Planning Commission Recommends Denial of Fountain Park Hotel Rezoning; Signals SUP as Alternative Path

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you Thank you. Welcome everybody to the Monday, October 12th meeting of the planning and zoning, regular meeting of the planning and zoning commission. If we could all rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence.

A pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. All right, Paula, can we have a roll call, please? Commissioner Proctor? Here. Commissioner McDermott? Here. Commissioner Schlossberg? He's excused. Commissioner Corrigan? Here. Commissioner Sebum? Here. Vice Chair Gray? Chair Kovacevic? Here. We have a quorum. We have a quorum. Yes, we have a quorum, Chair.

Okay, if everybody could please take a look at the statement of participation up on the screen. Okay, and then Director, do we have any summary of current events? No? Okay, on to item six, regular agenda. Consideration and possible action. approving the meeting minutes of the regular planning and zoning commission August 10th, 2026. I'll make a motion we approve. I'll second the motion. Okay, all in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? 4-0.

Okay, 6B public hearing with consideration of possible action regarding the rezone of approximately 3.22 acres, is generally located at the northwest corner of North Saguaro Boulevard and East Paul Norton Parkway. From C2 to TCCD, with the intent to convert a portion of the hotel rooms to residential units. Farhad. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of the commission, good to be with you.

Just to give you a little bit more detail on what you read, it's a rezone from C2, which is an intermediate commercial zoning designation to the town center, the town center district with the intent to convert to hotel rooms. The subject property is located at the northeast, or rather the northwest corner of Paul Norton Parkway in Saguaro Boulevard. It is a 3.2 acre property and it is home to the Fountain Park Hotel. I'm last told it features 90 hotel rooms. A little bit of background.

The hotel was constructed back in 2005, I'm told, with 104 keys at the time. It has always been zoned C2. However, a zoning discrepancy was discovered in 2023 before a case came before the Planning and Zoning Commission at that time. May of 2023 for a special use permit in light of finding out that it was actually zone c2.

They came forward before you to request a special use permit for 90 residential units and it was subsequently recommended for denial at which point the applicant decided not to move forward to the town council for consideration. Can we pause for just a second here? Can we, who's on the phone?

Phil Okay great Thanks Bill Okay go ahead I sorry Okay so there have been several owners and operators over time since 2005 I believe the current owner has owned the hotel since 2019 Again the SUP request back in 2023 was a request to change all 90 hotel units to apartments and that was subsequently recommended for denial And now the owner is currently seeking to to convert the third floor, which features 46 units, to residential units, while operating the balance of the hotel, or the balance of the keys as hotel rooms.

Many of you familiar with the property, here is from the vantage point from Saguaro Boulevard looking northwest. Again, the applicant is proposing to convert the 46 units on the third floor to residential. Uh, included another aerial to kind of give you an idea of the surrounding zoning of the property. Uh, so of course the, uh, subject property is shaded in orange immediately to the east is morningstar assisted living facility.

That's a pad, uh, and abutting properties to the north are, are, uh, both TCCD districts and to the south is the villages of, um, of, uh, Uh, sorry. Town center. Thank you, sir. Uh, which features a bunch of condos and even further down it is the, um, Casas de Lago, uh, relatively new development. And, uh, across the street is Fountainside Plaza, of course, which is also in the TCCD district. So the zoning ordinance does not allow residential by right in the C2 zoning district.

And so the options the applicant has was, yet again, a special use permit to allow residential uses in the C2. That effort was withdrawn three years ago, as I said. And so to allow 46 units, the applicant may request R3 to allow 49 units, or the applicant in this case has opted to request a rezone of the property to the TCC district, which would allow 49 units, but it would not allow any residential units on the first floor. Those are to remain non-residential.

This is the downtown center map taken straight out of the downtown strategy. You can see the property highlighted or rather outlined in black. There are six districts identified in the downtown strategy. This property is within the Avenue district, which is characterized by employment centers as well as residential to help support some of those employment centers and commercial uses as well.

So the general plan coupled with the downtown strategy encourages a wide range of housing types and also a combination of commercial, particularly retail development. And the Avenue District is town's premier shopping district, or so it's identified in the downtown strategy, which encourages a variety of uses.

And currently you can see a number of brownstone style homes, Not within the TCC district necessarily, but across the way from examples being like the Belvedere and the villas right behind Sofrida and of course Park Place, which is actually within the TCCD. So in our review and staff analysis, we use chapter two of the zoning ordinance as a guide to determine whether or not a zoning, a rezoning of this property would be supportable in this case.

And the central question here, does the proposed zoning change serve the public necessity, convenience, general welfare, and reflect sound zoning practice while remaining consistent with the general plan?

And so I, with that question in mind, we identified a number of reasons why this rezone is something that can be supported, because it offers a variety of housing types that particularly can help support some of the employment centers within the town center district by providing a permanent residence for workers and shoppers.

and existing building is not designed for retail use However it is struggling with vacancy rates and that part of the reason why they coming before you to request a conversion of the third floor and the rezoning request to allow that And also keeping in mind that vacant or underutilized buildings would be injurious from a property values standpoint. Typically vacant buildings often subsequently experience poor maintenance and it does have property value implications as well.

So our summary and recommendation is that the rezoning will be consistent with other properties in the Avenue District as far as a mix of uses is concerned. The proposed reuse of this existing building is consistent with the general plan and will help further the intent of the downtown strategy. The use is similar in character to surrounding adjacent TCCD zone properties, particularly Park Place, and therefore staff recommends approval. And with that, I'll conclude my presentation.

The applicant is here as well with a presentation prepared for you with that where he'll share a little bit more detail of some of the things I've discussed. Thank you. Does anybody have questions for Farhad before we turn it over to the applicant? Just one question. It seems like we're lumping in a couple separate issues here for moving forward. First, the zoning request, which makes a certain amount of logic.

And then by, if we were to approve this, we're automatically approving third floor conversion. Is that correct? That's correct. And why isn't this broken up into two separate motions? Two separate motions if I understand you correctly? Two separate issues. Right. Well, Mr. Chair, Commissioner Proctor, it, given that the applicant wants to introduce 46 new residential units into that, into the existing hotel, then that would require the rezone. So there's kind of an interplay here.

And in order to allow that, in order to be fully entitled for those 46 units, then a rezone would be required of some type, either the TCCD, which is what the applicant has opted for, or the R3 zoning to allow that type of density, or a special use permit, which was an effort that failed a few years ago. I'm not sure if that answers your question. That's okay, I understand. I'm still not buying it, but we'll proceed. Okay. Commissioner Corgan. Thanks, Chair.

Farhad, I just have one kind of observation, and that is that the general plan, the 2020 general plan, is pretty much all-inclusive, and it's got really broad parameters. So there's a lot of issues involved here, but the one that caught my eye immediately was affordable housing.

And as you're aware, the HUD definition of affordable housing is that the tenant, in this case the occupant resident, in this case the remodeled apartment, previously vacant floor, would, they're only obligated to pay 30% of the rent. By definition, that's the HUD definition. So affordable housing is something that, when I hear the term, I only think of that HUD definition. I hear other terms like entry level housing. That's a whole different concept.

But that issue does trouble me because Fountain Hills property values, number one. Number two, we are an affluent community and it's, this is very, very close to the to the downtown overlay, which is an opportunity for us to bring in small business and so on, and I don't see the affordable housing element as a benefit to Fountain Hills. That's a general statement.

The idea here is that if it does come to pass that the legal definition is upheld, which is the HUD definition, then there's some obligation of a 30% only Rental obligation by the tenant. So that would mean that term, I guess if litigated, I'm concerned about that, especially on that one issue. So anyway, that's my thought, Chair. Any other questions for Farhad, Charlie, anything? Yeah, let's have petitioner. Okay. I'm gonna pull up his presentation here and have him come up. Full screen mode.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioners, pleasure to be back in the town of Fountain Hills. Jason Morris on behalf of the applicant with the Morris Ball. If you don't mind, I'm going to go through a little bit of the history of this because I think it may shed some light on the nature of the application and the purpose of the application. So staff did an excellent job giving an overview, but I can see their questions both about the process and about the purpose.

So we're representing the ownership of the hotel. You're aware the hotel has been operating continuously. At some point, there was another applicant who had asked for a special permit to convert the entire property to multifamily use. That applicant was actually purchasing it from my client who had purchased it previously, but that was not our client.

So the applicant before you and the point I'm making is the applicant before you tonight is not the applicant who is the special permit applicant previously. I'll also point out that when my client purchased the hotel, he purchased it, did the due diligence, and one of the things that was showing was a zoning map indicating that the property was the TCCD property. And I believe for some time thereafter it showed as that zoning district. So this is the property in question.

I think you're very familiar with it. I'd also like to point out that this is somewhat unusual in that most of the zoning cases that come before you involve a change in land use, some sort of development, some sort of construction that's visible from the exterior. I'm sorry, let me interrupt you one second. I'll let everybody know. Peter Gray is on. Okay, so we have two commissioners remote. Wonderful. Thank you. That changes my entire presentation, so I'm glad you told me that.

Thank you very much, Mr. Chair. So, as I was saying, most of the zoning cases that come before you, you're dealing with issues of height, a change in use, a change in the structure, you're dealing with parking issues. This is unusual in that essentially we're bringing forward a zoning case where if we're successful, at the end of the process, from a resident standpoint, from a citizen standpoint, you will not really see a difference.

You won't ascertain that anything has changed, other than if you happen to be familiar with the property and you know that the current third floor of this property is vacant and empty and would be put to good use. We've discussed, and staff has mentioned, the general plan land use.

I think as we look both at the mixed use nature of what the general plan calls for, but also the zoning categories and what the town has tried to do with this area, you see really in all of these tools, whether it's the zoning language, whether it's the special district, whether it's the actual general plan, all of them lean toward the same thing, which is there's a desire to be a There's a desire for intensity and there's a desire for utility of this area.

I grew up here, I have seen this, not only this area age, but the commercial come into play and some residential come into play and different ideas, the incorporation of the town. And what has occurred with this general plan as we look at the 2020 general plan, there's a desire for a mixture of uses. It's called out not only in the map but in the text that there should be a mixture of uses so that there's intensity, so that there's utility of these areas. The Avenue District, very similar.

If you look at what is occurring in the Avenue District and the district surrounding that, there is a need for interaction. There's a desire, whether you're talking to the Chamber of Commerce, whether you're talking to town council, whether you're talking to citizens, there's a desire to see people walking up and down these streets, utilizing the restaurants, shopping, and living in this area.

A little snapshot of what the property looked like prior to and when my client originally purchased and closed on the hotel rooms As you can see they were dated not only in the furnishings but also in the design My client, after purchase of the property, spent significant sums upgrading the interiors, upgrading the rooms, upgrading the amenities, and making the property and positioning the property in a way that it would be more attractive. They are also a member of the Chamber of Commerce.

They are also contributors to the Visit Fountain Hills and Experience Fountain Hills and the larger hospitality marketing area, which includes Fountain Hills. This is from the rebranding. As you're aware, it was rebranded with the Best Western Signature Collection. They still remain a part of the Best Western and the Best Western Reservation System.

That reservation system, as you're probably aware, is obviously covering thousands of properties, but more importantly, that reservation system links directly into all of the major online footprints. whether it's Expedia, Travelocity, any of the Google Travel, any of the online tools are also picked up. So this is an opportunity, being part of Best Western, to be seen not only from a 1-800 number standpoint, but also having the benefit of the internet for future reservations.

Despite that, the hotel continues to struggle, and there are a variety of reasons for why a hotel may be struggling in terms of the location, in terms of the branding, in terms of what's being offered. But after owning it for this amount of time and having the benefit of owning several other properties, There is the sense that there are too many keys in this one building for this part of town within Fountain Hills.

As I pointed out earlier, the TCCD district was what was indicated on the zoning maps. In fact, until recently, this was what you would see when you pulled up the official zoning maps for the town of Fountain Hills, Hills, and you can see that this site was included within the TCC district. That meant to ownership that they had the opportunity and had some alternatives that they could work within if, in fact, there were too many keys associated with this hotel.

Because of that opportunity, they interacted with town staff and management in order to pull permits and adjust the unit count and adjust the unit mix, using the third floor as an opportunity to create both one bedroom and studio suites for longer term residents, essentially mixing multifamily use with the hotel use.

Importantly, although they were doing these upgrades and pulled permits for them, they did not and were not able to finish that because during this process and after spending in excess of a million dollars, it was explained that there was an error in the mapping and in fact the legal description did not include this property. So, these were some of the third floor upgrades that were permitted and went forth, but there are also unfinished apartments within this floor.

The sum total of this means this property has been running with two floors, which means 58 units. The third floor has not been available to ownership while this matter remains unsettled. So the request is to go from C2, which is the actual underlying zoning as we now understand it, to TCCD. Within that request is the idea to preserve the existing hotel rooms. This, with 58 hotel rooms on the first two floors, is right-sized.

And we know that because we understand what the data has shown us over the years of ownership and what that occupancy has been. Even with the addition of a reservation system that has a vibrant 800 number as well as internet capabilities. So as you see there would be the conversion of those third floor units. In this instance it would be the completion of those conversions for the 46 units on the third floor.

Those are 37 studio units nine one units The idea is to create a place for those who want a longer stay opportunity They may be residents they may be consultants they may be people who are moving to the area but haven found a home But it's an alternative to the hotel living in an upscale, recently remodeled third floor opportunity with hotel amenities. I mentioned the capacity. Today we've got 58 operating hotel rooms with 46 out of service and have been out of service for some time.

The idea is to make all 104 units fully functional and operating. And the idea, and I want to address Commissioner Corrigan's question, these are market rate units. These are not affordable units. This is not a government program. There is no intention to do a government program. And from the owner of the hotel's perspective, the occupancy of that third floor and those residents are incredibly important because they're ultimately interacting with the hotel guests at the same time.

So they would not create a situation for themselves that was somehow detrimental to bringing in guests on a regular basis. This is supposed to enhance ownership, not detract from it at all, but to offer opportunities for people who want to live near the urban core of Fountain Hills.

This gives you a better sense of what that unsold capacity has been in a timeframe, Showing that even with that reservation network, there are at the best, most occupied months, about 10 rooms available within the 58, not including the third floor that has been available. So you see what that curve looks like. You see how this building has been operating.

Not surprisingly, the capacity is much lower in June, July, and August, as well as September because the summers don't last like the rest of the world here. We get a little bit more summer than most. In October those occupancies start climbing and they climb all the way to February which is our peak month.

That means that over the time frame that we're showing, 24, 25 and parts of 26, that we still have a significant number of unsold rooms, meaning that the occupancy year-round is about 60% for this hotel. And it's not just because of summer or a down year. In fact, hospitality, as you're aware, has been doing quite well as an overall category. But you're not short of rooms in this area. We have 8,300 room nights unsold within the 58 rooms that we're talking about. And that is one hotel.

Within the area, and our competition or the other opportunities for hospitality in this area show a grand total of 690 rooms. So you can see why it would be attractive to have an alternative for that third floor. As we look at the opportunities, and you can read these and you're aware of what I've already shared with you, we're talking about a hotel that is well kept. There has been a seven-figure investment into that hotel, Not just for the third floor, but for the overall renovation.

It is part of a larger network that directs residents and guests to this property. And more importantly, the owner, like any small business owner, came into this with a set of ground rules that they expected and has worked with staff in order to make this correct. They didn't convert those rooms without the knowledge of the town. They went through the process, including the, you know, getting the sewer district to make that change from residential, from a hotel room. They did everything right.

They spent the money in a manner that they expected a small business to, which is to reap the rewards of what they pulled the building permits for. In this instance, there was a mistake. That mistake can be rectified. This zoning case rectifies that mistake and allows the small business owner to right-size the hotel room so we're not taking any hotel rooms off the market. It allows the building to be better utilized.

From a zoning and planning standpoint the building itself is already accounted for as is the landscaping the parking and everything that comes part and parcel with this zoning case so it not a change to the town as a whole But at the end of the day it is a better utilization of the building Short of that the options for this property owner are limited as to how they can recoup their investment and the damages that they have suffered So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions that you may have about either the process or the property and would hope for your support.

Any questions? Commissioner Proctor. Yes, I just have some background questions. I know hotels are the basic operating model is to go asset light. What is the operating model for Best Western at this facility? Is this a franchised hotel or is it managed by the applicant? It is, in fact, owned and operated by the applicant, but the Best Western does provide some management assistance. And so it's a management model.

Okay, so the applicant hires staff to clean the rooms and Best Western does the 1-800 number, etc. I believe Best Western organization has a larger role rather than just the reservation systems. I believe there is some management. If this were to be approved, who would be managing the residential units? Would it be going through Best Western so they have some control? or would it be the applicant, the building owner? So we would have two separate models here.

The applicant signing long-term leases for residential units, and then you have Best Western taking reservations for shorter-term stays, and there seems to be a management disconnect between the two. How would that work? Mr. Chair, Commissioner, that is something that happens on a daily basis. Just by chance, I stayed in a property that had exactly that set up last night. It is not unusual to have a mixed use with a management.

In this instance, the owner operator would handle the leasing of that third floor and the hotel management would handle the operation of the hotels. They have different needs, But they would just be sharing a building. So it's certainly not insurmountable and it's actually quite common. Yeah, I know it's common for five-star facilities to have residential units. But I'm just not sure how this will work if there's a disruption on the third floor and complaints by a Best Western client.

How does that work? Does it always have to go to the property manager or the owner? Mr. Chair, Commissioner, you asked a very good question. One of the reasons that it's written that way is that the management company that's in this instance Best Western or any future management company actually has authority by virtue of the lease to enforce anything that is in the lease. And as you can imagine, we're creating another opportunity within the hotel.

No owner would go to this length to put themselves in a position where their hotel guests were somehow going to be disadvantaged or their residents were going to be disadvantaged. You would be cutting off your nose to spite your face. Exactly. It's comforting to hear that because I could envision a problem developed where clients of Best Western have a bad experience. The internet goes viral and that hurts the Best Western brand and Best Western starts losing occupancy because of that.

And then I can see a vision of the applicant coming back to us wanting to convert the second floor into residential units. I just kind of see this as a possible slippery slope. I mean, we're playing the what-if game, I understand. Sure. And Mr. Chair, Commissioner, that's an interesting hypothetical, but it's just as likely that a guest would cause a disruption at the hotel and create a scenario where the guest, the other guests were uncomfortable. Right.

So that is not something—hypotheticals are dangerous in situations like this, but in terms of the camel's nose being under the tent and coming back and asking for more, if we were to do so, we would have to go back through this process. We are in fact it's one of the reasons we're not asking for a special permit which would permit residential occupancy of the whole building. It's because we believe that this should be limited to just that top floor.

It's actually a very synergistic The building with the hotel and the residents on top. Just in statement, full disclosure, I do live in the village of town center right across the street from the hotel, and they've been very good neighbors to date. Thank you. Commissioner McDermott. Thank you, Chair. So just a couple of questions on the management of the apartments.

So if something breaks in the apartment, is there a management company that they would call or you're not going to go down to the front desk and say my refrigerator broke, right? Mr. Chair, Commissioner, it really depends upon what the nature of the concern is. Is it the internet? Is it going to be HVAC, which covers a larger portion of the building? But as I mentioned before, there are two different layers.

There's the ownership of the building, which exists today, and then there's the management of the hotel. The management of the hotel will have the ability in the lease to enforce anything or address anything within the residential units. But in addition to that, the ownership will have a management company specifically for any needs of those units on the third floor in terms of construction needs. In terms of the applicant, can you disclose who the company is?

Sonoma Palms is my client, which is a holding company for several buildings of this type. In what state do they...? Arizona. Okay, so the Arizona Corporation? Yes. Okay. Do you have any sense for the rental rates for the studios and the one bedrooms at this point? I don't because we're in a position where these have been now vacant for such a long time that we would have to reassess what the market rate is for both the one bedrooms and, in addition, the studio units.

But these would be market rate. Their hope is to get the best dollar figure per square foot for those units. This is certainly not something that would be a discounted program. So if the zoning were changed, I'm sorry, if the zoning were changed, the zoning is changed on the property. So what would prevent the applicant from coming back and saying, Well, now we want to retrofit the second floor to rentals as well because the zone changes for the property, not a floor of the building.

You're absolutely correct, Mr. Chair, Commissioner. It's my understanding that this request is specifically stipulated with a number of units total. And if that were to change, we would have to come back through the public hearing process. So the unit count includes just that third floor. Okay. Okay, thank you. Commissioner Gray? Thank you, Chair. A couple, I guess, thoughts. You know, at the 60,000-foot level, I don't really have a material objection to this.

I do think the data kind of speaks for itself in terms of quantity of keys and how applicable that is in the current market and as well as historically and probably as far as the crystal ball can show us in the downtown district there. I would like to confirm that the number of residences are capped, and I would also like to see a restriction put on that they could not be converted to fee simple, meaning they couldn't be sold off as individual units for permanent occupancy.

And the reason for that, just for color commentary, is I think that if these were to become individual condoed units and held fee simple, it could potentially really be in the way of a longer term vision, if you will, for the downtown district.

I wouldn want to see that as an impediment to that And then I also just had a procedural question for John I guess on one hand I understand that it logical that this goes to a zoning change but I also see some logic in doing something like this under a special use permit mainly because it doesn run with the land And at the end of current ownership and business model that would offer an avenue to sunset this and allow for some future transition in strategic use That's the head, Chair.

Vice Chair Gray, with a special use permit, once the use actually gets established on the land, it is vested and would run with the land at that point. Well, I guess I learned something today, or I forgot something that I relearned. And Mr. Chair, Commissioner Gray, we would agree.

And in terms of the plotting of this property, we have agreed that this would not be a fee simple property or ever changed, altered into a fee simple property for the same reason that you raised, which is it would be a Hinderance on ownership if they ever chose to sell the property to have individual owners that would be within that building. And we also think just for the benefit of revitalization that would make things very, very difficult in this area.

So we would agree with you in that regard. Commissioner. Thank you, chair. How many parking stalls are currently on site? I believe 165 that I'm going from. Isn't that mine? And I'm not getting any younger. No, it was close, 162, which I'll take that. All right. So- So the reason I mentioned that, Commissioner, is 162 spaces means that there's both excess spaces for the hotel use with that room count and for the multifamily with that count. There's excess spaces overall.

But there would be no space available for commercial use on first floor like a restaurant, what it used to be? Actually, because Mr. Chair, Commissioner, because we have excess spaces for both the hotel and for the multifamily, there would be that availability if we chose to do so in the future. I would just suggest that it's really hard to determine how many spaces you'll need for the apartments because there won't be just one person, probably even in an efficiency.

That would mean probably two cars. There could be three people living in it. Did you say it's a one bedroom? Are they partitioning off the current hotel rooms to create an actual bedroom? Mr. Chair, Commissioner, that's true. If you were able to see any of the exhibits that we shared, the one bedrooms, I believe there are only, I think, nine of those total, but they are true one bedroom units with a separate bedroom and living room.

As for the efficiency units, they're studio units, as you would expect. What I will point out is that even if your hypothetical became reality, there's an additional 17 spaces on site in the glorious event that we were at full occupancy and had every unit accounted for on the third floor. There's still 17 additional units. There are 17 additional parking spaces. Are these leases annual one-year leases or are they, can they be shorter than that? They can be shorter than a one-year lease, Mr.

Chair, Commissioner. I think part of the part of the problem here is the potential loss of any sales tax that could be driven by a hotel versus who's signing 40, what is it? I'm sorry, 46 one-year leases. And Mr. Chair, Commissioner, that's a valid observation if in fact the town was losing something.

But in this instance, this has been a vacant floor now for years that has derived zero income, whereas at least having some activity on site would hopefully bring some residents who would actually be able to walk over to the avenue and take advantage of some of the retail and restaurants that are existing.

The description about the relationships between apartment dwellers and hotel occupants I think is a little unrealistic If you have a hotel occupant and they causing problems a heck of a lot easier getting them out of there than it is an apartment dweller And I do see some conflicts that are potential with having apartments in the same building like this with noise with guests someone living there for months at a time maybe years at a time They could be much more comfortable bringing more occupants over for parties, for games, or whatever it might be.

So I do think there's a conflict between the two uses, even though they're both quote-unquote residential. What about using it as an... Mr. Chair, if you don't mind, that's at least worth responding to. It's actually quite the opposite. Typically, hotel guests have to be managed much more carefully than multifamily guests. And the reason for that is somewhat obvious in that where you're living is sometimes taken a little bit more seriously than where you were visiting for a weekend.

That being said, the clientele of this hotel and the population of Fountain Hills in general and certainly in this area, we're not visiting Las Vegas on the weekend. This is an opportunity to create two different uses within one building, but in terms of the enforcement or any activities that occur.

The other thing I'd like to assure you of, and I don't know if you can avail yourself of the exhibits that we shared, but an efficiency unit or studio unit and even a one bedroom unit is not the place for a large gathering. It's to some degree physically impossible. So I'd be more concerned about someone taking a suite in the hotel and inviting other guests than I would be seeing a dinner party in the studio unit. Well, I guess we can agree to disagree that and that's entirely fine as well.

I just, I'm having an issue as I talked with you about when you set up the meeting we had, is taking these hotel rooms off the market over the long term. And I don't think it's the town's problem that it's not done as well as maybe some of this gentleman's other properties have done. Evidently, they've been successful. I haven't really witnessed, in my circle anyway, significant marketing of this property within the town for hotel guests.

I've stayed at the hotel years ago when there were a lot of poor reviews that were on, and perhaps this was before this gentleman took it over. I just I have a hard time giving up those hotel rooms. I just do. And I also I think the sales tax issue is something over the over time as this city continues to grow to some extent that taking those opportunities for hotel rooms and town sales tax that I think is a mistake.

This is not technically the city or the town's problem, but that's that's how I look at it. And I don't I just I really can't I can't support it, but Thank you. I think that's all that's all the time. I'll take shot in. I appreciate that. I would just say for the benefit of the rest of the commission.

I do understand the concern and I would understand the concern if this was a vibrant property where those spaces were actually utilized on a regular basis, but it has been off the market for a considerable amount of time and even being off the market, they have not been unable to market the property and try and utilize the rooms that they have. They have, and as you saw, it's 60%. The town is not losing anything.

But from a, you know, the comment that was made by the commissioner about, I don't see this as our problem. I think what you have here is a property owner who has been paying taxes, who is a citizen by virtue of the fact that they own a business within your town. and they are coming to you in the proper manner after getting incorrect information about what they can do with their property. And they're petitioning you. They're not asking you to solve their economic issues.

They're asking to be able to make economic use of this property under your planning and zoning provisions. So it certainly not we not asking for a resolution other than if there are two resolutions and one involves litigation and one involves zoning this seems like a better path both for the town and for the applicant Well, I would just say that the 60% occupancy that they've been experiencing is the same as it is on average for all of the other hotels in the area.

So, and I realize they've got the 48 or 46 on the third floor. They're not even being marketed. So how do you know what the average occupancy would be even if you threw in the other 46 units? Mr. Chair, Commissioner Gray, they're marketed on a nightly basis through a huge reservation system. Online reservations in business don't always match what you can do locally. So thank you for your time. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Commissioner Corrigan. Thank you, Chair.

I really have just two questions. One for the petitioner's attorney and... I'm sorry. I was just called a scumbag by one of your residents, so I was just, I was distracted. Sir, would you mind? So I've been to the property. It's a beautiful property. Thank you. And the entire property is, it's great. I mean, it's one of our better hotels, in my opinion.

But getting around to my question, Sonora Palms, other than Tucson and Phoenix, can you give me examples of where in one building we have hotel units and then an apartment floor, specifically in the same building, apartments on one floor and then hotel rooms on the other floors? Mr. Chair Commissioner, did you say other than Phoenix? Let me be, I apologize, let me be more specifics.

Other than Phoenix, City of Phoenix, and Tucson, that's pretty wide open, Mesa, Scottsdale, you know, all the other towns and cities around us, in the valley, What properties have an existing apartment facility on one floor in the same building and hotel rooms for rent on the other floors within the same building? Mr. Chair Commissioner, I would have to do a survey to find out who meets those parameters. Right, and I wasn't able to find any.

I'm aware of properties that have similar characteristics, but I don't want to say anything that I can't verify. Yeah, and I'm questioning it because I did an AI search and didn't find any other than those two that I mentioned, Tucson and Phoenix. And, you know, again, beautiful property. It's just my opinion overall that the solution, bringing in apartments, is not the answer to the problem. So I don't see this as an answer to a problem or a solution to the problem.

I know things from, again, going back to the general plan and so on, it's very, very broad in description. As you note, consistent with a small town character. I just don't see it with the apartment being on one floor and the rooms on the other. I just don't see that being consistent. Economic vitality. I don't know that apartments on the third floor, other than commuting to work to Scottsdale or Phoenix or whatever it might be, are going to add to our economic vitality. I just don't see that.

My vision doesn't include that. So I appreciate, you know, your explanation. It's a very good presentation, and it's a beautiful property. And then, if you would, a question for John. Oh, thank you, Mr. Jarre. Thank you, Commissioner. I appreciate that. So, John, I know that we've noted here in the notes six or seven properties, hotel properties. But getting down to brass tacks, we are expect, The anticipation is that we will kind of lose revenue next year over this.

That's the kind of general assumption. And I'm talking about tax revenue. So right now we really have four properties that are taxable properties. And we know we have a 4% bed tax, that's pretty healthy. 2.7% what do we call it? We call it, what's the term? Transaction privilege tax. So it looks like that would go away with apartments because that 30 day limit, I'm assuming you These apartments are long term.

What I'm getting up to is we'd lose that revenue from these apartments, and we really only have four properties. We go Pov, there's no tax revenue coming from that. So we really, we have this property, beautiful property. We have the Hilton property, and we have the inn at Eagle Ranch, and then we also have Adaro, which although technically in Scottsdale we get tax revenue from that. It's in Fountain Hills. Yeah, okay.

And it's a little confusing because one side of the street is Fountain Hills, one is Scottsdale. So we're getting revenue from all those things. That's my concern, and it's shared by at least one other commissioner, that we'd lose revenue. And I'm concerned about that. I don't see that as enhancing the economic vitality of Fountain Hills. And correct me if I'm wrong, I mean, are there more than four? You're correct, that's the number. Okay. Thank you. Okay. Okay, I have a question.

What's the difference between renting them as an apartment and renting them as extended state? Mr. Chair, extended stay, meaning an extended stay hotel room? Yeah. I believe under the extended stay hotel rooms you're still limited to a cap of 30 days. Because beyond 30 days it no longer qualifies as a transitory hotel use. Okay. At least that's true in most codes. Okay, is that the case here, John? Is it a 30-day max as an extended stay room?

Chair, that probably gets into something that I'm not really familiar enough with to talk about. That is typically what we use in terms of it's a short-term rental or it's a long-term rental as a 30-day stay. What happens tax wise or in this case, does somebody rent it for 30 days or 29 days and then checks out and checks back in for another 29 days? Does that work or something along that line to be there for an extended period? I really don't know exactly how that would work.

Okay, but they couldn't, is there anything in the town ordinances that would stop them from renting a hotel room for six months? So all I can really speak to is the zoning side. I don't know when we get to other town codes in finance and those types of things. From a zoning perspective, as long as they are still operating as a hotel room, all the same amenities and services that any other hotel room gets, there wouldn't be a zoning issue with it. Okay. If I could just add to Mr.

Wesley's comments, Mr. Chair, the issue with that is if you treat them in that manner, then somebody who wants to get a hotel, I'm sorry, an apartment building built somewhere within Fountain Hills, for example, can state, well, it's a hotel. We're treating it as a hotel. We have amenities like a hotel. We have a front desk like a hotel, but our leases are for six months. And that's why typically towns would say anything beyond 30 days and you're actually not operating as a hotel.

You're operating as a multifamily. That's been my experience. I imagine if we review the code, there's something in it. And if I can take this a little bit further, one of the things that I'm hearing is a concern about tax collections and the economics of this. And while that's not necessarily the purview of planning and zoning, you raise a good point.

And there may typically what we've done in other jurisdictions is work out a development agreement with the town so that there is some form of in lieu payment so that if the town believes they're missing something that they are able to collect even under a different use. So that's just something worth throwing out there. It's not something really for the planning commission, but something we may take up with council. Yeah, so you're willing to consider a development agreement as part of this?

For the economic purposes, yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Commissioner McDermott? Thank you, Chair. I don't know if this is more a question for the applicant or for John, but how many owners have there been since 2005 when it was originally constructed? Do we know that?

When you said in your presentation you mentioned several but do we know how many owners there have been I sorry I don say I was just curious I mean from my perspective we want thriving businesses in this town but the last thing we want to have happen is a hotel go out of business and sit vacant because the occupancy rates are so low And quite frankly, I'm not surprised it's been sold several times, because usually if it's a thriving hotel business, you're not going to sell it.

So I guess I'm not shocked. And just from the perspective of the revenue side of it, you're not losing revenue on empty rooms. So the rooms have been empty for an extended period of time, so there is no loss of revenue. I could see if this hotel was bustling and sold out for several months in the winter, I could see where there's revenue loss, right? But there's no loss of revenue because the rooms are empty.

So I think it's a creative, unique solution that can help a business survive in this town. So thank you, Chair. Any other commissioners? Commissioner Gray, Commissioner Sevilla, anything else? Commissioner Gray. I just have one other question. Is your- this is Phil. Is your client owned and sown Sonora and Palms in Mesa? Mr. Chair, Commissioner, no. I don't believe they do. It's Sonoma Palms is the name of the- Oh, Sonoma. I'm sorry. Okay. That's okay. Okay.

Yeah, Chair, I'll just offer a little bit. Go ahead, Commissioner Gray. Sorry, Chair. I just offer, you know, a little bit of a contrarian. I tend to agree with the comments that were just made by, I think, Commissioner McDermott there. The data is the data on something like this.

We, you know, you can either, None of us have to like the conversion, but from a business owner's perspective, the guy can either sit on three floors and see his occupancy reduced to sub-50th percentile and never reinvest a single dollar into that asset, or we can take 33% off the top, convert it, give him a chance at some revenue to break even, and he can reinvest in that hotel, And that hotel can maybe be something.

But you guys have talked, multiple people have talked about the turnover of that asset. It's not a good hotel asset. The town is not a town that propagates something like that at that location. The idea, the symbolic nature of it being there at the intersection of the Fountain and Suaro, it's all well and good, but we have no economic vitality in Fountain Hills that has any sort of horizon to gin up an engine big enough to support that hotel.

And so give them a chance to at least reinvest in the hotel and make it something that people are going to seek out as a rental opportunity inside of Fountain Hills. And let's see what comes with it. If there's no fee simple component to it, it doesn't convert, then the re-gentrification of downtown if and when that's a viable proposition. You know, can run its course without, you know, without that obstacle in its place. You know, he's putting in efficiencies in nine one-bedroom apartments.

You know, what better to facilitate the argument that we hear from 50% of the constituents of Fountain Hills to, you know, allow the people who need to work in Fountain Hills a place to reside, without going as far as to say Section 8, because we don't want that. None of us want that. But here we've got a perfect opportunity to allow that type of occupancy use in the heart of the downtown where supposedly all the businesses in this town. And I just don't think it's a debate that we want to make.

We want to make a debate about this idea of utopia. Well, utopia isn't where we're at. And utopia isn't even on the horizon. No, I, you know, my vote is in favor of this, and I hope that others will support it. Thank you, Chair. Commissioner Corrigan.

Thank you Chair I think the bright star for revenue for Fountain Hills these past few months and as a matter of fact this entire past year 2 million Now this includes all of tourism So that includes hotels and golf and you know basically anything tourist And it the leading opportunity for us It the leading revenue And just for the last quarter, beyond that, it was even better. $952,000 in revenue, which included, you know, hotels.

That 4%, we'll call it room rate, and then the 2.7, that's significant. And again, for hotels, we don't have many hotels. We can't count Wicopa, we can't count Scottsdale properties. That's not in our purview. So again, I want to emphasize that it's a beautiful property, but in my opinion, it's the wrong solution. In one building having apartments on one floor, and then the other remaining floors having a hotel.

I think also I see the possibility of the Target Center, whether you folks knew it or not, we have 310 Potential apartments coming up without enough parking. They exceeded six different ordinances and the town gave nothing back. And so potentially there could be at the Target Center, that's Shea down here at Saguaro. Actually, it's technology which is a bit further up. It's more between between Palisades and Saguaro, Anche. But that potentially could be built. So there's 310 units there.

I think we've got enough apartments. Again, beautiful property. I just think it's the wrong solution. Thank you, Chair. Commissioner Proctor. Yeah, I'm gonna follow up on Commissioner Corrigan. I wanted to highlight, I too, question. How many apartments do we need downtown? Sandor is gonna develop 316 apartments. downtown, Park Place development in two buildings, 174 more apartments downtown.

And to go off Commissioner Corrigan's initial, to start our discussion off, the implication was in the presentation to us from staff, that Fountain Hills has a lack of affordable housing for low-wage workers. With that, it set my mind is that's what we're targeting here, lower-wage workers. And I was wondering how that was going to work out. The Fair Housing Act does not include finances, it's a protected class. So how do you bring the rate down for low-wage workers?

Then my thought was, well, I emphasized with low-wage workers. I was one once. I think all of us were low-wage workers at one point. My solution was I got two roommates and that brought down expenses down. That's an option. I think we have a plethora of available apartments now and a lot coming more online. We need a downtown hotel. I'm going to say it for the 50th time from Mr. Gorgan, it's a beautiful hotel. And I recognize that the third floor is not gaining any tax revenue now.

My concern is it's potential tax. That's what I look at that. That is potential tax if we can bring more people in to the community. Just a plug for the International Dark Sky Discovery Center. I'm very honored to be on their governing board. We are going to open in February and March and we're getting a lot of reservations for corporate events. We're expecting a lot of visitors from out of town and they're going to need a place to stay.

What better place than at the Best Western right here downtown? Now with the International Dark Sky Discovery Center opening, it's not going to solve the problem. It's not going to go to 100% occupancy. I get that. But maybe that's what we ought to look for as a town in our planning, get more facilities like that to bring more people in to maybe book that third floor and the town can reap that sales tax revenue. So I'm a little reluctant here.

I understand the need for rezoning, but I share some reluctance on taking that third floor off. and stop the potential tax earnings for the town Thank you Let move on to the speaker cards Chair we have three speaker cards All three are against the project In order of speaking Crystal Cavanaugh will be the first speaker Robert Lubke and the last speaker will be Larry Myers Good evening. Crystal Cavanaugh, Fountain Hills resident. I feel like saying, here we go again.

I remember the request to convert 104 of these hotel rooms to tiny apartments when it first came to PNC in 2022. I opposed it then, as did PNC. Apparently, permits were somehow issued for kitchenettes, as I understand it from reading this, but some of those pictures look like remodel went way beyond just small kitchenettes. So I'm not sure if they got a little ahead of themselves or not. I don't know why staff would even recommend allowing C2 zoning to change to TCCD.

Does it even meet the criteria for the zoning to be changed? But besides that, I want to just talk common sense. Fountain Hills is a tourist town and we depend on sales tax. Renting hotel rooms to visitors who transition in and out of Fountain Hills is a logical source of sales tax, especially if marketed wisely. As I brought up in 2022, and it's even more relevant today, we have an international dark sky discovery center getting ready to open.

Do we not expect this to be a big draw bringing outside visitors from all over the U.S. who need a hotel? Maybe even a tour group. Where are the joint ventures to pair the many events, festivals, and celebrations occurring in the Fountain Hills and Scottsdale area with hotel packages as an alternative to the pricier Scottsdale hotels? How about annual golf trip promotions to our winter visitors with hotel stays?

Has there been a partnership with our economic development director to come up with ideas that promote hotel stays? Do we really want to get rid of 46 downtown hotel rooms and convert them to 37 studio units and nine one bedrooms? Is that a stepping stone also my concern to convert even more? Why is it that the one and only Fountain Hills Hotel struggles when it's located in a tourist town? The one and only downtown Fountain Hills Hotel.

And across the street from the centrally located Fountain Park with the famous fountain, where's the marketing? Or was the focus on converting to apartments instead? Some people now, just in 2022, don't readily even know the name of this hotel. And that's a problem. More apartments is not the best path for Fountain Hills, but it could be seen as a quick fix to some. Fountain Hills has enough apartments being built or scheduled to be built. And I disagree with much of the staff report.

This rezone would not support our small town character, enhance our economic vitality, or create a vibrant setting. And in no way do these tiny apartments bring in the often talked about young families. What we do need is a downtown hotel. Visitors spend money which supports our businesses. The property should remain zone C2 without question.

I do hope that the owner can figure out a way to productively partner up with other successful events in the area to bring visitors and hotel guests to Fountain Hills. Thank you. Robert? Robert Luebke, I reside just south of the hotel at the Village of Town Center, along with Nick and his wife. I'm opposed to the rezoning issue. It just doesn't make sense to do the mixed use for that particular building. You look at potential problems, you know, we talk about continuity, people getting along.

You take that entire floor, put in single units there, residents are going to live there. They're going to use the pool, they're going to live there like their normal lives, like all of us do in our homes. People coming in, staying in hotels, it's going to be a problem somewhere down the road. You can pretty much predict that. Whether, you know, I don't want to say what or whatever, but I'm not the most elegant speaker.

But I just think it's the wrong use because if you look at that one, you open that up, what's to stop the apartments from downtown saying, well, hey, then we got all these units, why can't we rent them out on a nightly basis if you're going to let them do long-term from a hotel conversion? So I just think it's the wrong concept, the wrong idea for that.

And if you're trying to tie it into the downtown overlay, it just doesn't make much sense either because there's no commercial on the first floor. There's no restaurant. It's gone. The parking that they require for the downtown is either underground garages or covered spaces. They have none of that. You get into issues of conversion, like Nick was talking about with the permits. Say you authorize this, are we going back to the 2022-23 laws?

If you look at the conversion from the 2024 national standards, the fire codes that they would have to bring that building up to, it's just astronomical. There's plumbing issues, which I'm sure they've addressed. I'm sure they're putting the money in. He said he spent a million dollars. To convert hotel rooms with kitchenettes, that requires stoves, ovens, things like that.

electrical issues, ventilation issues, HVAC, no access to the windows, windows don't open, if there's ever fire, ventilation issues. I did see something in the building and codes provision about if the property is serviced by gas, there should be some kind of, they call it a ledge or a fire escape provided to the residents on third floors.

Don't know if that would be applicable here, but if you're doing a conversion where they don't have access where windows are, or no other egress other than just certain hallways. Could be a potential problem with gas leaks, things like that. So I just don't see it as a good use. I think it would eventually drag the town down. And if there are issues with people between the hotel guests and the people that are going to reside there, it's going to reflect negatively on the hotel for Best Western.

And then once word gets out, I don't want to stay there. They got people living upstairs. I just personally don't think it's a good thing. It was rejected four years ago. I don't think it should be brought before the board now to be approved. So that's my opinion. I just don't think it's good for the downtown. We need the hotel. Thank you. Chair, commissioners, Larry Myers, 45-year resident, and I'm going to take a global perspective on this, as I always have in this town.

So, first to answer your question about TCCD, that Farhad didn't answer you, if you rezone it to TCCD by right, They get to do what they need to do. That's why they want the rezone. So let's just answer the question. Second of all, I can't believe we have two departments in this town that are diametrically opposed to the vision of the town. By recommending approval of this, you're working against the Economic Development Committee, which I sit on.

What do we do at the Economic Development Committee? We do two things. A, we try and get a major employer so that we have employment here to bring families to feed the school. We're land, we're land starved because of something we did in 1999 and it became a shopping center that then didn't succeed either. This reminds me of the Target Plaza because that owner of that project closed down an entire end of the shopping center and then said, Oh, geez, we have a dilapidated shopping center.

We don't have any revenue. And by the way, you're not getting any sales tax revenue because all the stores are empty. The third floor is nothing more than a small version of the shopping center. You let an owner do something and then the town fixes it while the economic development department works on tourism? Are you kidding me?

I can even believe that we would recommend approval of this That building belongs as a hotel and maybe not here at the end of your nose it will be filled up But you have a department in town that charged with making a vibrant downtown Studio apartments are not vibrant One-bedroom apartments are not vibrant. We already have a whole bunch of them that should be built, part-placed to finish off the avenue.

Why would we allow somebody to compete with that when they're having enough trouble putting those in? We have 314 more going in and out on Shea Boulevard someday, maybe, who knows. In the meantime, we have an empty half of a shopping center for the last two years that we were promised that this was going to solve that problem. I see this as the same thing, exactly.

Working against the actual vision of the town, which is tourism, and achieving, bringing one corporate entity here to provide jobs for families to put kids into the school. That's all we do. We have two missions. We work on them. And this is working against us because we need the downtown hotel for tourism someday. I hope you reconsider, the ones of you who think this is a great idea, I hope you reconsider after you look at the global picture of this. Thank you. Any other speakers, Paula?

No, Chair. All right, we'll close the public hearing. Um, commissioners, um, I'm gonna let you know where I'm at, and I've shared this with petitioner earlier this week, and I've shared it with director Wesley. Um, chapter 18 of the zoning ordinance covers TCCD zoning and chapter 1803 C allows for multifamily residential as part of a mixed use development, A on a site five acres or larger in size, and B with only commercial retail uses on the first floor.

This site's only three acres and it does not have retail on the first floor, it's a hotel. So my position is that this needs to be a special use permit under C2 zoning. A large part of what we evaluate as a commission, and Commissioner McDermott alluded to it, are the unintended consequences. What happens if we grant this zoning change and the petitioner sells the property? So what does the zoning change allow a new buyer to do with the property?

And if the words in the ordinance don't mean what they say, what do they mean? This should not be TCCD according to the words in the ordinance. And I can't evaluate the unintended consequences, so I cannot recommend the zoning change. At least a special use permit will state exactly what they can do, and it won't grant a plethora of other benefits by right.

So that having been said, I don't want to apply that I would support a special use permit for apartments, I'm not sure if you have a special use permit for apartments, but you do have some support up here for apartments, so I wouldn't discourage you from coming back with a special use permit for C2, but I'll be recommending denial of a zoning change. And with that, I'll open it up to other commissioners. Commissioner McDermott. Can we have John address that?

Whether a special use permit would be applicable? I guess I'd be curious about that. You like to state exactly how you want to ask the question so I answering it Well based on what the chairman cited in the codes is that accurate that there a limitation on the acreage So, there is a statement in there about five acres, but my reading and application of the code as the zone administrator, that is stating if you have five acre site, here are some requirements.

It doesn't mean you have to have five acres to be zoned TCCD. We have other areas on TCCD that aren't five acres in size. And with regard to the other provision about the commercial retail, I don't know why they put those words in there, but when we look around in our mixed-use TCC developments currently in town, they have non-retail uses on the ground floor, and that's been acceptable from the beginning. Any other, anybody else? Commissioner Proctor?

I was just going to add that Commissioner Kovacevic brought, I think, a great idea to research, and that is to permit, or look at our ordinances, to permit long-term rentals under a hotel auspices of the third floor. I know it's capped at 30 days, but I'd love to have that reviewed to see if there's any flexibility that we could, you know, let them do what they're doing, but operate it as a hotel for longer than 30 days. Seems to me as a possible solution. Commissioner Gray, Commissioner Sleum?

I would err away from the last comment. The premise has been for years. We were on the brink of being overrun with sober living operators and housing providers kind of along those same lines. I would stay away from manipulating the durations by the various occupancy or use types. I said the first time to the mic here, I reference special use permit as well. I prefer this under a special use permit. I obviously am not opposed to the occupancy type on the third floor of this.

I think in the downtown district that is perfectly logical. We don't want these types of uses out in the residences. We don't want them on the buffer strips between single families and commercial districts. So now are we going to say we don't want them in the downtown? We've got to allow them somewhere. So I am in favor of allowing the use type, but I'm also much more comfortable doing it under the special use permit to avoid the unintended consequences of changing underlying zoning.

So, you know, I guess my preference, you know, not knowing where the applicant stands or where John stands and Farhad, I'd prefer to, you know, see a semblance of a continuance here and a little bit of a pivot and change course and bring it back. I don't know if there's consensus with the zoning commission that, you know, maybe there is, maybe there isn't, but I'd prefer to see it as a special use permit. Commissioners, anything else? Director Wesley, what's that look like?

Does the form over the substance here, does it matter if we, do we continue it and say come back with a special use permit application, Or do we take a vote tonight? Chair I would suggest that you direct your question to the applicant and see what they are more interested in which path they would prefer to take Okay applicant Would you like to come back with a special use permit application or would you like a vote tonight on the TCCD zoning Mr.

Chair, I don't know that I ever want to come back, but on this application, I actually would like to have an opportunity to discuss this with counsel. It's clear we don't have the votes for your recommendation of approval on the application in front of us. That's not to say that either council has the ability to send us back to planning commission with a different type of application, or we have the ability to come back and try and modify it if there isn't support.

But we would like an opportunity to move forward with this application and then see what the future holds. Okay, thank you. Thank you. So we'll look for a motion. Does somebody want to make a motion? I'd like to make a motion to accept the vote on the ordinance as for the applicant as stated in the agenda. You're making a motion to approve the ordinance? No, no, I'm sorry. I'm saying that I would like to open it up for voting. So I'd like everyone to weigh in.

So what I'm saying is I'm making a motion for a vote. We don't have a motion to vote on yet. Okay. We need a motion and a second. I'll go ahead and make the motion that we move to recommend to council to deny rezoning 3.22 acres is generally located at the northwest corner of Saguaro Boulevard and Paul Norton Parkway from C2 to TCCD. Second. Okay, so we have a motion and a second. Any discussion of the motion? No? Commissioner McDermott, do you have... Okay.

So this is a motion to deny, so a yes vote means we're voting to deny, And a no vote means we're voting to not deny. Can we have a roll call vote? Commissioner Corrigan? Aye, yes. Commissioner Seavum? Aye. Commissioner Proctor? Yes. Commissioner McDermott? No. Vice Chair Gray? Nay. Chair Kovacevic? Yes. 4-2. Thank you very much, Mr. Chair, commissioners. Do we have any speakers for the call to the public? No, Chair. Any updates from director Wesley?

Chair, commissioners, we'll give you an update with regard to next month. We do have a text amendment that we need to bring forward to adjust our ordinances to be in conformance with some legislation from the state during their last session. And so we'll be bringing that as long as we're doing that. I'll bring you the next installment of our overall update to the zoning ordinance. So that'll be in October the 9th, I believe is the second- November. Yeah, excuse me, November. Thank you.

Ninth, whatever the second Monday is of November. So you can look forward to that and then we'll see where we are in terms of this case. It's unlikely that it would be back here that soon. It'd be sometime later, December, January, if this were to come back to you. Thank you. Motion to adjourn? So moved. Second. All in favor? Aye. Aye. We're adjourned.