Flagstaff Council Signals Major Pivot on STL 405: Mega-Resort Scrapped for Mixed-Housing Amid Housing Crisis Urgency

Okay now [Music] we're ready. Okay, today is Tuesday, September 23rd, 2025. This is the city council's work session. I am calling this meeting to order and giving notice to the public and members of the city council that at this um work session, the city council may vote to go into executive session, which will not be open to the public, for discussion and consultation with the city's attorneys for legal advice on any item listed on the following agenda. Can we have roll call? Mayor Dagot here.

Vice Mayor here. Council member Alen. Council member Garcia here. Council member House here. Council member Matthews here. Council member Spence. Council member Matthews, would you lead us in the pledge of allegiance? My pleasure. Please stand if you're able. Council member Garcia, could you read our mission statement? The mission of the city of Flagstaff is to protect and enhance the quality of life for all. And Council Member House, would you read our land acknowledgement? Be my honor, mayor.

The Flagstaff City Council humbly acknowledges the ancestral homelands of this area's indigenous nations and original stewards. These lands, still inhabited by native descendants, border mountains sacred to indigenous peoples. We honor them, their legacies, their traditions, and their continued contributions. We celebrate their past, present, and future generations who will forever know this place as home. Thank you.

Next up is open call to the public, which allows enables the public to address the council about an item that is not on the prepared agenda. Comments related to items that are on the agenda will be taken at the time that the item is discussed. And because whatever you are going to speak to us about is not on the agenda, we can't answer questions, ask you questions. Um, and you have three minutes. And there's a clock right here. And I'm going to call up Gary Wright. Hello. Okay, there you go.

Hello, council. My name is Gary Wright. I live at 2127 North Toington, and I want to just thank you for being on council. Um, I'm from Yuma, Arizona, but I've had my house up here as a second home since 1993. I was on council in Yuma with Mayor Nichols from 2013 to 17. So, I know what your responsibility is, and I know how uh full-time, they say it's part-time, but it's a full-time job. Anyways, I'm here today because I'm very concerned about one thing, and that is public safety.

and um you all get elected because you advocate public safety. What is the problem with public safety or what do I see? Well, as a retired teacher, retired pilot and I hold a real estate license for the state of Arizona. Um as I see a something that is a problem and a and a huge liability and I think that something's going to happen because the recipe is there. Here's what I see on at secret school.

We have, you know, the bottleneck of everybody going there to and from arrivals and departures just like at the airport. Arrivals and departures at the critical times. Well, it is for school systems too and schools especially secret school. I see arrivals and departures from that school, but because of the change of use that you that the council voted on previously, previous councils.

Um, uh, Star Point was built on Fort Valley Road and we've had a lot of building out there by Cheshire, but anyways, the problem is there, but it changed the characteristic and complexion of the neighborhood on Talkingington. People want to avoid the the bottleneck. So they go down Talkington, they turn right there where the train is and then they come out on me.

There is no stop signs on Talkingington all the way through and there is a rival of students that get on to the on Davis Way and Talkington. There's an intersection there. There's no stop sign. cars go down there quite quick quickly and and families are bringing their children to school because Davis Way is the only way to have access to the to the bike path and to bring students their uh children to school. I'm asking council to look into this. I think you need uh to slow that traffic down.

I know you can't slow it down on u you can you can uh do law enforcement on Fort Valley Road, but that's a state highway. But a residential street or an arterial street that has been impacted by development on Fort Valley Road, I think council maybe will look at that and see if we need to uh put a stop sign or how we can uh reduce the liability. Thank you. Thank you. and staff. I have Mr. Wright's um phone number here, so someone can follow up with him, please. Thank you.

All right, that's all we have for open call. Next up, we have proclamations. And um typically what we do is if there's anyone here to receive the proclamation, they'll join the council at the end of the day. We'll read the proclamation, take a photo, and then if you'd like to say a few words, you can go ahead and we'll do them in order. The first is suicide prevention awareness month, and then the next is recovery month. It's my honor to read these proclamations today.

Whereas the month of September is recognized as National Suicide Prevention Month to raise awareness, spread hope, and spark meaningful action to ensure that all people can talk openly about suicide prevention and have access to help and support resources.

And whereas suicide is a major public health issue that requires vigilant attention and preventative action, the Arizona Public Health Association recorded at least 1,082 deaths by suicide in Arizona in 2024 and suicide was listed as the ninth leading cause of death in the state. And whereas the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline and other local and national programs provide immediate life-saving support to people facing their darkest moments.

And whereas as a community that cares, we can join together to foster hope, resilience, and community wellness, empower all members of our community with knowledge and support, and remind every person that help is available. healing is possible and no one is alone. Now therefore, I on behalf of Mayor Becky Daget, Mayor of the City of Flagstaff, Arizona, do hereby proclaim the month of September 2025 as suicide prevention month.

[Applause] Whereas recovery from mental health, substance use, and co-occurring conditions is an essential part of health and one's overall wellness. And whereas recovery supports for mental health and substance use conditions and co-occurring conditions are effective and people can and do recover in our area and around the nation. And whereas addressing and overcoming mental health, substance use, and co-occurring conditions is essential to achieving holistic health.

And whereas to help more people with lived experience achieve and sustain recovery, the US Department of Health and Human Services and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration recognize every September as National Recovery Month to promote and support new evidence-based treatment and recovery practices, recognize the nation's strong and proud recovery community, and honor the dedication of service providers and communities who make recovery possible.

Now therefore, I on behalf of Mayor Becky Daget, mayor of the city of Flagstaff, Arizona, do hereby proclaim the month of September 2025 as recovery month in the city of Flagstaff, and call upon the people of Flagstaff to observe this month with appropriate programs, activities, and ceremonies to support this year's recovery month theme, recovery is real, restoring every aspect of life, and focus on the four major dimensions of recovery, health, home, community, and purpose as the building blocks that all people need to live healthy, happy, and independent lives.

[Applause] All right, next up we have September work anniversaries. Thank you, Mayor Daget. Uh, good afternoon, uh, Mayor and Council, Shannon Anderson, one of your deputy city managers. Uh, we are here to celebrate September, um, and the many work anniversaries that we have this month. Um, this first slide, uh, covers all of those divisions and employees who are celebrating a first year anniversary within our organization.

You'll see folks from the library, from pros, from information technology, sustainability, water services, human resources, the police department, have a huge variety of divisions who are celebrating this month. So, congratulations to all those employees who've been with us for their first year. Moving on to our 10th year anniversary, uh we have Daniel uh Carrick who is a recreation supervisor within our pros division. Um again celebrating his 10th year.

We also have uh Lauren McMillan, one of our library clerks, uh celebrating 10 years with the organization. And then moving um right into 25 years, um our first individual here with an extended period of time with our organization is Sarah Dar. Uh she's our housing director. Um, I know you typically see her here at these meetings, um, but she's on leave right now, so she won't be joining us this evening, but I'd like to take some time and tell you a little bit about Sarah.

Um, again, she's been here with for 25 years, um, working for the city of Flagstaff. She was born and raised in our community, and she's devoted her career to making a lasting difference in the place she calls home. As the housing director, she's brought vision, compassion, and determination to one of the city's most pressing challenges, affordable housing. As we might say, capital A, right, Justina? Is that the right capital A? Affordable housing. Yeah.

Her passion for ensuring that Flagstaff families have access to safe, stable, and affordable homes has guided her leadership and inspired those around her. Her commitment reflects not only her professional excellence, but also her deep care for her neighbors and her city. We're so grateful for Sarah's many contributions as we celebrate her 25th anniversary with the city of Flagstaff. Take a moment to celebrate Sarah even though she's not here. Congratulations, Sarah. [Applause] It did.

I'm gonna try and go back here. Sorry about that. There we go. Um, so Lawrence Pino, uh, celebrating 30 years. Um, Amy's here because Lawrence is actually on some time off with his brother. Um, but he has shared some thoughts that he wanted to pass along to council in the community. Um, we do that. I'll just tell you a little bit about Lawrence. Um he began his career in recreation and athletics.

Um where he created an expert in programming, officiating, field allocation, and then moved to parks where he's worked diligently on keeping park spaces clean and ready for the next event. Lawrence is also a Flagstaff local where he roamed around town with his family and many siblings playing all sports.

watching Sports Today, which is actually what he's doing, I think, right now, is one of Lawrence's pastimes, of which you can count on him to provide any details of the previous night's games, including the statistics. Um, Pros is elated to celebrate with Lawrence his 30 years with the city of Flagstaff and hope he's enjoying some well earned time off. So, I'll turn over to Amy. Thank you. Thank you, Shannon.

Lawrence did uh send some words, so I wanted to read some of them because Knowing Lawrence for as long as I have, this is pretty special that he even uh took the time to write this. He wants to thank everyone for the opportunity to speak to you. Even though through Shannon or myself regarding his 30 years of service, it seems this time employed with the city of Flagstaff has breezed by.

Uh during his time, like we are already articulated, he got to work 13 years in recreation, five years at the Flagstaff Recreation Center, which is now the Hal Jensen Recreation Center, and then a handful of years in athletics, and actually even two years in community events that I was able to sprinkle in there um within his time with recreation and then moving on to parks. Um, he's got the exact date. So do I. On the day that I started in parks, he started May 19th, 2008 with the park section.

Um, and he's learned many things with all of his co-workers, he says in pros. And he's just he can't believe that this much time's gone by and he thanks everyone for his time. And I got to tell a story about Lawrence since he's not here. One my first week in parks, I uh asked the parks team. I'm like, can I go on like a ride along with someone and go learn how we clean our parks? Not like the mowing and weed whipping. We're going to do that another day.

But the trash, the litter, getting Ramadan's ready. And they're like, "Sure, of course. We're going to pair you up with a guy named Lawrence Pino. He's been here a while." So, I show up in the morning. I don't know if anyone told Lawrence.

And I get in the pickup truck with him, and he's kind of like, "What are you doing here?" Like, "What's going on?" I was like, "Oh, we're gonna spend the whole day together." He's like, "Really?" I'm like, "Yeah, we're going to spend the entire day together and you're going to show me exactly what you do so I can better understand it." He was very sincere and he was like, "No one's ever done that with me." We had the best day that day. Um, we spent 10 hours together that day and it was amazing.

And he truly did show me what it meant to work in the park section. So, I'll always be grateful for him for that. So, we're happy to have still have Lawrence 30 years later. [Applause] Thanks, council. We'll see you again. I believe it's October 28th where we'll celebrate October anniversaries. All right. Next up, we have the city manager report. Thank you, Shannon, Amy, for that. That was great. Um, Georana is going to help drive on this. Council, you have my report.

I apologize that it wasn't in the initial packet. It came out pretty late. Um, and it's pretty brief. Uh, after the report, you're going to get an update from Pros, so you get to hear a lot more about our wonderful pros department. Rebecca, I think, will kick that off. Uh, next time we'll have uh Heidi Hansen speak about economic vitality. Um, I did append the EV newsletter and that I think came from it's either July or August. Pros is August. Um, they're there for your reading enjoyment.

In terms of the report itself, some updates, uh, a few of us went to the police badging ceremony on August 27th. It was wonderful. Um, and you can see, uh, the the officers and civilian um, officers as well who were awarded promotions of various sorts. A wonderful and very well attended ceremony related to that. On August 21st, we had the um I'm squinting to read here, but oh, it's the it was the sixth graduation of the High Country Academy. We've been able to go to most of those.

Um they're always great and uh they fill the U facility there at CCC. Uh we had a number of graduates um this time. We've had a number each time, but quite a few that will be coming into the Flagstaff Police Department. It's very exciting. I think I pointed out that one of those u graduates uh is Morgan Brown. I'm going to call that individual out because that happens to be the son of Chen Brown and I just think that's very cool. Um so he was there. It was a great event.

Congratulations to all the graduates. I'd like to mention that the United Way campaign kickoff has occurred. It started with a lunchon on August 26th. Uh we have a group internally as we do every year that's helping with that campaign. Uh Joanne to my left is uh heading up that uh campaign this year. Thank you so much Joanne for your efforts. And you have on your team a number of folks.

We have uh Paul Mood, our city engineer, chief of police, Sean Connelly, and Michelle McNelte, our planning and development services director, and Jessica in the city manager's office. And Joanne, would you like to tell us what the goal is this year? Sure. So, our goal this year is 21,500. Last year we raised 21,000 and we had last year we had a hundred unique uh donors and we're hoping to up the number of donors and the the number of donations.

I did just send out an email today um with the list. We have a lot of raffle prizes and then we have new posters in the lobby. Again, thank you to Ralph and Discover Flag Staff. And I also want to specifically call out Heidi Hansen who has been helping with raffle prizes and just just doing what Heidi does. So, thank you. Thank you. I like this little dialogue thing happening. I'm wondering if you want to just do the rest of my report for me. Um, I'd appreciate it.

The uh budget team retreated on August 28th and 29th. Uh, I'm happy to report that we are we are fullon in the budget process uh here in September. Um, not much of a reprieve, but um we have started and we had a great retreat. Talked about some high level stuff.

We have since uh and a big part of that was looking at the results of a survey that the budget team did internally uh and and those results are now the topic of some discussion with our leadership team and all toward the betterment of the function of our budget team and we all know how important that that team is. Um so stay tuned on that. Stay tuned on the the budget process which is now on our doorstep. It's happening. Uh, let's see.

I was at the airport a couple of times recently and I took this great photo of our new visitor center grab and go because it's seeing some business and it's a nice amenity at the airport. Um, you can now get some pretty good food and and beverage there and coffee and uh in addition to the visitors center. Um, so next time you're there, stop in, say hi to the wonderful staff there.

I want to give some props to the champions of team Flagstaff uh who once again knocked it out of the park with the annual barbecue which occurred uh last Friday, right? Yeah. Last Wednesday, of course. Um it was wonderful and it was a beautiful day. Beautiful September day. Um lot of events uh including a raffle the proceeds of which will benefit the United Way program. a dunk contest.

Same comment, all the money going to United Way, but really the big fun of that is to see uh Dave McIntyre and Amy Hagen get dunked repeatedly uh throughout the day and uh that was therapeutic for all of us. Um you're such a good sport, Amy. Uh it was a lot of fun. Again, uh thanks to um thanks to uh champions for putting that on. Joanne, you were part of one of the kickball teams and you guys didn't do very well, did you? Like you were totally undefe or defeated. You were winless. Yeah.

Just wanted to get that out on the record. Um that's all I have council, but uh we are going to I think hear from pros and you'll get a nice update there. Any questions for me? Council, any questions, comments? Thank you. So, you are going to get the pros update from the one and only Miss Haley Reynolds. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. I'm Haley Reynolds, the events and marketing manager within Pros.

Here to give some highlights of our past six months and then a couple fun numbers over the past 12 months. Kicking it off with parks. Parks completed the replacement of two aging playground structures at Mobile Haven and Smoke Rise Park. The new structures designed for children ages two to five feature accessible ML elements and a thoughtful design that complement the existing structures on site. If you haven't taken the kiddos, grandkidos, you definitely should do that.

Uh parks in partnership with sustainability took an exciting step towards reducing emissions by beginning to utilize electrified small equipment. The energy efficiency and conservation block grant supplied one lawn mower, 10 backpack leaf blowers, two pressure washers, five line trimmers, two snowblowers, battery packs, and chargers. This step supports the city's carbon neutrality plan and allows for quieter maintenance in our parks.

Our community and visitor ship's been hitting the trails this year with around 350,000 users so far. that puts us on track for the 500,000 users we saw last year. Shout out to the Buffalo Park Loop that continues to maintain as our most utilized location. Um, and then many shout out to the Route 66 West Trail, uh, which is our second highest use.

Parks also completed improvements to the TWWA memorial at Citizen Cemetery, which honors the passengers and crew who lost their lives in the June 30th, 1956 midair collision. Enhancements included replacing the sod with artificial turf, removing and thinning overgrown landscaping, repairing and replacing concrete sidewalk sections, and refurbishing the surrounding border walls and stansions.

The memorial maintained in perpetuity by parks was restored in partnership with the patrons of the 1956 Grand Canyon midair collision. On to recreation. Hal Jensen hosted their annual Toucher Truck event in July at Cookino High School um in celebration of Parks and Recreation Month. This year they had 38 vehicles and more than 12,200 people in attendance which is their largest number to date. Shout out to Hal Jensen.

They also partnered with Flagstaff Police to bring back Night Court which was super successful last year um and even more so this year. On average, they're seeing 40 to 50 youth. That program is offered once a month over the summer months um and is an activity to bridge the gap between the police and the youth in the community. The Aquiplex summer camp made considerable leaps in enrollment this year, averaging 30 campers per week and running for nine weeks.

And to put that into perspective, we were only running, we ran four weeks of camp last year and averaged about 13 campers. So, huge leap in registration. Camp offered engaging themed activities each week at an affordable cost for the community. Uh they brought in roughly $31,000 in registration fees and almost a full cost recovery.

Pros also celebrated the end of parks and wreck month as a division with a build together, play together themed event that was the theme from the national parks and recck service this year. Uh the collaborative event was supported by Home Depot who provided a variety of build kits and tools for all ages and also came out to show support. We had about 250 attendees throughout that day.

Moving on to our senior center who has new offerings this year including Bonsai for beginners, Flagstaff Sketchers, Ma Jang, Wild Irish Community Dance, Toast Masters, Genealogy and Creative Writing. The center offers 28 activities or programs open to the public as well as a fitness center. Over the past year, Jively has had roughly 24,000 people attend cityrun programs such as public skate, adult hockey, and hockey tournaments.

Between all user groups, Jively generates approximately $177,000 in revenue just from ice rental. Uh they held their Chilling in the Pines adult hockey tournament earlier in the year, which was a success. We have 19 teams participate over two weekends. That tournament's grown quite a bit in the past few years. They've also added in their mountain mashup tournament, which is a draft tournament. 38 participants over four teams, um, which is a really awesome program.

Offers the opportunity for people not on a team to be able to participate in a hockey tournament. Moving on to open space, the open space education program made significant strides this year. delivering high quality, engaging environmental education experiences to youth and community members across Flag Staff. Through dynamic programming, strategic partnerships, and interactive outreach, the Open Space team successfully connected with over,200 participants just in the past five months.

This year, Open Space has hosted 17 field trips with FUSD in 16 guided hikes. Um over the summer months, Open Space partnered with our recreation team to produce 14 different partnerships providing engaging outreach for the Aquex summer camper campers, Hal Jensen users, and even our seniors over at Josie Mononttoya. In addition to leading activities, Open Space provided educational booths at Willow Bend, Kids Squared, and STEM City. Moving on to events and athletics.

This past 4th of July, our events team partnered with Economic Vitality to bring the first drone show to Flagstaff. 300 drones lit the night sky to celebrate h the holiday with highlights including some of Flagstaff's unique history such as Route 66 and astronomy. The show was enjoyed by most at Buffalo Park, McMillan Mesa, throughout the Sunnyside neighborhood and the Aquex. Um, our concerts in the park season reached 1,200 individuals and included the grand opening of Cleo Murdoch Park.

The park was made possible through funding from the community development block grant program and includes permanent chess tables, giant chess, and a grassy area. It's the first new park since 2004. Um, and we welcomed about 900 attendees to that concert in the park. Our athletics team kept busy this year with adult sports and youth athletics. We've offered adult grass volleyball, softball, indoor volleyball, and indoor basketball.

In August, we hosted a meeting with the youth athletic partners to discuss necessary changes to the allocation process for our upcoming 2026 season. Um those changes basically just look as if we're moving from historic allocation to allocation based on registration numbers and need. And the goal with that change is to address the inequity amongst user groups and allow for new user groups to come in and have accessible space.

Um and then our marketing team has fulfilled 120 marketing requests this year. Those requests include creation of public facing content such as flyers, radio advertisements, social media campaigns. We continue to remain active on Facebook and Instagram with a steady increase of followers. And we're hitting our target audience um of Flagstaff residents is about 79% of our following. And it's Arbor Day. So, happy Arbor Day. That's the end of my presentation.

Council, [Applause] do you have any questions or comments for pros? Thank you. Anything else, city manager? I think that's it, Mayor Council. Thank you. All right, we're moving down to item number eight, 2024 25 annual report for the 10-year housing plan. Hello, Mayor Council. I, as you may remember, I'm Adriana Fischer, housing program manager for the housing office. Today, I'm here to present to you the 2024 2025 annual report for the 10-year housing plan.

The full report is available in your agenda packet for uh further reference which means it's also available online if anyone from the community would like to read it. It will be after you get the privilege of seeing this hopefully very concise presentation. This presentation will begin with a brief overview of the 10-year housing plan to provide context followed by a summary of the 2024 2025 annual report. We will wrap it up with some time for questions and comments.

Okay, I know you've heard this before, but let's start with a quick reminder. Following the 2020 housing emergency declaration, the 10-year housing plan was adopted in February of 2022 to guide housing programs, funding strategies, and policy decisions. You'll recall its central purpose is to create a vibrant, livable community with housing options for households at all income levels. Its overarching goal is to reduce Flagstaff's affordable housing need by half over the next decade.

To achieve this, the plan is structured around four key elements. Supporting at least 6,000 low to moderate income residents, creating or preserving nearly 8,000 housing units with over 10% being affordable in advancing 13 policy initiatives that drive long-term change. And lastly, implementing all 58 comprehensive strategies through partnerships and the city's budget budgeting process.

The 2425 annual report offers a comprehensive overview including current market conditions, key highlights from the past year, progress toward the overarching goal, status updates on strategy implementation, available housing resources and community-led efforts, ongoing collaboration with partners, and legislative actions and advocacy efforts. As of July of 2025, affordability remains a significant barrier in the Flagstaff's housing market.

The cost of living is 21.2% above the national average with housing costs 51.6 higher. These conditions continue to impact everyone in our community. The median home price now stands at 685,000 across all property types with a median price of 787 for single family homes. Homes are remaining on the market longer averaging 48 49 days compared to 20 days last year. Most listings fall between 500 and 900,000 with only 24% priced below 500,000.

Local buyers increas increasingly rely on dual incomes, finance, financial assistance or family support to close the gap between wages and housing costs. I have a couple of examples tonight, both assuming a debt to income ratio not to exceed 45%. Condos remain one of the most affordable home ownership options with a median price of 345,000. To purchase a condo, a household would need an annual income between 82 and 95,000 based on a 3% down payment and a 7.125 interest rate.

This results in an estimated monthly housing payment of a little bit over $3,000 including your standard $250 in homeowners association fee. By comparison, affording a single family home requires an annual income between 165 and 177,000, more than twice the median household income of 69,700. This assumes a 3% down payment and 6.875% interest rate.

The monthly housing payment for a single family home would be approximately $6,100, nearly three times what is considered affordable for the average household. The rental market, which remains expensive, is showing early signs of stabilization. Flagstaff's average rent across all unit types is 6% above the national average of 2,200. Currently, average rent across all unit types is approximately 2234 per month, which is actually 71% less or $71 less than last year.

Two-bedroom units average 1992 per month, roughly $100 higher than national rates, but this figure is trending downward. This modest cooling provides some some relief to renters, although rent growth continues to outpace wage increases for many residents.

So in 2024 2025, a total of 406 residents received assistance through various programs including down payment assistance, community development block grant projects, newly issued housing choice vouchers, also known as section 8, and affordable rental and home ownership units. Additionally, 831 market rate and 115 affordable units over 12% um were created or preserved within city limits. This exceeds our goal of a minimum of 10%.

The graphic on your screen, which you also may be familiar with, represents the data housing staff to housing staff update quarterly to monitor and inform the community about progress toward the 10-year housing plan's overarching goal. From February 15, 2022 through last June, June 30th, 2025, 1,093 residents have been impacted by various assistance programs as outlined previously on the last slide. This is up from 444 last June.

1888 market rate units have been constructed, up from,57 last year. 274 affordable units or 12.7% of total constructed units, up from 159 last year. And developers have committed an additional 481 affordable units, which we will not count until they were delivered. This is up from 430 last year. We've received several inquiries over the last few months from the public about where projects are located, particularly regarding the distribution of market rate in affordable housing units.

In response and thanks to the GIS team, we've updated our GIS housing continuum maps to better reflect this information. To protect client confidentiality, we don't display exact addresses. However, the maps do provide a detailed view at the neighborhood level giving a clear picture of our service areas and housing mix. And also, I want to point out that this link goes directly to that or you can simply Google city of Flagstaff GIS maps to get there.

The housing plan consists of 58 strategies spread across 13 policy initiatives as I mentioned earlier. Before diving into the numbers, it's important to note that 39 of these strategies are projects with defined start and end dates. The remaining 19 strategies, so about one-third are ongoing efforts that will we will work on continuously throughout the life of the plan and beyond without a specific completion date.

Now, 3.5 years into the 10-year plan, just over 20% of all strategies are completed. Some of these were not initially on an implementation plan, but opportunities arose to complete them early. 23 strategies or 39% are currently in progress. 33% of the strategies are ongoing reflecting sustained work over time and only four strategies have not yet been started. The housing plan required significant collaboration and its implementation is no different.

Extensive collaboration and partnerships have brought us to where we are today. And because of them, we're making tangible headway. Three strategies were completed in fiscal year 2024 2025. Thanks to the extensive efforts of the project leads and collaborators, some of them are online of the land availability and suitability study and code analysis project, also known as last cap. The city explored innovative tools and techniques including infrastructure solutions to reduce development costs.

This foundational work will inform and guide future development efforts citywide. With the approval of the 2024 2025 budget, thank you budget team and councel. Housing now has a full-time ongoing housing navigator effective July 1 2024. This role supports both landlords and housing challenged residents to help maintain stable housing.

And after much research, it has been determined that under Arizona state law, the city cannot legally add new protected classes locally, such as age or source of income. Staff remain prepared to revisit this issue if state laws change. As you may recall, the regional plan update is currently underway. It will come to you for adoption next month with voter ratification scheduled for May of 2026. Four strategies are actively supported by this update. The first two aim to increase density.

One supports higher density for affordable housing and the other helps the city identify suburban areas suitable for increased density and intensity. The third strategy revises goals and policies to reduce conflicts between affordable housing, historic preservation, and urban design. As part of this effort, the community character chapter is proposed to be eliminated and integrated into a new section of best practices for creating a sense of space uh sorry place.

The fourth strategy promotes adaptive reuse of existing buildings for affordable housing. This aligns with housing attainability and equity, a core priority of the updated regional plan. Staff currently have three million in bond funds dedicated to supporting this work. And you council may remember that you just approved that program to distribute those funds this month. Thank you.

An additional four strategies from the reporting period are currently in progress, though not tied to a specific project. The city is exploring community land trusts in public private partnerships to support the development of affordable ownership units. Your recent approval of staff's recommendations for city-owned parcels for affordable housing will partially complete this strategy.

Currently, staff are holding internal meetings to establish a fund for acquiring land and units for affordable housing as opportunities arise. Housing staff successfully requested 500,000 through the fiscal year 2024 2025 budget process to initiate this strategy. You again, city council approved the request and funds became available on July 1, 2024 to support vulnerable populations.

staff are identifying resources for households experiencing or at risk of homelessness, first-time home buyers, and other residents in need of affordable housing. In November 2022, voters approved Proposition 442 authorizing 20 million for rental and home ownership initiatives. I will break these funds down on the next slide. Lastly, the city is pursuing the acquisition and rehabilitation of ex existing properties for affordable housing when feasible.

This work is opportunitydriven and relies heavily on partnerships with private developers. Together, these efforts reflect meaningful progress in advancing financial infrastructure, land readiness, and scalable equity focused housing programs tailored to Flagstaff's needs. As noted previously, Flagstaff voters approved Proposition 442 in November of 2022, authorizing 20 $20 million in bonds to expand access to affordable rental and home ownership opportunities.

Of the total f funds, 5 million was allocated to incentivize private and nonprofit developers to include affordable rentals in market rate developments. This initiative led to the establishment of the rental incentive bond program and all $5 million has been reserved for upcoming projects. An additional $7 million was allocated to expand the comm the city's home buyer assistance program.

Housing Solutions of Northern Arizona was selected through a competitive pro process to administer the expanded program. Implementation began in August. A second phase of the program which will introduce a permanent affordability component is scheduled for your consideration next month following housing commission review and recommendations this week on Thursday. 3 million is dedicated to supporting the adaptive reuse of existing buildings into affordable rental housing.

The housing commission reviewed that program in July and council. You once again approved the program earlier this month. Thank you. Finally, 5 million was reserved for the redevelopment of city-owned housing through the rental assistance demonstration program. A consultant has been selected through a competitive process to help administer the program and project scoping and contract drafting are now underway. In the coming months, they will come to you for your approval.

In other highlights, this program year, despite national uncertainty surrounding federal funding, Flagstaff's community development block grant allocation actually increased by more than $68,000. And lastly for highlights, housing staff continued to support long-term planning efforts, including the regional plan update and the land availability and suitability study and code analysis project, again once again known as last cap.

The land study phase concluded last fall and the final phase of the code analysis project is in progress. These initiatives are expected to reduce zoning and infrastructure barriers and strengthen the implementation of multiple housing strategies. This may look a little familiar to you. Addressing Flagstaff's housing emergency continues to require coordinated action and strong partnerships.

In the last fiscal year, the city has strengthened partnerships with organizations such as the Northern Arizona Association of Realtors, also known as NAR, Northern Arizona University, the Cookanino County Continuum of Care, and the Community Action Advisory Board. Housing staff's partnership with NAR continues to grow. Monthly meetings serve as a platform for information sharing, stakeholder engagement, and collaborative efforts toward inclusive and sustainable housing strategies.

Our most recent collaboration, a home buyer resource and education event for first-time home buyers, yielded nearly 90 participants. It was scheduled to coincide with the launch of the expanded community home buyer assistance program, also known as CHAP, which now offers up to $50,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance to eligible households. In parallel, the housing office has entered its third consecutive year of partnership with NAU's community and university public inquiry.

Another mouthful, QPOD, which is focused on housing security and sustainability. This collaboration connects students with real world housing challenges and contributes to actionable research, expanded outreach, and increased analytical capacity for city staff. Staff also remain engaged in the COC and the CEAB, ensuring that local housing initiatives align with broader regional efforts to address homelessness and reduce poverty.

These partnerships play a critical role in shaping policy and advancing shared solutions to Flagstaff's most pressing housing needs. Flagstaff's housing emergency does have some obstacles to overcome. Flagsoft cannot legally expand fair housing protections such as source of income due to state preeemption. However, staff will continue to monitor future changes in state legislation.

Local zoning tools are also constrained by law, limiting the city's ability to increase flexibility for affordable housing solutions. One example is a state does not allow cities and towns to require affordable housing from developers. Or another example is the city's limited oversight on short short-term rentals and second homes.

Despite these barriers, you council in organizations like the Arizona Housing Coalition continue to advocate for legislation that supports flexible locally driven housing strategies. These efforts are ongoing and essential to long-term success. In conclusion, Flagstaff continues to make meaningful progress toward addressing the housing emergency through the creation and preservation of housing, targeted resident support, and policy advocacy.

The city is laying a strong foundation for long-term impact. Despite this progress, the need remains urgent, particularly for workforce households, renters, and firsttime homeowners. Addressing this challenge will repurposing leaderships, strategic partnerships, and continued investment in scalable equitydriven solutions. With a collective commitment and focused action, the city remains on track to meet its 2032 housing goals. And with that, thank you so much for your continued support.

I'm happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you, uh, Council Member Garcia. Thank you, Madame Mayor. Thank you, Adriana. That was an excellent PowerPoint and I learned everything that um I might have already forgotten about the plan after reading it after getting on council here.

Um some things that I was curious about though uh that I've never had to exp any experience with is the housing navigator and um I have a couple questions after that, but for now I was just wondering if you could kind of walk us through how that benefits uh both people that are in housing. Does it affect folks that are looking for housing and or how that correlates to uh the renters themselves? Justina told me she was gonna let me drown. So, let me try and answer the question for you. Thank you.

The housing navigator position, not throwing her under the bus at all publicly. Um, the housing navigator position is a housing authority position that is meant to help residents or upcoming residents in navigating the process which can be very complex for section 8 and low-income public housing participants. Um, does that Yeah.

So, basically, um, I guess I was kind of preloading this question because I have folks that I work with that me all the time, you know, out in the community, how can I get how can I be part of housing? What does AMI mean? Things of that nature. So, are you saying that if they go to the housing navigator that it could kind of push them in that direction to see what the first steps are for applying for such services and whatnot?

We actually have excellent administrative specialists at the front desk that are we we have created stations essentially to apply for the process. We've created an online platform to where they can receive one-on-one assistance to apply for all of the programs if they choose to apply for all of them. If that answers your question. Yeah, that does a little bit better of a job. Thank you very much. I do appreciate that. It was um your question, your answers were perfect the whole time.

My question was what I was trying to get around. Nice work though. Uh, I think it was towards the second to the last slide that mentioned legislation and it made me think of a question that for for for all intents and purpose I I know the answer of, but I keep getting it out in the community by my constituency is why can Flag Staff not have a housing department? In other words, why don't we have a construction department that builds houses nonprofit style?

I guess the community's concern is that they think that that would be a way to get some of the the extra costs, but I was wondering if the housing department could give us a better answer uh so that way the community understands why we're not in the business of building houses. I'm going to be Justine out of this one. Thank you for the question. We are not building developers largely because it requires a lot of money.

I get this question a lot and it's because it does require a lot of a a lot of money which the city does not have right now unless you guys are hiding some. I was joking when I told Adriana I would let her drown. Um Justina Costa, assistant housing director. Um like Adriana said, we are not in the business of development. The city isn't. Um that's been council's direction. should that change in the future? I mean, you could always discuss it. That's just never been the approach that we've taken.

So, thank you for your question. Thank you for that. It's one that has been coming up quite a bit. Um, when people are trying to, you know, in the public, they're trying to figure out answers themselves to hopefully kind of enlighten us council members and and for us to spread it around. I think it's an important question to to have out there. why why we're not taking down that route and and it's understandable that we don't have the resources to take on that that big of a of a lift.

Um and and if we could, we wouldn't be having this conversation. So, um besides that, excellent presentation and good job answering the questions. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Matthews. Thank you, Mayor. Um Adriana, great job. I know Justina would not put you um there at the podium unless she had full confidence in you. So, and I heard her say that she would throw you under the bus. So, but I didn't wasn't worried about it.

Anyway, I just wanted to make a couple of um comments really and maybe follow up on a question. Um I really appreciate the housing department as a whole. I know there's a lot of different components to that. Um especially it just seems like over the last year um we've seen a lot more momentum and I really appreciate that. Um, of course, our attention always goes to our most vulnerable community at first. Um, you know, and that was a big focus.

Um, and I feel really good, um, that we're really addressing that with Habitat, you know, starter homes and, um, you know, I looked at the percentages, if I did the math right, um, you know, for our goal that we set for affordable with a capital A, um, we're about 34% of that housing goal. Um, So my comment was really about this adding some attention to the other levels of housing. Um workforce housing um is getting to be a bigger and bigger conversation. Um as well as the need for market rate.

Um a lot of people say oh you know we don't need more you know expensive houses but you know studies from ASU Morrison Institute you know from I was doing some research u to other uh notable sources um is highly recommended that we have a diversification in housing because it just you know people that could afford uh market rate houses maybe are in um you know houses that you know they could afford more there's not enough stock in there.

So, um you know, I I just wanted to bring that conversation to I'm I'm happy to hear and that's not really under the housing department's um authority. You know, we've talked a lot about last cap is going to make some um you know, big changes and um we talked about incentivizing or I talked about incentivizing for workforce de housing.

So, I just feel really good about how we are moving not just in the one crisis area, which is our most focused and it should be, but we're also making some great movements in the other housing um issues because the market rate goal is 7,178. I think we're at about 26% of that goal. So, we're a little little more behind than on the affordable housing, but we're moving in a good direction.

And I appreciate the housing department's um focus and momentum that we've had over the last at least year that I've seen. So, thank you and thank you to whole staff, Sarah and Justina. Thank you. Vice Mayor, thank you. I do want to start off by um thanking the team for the presentation and showing us the the level that we've moved forward. It's such a difference from a few years ago when I got on council. So, I really appreciate the hard work.

This might have been in your presentation and so I'm sorry if it was and I missed it, but I'm wondering how we measure success beyond just the unit count. That is super important. Don't get me wrong, and I appreciate the needle and and all of that. I've said that before. But I'm wondering like for example tracking housing stability, reduced dis displacements and improved access for housing for vulnerable populations. How how is that factored into all of this?

And can we can you pinpoint it a little bit more? Thank you for the question. That's a great question. We have um all of the things that you mentioned are part of the ongoing strategies that we continue to work hard on and those are strategies that we continue to work from the beginning of the implementation of the plan. So I guess my answer for that is we thoroughly take a look at every single strategy on the plan um which is 58 of them.

Again, the ongoing strategies satisfy a lot of the things that you said, but we really dissect those and make sure that we are making progress on every single one of those ongoing strategies. So, we strategy completion in addition to affordable uh units and market unit creation. I'm gonna look to Justina see if she has a better answer. No, that was perfect answer.

In addition, uh being a CDBG, community development block grant subreient or recipient um from the federal government, we are required to track um all of the funding and all of the beneficiaries of that funding for that program. Um so those numbers funnel into our tenure plan numbers as well but those are tracked um based on every single activity that is funded with CDBG and is reported actually in a document called the caper.

It's the consolidated annual performance and evaluation report and uh Christine Pav is currently working on that. So once that is completed it'll get published on our website. Thank you for clarifying that. And I I do love the website and I appreciate that you update that frequently and um as long as you keep this in mind when you do your reporting. That's great. Council member House. Thank you, Mayor. I was going to say this question is specifically for Justina, but it's not really.

It's, you know, if you want to hop into it. Um you mentioned, uh Adriana in the presentation the proposal to eliminate um a community character chapter. Was that where a chapter of what? Like where is that? That is a great question. That was one of the regional plan strategies. It's relevant to the regional plan update and in the update that is a proposed amendment to to get rid of that chapter and in insert those goals into a different one. Does that answer your question? It does.

Thank you for that clarification. And I I wanted to hone in on that specifically because um I thought maybe that's where it was. And I'm really um excited to see the potential for that. Um because I I think um that sense of space is a really important conversation that is not had enough um and um has a lot of potential to move things forward in in a better direction um than what historically about community character have have been able to do.

Um so thank you for that and just uh closing comment there is just to thank you and the housing team for the presentation overall for all the work that's being done to advance this plan and keep moving things forward for all of our housing goals. I know 58 um both sounds like a small number and a huge number and it's yes it is very much um right in the middle of of both of those things.

It's um everything that we do is feels like a drop in a bucket but at the same time every drop in that bucket is filling it higher. So I'm just deeply appreciative of everything that you all are doing to keep moving us forward. I have a couple of questions and then I'm going to take public comment. Um, can you walk us through the ways that um members of the community can um issue a complaint in terms of any of discrimination under um what we currently have in place.

But as I understand it, a um a complaint can be issued even on an item that is not included in our um civil rights ordinance. Correct. You're referring to the landlord tenant and fair housing. Yes. Correct. Sorry. Yes. Right. Would you actually like me to walk you through it because I can. We have a website. Um on our website we have fair housing and landlord tenant resources, the landlord tenant act.

Um and all of those resources have actual fillable pages that the public can fill out for any complaints. They may also call the housing authority at 928-213-273030 and ask to speak with one of our administrative specialists to gather those resources or have them sent directly to them. We also manage that for CDBG purposes. It's a federal requirement that we have to track those complaints and do some sort of reporting with them. Um, but we Yeah, we have the resources.

We don't do the actual investigation. Correct. We send it to the Southwest Help me out. Southwest Fair Housing Council. Yes. Okay. Now, um you you touched on that we aren't able to add any other protections under our um protections and I'm sure we all get asked about source of income repeatedly. Um, can you can you touch on um on the limitations and and why we can't add additional classes? That's a great question.

And if someone thinks that they have been um discriminated against because of that, um what they can still do even though we aren't able to add it as a protected class. Thank you for the question, mayor. I have Anya. She's our attorney and has agreed to help us answer these questions. Good. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. Anya Wendell with the city attorney's office.

So state law has a fair housing act and it lists specific protected classes under it which are race, color, religion, sex, familial status which is your family um or national origin. So th those are the protected classes under the state fair housing act. And neither the state fair housing act nor the federal one has a protected class for source of income. That's become a more popular type of discrimination.

So, source of income, just for the audience in case they don't know, um is basically where the landlord says, "Hey, um I don't like you using section 8 vouchers or I don't want you using disability benefits or I don't want you using veterans military benefits to pay for rent." So, that's where you discriminate on base source of income, which just is saying um you can't use those money to pay rent.

So there are um currently two cities in Arizona that do have a source of income ordinance uh or fair housing act ordinance that includes that prohibits discrimination on source of income. Those are Phoenix and Tucson. Tempy had one also but um apparently just repealed that because a referendum um was circulated by the voters.

But the reason they're able to have those is because state law um our state fair for housing act says that if you city had a population of 350,000 or more people in 1990 and you had adopted an ordinance by then you can have a fair housing act that's substantially equivalent to ours and apparently substantially equivalent allows for source of income. Um, so that's why the city can't do one because our state law says we can't. Um, now I just want to have a little small caveat to that.

To your point, mayor, you asked if somebody's worried about something like this, um, what can they do about it? So, even though the state and federal laws don't, um, prohibit source of income discrimination, if for some reason um, landlords are doing that and it has a what's called the disperate impact on a protected class. Like they say no source of income.

Well, and everyone's affected on that happens to be of a certain race or only women, there's like a significantly different impact on a protected class. You still have the right to file a complaint with the attorney general's office and the attorney's general's office can look into that under the state uh fair housing act. Thank you.

And Adriana, does the housing navigator help to build those relationships with landlords um so that they understand all the details of the different housing vouchers? Yes, thank you. Justina Costa, assistant housing director. Um the So just to clarify, the role of the city of Flagstaff is I like to refer to it as to serve as a referral source to the community. So we provide legal advice. We don't work independently individually with um residents.

We provide them with the information and then the documents that they may need in order to pursue um a discrimination case or um a claim. They are we refer them to the Southwest for housing council as well as to DNA people's legal services oftentimes um as well as to HUD also. And the housing navigator absolutely works with that's their job is to work with clients and to um work with the landlords and combine the two for a successful relationship. That's the easiest way to look at that.

But absolutely. Thank you so much. Um and Council Member House has a follow-up question for Anya. Hi Ana, thank you for uh the information so far. You just referenced the disperate impact and I'm just wondering what the current if you're aware of what the current status on that um regulation is from the federal level. I know it's it's been one of those that kind of goes back and forth between administrations. So I don't know if you have an idea of where it currently stands.

Desperate impact is more of a judicial document um test where the courts say this is this is really impacting this um cla protected class but I don't know what our current department of justice um has to say about disperate impact claims so if that were something that you we can we can look into that for you okay I'm going to take public comment charity Lee. Good evening, council. Charity Lee with Capstone Homes. Um, I'm here to speak tonight about the 10-year housing plan.

The plan has an aggressive goal of creating preserving over 7,900 homes with 10% affordable by 2031. I'm here to tell you that that goal is unachievable unless the city makes drastic changes to its review and approval process. In December of 2024, the city of Flagstaff adopted a two-step process for approving subdivision plat which consists of a preliminary and a final plat. In January 30th of 202 this year, Capstone submitted an application under this new process for 58 workforce housing units.

We anticipate final plat approval in this October. This is an improvement from the prior process. However, it has still taken 10 months to receive final plat approval. It will then take approximately nine months for land development and then another seven months for the units to be completed. From the start of this project to certificate of occupancy, it will be over two years. Unless changes are made to the review timelines, the city will not meet the housing goals.

I would suggest the city look at reducing the completeness review on an application to three to five business days. Allow applicants to submit applications more frequently than every three weeks and allow projects to be placed on a council working calendar when the project is nearing staff approval. Additionally, building plan approvals need to be shortened and expedited and building permits should be allowed to be submitted prior to conditional acceptance of the public improvements.

I believe these steps will help in bringing units to the mark market quicker and help the city to achieve its housing goals. I'd also like to provide information on the menu options that are being suggested for sustainable housing. Starting January 1st, 2026, Capstone will be implementing the 2024 in energy compliance minimums as outlined in the international residential code.

This is an increase in cost of approximately $6.51 per square foot or over $12,000 on a home that's approximately 1,985 square ft. A net zero home at the same square footage of 1,800 square ft is an additional $12.51 per square foot or $24,830. If you plan to include net zero in the menu options for approval, we recommend that this option be incentivized as it is a substantial increase to development costs. Thank you. Thank you, Charity. All right, I think that is it.

Thank you so much for the presentation. We will move down now to item number nine, John Wesley Powell project update. Good afternoon, mayor, vice mayor, members of the council. David Peterson, capital improvement project manager. Thank you for your time this afternoon. Have a brief update. We're going to break it up into two parts. So, I'm going to give an engineering update, then Michelle McNolte will give a planning update.

So, I promise I won't be long-winded like I have been in the past sometimes. For those that weren't able to join us in the field visit brought this time last year, thank you for the members of council that were able to join us out in the field walking the new road section. It is located on the southeast section of town at the current end of John Wesley Pal, the eastern terminus, so close to the Pine Canyon area as well as the south end of South Forest Street.

So kind of our section is right here in the middle. I did insert a map that's in the presentation twice here in between uh at the last minute because I really feel that this really helps show the three the three parts of this roadway that we're building to complete this section. So we're building what is referred to as the peanut butter and jelly, the middle of the sandwich.

Uh the private side here, the symmetry is this southern part part of the roadway alignment and then we are the red part here, the city portion and then the Canyon Del Rio is this upper yellow part. Canyon Del Rio has submitted uh design plans I believe here just in the last couple of days. Cemetery is well under the way as well.

And then last time we were here with in front of council was July of this past year uh with the change order to go to peak engineering to help us get final design or construction documents for that red section that we showed in the middle. So the middle third of the road, it's about 42 4,300 linear feet. So since July, we've been working on coordinating with the developers engineers.

So clearly when you're building a section of the road that's in the middle, you need to make sure you have really good communication with those that are designing around you. So we've been working with them to make sure our alignments match, to make sure our utilities match, to make sure access and interchange intersections match. So having those meetings and coordinating those meetings has been really paramount.

Thus far we've been working with water services and also Intellis which is a subconsultant of peak engineering to make sure our sewer master plan is up to date that it's encompassing all the applications from the planning side that we've received to date as well as just the current conditions that are out there. Another aspect that's been done uh just here in the last couple weeks actually is what's called geotechnical sampling.

So whenever we build a road, a new road or even repair an old road, we poke holes in the ground to make sure what we're building a road on is not going to mess up our road that we're building there. So we went out there and we pulled or geotech about 10 10 different sites along the transct here to make sure that we know what's going on below us as we go out there to build a new road.

Uh that report is being assembled, but the actual fieldwork, we were able to work with the property owners to gain access to get out there and make sure that we left that in the same condition that we found it. Another exciting aspect here is the we prepared the document for the requests for statements or qualifications. I know here in the government we love acronyms. So I'll spell them all out for you.

RSOQ and that is a document that goes out to contractors that want to solicit their skills to be considered for the construction. This is the same process we used for the Bula University project. It's very successful to be able to go out for what's called a a contract man or construction manager at risk or semar. So we can build bring on that construction manager during the design.

So they can come in and they can weigh with the designer on how to make this project successful fast and also how they can do it to save costs. So it's always a beautiful thing when you can have your contractor working with your designer at the same time rather than taking complete construction documents and saying here go build it. So we're really excited about this. This should be I believe currently reviewed by legal and then this will be go out to bid uh for contractors to respond to that.

We have formed a committee uh that is decided by a committee uh that goes through and scores all the contractors that submit for that and then one is chosen or interviewed and selected which then we'll come back to you to issue a guaranteed maximum price for that construction. So we'll see you again. Another aspect we've been working on is the Rio de flag crossing report that's nearing completion. So, we've been in in front of council before discussing how we're going to cross the Rio.

What's that going to look like? A bridge, a box culvert, different structure types. We're balancing what we need to environmentally and hydraulically to pass fluid and liquids through this area as well as cost effectiveness of what we need to build in this area. There's lots of things you can build, but only a couple are within the budget of what we have allocated for this project.

So we have a lot of professionals looking at that and analyzing uh what we are are to do in this area and then discuss uh from there. And then lastly the 60% design. So typically we have the 30% the 60% 90% final one final two% final two plans. So we're currently working on the 60% plans with peak engineering on that red section in the middle. Uh and we should be hitting a milestone here in coming up in November for those 60% plans. And that's around the time frame.

We're probably going to be a little bit behind it with the the Seymar contractor. Uh but hopefully by the end of the year, we'll have that contractor on board so they can start weighing in at that 60% between the 60 and the 90% plans. And then with that, I'm going to pass the presentation on to Michelle who's going to talk about more planning. Before you do that, we have a question from Council Member Spence. Thank you, Mayor.

Um, this is the first time I've um appreciated that uh John Oley Powell project. It looks like it's about nine miles in length from your map. Uh it's the first time I've realized that uh different um entities are responsible for different segments.

So my question is the cross-section we've been shown for the uh design of John Wesley Pal extension has uh beautiful uh walkways, bikeways, um median uh parkways u the um the question is are all of the participants required to meet that same standard of design. Yeah. Thank you, council members Spence. Uh, yes, they are. We are coordinating all those cross-sections together. Uh, I believe it was maybe two presentations ago to council.

We shared the crosssections at different snippets along this transct. We're happy to share that again. It shows the foots trail, the sidewalk, uh, the bike lanes, the medians, the crosssections of the roadways as well, but they will be homogeneous all the way along the transct. Uh the roadway is a little over two and a half two and three/4er mile. So it's not nine miles. It's it's a little less than three miles between the ends and the two ends that currently exist.

The entire all three segments two yellows from from here at Pine Canyon all the way up to here is about two and a half two and three/4 miles. Thank you. Yeah, absolutely. Um Council Member Matthews, thanks for your presentation. Um, I thought about this uh this week when walked my dogs off JW pal. Um, is there any movement or is this later in the date then from across Lake Mary over by the airport extension or is that a totally different focus and project? Council member Matthews.

Uh it is a a different project uh that is in the five-year CIP to have that section from Lake Mary Road over to I17. Uh there are plans to have up to a 15% design on that so that we can go up for funding and grants to allow that project to move forward separately. But that is a different project from this one.

But yes, the holistic idea is that you will have a John Wesley Pal that goes from 17 to Butler and the time frame on that If I could answer that question, I I don't have a time frame for that one. This one is approximately three years for this section. That one will follow after this one. So I I don't know, especially when you have the funding mechanisms coming from grants and things that need to be applied for.

Um I think the initial design that 15% I believe is probably in the next year or year and a half. So my last question is um are the other um tail ends this bread on this for the peanut butter and jelly. Right. So the the slices of bread um developer own property. Are they going to be building the road at the same time we are or we'll have this beautiful road design in the middle and they'll they'll build as they're developing the land. How does that work?

Council member Matthews, there are lots of others in this room that probably can answer it better than I, but the plan is is that yes, they will happen relatively in harmony. Uh, if you think about building a road in the middle, it's kind of hard to get there if you don't have some access of some form, whether that's even a graded road or a completed road. Um, but we're working well to get that timeline synced when you have multiple agencies working together.

Obviously, it's a little more clunky than just one. Um, but I feel that confident that our timelines are going to be pretty pretty uniform to make this happen in a pretty succinct and and uniformed way. Yeah, absolutely. Now you may proceed. All right, I will bring up the better half. Good evening, mayor and council. Michelle McNelte, planning and development services director.

Um so I just we pulled up kind of the alignment but this time showing different development applications that have come up along the area. Um so this only represents plats and kind of reszones that are adjacent to the John Wesley uh John Wesley Powell extension. Um it's important to note that there are actually other development applications that are coming in on Juniper Point as well as Canyon Del Rio that are also bringing on um single family and multif family uh residential units.

But just the um along the extension alone we have about 1300 over 1300 units coming on and that's a variety of different housing types. Um and um we also so I wanted to make sure that you guys were all aware of that and through those pl that planning process for each of those that's how we will be dedicating the portion of John Leslie Pal through each of the properties. So that will be the instrument that that dedicates that right away.

Um so in addition to the the private development that's coming online um and that we're we're processing, we also have the specific plan underway for the area. Um it is as a reminder it's focused on conserving the riperian habitat along the Rio de flag. Um protecting the watershed, preserving wildlife corridors, trail connectivity and the rural character of those existing neighborhoods that are already out there. Um and it's also identifying the um public facilities that are needed.

So, if everybody recalls the Sharkbite piece, um, which is owned by the city of Flagstaff, um, that is hopefully going to be future developed with affordable housing as well as a a fire station that could include a police substation um, as that area grows out. In uh, April, we had an open house for the property owners in the whole entire study area.

So, not just the large property owners, but all of the individual property owners that live um basically that live underneath this um Excel spreadsheet or the Excel rows. Um and uh and then in May, we followed up with a public uh meeting with just the general public. Both of those meetings had an incredible turnout. I think we had between 50 and 60 participants at each of those. As well as I have to give a shout out to all of the city staff that attended. We have people from Pros Traffic.

Um Julie Lee with Peak, um gosh, I think David Peterson, a lot of different people, Sarah Dector, um that were there to answer all the different questions about the different components of the specific plan. Uh we hope to have a draft of that at the end of October. We are going to kind of waiting to get some of the comments from the regional plan because some of the comments on the regional plan are focused on that John Pal area.

So, we want for that to get wrapped up, see how planning and zoning and council are going to weigh in on those, and then we'll incorporate it into that draft plan, and then we'll take that to several different boards and commissions um so far plan with um sustainability pro or open space um transportation commissions and then get it to planning and zoning and for their recommendation and hopefully have it to you all by January or February for approval. That's it. Thank you.

We have a question from Vice Mayor. Okay. Thank you. And I I've had a few residents ask if they wanted to have more comments. What is their opportunity to do that? Um so right now we are trying to update our website. We do actually have a web page available that has a place to submit comments. So they can send that to the John Mosley POW project team. Um I can send that information out to you as well. Um so that you have it. I'm afraid to start touching this and totally blow up this. See? Okay.

And he he's the better half. Um there's um you can follow this uh QR code as well as that website and you can get more information more details on the um the comments that we received at those public meetings. They can also leave comments. All of the poster boards that were shown at those were also available. So, it's a it's got a it's been updated finally. We're very proud of that. Thank you, Council Member House. Thank you both for the presentation.

Um I'm wondering if you can speak a little bit more to what's the plans are for the wildlife corridors in the area. I know that's just it's been a really big topic um in the the residents that live out there and um for some of the broader community as well. So I don't know if you can speak a little bit to uh what some of those plans are looking like. Yeah. And I'm going to call up David for this because I think a lot of it has to do with the roadway design.

Um and then other um things that we're working on is really working with you know open space has really been a proponent of making as we identify the trail connectivity that we're also identifying enough area for green spaces that not just help with that trail experience of letting it be a more wild experience um but also kind of leaving those green vegetated areas as part of the the corridors and for the the animals to still have those areas and then David can speak to kind of how it's being incorporated into the road design.

Council member House, I was really excited up to the question of where if you could give us details in the plan uh up up till that we've had some really good meetings with both Arizona Game and Fish. We've had multiple meetings with WSP has been a consultant looking at wildlife crossings.

They do wildlife crossings throughout the western US and they've been giving our design team some really good ideas on handle how to handle wildlife because the way you design wildlife for elk is different than how you design it for deer and how you design it for, you know, smaller unullet. There you go, Michelle. Um, so it's it's a process in in motion. We do not have a final plan yet. That's part of that that crossing analysis that we've been looking at for the Rio.

Uh, and just it's not an easy answer to say this is what we need to put in. It's it's a lot more complex as far as design, how you need to design hydraulically through there in the flood plane. Um, so we are looking at it. I'm really excited about the partners that we brought on board to analyze this and as we go forward. Uh I don't have a whole lot of regrets of who we haven't engaged. We've listened a lot to the public out there over the last five years as well.

Um it is a very unique area of the community that we want to preserve as much as we can and uh we're trying to do that in all the ways that we can. So thank you for the question. Thank you. really also just wanted to give you an opportunity to say unulate that school pays off and we are still keeping our commitment to the speed limit on that road. Correct. Which was uh 35 or was it 25? Mayor. Yeah, it's 35. Thank you, Greg. Okay. Thank you. All right. Uh, any additional questions or comments?

I don't see any. Okay, I'm gonna I believe Symmetry would like to do a presentation. My apologies. Yes. Um, I have a public comment from Charity. Yes, I have a um on this issue on um JW POW. don't I? And but your comment was for the um you want to do it after this next one, Charity Lee. Okay. Sorry, Mayor um and council. Sorry, we um kind of jumped out of that presentation too soon.

We wanted to give symmetry an opportunity to talk about the development of the 405 um so that to even go further on some of the development that's happening in this area. So this is still part of that John Wesley pal update. Gotcha. Uh, mayor, vice mayor, council, for your record, Lindseay Shouy with law firm of Gamage and Burnham, 40 North Central, Phoenix, Arizona 85004. And Todd, good evening. Todd Severson representing both uh uh Pine Canyon as well as Symmetry Companies as the uh the 405.

So, STL 405, so 8601 North Scottsdale Road uh 85253. Um, and mayor, if we may, we're going to take the lead of the of the team effort approach tonight like uh Greg and Joanne did then as well. Uh, Dave and Dave and Michelle. Uh, so yes, just in terms of of the JWP corridor. We just wanted to give you an update on where we are with the planning and with the entitlements for the 405 acres in Dave Milis's and Michelle's exhibit, the 405.

Um, again, as Todd said for the record, he is he's wearing two hats tonight. So, Symmetry is the owner um of Pine Canyon as well. They are a partner in the 405 acres with Capstone Homes. So, you know, it's the reason we wanted to give you an update is there's a lot of talk about what is happening with the 405 acres and it's justified in the way that um they bought it five years ago. I can't even believe it. five years ago from now, they've been the owners of this land.

And we've we have been thinking and and Todd and with his teams of a variety of different development plans. About a year and a half ago, we did submit a reszone application. We can speak to it a little, but the most important thing is it included, and this is not the picture, this is a picture of our current application, but the past application had a mega resort. It had a ma major golf course, a championship golf course, and approximately 351 homes. We heard from the commun community.

We heard from your staff, and we even heard from a couple of you up there that that wasn't good enough. That wasn't the plan that would help meet the needs and the goals of the city of Flagstaff. You guys have two big housing, you've got a housing emergency and the climate action plan. So Todd and the ownership group went back and said we can do better. What can we do? What does the reszone and again this is just an update for you.

Our new resone application was submitted in August and we had a resubmitt last week but we just wanted to give you an update of if you did hear of a championship golf course of a big mega resort. Um we have reuned our plan. We whipped through that application and like I said went back to the drawing board. So Todd, what did you look at when you went back to the drawing board? Yeah, appreciate that, Lindsay.

Kind of some of the backstory to to the property that we've looked at and known for five years with Capstone. Um, you know, in our partnership of Capstone, being a longtime home builder, um, it's important to understand um, what they've experienced and heard. Again, reiterating kind of in collaboration and input from council members, uh, from city leadership and staff.

Uh, it's been an opportunity to educate uh and to learn and we feel like we've really taken that knowledge and found an opportunity to implement it into our project. Um first and foremost, we see ourselves as a community partner. We really do. Um we have contributed as as a major contributor to the JWP corridor dedication. So we have just under a mile of the road going through our property.

uh we took on additional uh capital that was required uh due to some of the other land owners not being able to fund their sections at that time to the tune of about 3.2 million that we absorbed on the STL 405. Uh and we're continuing to align and work with staff and planning to figure out uh road, sewer, and water solutions for an area of development that helps meet the housing needs um of this of the city of Flagstaff.

So, we really kind of tuned our alignment of values and the ethos of the community and put forth a plan um that really creates an opportunity for additional housing and not only one segment of housing, but all segments of housing. We hear you. We hear that it's a need.

So, everything from apartments to condos to town homes to starter homes to middle range homes to higherend homes, as Lori happened to say earlier, you need all segments of housing and we're proud that our project provides an opportunity for that. Um we also see it as an economic driver. We do see some commercial opportunity for those local uh you know shops and retail opportunities um for services whether it's you know grocery store um or gas station.

Uh we do see instead of a mega resort we see a lodge. you see a family lodge that's built on the culture of of u of Flagstaff, a lodge that's connected to what matters most and that's the trails and open space and connectivity of that of that natural tissue that holds us all together in Flagstaff. Uh so it's an employment, it's a career growth opportunity for folks. Um you know at Pine Canyon again wearing both hats this evening.

You know we are the eighth largest employer at uh Pine Canyon with just over 250 plus employees um on an annual basis. So we see it we see it uh continuing to drive uh opportunities for economics. But most importantly, where we've really leaned in and where we've heard you guys is the idea of conservation sustainability and nature. Um, so we've we've integrated those values and ethos of Flagstaff and brought those in by creating a connection that is either with neighbors or with nature.

Uh, we leaned into the ideas of open space in the Arizona Trail. There was conversations about realigning that over into the Rio de flag that wasn't received by others as a welcomed thought. Uh and so we grabbed it.

We grabbed hold of it and said, "How can we use that as the spine and the anchor of our project and how can we connect additional trails and open space and parks um that would be privately funded and privately maintained but create a culture and an identity for this new neighborhood along the JWP corridor. Um one question this evening was timing. Our timing is to initiate or to launch kind of a phase one.

In that phase one, it is the dedication of the JWP rightway is the mechanism in which we dedicate the entire length of the JWP corridor through um STL 405. So, we'd like to see that and initiate that construction as early as Q1 in collaboration with staff uh and city leadership to to achieve that phase one entitlement package. Um so we appreciate all the support from you uh going forward in the future um but also the current staff helping us get that phase one completed.

Uh so the next slide here again completely re reinvisioned the 405 open space uh the Arizona Trail like we said five parks biodiversity u and we really truly listened to what was important to Flag Staff Pine Canyon in and of itself and and this ties into another agenda item this evening but they have done a lot of um improvements technological improvements to conser water, reclaimed water that they are using on their uh on their land today.

We will continue to take those improvements on to we have a small Pine Canyon expansion which we'll get into and then STL 340 when when all this neat housing types, biodiversity, parks, Arizona trail comes to you, it'll be the balance of STL 405, which we're calling STL 340. Um but very much leing into all again of what's important to Flag Staff. So, what did we hear from you?

Housing this new application with down if you look at the bottom right or if we want to kind of say the southwest that is a 54 lot Pine Canyon expansion that is phase one of the development that allows for the dedication of the entire right ofway of John Wesley Powell. Symmetry and Capstone are also STL 405 responsible for the construction of that. And I will say the alignment with staff has been great in terms of the water and sewer improvements as well as the transportation.

Um from there you see kind of two of our commercial nodes. One kind of coming off the roundabout there as well as one like we say like to say at the tip of the boot. Oh. Thank you, Dave. Oh, look at that. I how you had those red dots. Thought it was a PowerPoint feature that I didn't know about. Um, okay. So, here we have the Pine Canyon expansion. Again, it's a 54 uh 54 lot uh subdivision. This we will dedicate in this plat. There's 126 acre plat the entire right ofway of JWP.

So, it's a kind of strange looking plat because we need that infrastructure there so we can get started. Like uh Todd said, if it's up to them, we will have a shovel in the ground for that road in March, April, May of this year of 2026. There are two commercial nodes right here. Again, looking to be uh creating jobs, generating commerce, and again helping with the multimodal goals of your community in terms of restaurants, you know, wine bar delare I dare I say that out loud.

Uh you know, cute little restaurants for people to go to neighborhood commercial. And again, but at the end of the day, the most important part is leaning in to the Arizona Trail, which you see here in red. Um, and with a bunch of different trails and parks that will be uh open to the public and again creating some biodiverse leaning into the biodiversity and creating wildlife habitats um building off of what you have at Pine Canyon. Yeah.

And I we do have a few folks from Pine Canyon and I I just want to thank them for their efforts um implementing what was a $3.5 million uh irrigation um renovation project. It allowed us to improve our water efficiency by 30%. Uh it also let us remove 10 acres of irrigated turf out of the golf course corridors and restore that back to native uh landscaping, grasses, trees, etc. Um, we're proud at Pine Canyon um to be a Firewise uh uh community and a member of the Ottabon Society.

We really do believe that the the biodiversity and habitat that we've created um there at Pine Canyon through the lakes and stream systems uh has has borne uh years of osprey and eagle nests. We have a extensive uh elk population which sometimes works against us. Um they do like to make a mess.

Um, but we've integrated those and we do see phase one as a continuation and a and a placemaking statement that we're committed to carrying those biodiversity and habitat creation opportunities into the broader STL 405.

Um, so yes, there's some some golf in there um you know related to a small kind of pitch and putt or executive par three, but it also is the phase one of bringing biodiversity and habitat and then allowing for us to continue that through through enhancing trails, open space, and parks, through the use of of uh strategically uh utilized reclaim.

So, um we we feel like we align uh we're excited about where the plan has come uh from and where it is going to go as we continue to collaborate with staff and council. So, we appreciate your guys' support uh in helping us kind of advance that uh in a long-term partnership. and mayor and vice mayor, council members, uh we hope that this application is in front of you before or after summer break. Hopefully before summer break, um we're in the queue.

Uh we'd love any type of um comments, questions from the community, uh from any council members, you have any questions about this applications, ideas on how we can make it better, we we look forward to working with every one of you. Um, this is an important piece of land to to Flag Staff and we really hope you're excited with the the changes that we have made and the direction that we're going and welcome any questions or comments. Thank you.

All right, we have a question from Council Member Garcia. Thank you, Mayor, and thank you guys for adding to the presentation. The stuff that staff had up earlier was informative and exciting to see how we're moving in what I call Flagstaff part two. So, when it comes to this uh John Wesley Pal Boulevard Flagstaff part two, as I sometimes call it myself, um I think I think you know developing that portion of land that's really um kind of away from a lot of the amenities.

I really do appreciate that you have mentioned that you guys are going to have some neighborhood commercial infused in there for the reasons of sustainability and that you know other things that I heard you mention were the parks and um and the trails, you know, having the Arizona trail rooted through your property is is something that sounds great to me. Uh, other things that I like to hear was the fact that you guys are going to be eliminating your championship golf course.

Um, Flagstaff has a lot of golf courses and and not not a lot of houses. So, you guys supplementing the golf course with some new housing makes me thrilled and makes me believe what you say when you say you guys were listening. to things that were that were coming from the council and from more importantly the community. Now, um, as you all know, we there's we we don't we have a lot of state preeemptions when it comes to short-term rentals.

Um, one thing when I look at your map, I'm just astounded by the fact that you guys are proposing to put potentially 800 homes out there. That's fabulous. Especially when you put it up against the surrounding properties, it's it's above and beyond. I'm glad that you're making that uh use of the land through through density and kind of everything that we're talking to as a talking about as a community as far as what we want housing to look like.

That's one thing that we don't have control over and that is the short-term rental component. Um so if you built 800 homes and 500 of them went to short-term rentals and what what are you helping? I'm not saying that that against you guys, but that's just a scenario that I have to consider as a council person where with my hands tied by the state.

Do you guys have any proposals as land owners for um circumventing that issue for us or or making it as a development to where you don't allow uh investment properties as home ownership? Yeah. Um, mayor, vice mayor, uh, council member, as you said, you know, the state does tie your hands. It's something that that we have heard is very important to the community. We will take that back to the partnership. Um, nothing we can commit to tonight, but I appreciate you raising that.

I wrote down all the things you liked, which is good, and I'll write down short-term rentals to bring that back. Yeah, I really appreciate it.

I don't want uh my commentary about the short-term rentals to to minimize the admiration I have for the outside the box thinking when it comes to this property and and hope and and my hope is is to the vision that I see from the vision that you guys are are giving to me is uh something that I hope spreads uh to other developments nearby where we start prioritizing houses housing sustainability uh multimodal transportation and community living again here in Flagstaff. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Council Member Garcia. Council member Matthews. Thank you, Mayor. Um, first I just wanted to kind of re um emphasize um your comment about being a community partner because I don't think um a lot of our community really know besides the tax revenue, besides being a large employer um and it didn't get the attention that it should have gotten, but donation that you made to the girls and boys club.

I think it was about $400,000 in exercise equipment that was just phenomenal and and just a game changer for the Boys and Girls Club. Um I was there, coordinated it. You reached out to me and and you said, "Who could use this?" And that was the first call I made. Um, and when we went and saw the the equipment, I had different expectations, but when we went in, I was like, "This is like a showroom.

Did anybody even use this equipment?" So, it's beautiful equipment, and I just want to um give space to that. That that was a hugely generous um donation to our community. Um, I also want to just restate that the development from all of the property owners off JW PAL extension, I view that as um just really where we're going to make huge strides in our housing crisis.

We do need all housing types and I appreciate the conversations that we had and I know you had conversations with another council member um as well and I really appreciate the fact that you guys listened um and that you did a major pivot um on this. um we get some comments about golf and and although I appreciate that it's not um a PGA golf course that you're doing now. I think a lot of the community forgets how that golf is part of our outdoor experience, our discovery uh discover center.

Um and I think the other what was it? Flag staff, I forgot the other u division. Talk about golf being one of the hallmarks of our outdoor activity and that Pine Canyon and Flag Ranch and Continental and Aspen, they all have youth programs. So it's not for those adults that um maybe are retired and can afford a golf membership.

But there's a lot of youth programs out there that um that help our uh younger generation and it is you know some of us are adamant about hiking, some of us biking um skiing and golf is one of those as well and we're known for that. And so I just wanted to remind the community that golf is something exclusive to the rest of the community. It's part of what makes us a community. But I do appreciate you changing that, making it a little bit more um smaller.

And um I'll save my other comments to when we're talking about reclaim water. But um you know, this is exciting. Um and city manager will um agree with when we have our one-on- ones every month. My first question is how are we doing on the JW PAL extension? um because I think it's just so critical to our housing crisis and uh the solutions that will come with that. And so I really am excited about the number of units and the mix of units.

So just really thank you and hats off to you and all the other investors. We heard it uh the le the league of cities and towns how um equity is drying up and going away at the end of this year. They said it in several different uh breakout sessions and so the time is now to get these things nailed down and um you know because without equity without that investment no housing will come. So um it's important for our staff to keep it moving as Charity talked about.

I'll have to have that conversation more with her later but um you it's important for us to streamline those efforts and and make sure we're turning this stuff around. So, thank you so much, Vice Mayor. Thank you. And thank you for coming tonight and talking with us. Um, I I did meet with you and I remember I asked you, okay, do you want me to be blunt with the original plan and I I kind of tore that plan apart. I'll be very honest.

I was like, you're building something for a tourist, not for our community. And I could just see the look on your face. It was like, oh, and you you kept getting a little more defeated as we went on, but you came back and you you did listen. And um I'm just from where you first started saying Mega Lodge and the golf course and yada yada, it was like you lost me. Um but I do feel like you've really listened.

You've gotten us to a place where this is benefiting our community and I really appreciate that. um that takes a lot of a lot of gumption to to really take it to heart of what someone is saying to you and come back and say, "Okay, you know, I listened and I modified and here you go." So, thank you. Um can you talk a little bit more? I did mention the mega lodge and I can't remember the community lodge. Can you tell me what that will look like and is it open? I'm assuming it's open to the public.

Yeah, great question. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um so, our vision for instead of kind of a mega conference resort, lots of units, etc. Um, that we had a warm dialogue about um was, you know, has downsized to more of it's about the experience of a family, right? Going back to some of those roots of what it felt like to go to a mountain lodge, right?

So, still kind of lodging units in a main main unit with some additional cassitas that, you know, can provide a little bit more space for a larger family. uh some amenities that that allow you to immediately connect with nature, whether that's terracing or dining, outdoor dining.

Um we see as an opportunity to connect to the commercial and create a designated trail so that you can um you know use multimodal opportunities of either your own two feet or a bike um and get to, you know, other commercial uh opportunities adjacent to the lodge.

And then by enhancing those trails, by enhancing the the the natural environment that's already there, uh, with ponds and some streams, uh, and native landscaping, we think we can really immerse people in a true Flagstaff experience, and I think that's what people are looking for. Are the amenities at the smaller lodge open to the public? I can't I'm sorry. Did you answer? Oh, sorry. I didn't answer that directly. Uh, yes. Yep. Thank you. Uh, city manager. Thank you, mayor.

Thank you for this discussion. Uh, I'm not going to um echo other comments made at the day as we appreciate hearing those comments. I'll share with you a little staff perspective on this as it touches on two topics. Um, the uh the most recent topic first that being the um idea of a resort development out there uh in another golf course.

Yeah, we had a that discussion at our table at the staff table and um quickly weighed in on with great hesitation and reservation about that particular development and how well it it would be received or not received um at the deis and frankly by the community and uh I just want to give props to Symmetry and uh and the team for uh listening to those comments.

We were quite concerned about that as you were uh council uh for many obvious reasons uh none of which uh speak to the sport of golf uh but rather the type of housing that was uh being contemplated. Um the the other comment is a bigger one and it goes to the topic of partnership that we saw up on that first slide. We have been at the table with Symmetry and and many others um on the topic of the John Wesley Powell uh project for some time, years. And pardon me.

Um it was uh it was really interesting to to see that uh discussion evolve and and finally get to a place where we we knew it was going to happen and council's been getting the playbyplay on that all along. It's been very exciting. I still marvel at how um many different property interests in the city uh came together to to get this alignment straightened out and then get the funding question addressed and then get to a place where now we're talking about design and construction.

And to your previous question, Dr. Spence, uh construction on that is even though you didn't get a timeline, uh is going to be expedited. Uh design and construction on that will happen fairly quickly. Um without giving you a timeline, I do want to give you that assurance.

Um but the the JWP partnership uh has been and remains uh remarkable and I I want to give again thanks to Symmetry as being one of those partners at the table along one of the most exciting things about JWP as we all know has been the opportunity to see a lot of housing come into the city's inventory. thousands of units. Um, so when we back to the other topic, when we were hearing about another large golf course community, you know, it it started getting a lot of us uh quite nervous.

It's like, oh, here we go. Um, you know, we're we're losing the potential for a lot of housing inventory. Uh so here we are now talking about a lot of housing inventory and I think it's just quite exciting and I I think it shows incredible uh adaptability by symmetry. Um I think staff and the council have been very influential uh on this and good things are coming of it. So um those are those are my comments along with a lot of thanks. Appreciate it. Thank you.

I um want to add my thanks to I I think you heard clearly that um from all of us from staff that that was not what Flag Staff was looking for. I want to put a finer point on the short-term rental. you know, I've already spoken to you about this and um and I know that the other development doesn't allow short-term rentals and um I really want to see this development not allow short-term rentals as well.

So, that that's all that I have from council and I would like to ask Charity Lee to please come up and give her comments. Thank you. Hi council. Um Cher Lee Capstone Homes. I just wanted to give a a quick update on Canyon Del Rio. And so um as you've been aware, we recently had the uh phase 2 block plat approved by council um in September. And then um we submitted August 26 our dedication documents to the city and last Friday we submitted our 100% construction plans for the ride ofway.

So we're moving forward. Um we plan to start grading this fall on that rightway. So that's our our hope to do that. We're working right now to get our appraisal for the rightway acquisition. So that's in progress and that should be coming to you soon. Um in Cany and Del Rio currently we have four subdivision plats in a site plan in review.

This will bring right now 535 units to the market and it's a mix of a variety of different housing types uh from rental housing uh with a variety of different square footages to provide different income or um price points as well as town home product and workforce housing product and single family detach. So, we really are um focusing on every segment of the market in Canyon Del Rio as well as we have a variety of trail systems throughout Canyon Del Rio.

So, the community is just going to be very beautiful and we're really excited um to bring these uh units to the market quickly. Um at full buildout, lastly, um we're anticipating that Canyon Del Rio should have about over 1,400 uh housing units. That's all phases, correct? Correct. Yes. Okay. Thank you. All right. Are we are we finished with um nine? Number nine. Okay. So, we'll move on to 10, which is discussion of amendment amended agreement regarding reclaimed water for Pine Canyon.

Good evening, Mayor Council. Lee Williams, water services director. I am here to discuss an amendment to the Pine Canyon reclaimed water agreement. It involves the expansion of 4 acres of irrigated turf on the parcel adjacent to and east of the existing Pine Canyon development. I'm going to apologize in advance for reading off of my notes rather than looking up at you. Just don't want to miss any details.

Um, as you saw, this agreement is tied to the larger Pine Canyon development and the agreement with the JW Powell alignment. Um, but my my sentiment is they're doing more with less. Um, piece Pine Canyon has made significant upgrades to their irrigation system and turf at a considerable cost to themselves. They're removing 10.2 acres from their existing course, implementing water saving technology that only 10 to 15% of courses are using nationwide. U, time's up. I'm out. Thank you, Lee.

You're welcome. Um, shall I continue? Uh, let's see. 10 to 15% of courses nationwide are using this technology. Um, many are not. And they're planting grass species that are more suited to the climate in Flagstaff. They've been able to reduce their usage of reclaimed water, which is the only water allowed for irrigating of golf courses in the city of Flagstaff per city code.

Uh, to the point that they will be returning the negotiated amount of nearly 30% of their annual aotment which includes 10% of peak month aotment to the city. I'll show those numbers in just a moment when I pull up a PowerPoint presentation. Uh from a water services perspective, they're doing more with less. More with less, I believe, aligns with our I don't believe I know it aligns with our water conservation efforts and I believe it aligns with the values of our community as a whole.

Uh in addition to implementing water saving technology and changing grass species, they've been very open in sharing their experience with water services. Uh it is my expectation in the true sense of a partnership that they will continue to do this. Their turf manager here in the crowd, we have their developer in the crowd.

uh that they will continue to share with our community what they've gained and the knowledge that they've gained through their trial and error with the new grass species and the technology that they've implemented um with other turf irrigators in the city. Um potentially this could potentially open the door to greater water savings in the future. It is my hope that this becomes the new standard in Flagstaff.

Uh if you can play golf on it, perhaps you can play baseball, football, and throw frisbee around on it as well. Um, so that being said, um, I am in support of this. I will be signing the agreement, um, to allow for the expansion of their irrigation system to this new turf. Um, I would say in the last four years, there's many things that gone into this, like I said, more with less. And it's actually in the last three or four years, it's a net loss of turf.

They've removed 10 acres of their existing course through efficiencies, and they're adding four. So, it's a six acres less in total. Um, I'll pull up some slides. I'll show you some numbers and um be ready for questions whenever you are. So, uh in addition to the expansion of the course, there's a couple of things in the existing agreement that need to be corrected.

Uh the county assessor parcel numbers will be corrected on the existing agreement and the latitude and longitude of the place of use will be corrected. Uh the current agreement expires in three years. The new agreement will be five years long. That is our standard term for reclaimed water agreement with water services. Right. Here's here's the numbers. Uh they're adding four acres of turf on an adjacent parcel.

Pine Canyon has agreed to reduce their annual aotment from 360 million gallons per year. That's 30 million gallons per month times 12 months to 253 million gallons per year. That's nearly 30% savings. Um it allows for use elsewhere should we pull an industry into town or uh use it. for the purposes.

Uh also they will be reducing their peak month from 30 million gallons per month to 27 million gallons per month month which will also reduce some of the stress on our system during those hot months and potentially allow for use elsewhere. I don't know why that slide is in there. I apologize. Maybe I'm not in display mode here. Sorry about that. team effort. Continue with the team effort. Going going with the pinch hitter mode, though. All right. Um so that that's it for my presentation.

Um I'm I'm ready for questions. Council member Matthews. Thank you, Mayor Lee. Um I remember actually when Pine Canyon um presented their their changes to their irrigation and stuff and it was pretty impressive. everybody was talking about at different golf courses wanting to know what their secret was and stuff. Um, and there's a lot of at least the input I get, um, I think some misconceptions or misunderstanding of what right now what we use reclaimed water for. Can you state those?

I I looked them up. I can say them if you want, but are you um, sorry, Councilman. Where do we sell our reclaimed water to for irrigation? Uh, yes, I can list a couple of those for you. Um, without naming names, there is some manufacturing processes in town that uses our reclaimed water. Um, in the winter time, Snowball uses it for snow making. Uh, many of the golf courses and parks in town are irrigated with reclaimed water. And I know I'm missing one. Do you do you mind filling in the blank?

Yeah, which was actually kind of surprising to me, but At least what my research showed was dust suppression. I didn't know we had a lot of dust up here, but that was an interesting that you named the others correctly. Thank you. Yes. Uh for construction purposes, portable water is not allowed. So we have reclaimed hydrants and stand pipes that construction companies can use for dust suppression.

So I is I would think just with all of our parks and um golf courses and stuff, the majority use is for irrigation for landscape and and turf. Correct. Correct. The majority of our use is for irrigating landscape or Yeah. irrigating turf. So this is a pretty big um deal. I mean have have we ever had a user give back what they were guaranteed to have in a contract? I am relatively new in this position, but this is the first time that I've seen this. Thank you. That's all I have.

Thank you, Council Member Matthews. Vice Mayor, thank you. And thanks, Lee, for being here and giving us the details. Um, on the next agenda item, there is a line saying subject to general availability and needs related to advanced water purification. So knowing that, I'm wondering how we monitor the needs and what protocols do we use if we need to backtrack on this and rethink the needs of reclaimed water down the road. That is a great question. Thank you, Vice Mayor. Um it is my hopes.

Um let me take a step back. There was a memo from Brad Hill and Sterling Solomon to city council in 2015 uh with a proposal for a way to start to kind of dial back some of these agreements. It was never implemented, but um my my team water services team is looking at ways to uh amend these contracts when renewals come up or change these contracts when renewals come up.

And one of the proposals in that memo to council was to um look at the previous three years of usage, take the average and that becomes the new agreement amount. Um so so hopefully in the future and if we can continue to implement these these new technologies, um other users will use less water. we can start to dial back those agreements and in Shannon Jones's words, um, start to claw back some of that reclaim water that's in the system. Thank you.

I'm glad to see that we're being proactive and thinking on the future. Thanks. You're welcome. Thank you. Any additional questions, council? All right, I'm going to take public comment and I see we have online as well Nicole Elman. Thank you. Thank you, mayor, vice mayor, council, staff. Um, appreciate the time today and um the considerations given. I'm speaking as a private citizen and a current participant in the water commission working group.

Um, I would like to express my support for this item and amendment of the water agreement between Pine Canyon and the city. Thank you. Thank you. And online, mayor, we have Michelle James. Michelle, if you'd like to go ahead and unmute and offer your comments. Michelle. Oh, just just one moment, Michelle. Michelle, if you could go ahead and start over again, my apologies. Okay, no problem. Thanks. Council, I'm Michelle James Future.

FC understands that Pine Canyon LLC has recently made the decision to reduce water usage on it current. This reduction on the use of the city's valuable rec water is a positive move and is appreciated. We understand that Pine Canyon's proposal to use a portion of the revised reclaimed water aotment on an adjacent new amenity, a private pitch and putt 4 acres of turf will be allowed through this amended reclaimed water agreement.

Reclaimed water will reach the new amenity via an extended private distribution system. While FK was pleased that Pine Canyon G has undertaken additional water conservation measures, we do not support the use of reclaimed water, a valuable public resource for private uses, including for golf courses. Northern Arizona will continue to experience drought as the impacts of climate change become more volatile in our region.

As a result, Flagstaff's reclaimed water will only become more valuable as a public resource, including potentially potential direct potable reuse in the future given adequate investment in advanced treatment technology. As such, the city of Flagstaff must conserve our public reclaimed water for uses deemed to be of the highest value to our community. FQ does not of reclaimed water to support a private golf amenity of any size is the best use of the city's limited resources. Thank you so much.

Thank you. Do we have another? No, mayor. That was our only online commenter. Okay. Yes Lee. Thank you, Mayor. If I might make one more comment. Um, I've just received some emails from the community and I just want to address them if that's appropriate. It's tied to the Pine Canyon expansion and um Kinsey Elementary School.

Um so I've received a few emails regarding um whether the Pine Canyon agreement or change amended agreement is going to affect whether turf can be irrigated at the new Kinsey Elementary School. And there that there's no basis on that. It is um it's my my my thought that we're going to do the same thing. When Kinsey Elementary School, the old one is decommissioned, we will use, we will take their aotment and move it to the new parcel.

So, they will maintain that same aotment that they have under FUSD's agreement currently. So, no concerns about the community should have no concerns about irrigating the turf at the new Kinsey Elementary School. Thank you. Thank you. Uh, we have a question from Council Member Garcia, so maybe you might not want to sit down. I just wanted to see you exercise. Thanks for the presentation, Lee.

You and your department are as always um just a pleasure to learn from and and to work with and to watch grow and to see us fulfill um all our water needs. I always I always get a kick out of the fact that uh you know, we we all have a lot of things to say about the city when it comes to this that or the other, but whenever we need that water that cold water turned on, we just go to the faucet and there it is. Magic. So, thank you for all you do for the community.

um kind of spurred a question listening to the public commentary about uh the reuse of reclaimed water and or the use of reclaimed water in the summertime for for for uh irrigating fields and whatnot. And I guess I'm trying to formulate a question if you haven't noticed while I'm sitting here, but what what I'm wondering is there a benefit to um to utilizing water in this way? In other words, does it help recharge the system?

What what are the benefits for reusing water in this capacity or are there none? Thank you for the question, Council Member Garcia. Are you asking if there's a benefit to irrigating turf with reclaimed water? Yeah. Or um I'm asking that question. Yes. And I'm also curious uh from a water standpoint, uh what else would we be using the water for? What are the potentials for reuse in the future? Yeah.

Um, as as Miss James said a moment ago, the landscape of the reclaim water system and just reclaim water in general is changing rapidly. Currently, um, Arizona as a state and ADQ as the regulator have passed legislation allowing for advanced water purification within the state of Arizona. Uh, Scottsdale, Phoenix, and Tucson are proceeding with building plants to do this. Um, so that could be one potential use further down the road for reclaimed water, uh, if it weren't for irrigating.

Um, other things too, um, the golf courses, as I said, uh, they're auto they're recognized by the Autobon Society. So, um, I don't know that it's the turf that is is making it, you know, autobond recognized, but it's the it's the ponds that they have and the the water features that attract the wildlife. Um, so as far as other uses, um, we it does sink into the ground. Um it does I I don't know Erin could probably speak to this better than I could, but there is potentially some aquafer recharge.

Um if we're not irrigating with the turf, if you're spraying it on the turf, it kind of spread spreads it out and it doesn't penetrate. But if you have it going into a confined channel, there's a there's a better opportunity for it to sink into the ground. Um other than that, um I think those are probably the two main ones. Does that answer your question? Absolutely. Yeah, I'm always interested in figuring out um ways to try to make everyone happy.

But as a council person, what I'm learning is that that's impossible. But having the information out there and the understanding of why we're doing what with what and and and what the future could potentially bring is something that I like to often highlight. So, while I'm over here straddling um you know, pri community priorities, I also like to um have some some look towards the future and what we can do and understanding what we're doing presently. So, that covered all of them.

Thank you, Lee. Yeah, thank you. I appreciate your kind words. And when you figure out how to make everybody happy, please uh let me know. Council member Matthews, letting you off this easy. Um I was just curious, what percentage of like do we use do we allocate out 100% of our reclaimed water or and and if we don't like what happens to it? So, um, thank you for the question, Council Member Matthews.

Um, again, being kind of new in this position, I'm learning all of this, but, um, it's it's my opinion that we might be just a little bit overallocated in those summer months. Um, I haven't dug into the numbers yet. Um, as we kind of work through this process of um, you know, kind of trying to to maximize efficiency and also um, kind of as a side project, um, there's um, there's not a formal waiting list for reclaimed water. So, we're we're kind of working on all three of these at once.

Um, can you send me a question again? I have a I apologize. No, you you actually answered that. So, I I'm just going back to getting back 30% of it if we're kind of at that max now. That's kind of a good thing to get some of it back. Um, so yeah, you answered the question. Where where does it go if we don't if it's not, you know, sold through a meter? Um, it's it's used to maintain riparian areas. Um, and you're going to hear from Mr. Solomon here in just a few minutes about that.

But, uh, we have a repairing area by I40 is the wetland that we maintain. So, some of the water that we don't sell is discharged there. Picture Canyon is discharged water that's not sold through a meter. And then also Francis Short Pond is maintained with reclaimed water. Great. Thank you. You're welcome. Erin, did you want to add anything? Hello. So, um, Aaron Young, water resources section director, and I would like to add something, although Lee's answers are are awesome.

Um, just adding a couple of caveats. Uh, the wastewater treatment plant process, the water has to go somewhere. So, the only place that goes is to the Riota flag. A small portion of that is dedicated to supporting the riparian areas. That is the next agenda item. Um, another caveat is golf courses. Um it's in our city code that they uh cannot that uh they cannot use portable water. So that leaves two sources for them. Reclaimed water or raw water. We don't provide raw water in our system.

So golf courses could drill their own wells and then that well water is competing with our wellwater. Um so somehow golf courses are likely to get water. So, it's sort of like thinking about recycling water on a larger scale anyway, whether they're going to be pumping groundwater, you know, we can provide reclaimed water that offsets portable water, although they can't use portable water by code.

So, it's almost like a community, you know, overall community water use and what's just the most efficient way to provide that and use the water being efficient with its use as well. So, thank you for letting me Thank you, uh, Greg. Thank you, Mayor Council. Um, on the topic of process and why we're having this discussion of the amended agreement with council, a little quick narrative.

Uh, it has, this has garnered a lot of discussion internally involving water services, our office, legal uh, and and others. uh the code is less than crystal clear as to how these things get approved but on its face it looks like they get approved administratively. That said uh and and and we came to the conclusion that this could all be enveloped within an amended agreement that made sense to us.

um if there is something to be discussed uh on the north side of JWP and you heard snippets earlier of of some ideas there uh with regard to reclaimed water I think that'll be coming back to the deis for more discussion but uh with respect to the amended agreement that was the avenue we decided we we would pursue here why is it in front of council um because we know if it's of interest and uh so we're not necessarily looking for an action on this.

As Lee mentioned, it can be approved administratively. We wanted to get council's read on it. We're actually very supportive of what's being proposed for the reasons already mentioned. Um, so and and we wanted to hear any public comment as well, but just wanted to explain that as the process. Any questions on that? Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um, looks like we have asked all of our questions and I have been asked to give us a break so that we can reset our AV system.

So, let's say five minutes and if after five minutes we're still not rebooted then it will be 7 minutes.