Buckeye Planning Commission unanimously approves 2,300-acre Grand View industrial hub and Project H2O data center rezoning

To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands nationy and justice for all. Madam Secretary, will you please call roll? Chair Burton, Commissioner Puppy, Commissioner Ragsdale here, Commissioner Cupsick here, Vice Chair Damasio here. Commissioner Bassler here. Commissioner Tiano here on the video. Alternate Hester. Alternate Manual. We have alternate Hester seated for district one. All right. Thank you.

Next item on the agenda is the approval of minutes from the January 27th planning and zoning commission meeting. Have a motion. I move that we accept the minutes as presented. Second that. It's been moved in a second. All in favor? I I Any opposed? I All right. Next up is item 3A, the Grand View of Arizona Reszoning Committee Master Plan Committee. Plan. Yeah. Committee. Master Plan. There you go. Case number PLZZ-23-000016.

So, public hearing requests that the planning and zoning commission recommends approval to city council. Mr. Mr. Glea, Vice Chair, uh, as the vice chair mentioned, this is the reasonzoning for Grand View, Arizona, uh, to Community Master Plan. Just want to point out real quickly, um, we've since retitled the CMP district to planned area developments. This was in progress kind of before we made that change. So, we're still sticking with the old lingo here, uh, but essentially the same thing.

You likely remember um this showing up on three prior agendas. Uh the commission has continued this item three previous times. We're not asking for a continuence this evening. Um we are asking for a recommendation. We have worked out um the the uh the stipulations. So um the applicant tonight is Alan Boddman with Norris Design on behalf of the Grand View Buckeye LLC.

The request is to reszone the property from a combination of uh R143 rural rural residential light industrial I1 and uh the obsolete rural uh residential zoning district to community master plan. Uh I'll show you a map in just a second, but the area is generally bounded by Broadway, Jack Rabbit, MC85, and Dean. Uh and totals just under 2,300 acres. Uh there is a related request to annex most of this site. uh the portion that's not within the city currently. Um that is uh in process.

It had its first uh city council hearing uh a few months back and and when everything is is ready to go forward, it will go forward for approval at the same time as as this resoning. Uh so I mentioned just under 2,300 acres. Uh take these a little bit out of order. the the middle map uh the zoning map shows uh the of course the zoning districts that are applied to the property but the white uh shows the area that is currently located within Maricopa County that's subject to the annexation.

So you can see most of the site currently in the county uh with uh the gray color being light industrial uh green rural residential uh and then a small segment of uh SF or excuse me the the rest of it when it is annexed would would be coming in as single family rural residential. Um going to now to the area on the left left hand side of your screen. Uh you can see the site is relatively remote with regard to uh existing development. It's primarily agriculture on uh almost all sides.

There are some isolated uh residential uh smaller kind of county residential pockets uh in and around the area as well. Uh and the general plan land use map uh property is designated as employment. A few years ago, a major general plan amendment was processed for the property uh that changed this to employment and uh with the thought that the the city could attract a large mega user uh industrial employment generating type of development to the site. Uh and that reflects that.

We just recently uh within the last few months um had the general plan text amendment approved that did allow for uh council to consider other uses within employment such as residential. Um so the vision for this project is a rail served regional industrial hub uh with complimentary secondary commercial as well as residential uses both single family and multifamilies. Okay. And to do that it identifies three uh distinct land use districts.

uh number one being regional employment which is uh shown here and I'll get into each of these in a little bit more detail the purple uh residential village shown here in the yellow and the commercial district shown there in the red. So again the the overall vision is for this to be an an employment focused development. Um, with that, uh, being the case, um, the CMP would allow for the entire site minus 32 acres, um, to be developed with industrial uses.

Um, that would include a range of light industrial, uh, some heavy industrial, but there are conditions associated with that, uh, and other employment generating uses such as manufacturing, uh, logistics, research, development, data centers, and the like. Um the in in staff's view the objectionable uses such as marijuana related establishments, junkyards, uh things that have a negative aesthetic uh impact on a city have been removed. Um and rail access is prioritized within this CMP.

As you can see, the rail uh runs uh kind of snakes through the project uh on an angle here. And then this is the canal uh that does even more more turning. Um so a lot of rail frontage both on the north and south sides uh for this project. Um I'll talk about this in a little bit more depth uh later in my presentation, but heavy industrial uses I mentioned uh some are permitted within the PAD within the CMP, excuse me.

Um none of them would be allowed along any arterial street forming the perimeter of the site. So you wouldn't be able to to see them from off property. uh as well as adjacent to any residential. Uh the development standards, your setbacks, your building heights, uh etc. are based on our I1 and I2 districts um with some modifications uh and a real heavy focus within this document if you had a chance to look at it on transitions between industrial and residential uses.

Uh the residential village district um again shown here in the yellow on this map kind of at the northwest, southwest, and southeast corners of the project. Um would uh would accommodate employees um folks that that want to live close to their job potentially. Um I do want to point out that these locations are uh subject to some modification. There's language within the CMP that allows them to shift around uh slightly.

Um, but in no case would the residential be allowed to kind of create an island where it's surrounded by industrial uses. Excuse me. Uh, this could be up to 750 acres. Um, and a combination of single family and multif family. So, the multif family uh would not exceed the 150 acres. So, leaving 600 acres for single family potentially with a unit count cap at 6,500. Uh, and the development standards are based on our development code. Uh and then finally the the commercial district.

This is intended to accommodate community neighborhoods serving commercial types of uses, restaurant, retail services for uh for the surrounding residents, not just within this development but future developments in the area as well. Um this would be 32 to 235 acres. is a minimum of 32 uh just to ensure there's at least some commercial uh service for uh to support the development uh and the services and needs of the employees.

Um the development standards are based on our C2 district with uh some modifications to uh limit the intensity of some of the uses. Uh I mentioned briefly I'll I'll dive in a little bit more detail land use transitions.

Uh our general plan, as you likely remember, includes employment transition area expectations that talk about minimizing truck traffic impact on residential, uh creating a good uh high quality uh visual from the perspective of streets, so not seeing loading areas, uh those types of things, really good screening. Um so this this P A or CMP uh gets at that um through prohibiting the heavy industrial uses again on the perimeter of the site within 500 ft of that perimeter.

Uh also with uh fairly um fairly large setbacks uh 75 ft building setback to any industrial building uh but a double setback 150 foot setback to the service side. Uh that's from any residential property. Uh and then there's there's a landscape buffer requirement as well. Uh design is is purely conceptual at this point.

There's there's no identified users or buildings uh for this development, but uh there will be an expectation that that the development will present nicely uh to folks that are driving by it. Facades that are visible from streets as well as any neighborhoods will uh feature movement uh interest, architectural interest, variety and materials, etc. Uh landscaping will will be drought tolerant but also be used to um to screen, buffer as well as provide shade. uh and enhance aesthetics.

And then lastly, um signage. Uh if the future State Route 30 runs through or adjacent to this project, uh the project would be eligible for billboards in compliance with our code. They would still have to meet all the other requirements uh within our code. We're not sure if that will happen. Uh the alignment hasn't been chosen. Uh this project has um doesn't influence, I guess, the uh the alignment as chosen by ADAT.

Uh as with most of our our CMPs, the developer will be responsible for street improvements uh both internal to the project as well as half streetet improvements on the perimeter of the project. So that would include your your improvements to MC85 and to Dean uh on the perimeter, but also all the streets that run through it.

Um, one uh potential caveat is Southern Avenue potentially could be terminated or discontinued through the site uh to allow, you know, a 2,000 acre um industrial user that that might not want a a street bisecting the project. Uh water and wastewater will be provided by the city, but there's no facilities for that currently.

So, the developer will uh be constructing a new on-site regional water and wastewater facilities uh to serve the development, but you'll have the benefit of also serving uh some of the surrounding properties. Uh there will be a public safety uh site to be provided uh within this development. Specific location will be worked out during the development agreement which we're currently working on. Uh this does allow phasing. As I said, there's no uh current users identified.

Um but if somebody wants to develop a portion of it, they will be able to. Uh and again, I mentioned the development agreement. Uh this project has been in for a long time. Um we started back in 2003 with review. Uh there's a neighborhood meeting held back in April of 2024. Um and then the applicant had provided notice at that time. Uh there was 13 attendees to that meeting.

uh and my understanding I wasn't there but uh primary discussion at that time focused on uh the state route 30 the alignment and its impacts on the flood plane if that would put any adjacent properties into the flood plane. Uh again kind of a separate issue from from what we're dealing with tonight but still a good discussion. U we've had additional discussions with some of the owners in the vicinity of this site.

um they've had questions or wanting to know uh when this developer brings water and sewer campus to this area if their properties would benefit from that or be able to tie into those systems. Uh again the item was previously continued uh three times and all notices have been completed as required. Uh so uh wrapping up here um we do feel as a staff um that approval of this um well certainly approval of the annexation is required first not by planning and zoning commission.

You guys don't consider the annexation. Um but when we go to council they'll need to approve the annexation uh before the property can be reszoned. Um, we do feel that the CMP is consistent with the employment land use designation uh, especially with the uh, 2025 uh, September 2025 amendment uh, that allowed for council to consider uh, residential within uh, CMPS and PADS as long as there's criteria to mitigate any impacts.

Um it does further multiple general plan goals from an economic development perspective related to increasing employment opportunities uh particularly adjacent to rail. Um we uh have worked with the applicant to limit uses as as we feel are appropriate heavier industrial uses as I mentioned restricted to the interior of the site.

Um the development standards uh within the CMP are tailored to ensure compatibility between the different uses as well as provide connectivity from a pedestrian standpoint between the residential uh potential residential and the commercial and again infrastructure improvements most notably the water and sewer but also street improvements uh will benefit the surrounding properties.

Uh so vice chair with that long-winded presentation uh I am at your uh beck and call with regard to questions and this is a public hearing. Uh Alan Boddwin with Norris Design is here on behalf of the uh property owner. All right. Does Alan wish to share anything or have anything prepared? if you would just state your name and your address for the record, please. Absolutely. Uh, good evening, uh, Vice Chair Damasio and members of the planning commission. For the record, my name's Alan Bodwin.

I'm with Norris Design, my office at 901 East Madison Street and Phoenix. Would you like your slides up or um, Chairman? What I'd like to do I I I believe is uh we I I don't know if you have any cards here uh regarding speaking tonight, but it would appear that that's probably not the case. Um there's a lot of redundancy between the presentation that we have prepared and what Ken just delivered. And so at this time, I think we'll we'll just uh suggest that we rely on Ken's presentation.

Um, but I I do want to identify our project team and say thanks to them and thanks to the staff for all the hard work. As Ken put in his presentation, we've been at this for quite some time. It's a pretty complicated plan, but I think we arrived in a in a pretty good spot. Um, so as he indicated, Grand View Buckeye LLC is the land ownership and the land ownership group is here tonight. Um I represented land planning and landscape architecture uh at Norris Design.

Um we had legal uh representation by Gamage and Burnham. Uh Mandela Voss is here tonight. Uh if anything comes up regarding that civil engineering it's represented by Cers um and they looked at the water and the wastewater there is a large public facilities campus in the middle of the plan. Um that's a part of the plan.

And then our traffic engineering staff did some uh pretty significant work uh working with your team uh as it relates to the traffic component and that's Civ um and and the team at CIFT. So I I wanted to thank them and I wanted to thank the staff for their hard work to get us to this point tonight and happy to answer any questions or respond to any public comment. Fantastic. Thank you. Start down here. Mr. No questions. I have no questions. Thank you. No questions. Mr.

Triviaiana, do you have any questions? No questions. Uh just a comment. We're going to have to get industrial more industrial on Buckeye and I think near Royal is a good place for it to go. Second that motion. Uh I just had one question just for clarification. Kane on the the one of the slides you mentioned that there's a 30foot uh landscape buffer. Is was that just for the industrial part or the uh Yes.

So that that would apply um when industrial uh develops next to u residential within the CMP um or if the uh in the case that the the industrial is there first uh then the residential I believe still has the the obligation to provide it on that side of the property. Gotcha. Okay. Thank you. All right. At this time we'll open up the public hearing. Madam Chair, do we have anybody that wish to speak on this? We do not. Hearing that, I will close this public hearing. All right.

Can I get a motion to recommend to cancel case PLZ-2300-000016? I will move that we uh recommend the approval of Grand View, Arizona CMP PLZ-23- uh with a conditions A through J. That I second that. It's been moved and seconded. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Motion carries. Next up is our regular agenda item 4A project H2O reszone modification specification. Uh modification of specifications for case number PLZM-25-07 and that is by Joseph. Welcome Joseph.

Thank you chair and members of the coni commission. Uh project H2O reszone. It it's a actually a proposed modification of stipulations of uh formally adopted ordinance number 18-23. All right. I'm glad you're able to say that better than me. Benefit of the screen right in front of me here and I wrote wrote it. All right. So, just just a brief snapshot here. Um uh the site is generally located west of the northwest corner of Patterson Road and 283rd Avenue.

It is um in the southern portion of the city's jurisdiction um kind of a ways west of State Route 85. Um the request is to modify some of those previously approved conditions of um ordinance number 18-23. Specifically, they're going to be looking to remove condition A um and then modify conditions B and D. Um the site is approximately 157 acres. I'll give more information on that in just a moment here. Um here you can see uh just kind of a general aerial of the site.

Um, as I mentioned, it's northeast of Patterson and 283rd Avenue. It's located in an area uh that has a lot of um kind of existing um electrical and energy infrastructure either going in or planned. uh several large solar uh production facilities are in the general v vicinity of of the site and there are several others that are uh contemplated in the future. Um the general plan designates this area as employment uh which coincides with the existing uh heavy industrial zoning.

Uh both the current land use designation and the current zoning were adapted in May of 2023. Uh the purpose of um the existing zoning was initially for a hydrogen gas production facility. Um it the intent was that the site would actually be producing hydrogen for a fuel source. um market conditions have changed and that is no longer a viable kind of option for the use of the property.

Uh so the applicant is requesting those modifications primarily to um the previous modifications uh made the use of the property contingent on only hydrogen production. Uh so the modifications will remove that contingency and allow for expanded industrial uses consistent with the general I2 heavy industrial zoning designation and it will remain consistent with the um employment general plan land use designation as well.

Um the applicant has indicated that the um primary objective uh for the property is for a data center campus. Um there have not been any uh formal submitts for a site plan for data centers on the site. However, there is an active site plan application for a EPS substation on the property which would in turn support um either future data center uh campuses or other industrial users on the property. Um as mentioned, it's proposed to delete stipulation A, modify stipulations B and D.

Uh it should be noted that the um larger property surrounding the subject site which comprises approximately 920 acres is also owned by the same ownership group. Um that property was not included in the original uh reszone or general plan amendment in 2023. It is not proposed to be included in in this request.

It's not subject to this request, but it should just be noted that in the event that the data center campus is successful, it could eventually be included in future reszoning and a potentially major comprehensive plan amendment to allow expansion of either a data center campus or other industrial uses on the property. Um, next steps uh following today's hearing would be um formal adoption of the modifications by mayor and city council. Um I did forget to add one step in here.

If they do um continue with if the applicant continues with their plan for data centers uh that would require a conditional use permit which would be brought before uh the commission uh for consideration. Uh and then uh with the approval of both uh these modifications and a future conditional use permit uh they would be able to come in for an administrative site plan approval. Right.

Um staff's recommendation is that the commission conduct a public hearing and we recommend that you recommend approval of PLCM subject to modified stipulations. Be happy to answer any questions at this time. Uh, no questions. No questions. Thank you. No questions. All right. No questions from us. We'll open this for public hearing. Is there any questions from There is none questions. I'll close the hearing. Ready for We're ready for a motion.

Can I hear a motion to approve the case PLZM-250107 subject to conditions A through L? I move we um recommend I move we approve plzm-25-107 subject to modified stipulations A through L. A second. I second it. Moved and second. All in favor say I. I. Any opposed? All right, that passes. Moving on to the next thing, comments from the public. Any members of the audience may have com uh comments from the public? Non-aggenda items. Sorry. I'm sorry, vice chair.

We do not Hey, I'm learning along the way, too. It's okay. All right. No comments from the public. Uh how about plane manager report? Good evening, vice chair. Got to get this on record. I can't uh can't get on you guys about not using the microphone if I don't use the microphone. Um good evening. Um I don't have too much tonight. Uh airfare as as Diana mentioned before the meeting is this weekend. So hopefully um I'll see you guys there. I I'll confirmed I'll be there on Saturday.

Um so I'll come get a beer. Probably shouldn't have said that on the record. Um we also have uh as of now one item for the next PNZ meeting February 24th. Um that will be a reasonzoning uh for a project called Buckeye 83. So look forward to bringing that forward um to you then. And u have a happy Valentine's Day. I hope if you want to get struck by Cupid Zero uh I wish you all the best. All right. Thank you, sir. Uh, planning zone commission summary of current events.

Do we have any current events we wish to share other than the airfare? Airfare. Airfare sounds like it is. Mr. Tribiano, do you have anything to add? Uh, share to uh John Willlet and his group um the the transportation. They actually took care of a problem here in Sienna Hills. Um, it was really appreciated that they did that and just want to say good job. I've been wanting to tell him for a week or two now. I just got other things going on. So, all right. Thank you for sharing.

Anybody up on the council? The only thing I could uh address would be I am officially now a great grandfather. Oh, wow. A baby. Yay. Congratulations. That's another girl. Mr. Razel, do you have anything to share? No, thank you. All right. Good. No comments. All right. With all that said, this meeting is adjourned.