Buckeye Planning Commission unanimously approves Greenlight Verrado 46-acre mixed-use development with attainable housing

e e e welcome everyone we please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all Adam secretary will you please take role chair Burton presid commissioner puppy commissioner ragdale here commissioner cbsi here Vice chair damasio commissioner Bassler commissioner trupiano here alternate Hester here alternate Manuel alternate belie alter McDonald we will have alternate Hester seated for District 4 thank you Mrs Hernandez the next item on the agenda is approval of the minutes from the February 11th 2025 Planning and Zoning commission regular meeting are there any edits to the meeting if not may I have a motion I motion that we approve the minutes from the February 11th 2025 plan zon commission meeting I'll I'll second that all in favor I I any opposed motion passes ska regular agenda item number 3A Greenlight verado resoning to planned area development PL zz- 24-11 the mic working I think it is thank you chair members of the commit um good to be before you again this evening for our last meeting in February so uh tonight light agenda only one item and it is a rezoning for a project called Greenlight verado uh so the site is about 46 Acres just a little over 46 Acres located at the northeast corner of verado way and uh the van Bean Street alignment U the reason I say alignment is currently Van beeren Street dead ends at the uh at verado way does not continue to the east the ultimate plan is for uh vanen to continue further east uh before curving down and uh connecting with tut Hill on uh uh to the east of of the property here so um that eventually will continue so if you didn't know that uh the surrounding properties are uh mostly currently undeveloped the property directly to the South across man Bean Street uh is uh owned by Arizona state land Department it's a big part of the landing specific area plan area that we're planning um the property west across verado away is the West Mech facility uh and then to the north are two properties that have recently been rezoned and uh various other entitlements are in process for for multif family residential a project called The Mix at Roosevelt with Pros uh and the verado High Street project both of those came before the commission somewhat recently uh to the east is a flood control district of Maricopa County Drainage uh structure uh and the city has a water campus facility there too uh as you can see kind of carved out at the southeast corner of the site uh the site also has a couple uh little weird niches um those are four City wellsite facilities see at the southwest corner and northeast corner um the uh project zoning is currently planned residential it's a obsolete single family zoning District uh and with the general plan designation as you can see on the map on the right being part of the landing Gateway Activity Center area um traditional single family homes is not the city's vision for this area it's uh the vision is for a much more intense area consisting of uh commercial intense commercial uses uh potentially office as well as the residential that's needed to uh support those commercial uses uh which is why we're seeing a lot of multip family uh in the uh in the area being proposed and that's uh kind of in line with with what the city is looking for uh so the uh request tonight is to rezone this subject property again just a little over 46 acres to planned area development um the pad uh proposes to develop the uh site with five separate uh Parcels um Each of which would relate to one another but they would be separate development the first excuse me excuse me uh the first is parcel a and that's shown in the red on the graphic here at the North West corner of the site uh that is the commercial parcel it's about 5.7 Acres um and we'll be allowed uh tailored commercial uses and I'll discuss what those are in just a second um Parcels b c and d b is uh here C is the North Parcel here and D is this uh darker yellow parcel at the southeast corner of the site uh each of those is uh anticipated to develop with multif family residential uh Parcels B and C um would be developed with market rate multif family residential whereas parcel d uh is expected to develop with uh what the developers is calling attainable multif family that's U basically product type uh rent expected rent that would uh cater to uh teachers uh public servants uh those types of salaries that might be a little bit below average um but it's not like a a voucher or other affordable type of program and then parcel e here on the far East side of the site is reserved for an expansion of the city's water campus facility so uh that would support development not just this development but uh development in the area as a whole uh so I'll walk you through with a little bit more detail the commercial parcel parcel a again uh is based on the city's C2 Community commercial zoning District uh with a few modifications all intended to further uh the kind of the vision for the landing and again um The Landing we see it as maybe a kand type of area in the future a very intense mix of commercial and residential uses uh and to achieve that um we want to get the proper type of form design uh as well as the right mix of uses in this area so um within uh within parcel a auto intensive and low intensity commercial uses the types of things that you wouldn't necessarily want to walk to uh if you lived in the area would be prohibited and that includes things like Car Sales car washes data centers and mini storage and a few others the h the maximum setback uh that will be provided from all adjacent streets uh will be established in this document currently our our code doesn't uh establish any maximum setbacks it requires a minimum setback to get a landscape area in front but you could set the set the building back 200 ft and have parking in front this would not allow for that this would require uh all buildings adjacent to the streets uh be no more than 20 feet back that uh to get that kind of desired more urban form that you would see in a more Urban developed area uh this also establishes a minimum Building height of 15 feet again for the same reasons to try to make it feel like a more urban type of environment uh it also reduces uh the building setback internal to the project uh between the commercial and adjacent multif family Parcels typically there'd be a 50 foot building setback required in this case because it is a unified development um under kind of a master plan type of concept that would be R to 20 ft um much more in line with that Urban style of development as well U parking would be prohibited between the building in the street so uh when you do drive down verado once the site is developed uh you would see building Frontage basically continuous uh as well as for Philmore and Van Beren the multif family uh standards for Parcels b c and d uh and even though parcel D is is for attainable housing um all the same standards apply uh so the same level of quality in terms of architectural design would would be required for that uh so put any fears to rest um the MF mf2 District would establish the permitted uses which is just a residential use of the property so there's no modifications proposed to that a lot of these same uh same modifications to the setbacks uh as was proposed for the commercial we would again establish the maximum building set back to get those residential buildings placed up at the street um we would establish a minimum Building height of 30 ft or roughly three stories uh with a maximum up to 65 neither uh there's neither a minimum or a maximum that is uh established in mf2 uh it just but increase the landscape percentage on the property up to uh 15% 5% increase over what our typical requirement is uh there would be a reduction in parking lot landscape Islands uh from what typically would be required usually we get one landscape Island per every 10 spaces uh this would be one for 16 but again those parking lot uh Lots will be located interior to the site where they're less visible and uh need a little bit less in terms of landscape treatment um the guest parking requirements are proposed uh to be reduced through this pad as well um but specifically as it relates to uh developments or or Parcels that develop with a high percentage of studio and one bedroom uh units that's the thinking behind that is uh those units don't necessarily have a lot of space for uh to have friends over and socialize um so you're less likely to uh need those guest parking spaces um so that would basically be reduced from our typical of one space one guest space per five units uh to one guest space per 10 and then lastly uh parking as well as fencing so you won't have a perimeter wall on the outside of the project it'll uh the first thing you'll see is the is the building um that would be uh prohibited between uh the street as and the uh on the face of the building uh contemporary architecture will be required through this uh proposed P um there will be common elements colors materials to be shared across the full site that does not mean all the buildings on all five Parcels will will look identical um there's just a requirement that a certain uh you know maybe a material or a form or specific uh color um kind of binds the five uh Parcels together so um we would be complimentary kind of variations within a theme is is kind of what would be expected uh standard requirements for facade articulation movement roof line height variation Etc would be provided um there are representative images within the document you can see a few that I've uh pasted on this uh slide here um these are not necessarily representative of the exact buildings that will be placed on the site this is more of a uh identifying the quality of buildings the the movement the uh plane changes facade variations Etc these are examples from in in the most part from uh devels that this particular developer has done elsewhere um but the the architecture in this project would be determined during the site plan stage man like Robert Kennedy this is water you sure the exact elevations will be determined during the uh site plan stage uh and they will be required to to meet the architectural guidelines within the document itself um so this is a good good kind of example of the quality but exactly what it ends up looking like will be determined during the site plan which will eventually come back before the the pnz um moving on probably the the biggest uh Factor um one of the biggest considerations that I had when I was reviewing this project uh was to prioritize circulation Again The Landing is really intended to be that walkable uh area where if you live there you can uh you know probably live without a car or at least not use it that often uh walk and do your shopping Etc um so in terms of circulation the developer will complete allent half Street improvements that's typical um so they'll improve um Filmore verado and vanen Street um there will be uh multiple points of vehicular access to each parcel I'll scroll back um so you see just taking parcel c as an example uh two conceptual access is shown from uh from Filmore Street to that parcel uh the commercial parcel wouldn't have direct access from either street instead it would have uh utilize this private Loop Road that will kind of surround the parcel and that uh that Loop Road is kind of Handy and providing additional access uh to some of the multif family Parcels as well uh a comprehensive pedestrian network is required via the the pad so they will be providing that and we'll we'll dial down on that what that looks like at the site plan stage um a few cool elements are memorialized within the document itself um the first is the concept of a centralized landscaped and lit trail that provides um good pedestrian connectivity for the residential Parcels with minimal vehicular Concepts or conflicts excuse me um so you see here you follow my mouse uh this green Corridor and then it uh wraps West here um terminating at the the Loop Road um would provide access to residents of all of the uh three different multi family communities to the commercial and then beyond so if uh the residents wanted to do some shopping North up at Costco or something else they'd have that very easy access uh the site is lower in grade than the adjacent street so verado is about six feet taller than the grade of the site so that makes it very hard from a uh standpoint of of providing a sidewalk connection um so to achieve that the uh developer is proposed in in the p8 a pedestrian bridge concept to the commercial parcel um that would offer a uh a connection to that sidewalk and and also create a pretty interesting in my opinion kind of architectural feature that will distinguish the site uh in terms of uh staff's analysis um we believe that the p is consistent with what the city's vision is for this area The Landing um IT addresses is multiple different General plan goals and policies related to uh provision of different types of Housing and achieving uh the goals for activity centers um it does as I hopefully have highlighted emphasize The Pedestrian quite uh significantly and its uh design requirements the commercial uses have been tailored uh to those that we feel are appropriate uh for a mixed use walkable type of development uh the Aesthetics the design standards within the document uh again all kind of try to get to the same point which is an urban vertical uh and contemporary aesthetic for the project um any development standards that are proposed are in furtherance of that goal uh in my opinion they haven't proposed any uh requested modification to a standard uh that would result in any sort of reduction in quality uh I mentioned already but the developer will uh improve all the infrastructure required for the project uh development on the individual Parcels will will provide uh for variety as well and um there are no outstanding comments from reviewing departments including traffic and fire I know those come up quite a bit I did want to mention I didn't list it on the slide but I go back to this map um to avoid the streets being under construction multiple times um we have uh we have worked with the developer to uh come up with a requirement in the P that uh the first parcel that develops adjacent to a particular Street will complete all of that street Frontage so uh for instance let's just take parcel B uh if this is the first thing to come in multif family on parcel B uh they would complete verado way not just adjacent to the yellow here um but the full length all the way up to Filmore and they would complete van beIN all the way uh from verado way to the edge of the property um similar with with parcel C uh they would complete filmer the full way including in front of the commercial parcel so it's a way to uh reduce the frequency of uh Street construction uh rather than you know person doing its little bit and then be finishing off of right away uh public participation uh there was a neighborhood meeting back in middle of December at the coyote Branch Library there have uh there were no attendees to that meeting uh we have also receive no uh written support or opposition uh to this to date um a good reason for for limited participation for this is the property is surrounded by very big properties it doesn't uh the 500t radius that uh the city city requires doesn't uh hit any single family residential uh properties um the developer is working with Liberty un uh Elementary School District on a donation agreement uh and the Buckeye Union High School District which is actually the owner of the site selling to the developer has indicated uh they're fine and they they have adequate capacity um so with that chair uh members of the commission we do recommend approval of this resoning uh subject to conditions a through double G and we plan on uh with with Council or excuse me with commission's uh recommendation this evening taking it Taking this forward to Council next month thank you Mr galika is the applicant here and would he or she like to well he because there's no she's in here like to speak yes please hello uh Jeff Bley 701 North 44 Street here on behalf of the applicant yeah I'll just bring up a couple things that k um didn't quite didn't hit on uh as Ken mentioned we are under we are under contract with the high school district this is an old high school district piece of property that we're under contract to purchase the high school district as Ken also pointed out there's a water campus on the site to our Southeast Corner they participated in that in that when another client of mine constructed that camp campus so they have some water capacity in that plant um and all the water infrastructure is in place for this development we we worked with the city on the expansion the campus has point and Ken pointed out that parcel e will be dedicating to that to the city once we close and in exchange for that the city agreed to give us the additional water we needed to develop the property as anticipated um which also caps our density at what it is so we have a we have a fix to fin cap on the amount of units that we can develop uh I know when we met with some of the mayor and some of the council members they kind of wanted more density here if we could go even higher but we're pretty much maxed out so if if this develops as we've anticipated and typically these come in usually a little lower than what's in the pad but that's the most we can do uh but we accommodated for the commercial uh we had some good discussions with K on the commercial there's a lot of commercial in the area as everybody's aware I live in verado so I know there's a lot of commercial the area so you've got hundreds of Acres of commercial being developed to our North so this is more this we saw this piece as more strategically located for that highdensity residential to support that it's consistent with the general plan it's absolutely consistent with the landing that hasn't been adopted yet but is still going through the process so um we think that that what we're proposing really fits in well here for your support and here to answer any questions you might have to happy to answer any thank you no questions thank you scet no thank no questions thank you thank you Mr tester no questions Mr Bassler um and reading through the material number one I'm in support of the project I just some clarification um B and C have 24 units per acre and uh area D has 54 units per acre yes what what is the kind of the difference with area D versus B and C sure uh and Greenlight is the applicant and so what they're going to develop and if you're not familiar with their product they have uh they do what can mention a more attainable housing now it's not a it's not subsidized housing it's not Section 8 but what they do is they build a product they can they can build it and and make it more affordable more attainable they can keep rents three four $500 less than the market rate the same type of unit but what they do build is is traditionally on parcel D you're going to see a lot of studios and one bedrooms that's that's what they that's why the density is higher they they build a lot of the smaller units which is going to frankly work out really well because they're under contract to sell parcel B to another more attainable type developer who focuses on the two and three and larger units so the two units are going to really work well together um I was going to mention I didn't thank I'm glad you answer but if you if you want to see a sample of what green light does they're doing a very similar project right now next to goodier City Hall if you drive up to goodier City Hall just to the north you'll see one of their projects uh and they were real anxious to get that because they provide that that housing that you know people that work for City Hall can actually afford and it's kind of housing that my kids are looking to try to find because it's it's hard for people in their 20 to find lives but so they've got they've got a piece right up by Goodyear city hall and then another project south of it 10 on Bullard as well Bullard and and beon I believe that's why the density is higher on that piece because it's focused on predominantly studio and single bedroom single one-bedroom unit okay that just seemed like a lot on an acre that's why I asked yeah it is it does seem like a lot but if you go look at one of their project you'll see that how it works okay thank you Bastian yes uh I got a couple questions um when I brought this up to some neighbors and stuff one of the first things that came up is all the time is traffic V's already got a ton of traffic on it I assume all the proper traffic Studies have been done cities sign off on the traffic studies yeah commissioner that is correct they did submit a traffic impact statement with with this project um they will be completing their their portion of the improvements um most of the stuff north of them um is planned to get completed as well so I think the bottleneck from Van Beren up to I 10 uh should be resolved here in in the near future that doesn't necessarily mean the function of the freeway is going to be resolved and and the on-ramp um that I think John mentioned at our last meeting um might be a little bit further down the road but yes um per our studies everything will still function at a reasonable level of operation and uh as far as Filmore Street goes I know there plans for north of Filmore Street and now there's plans south of Filmore Street what's the time mean on that because just having I'm thinking about the whole entire construction multiple times they're going be the north half and the South half I know the developer doesn't want to do the whole entire thing himself I think we we're working in coordination with the developers on the North half uh so they can go in at one and and and Dan just pointed out to me that our plan is to do all of the improvements around the whole site right away okay that's the plan is to do the van beer and the Filmore so it's all done up front so anybody can go and then do their I to hear that and then part parcel D where's the second exit uh parcel D has an emergency exit or will have an emergency exit through one uh through the adjacent partial it'll have to be parcel c um it's not shown on here but that would be worked out through the site plan stage okay and speaking about the site plan is are all five going to come to us on one site plan or is it no those will they'll all be they'll all come to you separately those I was just curious about that part that's all the questions I have thank you ragdale I have a question you said that the company was building some apartments on Bullard and vuran yes where are are they on Bullard or are they on Van on the northwest corner of Bullard and vanan yes and and then if you go to Good to Your City Hall you know where that's at it's kind of north of McDow if you just go another few blocks up from there you'll see their project up there as well if you wanted to get a look at that before we come back for site plan you could take a look and see what the building well I I was driving down there and the only ones that stood out to me were the ones on the south side of the road between Bullard and um estrea were not very attractive so I'm glad that wasn't yours and there's there's a few unattractive ones out there that we avoiding including one in never mind please too close to home I think we know which one you're talk as a Bucky resident let's move on all right I have a question for you sir what is going to determine which plot or which project gets built first whoever wants to we don't really know who's going to go first um there's there's no order like again what what we're planning to do is all the infrastructure so whoever wants to go first go first and it won't cause any disruption for whoever goes second um as of right now you'll probably see either b or d but again that could switch around we we have somebody interested in B my clients are looking at doing D um we could turn around and have somebody interested in doing C right away so it's hard to it's hard to say who's going to go first but what we will have is all the infrastructure in place understood thank you thank you sir at this time I will open it up for a public hearing Madam Secretary we have no submitted thank you I'll be closing that public hearing may I have a motion I will make a motion to approve green light verado reone plzz d2400 11 one with subject to conditions a through double G I'll second that thank you there's been a motion and a second all those in favor say I I I all those opposed or is there anyone opposed I didn't think so motion clear passes thank you all right number four comments from the public thank you ska good evening again chair uh very almost nothing to say tonight other than we have uh I believe as of now three items scheduled for next uh next meeting so I think that's March 11th if my calendar is correct um it's possible we might add a couple more before that meeting so um look forward to seeing you in a couple weeks thank you Commissioners nothing thank you CS I I have a question and you might you probably won't be able to answer it okay yeah yeah I just just it's just it's a overall question I'll ask you offline thank you no questions no thank you Mr T any comments uh only that uh tomorrow is planning day and the capital and it's also chamber day at the capital so I will be right there I I have both agendas going I will see you there oh good good it's also well Teddy can tell you also my birthday Mr Bassler I get spin you sure now no I'm not Mr Bassler problem thank you sebastin I'd just like to comment on the air show airfare that happened it was great it was awesome um um it just keeps on getting better and better every year so that was great and also do want to comment and I I don't know if this I can say this but our attorneys would tell me but uh there was something discussed it last week at the city council meeting that was our uh um audit the city's audit I'm proud that our city passed the audit um with all the corruption that you hear about not really corruption but all the mismanagement you hear about in other government agencies it's nice to know that we live in a city that actually cares about its residents and passes an audit with basically flying colors so it was nice to hear that from the council last week thank you I was going to say that just so that you know that I was going to say that but but that's okay uh I do I do have do uh I'd like to say uh that yes tomorrow is Miss csx's birthday uh so if we could just think happy thoughts we're not going to sing we're going home and uh we have nothing else so if that's it this meeting is adjourned happy birthday thank you