Mesa board OKs 3 projects opposed by neighbors

Nov. 1—In a marathon meeting that ran over five hours on the evening of Oct. 26, the Mesa Planning and Zoning Board gave the greenlight to two multifamily housing projects and a controversial warehouse complex over stiff opposition from neighbors.

Several dozen residents who live near the developments and presented board Chair Jeffrey Crocket with a "fistfull" of comment cards requesting to speak.

Three other projects were pulled off the consent agenda and discussed, but the residential projects attracted the lengthiest public comment.

The board also approved the warehouse project near A.T. Still University.

Neighbors of the residential projects pleaded with board members to deny the zoning change requests and aired grievances with the developers' outreach efforts, complaining the developments threatened their quality of life.

A common sentiment among the commenters was that if housing must go in on the vacant parcels, it should be single-family to match the surrounding neighborhoods.

In the end, most board members felt that the developers had made adequate accommodations to address the residents' concerns over density.

Residents will have another opportunity to make their case when the proposed changes go before city council at a later date.

Former food truck park site

Among the disputed projects was one on six parcels totaling about 6 acres near the northeast corner of Power and Brown Roads, where developers are proposing a 61-unit townhome community called The Jackson.

The project owners — and the residents who oppose them — have recent experience in the city's land entitlements process.

Owners David Darling and Ray Johnson created the Power Food Truck Park on that property in 2021, hosting food trucks and picket tables on weekends.

When most restaurants were closed in 2021, the park attracted considerable business, with residents reporting as many as 265 cars at a time and likely twice that much over one evening.

Neighbors complained about traffic, noise and the smell of cooking grease, contending the food park didn't conform with the property's existing zoning.

The battle set off a secondary fight between the owners and city planning staff.

While negotiating with the city for an agreement to continue, the owners decided to scrap the food park, which had seen declining business as restaurants reopened. They told the city they would "evaluate and explore alternative uses for the property."

In June, Darling and Johnson submitted their application for The Jackson, and residents of the neighborhood, which features homes on 1-acre lots, were not pleased with the plan for 10 units per acre.

They worried about traffic, and said they felt the applicant hadn't really listened to neighbors during the citizen participation process.

They said they were surprised to learn for the first time during the hearing that the townhomes might become rentals rather than for-sale as they were told earlier by the developer.

"Don't reward the charade of neighborhood compromise," said one commenter, who waited four hours to speak as the other cases were heard. "Tell them to go back to the neighborhood, truly work with the neighborhood."

Sean Lake, an attorney for the owners, said the land was "a difficult piece of property" to develop because it fronts Power Road and is an irregular shape.

He said buyers would be wary of building a single family home directly on a major road, so higher density housing is a good use for the land.

"I'm tired of people saying people that live in rental homes ... are implied to be negative," Lake said. "People are people and they're good people whether they pay their money to a mortgage company" or to a rental company.

Board member Jessica Sarkissian said, "I know the neighbors are upset that they haven't seen all their comments and concerns addressed, ... (but) I feel that on this one (the developers) have made a good effort."

New board member Genessee Montes, a principal for Mesa Public Schools, said that she supported more housing options in the area for teachers and families, saying that schools are losing enrollment as families move to neighboring communities.

"There isn't a lot of choice for families to move in," she said.

Two board members voted against approving the project, giving the project a split 5-2 vote, which could influence city council's deliberations on the project.

The proceedings were generally cordial, but someone in the audience broke decorum just after the vote, saying audibly to the board as the meeting broke up, "Hope somebody screws up your neighborhood."

Beef over Killian Farms

Some of the last pieces of land used by the longtime Killian family of Mesa to farm citrus and raise beef near Southern Avenue and Greenfield Road is working its way through the entitlement process, and representatives of the owners have proposed two multifamily housing developments on the roughly 24 acres.

Mera Greenfield Emblem, which won approval from Planning and Zoning in September, comprises 240 units on 15 acres spread over 12 two- and three-story buildings, plus a clubhouse, pool and community parks.

Mera Greenfield at Killian Farms, a single 208-unit apartment building for active adults age 55-plus, faced the Planning and Zoning Board last week and was opposed by many surrounding neighbors.

One resident said having the apartment building go up next to their neighborhood of custom homes on large lots would feel like "we're in the Middle Ages when a baron builds a castle on the hill over the village."

She said the land would be best used for custom single-family homes like the adjacent homes, and if not that, the project should be brought down to two stories.

Lake, who also represented this project, told the board that Mera Greenfield had taken great pains to reduce the visibility of the project for neighbors, such as taking out planed cottages and reducing some parts of the building to two stories, as well as giving the buildings a wide setback against neighboring properties.

"I've never seen that big of a buffer," Lake said, noting the Killian property has many mature trees, which helps obscure visibility, in addition to planned landscaping.

"We will have the most dense landscaping of any project along Southern," he said.

The developer plans to maintain several rows of mature citrus trees on the property.

Other residents objected to the age restriction on the proposed gated community, saying they would rather have families move into the area.

One commenter said they supported "single-family homes and stable neighborhoods."

Before the vote, board member Shelley Allen stated that she knows the Killian family but has no interest in the project, and asked a city attorney if just knowing the Killians was grounds for recusing herself from the vote.

The city attorney said no.

Board member Jeffrey Pitcher recused himself from the discussion and vote because he has family and professional connections with the applicant and developer.

The board approved Mera Greenfield at Killian Farms 6-0.

The future dates for the council hearings in these projects were not available.

Baseline Logistics

One more controversial project completed a hat trick for land use attorney Lake, who also represented the applicant for the Baseline Logistics project.

Real estate manager Hines proposes an eight-building industrial warehouse complex on 50 acres of vacant land within the Arizona Health and Technology Park just south of State Route 60 at Baseline and Recker roads.

The site is part of a 254-acre district that city officials envisioned in 2004 as an employment hub anchored by a hospital with a medical, technology and education focus.

The 50-acre site in question was once planned by landowner Tenant Healthcare to hold a hospital.

Those plans never materialized, Lake said, and Tenant has no intentions to put a hospital at the site.

Despite recommended denial for a 10-acre apartment complex in the same district last month, city staff recommended approval of the larger logistics warehouse project.

But one of the major anchor users in the health and tech park, medical school A.T. Still University, opposed Baseline Logistics at the meeting.

The university issued a letter of opposition to the board.

An attorney for the school told the board that the Baseline Logistics, which is designed to have 220 docking stalls and 16 drive thru stalls for trucks, would clash with the rest of the development and spoil what is supposed to be a campus of kindred organizations.

"You will have wall-to-wall concrete right next to a world class university," the attorney said.

He worried that with so many truck docks, the project would likely appeal to high-volume shipping business rather than high-tech companies.

Lake conceded, "They do have quite a few docks here but that's so tenants have flexibility."

Since the developers don't know where prospective tenants will need to have docks, they put a lot of doors in to accommodate future users, but don't expect tenants to use all of them.

"To narrow the zoning down to hospital for this property ... really I think is so narrowly constricting that they'll never be able to develop the property," Lake said.

Board members voted 6-1 to approve Baseline Logistics.