Scottsdale Planning Commission Green-Lights Select Education Micro School in Church Building with Unanimous Vote

Mission public hearing. The city appreciates your interest and participation in the public hearing process. The planning commission serves as an advisory board to the city council. On land use and zoning matters. The hearing agenda items consist of development applications that require public hearings. Hearings, the planning commission considers the item and makes a recommendation for approval. Or denial to the city council.

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Chair young here. Vice chair Scarborough here. Commissioner Gonzalez, present commissioner Rotel, Eric. Commissioner Joyner. Here commissioner Drake. Here commissioner Reid here. All present. Thank you. Now we'll move on to the public comment section. Mr. Curtis. I don't know if we have any. Tonight, nothing on non agendas items. Okay, then I, we will move on to the administrative report. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, vice chairman and members of the commission. Just real briefly, we do.

Our next scheduled meeting is September 23rd. We will be. Meeting on that evening, we do have an item. And then that just is. Being noted that that will be the last meeting for three of you serving full terms. And are two terms really? So. I want to make sure that. And hope that we see you and appreciate you. Today and especially on your last meeting on September 23rd. So that's all I have for you tonight. Nothing new. Tonight regarding the agenda items for, for this evening. Thank you.

All right. Thank you. We'll move on to the approval of the August 12th, 2026, regular meeting minutes. Do we have a motion? I'll make a motion to approve. We have a motion. Do we have a second? I'll second that roll call vote please. Chair, your honor. Yes. Vice chair Scarborough. Yes. Commissioner Gonzalez. Yes. Commissioner Tel yes. Commissioner Joyner. Yes. Commissioner Drake? Yes. Commissioner Reed. Yes. Motion passes. Passes. Okay. We'll move on to the action agenda.

So we've got 1, 2, 3, 4 cases. On the consent agenda. However, I think there's been interest in moving. One to a regular agenda. Is that still the case? Yes, sir. Would you like to announce which one you'd like to move? Oh, yes. Would you please move item number five. Up 0 0 0 5, 20 26. To regular agenda police today. Okay. So. Right now I'm consent agendas items two, three, and four. Are there any questions or somebody would like to make a motion? I'll go ahead and make a motion. Motion chair.

For recommendation of approval, the city council for cases four AB 2025. AB 0 0 2 20 26 and AB 0 0 0 3 20 26. After finding that the C U P criteria have been met and that the conditional use permit proposed. Abandonments are consistent and conform with the adopted general plan for the attached stipulations. Do we have a second, second? Roll call vote, please. Sure young. Yes. Vice chair Scarborough. Yes. Commissioner Gonzalez. Yes. Commissioner Rotel. Yes. Commissioner joiner. Yes.

Commissioner Drake? Yes. Commissioner Reid. Yes. Motion passes. Passes. Okay. So we'll move on to item number five. Select education up 0 0 0 5 dash 2026. With a staff presentation, please. Thank you, Mr. Zimmer. Chair, young vice chair, Scarborough and commission members. My name is Chris Zimmer. I'm here to present. To you select education, the C U P up 0 0 0 5 20 26. Here's a little sight context again, it's over at east happy valley road and north 92nd street on the Southeast corner.

Here's a closer look at the sites, approximately just under five acres. A little bit closer to four acres. But the primary educational service will happen and occur in this Southern building here that is existing. There are only the only improvements. Considered in this request is to facilitate the drop off aisle for the conditional use permit criteria. Which is occurring over on this. West side over here. Existing zoning surrounding it is R 1, 1 90 R 1 43 ESL. So residential surrounding the.

Development. The request again in front of you is a recommendation to city council for approval. Of the conditional use permit for an educational service in elementary and secondary school. On a plus or minus five acre site located at. 92 0 1 east happy valley road. That completes staff's presentation. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you, Mr. Zimmer. Commissioner Gonzalez. Did you have any questions? Yes. Thank you very much, Mr. Zimmer for the presentation.

What's just look at the access point on that. If you could pull that back up. So the access point to, to the school is off of the. Main street there and it's going down that residential. Roadway is that correct? Chair young commissioner Gonzalez. I believe there's two entrances associated to the site and they're not changing with this so they could either access from east to happy. Valley or 92nd street, but I believe the primary is from east happy valley, but I believe the applicant.

Can explain a little bit more if you have further questions. Okay. Very good. Yes. We'll go ahead and just. Ask him a couple questions, Steven. Don't mind if you guys wanna come up. I use the arrows. Arrows. Oh, fantastic. Just go back and forth. If you wanted to switch between those two. Thank you everyone. Much. My name is Steve cross, and this is Christ dross Christal. Own and operate. The school for up to 40. Students. This is a existing education building. For the church.

And the only thing that's unique about this condition. Is when this was approved and it was approved multiple times. That the car line standards may not have been the same as they are today. So our objective is to get. Five parallel spaces. And to do that, we need to. Remove one of the planters and trim the curb on the other planter. On the west edge of the property. We're taking 10 parking stalls and converting it to five. And striping.

On the passenger side of the cars due to the direction of travel. Crosswalk all the way up to the south pedestrian entrance. Of the existing educational building. With that exception, no physical alterations to this property occur. Interior or exterior fire, marshal sign or fire chief signed off. On all of the existing fire improvements. We gave her pictures of every hydrant or every hydrant standpipe. And fire extinguisher, et cetera, alarm system. Went through it very thoroughly.

Do, do you have any specific questions about yes, I do. Commissioner Gonzalez. Sure. First of all, what do you figure? As far as occupancy wise, you're gonna have total amount of students on this property at one time. 40 at the maximum for the, the proposal it's 40 maximum. But they said that the car line would accommodate up to two 50. At this time or any time since the existence of this building, they've never had 250 students. Students in that building. If we're ecumenical. Oath.

We wouldn't even be standing before you right now. The difference is. We're secular. Well, be it as that made. The there's there's you had not, you're not anticipating any standing car lanes, pickup or anything like that, or are they gonna, are the cars. For the parents gonna be parked or are they gonna be single filed line? And they feed the students in. At a time, right. We submitted a Carline protocol. And we have staggered start times.

We also, if it gets over so many students, we greet them at the curb and. Walk 'em into the building. We have a, when you say the curb, are you referring to the curb blind? In, within the, the perimeter of the, of the church, or are you talking about onto the street line? The south. Pedestrian entrance to the educational building. That's where the people unload just west of that. And then that crosswalk will come up. Could we let's is this plan here Chris? We have a site plan.

We have a site plan may be useful to show the circula. Circulation turn on the elbow. Got it. Over there. Oh, very good. Thank you. The arrows are represent the flow of traffic. We have two access points, happy valleys, right in and right out. Because it's divided now with a new construction. And 92nd street. You can enter. Either direction from the south or to the north. So at happy valley, there's a, there's a curb cut there for. We westbound and eastbound traffic. Correct. Okay.

Or happy valley. It's right in from the west. And right out heading east. So it's divided at that location, but at 92nd, it's not divided. It's like you go east or west. Correct. Okay. And then so you're anticipation is then are the. The parents, as you anticipate, the parents could just going to go in and out drop off and, and leave, or are they gonna actually. Part U utilize the parking lot also. Well, we have. A hundred 37 parking stalls.

Stalls, even after we lose five stalls for this parallel parking that's required five stalls. So we have. Ample parking, even if every car that entered, parked. And the, the school hours. And church hours don't coincide. They're they're separate times. Is the church running consecutively. At the same time as the school hours? No. No, they don't have weekday hours. During school time. Okay. And very good. And then. Whether it's the time period that your first classes start at. Seven. No. Sorry.

Sorry, when students arrive, we start class. So some students arrive at 7:30 AM for example, and we start with. Them. And then some parents can also drop off as late as 9:00 AM. And then it's also a. Staggered exit. So some who start early leave earlier. And then the ones who come in later might stay later. We have some afterschool time. Well specify those. Okay. So what, what time at, at so. Basically seven 30 to nine parents were dropping off. And picking up are about.

Three o'clock to four 30, but we do stay open until five 30. So there could be late, but. It's definitely staggered. Okay. So, and are you going to allow. Parking alongside that residential area. It's not, no, no, that's not necessary. It wouldn't be necessary. They, they can park in the lot. Do you have any festivals or shows or anything anticipated? As far as going with the, along with the school. Periodically, we have an event where parents would P park and come in.

But again, it's it's so we're so small in our, my, my anticipation is micro school because I've run a big school before. That's not my plan. So for me, there's, we're not doing festivals and big events. They they're smaller on. Onsite events. Events. Would you have any problem putting a stipulation that you wouldn't have any large events on that property? That's fine. I I've been talking with the church. What's this kind of the same situation we have with them because we're.

Told them already that like worked out. What we wanna do so we don't interrupt what they do and. It's not a very, it's not like we have a big. Grassy area where we'd throw a festival or something. So. We would have to do something elsewhere if we wanted to do something big, but. Again, being a micro school, everything seems. That's my management is something small. Anyway. But I don't have a problem with that since that's not our plan. Maybe I can interrupt real quick, Mr.

Padilla, it looks like you want to say something. Yeah. So we have to be a little cautious on that. They, they are entitled to make application. For a special event permit to have events at that location. That's correct. So that's a. Process that is allowed for them to be having. Have, and so a restriction on that would take that away from them. Thank you. And commissioner Gonzalez. I do wanna clarify a little bit as well.

The application before you though, not limited to, I just wanna make a distinction. The micro school, their perspective lease is only for 40 students. Two classrooms, two existing classrooms. Classrooms. And if the church. Held an event outside of that school. You know, of course it wouldn't be limited to. 40, they could have more. Under their existing approval. Then we could have so we're, we're only adding 40 students during those school hours.

Okay, can you explain to me what a micro school is just out of? So for public knowledge, please? Yes. So a micro school is focused on a very small number of students. Basically. It's. It's I'm serving students from. First grade through sixth grade and it's a. One to like six ratio and it's, it's never going to be bigger than 40. So that it's very one-on-one. Attention and the education. So it's just a smaller version of a school. Everything's smaller. It's very focused on the academic portions.

Portions with, you know, field trips and things. It's kind of like a larger homeschool, but it's all in one area in one's classroom. So I anticipate is there, and I'm not familiar with the church, but is there like a commissary or anything within the. Within the grounds? No. They, they have a kitchen. Yeah. I mean, in the, in the actual church, there's a kitchen and a, a room for them, but. The education building is all just.

Different like CLA there's like classrooms, but the church uses those for other things like. Choir and practice and things like that. Well, I see. Well, that's good. Well, thank you very much for your time. Absolutely. All right. Thank you. I don't commissioner joiner. Do you have any questions? I, I don't wanna forget you're on the phone. thank you very much. Actually I got my questions answered earlier, so thank you very much. All right. Sounds good. I don't have any questions. Questions.

So I, I think if we're ready for a motion, if somebody's prepared to do that, no, I am. First of all, I'd like to say, you know, I look at these things through. You know, three ways amenities. Aesthetics and economics. Economics amenities. This is great. It adds, you know, some educational diversity to the community. So that's a plus. Aesthetics. I don't know that there's a plus or a minus, you know, you're. You know, cutting back on a, I think he's a flower bed or whatever, something like that.

But overall, you know, it's, it's a neutral. Economics. It's a great use of resources. It's, you know, unfortunate that church buildings may just get used once a week. You know, this is. Expanding the, the use of facilities that's, you know, plus for economics. So based on that, I certainly support it and I would make a motion. For a recommendation of approval to city council for case up 0 0, 0 5. 2026 after founding that the C P criteria have been met.

And the, the proposed conditional use permit is consistent. And conforms with the adopted general plan. Per the attached stipulations. Thank you. Do we have a second? I'll make that second. All right. Roll call vote, please. Sure young. Yes. Vice chair Scarborough. Yes. Commissioner Gonzalez. Yes. Commissioner Rotel. Yes. Commissioner joiner. Yes, commissioner Drake. Yes. Commissioner Reed. Yes. Motion passes. Sounds good. Thank you. Good luck as you move forward. Thank you. Thank you very much.

That is our last item on the agenda. So, I guess we're ready to motion for a German. Everybody in favor, say aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Aye. Meeting is over. Thank you everybody. For coming.