[0:02] >> [background] good evening, everybody. I'd like to call the marana town council regular council meeting
[0:08] to order. Roll call, please. >> mayor post? >> here. >> vice mayor ziegler? >> present.
[0:12] >> councilmember cavanaugh? Here. >> councilmember comerford? >> here. >> councilmember kai?
[0:16] >> present. >> councilmember murphy? >> present. >> councilmember officer? >> here. >> a quorum is present.
[0:21] >> thank you. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence.
[0:37] >>
[0:46] >> please be seated.
[0:55] approval of agenda? >> so moved.
[1:00] >> we have a motion in a second. All those in favor? >> aye. >> aye.
[1:04] >> motion passes. Call to the public. >> mr. Mayor, I have one speaker card for the call of the public?
[1:11] >> okay. >> noah sunberg? >> hello, I'm noah sunberg.
[1:19] I'm from sita, and I'd like to talk to you about your police chief and others being bad actors.
[1:25] I want to know why your police chief, jeffrey pridgett was dishonest with the local media and the public when he said
[1:34] that things that occurred that are in the report from marana on the sita police attack where the police chief attacked the man,
[1:40] and the man was told, there was no probable cause and your chief said that isn't what was said,
[1:45] and then the police report said that's exactly what was said. Why did your chief lie to us all? That's the first one.
[1:51] secondly, I do appreciate mr. Vincent jenkins,
[1:59] who was force for releasing the man who was attacked by our chief after six hours,
[2:04] when it was proven that there was no probable cause that he did assault the police chief.
[2:08] but I do wonder, why did he not include all the testimonies that were there? He got testimonies from the witnesses who were there and did not include them.
[2:15] he also did not get testimonies from the vast majority of police officers that were all deer in the headlights seeing what our chief had done and didn't do anything.
[2:23] why did your forces do a subpar investigation where our chief assaulted a man,
[2:31] violated him, attacked him, and your guys came up with the wrong conclusion.
[2:36] I understand that there's a fellowship among police officers, where they will protect themselves over
[2:41] the righteousness of what's true and right and the public good and their oaths.
[2:46] but I expect your chief of police and your police officers to honor their oath to the constitution and honor the law
[2:52] and not lie and deceive the public or in their reports to protect another officer,
[3:00] even if it's a horrible person like our chief nolan. I want you guys to have please the honor of the true,
[3:08] not just protect the blue. Thank you. >> thank you.
[3:14] >> mayor and council reports. Councilmember officer?
[3:18] >> no report, mayor. >> councilmember murphy? >> no report.
[3:22] >> councilmember kai? >> no report, mayor. >> councilmember cavanaugh? >> yeah, one quick report,
[3:28] as you know, the chamber of commerce, and marana, had a nice little program to help get us out to
[3:33] local restaurants to dine in local restaurants. Gave if you wanted to, you could fill out take a card to the restaurant,
[3:40] and they would happily sign it. My wife and I participated in that. It was a great experience.
[3:46] we were motivated, actually, to get out, not for the fine t-shirts that we were able to pick out,
[3:51] to wear, with pride. But just to go get out and dine in some wonderful restaurants of marana.
[4:00] that's all my report is, I say kudos to the marana chamber of commerce on this wonderful program they do and throughout july and august. Thank you.
[4:08] >> thank you. Councilmember comerford? >> I have a couple. First. I want to say that officer,
[4:17] murphy, post, and myself.
[4:22] some of our wonderful staff went to the league of cities and towns,
[4:29] and I think it was my 25th that I've been to.
[4:35] I just want to say that it was nice being able to go with so much staff,
[4:41] and it was nice to see that even after 25 years,
[4:46] I'm still hearing new stuff and learning new stuff to bring home.
[4:50] that was very enjoyable. The second thing was that, our deceased mayor,
[5:00] our mayor durst was recognized at
[5:06] the state parks and recreation conference for
[5:12] the entire state of arizona and was recognized as the public official of the year.
[5:19] that was really an honor. I'm so glad mr. Cavanaugh attended and mr.
[5:30] officer attended and I attended. What a pleasure it was to be there and see, first of all,
[5:38] what are people all do, and second of all him being recognized. Thank you, mayor.
[5:43] >> thank you. Vice mayor? >> thank you, mr. Mayor. Planning and zoning.
[5:51] I went to the planning and zoning meeting earlier, well, this last week.
[5:56] carrie sylvan and her group were there,
[6:00] and they're going to be doing our cascada project finally after, my goodness.
[6:06] I don't know how many years. Of course, her team did a great job talking about cascada too,
[6:12] and they, of course, are representing redpoint development,
[6:17] and there will be some amendments to the specific plan. It's going to be a mixed use type development.
[6:25] we're going to have offices, some housing, some loft style apartments, trails.
[6:32] that will be coming up in the next couple of weeks.
[6:36] we'll have to reacquaint yourself with that. Secondly, on I think it was the next day,
[6:43] I went to marana insights. Well, who was there?
[6:49] councilmember cavanaugh, there. Councilmember officer.
[6:53] the bigger reason I went, jason, it wasn't for you. I'm sorry. We hear you all the time.
[6:59] but we went to see heath. He's been with us, was with us for nine years as an intern of the ua,
[7:07] and now he is the director of the county economic development, and 35-years-old.
[7:17] it was interesting to hear his speech or his presentation and just how much those people do down there is incredible.
[7:25] I don't know how they get it done, but it was nice to see heath. Thank you, mayor.
[7:29] >> thank you, vice mayor. First thing I want to talk about is the first ever parents night out at the mark.
[7:38] my grandchildren went to it and I have four grandchildren.
[7:44] but three of them went to it. They had the time of their life.
[7:48] I heard it was so very well done. They had to drag the youngest one out, screaming.
[7:54] he's two. He had a great time. Thank you to parks for setting that up. That's awesome.
[8:01] as everybody know, we finally got the rta across the a portion of the finish line,
[8:08] we're going to go to the voters in march, and that is so very important to the town of marana.
[8:15] if you have not had the opportunity to see a presentation on that,
[8:21] we will hopefully be getting community presentations around,
[8:25] and that's worth over $500 million to the town of marana.
[8:30] that is going to be such a great program for the town,
[8:35] we expect to get more road interchange, tangerine interchange, cortaro interchange,
[8:41] tangerine will be finished to twin peaks and widening of ina.
[8:49] then amongst many other projects around the southern arizona.
[8:56] really important for marana,
[9:00] that we get that across the finish line. The other thing that I wanted to comment on because
[9:07] neither councilmember comerford nor council member kai will say anything.
[9:13] but councilmember kai was awarded a local elected official distinguished award for 32 years of public service, 32 years.
[9:25] [applause] thirty-two years of
[9:32] doing things and working hard for the town of marana. Then councilmember comerford, was awarded with 24 years of public service.
[9:41] [applause] I know both
[9:46] of these individuals have really worked hard for the town of marana,
[9:51] and I'm very proud to know both of them. I know the hard work they've put into our community,
[9:57] and so I'm really proud of them. Thank you very much. Mr. Rozema.
[10:03] >> mr. Mayor, vice mayor, and members of council,
[10:07] I'm pleased to report that the council took just about every single one of the items that I was going to speak on today.
[10:17] very little, single family residential date,
[10:21] 39 permits for the month of august, 53 last year for the month of august.
[10:28] those numbers continue to stay at a pretty low rate for us.
[10:34] you already hit on parents night out, which I heard was a smashing success.
[10:38] I guess if we have to draw children out, they want to be with wayne barnett
[10:43] and jim conroy more than they want to be with their parents. We're doing some good stuff.
[10:48] the one thing that wasn't talked about here is national night out. That's a great event every year. This year.
[10:54] it's going to be on friday, september 26, from five until nine at the crossroads at silverbell district park.
[11:03] we're going to have our first responders there playing a little softball game. We used to play basketball,
[11:08] but the pd kept beating the fire department year after year after year after year.
[11:15] after a year. They switched to softball. But you could still go out there and have a good time watching the softball game.
[11:24] the last thing is, if you want to know what's going on with musd and their growth and the schools that they're building,
[11:30] and what they have in store, their long-term planning,
[11:35] dr. Dan streeter was a guest on the real talk with the town podcast,
[11:40] and he lays all that out for our community. That's all I have, mr. Mayor.
[11:44] >> thank you, mr. Rozema. Item p1. >> item p1, relating to budget.
[11:50] presentation of preliminary year end results, july-june for the town's general fund and
[11:55] other selected major funds for the 2024-2025 fiscal year.
[12:00] >> mr. Klaitif? >> thank you, mr. Mayor, vice mayor, councilmembers.
[12:06] on behalf of the finance department, I would like to present you with our fourth quarter or otherwise,
[12:13] our year end preliminary financial results for some select funds.
[12:19] as always, these results are not audited. They are preliminary and are subject to change as we close our books for the year,
[12:27] which is what we do at this time of year every year. With that, though, we'll be brief,
[12:34] but I will be happy to entertain any questions from anybody during or at the end of this brief presentation.
[12:42] overall, looking at our revenues, we performed right where we expected to perform or better,
[12:49] and in some cases, very much better than what we anticipated. The very much better is really our contracting sales tax.
[12:57] our transportation fund, especially, that is allocated 75% of that particular sales tax,
[13:05] has experienced record revenues for the year, and for previous years.
[13:12] with that, our retail sales tax came in about where we expected in the general fund at just a few hundred thousand over the amount that we expected.
[13:22] that would be included in the results for our general fund. >> what was that amount, your honor?
[13:27] >> 101% of budget. >> I know what was? >> amount for the general fund.
[13:32] we'll be happy to navigate to that. This interactive tool that we are using to,.
[13:38] >> forty-one million. >> will be available. >> forty-three? >> overall amount for sales tax is 48.3 million.
[13:44] specifically our retail sales tax came in at 25.8 million.
[13:54] with that result, going back to our summary screen.
[14:00] our hurf revenues came in as expected with the overage really being related to some of our investment returns and
[14:09] some third party contributions for projects to be performed on their behalf as part
[14:14] of striving to be sure to be as efficient as possible when we do some of these road projects.
[14:20] our bed tax fund also came in better than we anticipated.
[14:24] our health and sales tax fund, that as you all are aware, is there to help pay for the now completed and very successful mark,
[14:35] as was mentioned earlier, came in also just slightly above expectations and continues to
[14:42] experience on a monthly basis over $600,000 in revenues.
[14:48] >> we are starting to make those debt service payments.
[14:53] we have already made one this last july and we will continue to do so with
[14:58] a plan as council directed us to pay that debt off as early as possible.
[15:04] we're still estimating to be able to do that in the next 5-7 years
[15:08] depending on what those returns are through the sales tax collected for this purpose.
[15:14] our water funds and water reclamation funds have also came in as we anticipated,
[15:18] as has the airport fund. The airport fund is going to be collecting slightly higher revenues due to
[15:26] the result of a renegotiated agreement that council approved earlier this year.
[15:33] that is reflected in these results and while it is showing low now,
[15:37] this is normal for this time of year for this presentation. As we close out the year and we close out a lot of
[15:43] the grant funding associated with that particular operation, we do an entry to transfer any shortfalls as
[15:50] budgeted and anticipated from the general fund to the airport fund.
[15:54] that will be happening in the next month to month and a half by the time we get to close the fund.
[16:00] all of our expenses also came in below or as anticipated.
[16:06] of note this year, I would like to point out that we are now done with the house and sales tax fund.
[16:13] you will notice that we spent $35 million, that pretty much closes out the majority of
[16:18] the expenses that we have related to the construction and completion of the mark.
[16:23] there are a few punch list items, but we do not expect those to be significant and we do expect this project to
[16:29] come in within budget as directed and approved by council.
[16:34] on time and on budget, as mr. Conroy and mr. Barnett have stated in the past.
[16:41] the other item that is of note that I would like to point out
[16:45] is council's direction approval and implementation by staff to make the second down payment of over $13 million to our psprs pension plan.
[16:58] you will recall almost three years ago we made an initial payment of six million.
[17:02] we had about 13.6 million identified when we were putting together the budget of
[17:08] unpaid pension liabilities and we did that on july 1 of 2024.
[17:16] that is included in the expenses that we see here.
[17:20] we are now eagerly anticipating the actuarial reports that will come out in december of this year to
[17:30] see what the impact has been for that down payment that we made more than a year ago and see where that
[17:36] allows us to be and we're hoping that we will be fully funded. But as you already know,
[17:42] there's a lot of factors that go into those calculations by the actuaries, but we should be in really good shape when we see that report.
[17:50] with that, I will conclude my presentation, but will be happy to answer any questions.
[17:56] >> we have any questions? Thank you very much.
[18:02] >> actually, may I for one second? >> yeah. >> the presentation was concluded by neglected to do one more thing.
[18:08] the one more thing was the year end general fund balance.
[18:15] it really has not changed very much from an earlier estimate that you saw,
[18:21] but I would be remiss if I walked away and this is something that is attached to the agenda item tonight.
[18:27] we do expect to end next fiscal year at about 87.6 million.
[18:34] that is a little bit higher than it was when we presented to you a few months ago as part of
[18:38] the budget presentations for the fiscal year and this is really the result of higher than anticipated revenues,
[18:45] specifically some of our interest earnings and also some of the mark revenues that we had not budgeted in this cycle.
[18:54] beyond that, though, we are in very good shape at
[18:58] the same time as we continue to move into this year and next year's budget we will be discussing how to
[19:06] utilize a lot of these available funds in future projects.
[19:11] with that, now I mean it, I do conclude my presentation. >> question.
[19:16] >> councilmember cavanaugh. >> yes. Mr. Klaitif says,
[19:20] on the page 2 under the revenues, there's a category, other.
[19:27] >> yes, sir. >> from five million, 900,000-11 million up 199%.
[19:33] can you clarify that for us? >> one moment. Mr. Mayor,
[19:40] vice mayor, councilmember cavanaugh. You are looking, if I may navigate to it,
[19:48] at the category, other. The category, other,
[19:53] if we drill into it, has a number of revenues in it. Some of it are admin revenues,
[19:58] overhead that we collect from other areas, it includes courts fines and fees,
[20:03] which came in as anticipated. A lot of the overage that we have here though is related to investment income.
[20:10] the rates and our investments, which really have a lot to do with the rates in the market,
[20:17] we are limited to what we can invest. Most of our investments are in fixed assets.
[20:22] a lot of it are treasury agency funds. Those particular rates, as you are likely aware,
[20:30] have stayed higher than anybody anticipated throughout the year.
[20:34] in a way, what some argue is difficult for the economy has been good for our returns.
[20:43] as we continue to invest that money that we had, the cash that we had, we achieved better returns that we anticipated.
[20:49] a lot of the 199% that you see there in total
[20:55] comes from better than anticipated returns as well a gain and loss on investments,
[21:00] which is really a book entry that by
[21:04] accounting regulations we have to show the difference between the cost,
[21:09] where we bought these investments that we hold and the market value of those investments at june 30.
[21:16] that is where the majority of the increase is coming from, but as well as some insurance claims and some program and special event revenues.
[21:25] >> the good thing, it's all revenue. >> yes, sir. >> okay. Thank you.
[21:30] >> any other questions? Thank you.
[21:34] >> thank you. >> consent agenda. May I have a motion.
[21:42] >> so moved. >> second. >> I have a motion and a second. All those in favor?
[21:47] >> aye. >> opposed. Item passes.
[21:52] tonight, we have two public hearings.
[21:57] I'm going to declare a conflict on both of them.
[22:03] although a1, I don't have a legal opinion and I have never met the individual.
[22:08] I honestly think it would be appropriate for me to declare a conflict
[22:13] given the situation and so vice mayor,
[22:18] I will turn the dice over to you. >> thank you, mr. Mayor. Miss mcclary,
[22:28] could you read item a2 for me? >> item a1.
[22:32] >> I'm sorry. >> I just want to make sure. >> a1. [laughter] >> item a1, public hearing relating to development.
[22:38] approving a rezoning of approximately 39 acres of land generally located north of linda vista boulevard and southeast of twin peaks road.
[22:46] within a portion of section 14, township 12s range 12e,
[22:50] from r144, single family residential to r4, single family residential.
[22:56] approving a minor amendment to the marana 2040 general plan, amending the land use category,
[23:02] applicable to the rezoning area from low density residential, ldr, to traditional neighborhood tn and extending the town of
[23:09] marana water service area to include the rezoning area.
[23:17] >> ready. Madam vice mayor, council members.
[23:22] [noise] last week, tuesday, we received a letter from
[23:28] the applicant's representative asking for this item to be continued.
[23:32] also to note, the next item a2 is also requested to be continued.
[23:37] this item was on the plan commission. Both items were on the plan commission last week.
[23:42] at that meeting, they were also requesting a continuance. The plan commission did vote unanimously to continue both items.
[23:50] what that means when we talk about a continuance and the request is this evening to continue the case to a date to be determined,
[23:58] so it's not a specific date. Because there is not a specific date,
[24:02] we will have to re-notice the public hearings whenever the applicants decide they want to continue moving forward.
[24:10] those notices will go out as they did the last time directly to all individuals within 300 feet of the subject property.
[24:17] they were advertised in the paper, they will also be on our website. Those then we'll start over, basically.
[24:25] we will go to planning commission first, then we'll come back to council. The reason why it's on this evening's agenda is because
[24:32] the public hearing notices went out before this request for a continuation was there.
[24:37] because it is on your agenda this evening, a public hearing is required for us to
[24:42] hold for anybody that wishes to speak on either one of these items. Once that is done, staff's recommendation to the council is to
[24:50] continue the linda vista 39 rezoning case to a date to be determined.
[24:56] with that, I'll be happy to address any questions. Otherwise, as I said, madam vice mayor, we do have to do a public hearing this evening.
[25:05] >> I'm going to go ahead if anyone has any questions. If not, I'll move ahead.
[25:10] >> I had a question, please. >> yes, mister. >> jason, do we have any information on why there's a continuance?
[25:18] are the applicants thinking about changing their building or asking for maybe
[25:25] some spreading out of some of their homes or reducing the two story homes, anything like that?
[25:34] are the applicants thinking about doing? >> vice mayor ziegler, councilmember cavanaugh.
[25:39] the only thing we have from the applicant is in the letter that they've stated, is that they've requested a continuance of
[25:46] the above reference case to allow for more time to evaluate the plan. They have not shared anything with staff regarding what that evaluation all
[25:53] entails and they have not represented any change to the plans that are currently on file with us.
[25:59] >> thank you, jason. >> yes. >> thank you, mr. Cavanaugh.
[26:03] let's move on to public hearing. >> yes.
[26:09] >> vice mayor ziegler, I have three cards. >> miss mcclary. Go ahead.
[26:14] >> the first speaker is randy carr, followed by maria m.
[26:29] >> good evening, miss vice mayor, members of council. My name is randy carr.
[26:36] I live at 5853 west oasis road and I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you tonight.
[26:42] as you know, I'm opposed to the rezoning of linda vista 39 and 13,
[26:46] it should be left in my opinion as a suburban ranch, maybe r6, r8, something like that.
[26:52] it doesn't create the strain on the infrastructure.
[26:56] I would like to think positively about this in the sense that hopefully maybe
[27:01] mr. Goodman and mr. Post would rethink it and try to work through this.
[27:06] this has been very difficult, ladies and gentlemen. As I said to you before,
[27:11] this whole process seems just a little odd and tonight's another one, through another molec wrench into this one.
[27:17] but you know, for me, on june 3rd, it became crystal clear what was happening to me.
[27:24] just prior to the council meeting the applicant, dan post,
[27:28] approached me in a threatening manner right outside these doors of this building.
[27:33] at the meeting, mayor post, called me to the podium,
[27:38] attempting to break, belittle and intimidate me because I exercise my right of free speech.
[27:43] after the meeting, mayor post daughter, maggie approached me in the lobby as well, very upset.
[27:49] folks this behavior is described as bullying. It's unprofessional.
[27:54] it's clear the mayor and his family doesn't like me. Well, make no mistake.
[27:59] the feeling's mutual. Although the town has succeeded in annexing it,
[28:04] you'll likely succeed in this rezoning when they do it. You have annexed three sides of my neighborhood.
[28:12] I have no representation and you refuse to annex it, you refuse to annex me.
[28:18] now maybe you can understand why this is such a painful thing for me.
[28:24] this is not the stuff we need in the upcoming election. Angry neighbors, it's already gone too far in the sense of,
[28:33] we're not thinking about each other and what this is doing to each other.
[28:37] I just wish dan post would have asked his neighbors, "hey, I'm thinking about doing this,
[28:43] " because we would have probably not been sitting here tonight. But ladies and gentlemen,
[28:48] now I hope you understand. I'm not going to go away and I'm not going to be bullied, no matter who it is.
[28:56] ladies and gentlemen, thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> thank you, mr. Carr. Our next speaker is
[29:04] maria m. If bill cohen would like to still speak, you'd be up next.
[29:15] >> good evening. I have lived in this area since 1992,
[29:20] back when cortaro was a tiny little one lane each way.
[29:24] >> cortaro is still a mess. I currently live in a neighborhood just off of hartman,
[29:31] and hartman is now a mess too. It needs to be a lane each way.
[29:35] it needs to have a left turn lane. The entire length of it, it needs right hand lane turn pull outs. It's dangerous.
[29:42] I have young people who ride bikes, and there is no safe place on linda vista or hartman to
[29:49] ride a bike to get to the bus so that they can go to school and work.
[29:55] I like the post family. I'm friends with the post family,
[29:59] but I don't like that this little anic or this little rezoning change is taking us from 3.3 acres in
[30:07] pristine beautiful desert into high density housing with more people crammed in on roads that are already insufficient.
[30:17] the intersection of linda vista and hartman is not safe already.
[30:23] it's already backing up in multiple directions during high traffic volume.
[30:28] times there's no safety corridor for people to walk or to ride a bike on in any of those areas,
[30:35] and we're cramming more people in. That desert is beautiful. There's no choia in it.
[30:39] it's gorgeous desert that should be there and should be conserved and should
[30:44] be able to be enjoyed by all of those who are currently in the area.
[30:48] in addition to that, there has been nothing brought in by the town in that area for young people.
[30:56] you put all of these young people packed in tightly, and they're going to get bored.
[31:02] we know what happens when young people get bored. We're not attracting any of the business into
[31:07] that mall area that provides family entertainment. There's no dave & busters.
[31:12] there's no fat cats. There's no main event. There's nothing for our young people to do,
[31:16] and we keep building tighter and tighter and packing them in tighter and tighter.
[31:21] they need stuff. We don't need car washes. We don't need self-storage.
[31:25] we do not need any more rental apartments, or neighborhoods.
[31:29] leave it, please, as the 3.3 acres, allow people to breathe.
[31:34] that's why people are attracted to marana. We have breathing room. We want to maintain our breathing room,
[31:40] and we love our desert. It's gorgeous. We want to maintain it.
[31:44] I ask you please to reconsider this rezoning. Please leave it as 3.3.
[31:50] look at how there's pockets in marana that could accommodate tighter building if you want to.
[31:57] that's not the area to do it. Please bring stuff for our young people, safety and entertainment. Thank you.
[32:03] >> thank you. >> thank you for your comments. >> do we have one more?
[32:08] >> I have one more speaker card for mr. Cohen, would you like to speak?
[32:15] >> [inaudible] >> all right. Thank you.
[32:25] >> declare the public hearing closed.
[32:30] does anyone on the council have any questions?
[32:35] hearing none, do I have a motion?
[32:46] no motions to continue the item? Oh, I'm sorry, council member.
[32:53] >> I moved to continue the linda 39 rezoning case to a date to be determined.
[32:58] >> do I have a second? >> second.
[33:03] >> all those in favor? All those opposed?
[33:07] >> no. >> looks like it's 42. Thank you.
[33:19] >> item a2.
[33:25] >> item a2 I wasn't sure. >> item a2, public hearing relating to development.
[33:31] approving a rezoning of approximately 13 acres of land generally located north of linda vista boulevard and southeast of twin peaks road,
[33:37] within a portion of section 14, township 12s range 12e,
[33:41] from r144 single family residential to r4, single family residential.
[33:47] approving a minor amendment to the marana 2040 general plan, amending the land use category applicable to
[33:52] the rezoning area from low density residential ldr, to traditional neighborhood tn,
[33:58] and extending the town of morano water service area to include the rezoning area.
[34:03] >> thank you. Mr. Angel. >> madam vice mayor and counsel, as I stated,
[34:09] this item is also requested to be continued. Same letter was provided by the planning center.
[34:15] the suggested motion for this one is to continue the linda vista 13 rezoning case to a date to be determined.
[34:23] once again, because the public hearing was noticed, we do have to allow for the opportunity for
[34:28] anyone to make comments under the public hearing. >> we're now in public hearing.
[34:36] do we have any speaker callers, miss mcclary. >> vice mayor, I have one for jenny debra.
[34:42] >> okay.
[34:57] >> good evening, council members. As you know, my name is jenny debra,
[35:02] and I live at 96 85 north linda vista place.
[35:06] I'm here tonight to respectfully urge you not to approve
[35:10] the ultra-high density r4 zoning that's currently planned for linda vista 13 and 39.
[35:17] instead, please require these designs to incorporate lower density,
[35:22] larger lots, and exclusively single story.
[35:27] brian underwood with the planning center who represents the applicants,
[35:32] claims trends now show that buyers want smaller lots.
[35:37] however, national data and industry studies directly contradict this.
[35:42] buyers have simply been adapting to the high interest rates that we've had for several years.
[35:50] they're not abandoning their long term preferences. Since 2021, mortgage rates have more than doubled.
[35:58] driving a monthly payment on a $400,000 mortgage from 13 and $40 to over $2,300.
[36:07] with affordability at its lowest level since 1989,
[36:11] buyers have been forced into lower price points, which usually means smaller lots,
[36:17] not because they want them, but because that's what their budget demands. A 2023 survey by the national association of home builders found that
[36:25] almost 65% of buyers would rather compromise on lot size than home size if affordability became an issue.
[36:34] in other words, square footage is prioritized, not small lots.
[36:38] pew research reports show nearly 70% of americans would
[36:42] still prefer homes on larger lots when given the choice.
[36:47] this is important because interest rates are already falling from
[36:51] nearly 8% in 2023 down to 6.5% in july of this year,
[36:57] with further declines expected to continue. Small lot subdivisions are being driven by temporary conditions,
[37:04] not permanent buyer demand shifts. If we design permanent neighborhoods around short-term market distortions,
[37:11] we risk creating developments that are out of step with future buyer preferences.
[37:16] why build something that satisfies only today's affordability squeeze when tomorrow's demand will shift back to the normalcy of larger lots.
[37:24] this council has both the authority and the responsibility to ensure growth
[37:29] respects the scale and character of existing owner occupied neighborhoods.
[37:33] the amh rental community to the west already addresses interim housing needs,
[37:38] so it makes no sense for an upscale gated development to be patterned after rental housing.
[37:43] despite this indefinite continuance, as these projects move forward,
[37:48] I respectfully ask that you, again, please require these designs to incorporate lower density,
[37:55] larger lots, and only single story. Let's grow in a way that honors marana's own stated vision,
[38:02] protecting the value and the character of our neighborhoods, and ensuring developments built today still makes sense a decade from now.
[38:09] thank you very much for your time. >> thank you, miss deray. If we have noma cards,
[38:19] I'm going to declare the public clearing it's closed.
[38:24] are there any questions from the council?
[38:30] none. Okay. Do we have a motion to continue?
[38:42] >> motion. >> council member, kai are you making a motion?
[38:47] >> continue, linda, this is a 13 rezoning case to a date to be determined.
[38:55] >> do I hear a second? >> second. >> all those in favor?
[39:01] >> aye. >> aye. >> all those oppose? >> no.
[39:17] >> thank you, jason.
[39:25] thank you, vice mayor. D1.
[39:30] >> item d1, relating to development and public works. Update, discussion, and possible direction regarding public and private projects and
[39:37] development applications on the town's marana current and proposed projects internet site.
[39:45] >> mr. Angel. >> mr. Mayor. Good evening. As we do the first meeting of every month,
[39:51] we do a little update on development activity dashboard.
[39:55] I want to give thanks to staff, the planners, as well as the gis staff for their quick work to get this
[40:02] updated today with the holiday weekend, and all that. It was a rush today in the office to get things updated,
[40:10] but I greatly appreciate their efforts. Not too much to update this evening for commercial projects.
[40:17] we have under review the second hanger for jd russell, as you know,
[40:24] actually, on the aerial imagery here, this little white building right here is
[40:28] the existing hangar out at the airport that jd russell has. They're now looking to move forward with building their second hangar out there,
[40:36] so staff is reviewing that project right now.
[40:41] nothing new from a residential project standpoint,
[40:46] as well as land use applications.
[40:50] commercial permits. We had 10 for the month.
[40:56] two of them are new buildings, eight of them are remodels. From a business license standpoint,
[41:04] we have a total of 12 for the month, four are service, three are retail to our contractors,
[41:10] one online sale, one assisted living, and yes, one restaurant.
[41:16] this restaurant is the kyrene asian bistro and sushi bar.
[41:22] this will be going in where borrows pizza used to be down in arizona pavilions,
[41:32] that'll be the restaurant that moves into that. They just submitted their application.
[41:38] I would say, a couple of months, depending upon the amount of renovations after going there.
[41:43] >> what kind of restaurant was that, mr. Angel? > it's asian bistro and sushi.
[41:49] >> thank you. >> from a residential permit standpoint,
[41:54] as mr. Rozema had stated, had lower numbers this month, 39 total residential.
[42:02] if you look at the graph on the bottom here, that is the lowest number we've had for 18 months,
[42:11] going back to february of 2023, was the last time we had numbers that were below 40 for sfr in a month.
[42:20] but you can also see that over the last couple of months,
[42:24] those numbers have been lower. We do anticipate with a number of developments that are
[42:28] moving forward with dirt work right now. One of them being monarch right behind us has three blocks that will be opening up.
[42:35] building permits have been issued for model homes to be going up there,
[42:39] so we'll see homes going vertical behind this campus here shortly.
[42:44] likewise, over in the mandarina development on the east side of i10,
[42:51] there's probably about two dozen homes that are under construction right now over there.
[42:56] >> are you saying you attribute that to inventory?
[43:01] >> mr. Mayor, I attribute a portion of that to also the available lots that are out there.
[43:09] dirt ready available lots for builders to move into.
[43:16] not entirely, though. I will say there are other market conditions that may be driving that.
[43:23] multi-family, nothing new there. Building permit activity I didn't quite get this up to date,
[43:32] but the total number of permits are falling in line with what we see typically over the month.
[43:38] likewise, inspections also, we haven't gotten that one up to all the numbers up to date there,
[43:44] but we are also seeing about 1,600 inspections for the month.
[43:50] with that, mr. Mayor, I'll be happy to address any questions that council might have.
[43:54] >> anybody have any questions for mr. Angel. Thank you, jason.
[43:59] >> thank you. >> we do not need an executive session, future agenda items.
[44:06] motion to adjourn? We are adjourned.