October 31, 2005

FLORENCE - The once-a-year comprehensive plan amendment meeting of the Pinal County Planning and Zoning Commission was held Thursday and reflected the county's rapid growth.

With the exception of a few minor points, all 15 requests for designation changes were forwarded to the Pinal County Board of Supervisors with favorable recommendations. As a result, more than 40,600 acres were moved from mostly rural designations to transitional, which is a somewhat nebulous category that gives developers an opportunity to seek a variety of zoning classifications when they come back to the commission with their development plans.

Nearly a third of the re-designated acreage is located in the Maricopa and Casa Grande growth corridors, but the largest body of land to be granted changes was a 23,234-acre parcel that surrounds the town of San Manuel in the southeastern portion of the county, where development has yet to catch on. It has been labeled as "rural, mining and rural community," but BHP Copper requested a medley of changes consisting of riparian overlay, natural resource, rural, rural community, transitional and urban, with the urban portion representing approximately one-third of the total acreage.

The case took slightly more than an hour and a half to conclude because the majority of the folks in attendance were there to comment on those changes. Most of the attendees favored bringing development to the area, but they and others were concerned that too much urbanization would adversely affect the natural beauty of the landscape. The commissioners also were concerned about the large number of acres devoted to urban development and suggested that it be cut in half, to which the applicant agreed.

Although most of the requests involved changes from rural to transitional, two of the cases before the commission were pointed somewhat in the opposite direction. Owner of both Maricopa Webber 283 LLC and PJC Ranch were looking to take their 283-acre and 595-acre parcels, respectively, from industrial designations to rural community. The contiguous parcels are located on the south side of Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway, between Anderson Road on the west to approximately a half-mile east of Russell Road, an area that consists mostly of industrial-zoned property that includes the grain mills and feedlots a mile or so farther northwest.

Scott Ries, president of Grande Valley Development Corporation and operator of Phoenix Regional Airport, which is located about a mile north of the parcels just west of Russell Road, was concerned that if houses were built on the two sites, he would be flooded with phone calls from residents complaining about the noise from low-flying aircraft taking off and landing at his facility. He said that he was in the process of doing a noise contour study to determine the decibel levels at various points around the airport, but he felt certain that new neighbors, moving to the area to enjoy the peace and quiet of the country, would cause problems in the long run.

Steve Tomita, speaking on behalf of PJC Ranch, said his studies determined that flights out of the facility would not produce enough noise to become a nuisance factor. Commissioner Ray Harlan brought the discussion to a halt when he advised Ries that his concerns were more suited for a time when the applicants would come before the commission with requests for zone changes.

"This is a comprehensive plan amendment case," he said. "The things you're bringing up have no bearing on a request to change a comprehensive plan designation. Your development was there first, and you have rights, and we will protect those rights, but we can only do that with a zoning case."

Harlan then urged Ries and the developers to get together and try to work things out before they came before the commission with zone changes and planned area development requests.

A rather strange turn of events came about regarding a request by CHI Construction to amend a 7,080-acre parcel that lies west of Casa Grande from mining to urban and rural community. The former Asarco Inc. property straddles Montgomery Road, stretching from Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway on the north across Arizona 84 and ending at Ash Avenue on the south. The irregularly shaped parcel runs as far west as Russell Road and as far east as Cochise Boulevard.

The developers had planned for a rural community-zoned area, calling for lower-density housing, to be located at the far southwest of the parcel in order to create a buffer of sorts against the Withrow Dairy, located on the south side of Ash Avenue. After the developer's presentation, Richard Withrow stepped to the podium and, with everyone expecting him to ask for a greater amount of buffering, shocked everyone by requesting that the developer extend the urban portion of the project all the way to Ash Avenue.

Withrow explained that with all the development moving in and about to surround his dairy operation, he had seen the writing on the wall and had already been preparing to move elsewhere. He simply felt that by having neighboring property designated as urban, he stood a better chance of getting top dollar for his property. The developer agreed to make the adjustment and it was so noted by the commissioners. 

Other amendment requests forwarded with favorable recommendations included:

-- A change from rural to urban by Boa Sorte LP on a 229-acre parcel in the Arizona Farms Road area. 

-- A change from rural to rural community by Picacho 930 LLC on a 1,111-acre parcel two miles northeast of Picacho. 

-- A change from rural to transitional by Viel Gluck LTD on a 592-acre parcel one mile northeast of Eloy. 

-- A change from rural to transitional by Jorde Hacienda Inc. on a 2,093-acre parcel immediately south of Interstate 8 at Russell Road. 

-- A change from rural to transitional by Bevnorm Olive LLC on a 111-acre parcel immediately south of Interstate 8 between Fuqua Road and White and Parker Road. 

-- A change from rural to rural community by Casa Grande Montgomery 240 LLC on a 290-acre parcel immediately west of Casa Grande along Montgomery Road. 

-- A change from rural to transitional by KSK Land Ventures on an 877-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Teel and White roads. 

-- A change from natural resources to transitional by the State Land Department on a 485-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Papago and Hidden Valley roads. 

-- A change from foothills to transitional by Del Mar Development Inc. on a 320-acre parcel at the southwest corner of Sage Street and Amigos Road. 

-- A change from rural and foothills to transitional and foothills by Arie DeJong Family Trust on a 2,085-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Farrell and Ralston roads. 

-- A change from rural, industrial and foothills to transitional by Palmco Properties LLC on a 282-acre parcel south of Smith-Enke Road from Ralston Road to the Table Top Road alignment. 

 
©Casa Grande Valley Newspapers Inc. 2005