I'd like to call the special meeting to order for Monday, December 4th, 2023.

Marcella, do you mind doing roll call?

Councilmember Conde.

Councilmember Malone.

Councilmember Nielsen.

Here.

Councilmember Solario.

Councilmember White.

Here.

Vice Mayor Paneda.

Mayor Weiss.

Here.

Ron, item number two, please.

Thank you, Mayor.

Council.

Up first is our uh director of finance and budget, Renee Weatherless.

Hello, good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Um, I would like to take the time to reintroduce one of our new employees, that's Stephanie George.

Um, unfortunately, she was uh not able to make it here tonight.

But Stephanie is a former City of Avondale employee who left us about a year ago and made her way back to the finance and budget department.

Stephanie is a graduate of ASU with a bachelor's degree in accounting.

She worked in the auditor general's office as a school district performance auditor before joining the city of Avondale as an accountant, where she primarily focused on the city's financial reporting for approximately 13 years.

She's excited to return as the new grants coordinator where she will pursue and secure grant funding for the city's projects and ongoing services, and we are happy to have her back as part of our team.

Thank you.

I am pleased to introduce our new sustainability officer, Kimberly Anderson.

Kim's a bit been with us now for about five weeks.

She comes to us with a bachelor's degree from an of an invironmental and sustainability studies with an emphasis in global sustainability from NAU.

She most recently worked for the City of Flagstaff Sustainability Office to help work towards their goal of reducing carbon emissions via community outreach campaigns to reduce single occupancy vehicle use and promote bicycling in the city.

While she was there, she also worked with the International Union for Conservation of Nature as a red list assessor for the monitoring of native plant species in the Sonoran Desert.

She's also worked with the Student Conservation Association and Americor in partnership with federal, state, and local government entities, including U.S.

Forest Service, Arizona Bureau of Land Management, and Arizona Fish and Wildlife, the Nature Conservancy, and the Audubon Society.

She's gained hand-on field experience building trails, constructing enclosures for bighorn sheep, planting native plant species for land rehabilitation and a variety of other projects.

She also worked in Alaska at the Chugach National Forest Cordova Ranger District, where she may maintain multi-use trails and provided educational community outreach for their annual salmon jam festival.

Sustainability and environmental conservation are her passions, and she's excited to be here with the city of Avondale.

And just a fun fact that she's pretty proud of.

She's an angler.

She caught a 77-pound halibut while she was in Alaska, and she's very proud of that.

So please welcome Kim.

Okay, were you in Flagstaff pretty much all your life?

Did you grow up in Flagstaff?

No, I'm actually here a native to the valley.

So I'm born and raised in uh Phoenix, and I was up there for my studies.

So how does your experience in Flagstaff transition to the city of Avondale?

Yeah, so that was a great opportunity to work closely with their sustainability department over you know being a part of weekly meetings with the department heads and really collaborating and working not only with the community for the citizens but also working with local businesses to help our efforts with reducing the single occupancy vehicles.

Sounds good.

Thanks for being here.

Thank you so much.

Thank you, Council.

And as usual, we have some early risers that can't be here this evening.

They're at home getting ready for bed, putting on their PJs.

But we have a nice video to share, so hopefully this will work.

My name is Todd Good.

I am water distribution operator, and I've been here for two days.

Hi, my name is Christian Magania, and I work for the City of Avondale as a utility locate specialist.

And I've been here for about three weeks, and I love it.

Okay, my name is Christian Chacone, and I've been with the City of Avondale for three weeks.

I'm a public laborer.

And that's pretty much it.

Hi, I'm Gus Bedroza.

I've been here for about four weeks, and I'm excited to work for the City of Avondale.

Hello, my name is Joe Navers.

I work in Fleet Services, and I am the new heavy equipment mechanic.

All right.

Thank you, Councilmaker.

Thank you.

I appreciate that.

Ron, item number three, please.

Thank you.

Next up, um, we have uh Nisa Romo from our office, who's gonna uh present our Citizen Leadership Academy.

Anissa, good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members.

My name is Anissa Romo, management analyst for the City Manager's Office and the City Council.

I'm before you tonight to provide an update on the 2023 Citizens Leadership Academy, as well as to recognize the graduates of this year's program.

So, just as an overview, the Citizens Leadership Academy is an annual program designed to provide residents the opportunity to engage with and learn more about their local government.

The goal of the program is to share the goals, organizational structure, and the operations of the city with our residents.

Participation in the program is free and open to individuals 18 years and older who live in Avondale.

Um in order to graduate from the program, participants had to attend 10 out of the 12 sessions, and this year we have 21 program graduates.

Many of our program's alumni have gone on to sit on boards and commissions, uh, run for local office, and uh become members of our city council.

So this gives an overview of what our program has looked like this year.

Um today our this year, our academy was 12 weeks starting on September 27th, um, running through December 2nd.

As you can see, each week a different department shared their functions of um in the city with our residents, um, offering a comprehensive and behind the scenes look at the city of Avondale.

Today I'll present just a few of the highlights of this year's program, um, and we are very happy and appreciative to have participations from each and every one of our departments this year.

So each session included an informational portion where departments uh provided background and knowledge of both their internal department operations um as well as the external operations and uh how they interact with residents, businesses, and interdepartmental staff.

Um these informational sessions really give residents a clear picture of our city operations and goals and an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about the city departments.

Um we also asked departments to uh put throw in some engaging elements uh to their session.

Um example is our finance and budget department, who incorporated a budget exercise and kind of game for our participants where they were able to uh go in groups and identify priorities that they had as a group and assign funding to those priorities.

Um, through this activity, they learned how hard it is to balance a budget, um, especially with the many services and programs that we offer in the city.

Um the city clerk's office also gave uh our participants a chance to participate kind of in a mock council meeting where they were able to vote and get a better understanding of the policy creation process.

Um other ways our departments offered engaging opportunities were through tours and field trips.

Uh, one example is our public works session this year, um, where participants were able to tour the municipal operations center uh where they learned about the different divisions and public works.

Um they also had a chance to tour the Charles M.

Wolf Water Resource Center and the Tilapia Hatchery, which was definitely a class favorite.

These field trips give participants a behind-the-scenes look of our city operations and an opportunity to meet the folks who uh help our city essential services run smoothly.

Participants also engage in our community events like our Billy Moore Days Parade.

This year, participants walked in the parade alongside our mayor, council, and staff, um giving them an opportunity to meet other community members and join in and be a part of our city celebrations with us.

Lastly, I would like to share a bit about uh program impact.

At the first academy session, participants were asked to fill out a survey that contained a variety of questions tied to goals and the strategic plan and questions about the residents' perception of the city.

Uh they were asked the same questions at the end of the program.

The five uh questions displayed on screen were the questions in which participants reported the highest rate of growth.

As evidenced by this data, the Citizens Leadership Academy not only teaches residents about city operations, but also helps them develop leadership skills and feel more connected to their community.

I will now read the names of our 2023 Citizens Leadership Academy graduates.

I asked them to please stand in the audience to be recognized.

Liz Barker Alvarez, Christy Chavez, Maxine Delarosa, Natasha Edmonds, Donald Foley, Mary Gusman, Tiffany Hamstrom, Michelle McMullen, Christopher Pearson, Bill Reeves, John Carlos Rivera, Stephanie Rodriguez, Ben Roti, Sat Lali Salas, Councilmember Gloria Solaria, who Vanel Silaria, Letty Saloria, Brian Swanson, Denise Thiel, Sherry Weiss, and Taylor Williams.

Thank you and congratulations.

Congratulations to our 2023 graduates.

I would also like to give a special thanks to my program co-administrators, Sandra Salas, Torranceito, and Liz Barker Alvarez.

Before I close, I would like to give a couple of graduates the opportunity to share their experiences with you.

I would now like to call Natasha Edmonds to share a little bit about her experience with the program.

Yay.

Although I've been living in Arizona for 15 years.

And the only way that was going to do that is to learn more and to be part of such an amazing program, which helps set me up for success.

One of the things that I really enjoyed was one, just building great memories with my peers who are amazing.

The second thing I really love was being a part of the Billy Moore Days Parade, which is a memory for the books.

And lastly, I really, really enjoyed just being able to get a good insight on the operations and the different programs that we have in this city.

And I gained such an amazing found respect for everyone and everything that they do is just amazing.

And now I have even more of a sense of pride of the city that I live in.

So thank you.

What surprised you the most?

What surprised me the most is mainly all the planning that goes into everything, even the infrastructures and just knowing that if I'm at a traffic light, that someone did the study of why it's the way it is, and I can just be patient.

But uh just all of the work and the planning and the dedication that everyone put into making the city what it is, and I'm just glad that I'm a part of it.

Glad that you're here.

Thank you for doing that.

Thank you.

Thank you, Natasha.

I would now like to have Bill Reeves share about his program experience.

Good evening.

My name is Bill Reeves.

I've lived the better part of my 70 years on the west side, far west side of Phoenix, and I didn't care.

I didn't care about the city.

All my trash is picked up and my water came.

Uh everything was okay.

Twenty years ago, I moved about three miles to the south and the west, and my address became Avondale.

And I didn't care.

As long as my water came and my trash went, it was okay.

Then uh CLA, Citizens Leadership Academy came along, and over the last few months, I've become a fan of this city.

I have found civic pride, which I never even knew.

I thought it was on television.

Civic pride.

What's accomplished?

Well, I turned from not caring to being bragging.

But no, I'm not gonna call it bragging because when I'd go home at night, my wife would ask me when I go to work the next day, the f the uh co-workers would ask me, and I'd tell them what I did.

Yeah, I sat in the mayor's chair.

Well, so did John Carlos.

No, I'm not running for mayor.

I will uh I can't do I'm not, I'm not running.

Uh I watched the canines attack the fat guy.

Uh it was uh it was it was well blasts.

I went to the uh fire department.

And the fat guy seemed to enjoy it.

He was he was laughing.

Uh uh I went to the fire department, saw our newest.

You say I saw I said our newest fire department, and I was amazed at how well it's equipped, the way it's set up the way it's run, and I've become a fan of of Avondale.

I I love the city of Avondale.

Let me tell you why.

Not because of the knowledge I accomplished, not because of how it's set up, but by the people that work for the city of uh Avondale.

I saw one and all pride in what they were doing, why they're doing it.

They're making our lives better.

They're proud of it.

Uh, we're at the senior center the other night, and a lady walks us around, give us a private tour, and she just radiated pride.

This is a beautiful place to work.

This is a beautiful city to work for.

And I I love that about it.

Uh one more may I say one more thing and then I'll get off your podium.

Uh Anissa Romo did a great job, did she not?

She she uh kept us informed, she fed us the information afterwards, she got us where we're supposed to be.

She may have even bought the food.

I don't even know.

But uh I I want to give her a hand.

Good job.

Bill, Bill, she cooked every meal, just so you know.

She cooked every meal.

Oh my gosh.

It was awesome.

Uh mayor, vice mayor and council members.

Thank you for your support of this program.

Our participants will come down to take a photo with me on council after the special meeting.

Sounds good.

Um I'm gonna ask you, because you were part of the class.

What were your takeaways?

You've been on council now for how long?

Uh almost two a little over two years.

So, what was your takeaway?

Um I took something similar to this about 10 or 11 years ago, but never to the in-depth of what we have now, the expanded program.

And being on council and kind of going and seeing behind the scenes and seeing what the residents are learning.

I felt like I was learning with them as well.

There are many things that when you are up here, you see in a different view.

But when you're down there, you're like, oh, I understand that, or I would be confused too, not where to ask that question or who to ask it to, and it truly is a valid question for many people.

Um I do have to say I I'm gonna say it because my mom said it in the first one.

I I forced volunteers my parents to go through the program.

And they um got a lot of understanding.

They're residents here.

I said I used to get the questions all the time, and I'm like, you live here too.

You can entertain the opportunity and go.

So they enjoyed it thoroughly too, and now they tell me they have their own understanding, and I'm working on the other side of my family to do that too.

So I don't have to be the tell all, but it really brings everything full circle for people to interact, not only interact with you know each other as peers, but as well as like city staff and having that familiar face to know, hey, I know that person, and I can ask him a question.

So it really is a good program, and thank you to all the peers that were in our class and took the time to do that.

We had some really good dinners, and thank you, Anisa, for really taking care of us, and Liz as well, and Torin and uh Sandra, and answering the questions for all the residents that we have.

You know, I I think it's we all got involved with city council at some point with a class very similar to yours, might be a different class, but getting involved with city leadership and somehow.

And it's amazing.

We have the honor of sitting up here and being the faces of Avondale in some ways, but it's the employees that you saw every day.

And Bill, when you said they were they were like very happy to be here, they took a lot of pride.

That's how many employees now?

750, Ron?

Yes, 750 employees.

And that radiates throughout the organization, and that does not help with the without that.

And and attorneys and city clerks and everyone and and all the department heads, they instilled that pride going down going down the chain.

So we love our employees.

So hopefully you got a sense over the 10 weeks, 12 weeks.

12 weeks of uh of the pride that's Avondale.

And he said, Thank you for all of your work.

And then Torrin also left his baby at home many nights and worked late, so Torrin, thank you for that.

Thank you.

I did not sit in your chair.

I was the only one.

Item number four, Ron.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Up next is uh our city clerk, Marcella Carrillo, um, to recognize our outgoing board and commission members.

Hi Marcell.

Hi, Mayor.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Tonight we will be recognizing all of our outgoing board and commission members who have ended their terms and who have at least three years of service, which is one full term on a board or commission.

In 2023, we had 14 boards and commissions that helped shape the future of our city, consisting of 70 individuals who filled over 90 different positions.

Our residents who serve as board and commission members make a real difference in helping shape the future of our community.

Now, when I call your name, please make your way to the podium.

We have some very busy board and commission members, so several of them will not be here tonight.

For those who are not here tonight, we will mail them their plaques.

But for the individuals who are here, we will offer the photo opportunity after the special meeting.

For the sustainability commission, we have Bernadette Barbara who was appointed on December 7th of 2020.

Thomas Albrejo, who was appointed on November 20th, 2017.

He has completed two full terms on the Sustainability Commission, which is six years in total.

For the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board, we have Marie Ariano, who was appointed on December 7th, 2020.

For the Planning Commission, we have Chris Thompson, who was appointed on December 7th, 2020.

And Lisa Osborne, who was appointed on November 20th, 2017.

And Ms.

Osborne has also completed two full terms on the Planning Commission.

For the Municipal Art Committee, we have Gurgit Carr, who was appointed on December 7th, 2020.

For the Risk Management Board, Thomas Albrejo again, who was appointed on November 20th, 2017.

And he had completed two full terms on the RISC Board as well.

And for the Neighborhood and Family Services Commission, Hillary McKillop, who was appointed on July 27th, 2020.

And then with that, we just want to share a sincere thank you to all of our board and commission members at this time.

I'll invite council to share a few words and then we will move forward to the adjournment of the special meeting for the photo opportunity.

Sounds good.

Tina, any comments.

Hi.

Thank you very much.

I just want to just say everybody on their time and dedication because it does take us take away from your family.

So I just wanted to say thank you to you all of our board and commission members that the service or to benefit our community.

So thank you.

Veronica.

I'd also like to thank uh all of our outgoing boards and commission members.

Uh without them, we're not able to um move forward.

So you so you guys are a puzzle piece to helping our council and our city move um things forward.

So thank you for your service.

We appreciate you.

Next.

Yes, I also want to extend my deepest gratitude, acknowledging that there's 90 folks that are out there kind of filling roles that otherwise might have to be paid positions when we take a look at you know where we're going.

But the distinguished members of our um boards and commissions who are outgoing, we're really grateful for your service and the fact that you were able to give us three years plus of your time and commitment to um improving uh making lives better.

Thank you so much.

Curtis.

I don't know how many times we can say thank you, but we really are deepest at the bottom of our heart grateful for the time that you spent.

I mean, depending on how many it is, once a month, twice a month.

It's a great opportunity not only to rub shoulders with other people that you get to know in the community.

I know when I was on a couple of the boards of people that I've touched base with at that particular time, we still keep in contact.

So not only is it an opportunity to serve, it's an opportunity to get to know who your neighbors are, who those other people are that you work with.

So thank you all who have served, and again for those who will be on those commissions in the future.

Those of you who are out here tonight, please look for an open opportunity to come back and serve somewhere along here.

I I did the citizens academy with my first wife back in 2004, 2005, and we both will were able to get on different committees and and boards and thoroughly enjoyed it.

And this is what's happened to me now these days, and these are great people to work with as well.

Thank you again.

Gloria.

Thank you to everyone who has served.

Um what you see here is I am a product of the boards and commissions.

This is why I'm here today, having served um through different boards and commissions for through 10 years.

So thank you.

Um I know sometimes it's a commitment of leaving work early or your family, but it truly is appreciated to help us get the information across and really understand it.

So thank you.

Mike.

Thank you, Mayor.

You know, it's easy to sit on the sidelines to drive around the city, take a look at things and wonder how things are happening, why they're happening.

This is just a testament to those who take the extra step to get involved and provide the services and the commitment of time that it takes to continue that service.

And so uh to pick up where Councilman Nielsen uh left off.

If I have the moment to do a commercial, we have a group of people sitting here who participated in the leadership uh academy and what better way to continue your service than to serve on a board and commission.

So I look forward to seeing uh some of you apply.

I look forward to our members of the community watching online to apply and just continue again to uh you know put your foot forward when it comes to serving your city.

So appreciate everything that has been accomplished by these and those that will come next.

I think when you look at the boards and commissions and the impact that they have on the city, you can look back over every board, every commission, and see the impact that they've had.

I'm looking at municipal art committee, and we had a former council member by name of Brian Kilgore, who had an incredible impact when he served on the municipal art committee.

Um you look at planning commission.

I'm looking at Chris Thompson's name on here.

Chris Thompson did a great job on planning and uh and planning and zoning, and there's developers out in the audience now who have cases before us now.

That step happens through planning commission, and that's an incredibly important role.

I know some of you have served on the parks board.

The Avondale Parks and Rec uh Department is award-winning and recognized nationwide.

That wasn't always the case, and it was leadership through parks and rec, but it was also the parks and rec board that helped put that vision in and what was important for the city.

Neighborhood and family services is an incredibly important board that kind of shapes the future.

I think a lot of you have heard me tell the story about how neighborhood and family services came together, and it was the uh housing crisis of 2008 when the Awa Fria Gym was filled with young families who were going to lose their home who couldn't make their payments because of what had happened in the bubble, and that was developed by neighborhood requests and people asking for that department to happen, and then the boards and commissions.

So please get involved if you can.

I want to reiterate what everyone else has said.

Thank you for that.

But if you're a part of CLA and you're not on a board or commission, please at least look into it.

So thank you all very much.

And thank you for the board and commission plug, everyone.

I appreciate it.

Um, and then at this time we can motion for adjournment if you want to just do a voice vote since I'm up here.

Can I get a motion?

Just do the voice part.

All those in favor of adjourning say aye.

Oh, we need a motion and a second first.

Sorry.

Okay.

I have a motion from Councilmember Malone, a second from Councilmember Condi.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

We are adjourned.

We'll see you guys in the pit.

It's the pit.

You can rename it now.

Avondale City Council meeting.

I'd like to call the regular meeting to order.

Marcella, Marcel, do you mind doing roll call?

Councilmember Conde.

Here.

Councilmember Malone.

Councilmember Nielsen.

Here.

Councilmember Solario.

Councilmember White.

Here.

Vice Mayor Paneda.

Here.

Mayor Weiss.

Here.

Ron, um, or I'm sorry, Marcella, unscheduled public appearances.

We do have one card, correct?

Correct, Mary.

Would you like to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance?

Yes, I would.

Thank you.

If possible to um I'd ask you to keep your thoughts and prayers, the Avondale Elementary family.

Barbara DePaul and uh student of the student staff and the entire family.

Thank you all.

Russell, thank you for keeping me in line.

My pleasure, Mayor.

And we do have one request to speak from Larnell Farmer.

Um he does not want to address the council himself, but requested I read his comments.

Um so I will start the three-minute timer, um, but I'm sure I will get through all of his comments.

And I quote, my name is Lauren L.

Farmer, and I am president of the West Valley NA NAACP.

I am asking for an update on the status of Officer Francisco Cardenas Duarte.

Is he still on administrative leave?

And if so, is it paid leave?

Has the Mayor of Copa County attorney's office been contacted to see if they have decided to charge Officer Duarte?

The shooting occurred in February, and more than enough time has passed for something to be done about Office of Duarte.

End quote.

So I know I can't comment, but I'd like to ask staff to give counsel a follow-up on this.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Know that he was contacted by our chief of police today.

Okay, and that's what I want to know.

That was the question I had.

Thank you, Ron.

I appreciate that.

Item number three is consent agenda.

Are there any counselors who wish to have an item removed for separate consideration?

Seeing none, can I get a motion, please?

I have a motion from Councilmember White, a second from Councilmember Nielsen.

Please vote.

Consent agenda passes 70.

Thank you, Council.

Ron, item 4A, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Council.

Up first is Josh Orton, our senior planner of development services.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members.

The item for your consideration this evening is uh PL22-0230.

This is the McDowell Villas planned area development.

Uh the purpose of tonight's item is to review the proposed rezone from agricultural to planned area development to allow for the development of a 164 unit townhome subdivision.

Uh this property is generally located uh at the northwest corner of or west of the northwest corner of Avondale Boulevard and McDowell Road.

Um there's an SRP substation immediately north with Avondale Commons to the uh to the east of that property, which is a mixed-use uh multifamily and commercial subdivision.

Um to the west is the Store America, or it's also known as uh the Guardian Self-Storage Development, and then further west of that is the Palm Meadows single family development.

Uh to the south is Crystal Springs Apartments with uh Crystal Springs, uh District at Crystal Springs to the south west of uh McDowell Road and Alvedel Boulevard.

Uh the general plan designation for this uh property is mixed use, and the current zoning is agricultural.

These two pictures show the property along looking east along McDowell Road and west.

Um you can see Avondale Commons in the background, and this is the subject property.

As you can see, it's most it's just agricultural land at this point.

Uh the proposed rezoning action will rezone the property to PAD and adopt the standards and deviations outlined in the supporting PAD documents.

Um there's approximately this will result in approximately 13.29 units per acre on the site, uh, with primary access being on the western side, and that's a full access uh along McDowell Road.

There is also write-in write-out access on the uh eastern property line, uh, and as part of the stipulations for this development, they'll be constructing a raised median along McDowell Road.

Uh this is the open space element and the highlighted deviations for this subdivision.

Um I'll give you a second to just read through that, but uh we wanted to highlight that this is a connected open space element, which is sort of uh unique to these types of developments.

Um it shows pedestrian paths with amenities between the individual units with small courtyards provided at different points and some shaded um shade structures and benches to be uh provided in select locations as well.

Um there's also standard amenities for single family subdivision, such as uh pool and a shaded playground.

Um as part of the project's proposed deviations, the applicant is providing a design that has this connected open space, enhanced landscaping.

Uh there's increased landscaping coverage that's being provided.

Um, as you can see, 25 uh deviation from 25 to 40 percent coverage.

Um we also believe that this will provide a smooth transition from the multifamily that's directly adjacent down to the single family subdivision.

Uh these are the four different unit configurations that were uh submitted as part of the elevations for the property.

Um they're split into three, four, five, and six unit buildings.

Um I wanted to draw your attention to these two configurations on the right, the four unit and the six unit.

These will be as you're traveling down McDowell Road, these will be what is mostly visible behind the landscape buffer.

Uh these are the rear and um side elevations.

There will be two buildings that are visible from McDowell Road that'll show the side uh views there.

Part of the deviations or sorry, part of the design criteria um for single family subdivisions is that the um developer provide two car garages for each unit.

Um this has been provided with these units.

Um if you look at the multifamily design manual guidelines, um, we also require one guest parking space for every five units.

Um that would normally require um result in 33 guest parking spaces.

The applicant in this case is providing 69.

Staff's analysis for this project is that it's in conformance with the general plan land use designation, the single and multifamily residential design manuals because this is a townhome development.

It kind of straddles the line between those two types and the underlying R4 development standards with the requested deviations.

And they will also create a high quality residential product that, along with other developments in the vicinity, provides a variety of housing options to the surrounding area.

Neighborhood meeting was held virtually on June 13th of this year.

There were no attendees and no comments received from the public.

There was a planning commission meeting held on November 6th.

The planning commission passed a motion 4-0 to recommend approval to the city council with the stipulations listed in the staff report.

With all that being said, the recommendation from staff is that council uh conduct a public hearing and adopt an ordinance approving application PL 22-0230, which is a request to rezone that property from agricultural to McDowell Villa's point area development, which will allow for the development of a 164 unit town hub subdivision.

And this will be subject to the six conditions of approval as listed in the staff report.

That concludes staff's presentation, and I'm available for any questions you might have.

Thank you for that.

This is a public hearing.

Let me go ahead and open up the public hearing.

Is there anybody in the audience or online who'd like to speak to this issue?

Marcella.

Mayor, I have not received any requests to speak.

Thank you.

That being said, I'm going to go ahead and close the public hearing and open it up to council for questions.

Does council have any questions on this item?

Thank you, Council.

Can I get a motion on this item?

I have a motion from Councilmember Solario, a second from Councilmember White.

Please vote.

Passes 7-0.

Congratulations.

Paul, were you expecting something longer?

We can come back if you want.

Leave when you have the votes.

You and I have learned that very well, right?

Ron, item 4B, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Council.

Next up is uh Donna Gardner, our community engagement manager and Marella Gonzalez, youth and community engagement coordinator with neighborhood and family services.

Hi, Mayor.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and members of the Council.

I'm Donna Gardner, Youth and Community Engagement Manager for Neighborhood and Family Services Department.

I have a staff member here with me this evening along with two members of the Avondale Youth Advisory Commission to provide an update on the Avondale Youth Advisory Commission and also information on restructuring of the Commission.

At this time, I'd like to introduce Maryela Gonzalez, our youth and community engagement coordinator to provide Avando Youth Advisory Commission updates.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and members of the Council.

I am delighted to be here tonight to provide you an update on the Avondale Youth Advisory Commission.

So during tonight's presentation, I'm gonna go over the accomplishments thus far, their focus projects for the year, as well as the Avondale Youth Advisory Restructure.

So let's go ahead and talk about their accomplishments this far.

And as a reminder, our Avando Youth Advisory Commission does take a break during the summer months, and they held their initial meeting of the academic year in August.

During this meeting, they discussed their goals, talked about ideas, and began planning for the upcoming events.

A couple days later, five of our youth delegates attended the League of Arizona Cities Towns Youth Program.

Our chair had the opportunity to walk with the parade of flags, and our youth commission members also had the opportunity to attend workshops pertaining to self-development.

They had an opportunity to network and connect with the other commission members across Arizona.

And through a successful Hilton Garden in Foundation grant written and submitted by Councilmember Solario, AYSC conducted their 2023 Make a Difference Date Three S Rios Cleanup in partnership with Parks and Recreation in October.

Volunteers joined AYAC members to remove 25 contractor-sized bags of garbage to help preserve the environment.

During the Upward Bound College Preparedness Event, AYSC members volunteered and received information on the college application process, scholarships and grant opportunities, and assistance with their FSA IDs.

This event was hosted by the neighborhood and family services department at West Point High School.

In October, AYSC also held their open house at the Avando Resource Center to recruit memberships for the fiscal year.

They also helped raise awareness on the Youth Commission engagement in the community.

AYC members also volunteered at the city's creep and candy curl event.

They assisted little explorers walking through the Jurassic Avondel Tet to find hidden dinosaurs in sandboxes.

November was also a time of excitement for Avondale Youth Advisory Commission members.

They had the opportunity to run for the open positions.

And AYSC also began planning and ramping up for outreach starting September.

They've already held one round of inductions and they plan to do more so throughout the year.

So now that I've talked about the accomplishments again in these past few months, I'll go ahead and give you an update on what Avondale Youth Advisory Commission is currently working and planning for.

The holiday school drive, which is sponsored by Avondale Youth Advisory Commission members, is currently taking place across several schools in Avondale.

This will run November through December 20th, and our Avondale Youth Advisory Commission members take the lead and they help motivate students to get the school's involvement.

During the meetings, AYSC identified that one of their priorities is to address youth's health and wellness.

They also identify the focal points to include confidence, eating healthy, and assisting with addressing the opioid issue that communities are experiencing.

AYSC will also assist with implementing a citywide program and project interest survey.

Each project our team takes on, we make sure that we hear the voice of Avondale Youth.

And this year our summit will focus on a holistic approach for health and wellness.

AYC will also help with the coordination and volunteer at this event.

So this concludes our update for Avondale Youth Advisory Commission since resuming in late August.

I would now like to discuss the restructure of the Avondale Youth Advisory Commission.

City Council will consider a request to approve a recommendation to dissolve the current Youth Advisory Commission as originally established and direct staff to move forward with the new proposed Youth Advisory Commission structured as a program under the neighborhood and family services department.

Over the years, there have been some unintended challenges and limitations with the current commission structure.

Pursuant to open meeting law, commission members are unable to do so.

And here with us today, I have our chair Elizabeth Cortez and Samora Johnson, our treasurer, to discuss the why the majority of our youth members decided to restructure and talk about the challenges that they've experienced and faced over the years.

Thank you for being here.

Thank you, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members for having us tonight.

My name is Samora Johnson.

I'm currently a junior at Millennium High School and treasurer of the Avondale Youth Advisory Commission.

Good evening.

My name is Elizabeth Cortez, and I'm currently a senior at Alga Freya High School and chair of the Avondale Youth Advisory Commission.

Thank you again for having us tonight.

Mayor, Vice Mayor, and City Council members.

Today we're here to talk about the restructure of AYAC as a program under neighborhood family services for improved growth and flexibility.

The staff has recommended this restructuring to address the challenges that AYSC has faced over time.

During the AYAC meeting held on September 11, 2023, the Commission members voted to recommend to City Council the AYSC restructure to meet desired goals.

The Avondale Youth Advisory Commission has expressed its desire to discuss its matters freely during school and social events.

The open meeting law in place has limited the ability to speak upon goals, exchange ideas with other commissionaries, and recruit potential members.

Restructuring will provide more opportunities for meetings outside the scheduled second and fourth Monday of the month.

Additional events and outreach.

Restructuring the Avenue Youth Advisory Commission has a as a program under the neighborhood family services will facilitate this growth and flexibility, enabling the creation of additional programs and meetings.

Thank you, uh Maryella and Elizabeth and Samora for the update on the Avondale Youth Advisory Commission and uh information on restructuring of the commission.

At this time, um mayor, vice mayor, council.

This concludes the presentation.

I'd like to open it up for any um questions or comments.

I know there was a lot of critana thank you.

Thank you for for presenting that.

I know there were some questions that came through today, and I want to follow that up with council and make sure that those questions were answered with satisfaction.

Any questions from council on this?

I I think we can't ask the youth commission to take leadership roles in the city and then not put into place the recommendations that they make for the commission that they work for all the time.

So I appreciate this, and I think it goes to the hard work that you guys have done on this.

Um I appreciate this.

I don't really have any issues on this.

I think my questions were answered today.

Um Mr.

Mayor, if if council doesn't have any questions.

I know we don't usually applaud presentations, but I must say those two students did an outstanding job presenting in front of council tonight.

So I I would be with them nice for you.

And now we've thoroughly embarrassed them, which is fine.

Uh Max.

Thank you so much, um, Mayor.

Excellent presentation.

I really appreciate um seeing all of the work that uh was done over the years.

I guess my question for um you would be, Donna, if there will still be an oath that would be taken, or would it just kind of be like a club I'm gonna join?

Um Councilmember White, we um do intend to run the youth, the Avendale Youth Advisory Commission as we have operated the last 20 years.

Um so that includes the oath of office.

Thank you for the presentation.

Uh will we be receiving an update at some point with the data to show the increase in growth of the uh commission as it evolves into this new structure, considering the opportunities of being able to market it in different places as opposed to just here within the old structure.

While I'm sad to see anything sunset, it's good to know that what will come new with this new structure is the opportunity to expand um and you know provide more avenues for growth of the commission.

So at some point in the future, can we just kind of get an update as to uh what the numbers are and um you know determine uh how the uh efficiency of that new club or club, sorry, that's not the right term of the commission uh looks.

I would I would really appreciate that.

Yes, Vice Mayor Pineda, we will um provide an update and um we do intend to come before mayor and uh council to still provide these updates on what our youth are completing in the community.

Thank you.

And I just and thank you all for participating.

You saw earlier uh the um the leadership academy and what they're doing, and to know that you're doing it at such a young age just shows that you know we have Avindale has what it takes to get leaders fostered at such an early age.

So I look forward to seeing what you all can do with the opportunity that has been afforded through this new structure.

So thank you.

You and I had a conversation at NLC and then I think Arizona League.

We talked about the ability when your board members, when your commission members go to college if they decide to go to college, but talk about your college prospects and everything.

Coming back to Avondale and serving.

Um I think you saw tonight, I think you saw through this process, hopefully, that that's incredibly important to do and come back.

And um, while you may leave Avondale for a while and do other things, our hope is that you come back and be the leaders that we need of you in the future.

I know that's a lot of pressure.

But that's what we need.

So Tina.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um of course I want to thank thank you, ladies, for presenting.

You guys did a fantastic job.

Um, but I also want to thank uh Councilmember Solorio for the grant um through Hilton Garden.

And thank you for um taking that time and thinking about our commission, our youth commission and applying for the grant.

So I just want to just say thank you and I appreciate that.

Tina Claire, do you mind touching on that a little bit?

Um so every year in October is um we do service month for Hilton Gardens.

The platform has always been gardens in the community or some type of outreach featuring planting of some sort, uh trees, whatever it might be.

And every year as a Hilton employee, I'm I'm I've been there almost uh 17 years.

We have the opportunity to apply for a grant.

It is a four-page grant where we recommend a small project in the city.

And you know, I enter that I'm always willing to enter that information in, and then it goes before a deciding committee who then decides what projects will be funded.

I think as I meant as I told many of you this year there was 500 grants.

Not every hotel applied, and I was out there, you know, really upset because only 27 grants out of 500 were given.

We were one of the grants that were funded.

I know I've had the opportunity pre-council in the past to work with our senior center in getting uh gardens there.

I've worked with Chris in the past regarding another about 10 years ago, I would say, regarding another grant to do that.

So it's important to take the opportunities, and I've often said if you're like the Hilton Foundation to get that money, that's free money, regardless of whatever amount it is, to be able to do a cleanup and get a thousand dollars from the Hilton Foundation to do that in the community.

And our picture, just so you know, guys, was one of the pictures that was featured at our Hilton worldwide internet when you open our intra page is on there.

So can you show me help?

It was on it was featured on there when they were doing it, but they do know my goal is to get Avondale everywhere, and now they know where Avondale's at.

Do you mind making the motion then on this?

Sure.

I have a motion made by Councilmember Salario, a second made by Councilmember White.

Any further discussion?

Seeing and hearing none, please vote.

7-0.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Ron Item C, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Council.

Next up is Liz Baker Alvarez, our intergovernmental affairs administrator with our office or uh one of our many mayor wranglers.

Any what?

Liz is like helps keep the good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, members of the city council.

It's my pleasure to be here tonight to uh speak with you and recommend our 2024 public policy priorities.

I'm gonna do a really quick recap of the 2023 session, uh, followed by a brief description of our current environment, uh, our legislative environment.

We'll talk a little bit about how the policy priorities are developed and also uh how legislative positions are developed here, and then of course go over the recommended priorities.

So 2023 session at over 200 days was the longest on record.

There were 1,675 bills that were filed.

Uh 348 of those passed.

The governor only signed 205, so at 143 vetoes, that was also a record number of vetoes.

There were definitely a lot of wins uh, you know, in the session.

Um, the passage of the bill to uh that would allow the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors to place the extension of proposition 400 on the ballot next year was one of our top priorities.

Uh that um actually vote did it did happen, so that's now proposition 479.

We're all trying to remember that.

We've said Prop 400 for so long, but it's Prop 479 now.

Um we were also able to uh working in concert with um other cities uh and other interested uh partners in the community to defeat a variety of zoning bills.

It would have prevent preempted uh the city from having authority over much of its um land use planning and zoning.

Uh and then through the veto process, we were successful in having a bill that passed to eliminate the food tax.

Um, Governor Hobbes vetoed that.

So definitely a lot of wins, um, not without losses this year.

Uh the most significant of which was the loss of about 4.5 million dollars a year in residential rental tax revenue.

Um, in terms of our current environment, uh, when we when we speak of funding, uh the legislature has a shortfall in the current fiscal year.

Um the number kind of keeps changing as more data comes in, but I believe right now the the estimate is that there is a 400 million dollar shortfall for fiscal year 24.

They're anticipating a 450 million dollar shortfall for fiscal year 25, about 170 million dollars for fiscal year 26.

So they're not anticipating a budget surplus until fiscal year 27.

Um that's a result of a variety of different um policy decisions that have been made.

Uh, the implementation of the flat tax definitely took a lot of um uh funding out of the general fund, uh, the expansion of the school voucher program where both enrollment and costs have uh significantly exceeded expectations.

Um, and of course, there was increased spending on uh projects that were important to individual members of the legislature in order to secure votes on the um on the budget last year.

The state does have a um 1.5 billion dollar rainy day fund, um, but as we've heard in many meetings with uh the leadership, uh there is uh no appetite among the legislative leadership to dip into the rainy fund to take care of these shortfalls.

So um state agencies are bracing for uh potential eight for eight percent cuts there, and of course, those of us who uh who work in this space are are bracing for other types of bills for the state to find money to handle the shortfall.

In terms of the political environment, we do still have a split government, meaning that we have a Democrat as the governor and the Republican Party currently holds a one-vote majority in both chambers, a one-vote majority in both the Senate and the House.

1614 in the Senate and 2931 in the House.

That certainly will impact the work.

In terms of the governor's office, late in the session last year, former legislator Chad Campbell became the chief of staff.

While he was a legislator, Mr.

Campbell did have a good relationship with the cities and is very well versed in many of the cities that impact municipal government.

Also over the interim, Marge Zilla, who used to be hold my position at the city of Tempe, was appointed to their legislative staff.

And so the folks that are developing their budget and developing their legislative priorities have someone on their team who intimately recognizes all of the issues that impact cities.

So that that's a very that's positive.

There have been a few changes at the legislature.

We had a few resignations for a variety of different reasons, one expulsion, et cetera.

So we have uh maybe a handful of new uh lawmakers for all of us to get to know.

Uh probably the most significant change for us here in Avondale is that our own representative Lupe Contreras is now the minority leader in the House.

And so it's very rewarding for us to know that somebody who is such a supporter of cities is is among the leadership.

Um Chris was here a couple of months ago at the federal level, he talked about the impact of the 2024 election on what's going on at the federal level, and that impacts also what happens at the state level.

So it used to be that conventional wisdom was if you were gonna have an election in that year, it would be a very short session because lawmakers were you know very motivated to end the session early so that they could campaign, etc.

Given the current political environment, um it's anybody's guess, but a lot of folks are feeling like it might be a protracted session again, it might be longer as folks try to score more and more points that they can use as part of the campaigning.

So it's anybody's guess, but we are bracing for potentially a longer session.

Um in terms of the policy priorities that are in front of you, just wanted to quickly go over, you know, how did we develop, how did we come up with you know this list?

Really, it's in reviewing past legislative sessions, um, what bills came up that affect cities, what types of issues came up that affect cities, uh, what bills potentially were talked about and debated a lot, but didn't make it over the finish line, maybe bills that got vetoed last year.

Um really looking at those.

We also worked with our regional partners like the Maricopa Association of Governments, the Arizona Municipal Water Users Association, the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, really making sure that you know their priorities are reflected in the list that we put in front of you.

And then, of course, ongoing conversations and collaborations with you know city enervs all over the state in terms of what they might be hearing from members.

So, how once we have these, you know, how do we use these?

Um I mentioned to you all that 1,675 bills are filed in a session, and when we talk about a session being 205 days, you might think that that's a really long time to file a bill.

But in actuality, these bills are five filed over the course of about five weeks.

Five weeks, just this deluge of information, any one of these bills which could have the potential to impact city operations.

So we we have that pressure to make sure that we can quickly look at pieces of legislation, quickly analyze them, you know, how our council might feel about them, and then be able to act.

So we review all of the filed bills, we take the approved priorities and compare them to that, and then if the priorities address the bill, then we're able to act.

If we do get a bill that we do not feel is reflected in the priorities, but we think that the council should take a position, then we would bring that back to council, that specific issue.

Having said that, you have the recommended 2024 public policy priorities before you.

But we we tried to give you information as well in each one of the headers.

In terms of preserving local funding, you know, obviously I mentioned you know, bills that didn't pass last year might come back.

So the food tax, you know, the effort to eliminate the food tax might come back this year, that would be something that with these priorities we'd oppose.

But if there's an effort to make up for the loss of residential uh tax revenue that that would be beneficial to the city, that would be the type of measure that we would support.

In terms of opposing preemption of local authority, um we already know because we're already hearing that uh the zoning bills are gonna be back.

Um I think the the leadership on both sides has has made very public comments about wanting to um speed up development by you know preempting a great deal of local authority, so we're expecting those to come back under that.

In terms of supporting expanded housing opportunities, yes, we would expect things like a greater investment in the housing trust fund uh to come up, that would be great.

But a lot of times there's bills that purport to expand housing, but are really preemptions of authority and don't produce any more affordable housing.

So those are the types of bills that we would oppose in there.

In terms of enhancing public safety, a great example of this is a league priority, a bill that would allow our city jail to use body scanning equipment when they're you know scanning people that are gonna come into the jail as opposed to just the pat down.

Um and county jails already have the authority to use body scanning equipment and city jails do not.

Um so one of the lead priorities is a bill that would allow our city jails to use that body scanning equipment for the safety of both the individuals who are housed at the facility and our our public safety staff.

And then in terms of land use planning, same, the zoning bills could come back and that.

Um both we see bills both that preempt and ones that want to um um dictate what goes where.

Um so at the one hand, making you know free-for-all on um planning projects, and then you know, tying municipal government's hands when there's um maybe development that doesn't benefit our city or does not align to our goals.

Uh so with that, Mayor, the staff recommends the Avondale City Council adopt resolution 1079-1223, and I am happy to answer any questions that you or council may have.

Liz, thank you for that.

You know, Ron, is as you and I have talked over the last, well, since the session ended about the rental tax and the impact that that has, we're getting ready to have our first budget meeting in one week, two weeks, two weeks.

Um and there's a lot of unknowns there.

There's a lot of unknowns going forward, and that's a hard position for us to be in, but it's a harder position for department heads to be in when they try and make their budgets and say this is what we need, not knowing where revenue is not knowing where revenue is going to be, not knowing what the legislature is going to be.

As you were doing that, the notes that I had taken were obviously tax issues for me.

And we're addressing that.

Um don't remove any more tax issues.

The food tax is a huge thing for Avondale, but for those rural communities who rely on that food tax.

Um zoning issues.

You know, Phoenix changed some of their zoning to allow casitas in their backyard, allow some other things.

And while that may benefit some property owners, it's really hard for a city like Avondale.

It really is.

It it it steps on our toes when we're trying to do the best thing that best projects that we can, and it really has someone looking over our shoulder that we don't need.

Um you talk about budget shortfalls, prisons.

There's a shortfall on the prison fund right now, and how do you do that?

ESAs, 900 million dollars this year.

I think there was gonna be was that was that the number I heard?

They're still figuring out the the impact of that.

There's also just the questions related.

It's hard for them to come up with a figure because the data that they have is on children who would have been part of the system anyway.

Um if they're children who are coming from private schools, they don't have that data.

So part of the um concession that was made in allowing the expansion was that there would be greater um data collection related to the program and the department is vowing that they will have some of that data early in the session.

So we shall have to see about that.

And then you've had some changes in leadership.

You have Speaker Toma, who is now announced that he's running for Congresswoman Lesco's seat.

We'll see what happens with that.

But I you're gonna see some changes there.

But I think you see in Senate leadership and house leadership on the right side of the aisle, a fundamental non-understanding of how cities operate.

And that's hard when you have to fight those battles every day.

Those bills are happening now.

If you if you look, if you're and maybe Liz later on we can share the Arizona Capitol Times email address and lint login.

When you look at that in the yellow sheet, there's a lot happening behind the scenes right now, and um it impacts cities.

Does anybody else have any kind of priorities that they look at on this from a strictly city standpoint?

Ron, what are your thoughts going forward as we talk?

Everything's already been said to um tonight, Mayor.

I believe cities and towns are under attack with our revenue sources.

We're the people that provide the um direct public safety to our communities.

We are growing.

We need to make sure we can provide the resources to our new residents as we have to our current residents.

And I wish it was free, but it is not.

It's expensive.

So just so council knows we're moving forward, assuming that we will not have any revenue replacement.

I don't think this legislature will be finding us any additional revenue to replace the rental tax.

So we're we're going to make it work and we're going to do the best we can for our community and we'll move forward as directed, but uh any more uh reduction in our revenue uh means cuts to our services or otherwise.

Um we we um like the state um currently based on budget requests are at a deficit until past I think twenty-seven.

I know for twenty-five and twenty-six we're still projecting a deficit.

Um but um yeah, it's not looking great.

Again, with economic development, the the work that they're doing and other things coming, you know, there's there's a bright future.

Um but as I said in a budget meeting, um, we don't budget for hope.

Um, we budget on real numbers.

And so the real numbers are we're four and a half million dollars less next year than we had originally planned.

So Cheryl Covert just uh uh fist bumped her her seat mate over there.

We talked about economic development.

Yeah, I we see everything.

Um I think going forward, I I think having a relationship with fellow council members and vice mayors and mayors from other cities is really important.

You Max, you said on RPTA, you have conversations with your board members all the time.

Veronica, your conversations out at Luke Air Force Base, your conversations with Westmark, those are really helpful and in building those relationships and keeping them solid so when we do have to talk, we're talking in a unified voice.

So can we get a motion on this, please?

I have a motion from Councilmember Conde, a second from Councilmember Solorio.

Any further discussion?

Seeing and hearing none, please vote.

Liz, thank you for all you do.

Thank you.

Ron?

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Next is 4D, um, a presentation by Jody Novak, Director of Development Services.

Good evening.

Raise this up.

Okay.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council members.

The item that we have before you tonight is the General Plan 2030 update.

Um, this is achieved through a major general plan amendment process.

We began this process um several months back into uh 2022.

And the purpose of this was to revise specific elements because there's been new data and background information and other plans and policies that have been updated over the last year to year and a half.

And the major general plan amendment was necessary to make sure that we have the most current information available to staff and the public through our general plan.

So tonight I'm going to present to you um what changes we have made and give you an overview of the process.

This may look familiar to you from prior meetings.

This process started in September of 2022.

We've had multiple meetings with planning commission, city council, stakeholders, city staff, uh constituents, um, residents contacting us and so forth.

And here we are today with the hopes of uh of an approval of the general plan update.

Why is the update why is the update occurring with our general plan?

We did a readoption of the 2012 general plan in August of 2022.

Luckily, through that ballot initiative, we had a 78 percent pass, so it was able to get adopted.

We are looking at it to incorporate the latest maps, um, the latest developments that have been approved by our council, um, city projects that have occurred, and making sure that we're looking a bit long term with some of our land uses in the city.

Because this is a major general plan amendment, it does not require being on a ballot, so there's no um voter initiative required.

Over the course of this process, there is a 60-day review requirement under state statute that started between uh July, excuse me, July 25th, it started and ended um near the end of September.

During that time, we received about 86 different unique comments, uh, which is really valuable to us for to be able to look at what we're doing.

Um people had maybe noted something that was an error in the document, and so we're able to work with our consultants, Michael Baker International, which are here this evening uh to support us in in getting this um put together.

It was also promoted on our Avondale Connect, which is a really important website for us to promote a lot of our plans that we have going on in the city.

So our general plan is made up of all these elements that you see on the screen.

There are required elements under the state statute, and then there's elective elements, and we've taken the initiative to maintain all of these elements in this current update.

So just give you a brief moment to look at all these.

You've probably seen this slide before.

And I'm moving on.

So on an overview of some of the things, I'll talk about universal updates to the plan.

Most importantly, with new plans and new development in the area, we need to recognize the boulevard, which is our live work play entertainment district north of City Hall.

That wasn't mentioned in the old plan, so we needed to incorporate that, add that as a growth area into the plan as well.

Phoenix Raceways no longer referred to as PIR, updating obviously that reference.

Old Town Avenue is or Avondale is the new reference to historic Avondale, so we made sure to properly call it Old Town throughout the document.

And then there was a lot of other updates, as I said, data sets, maps, terminology, and so forth.

I'm just going to highlight a couple of themes before we jump into land use, which is the largest section of this plan.

That will be the focus of this evening.

Sustainable development.

We did adopt a new community sustainability plan that was really important for our community and the sustainability commission.

And one of the most important sections was resilience to extreme heat, which has been a popular topic in the state of Arizona given our heat and looking at resiliency for that.

Another element is community mobility, and one of the more exciting projects that is needing to be focused in this general plan is We Ride.

So with these We Ride services, we needed to update our map to showcase not only is it in the majority of the northern part of Avondale, but it is now south of Buckeye as you're heading down towards the Alamar community in Las Legas.

So that's really important for our community, and making sure that's that's referenced in this document.

What I'll focus on next is our land use element.

As you know, land use and looking at the future is really important.

We're growing leaps and bounds.

We get a lot of development inquiries on a routine basis.

A lot of our staff is before commission and council quite often throughout the year.

So for us, there's a lot of rudimentary things that needed to be updated in this particular plan.

But most importantly, is just really looking at some key areas of our city and updating a lot of uses.

So I'm going to go through several maps.

I'll be a little bit more slower and detailed to help you understand what we're proposing this evening.

So on this slide is the overall current map that's in this draft for council to consider this evening.

This map reflects what we're proposing from a city standpoint, staff standpoint, that went to commission as well with different land uses.

And there's the legend there on the right side.

One of the more important changes we've made is removing categories of land uses that are no longer existing.

They either were changed over the last year or so, or the properties just no longer valid for those uses.

And I'll get in that a little bit more, but as indicated on the slide, urban residential, which is a very high residential density type of a land use.

It was only located on a couple of properties in the city, and we're proposing some modification to that.

We also have a new category called medium low density residential, and that came from a major general plan amendment council approved south of the Australia Mountains.

And we are re-looking at some of the uses along the SR 30, which is a main employment corridor that would happen in the southern part of our community.

And this is the adopted land uses for the area south of the Australian Mountains.

One of the key uses is the purple color for a resort.

And looking a variety of residential densities in this area, while also making sure that we are not intruding in Bureau of Land Management or State Land properties.

We worked with those agencies to make sure when we brought that major general plan amendment forward to take those into consideration and maintain those areas.

So this is just an example of a map that needed to get included in the document.

It will remain as was previously approved.

And the reason for that is to showcase the properties that through all of our discussions through a commission and council work session, individual work sessions with commission and then council separately, city staff, stakeholders.

We are proposing updates to several properties for various reasons.

So the map on the left is what the current land uses are on those properties right now.

And on the right side are the land uses we're proposing to update these properties to.

Council has already approved a major general plan amendment, excuse me, a minor general plan amendment to this property.

We had shortened the property size for the local commercial, and then the residential next to it became a greater high density residential.

So there's already been an approved apartment complex and a future commercial center.

That needed to get reflected in this map because it got adopted over the past year.

Moving further down where the laser pointer is, south of Thomas Road and west of Avondale Boulevard, that is West Point High School.

We didn't indicate that on the prior map.

So we are starting to put the schools and the parks and all the new city facilities on these maps, which I'll show you.

Also just south of that, there's another school site not developed, but it's owned by Pendergrass Elementary School, and we want to make sure we're showing it's for education in the future.

The city owned lands south of it, which would be for a future park, so we're designating that green.

Also south of McDowell Road, there's an existing school that's in that location as well.

It's a charter school.

I think it's um Sun Valley Charter School.

And if you move further over here towards the right, south of the highway, that is land owned by Tolleson School District, so that's slated for a future elementary school.

And north of Van Buren, there are, excuse my pointer.

North of Amburen, there's some properties here that are purple that are designated for a business park.

Those properties originally had an urban residential land use on them.

We feel in evaluating all the employment and the industrial-based uses that are developing just north of these two rural agrarian properties, which are zoned for farming and agriculture or one home per acre, that it makes sense to have a business park designation on these properties.

There's a 400,000 plus square foot industrial warehouse distribution logistics center, well under construction, almost completed just immediately north of it.

And then further north, heading to the freeway and northeast is further employment as well.

So it just makes sense for that corner in that area to make those changes.

And see if the mouse works on here.

And that is another charter school, Highland Prep that got developed.

So this just gives you an example of some of the cleanup and updates that we needed to do to this document since the last readoption.

The southern part of the city, following this slide, I will get into more detail on specific properties to have a further discussion about.

But generally, in an overview is we are looking to modify the land use over the Las Legas neighborhood.

We are also looking to modify the land use on the northeast corner of Avondale and Broadway, as well as the southeast corner of Avondale and Broadway, as well as the northwest corner of Avondale on the State Route 30 Highway Alignment.

We are also expanding the Heela River Scenic Corridor in the southern part of our city and adding some freeway commercial.

Some other things to highlight on the east side of Dysart Road, that baby blue property is a Tollison Union High School District property.

They are planning to move forward.

They've just started the annexation process.

That'll be coming onto your agenda fairly soon.

We needed to make sure we noted that as education, as well as the Lake and Elementary School that's completed.

We have obviously colored a new park, Alamar Park is on here, as well as some more open space and park related to Alamar and some of their other small parks that are in their neighborhood.

And we also have this triangle here, which is the future fire station police station.

So we want to make sure those are recognized in this current plan.

But I'm going to get a little bit further detail on some of these, and the reason for that is we had speakers that came to our two planning commission meetings that talked about these particular properties.

One of them, or excuse me, two of the properties wouldn't have anybody speak on them, but were aware of their desires by having communication with them outside of the meetings.

So I just want to take a moment to go over this one.

The Los Legas neighborhood is a well-established single-family subdivision.

It got annexed into the city in 1990.

And under state law, when you annex it in, you have to give it like zoning that Maricopa County's planning and development department had.

So it has R16 zoning.

In essence, it's a little bit less than a 6,000 square foot lot minimum, but the lots could be larger.

As in most subdivisions, they'll have a minimum lot size, but you might have a large pie-shaped lot that is three or four or five thousand square feet larger than the smallest lot in those subdivisions.

So it is not unusual.

This particular community, some of the homes in the neighborhoods in there were platted through an actual subdivision plat process, and others were not.

They were just lots split through Maricopa County, and you have random lot sizes and positions of homes aren't in a natural form, if you will, like a subdivision.

So there is a home out there that originally built in 1938, and there's homes that have been built every 10 years, you know, every um every milestone, there's homes being built, even as of current.

People are going in and reinvesting.

So most of it's fully developed.

We feel we need it to give it a different land use, medium density residential.

Now, to the far right, you'll see a little inset map.

It's currently rural low density, which means one home per acre.

But that doesn't make sense for this neighborhood when there's smaller lots, and the nearest land use category that makes sense for this area is medium density residential.

Is it a hundred percent fit?

Not necessarily, but in our judgment, it just makes sense.

We haven't really had any opposition.

We've explained it to some residents that contacted us.

In fact, Las Legas Park is right here south of Lower Buckeye, and there were three homes that happen to have open space and park land use atop them, which didn't make sense in speaking with our parks director.

We're not expanding the park.

Those homes aren't going away.

So therefore, we're putting the medium density residential rightfully so on those homes so it matches the rest of the community.

There was a speaker, two speakers actually, I should say, representing a property owner on the west side of El Mirage.

There's about a 10 acre property that's vacant.

It's a great infill property for the area.

It has R16 zoning on it today, but it had that estate medium low density residential, which didn't cause development of an R16, approximately 6,000 square foot lot development any issue.

They spoke out because they feel this particular land use category of medium density residential doesn't lend itself to what that property owner would ideally like to have.

They'd like more density, more units per acre on the property.

The city's position is to have the same land use as the rest of the subdivision, have it all the R16.

Everything around there is generally R16 or a medium density residential land use, and we feel to have an appropriate infill development, whether it's townhouses or detached single family homes, that this just makes sense from a land use standpoint.

So I wanted to highlight that.

But as of today, we're moving forward with a recommendation to keep it medium density.

I'll let you read the bullet points if you have any other questions, and then I'll move on.

So the next slide is focused on the northwest corner of Avendeau Boulevard and SR30.

There is a speaker here this evening, zoning attorney Sean Lake with Pewin Lake.

We've been in communication with him.

There's also a letter that was received by the city today from another law firm, Barry Riddell, with another individual that has an interest with this gardener property.

So the Gardner properties accomplished 80 acres.

They are at the northwest corner of SR30 and Avondale Boulevard.

Now the inset image to the right shows you it's nice pink purple.

It's mixed use.

Well, the mixed-use land use has allowed for a proportionate share of commercial and residential uses.

The intent is to have that live work recreate oriented type of development.

For example, the boulevard.

For example, the district at Crystal Springs on the southwest corner of Avondale and McDowell that got approved not long ago.

It has a mix of residential and commercial uses.

Avondale Commons on the northwest corner of Avondale and McDowell has uh apartment uses and has a mix of commercial type uses as well.

So that's what mixed use is is intended for.

As we were looking at this area and looking at Alamar and trying to provide a variety of housing densities for this area.

You've got Alamar, you've got Verde Trails, Shadow Ridge got approved in the area, hasn't developed yet.

And we are looking to see what can we do long term for the area for starter homes or for homes that maybe are a little bit on smaller lots.

And the goal for us is to try to find that compatible land use.

The northeast corner of the freeway interchange, the southwest corner, and the southeast corner.

So three corners of the freeway are already designated freeway commercial.

From an economic development standpoint, from a land use planning standpoint, we felt as a transitional use into the Alamar Master Plan community, having residential uses would be more appropriate at this corner.

So we're proposing from a staff standpoint that at the media corner we have medium high density residential, and north of that, medium density, which is the same land use with the adjacent homes in Alamar.

The property owner representative feels it's a timing issue.

SR 30 hasn't been built.

Why change the land use today?

It's appropriate to keep it mixed use until such time we know what the market will dictate in the future.

So with that, you know, respectfully, that's another way to think about it as well.

And there is an opportunity where they thought maybe we they should have freeway commercial right on their southern property.

We're not necessarily opposed to that either.

We just went forward with wanting to see the residential uses, but ultimately it's council's decision what they'd want to see here.

But I know that they'd want to speak on that tonight.

The northeast corner of Avondale and Broadway is property that is owned by Marwest Properties LLC.

This property, I should correct myself, let me back up here.

This property for SR 30 and Avondale Boulevard, the Gardner property, is still under Maricopa County's jurisdiction.

So it's under their planning and zoning and has zoning in the county for one home per acre.

So it still would need to be annexed into the city of Avondale.

It would get a like zoning, which would be rural agrarian one home per acre.

And then at such time they would neither need to do a general plan amendment, and they also would need to rezone to come in with their private development request.

Sorry, I missed that.

I was going to repeat that same language for here.

This property, the Marwest properties LLC, as well is still in Maricopa County's jurisdiction.

It has rural guurian zoning in the county.

The general plan right now in the inset on the right designates it for high density residential.

Again, as we're looking at the larger area, what's been happening further west with Three Rivers Ranch, Alomar, Verde Trails, Shadow Ridge, et cetera.

We feel it's just appropriate to have a little bit lower of a density with the medium density residential.

The white boxes right at the corners are already planned for local commercial.

We're keeping that, we're not changing it.

It's a great opportunity to have local commercial and a nice transitional land use from the corners to the properties that are around it would be medium density residential.

We're proposing the same thing on the southeast corner.

The Northeast Corner has submitted two preliminary applications with the development services department over the last two years.

One was two years ago, and just recently with the general plan use modification, they came in with another pre-application.

Their goal is to develop over a 450 unit multifamily high density apartment complex.

So their desire would be to not have the land use changed because they're looking to have multifamily development.

Separately from that, there's a project immediately north of them that has been zoned and entitled in the city, and multiple departments in the city are actively working with Meritage Homes who would be developing a single family subdivision.

And that subdivision, the majority of it is really off of 107th Avenue, but there is property that expands west to Avondale, directly north of this Marwest property.

And those two projects are in coordination to address a lot of SRP irrigation and stormwater drainage and a conveyance channel drainage issue in this area.

And so it benefits this property owner in some fashion.

And they would, as I said, mentioned, rather be able to have some high density residential.

We recently did speak with them and met with them and explained what the reasoning is for the land use in this particular area, and that at such time they annex in, they have that opportunity as well to come in and request a different use.

So I'll end with that on that property.

It's an aggregate mining operation today, that as well as in Maricopa County.

And they're not necessarily opposed to the Gila River Scenic District that we've expanded in this whole area.

It's really important for the city to maintain that future recreation corridor and the river corridor in this area.

So we've expanded it over.

It was originally just a state low density residential.

However, they're not opposed to it because they'll be mining in aggregate for quite a long time, but would like that opportunity in the future to have some freeway commercial similar to what the city has added east of Dysart Road.

We modified the uses over here and added freeway commercial along that frontage, and they would like that opportunity and consideration for freeway commercial along their frontage.

Staff is not opposed to that.

Planning commission wasn't opposed to that.

Unfortunately, due to timing of when things are published, we weren't able to make that change on the map.

But that is something we're recommending if council wants to consider, we can make that modification following this process.

That concludes the discussion on the land use.

Okay, sure.

Okay.

Go ahead.

I know it's a lot to digest, so um I'll be more than happy to go back to any of the slides.

Um, just some information from prior was where are we at when it comes to our excuse me, our development of residential.

76% of our housing stock is single family residential, 20% is multifamily, and 4% is mobile homes.

Now, this is data coming from Census and Maricopa Association of Governments from 2022.

They're still putting together current statistical data, and they usually have to help us compile these percentages.

So in talking with them, uh, this is the latest that we have as of date.

Um as far as what amount of land has been built out and where are we at?

So we are just looking at land actually in our jurisdiction in Avondale, not in the county, and what is vacant, and 94% of it's developed, and 6% of it is vacant.

So 6% sounds like a small number, but it really isn't.

That could take many years to be able to develop.

It all is market-driven.

Uh working with developers to go through our processes takes quite a while.

Um, construction takes a while.

Um so we we we don't want to make anyone nervous that we're gonna finish developing here very quickly.

We don't foresee that at all.

And over time, as property in the southern part of the city is in Maricopa County, and those property owners desire annexing in, that just adds to more of the development that will take a lot longer to occur, but a benefit to the city in the long run as well.

And focusing on some summary of items that's been discussed over many months with City Council and Planning Commission.

Uh our directions and expectations looking at this process were focused on several things, primarily land use.

Uh looking at the SR 30 corridor and really wanting to focus on what we're doing, what land uses we're proposing.

And there was a lot of discussions.

There was a property uh that was designated office slash professional land use, and there was discussions with council of whether to change that to a different land use.

You know, do we make it corporate park?

Uh, do we make it business park?

And we've gotten feedback just to leave it off as professional for now.

Um that land use designation sits between an existing single-family subdivision, uh Terra Mobile Ranchettes, and as well as property that's planned for freeway commercial.

So on that overall map, we're just maintaining that as office professional.

Um further, we looked at residential densities.

We know that the northern part of our city is a bit different than the southern part of our city, and we need to protect some of the large lot estate properties that are existing, uh, really be considerate from a transitional land use standpoint to those areas, but also look at opportunities of how do we get for sale townhomes or smaller um housing that could be starter housing that maybe is at a lower price price point to help people get into that area where we have um new communities coming in and new commercial that would be coming in.

Uh we also wanted to expand the Hillary River Scenic District.

So these were some significant changes that we wanted to address, which is what we were proposing on the maps.

This did go to planning commission recently.

Um they motioned to approve it three to one.

Uh the one vote was a member who just wanted to keep the mixed use on the northwest corner of Avenue Boulevard and SR 30.

Um the motion would have maybe been to approve it with the exception of making that land use change.

Um, but unfortunately uh they just went forward and said I don't support it because I want that 80 acres to stay mixed use.

So that that was the one uh no vote that we have.

Uh but overall, I think they were all the members were supportive and positive of where we were going with this document.

And that really concludes my uh detailed presentation on all the items.

Um we as staff are recommending approval of what we're proposing.

The staff recommendations are outlined in the staff report.

Um, so there's the individual uh bullet points for those.

Um I have expressed some of the uses and the uh changes that some of the uh property owner representatives want to talk about this evening.

And again, this is a major general plan amendment that's being approved by council, and you need at least a two-thirds um of the members of the governing body to pass it.

Um with that, I'll be happy to go back to anything and answer any questions.

Jody, thank you.

This is a public hearing.

Let me go ahead and open up the public hearing.

Sir, and when you're done, if you could just give your blue card to Marcella, that would be great.

If you could just state your name for the record, thank you very much.

Uh my name is Sean Lake here on behalf of the Gardner family.

Uh normally we get the public is three minutes, but we're representing a 70-80-acre parcel.

So if you'd be a little flexible with me, I'd appreciate that.

This has a substantial implication on the this property.

So we appreciate that.

We did uh forward to the city a PowerPoint presentation, which my understanding I can't show, but I believe you do have my PowerPoint.

So we're gonna go old school uh here today to talk about this property.

As Jody pointed out, we're talking about really the northwest corner of SR 30 and Avondal Boulevard, really the intersection of two major arterials for road traffic and traffic in this community.

This area just hasn't matured yet.

It's a vision, it's gonna happen.

SR 30 is going to come through.

And when it does, this whole area will change.

I'm currently working on SR24 and Ellsworth Road in that Mesa Queen Creek area, and that area has just exploded in the last year.

So when this freeway does come through, this area will as well.

Our concern is we feel like we're jumping the gun.

We're changing a land use from a commercial or a mixed use that would allow residential, which is a good thing that I think the city is looking to have, but would also allow some some commercial.

We're taking away that economic opportunity for this freeway off ramp and major arterial road.

I sat here and listened to economic opportunities and how we need to take advantage of our economic opportunities in the City of Avondales, and every city I deal with, we try to land use plan to capitalize on those key intersection areas where we have economic opportunity and preserve those areas for that.

And in this case, our opinion is the Gardner family, a very patient family, they think the city needs to preserve that economic opportunity until SR 30 comes through.

Quite honestly, it's kind of a weird situation for me.

I've done this for 30 years as a zoning attorney, and typically I'm in here saying, ah, that's never gonna happen, change it to the quick sale, let me sell it to KB Homes, let me sell it to Shea Homes, let me sell it to Polte, and I'll do a subdivision will be in and out.

In this case, the Gardner family saying, hey, let's be patient.

Let's wait to see how this area matures.

Let's wait to see how SR 30 comes through, let's wait to see what happens.

And then maybe residential, maybe commercial, maybe a project like that, McDowell Villas, which was uh approved earlier on the agenda is appropriate here.

Maybe a commercial, maybe a mixed use development.

But let's not decide today to do a residential subdivision on this 80 acres before the freeway even comes through.

So with that, we would hope our are we're open to discussion on this.

We really haven't had much of an opportunity, we think, because we got noticed kind of late and didn't get to participate early in the process before the map were created and were set in stone.

But we're open to discussion.

Do we keep it mixed use?

We're fine with that.

Do we preserve some type of commercial at the intersection of Avondale and SR 30?

We think that's appropriate.

We don't think residential is appropriate at a freeway off ramp and and the major arterial in the city.

We're open to that discussion as well.

Freeway commercial.

I find it interesting that we're taking away freeway type of commercial opportunity at Avondale and SR 30, but we're gonna add it just down the road a little bit on the south side.

I think it's time to be patient on this one.

Let's wait just a second, see what happens with SR 30.

We've got a patient property owner who's willing to wait to let this area mature, and then maybe a great economic opportunity for the city of Avondale could happen here.

I think that's the best thing for this property.

And so we would happy be happy to work with the city on this.

We're happy to continue this uh to do this next year, do it the year after.

But we think just to do it here tonight to say no, this is gonna be residential subdivision.

We want to foreclose any idea of any type of commercial at this uh freeway interchange is acting a little fast.

So we would ask the city to kind of slow down with the property owner, think through this property, and give an opportunity for an economic development here in the future.

So with that, I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you, sir.

Any any questions?

I think we'll get in a little bit in a little bit later.

You're still available, so I would ask you to kind of sit close to the case if we can.

Absolutely.

Is there anybody else?

Carolyn, anything for you?

Okay.

I'm gonna go ahead and close the public hearing on this issue.

I am Jody, I am I'm fine with what I see here tonight, and I understand the the gentleman's point.

And I think what council has to realize is you're going to get different bytes of this apple.

You're looking at SR 30.

If it passes in 2024, you're not gonna see the first shovel in the ground at 26 or 27.

And those shovels are gonna be on the east side coming from the uh 202 and from Goodyear at the 303 coming in.

Those are the first two sections getting built.

Depending on funding, you may not see the Avondale section until sometime in 2032, 2033 at the earliest.

We're going to go through the same process in 2030 as we go out for another general plan.

And I think that's going to dictate what's going to happen, what you're going to see in development in the southern part of the city.

I'm going to be long gone from this council.

Most of you may be long gone from this council at this point.

And looking at the and having future councils make those decisions going on by how it develops.

And I think you have to look at two areas.

And see how that all ties in.

I think what you want to do is I don't think you want to be the first person out of the gate.

But I'm going to trust it if anybody else has any comments on this.

Ron, did you want to chime in before I open it up to council?

No, very well said, sir.

Okay.

Anybody?

So we do need a two-thirds.

I'm sorry.

Oh, Max.

I just have a couple questions.

Thank you.

Um and Jody, I I would uh ask you to go back to the map of Southern Avondale for me, please.

The one that includes the space that's undeveloped that had the resort on it.

Oh, thank you.

How much of that needs to be annexed into the city?

Through the mayor, vice mayor, councilmember White, that is a great question.

Um this larger area really only has about I think 11,000 acres that can be considered for development that are in various jurisdictions.

They're not in Avondale.

Um of it has been annexed in, but there's others that are still under Maricopa County jurisdiction.

Uh there's Bureau of Land Management, which would need to sell their property.

Um there's state trust land that would also have to sell that property as well, but I don't know the percentages between them.

Is this included the in the 6% of undeveloped land in the city or unplanned?

No, that's for the northern part of the city.

So that's not I don't believe so.

No.

Check with the consultants now.

Okay.

And then um thank you so much for the clarity on that.

So I just want to make sure I understand um the concerns that were presented more recently in in relations in regards to this proposal.

It sounds like we're looking the final map where we have the potential SR 30 going through.

Can you give me that one again, please, with all of South Avondale?

Thank you.

So I see how the um there's a potential expansion for freeway commercial going west, but what what is being asked or or asked for reconsideration this evening is still subject to change because that's not all annexed in the Avondale yet, anyway, right?

Through the mayor, vice mayor, councilmember white, that would be correct.

It's all still in Maricopa County jurisdiction right now.

So the reality is if there's a proposal for a different type of land use at the time where that property is being annexed into the city, they can make that uh proposal and have the land use be changed, correct?

There's process for that, that is correct.

Thank you.

So that would be a just for council clarification.

That would be a major general plan amendment at that point.

If the through the mayor or vice mayor, uh if their property is eight acres and greater, yes, it triggers a major general plan amendment.

So if it's 770, it's a minor general plan amendment.

Correct.

Okay.

So there's a difference there, obviously, for that.

Um this is a council vote.

Can I get a motion on this item?

Nicole, do am I missing a point?

Okay.

I have a motion by council member white, a second by council member Solario.

All those in favor, please vote.

Passes 7-0.

Jody, thank you for the work on this.

Summary of current events.

Make sure I have that right.

Anyone?

Uh let me go to Max first and then Curtis.

Uh, thank you, Mayor.

I just wanted to share that uh myself and uh council member Solario had the opportunity to represent the city at the NLC City Summit.

Um, and we uh received recognition from the digital cities.

And I just wanted to thank all of uh thank Jeff, your entire team, and all of the departments here for everything you do to make sure people can see what you're doing online.

I don't think a lot of people realize how important, especially Joe going back to Jody.

You can see all of this online.

Um, and that's so impactful.

Um, I think we might need to just toot our own horn a little bit more and make sure we get enough surveys out there so we can bring home number one.

Um and I also want to commend um uh councilmember Solario for being appointed.

I think she can share where what appointment she just took on in her leadership role with NLC.

Uh so yes, um I finished my first year in um youth education and family, and um you know you get to serve one year, so they give everybody the opportunity to do that.

And I just finished my first year with the Federal Advocacy Committee for Transportation and Infrastructure.

Um I have declined to go on further and take on another year in that, uh leaving the space open, hopefully, for Councilmember White.

And I have taken uh I have recently was elected to the women in municipal government for a one-year board term, as well as the HELO for a two-year board term, which is the Hispanic elected local official uh board.

So I'm really excited to be doing that and serving nationally.

Thank you for that, Clary.

Thank you for all you do.

Curtis.

No, I'd just like to maybe speak on the part of all of us here to tell Parks and Rec.

Thank you so much for Winterfest on Saturday night.

Oh my gosh, yeah.

That was utterly amazing.

I don't know how late you guys stayed up to clean up and see things that were done.

We appreciate you doing that.

We appreciate you getting in there early to get it taken care of.

And I personally saw people that I know from church and other places that were there for the first time with the thing we didn't know Avondale even had something like this.

So kudos to you guys and to moving it from where it was out front.

Hope you continue with it.

It was great.

You gotta do something next year that's better than this year.

So numbers will come numbers will come out, but there were 27,000 people there on Saturday, which I'm really excited by.

Um else?

Um I came back from Nashville.

I had a chance to interact with NASCAR sponsors.

We were able to work out and we think it a commitment for the sponsor for the spring race uh in Avadale.

So it was a great time, and we are still pushing to get um additional years for the race.

So I think that concludes that open session.

Nicole wasn't giving me the bad eyes, so we're good.

Uh can I get an adjournment to executive session?

Motion to adjourn.

I have a motion from Councilmember Malone, a second from Councilmember Solorio.

Please vote.

Councilmember Conte, thank you.

We are adjourned.