I'd like to call the special meeting of Monday, September 11th, 2023 to order.

Marcella, do you mind doing roll call, please?

Thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Conde.

Here.

Councilmember Malone.

Councilmember Solario.

Councilmember White.

Vice Mayor Paneda.

Mayor Weiss.

And Councilmember Nielsen has an excused absence tonight.

Good seeing you.

Item number two, please.

All right.

It's you're up first, sir.

I think you might want to have a few words to say about our U.S.

Constitution Week proclamation.

Especially today.

This is U.S.

Constitution Week.

It's from September 17th to September 23rd.

And we had a request for Constitution Week, and I really couldn't think of a uh a more appropriate proclamation for this week.

So if you don't mind, I'll go ahead and read it out loud.

Whereof September 17th, 2023 marks the 236th anniversary of the framing of the Constitution of the United States of America by the Constitutional Convention.

And whereas it is fitting and proper to accord official recognition to this magnificent document and its memorable anniversary and to the patriotic celebrations which will commemorate it.

And whereas public law 915 guarantees the issuing of a proclamation each year by the President of the United States of America, designating September 17th through the 23rd as Constitution Week.

Now therefore, I, Kenneth Weiss, by virtue of the authority vested in me as mayor of the City of Avondale, Arizona, do hereby proclaim the week of September 17th through 23rd as Constitution Week and ask citizens to reinfirm the ideals of the framers of the Constitution had in 1787 by vigilantly protecting the freedoms guaranteed to us through this guardian of our liberties.

Thank you.

And this will this will hang uh in City Hall.

Gloria.

No home.

There we go.

There we go.

All right.

Hello everyone.

So I am here to talk about International Housekeeping Week.

I am so excited to be able to kick off the first.

I guess it would be this this is day one of housekeeping week.

It is one of the housekeeping is one of the most needed yet thankless jobs in many industries.

Housekeepers, custodians, or even environmental services, while all different job titles all do the same.

They ensure we have a level of cleanliness and the level of commitment to business and customers.

Today we are here to celebrate and recognize the men and women who do this job daily.

I am proud of our city and the importance they have given to this week by issuing the following proclamation.

I will read the proclamation.

Proclamation National Housekeeping Week, which is always done the second week of September, September 10th this year through the 16th.

So whereas National Housekeeping Week is a week-long celebration dedicated to recognizing the efforts of hardworking housekeepers.

And whereas any building operations such as hotels, restaurants, casinos, and other official buildings all function under long hours and efforts of housekeeping.

And whereas if housekeeping did not exist and buildings are not properly cleaned, it can lead to illness, productivity loss for the people who visit, eat, live, work, and play there.

And whereas the true heroes of any building operation, housekeepers, have one of the toughest jobs in the building, but also one of the most important.

Now, therefore, on behalf of the city of Avondale, Arizona, I hereby proclaim September 10th through the 16th, 2023 as National Housekeeping Week and extend sincere gratitude and appreciation to the hospitality industry of Avondale, who provide excellent service every day.

So we get probably Marcella, how many of those requests do we get a year?

Maybe there's some that we do over and over just because they're fitting.

We probably get 20 of those a year.

We kind of go through them to see if they match up with the ideals and the vision of the city of Avondale, and obviously Constitution Week does, and obviously this does too.

So thank you for reading that.

Ron, item number four, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Next we have recognition of the 2023 Arizona Parks and Recreation Association Awards.

We have Brian Hughes, our Director of Parks and Recreation, to make the presentation.

Good evening, Mayor, Vice Mayor, Council members.

Um, we're excited to be here tonight to share with you some awards that we received recently.

Um August 22nd, staff attended the 73rd Annual Parks and Recreation Association Awards ceremony at the Glendale Renaissance Hotel.

And that evening, uh Avondale was recognized with four awards.

The first award was the blank canvas summer showcase, which was recognized with the outstanding youth enrichment program award.

This program was launched a few summers ago to give kids a chance to paint and to share what their view of Avondale means to them.

We'd like to also acknowledge the assistance of the neighborhood and family services department for helping provide the canvases for that program each year.

The next uh award we received was uh for Almar Park, which was recognized as the outstanding facility award for populations 10,000 to 100,000.

Um, as you recall, the 40 Acre Park opened last October with our grand opening, and we're getting ready to celebrate one year there.

Um Street, our parks manager, Stephen Castillo, Parks Maintenance Lead, accepted the award on behalf of the city, and they were joined with Roger Tice from Brookfield Residential and Tony Viola, the project manager for Valley Rain Construction that helped to build that park.

Uh the next award was for our mayor, Ken Weiss, who was recognized with the outstanding public official award for his ongoing support of parks and recreation as a council member and as his time as mayor, and we certainly appreciate all your support over the years, mayor.

And then the last but not not least was Corey La Riva was recognized with the 2023 APRA President's Award for his ongoing commitment to the association and his role as the 2023 conference chair, co-chair.

And so it was a pretty exciting night for everybody.

Um it was really great to have the entire team there, some of our management team and you mayor.

And so just want to say we're very proud of our our parks and recreation team and the dedication that they have to making lives better for the residents of Avondale.

Brian, thank you for that.

Thank you for sharing the uh evening with me and my daughter.

With the Parks and Rec team stand up, please.

And Corey, you're not off the hook.

Come on down.

So it really was a great night for Avondale.

Four awards is huge.

Um, Alamar Park, the blank canvas for me, but Corey, besides yours, was blank canvas for me, was probably my the best one for me uh just because it's resident participation, and that's award that goes to all the kids and the parents who kind of foster that creativity.

Kind of tell us about what your role is gonna be about the award and kind of what your role is gonna be going forward with the organization.

Not here with ARPA.

Uh APRA.

Yeah, Arizona Parks and Recreation Association.

So, fortunately, my position ends uh next week.

We have our final meeting, uh, but it was a year-long commitment to planning the conference uh for the 2023 event that we all got to attend over the last three days.

Um, huge shout out to our marketing staff, McKenzie and Alyssa both hosted a class or two sessions that were well received as well, and kind of wrapped Avondale with us.

So you won the award, and then you went on vacation, right?

I did win the award and go on vacation, correct.

Yeah, and you're and you're relaxed now, you're ready for what the next year has.

Uh absolutely.

It's gonna be an incredible year.

We have a lot of fun things coming up.

So, thank you guys.

Congratulations to all of you.

Ron, item four, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Before I go on, I want to remind park staff, please don't go anywhere.

We'll get pictures with you after the next presentation.

All right, we have the swearing-in and badge pinning ceremony uh presented by uh Larry Rooney, our fire chief.

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

I have the ple uh privilege of uh bringing up our newest uh command staff to be uh penned and uh sworn in this evening.

And so I'm gonna start off with Stephen Mayhew.

Battalion Chief Steve Mayu was born and raised in Yukio, California.

After higher school, he enlisted in the United States Marine Corps.

Um after four years of honorably serving, he worked for five years for the California Department of Forestry.

In 2007, um he was hired by the City of Avondale as a firefighter, working it through the ranks at the position up to the position of battalion chief where we're celebrating tonight.

He is a certified paramedic, serves as member of the All Avondale Type 3 All Hazards Incident Management Team.

Steve is the A shift commander and also in charge of our wildland team.

Steve's wife uh Farrell will be pinning him this evening.

Next, we have Freddie Cruz, battalion chief Freddie Cruz, who was hired at Avondale Fire and Medical in 1999 and was promoted through the ranks while serving as a paramedic technical rescue technician, threat liaison officer and recruit training officer.

He promoted to battalion chief in 2003 after 18 years as a successful captain in the department.

Chief Cruz grew up in the city of Avondale and attended Avondale Schools.

Chief Cruz has supported the youth in Avondale through the mentorship program and is currently overseeing the technical rescue team and assigned to C Shift Battalion Chief.

Freddie's wife Debbie will be penning him and uh also has his boys Chase and Hayden.

Last but not least, Gary Siler, Battalion Chief Gary Siler began his career with Avondale Fire and Medical in 2004.

Chief Siler is a certified paramedic and technical rescue technician.

He served in the capacity, including firefighter engineer captain and training captain before promoting the battalion chief.

He has earned his associate's degree through Glendale Community College and he's currently attending Grand Canyon University and is scheduled to graduate with his bachelor's here by the end of the year.

That's where I take it, Mayor.

All right, so will you please raise your right hand and repeat after me?

Speak.

I solemnly swear.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

Support the Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution and Law of the State of Arizona.

The Constitution and Law of the State of Arizona.

And the Charter of the City of Avonale.

And the Charter of the City of Avondale.

That I'll bear true to fate.

I'll bear true to faith.

And allegiance to the same.

And allegiance to the same.

And defend them against all enemies.

And defend them against all enemies.

Foreign and domestic.

Foreign and domestic.

And that I would be clear.

And impartially.

And impartially.

Discharge the duties.

Discharge the duties.

Of the Office of Battalion Chief.

Representing the city of Avondale, Arizona.

According to the best of my ability.

According to the best of my ability.

So help me guide.

Congratulations.

And we'll have another opportunity for photos.

Now I'd like to bring up Dave Wagner.

Dave Wagner has been with the Avondale Fire and Medical since 1996 and was promoted to battalion chief.

I mean from battalion chief to assistant chief on June 12th, 2023.

Dave served in the United States Marine Corps and worked, uh also worked for the U.S.

Forest Service.

As battalion chief, he also served as coordinator of the Arizona Avondale's Firefighter Wildland Program and coordinator of our school mentorship program.

Dave Wagner holds associate's degree in fire science from Phoenix College and a bachelor's degree in public safety and emergency management from Grand Canyon University.

Dave is being pinned by his father Hank Wagner, who was a volunteer firefighter for over 30 years in his hometown of El Paso, Illinois, and held the position of fire chief for the last several years of service there.

Sorry, we're working on spacing.

I think we've got it under control.

All right.

Raise your right hand and repeat after me.

I solemnly swear.

And I will support the Constitution of the United States.

That I will support the Constitution of the United States.

The Constitution and Laws of the State of Arizona.

The Constitution and Laws of the States of Arizona.

And the Charter of the City of Avondale.

And the Charter of the City of Avondale.

That will be our true faith.

And allegiance to the same.

And allegiance to the same.

And defend them against all enemies.

And defend them against all enemies.

Foreign and domestic.

Foreign and domestic.

And that I will be able to do that.

And that I will faithfully.

And impartially.

And impartially.

Discharge the duties.

Discharge the duties.

And the office of assistance fire chief.

Of the Office of Assistant Fire Chief.

Representing the city of Avondale, Arizona.

Representing the city of Avondale, Arizona.

According to the best of my ability.

According to the best of my ability.

So help me go.

Now you can do the badge money.

Congratulations.

Mayor, Council, Mayor, Vice Mayor, and Council.

Our command staff is now complete, and we want to thank you and the city management for all your support.

Chief, that thank you.

Uh it's moments like this that um it really brings forth the responsibilities as we have as a council, which is number one is is public safety, and being able to promote from within to all levels is incredibly important to us.

You've been with us now for five years.

You understand that that's what we've been trying to do for a long time.

I want to open up to council.

Anyone else on council have any comments?

Michael?

Let's go, Michael, and I'll go to Veronica.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, you know to each uh individual who uh ascended up the ladder, so to speak, um, just speaks volumes of of the dedication um and uh the support you provide to the city.

Uh for me, it's it's it's the things that happen behind the scenes that we don't see that allows for you to uh achieve this success and to see you with your families and to see children and parents and you know other relatives celebrating that success.

That's what it's really all about, and so it's just um you know it's a pleasure to be a part of of um celebrations such as this.

So congratulations to everybody.

And you know, I know most people don't aspire or at least see that kind of carrot hanging at the end of their career, um, but some just through their service get there naturally, and it's just it's it's great to see that.

So appreciate it.

Veronica.

I just want to say congratulations.

Each of you guys have um have had years of um serving the Avendale community, and what better way to um have your career as a step into uh the right direction?

So continue serving our community.

You do an amazing job, and we appreciate all your years of service.

So thank you again.

Battalions Chief Cruz, May, Hugh, and Seller, I really appreciate seeing you out in the community.

Normally you guys see me regularly walking around town, so I think that's so important.

Assistant Chief Wagner, thank you so much for helping me in the onboarding process and really being there.

I really appreciate the team and the staff that you all have here, Chief Rooney.

Thank you for all you're doing, and we really appreciate and want you guys here in Avondale.

Congratulations.

Thank you, ma'am.

Gloria anyway.

Congratulations to everyone.

Um, you know, many times we're up here, we're a face of the community, but we're here because of people like you.

I am constantly proud, and I talk to everyone and everyone, and even my boss is here tonight, and he can tell you how much I talk about the people and the love that I have for you guys because you guys in turn have that love for your community.

So thank you.

Tina, any comments.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, and no, I just wanted to say congratulations to everyone on the promotions.

Um, and thank you for all that you keeping our community safe.

So, just for reference, Tina will not be speaking any longer tonight.

Ron, any comments for you, sir.

Uh Mayor uh council.

Um, I just want to say, and I and I uh I think I've told them enough time that I'm very proud of the organization I work for.

I am proud of the work and the team that uh Chief Rooney is building, and I look forward to the great things that this leadership team here is going to do for the organization.

I couldn't be prouder than this group right here.

Congratulations, gentlemen.

Thank you, everyone.

We're gonna adjourn, but please what?

Mayor, could we have pictures?

Want to do it after or I was told after.

Oh, after the journal.

Never mind.

I listened to Marcella.

You're smart.

Um so we're gonna do pictures after.

Feel free to come up and do that.

Parks and reclear come up.

Can I get a motion for adjournment, please?

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

All those in favor, please vote.

Tina.

Thank you, ma'am.

We are adjourned.

That's right.

By the holiday season, um, for benefits to end as that position is eliminated, and wondering uh maybe any thought process in and potential reconsideration of that because I know this is something that city manager's office doesn't have to come to us with.

They can make these types of decisions on their own.

Um, but we want to make sure it's transparent and make it make sense for the people we serve here.

Mr.

Mayor, uh Councilmember O'White, uh, there are a couple issues with that.

Um, our we are self-insured and we have a a um document that requires a person to be employed.

So we would have to extend the employment date with all the other uh benefits there attached.

Um we can't just uh are arbitrarily in the benefits date.

It goes to the um date of employment.

We could add um cobra uh payments where we would pay the cobra for the employee, um, but uh we can't just uh extend the the benefits, but we can pay for the cobra if it so pleases council.

Um but uh we can't just uh extend the the benefits, but we can pay for the COBRA if it so pleases council council.

Are we open to that?

I am open to that.

Mike, I think that would be a good happy meeting.

It's not what was planned.

Um, and so I I personally don't think it's needed, but if it pleases council, we can.

Um the employee has uh a couple months.

Um the employees leaving in good standing.

Um and the reason we did this is she's not actually coming to work, she's available by phone to assist us so that she can find an opportunity for other employment.

She had declined a uh a job opportunity at a lower rate, and so um, but if it pleases council, we can it it's not a financial hardship for us.

The only reason is right before December.

I think that we want to make sure our patterns and practices here reflect that that's not a time of the year where we can see Tina.

I I'm having a hard time hearing there.

So the uh uh the it's for the the item D on the consent agenda and uh what council member white is talking about is um because it's toward the holiday season, it is it's not a great time to you know have that reduction in force, but the council would um would want to uh pay for cobra benefits to get the employee through the end of the year, so it's not a hardship during the holidays.

Are you open to that?

What is her medical through without doing that?

They would have unless they had another job, they would not their medical benefits would end in November.

Their employment with the city would end in November.

We'd pay for them through the end through December 31st.

Yeah, it would just be one month.

One month okay, I'm open to that.

And I and Matt, and I and I appreciate this because there's I understand how difficult that could be.

That is just a change in how we're doing our things in in HR hall.

But I also want to make sure that going forward, this isn't a policy that we look back on and say, or uh, an example that we look back on and say and say, Well, we did it for one person, we're gonna do it for everyone where this happens because we don't know what the future looks for us next 10, 20, 30 years.

So I just I think we're good to the end of the year.

Absolutely.

And and Mayor, thank you so much.

And as well, thank you so much, Ron.

I just think we're making a total HR structure change for this organization based on what was presented and eliminating uh level of management.

So I don't think we'll have that same structure change at any other point, and with that elimination and that level of management, we're moving somewhere from what I guess may be centralized, and and maybe that's what we're gonna have to call out an airmark.

Are we gonna be a decentral?

Will it be will the city manager and HR be centralized, decentralized, will it be functional?

Will it be a dedicated HR team, or will they have shared services going forward?

And we want to be able to identify and airmark exactly what they're doing with that um as they move those management titles and structures around.

I would also I would also want to put a caveat in there that if the employee found employment and had health care benefits through the new employer, that we would that we would not pay for the cobra benefits.

Our goal is to make sure that this employee, because of a restructure in HR is covered through the holidays for their health care.

Yes.

And if they have if they get another job, and God willing they will with their talent and everything, that we wouldn't do that.

So but the employee would have to let us know.

So uh Mr.

Mayor, yeah, you could word the uh the motion to say that if needed the city will pay for um the employees uh health insurance plan through Cobra uh through for the month of December.

Marcella's back thank you.

I'll read as are you typing as we speak?

Yes.

This is this is what we do when we're not prepared.

We do work on all right, Max.

There you go.

Okay.

Uh motion to approve reduction in workforce due to human resource departments reorganization resulting in the elimination of the human resource manager position to include the city paying for COBRA benefits through December 31st 2023 as applicable.

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

Any further discussion?

Please vote.

Councilmember Condi.

Passes unanimously.

60.

Thank you, Council.

Ron Item 4A, please.

Thank you, Mr.

Mayor.

Next up, we have a general plan progress update by our director of development and services, uh, Jody Novak.

And Jody, before you start on this, um this is this general plan update is going to take us for the next few years.

Um my term on council is going to end in 15 months.

So while have input on this tonight because we've worked on I've worked on this for many years.

Honestly, I think I think the council members who are here, Tina, um, I know you've taken a look at this, but this is something whatever changes are made tonight or discussed, it's going to impact you and the city kind of on how you do things in the future, especially on the south side of the city on the uh on the um south side of the estreas.

So Jody.

Thank you, Mayor.

Good evening, council members.

Some of the information may seem familiar as it was discussed at a commission and council work session several months back.

Um, but tonight our goal is to just provide you a progress update of where staff, as well as the consultant with Micro Bay Bakel, can't speak.

Michael Baker International has been both myself, um, our deputy director of planning, Catherine Lorbeer, and Michael Baker's representatives Matthew Kleisiko and Steven Sifferman have been working on this.

Steven Sifferman's with us this evening.

Um, that way, if there's any questions, we um they can answer, they could assist as well.

Um, this update is necessary.

Um, we did a readoption of the general plan, and what we're processing is considered a major general plan amendment.

It's not a full overhaul of the general plan, but it's certainly uh making some amendments to text and language and updating some of the information that's outdated and updating maps.

Um, certainly we'll focus on the text and the map amendments in today's presentation, and then we can discuss any points of clarification or questions that council may have for me and the team.

Uh just to go over a project timeline that we had presented earlier to you.

We've been working on this since September.

We've accomplished a lot of the items under the green area called engage and recognize.

Um we've had the work session with commission and council, which was very successful.

Um we also um had prepared some documents internally to work on what we want to be making modifications to.

We held a technical advisory committee meeting with our department directors and other staff representatives.

We also held a stakeholders committee meeting, which was external agencies and representatives such as utility agency representatives, school districts, and the like.

We also held a community workshop.

Um, our first one, which is similar to a neighborhood meeting.

We didn't have any citizens that attended that meeting.

We did have some staff, um, and I apologize for the graphic on here on the orange where it's enrich and engage.

Um, we did draft our general plan.

Um, the elements and the map updates is what we're working on.

We had our second um commission work session uh just recently, and they uh provided some feedback in regards to expectations for land use in the future, uh, but nothing overarching.

Um, I'll discuss that a little bit later.

We also are in our 60-day review, which is a requirement under state statute, where we've drafted a very initial plan with some changes, and we're still working on modifications and updates as we speak.

Um, and that process is through September 22nd, where we're receiving any feedback from stakeholders, um, community members, and staff.

Um, we also had a second community workshop neighborhood meeting recently.

Um, we did post that um and publicize that as well.

And again, we didn't have any citizens attend that meeting.

Um, so now we are in September and we're in the engage and achieve section is our next goal where we'll be further working to finalize a draft to present it and bring it back to commission and council because it is a major general plan amendment, it does not go to the ballot, it's no vote is needed.

It's uh vote um a recommendation by commission and a vote by council for adoption of that um update, and then it would be completed by the end of the year.

Um, so just to clarify what is um our general plan update and what we're doing.

Um, I've mentioned some of the items.

I just wanted to put it here on the slide that just shows it's a major general plan amendment process, which allows the city opportunity to seek to make amendments both through text and maps.

Um, as you may know, we've had a new active transportation plan that got adopted that our parks and recreations presented to council.

Certainly that's not reflected in this plan today, so we do need to make references to that, and that would be reflected in multiple chapters.

Um we no longer have the city center specific plan, we have the boulevard specific plan, so that's an example of an item that has to get addressed.

Um, there also was a community sustainability plan that had been adopted, and we need to make reference to that plan and and not the old plan.

So those are just examples of some housekeeping items that we need to do as part of our updates.

Uh, just to refresh um some of the background that we've discussed prior, the general plan has many elements.

It includes land use, economic via tality, community facilities, community mobility, open space, and sustainability.

There's required elements on the right side of this slide, and then there's elective elements under the statute, and we're including all of them in the plan.

We're just keeping them intact from the prior ratification of the plan in August of 2022.

We're just, as I've mentioned, just modifying them just to make them a bit more current with data as well.

On this particular slide in the next few slides, what this is representing are some of the text elements and the updates that we're doing in the plan.

I've summarized these on here.

For example, the land use element of the plan.

There's multiple tables in that plan.

And so we need to go through and update all the data, reflect current conditions that are occurring in our city.

Then we're also looking at the land use map and looking at some of the land use categories and locations of land uses, which I'll go over here in a little bit.

Economic vitality is regarding economic development overall, cost of development, growth, and this is an example of some of the tables that need to be updated, other information regarding what our current emphasis is with industry, our SR 30 corridor, demographic census data.

I won't go over all of these, but again, we have the neighborhood section, sustainability and open space theme, and you can see as shown on the table.

We're just updating a lot of the different data points and text information that's in there.

So it's just a lot of cleanup that we're doing for this particular update.

I'll give you a moment.

We obviously were updating transit.

We've done a lot with transit over the last couple of years, so we're certainly updating what we're doing with WeRIDE and the Avondale Goodyear Transit Plan that we're in agreement with.

Certainly looking at water resources and public facilities.

We have a lot of new city facilities that have developed.

Certainly we've been engaged with public works with our 2018 integrated utility master plan and looking at water demand.

So there's some important language we want to add into the plan related to that as we move forward with growth and development.

This is an important map.

So the land use element map tends to be where there might be a little bit more focus, and I will focus on that in this presentation.

This has taken a little extra time and work as well.

We had our commission and council work session and got valuable feedback from both committees.

And an important part of the feedback was how do we balance our residential land uses within the city?

How do we ensure that we're providing starter housing, housing that might be applicable to workforce persons and in that demographic?

How do we make sure that we have a mix of for sale product in addition to the for lease product that's developing in our community today?

And with that, we've looked at areas of the city to see where we have some property that has yet to develop.

It may be in the county and not yet annexed, but it's still incorporated on our land use map and our plan.

So the map that's shown here to the right is including some proposed changes that were requesting, which I'll show you on the next slide.

But an overall summary of what we're doing is on the map is there's some outdated land use categories like urban residential.

There were very few properties that had that land use category.

We're eliminating it because there's there's not a need for it any longer, which I'll I'll show you next.

Some of the categories were maintaining residential, but proposing a little bit lower density to provide more of a variety of housing in a particular area of our community.

We've looked at refining some of the land uses along the SR 30 corridor to not only consider our Healer River corridor, recreation and tourism, but also maintain opportunities for sales tax revenue with commercial and industrial type development.

This is the second page of our general plan.

So you know that south of our Australia Mountains, we did a major general plan amendment, and it's a large area.

We can't fit it all on the same map, but this is just to show you with our map update the land uses that were approved through that separate major general plan amendment.

This is a future area.

We are maintaining additional recreation and open space opportunities in addition to our scenic river corridor with the Australia Mountain Regional Park, as well as the wilderness area that's in that location, and it's a really important part of our community.

Certainly, any growth and development in this southern part of the city would be have necessarily would need necessary water, sewer, and other infrastructure.

And so we're certainly working with and paying attention to what's happening west of us with the adjacent communities because it's going to be a partnership with the growth with utilities and streets and so forth down the road.

This is certainly a really long vision.

It's likely this area may come back with another amendment in 10, 20 years if growth were to happen in that area.

So we just wanted to show you that we're updating that map.

So these are two important maps.

Hopefully, these are more reflective to help you understand where we're making changes.

On the left side of your screen, there's all this white space, all the white spaces, land uses on that lovely colored map you just saw that are not changing.

What we're showing you is what the current cities adopted general plan land use map has for land uses on very specific properties, and those are colored on that map on the left.

The map on the right is showing what we are proposing, which would require commission recommendation and council approval to make changes.

Some of the more simpler changes and cleanups we're still working on and need to add to the map.

And those are a lot of new city facilities, buildings or land that we're currently under construction with need to be reflected on the map.

We've got new charter schools, which are educational uses.

We have other schools that were never colored as education on the map.

So we're, for example, West Point High Schools on the very top part in the baby blue that originally had a residential land use on it.

Certainly it's not residential, so we're going to do housekeeping to make that blue.

One area I wanted to mention if you could focus on where Van Buren Street is and Fairway Drive, we have those labeled.

And you can see on the map to the right, there are sort of this purple pink called business park.

The current general plan has those as urban residential.

The far right one we're proposing to change to business park because it's a self-storage mini warehouse facility today.

So it never did develop as urban commercial, which is a very high density multifamily zoning, or excuse me, land use.

So we realized we needed to modify that and correct the map because that was an error and make sure it's reflective of what's there.

And then there's another pink purple area right under where fairways title boxes there.

And that is a property that's farmland today.

There's a house on it.

We don't have any development proposal for it, but we would prefer that property developing in alignment with the uses surrounding it, which is also corporate, or excuse me, business park, and there's also a high-intensity office land use as you head to I-10.

It's just not really a compatible use to have that as urban residential anymore, which is designated on the left map.

You could see it had a brown color for urban residential.

At that intersection corner, when we look at all the development with the charter schools, a recently entitled and approved apartment complex on the southwest corner of that intersection.

It's just fair to modify that land use north of Van Buren to just maintain more of that employment corridor because that's a key area for our city off of the freeway.

As we move down the map, if you can go to Lower Buckeye Road, and you'll see where El Mirage is indicated, and there's an area on the map on the left that's sort of a beige gray called a state low density residential.

And on the right map, it's medium density, and we're proposing medium density, and there's a valid reason.

That's a Las Legas neighborhood.

It's one of our oldest neighborhoods in the city.

It's mostly developed.

All the land has an R1-6 single family residential zoning district on it.

So there's homes that are being built with one home per five to six thousand square foot size lots at a minimum.

There are some vacant lots in there that have yet to develop, and there's some that are a bit larger along El Mirage Road.

We're matching what the land use is there.

So by changing the land use map to the medium density residential, just puts in an alignment with what's already existing out there from a density standpoint.

So it's not a change that's going to affect persons' property rights.

They have their zoning that stays in place on their property, it doesn't take that away.

So they could still develop under that zoning.

A little bit further south on El Mirage on the existing map to the left was medium density residential, and you now see it's green open space because that's now the city's Alamar Park.

So we're designated that properly as an open space area.

So that's an example of some of the cleanups we're doing on the map.

If you meander a little bit further towards the right side on Broadway Road at Avondale Boulevard, there's a little bit more change that's occurring near that intersection.

On the northeast and southeast corners, they're currently high density residential.

And those properties are in the county, they've yet to come in for development.

And those parcels currently would have an opportunity to have a higher density residential land use on those areas.

As we look at the whole of what's been developing actively for the past few years with Alamar, Verde Trails, and some other planned zoning in that area, it's for us looking at the balance of the uses.

And in order to be able to provide a mix of starter homes, more affordable housing, and have some opportunity for sale product, we feel it's in the best interest to modify those land uses to a medium density residential.

That gives us a lower density residential, somewhere between the eight dwelling unit per acre range, and you could have an opportunity for townhouses or more of a transitional land use to local commercial, which is being maintained at that intersection corner.

So that that's a one of our larger changes you'll see here on the map, as well as a property just below that to the left of Avondale Boulevard on the west side.

You'll see it was a pink as mixed use on the map on the left, and we're proposing to now change it to medium density residential in the orange and then medium high density residential in the beige.

And the reason for that is mixed use would allow a mix of business park uses, commercial uses, and multifamily residential uses.

There has to be a proportionate share of those uses.

We really want to balance our employment opportunity for that area and provide a mix of housing that could help with a lot of the employment along the SR 30 corridor.

We have properties that are not changing that have a lot of freeway commercial.

So to have land uses that provide an area for people to live but work in the same location, that's ideal for us.

SR30 is a huge positive impact for the community coming to a point where you could hopefully have people work and stay living in our in our same area.

And so, with that, to provide a compatible land use that transitions into Alamar, which already has a medium density residential, it makes sense to have that same land use abutting the homes that are already under construction in Alamar.

The property south of it, we've opted to do a medium high density residential, which also provides an alternative form of housing for that area right off of a freeway is ideal, but we're also maintaining commercial south of the freeway and east of the freeway at that Avondale Boulevard intersection.

So it's not a loss from an economic development standpoint.

We're still preserving a lot of commercial in that area.

And lastly, on the north side of the freeway, you'll see what is gray on the left map, office professional, and on the right map is purple, which is corporate park.

The office professional, we really don't foresee long term this area of the city along SR 30 having corporate administrative office headquarters, ideally to maintain our economic vitality on the SR 30, having an opportunity for some more industrial type employment uses or a mix of industrial commercial is more ideal with the corporate park designation, and on either side of that purple on the existing map is freeway commercial.

So you would have a combination of commercial and other employment opportunities along that northern side of the corridor between Avondale and 107th Avenue, and that's really key for the city.

And we also have freeway commercial south of that freeway.

So that's going to be our main hub of economic impact on SR 30.

And lastly, we're on the map on the left, you see purple, which is corporate park, and you also see some baby yellow, if you will.

It's very light rural, low density residential.

We're proposing to expand our heel river scenic corridor.

It's really important to the city and has been for many years and maintaining it in this update for tourism, ecotourism, recreation, and just an environment, the environment in general, there's opportunity with open space and recreation attractions.

It just ties into the Trace Rios events that we have, the wilderness area that people want to access, in the southern part of the city, and just being able to expand on that and limit uses that would impact that river corridor.

As you may know, a lot of these properties are still in the county in that area, and some of them have aggregate mining that's going on that could be there for a very long time.

So long term, our vision would be let's maintain that environmental component that's really rare to communities and a real jewel for Avondale.

We're proposing to maintain some freeway commercial on the south side of that highway that gives us just an opportunity off of the Dyser and El Mirage exits to have that economic impact from a retail standpoint there as well.

So those are the key land uses that we're we're looking at and proposing to you going forward as some of the land use changes we we'd be making with this map.

Um what I also wanted to add just for context is where are we at as a city?

And looking at our development, um, when we did the commission and council work session, and we had some figures that we worked out here with the city as well as Maricopa Association of Governments, and with the land that's annexed into Avondale, so not the county properties, but it is in our city and it's vacant and includes vacant land, we're about 94% built out.

But as a lot of the county properties throughout our city, um, there's there's some in the northern part of our city, and there's some in the southern part of our city.

If they have property owners coming into one annex, you know, our build out winds up being a little bit less because we have more land that's now coming in, and we don't know ultimately when they'll develop it.

But annexing it, we want them to come in with a development plan, and we've been echoing that.

We don't want to annex just to annex.

If you're ready to come in for development, we'd be happy to have further conversations on that.

Um, but also to add to that, um, there was some comments um prior about what's our percentage of single family and multifamily.

So uh this is a little outdated because the Mary Cope Association of Governments was uh working on their data, which would have been published this summer, and I haven't quite received that.

I'm working on that to get that.

But the last data was we have 76% of our housing is single family, and 20% of our housing is multifamily, and 4% was mobile homes.

And I don't think that's changed dramatically since then, so we're within that same area.

Um, but also just some additional information and data in partnership with our economic development team here at the city.

We look at commercial in the city, and our estimate right now is 32% of our commercial land is developed, which means there's still a good amount of commercial land that has not been developed within our community.

So capturing those uses along SR 30, info properties along Alicia C.

Felix Junior Way, properties that are on McDowell Road that are still available.

Um there's some properties still available that have yet to develop around 107th Avenue to 99th Avenue around Roosevelt Street, Pierce.

So there's still opportunities for that employment sector, and as I mentioned earlier, there is some land that's yet to be touched off of Fairway Drive.

Um, we do have a very large industrial building under construction right now, but there's still a large swath of land north of that that hasn't come in yet.

So, in short, we are on our 60-day review draft.

Um, as I mentioned earlier, that's coming to a close for comments on the 22nd.

We can still receive comments afterwards, but that's just the initial understate statute 60 day period to get everything.

But obviously, if we get any feedback, we'll be looking into that.

Um, we do have it all posted on our Avondale Connect.

Um, so that is our our main platform for the city for the public as well as city staff to be able to go on there and look at information.

And more importantly, what are our next steps?

So myself, um Catherine and the consultants are finishing the 60-day review.

Um, we are working on finalizing a draft.

You know, we're getting comments from everybody, we're still editing, we're still making amendments to the map where we might see something that's off, or a label, or oh, wait, there's another school.

We forgot to put the school there, things of that sort.

Um, we do then need to schedule everything for planning commission city council consideration, and those dates would be happening here this fall, October, November, and December.

And so that's um where we are going with the plan, and I'd be happy to answer any questions.

And this is a discussion item, so there's no action or a vote this evening, but certainly feel free to share your thoughts and I'll take notes.

Jody, thank you.

Um, a lot of work went into this, and as fast as we're growing, ideally, it's an ongoing process that we deal with.

Um things that kind of struck me initially was the single family 76 percent, multifamily 24 percent or 20 percent.

That mix is a little bit I would assume that the multifamily would be higher, probably just because we've been focusing on multifamily on the four-lease portion for the last few years, especially on Avondale Boulevard.

This council and the planning commission have expressed interest in kind of moving away for four-lease products into townhomes, condos, tinier houses, allowing people who are born and raised in Avondale to afford to live in Avondale, and I think that's a great focus.

I think that's the next step in our development, and it doesn't happen overnight, but I also think it's having really honest conversations not only with our team, but also with developers who invest in our city and letting them know this is what we're looking for.

And they're anywhere from 5,000 multifamily units that are being planned or permitted, up to 11,000 multifamily units that are planned or permitted.

Far more than what we're doing right now.

And I'm and I'm okay with where we're at in this mix.

So I'm going to assume that the voters vote on this next year.

Thank you, Max.

You're going to see the first phase of this probably start in 2027, is my guess.

And that first phase is going to be the 303 in east and the 202 west to 91st Avenue, the Avondale portion.

You're probably looking, they'll probably start doing an interim road at 2029, 2030.

Again, so that's you all looking at this, and what does that look like?

We've always looked at the SR 30 as that industrial employment kind of thing.

I think if you look at the 202 and Phoenix going out to Chandler, I think you see a really good idea of what's developing along there.

One thing to keep in mind is Phoenix still wants to develop part of that 202 corridor as a tech corridor, even though TSMC has moved up north, their plans, and I think we really have to kind of align ourselves a little bit with what Phoenix is looking at.

And Ken, you might have a better idea on what they're looking at with that.

Um but I think it makes sense for us to kind of have that mix that they have.

Um I think it's it's cohesive.

It's easier for developers to understand, but it's gonna be up to you guys kind of to decide what happens there.

And the southern part, I've I've said this, east or south of the Estreas.

Our build out is probably somewhere 140,000 people north side of the mountains, we think.

Jody, right?

140,000?

South uh through the mayor and council, south of the Australia Mountains.

We were estimating almost another 100,000 population, if it built out with the land uses as approved.

And I think I think that's the area where council has to decide because when we look at those executive homes, which we've talked about in council for as long as I've been on council, those executive homes naturally should go on the south side of the Australians, in my opinion.

The views are there.

I don't know if I want to see that area build out to 100,000 people.

I think I've been very vocal on this, saying my my area, my my thought is somewhere between 35 and 50,000 people having those half acre, one-acre multi-acre properties that are residential, having commercial there, having some unique properties, resorts, things along that line that lend themselves to that area.

But again, um I'd love to hear what council has to say.

Max, I'm gonna start with you and then go down the line.

Thanks so much, Mayor.

Thank you, Jody, for the presentation and all of the documentation to prepare.

If you don't mind, can we go back to the southern planning area um map?

The one that's the blowout of the that one right there.

Thank you so much.

This is the area where you were just referring to, correct, Mayor, in regards to not having up to the 100,000.

It's about over 30,000 acres.

I've always said that, and I could be just lying, but I think it's close to 30,000 acres.

Uh mayor and the council, that the large area inclusive of the Australian Mountain Park and the Wilderness area, yes, the actual developable area that we were able to land plan.

I think it was around 10 or 13,000 acres.

And Mr.

Mayor, I'm sorry, Councilmember White, before we go any further, Jody, correct me if I have uh misunderstood this.

We're not proposing any changes to this area.

We're just transferring what you guys have already done.

Okay, so that there's no changes.

I'm looking to have a huge discussion on that because there'll be plenty of time for that.

But just kind of what the vision is because there's some aspects of the northern plan, the executive homes, commercial things along that line that may be better fit for what we're talking about here where Max is touching on.

No, I just and do we have an access road out there at this point?

Um, mayor council, uh, council member white, we do not.

We don't have uh direct access to this area.

And I think last in uh global towards a council member dot yeah, you we haven't announced it yet because we're working through the the details, but uh staff is gonna go out there and then we'll be inviting council uh for probably a uh four-wheel drive, if I'm not mistaken, is what we're planning on having a look.

Yeah, we were we were gonna have a good time uh out there, but council will get that invite uh later.

Oh I'm ready, I'm ready.

There you go.

Ah, we'll call the sheriff's department.

I'm talking Jody.

I want to go forward to the um the planning map, the the updated map where we're gonna be cleaning everything up.

Thank you so much for that.

So just a couple of um I ideas here that we're taking a look at.

Um the Gila River Um scenic district, that's an awesome idea.

I think it's gonna bring a lot more um echo-friendly things there.

There is a lot of um freeway commercial, and and I'm not sure if there's any opportunity in that freeway commercial that abuts that area on the southwest side of the map to consider um to consider the office professional space.

Uh, and then on the north side where the purple shaded area is of the anticipated state Route 30.

I don't I don't want that use to change.

I really want that use to stay what it is right now, office professional.

Um, the rationale for that is when I just think about some of the communities and neighborhoods that I drive through throughout the valley.

There are certain cities that you're not going to see um the business park or the freeway commercial that would have, I guess, for lack of better terms, uh well, industrial uh warehouses.

Um I I I have spoken to many residents of the city, and they they do want to see more of that tech development here.

I guess they they don't want to see quite as many industrial warehouse jobs coming here, and I think that if we left it more in that office professional space, we could try.

I know it's not realistic right now.

Maybe we need to look a little harder.

I know Choppa, you hear us, but maybe we can get a world headquarters here and and have that office professional space and and think about what those scenic views will look like um like into what we see on some of our more historic streets or or or pathways like through the 51 or the 17.

Um, I think if we build more warehouses here, our community will question whether we're just looking to drive industrial jobs, and those jobs aren't necessarily gonna be able to afford to live in Avondale.

So we want to, you know, make some jobs that can make the money to fulfill the executive residence that we hope to be building, and to me, right retaining that that office professional and possibly even moving some of that on the other side where we have that big block of red for um freeway commercial.

Yeah, absolutely on each exit of the highway for sure, but maybe we could sneak in some more gray on that side.

I appreciate knowing um just to keep it moving that Lakin and the Telison Union High School educations will be updated in that area below Lower Buckeye above Broadway in our new Alomar Park area because we already have education facilities there, so it's it's great to see the maps updating.

Thank you, Mayor.

No, and Max, I think when you talk about tech, I think we tech is hard because tech follows tech.

And you look at Chandler and you look at TSMC and you look at what's happening in that area.

I think the thing that's unique and is still unknown for us is that data center by Alamar.

And how many acres is that whole data?

How many how many acres is that whole tech center?

Mayor and Council, the overall property is 300 acres.

The original data center, the Hermosa technology campus that was previously approved was about 75 to 80 acres, and we're actively reviewing um another data center campus north of it, but it's a lot larger.

So I think there's the ability for us to have tech in an area that's going to support tech, especially with uh the power lines there, the access to either SR 30 or I-10, because I 10 is not that far away from there.

But I think I think there's still time to look at that green and red area.

I would agree with you, I think on industrial jobs.

I don't want to I don't want to build out the entire area on the SR 30 for industrial because you don't know what's going to come in the future.

Yeah, and I yeah, right.

I I I think I've always said this.

Avondale is Avondale, and what does that mean for us?

I think this is a blueprint that I've I've ideally could change, will change over the next you guys are gonna have it's 2023, you're gonna have seven years before this roadways even started.

So there's a lot of things that could change in the market, and we don't know what's going to drive the market.

We had a conversation today about Amazon and what Amazon for the last 10 or 15 years.

Who would have assumed that we don't know what the markets look like?

So this plan will change and update, and but I do appreciate the input about the green area and making that.

I think you talk when you talk about the views, that's a very unique area to sell to a corporation.

Gloria Jody, thanks for the presentation.

Thank you earlier for you know walking me through this and my consent agenda.

Um I see I think the way that you've explained it really breaks it down and it makes sense.

Um as I said earlier, we're constantly changing, and we have to always consider you know what's new and upcoming.

And like I had told Jody, I've lived in Avondale for almost 19 years now, and um what we had previously to what we're looking at proposing doing makes sense, and it really does.

Um, because I see the future of our residents in the some of the spacing that we're looking at and what we're proposing.

So I see that vision.

Um, I want to thank you for your time because I know that this um is a lot of research to do and looking at that, but thank you.

Tina, can I go to you next?

Thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Jody.

Um, well, I would just first want to say just thank you, Max, for um bringing that to my attention in regards to um the the office, you know, changing that over to um from corporate from office to corporate.

You know, I'm I'm with Max.

That'd be kind of nice just to keep that office um there.

It'd be nice to have some office space down by that SR 30 there.

And sorry, and I'm glad to see that we have that Heela River, the scenic district down there.

I think that's gonna be nice to have that down there.

But you know, I also want to just thank you, Jody, for walking me through um today with my questions, and anything else.

I think I'll probably just email it to you.

I'm nervous but great job.

I sat next to you earlier.

Oh no.

Yeah.

Tina Gina, we're gonna put you on mute just because everyone's shaking their head, everyone just feels so bad right now that you're talking.

So be well, please be well.

Yeah, get well, please.

Uh Veronica.

Thank you for the presentation, and thank you for thoroughly going over that uh last week.

Um I uh I definitely agree with what Max was saying about the bill tent um by the SR 30.

Um, I really don't have much to say because I think it's all been said already.

Um, and I know that the plans for the southern part um over the mountain is not is probably like 20 25 years out, right?

Plus, we don't even have any type of uh facilities or any of that stuff.

So we won't worry about that yet because I'm sure that's gonna come um up, but um, I think everybody has said what they needed to say, and thank you again for the presentation.

Your son Aaron will be on council when this decision is made.

Thank you, Mayor.

And again, as everybody said thank you for the presentation.

Um, you know, kind of piggybacking off of the mayor's comments in regards to that this is uh this is a plan, and this is a plan that provides uh context for where we're looking to go.

So it drives decision, but um as fast as I want to jump on and say here's what we need to do.

It's also in my um opinion wise to be cautious in regards to what markets the market will say the market what the market will dictate and what the voters will do, and so for some of those things, um the plan being in front of us and uh at least being uh available to the residents gives everybody kind of this understanding of of what we're looking to do in terms of growth.

Um the park there uh up on the SR 30, you know.

I still uh after all this time from the time that I was elected uh in 2016 to now is you know, I really empathize with those folks who moved down south to uh the county island there looking to get away from the city of sorts, have acreage, have have uh livestock animals, um, and now having um you know development on their doorstep.

And so for me, it's uh aside from uh what Max was saying in regards to to the change or or how to leave it, um, just being cognizant of how we're going to arrive at the doorstep and keeping them while they're counting on in a county island, keeping them in mind as to what changes are going to occur after all this time, and in some cases uh after generations.

Um we can talk a little bit later.

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to meet with you to go over some things, but I would like to see as the mayor alluded to the question that I brought up to him was uh what we're looking at a mix of of um development in regards to living, aside from uh lease and sale, is smaller homes, the the tiny homes, and does it have a place here in Avondale and if so where?

Mike, how small are you thinking?

Give us an idea.

I mean, you see Goodyear here has a plant where they're building homes that are on trailers, literally tiny homes.

Um Walmart is now thinking about getting or has started to sell these properties that are affixed to trailers.

So I don't know if that would be considered a manufactured home and doesn't get it to that space or not.

But if we're looking at a nice mix of uh what I would refer to as affordable housing, that could be one that um you know young generations who have not had the opportunity to buy a single family home could uh resort to, and so where does that find itself in this map?

So we can talk more about that.

I don't expect you have an answer by any stretch of imagination for that today, but those are just kind of some of the things down the road that I would like to um to discuss and and be open to the discussions as well from the development from the partners that we have coming into our city uh to work with them and let them know that we are open to the development while still always keeping our residents in mind.

So Mr.

Mayor, uh Vice Mayor, if I can add uh tiny homes wouldn't be an issue for the general plan.

It's really would be a zoning ordinance.

It would talk more specifically about the zoning.

We would have to decide when and where what zoning it goes into versus a general plan amendment.

So we can bring this back to council at a future date.

We've we've done this in other localities that I've worked at where we added a tiny home ordinance.

Um to the best of my knowledge, again, Jody, correct me if I'm wrong.

We really haven't been approached by any developer yet about anything that would fit into that category, but eyes are open.

But we'll bring something back to council and get their input.

Veronica?

I have a quick uh question to follow up with uh vice mayor.

Um on the tiny homes, how many uh what's the feel for that?

Are we getting developers wanting that?

Is it happening in other cities?

Um through the mayor and uh council member Malone, just in my experience, we infrequently get a request for for that in our city for somebody to want to put that on a lot.

We have not had developers come in wanting to do full projects.

Um the Phoenix metro area is very limited with that because of the it's very detailed and complex, but the nature of those units are more of a manufactured home.

Um, but there are other areas um in northern Arizona and Southern Arizona who have embraced them a bit more and have made amendments to their zoning ordinance to allow less limits to have them come in.

Um some of them have subdivisions that are um full of the tiny homes, and that's what they're living in, where all other provisions of codes are just allowing them as additional units on an existing single family property.

I had the opportunity to a tour in some some um somewhere in uh downtown Phoenix that they had three of them, but it was for veterans.

It was quite pricey to just do the three of them, and I don't know what that price tag looks like out there, but they did say that we had the three of them, and it was on um it was in a residential area.

I guess it was a little bit of space, so they kind of did um three bedroom homes.

But thank you for the question.

No, I I think what we've seen over the last decade when we talk about tiny homes is you know, you had this big push 10, 11 years ago, especially after the market crashed, and that was the big thing, and you saw a lot of people who jumped into it, not cities, but people who are building them and and developers who are doing it.

The truth is developers will only develop a product if they can make money on it.

And can you make money on those type of homes?

I don't know.

One thing I I've kind of seen is in in driving around and doing what I do now is I'm all over pretty much I'm not in the East Valley, but I'm from Central Avenue West.

There are developments that I never knew were there in areas that you would never expect those developments to be in, and their condo and their condos and their town homes, their patio homes, and they stood the test of time.

They are 20, 25 years old, some are newer, but those are beautiful things, and I and I think that is what you're talking.

Not I know what you're talking about, but I think you can look at homes that are patio homes that start out at 600, 700 square feet that are one bedroom, be perfect for a single woman, a single man, and then and then growing those.

But again, the developers are gonna want to have to develop it.

So I have a question for you on this.

What we what was presented to us tonight, how many hours went into bringing this forth?

I say man hours, but you know what I mean.

How many work hours?

Give us give us an estimate.

I honestly don't know.

Um I would say that uh a majority of the worker making the map really was our consultants, but we were meeting weekly and then bi-weekly on it, and then a lot of correspondence in between.

So it's been months.

I I I don't know.

I really don't know.

Total project.

I just work to work, I really don't think.

Well, he knows he's looking at me.

So we're in the tie, so you're the consultant.

Tell me.

Okay.

So the reason I ask is that again, these are fluid, but there's a lot of work that goes in there, and and we assume as council that we pull a piece out and we pull a piece we put a piece in, and that's rarely the case.

There's other things that go along with that.

I think the discussion tonight has been really good, especially in the southern part of the city with the green and the red.

I think those discussions will develop.

You didn't hear much pushback along Avondale Boulevard, along El Mirage, you just didn't see that.

I think when we get down in the southern part of the city, and SR 30 is going to be the deciding factor.

I think that's where you'll see this council develop and what their vision is over the future as that freeway becomes a reality.

And what we see our neighbors do.

Doesn't mean we have to copy what our neighbors do, but we're gonna look to see what works and what doesn't and what's best for Avondale.

But I think that's the area that's really interesting over the next decade.

Any thoughts?

Any what doing this?

Anything that surprised you.

Um, I think for us, mayor and council members is you know, as a planner to be able to take that time to really fluidly look at everything as a whole and just think of the vision for the future.

And when you're looking at what's remaining in a city that's it's building, even though we're quite built out, that still could take a long time to reach the end.

And there's always redevelopment and adaptive reuse.

Like the planning just doesn't really end.

There's always something going on.

And for me, it just helps you hone in to really understand the community you're working for and where we're at and what the needs are and trying to make the best decisions collaborately with all of our departments who are a part of this and are reviewing this as well to make sure we're we're coming forward with some minor changes as part of this major general plan amendment, but you know, that we think kind of gets us moving forward in the long run.

So it was interesting to see what was going on really in the southern part of the city, and and we start clicking on every parcel on a map, and you can go through a rabbit hole for a couple of hours and realizing who owns what and who bought something a few years ago, and you're like, when did they buy that?

And why is there another mining place there?

And you know, or somebody just bought land in another area, and you're wondering, well, where are they coming in with?

Because we don't necessarily track land sales, you know.

So uh that's quite interesting.

Um, and it also opens your eyes of some of the parcels of that we haven't been approached about yet.

And so it's when are we gonna get that knock on the door and start having conversations because as development goes forward, not all the vacant land is easy to develop anymore.

There's a lot of uh utility stuff that has to be addressed, infrastructure off site improvement.

So um it's it's a big discussion.

We all drive through the city, we all drive through the city every day.

We look at parcels that have been there since God created them and they're vacant, and we think, okay, why has that parcel not developed?

We don't know, but it's one of those things that you're right.

You look at that and you go, Okay, how does that piece fit into this puzzle and what makes sense for us?

So, Jody, thank you and tell your team thank you for all the work on this.

Thank you for being a part of this.

Ken, thank you for your input tonight.

You're exceptional.

He's ready, he's ready to jump up.

You got any questions?

Thank you.

Um, can I get a motion to adjourn to executive session?

Oh, no, no, I'm sorry, summary of current events.

Is there a time limit?

We do have five minutes, and I believe we left off on Councilmember Malone the last time.

Councilmember Malone.

Um, just uh had the opportunity to go to Arizona Liga Cities, and um it's kind of awesome because you get a collaborate rate with everybody throughout uh the state of Arizona.

And so I was being introduced to a mayor and council, and I can't even remember the city, but they said, Oh, Abendel, and they're like, Oh, your mayor's great, your staff is great.

So it's awesome to hear that when um you're you don't you don't even know who they are, and they're telling you how well our city is doing.

So kudos to our staff, kudos to mayor.

Um, and yeah, yeah, um, over the weekend on Saturday, I had the opportunity to meet with our farm workers um that a couple of several of them that live in Avondal, and they have worked through the entire COVID and um the amount of um people that were lost during the COVID year or years, um, and they didn't get paid, they didn't get paid any COVID money, they're you know, they're getting minimal payment, but it was great to see that we um the USDA could give them a six hundred dollar check for working through the COVID.

So it was really um it was just uh heart touching just to see all the people that were really thankful.

Um, this is a that their job is backbreaking, and um just to know that they're gonna get that six hundred dollars because they feed the our state and it they do a lot of hard work, and it was really nice.

I think you kind of passed off last week, too.

So anything for you?

Sure.

Thank you.

Um, just really quick.

I was fortunate enough to attend uh Alwafria Union High School's um welcome back to the teachers.

And while I was there um speaking to them, one of the um the principal Daniels uh autumn, she mentioned that Awfria is um the actual Awfreya campus has a what they call owl closet.

So they are looking to raise um funds and to uh provide um resources to students on campus.

Um, but then it also brought to it made me realize just how many groups are out there aside from the nonprofits that exist uh that were beneficial or that benefited from receiving the uh assistance, the contribution assistance a couple of weeks ago, um, who are just members of the community looking to assist, and so uh any way that we can help to highlight them.

Um I'm sure all council would be willing to get involved should they meet somebody who's doing those things, but it's just good, I think, to highlight those in the community who may not get the recognition that they are helping the community in those ways, both direct and indirect, and so just to learn more about them has been I'm pretty cool.

So owl closet for those of you who are not aware, um, is a service that they are providing to students who attend not the district but specifically Olafree High School.

And to wrap things up, um, tomorrow we have Mayor Marie's birthday celebration at the at the resource center.

If you can attend, that would be amazing.

It's her birthday's on Thursday, but she's celebrating 75 years.

And Marie was the mayor for the city.

She was the perfect mayor at the perfect time.

She was my mentor.

She taught me how to look at all sides of an issue and care about everyone who's involved in that issue.

So if you can make it tomorrow, just to stop in, I know she would be overjoyed.

Ed's gonna be there.

He's really happy the Cowboys won yesterday.

So he'll be wearing his cowboy swag.

Um that being said, can I get a motion to adjourn to executive session?

I have a motion from Councilmember White, a second from Council Member Malone.

It said it there.

I was that's what I was wondering.

It said right here on my screen.

Any further discussion?

Seeing none, please vote.

Tina.

Hi.

Tina, are you gonna join us for executive or are you gonna take a night quill and go to bed?

I'm gonna join you.

All right, good.

We are adjourned.

Thank you, everyone.

Be safe.