Scottsdale approves Fairmont Princess expansion; residents challenge Ardan project design sensitivity

Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen and those in TV land. I am not Maryanne Macauen. I am Adam Quasman. We'll be chairing this development review board meeting uh this afternoon. The purpose of the development review board is to maintain the quality of development in Scottsdale by reviewing all of the design aspects of a proposed development and the relationship of its Scottsdale components of uh to the surrounding environment. and community.

The board also reviews all preliminary pl uh plats for subdivisions to asssure conformance to policies and ordinance require requirements. This agenda for today will consist of a roll call, a public comment of non-aggendaized items, administrative reports, minutes of approval of the prior meeting, and action items. A roll call vote will be taken after each item's motion. The liaison will call each board member's name to indicate their desired vote for that item.

After the vote uh has been counted, and the liaison may read out the final vote, citizens wishing to speak during public comment time or to speak specifically on any agenda item may fill out a blue request to speak card to the staff table before the agenda item is to be discussed. And citizens interested in submitting a written comment on any item may submit a yellow written comments card in person to the staff table prior to the beginning of public testimony. Cracking up. We're having fun here.

Yes. Life is way too short not to do this not to do this in a in a fun method. Serious subjects. Serious growth for Scottsdale. Done. Fun. When called, please come to the podium. State your name, address, begin speaking. Groups wishing to speak should elect a spokesperson to represent the views of the group.

To facilitate the meeting, your comment will be limited to three minutes for individual speakers with one additional minute for each additional individual present at the time of the meeting who has contributed their time to a representative speaker up to a total of 10 minutes. I remind our audience that the board's review relates to design matters and does not include consideration of existing zoning district designations, zoning entitlements, or the allowed uses within the zoning districts.

The board's mo uh motion may be to approve to approve with modified stipulations, to deny the request, or to continue the case. Thank you for your interest in time. Now, let's begin the meeting with the roll call. Councilman Quasman, yes. Vice Chair Brand, here. Commissioner Joiner, yes. Board member Peaser, here. Board member Fee. Board member Rob Mason here. Board member Robinson. Thank you. All right.

So, we have it looks like that we have two blue sheet request to speak items for uh individuals today for non-aggendaized items. The first in no particular order will be Men Pankoitz. If I did not pronounce that correctly, I apologize. You can tell me at this at the podium. Where would you like to be? Go ahead. Come on down. The chair recognizes three minutes. Thank you. Um, good afternoon, chair, members of the board. My name is Milen Pankovich. I'm a resident at 303 North Miller Road.

U, my unit number is unit 2019. Um, I left work today to be here again. I was here last week and bring to your attention a case that we'll review in your next meeting called the Ardan. This is a development proposed to have balconies approximately 21 ft west from our bedroom windows. After reviewing the plan set for the development, I can say with certainty that there has been no context sensitivity given in the plans.

I am requesting that the board members take note of our concerns today to review the case and provide an informed vote during the next session. In regards to layout, the three-story 100 foot long proposed building in the southeast corner of the development is less than 21 ft away from our bedroom windows, completely removing our natural light in our units bedrooms and the natural light needed for our mature landscape and the development's proposed landscape to grow.

In addition, the proposed design has 10 balconies facing our bedroom windows at m at this minimal distance. In regard to landscape, the landscape land is halfhazard uh sprinkling trees throughout in ways that block our existing gate and even their proposed trash pickup. And yet, trees are not even provided to screen the south facade of their own south building. The development also provides an open landscape area by the Miller Road sidewalk near traffic where it's unusable.

Instead of utilizing this open space to buffer our properties and provide additional spacing regarding the access to the site, the plans show our west gate blocked by trees and the southeast portion of the plan completely open with no gate.

In speaking to the development of the site, which have only returned our calls placed almost a year ago once the project was already scheduled for your hearing, we have been provided band-aids for these issues that are not truly fixing the design shortcomings and continue to cater to fitting the highest possible number of units on site without care for design or the neighbors well-being. These solutions including private privacy film for our windows and additional trees on our landscape buffer.

Even though if approved, the trees would only receive one to two hours of sunlight per day. It is unclear what species of trees would actually thrive in these conditions without costing our association additional water. These solutions do not address our concerns regarding the total loss of natural light. I want to be clear that all of us neighbors understand the development standards of our five zoning district and we're not opposed to development next to us.

We are opposed however to designs that completely ignore context and our existent and our proximity and property values. We know that the deal oop sorry we know that the DRB members are here to vote to maintain quality development in our city with special review of layout of proposed developments which is currently our highest concern. We appreciate your attention to this matter when renew when reviewing your next packet. Thank you. Thank you Miss Pankyovich.

apologize for the uh misprononunciation of your name coming up. The second request to speak is Trevor Krauss. I recognize you, the chair recognizes you for three minutes when you start. Mr. Chair and members of the board, my name is Trevor Krauss. I am the HOA president and a property owner at 303 North Miller Road Casad Amigos Comm condominiums. I'm here to ask the board uh that you please take notes and on my request to you.

My unit at Kasa Amigos sits only 15 ft east from a lot where there is a proposed development that you'll vote on in your next meeting. The Ardan which is case number 32DR2024. I'm here ahead of the hearing to give you a heads up on our community's concerns regarding the layout and design of this development which at three stories will remove basic sun access from the west from the west side of our two-story building.

I want to let you know that we're fully aware of the R5 requirements for setbacks and understand that the de developer can build to the minimum standards of R5 zoning into three stories. We recognize that we don't oppose this or rent development next to us, but we do oppose the lack of context sensitivity that was given in setting this plan up for your review. It seems the existence of our condos wasn't even a consideration in these plans.

I'm here to ask you ahead of time that you review this request upon receiving your packet from the perspective that we have at Casad Amigos. Our southwestmost building has bedrooms, bedroom windows that if the development is approved and built as proposed will completely lack natural sunlight from the sun and privacy will be removed with a new three-story building towering over us at 21 ft away. And that includes their balconies looking directly into our our bedrooms.

In addition, along our west side, we have landscape and decades old mature trees that we will see completely reduced to insignificant old solar access. The lack of sun access will undoubtedly kill our landscape due the screening from this abuing three-story development and it would cast a perpetual shadow on our trees and bedrooms. Not only will we lose the investment in our landscaping, but we will eventually lose significant resale value and equity within our affected units.

Our large largest concern is the minimal separation provided between buildings in the Ardan southeast corner and our units in the southwest corner of our existing development. We have reviewed all the existing R5 developments adjacent to each other in our neighborhoods and we could not find a similar condition where the distance is so minimal between adjacent developments and which the construction is actually relying on the established development to provide all the buffering.

In every case, despite being able to build to minimal and no setback in the R5 zoning design considerations, we were apply design considerations were applied in previous developments to ensure sun, solar access, and privacy. It seems like none of these basic considerations have occurred in our case.

Approval of this development, as it is proposed, will set a precedent in our neighborhood of non-contextsensitive construction that leaves behind the permanent consequences of poorly planned building locations with no access to natural sunlight. We've worked in good faith with the with the developers representatives on our concerns and they state that they are unable to reorganize the layout of the site to provide more distance and natural light. I find that to be untrue.

It's a shame because a 20- foot distance between our building and our their proposed building will not only reduce our property values, it will also reduce their values and affect their landscape as well. Everyone will benefit from more distance between our buildings. I appreciate you for your time and listening. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Krauss. Mr. Mr. Carr. Uh, is are there any other uh blue sheets that have been submitted or any yellow sheets for requests to speak for non-aggendaized items?

Mr. Chairman, there are not. Okay, with that, I'm closing uh non-aggendaized public comment. And we're going to move right along to the administrative report where the chair recognizes Mr. Carr. Thank you, Councilman, and welcome uh for your first meeting here at the DRB. Thanks for joining us. Just want to note that we will be hosting our next meeting October 9th and that is the second week in October.

So just a little bit of difference just like this month where we're having back-to-back meetings October 9th, October 16th. So keep that in mind for your scheduling. Um and I just want to note that I understand that there is a desire to have a presentation on the first three items on the consent agenda. So the applicant is prepared to give a brief presentation on that for the board. Um but there is one other agenda item at the end of the agenda uh 14dr 2024.

So I would suggest maybe just taking that item for review and approval separately um so you can get that out of the way first. That concludes my administrative report chairman. Thank you Mr. Carr. And do we need a vote to remove that from the agendaized uh number six uh to remove it from the consent agenda in order to take it first? Uh, chairman, you you can if it depends on if you plan to have more discussion on it. If if that's the case, I would yeah, take that.

And you don't have to have a vote. You can just say we're moving that to the regular agenda. We'll move that to the regular agenda. Then we'll go ahead and do that without objection. So order. Is there Hold on. I I'm only clarifying because I'm the one that made the request to move to to have a applicant presentation for items one, two, one, two, and three. Would we rather move items one, two, and three to the regular agenda?

Is is the idea to get the consent if it's still on consent that we would take the vote and just get them done? Item four on consent. Is that Yeah, that's actually excuse me vice chair's item number six that we you would stay on that consent. The other three stay on consent. Okay. I thought there was a motion to move item six to the regular agenda and one, two, and three stay on consent. No, I think the opposite of that. Okay, that'd be perfect.

My understanding at first was in alignment with the vice chair's uh thought process, but so just to make sure that we're on the same page, Mr. Carr, can you please make a recommendation for me to to then uh confirm that? Yeah, absolutely. Mr.

Chairman, I would s I would recommend that the board uh move items number uh three, four, and five to the regular agenda and keep item number six on the consent agenda and then vote on item six first on the consent agenda before hearing a presentation on those other three items. That's reasonable.

So with that, I withdraw the prior uh the prior uh uh order to move number six to the cons uh to the regular agenda, leaving it on the consent agenda and then seek to move without objection items three, four, and five to the regular agenda so that we may vote on the singular item six on the consent agenda. All right. So minutes. Well, we need to take a vote. Do we need to take a vote on that? You do not, J. You can. Okay. Sorry. But that is okay.

I thought we needed to vote on the consent agenda. No, we are good. So, okay. With that, for those of you uh tuning in at home, this is parliamentary procedure fun. Uh and uh I recommend everybody getting their rules of order uh little booklet at home. just uh feel free to contact the council and we'll uh we'll send you a PDF copy. Minutes item number two, approval of the September 11th, 2025 DRB regular meeting minutes. Without objection, can we approve those minutes?

I'm going to move to approve the regular meeting minutes from the September 11th, 2025 DRB meeting as presented. I'll second it. Councilman Quasman, yes. Vice Chair Brand, yes. Commissioner Joiner. Yes. Board member Peaser. Yes. Board member Mason. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. All right. Excuse me, Mr. Clausman. Your mic is muted there. Moving right along to our action items of the day. Uh the development review board may take one vote to act on all items on the continuence agenda.

We've done that. We've already done that. But purpose persons interested in speaking on any agenda item may submit a blue request to speak card in person prior to the beginning of public testimony. Those wishing to speak are customarily given three minutes to speak on each item. Additional time may be granted to a designated speaker representing two or more persons. You could submit those cards together.

Persons interested in submitting a written comment on any item may submit a yellow written comments card in person prior to the beginning of a public testimony or may submit submit it electronically at the development review board website no later than 90 minutes prior to the meeting. So those uh those written comments would not be available today. So there we have it. Let's move we have the consent agenda done. So now we will go to item number three. Is that is that correct, Mr. Carr?

I'm sorry, Mr. Chairman. You actually need to get a motion and a vote on item number six first. Okay, that is correct. We have the consent agenda. I'll go ahead and sorry I'll move to approve case uh number 14-dr2024 um per the staff recommended stipulations after finding that the development application meets the applicable development review board criteria and the additional findings for development in the oldtown area. I second it. Councilman Quasman. Hi. Vice Chair Brand. Yes.

Commissioner Joiner. Yes. Board member Peaser. Yes. Board member Mason. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Moving right along. Thank you very much. Moving to now would be regular agenda item number one, which formerly known as consent agenda item number three. Well, we're going to do are we going to do this, Mr. Mr. Car? Are we doing this one at a time or are we doing this all together? I believe the applicant is going to present all three applications for the princess together.

Great team we got going. Thank you. Um thank you Miss Joiner. Uh we will uh the chair recognizes the honorable chairman Tom Galvin today just attorney Tom Galvin sir. So uh Councilman Quasman, members of the boards, good to see you. Tom Galvin with Rose Law Group. On behalf of the applicant, Jordan Rose on behalf of the real true applicant here, which is a jewel here in Scottsdale, the Fairmont, Scottsdale Princess.

Uh we do have a lengthier presentation, but for your edification, Councilman Quasman, and for your request, uh Vice Chair Brand, we're just going to go through the highlights of the project just to show, but there are some points that I do want to emphasize. U one is our development team. This is a considerably good group of folks here and in fact they're sitting in the last row architects and one engineer.

But you can see that a lot of good work has been put into this project by really good smart expertise and people. But this is the biggest point of emphasis I want to have is that this has been a long time coming. Uh we submitted a DR package for approved villas and bungalows back in 2022. And I want to thank everyone here on staff here sitting to my left and everyone else on staff who's been working on it because they've been working on it for a very long time.

In 2023, the new parking garage was approved. And in fact, the parking garage is now open. It has literally 949 parking spaces, which is almost a thousand spaces, which can definitely meet the needs of this beautiful project.

And in 2024, there was an amendment to the development plan approved by the city council, which includes what you're going to see here in the presentation, the conference center, the guest tower, and the restaurants, which brings us to today, long pause, 2025, a DRB hearing for the conference center, guest tower, and villas, bungalows. Excuse me. Regarding the existing conference room, this is an expansion project, Mr. Brand.

This is adding 10,000 square feet of meeting space and a new ballroom of 25,000 square ft. Um, I actually want to bring your attention to what is called the new parking garage directly to the right of what's highlighted in yellow. That is an existing parking garage. So, this aerial photo here is out of date. That parking garage is now open with those 949 sites that I specifically referenced earlier, but the conference center would be here.

And I'm just going to take you quickly here through the renderings. And as you can see, they are completely in the same pattern and style as the existing Fairmont Scottsdale Princess. Once again, this is what I consider to be a jewel of the city of Scottsdale. It has attracted worldwide attention. Of course, the city of Scottsdale would be happy to see that the Fairmont intends to have the same look with the new facilities.

And then now secondly, we're going to replace what has been an event tent with a new guest wing, 155 rooms and 31 underground parking spaces. So once again, even more parking that will be specifically for this use. And as you can see here in our slide, this is where the new guest room wing will be. And as you can see uh through that yellow highlighted area, that's where the tent is. So I think this is will be considerably better than a tent. And look how beautiful this is.

This is the new guest wing from a northwest perspective of the cottage terrace in Aienda way. Here's another photo. And then finally, replacing the event lawn with new villas and bungalows. 37 villas and six bungalows. Relocating the event lawn to the center of the conference center, which just makes it just much more beautiful and much more useful for the site and everyone to enjoy it. And this is what the villas would look like. And I hopefully this has been helpful for you.

And I really appreciate your time. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Galvin. The chair opens it up to the uh to the other members if they have any questions. Mr. Vice Chair. Thank you. Um I I don't have any questions. I thought the the scale and the and the um presence of the project within the community warranted a a presentation at the hearing. Um I'll just say it's great work. I really appreciate the the design team and the development team. It has been a long a long time coming.

Um it was good to see the history of the I'm happy that you did the presentation just because some of that historical reference is not in the staff provided packet that we have. So again think the project is great. It's going to be a landmark project and and kudos to to everyone involved in the project. Thank you sir and thank you councilman. Mr. Chair. Yes. I I have seen the development over all the time I've spent on DRB and planning and I just want to commend you.

I am so excited that the Princess Group and the development team is making this investment in Scottsdale. It is truly a jewel. So, thank you for all of your work and thank you for your work. So, thank you. Thank you. Thank you again to everybody involved. This is just it's gorgeous. Simply simply gorgeous. Do you have any other any other questions that you'd like to answer with that? Thank you very much, council. Good to see you. Thank you.

that I will move to approve items number three, four and five. Let me make sure that I ut utilize the correct nomenclature. Mr. Carr. So just I'm just going to move to approve items three, four, and five. There we go. That's what we're looking for.

38 DR 2022, 38DR2022 number two, and 30 38DR 2022 number three and 14DR per the staff recommended stipulations after finding the that the development applications meet the applicable development review board criteria and the additional findings for development. Is that correct? in the Oldtown area. Is that correct on there? The Oldtown part applied to the prior case, but you're good. The prior case, right? That that would not have applied. Right. I'd second. Let me say that again.

I need to say that I need to say that again. Clean it up. I'm going to clean that up. We'll clean that up. This is first time you know we're chairman. The last time, Miss Joiner, I chaired a committee, it was the committee of the whole in the Arizona House of Representatives in 2013. So, we are we are uh we're a little we're shaking off the cobwebs and getting back on the field. All right, let's try that again. Mr. Carr, move.

I I move to approve cases 38 DR2 uh 2022 38DR 2022 number two 38DR 2022 number three and 14DR. No, that is all. And that is all per the staff recommendation stipulations after finding that the development applications meet the applicable criteria of the devel of the development uh review board. And that is all. Second. Councilman Quasman I. Vice Chair Brand. Yes. Commissioner Joiner. Yes. Board member Peaser. Yes. Board member Mason. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. With that I move to adjurnn.

Just a simple I from the concurring from the so moved. I Yes.