Goodyear Planning Commission Green-Lights Gas Station Redesign and 27-Year Zoning Ordinance Overhaul; Battery Storage Setback Debate Marks Largest Controversy

Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Hey, heat. Hey, heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. How are you? Where are you? Are you Power. How are you? Where are you? Welcome to the Goodyear City Council meeting. We're excited to have you be a part of this important public process. Tonight, you will have the opportunity to address city council on both non-aggenda and agenda items. You must fill out a speaker request card in order to address the city council.

The agendas and speaker request cards are located in the back of the council chambers. Please drop your completed card in the tray next to the blank speaker cards. If the meeting has already begun, please hand it to the city employee at the back of the room. You may check the I do not wish to speak option on the card. This allows you to let council know your opinion without having to speak.

In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, please contact a staff member if you need any assistance. Public comment on a non-aggenda item will take place during the citizen comment portion of the evening. These are items that don't appear on tonight's formal agenda. The city clerk will call your name when it's time for you to speak. At that time, please approach the podium and tell us your name for the record. You'll have a maximum of 3 minutes.

The timer is on the screens visible from the podium. Note that you may also choose not to speak if other speakers before you have said what you wanted to say. Shouting, cheering, and loud noises will not be tolerated, and violators may be removed for disrupting the meeting. Goodyear city council meetings stream live on Facebook, YouTube, X, and online at goodyearaz.gov. Follow the city's social media pages so you don't miss out on all that's happening in Goodyear.

Thank you for coming to this meeting and being an active part of your city. And remember, it's a great time to be in Goodyear. Good evening. The July 1st Planning Zoning Commission meeting will be called to order. Will you please join me in 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. Will the secretary note the role? Good evening.

Commissioner McClendon is present. Commissioner Roberts is absent. Vice Chair Hegedus is absent. Chairman Climber is present. Commissioner Booth is absent. Commissioner Wang is present. Commissioner Lee is present. We have a quorum. At this time, a vote shall be taken to excuse members unable to attend due to extenduating circumstances. Is there a motion and a second to excuse Commissioners Roberts Booth and Vice Chair Hegodus from the meeting?

I have a motion from Commissioner Lee and a second from Commissioner Wang. Please enter your vote. Okay, motion passes. Will the secretary please read the items on the consent agenda by title only? Approval of minutes. Is there a motion and a second to approve the consent agenda? A motion from Commissioner McClendon and a second from Commissioner Lee. Please enter your vote. The motion passes.

Now's the time for citizens who would like to address the planning zoning commission on any non-aggenda items. Are there any speaker cards? Uh, not for non-aggenda items. Okay. Anyone in the audience want to speak on a non-aggenda item? Thank you. And this is an opportunity now for commission members who want to disclose any exparte communication they may have had prior to this meeting on any item scheduled for discussion on this agenda.

Exparte communication is any outside communication commissioner may may have had regarding items on tonight's agenda. Anyone? No. Okay. There are two public hearing items on the agenda tonight. And as a reminder, the planning and zoning commission is a recommendation for board going to council. The um council makes all final decisions on what's happening. So once we do uh our vote tonight, then it will be going to the council for another vote.

Agenda item number two is a use permit for a convenience store with gas station at Cotton Lane and MC85. I'm going to open the public hearing. Principal planner Ann Dolmage will present. Good evening. Good evening. Uh, good evening, CL Chairman Climber and commissioners. Uh, my name is Anne Almage, principal planner, and this is a use permit request for a convenience store and gas station at the southwest corner of MC85 and Cotton Lane. So, the project site is shown here in the yellow boundary.

It's about 5.22 22 acres and it's located in the CP Lake and Park Planned Area Development or P A. The majority of Lake and Park is zoned for industrial uses and that zoning is the purple on the map on the slide. However, there is a flex zone along both sides of Cotton Lane that permits industrial, commercial, and public facilities. And that public facility will be a fire station that is expected to be built in the next few years. Sorry, I forgot one thing.

Uh, the project we're talking about today is a commercial use and it will utilize C2 or general commercial development standards. So again, this project is a convenience store and gas station with fuel service for both vehicles and semi-truckss. Gas stations are considered a convenience use per the zoning ordinance, and they do require a use permit, which is why we're here tonight. So, this project actually has use permit approval already.

Uh, that use permit was approved by city council in September of 2023. And on this slide, I'll give you a quick rundown of the project design that was approved at that time. So, per the original project design, access to the site from MC85 would have been from a common drive that's located on the adjacent industrial parcel. and secondary access would have been provided from Cotton Lane.

The convenience store would have been located toward the center of the property and there would have been pumps for both vehicles and semi-truckss on the north end of the lot. Um there would have been um availability for 12 vehicles at this site. And after this use permit was approved, uh the applicant was unable to obtain access to the common drive on the neighboring property. So a new design is needed and they're back for another use permit to allow that new design.

Under the current proposal, access from the neighboring property has been removed and replaced with direct access from MC85. There will still be access from Cotton Lane as well. Uh because the driveway is moving on MC85, the convenience store has also shifted location slightly to the west. Fuel pumps are still located north of the store building.

Um there's now uh pumps for 16 vehicles instead of 12 and there will be a bus stop along Cotton Lane and that was actually part of the original use permit as well. So both entrances to the site from MC85 and Cotton uh will be right in right out only and there will be a new deceleration lane at the Cotton Lane entrance. A conceptual elevations have been provided by the applicant um for both the store building and the fuel pump canopies and some of them are shown here.

The design of the building does conform to the city's design guidelines and the applicant has chosen a desert themed color palette. Additionally, there will be a corner feature at the corner of MC85 and cotton consisting of decorative walls and enhanced landscaping. And these walls will be compatible with the entry features at the industrial phases of Leant Park. So the project site has substantial separation from the nearest residential areas as shown here.

Uh we have the Elcedro single family neighborhood to the northwest and we have two multif family projects in the area. There's Arabal Villas to the north and then Lincoln Park Bungalows is currently under construction and that's to the southwest. And these are all a minimum of a half mile from the project site. All public notifications were completed per local and state regulations. Uh there's no residential in the immediate vicinity of the project site. So we did not do a neighborhood meeting.

Instead, we did an alternative citizen review which involves sending postcards to neighbors within a 500 ft buffer. And then we did an additional round of postcards for the public hearings as well as posting signs on the site um publishing a legal ad in the paper and posting on our website. No comments have been received from the public and AOT and MCDOT have both been notified of this project and had a chance to review the traffic statement and approve it.

So, we're asking tonight that you recommend approval of the use permit for a convenience use, which is a convenience store with a gas station subject to the proposed stipulations. And the applicant is also here tonight and has a presentation as well. And we're both available for questions. Okay. Are there any questions for staff? Any questions for the applicant? Would the applicant like to make a short presentation? Uh, good evening, Mr. Commissioner and board members. My name is Frank Gadun.

I work with Asencia Architecture. Our office is located at 1743 East McNair Drive in Tempe, Arizona. And uh, really she kind of took all the wind out of my sales. So, this project was here before you way back in 2023. We did get approval the first time it went through your board as well as city council. Uh, unfortunately, the uh property owner to the west of us uh owns a sliver of land that's about 2 ft wide on the west side of the property.

It was an error that was made way before our owner bought the property and that wasn't disclosed and none of us knew about it at all until we went all the way through planning commission council approval did all the um submittals for building permit. I mean we were basically two weeks away from getting the permit when we found this out. Uh, our owner met with that owner. Her attorneys met with each other for well over a year and they couldn't come to an agreement.

Our owner was doing everything he could to appease this neighbor and the answer was no. So, we had to redesign the entire site and uh at that point staff had required us to come back through the whole process and so here we are before you. So, we appreciate your time and if you have any questions I'm here to answer them. anything. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you. Are there any speaker cards? Uh, no speaker cards. Okay. Would anyone in the audience like to speak on this? Okay.

I'm going to close the public hearing. Will the secretary please read the staff recommendation? Okay. recommend approval of a use permit for a convenience use convenience store including retail gasoline sales on approximately 5.22 acres zoned as planned area development P A with underlying flexible zoning that permits industrial commercial and public facilities uses located at the southwest corner of Cotton Lane in MC85.

Is there a motion for the staff recommendation or a motion to recommend denial of the staff recommendation? Have a motion come commissioner Wang and a second from Commissioner Lee. The floor is open for commissioner discussion. Anybody have anything? I say we've seen this before a couple of years ago and and unfortunately they had a a problem and it's been rectified and I think it'll be I think it would be a good good location. There you go. Okay. Okay. Call for the question.

Okay, please enter your vote. Okay, the motion passes. The recommendation of approval will be forwarded to the city council for the July 6th meeting. Okay, agenda item number three is zoning ordinance comprehensive update. I'm going to open the public hearing. Planning manager Christian Williams and principal planner Guadalupe Ortiz Cortez will present. Good evening. Good evening, chairman, commissioners. Christian Williams, planning manager with the city of Goodyear.

In the last year, staff has brought before you various text amendments to make modifications to sections of our zoning ordinance to address new state laws and to respond to new development types. However, the last comprehensive rewrite of the zoning ordinance occurred in 1999, which was 27 years ago. And this update is a strategic plan goal of the city council. It aligns also with our general plan and our design guidelines updates.

So all of our documents will be modern and well updated along with the modernization of the zoning ordinance. The goals of the update include protecting neighborhoods, supporting development and business growth, ensuring compliance with state and federal laws, and enabling more housing diversity in our neighborhoods, as well as refining the development standards amongst those items.

So, Guadalupe, our principal planner, who's been working countless, countless hours on this for over 18 months, will give you an overview of the process that we went through to get to this point. Thank you, Christian. This was an 18 monthsl long effort that began in January 2025 with an analysis of the existing zoning ordinance. At the beginning of the process, the project team met with city council to discuss the goals of the update.

The first community workshop was held in April 2025 with 10 residents participating and engaging in discussions about zoning and the zoning ordinance update. During the same month, a community survey was released to gather additional feedback. More than 200 responses were received providing valuable insight into the existing ordinance readability and participants concerns.

Staff also held roundts with the development community focused on topics of residential commercial and industrial development. Additionally, staff provided project updates during the development advisory forums which the development services department holds on a quarterly basis. Three work sessions were held with the planning and zoning commission and city council.

The first session in November 2025 focused on obtaining feedback on temporary signage, noticing requirements, housing opportunities, and use permit uses. The second work session was held in March of this year. This work session focused on receiving feedback on additional topics which included battery energy storage systems and data centers.

The draft language for battery energy storage systems and data centers was released at the time of the March um work sessions and the rest of the public draft was released through the month of April. The final community workshop was held in May and was attended by members of the development community who were primarily uh interested in the proposed regulations for battery energy storage systems and data centers. The final work session was held a few weeks ago.

During this session, staff provided an update on the draft language for the topics discussed at the previous work sessions.

staff received feedback uh from various firms and organizations primarily uh on the focus on the topics of uh best battery energy storage systems and data centers and this feedback was evaluated in the context of state law impacts on cities the city's interest in protecting residents and neighborhoods and industry best practices revisions uh based on this evaluation and on input received at the various work sessions has been incorporated into the final draft presented to you this evening.

The final version of the zoning ordinance before you tonight also includes revisions that we that were made since the notice of the public hearings was issued a few weeks ago. These changes um provide greater clarity and flexibility in response to council and customer feedback. Now, Christian uh and I uh would like to request um recommendation of the adoption of the zoning ordinance to be presented to city council on July 6th.

If approved, the zoning ordinance would become effective 30 days after. Again, that public hearing would be on July 6th, the coming Monday. And with that uh we conclude our presentation. We are available to answer any questions. Any questions? I know there's been a lot of discussion with you all too and this process about the battery storage. And I know there was some public comment on it last time.

Um and you feel like what you have now is uh the best for the city and for the residents that you going. Okay. All right. No questions. Anybody in the audience? Do we have any speaker cards? Oh, we have We do have three speaker cards. All right. So, I will invite um Kimberly Fedul to come up. Um each speaker is limited to three minutes. Uh the screens will let you know how much time you have left to speak.

So before you begin, please identify yourself by clearly stating for the record your name and if you are a Goodyear resident. Kimberly Fedul, resident of Glendale. So, good evening commissioners. My name is Kimberly Lee Fidul and I want to thank you for the opportunity to speak here tonight. Although I live in Glendale, Goodyear has been a very special place for me because I have taught here at LA Fitness for over 15 years.

So I uh taught at Cotton Lane and I no longer teach there, but I've also spent a lot of time in this area getting to know Goodyear and a lot of my friends do live here. So I I've, you know, spent countless hours shopping, eating in local restaurants, and enjoying the community with my family. And these days, Goodyear is often our favorite place to meet because it's a perfect midpoint between myself and my daughter and my son-in-law. And in many ways, it feels like my second home.

Um, as a retired teacher and now I'm a nanny, I spend a lot of time thinking about the kind of future we're creating for our today's children. One thing I know is that reliable electricity is becoming more important every year, especially in Arizona, but where the extreme summer heat isn't just uncomfortable, it's a matter of public safety at times as well. So, Goodyear is growing quickly and that growth brings new homes, schools, businesses, and families who all depend on reliable power.

Building energy storage is an important part of the meeting those needs because it stores electricity when it's available and delivers it back to the grid when the demand is the highest. I appreciate that the city council um is taking the safety seriously. I believe we can both um have strong safety standards and practical ordinance that allows responsible projects to move forward.

I encourage you to continue relying on science, engineering, and nationally recognized safety standards as you finalize this ordinance. Um, along with, you know, that it does align with the Maricopa County's 150 foot standard and would continue protecting the residents, ensuring that Goodyear doesn't unintentionally close the door on these projects in the future that they may need. I want to thank you for your willingness to listen, learn, and consider these decisions.

I truly believe Goodyear has an amazing future in store, and we can build the opportunity to have the safe, resilient, and be prepared for the generations to come for and, you know, our extra energy needs that we might have in the future. So, I want to thank you so much for allowing me to speak on the subject tonight and I just foresee that Goodyear is going to come to the plate and make the right decision this evening. So, thank you very much. Thank you for your input. Appreciate it. Okay.

Our next speaker is Cristiana Fedul Pepper. Good evening everyone. And yes, uh, Cristiana Fidul Pepper, resident of Buckeye, Arizona. So, good evening, Chairman Climber. Commissioners, thank you so much for having us this evening, allowing us this time to speak. Um, I'm Cristiana Fedul Pepper. I'm really excited to talk about battery energy storage this evening and why I think it's so important for our communities all throughout the West Valley. Um, so I am the daughter that Kimberly mentioned.

We're a family of clean energy advocates. Um, we're really excited to get to speak about this. So although I live next door in Buckeye, Goodyear has truly been a second home to me as well for the last decade. Um but especially these last few years. Uh since I moved to Buckeye in 2024, I've spent many evenings in Goodyear every single week. Uh whether I'm shopping over here in the Australa area or enjoying the local restaurants with my husband and my friends.

I've really come to cherish spending time in this community and I truly care about it very deeply. Uh, as a side note, I was there on the first day of Buckyy's opening. So, I feel very proud that I got to be a part of that experience. It was amazing. So, I'll be bragging about that for the rest of my life. Um, but because of my connections to the city, uh, I'm really invested in the decisions that we will be making here tonight and then at the city council as well.

So, as we know, Goodyear is one of Arizona's fastest growing cities and with that, we need a lot of reliable power to support it. So to achieve the energy stability that this city needs, I believe that we must build energy storage projects that will help strengthen our electric grid. Energy storage can really achieve this by storing electricity when it's abundant, when it's cheap, and it'll deliver it when our communities need it most.

Especially, as my mother said, during some of the hottest summer months that we're seeing, especially now every single day, we need that reliability. We need to make sure that we're protecting our communities. So, speaking of public safety, the good news is that we do not have to choose between protecting our residents and planning for Goodyear's future. This ordinance is an opportunity to show that strong safety standards and responsible energy development can truly go hand in hand.

So, I encourage you all to adopt an ordinance that protects residents while also creating a clear and predictable path for responsible energy projects. So specifically, I hope that you will consider replacing the 330 foot setback with the standard 150 ft setback or at least accepting that setback when the project's technical analysis shows that it can be done safely.

So I encourage you to ensure that the ordinance is guided by recognized national safety standards um whether they are aligned with the NFPA standards or even with just Maricopa County's own ordinance. So, a practical, safe, science-based ordinance will support our energy, but it will also create a lot of economic opportunities for our community, creating new jobs, bringing new tax revenue, and strengthening our city services.

So, I believe that Goodyear has a real opportunity to become a model for how our communities in the valley can thoughtfully and safely balance responsible growth, but modern energy infrastructure as well. So, I hope that you'll adopt an ordinance that reflects those values and helps position Goodyear as a leader in our region for achieving a strong and resilient energy future. Right on time. Thank you so much. Thank you very much. Okay, Sepand Alazad.

Good evening, chair, uh, members of the commission. Sapan Dalazada Arizona Technology Council 2800 North Central Avenue Sweet 1530 in Phoenix. I am not a Goodyear resident, but uh I've been in Goodyear enough over the past few months and I joked with Christian once that I think I've seen him more than I've seen my own parents in the past 6 months. So I just want to begin by saying that this process has been amazing uh from the technology council's perspective.

uh staff Christian Guadalupe have been so responsive to our suggestions and recommendations uh that I will forever be grateful. Uh as you've seen, this has been a multi-year process. I don't think I have missed a community meeting or an opportunity to provide public comment uh over the last several months since I joined the technology council to provide feedback and guidance especially with language regarding battery energy storage systems as well as data centers.

and staff has been nothing again but responsive and whenever we've had a disagreement the disagreement has been resolved with data uh either I have provided it or they have provided justification based in data and science on why they are pursuing uh certain language in the zoning zoning ordinance. Uh a mentor of mine who is a very prominent land use attorney once said, you know, told me that zoning ordinances are living breathing documents. They need to be refreshed.

Uh it's interesting that it hasn't been refreshed here in Goodyear in 27 years, but sometimes that first step is the hardest and staff has done that. It's it's refreshed it. is taken to taken into account the technological updates that we are that we have seen and that we are going to continue to see uh for years to come.

Uh my only recommendation is as we move forward, we're we're fine with the separation requirements, the public art requirement, which is something very unique and interesting and we're seeing in other cities as well uh regarding best. But my only recommendation is to ask commission and staff to please keep an open mind and judge each project on its own merits.

So, occasionally there may be a project that may deviate from what the language of the zoning ordinance requires, but that's not a bad thing. It's a good thing to work with developers and to get something on the books, you know, get something approved that may not be the exact language of the ordinance, but something that meets the intent of the ordinance. So, that's all I ask is please keep an open mind as projects come forward. And there will be plenty of projects coming forward.

People want to be in Goodyear. businesses want to be in the West Valley in Goodyear and you all have done a great job in be creating a welcoming environment for businesses. So, thank you again for all the hard work. Thank you to staff uh and we look forward to see how this ordinance will prosper in years to come. Thank you. Thank you very much. Anyone else in the audience like to speak on this agenda item? do it after. Um, hello everyone. Uh, my name is Mahalia Munolm.

Um, I am not a a Gl Good Goodyear resident. I'm a Glendel resident. Um, but I grew up in the West Valley area. My grandparents live in Buckeye and my parents live in Wadell. So, I'm very familiar with the Goodyear area, shopping in Australia, going to the Australia. Um, the picture that was in the slides. I love that little H observatory thing. Um, but I came here to represent um more of the people and housing um side of things. Uh I am with the MB Maricopa.

Um a lot of people here seem to be in like the battery or business orient oriented world. Um and I just wanted to kind of have some comments and questions about um the housing side of things. So, I saw that there was a middle housing overlay, which uh we're very much in support of and interested in. Um I just noticed that there was um kind of a a maximum for town homes uh to only be like one town home attached to one other town home and that's the maximum.

And I think that's very prohibitive to developers. Uh they get a lot of affordability and um development done at scale. And so having that sort of limit in um an overlay district where you're trying to build that density uh it seems to kind of detract from the whole point of it. Um and so that was really my main comment that I wanted to be up here for. I do um just like more broadly seconding the um business guys uh perspective of um flexibility.

Some of the language uh especially regarding height was very um restrictive. I think is restrictive around um floors and uh the specific heights listed and I think that um you know having one or the other might be better because if somebody's trying to do something unique then having such strict standards can kind of prohibit that innovation.

Um, so yeah, I just wanted to say thank you guys for having us out and appreciate all of the good work and good job updating an ordinance that's been out of date for a while, longer than I've been alive. Thank you. All right. And and I would direct you to um uh Christian Williams office uh talk to him maybe after the meeting or just, you know, get together with him and ask your questions and and uh get some detail on that. Thank you. Anyone else?

Okay, we're going to close the public hearing and will the secretary read the recommendation. Okay. Recommend adoption of ordinance number 2026-XX to approve the city's zoning ordinance comprehensive update. Is there a motion for the staff recommendation or a motion to recommend denial of the staff recommendation? of a motion from Commissioner Wang and a second from Commissioner Lee. The floor is open for commission discussion. Anyone?

Well, there seems to be a lot of discussion with the battery and I I know that um I made ask the comment with Christian as the city feel like they're this is their best plan at the moment and some of the other speakers have talked about flexibility and individual uh uh situation that may come down. I know that standards can be tweaked if need be if the requirement comes to that. So I would think we would look at that if that comes to be.

But personally I find that what we have right now for me uh is going to work very well. Yeah, I would. Okay. All right. Call for the question. Okay. Please enter your vote. Okay. The motion passes. The recommendation of approval will be forwarded to the city council for the July 6th meeting. And again, you got you got another shot next week. So, okay. Thank you all for coming. Okay. Are there any staff recommendations and uh excuse me, communications? Thank you, chair.

Um, at your last meeting, you considered a reszone to the Fulton Homes project at Ballpark Village, and the city council did consider that at their June 22nd meeting and adopted the um, reszone as recommended by the planning and zoning commission. Um, in city news, as we already heard tonight, BIES is open, which I'm sure you're well aware, and it was a very successful grand opening. There were 41,000 visitors on the first day to the site.

And I hope you've seen too um they they've the traffic planning for the event went very well there. It was obviously um an impact to the community, but not as much as it could have been without that good planning. And just to remind the planning commission, you um played a big part in the project through reszoning the property for the use.

um considering some of the items such as the sign that's out there and then of course the development team took it from there to make sure they had a successful opening. So, thank you for your work on that project and hope you guys get the chance to get out there to see to see the project you worked on.

And I know that chair will end with the um information on our next meeting, but just a reminder that the July 6 council meeting on Monday is the last meeting before their summer break, which is why planning and zoning commission goes on summer break, too. So, you have um a bit of time for the next meeting. And those are my communications. Thank you. Hey, thank you. The next planning and zoning commission meeting will be held on August 19th in these chambers at 6 p.m.

And this meeting is adjourned.