Scottsdale unanimously approves Fifth and Goldwater mixed-use development, 5-story transformative project

All right, I am going to call this meeting to order of the Scottsdale Development Review Board. Good afternoon everyone. Welcome. Uh the purpose of the development review board is to maintain the quality development in Scottsdale by reviewing all design aspects of proposed development and the relationship of its design components to the surrounding environment and community.

The board will the board also reviews all preliminary plat subdivisions to asssure conformance to policies and ordinance requirements. Okay, roll call. Caitlyn, Councilwoman McGawan, present. Vice Chair Brand here. Commissioner Joiner here. Board member Peaser here. Board member Fake. Board member Mason here. Board member Robinson here. Six present. Thank you. Thank you. All right. So, with that, um, we have no, unless there's anybody wanting to talk that hasn't filled out card.

I don't see anyone. Um, we don't have anybody for non-aggendaized comment. So, we will wait till we get to um agendaized. Uh, at this time, we will have administrative report. Thank you. Good afternoon, Councilwoman McAllen. Members of the board, just want to note that our next regularly scheduled meeting is two weeks from now, uh, November 20th. We do have a couple items on that agenda. So hopefully we can see you then. Um, post that, I think we are looking at just one hearing in December.

Um, December 11th is what we're tenatively targeting at this point. So, uh, November 20th, December 11th for the next two meetings. With that, that concludes my administrative report. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um, let's see. Uh, do I have a motion for the approval of the October 9th, 2025 development review board meeting minutes? So, moved. Second. Thank you. All those in favor? Roll call. Okay. Uh, Councilman McAllen, I. Vice Chair Brand, yes. Commissioner Joiner, yes.

Board member Paser, yes. Board member Mason. Yes. Board member Robinson. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um and do we want to take public comment before the presentation or after? Council McAllen, we typically do that after both staff and applicant presentation. Excellent. Okay. Well, then on the regular agenda item number three is 41DR2024 fifth and Goldwater mixed use. Okay. And uh Commissioner Brandt is recusing himself from this um item.

Good afternoon uh Council McAllen, uh Commissioner Joiner, and board members. Greg Bloomberg uh with current planning here to give you an introductory presentation for case 41DR 2024 uh which is the fifth and gold water mixed use. Uh my presentation is going to focus primarily on the site design and a few elements other elements related to site and then the applicant's presentation will get more into the building design.

So the site is located at the northwest corner of Indian School in Goldwater. Encompasses approximately three and a half acres. Uh to the east is single story. A lot of retail and office uses. Uh most of the buildings in that area are are either one or twotory. Uh and then of course we have the canal uh along the uh just to the north of the site. Uh this is an older aerial. Uh most all these buildings have been demolished but it was previously home to uh a hotel.

Uh there used to be a village in there and there used to be uh some commercial retail but that has all been uh demolished. So a quick summary as I mentioned uh this is a five-story mixeduse development. Uh the request includes a location for public art which I will show you momentarily. Uh all the parking for the project with the exception of a few um atgrade uh spaces is provided in a five level parking garage with one level subgrade.

Uh there's a couple of key pedestrian improvements that are being done with this project. One is uh a publicly accessible plaza space and the pedestrian connection from Indian School to Fifth Avenue. Both of these were requirements the zoning case and I will also get into those in just a moment and uh no public comment has been received to date. So I've kind of combined three slides into one here. Uh site planscape plan art location plan.

So just real quick I'll just show you this is the public art location right at the intersection of the northwest corner of Indian School and Goldwater. Uh, and I'm going to show you a little more information on that in just a minute. But what we've got basically here is retail along the street frontages. The garage will be eventually concealed by the um the project's buildings and then a lot of residential in this area here. Um, and of course streetscape and landscaping improvements.

Uh, primary access. Oops, don't want to go that far. uh primary access to the garage or actually this is secondary I believe on Goldwater but primary access will come up on Fifth Avenue. As you can see there's kind of a court here where people can park. Both of those access points do go into the garage. So this is just for reference purposes. This is the sculpture that at least tenatively has been selected for the site. It has gone through phase one of the public art process.

Uh I show you this just so you can consider it in terms of the location because that's your purview today. Uh you know it is a rather tall structure. It looks like it's um probably in the area of 15 to 18 feet in height. Uh it has been located so that is outside any kind of sight triangle or corner safety triangle. But again I just wanted to show you this so you can have the context when considering the location for the public art.

Uh projects in the Oldtown area are not required to provide open space, but this project does of course provide some open space because it is residential. Uh there's three significant spaces um uh for the project. The first I mentioned is the public publicly accessible plaza down here at the southeast corner of the project for a for the public art. And then centrally there's a large o open space area for amenities with amenities for the uh residents.

And then I mentioned uh a publicly accessible plaza space that used to be located up here at this location where the flex building is proposed. Uh actually it's was I think it's been removed at this point but it's going to be relocated uh to this location here. And that will be again publicly accessible and will contain seating elements and a shade tree. Forgive me as I'm use this crazy mouse. Uh, and then the circulation plan. A couple of key things to point out here.

Street sidewalks will be significantly widened. There's going to be a 14oot sidewalk along Goldwater, 10-ft sidewalk along Indian School Road, and then this is the pedestrian connection I mentioned earlier. This was required from the zoning case and it is a six-foot sidewalk. Uh, one of the things that I I can go back to the landscape plan if you want to see it, but there will be a series of trees to shade this connection as well as pedestrian scale lighting.

So, it will be an inviting connection, a good midblock connection for pedestrians from Indian School to Fifth Avenue and vice versa. And also proposed is a crossing and also required by the zoning case is an enhanced crossing at Fifth Avenue that will connect people to the sidewalk on this side of the on the north side of Fifth Avenue and eventually to the canal space.

Uh we do have a revised stipulation that I want to make you aware of and if there is a motion to approve this case uh I would ask that you please include this uh revised stipulation in the motion. I'll just read it verbatim stipulation D. Uh a minimum of 50% of proposed trees shall be a minimum of 3 in for single trunk and 1.5 inch for multi- trunk per section 10.501 501 of the zoning ordinance. The added language is the orange language.

All trees along the perimeter street frontages shall be minimum 2-in caliber and 36inch box size. So, please make sure that gets included in the motion if there is a motion to approve. That concludes staff's presentation. I will, unless there's questions for me, I'll turn it over to the applicant team for their presentation. Any questions, commissioners? Not at this time. All right. Hello. Um, Janet Quan with Nelson Partners, uh,5210 North Scottsdale Road in Scottsdale.

And thank you uh Greg for presenting the project and actually just with working with us throughout the process and also chairman, council member, DRB members, we just thank you for allowing us to present our project today. Um one of our goals when we started this project was just to take an underutilized intersection at Indian School in Goldwater and transform it.

Um, we wanted to create a building that would provide a high-end elevated living experience and not just for the residents but for any of anybody who came to this site as well. And so for that reason, we have provided engagement along all of the street frontages and Mr. Bloomberg had kind of mentioned what some of those are. Let me just kind of get to our site plan. But yeah, as he mentioned, we do have retail all along Indian School, a portion of Indian School and all along Goldwater.

We have a flex building which is retail along uh Fifth Avenue as well. And we just continued to provide connections as he mentioned for public amenities. He talked about the uh southwest southeast corner of our site where we have the public artwork and that plaza as well as the connection to the west off of Fifth Avenue. Um I kind of wanted to walk you through just some of the materials. It probably shows up a little bit better in the um renderings that you're looking at.

This is at the location of the public art plaza. And we've tried to use elevated materials in what we're doing as well. So, we have a lot of brick on the project, which kind of hearkens back to Oldtown, Scottsdale, historic buildings. Um, we have fiber cement panels, some metal panels, as well as some areas of stucco in areas that are not as public facing. Um, but you just kind of see from this that we really are trying to engage this intersection. And this is continuing also along Goldwater.

You're looking at the retail on the lower levels and in accordance with, you know, the zoning ordinance, we are stepping the building back. Um, we are providing some lounge areas for the residences that are really just viewing decks and we have one of those that occurs at Goldwater and also another one along Fifth Avenue. Here again, you're looking at some of those retail that's along Goldwater.

um this an area whether it's a restaurant or some other retail um right at the north portion of Goldwater and at the entry court. The entry court for the project is off of Fifth Avenue. Um and again just keeping with the elevated luxury kind of living, we have a entry court that has a fire feature. We've got brick, some fluted tile at the entry, and really just kind of trying to um create a high-end feel to the project. And then this is just a kind of closer up view at that plaza.

So, we have the project team here with us and would be happy to answer any um specific questions that you might have on this project. Okay, questions. No questions. Wow. Okay. I actually have a question. All right. Thank you. The the it's I think you said elevated um connection between the project and uh like a walkway. What does that walkway look like to the canal over Fifth Avenue over or is it just like a It's just a sidewalk. And by elevated, it was more elevated experience.

So, I didn't mean to imply that the walkway itself or that connection was elevated. Yeah, it is just Thank you. Because the the plans didn't look like that, but when you said that, I thought, did I miss something? No, no, that was my mistake. No, no, not at all. Just interpretation. Okay. Okay. Excellent. No questions more than that. Um, it's a lovely project. I will make the comment that I love the the feel along Indian School.

kind of continues the higher end um that's happening more to the east of Indian School. It kind of continues along with that. Um and that intersection has needed elevation for a very long time. So um you're bringing a beautiful project. Um we do have one public comment. Um I no more comments or do you have one? Okay. Correct. Excuse the interior courtyard that's purely for the residents. Is that correct? Correct. Yes. Okay. Yeah. Good to know. Looks like a nice design. Yeah.

I want to commend the applicant. I think I've I've had the pleasure of seeing this all the way through when I was on DRB and then in planning and now back on DRB. And I just think it's a beautiful project for that area that the materials that they're using are first class materials. It's truly going to be an asset for Scottdale. and thank you for the up updo uh on the trees. I fainted when I saw one inch caliber trees, right? So, thank you very much. I so look forward to seeing it completed.

All right. Thank you. Excellent. Okay, we do have one public comment um from Barney Gonzalez. Yes, my name my name is Barney Gonzalez. My address 6349 North Cattle Track Road, Scottsdale, Arizona 85250. I'm here as a U to make public comment. Basically, I really like the project. Obviously, this this area has needed this project like 35 years ago.

And so um the induction of the people coming into that area because that that intersection has always been a very important intersection because people are walking across uh Indian school road to integrate and walking towards either the the the canal convergence areas or they're walking to other areas in particular into Oldtown. And this is could be almost like a gateway to to this area. I like all the setbacks are completely correct on this that I'm glad architecturally they did that.

You know, the setbacks are very important on on buildings this scale. It it puts in a real u nice public part of this intersection which this intersection was lacking for many many years. I mean it was just it was just horrible before.

So the the best thing I can say also is the u shade canopy of any sort is always the best thing for the city and we you know as far as that there always been issues some people just don't get it but this developer this architectural group they understand it they're in Scottsdale they've been in Scottsdale they've done a lot of work in Scottsdale they understand that the continuence of providing shade structures and shading is the most important element in living here in the southwest.

Now, so I really like that. My only my only concern would be is that the and this is not part of the subject of anybody's uh ability to control. But the thing of it is the art that was selected. I hope that it has less of a impact as far as the visual effect.

maybe it wouldn't be so tall or so big or would impact that whole plaza area because I think that plaza as an open area of there where the art is going is so important to integrate itself with the rest of the conceptual area of the public uh moving around in that area because as as the city keeps growing and more and more events come into Oldtown, large events, I see this as kind of more of the introduction to the public area and I'm just all for that and I really support this uh project and the architects and developers.

Everybody did a fantastic job. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Gonzalez. Okay, with that, um do I have a motion? Um and if I have a motion, if Mr. Bloomberg could put that slide back up so we because I didn't memorize it. I'd make a motion to approve.

Move to approve case 41D 2024 including the proposed location of public art per the staff recommendations stipulations after finding that the development applications meet the development review board criteria and additional findings of the de development of the oldtown area in addition to include the revised stipulation D a minimum of 50% of proposed trees shall be a minimum of 3 in for single trunk and one and a half inch for multi- trunk.

Per section 10501 of the zoning ordinance, all trees along the perimeter street frontages shall be a minimum of 2in caliper and 36 inch box size. Second. Okay, it's been moved and seconded by Commissioner Peaser and uh Commissioner Joiner. Uh roll call vote. Councilwoman McAllen, yes. Commissioner Joiner, yes. Board member Peaser, yes. Board member Mason. Yes. Board member Robinson. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Excellent. Thank you. Congratulations on your wonderful project.

I think it is going to u be warmly welcomed by the citizens that already live there and everybody that's going to flock to see it literally. So, thank you for providing such a great project. Um, okay. With that being said, do I have a motion for adjournment? So moved. Okay. All those in favor? Okay. We're adjourned. Thank you so much.