody else? Go ahead. Oh, let's start down there. Go ahead, Kano. I just wanted to let the public know that uh the 911 memorial pancake breakfast is this Saturday from 9:00 to noon. I was trying to look it up on my phone when it betrayed me, but it's at fire station 183 on Lichfield Road.

It's a very familyfriendly event. Encourage people to come out. Over the years, attendance has been declining and I think it's just really important that we continue to honor and keep those memories alive. Thank you. Did you say do you have something? Go ahead. Yeah, on reason I got in a car accident uh like a week ago. So, it was I'm I'm okay.

But it was interesting to see the response from that perspective, from a resident's perspective on uh how fast police how fast fire the high quality of service that both police and fire provided our community um and towing and just the whole process of how that really works in the city. So, our team our team did well. Um so, yeah. So, I really appreciated their their fast response, their professionalism, and and what they do every day. So, thank you. Anything else, Trey? Are you good to go?

Molly? All right, hang in there. Uh, city manager, what you got? Oh, no. Just a quick update. First of all, welcome back. We've missed you. It's great to see you all again. And I also want to take a moment to welcome our new director of economic development, James Smith, is here. and uh we're having some some other recruitments that we'll be sharing with you in the near future, but wanted to take a moment to welcome Jane. So, thank you everyone.

All right, with that uh the next meeting will be September 14th, 2026. Now, we have a vote being held to call an executive session for the following reasons. Pursuant to ARS 38-431.03A3 03 A3 and 4 for legal advice and consultation to consider his position and provide its instruction and direction to city attorney city manager regarding city's position in connection with contracts that are subject of negotiating associated with spring training facilities. Can I get a motion and a second?

I see a motion and a second on the board. Uh can I get a vote? 70 back in the same corner before. Okay. Yeah. Getting trusty Yes.