Good evening.

Welcome to the Planning and Zoning Commission regular meeting for January 21st.

Can I have a roll call, please?

Chair Human?

Yeah.

Vice Chair Koshal?

Here.

Commissioner Quinn.

Here.

Commissioner Gala.

Here.

Commissioner Schwarzer.

Here.

Commissioner Billstein.

Here.

And Commissioner Disharm.

Here.

All right.

We have Clinton.

Thank you.

I don't see anybody for unscheduled public appearances.

But she's talking somebody else.

Okay.

First item on the is the consent agenda, which is the minutes from the December 7th, 17th, and January 7th meeting, as well as the notice of cancellation of the February 4th meeting.

Any corrections, changes to the minutes.

I'm sorry.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Thank you for catching that.

I always do that.

Who's got the mic?

No mind.

Okay.

I'll just do it.

Thanks.

I pledge allegiance to the plan.

I think I have to have staff put that in bigger print because I for some reason I spaced that one over time.

That's okay.

No, I think thank you for correcting me.

I appreciate that.

Okay.

So we have the consent agenda.

Any corrections or changes to that, or if I have a motion for the consent agenda, please.

Sorry, Rick, we don't want to do a motion yet.

For the oh, never mind.

Sorry.

Actually, yeah, yeah.

Huh?

Disregard me.

I was thinking our general plan was.

Should we start the whole meeting over again?

We start with we'll get the roll call, then we'll do the pledge.

That pledge just threw me off.

Yeah, I got you.

We're good.

Sorry.

Disregard legal counsel.

Okay.

Thanks.

Okay.

So do we have a motion for the consent agenda?

Chair.

Yes.

Move to approve the consent agenda.

Okay.

We have a second.

Second.

Second.

Okay.

I have a second.

All those in favor, say aye.

Aye.

Opposed.

Any abstentions?

Okay.

Motion carries.

Okay.

The action item we have the general plan update two weeks ago.

Um, we did get the first public hearing that we had to do over at the museum.

Staff did a great job.

Um, so tonight, if you want to do a uh update again, and then we can move on from there.

All right.

Thank you, Chair.

Good afternoon, Commission.

I um I'm excited to come before you today.

I know I was excited the last meeting, but I really am excited because today we actually do take action.

Um, and you know, I uh do have a tailored down version of the last presentation just because if there were any residents that missed our last meeting, we want to ensure that everybody understands what a general plan is and what we're doing.

Uh before I get started though, I do also want to start off by thanking everybody who's been a part of this process.

Uh the amount of residents that have came out and spent Saturdays through workshops and the amount of input that we've gotten from residents, people who really care about the community they live in, um, the staff that took the time to really vet through to ensure that all of the policies are still relevant.

Um, our consultants, Logan Simpson and subconsultants, you know, they've been great to work with.

Um, but more specifically, I wanted to thank uh David DeLatory because David's done like uh the last he has done the last two general plans, and I think he thought he was gonna get out of this one, but I'm pretty sure I was in his office at least once a week, like maybe crying.

So thank you, David.

So uh we come before you this evening uh with item three plenty five ten chandler general plan update.

In this presentation, I'm gonna give you an overview of what the general plan is, the process that we took in order to uh update our general plan, the proposed revisions, and our recommendation.

So what is a general plan?

A general plan is a comprehensive set of broad policies that help guide development.

The image before you is our future land use map.

We've identified four different land uses within the future land use map, neighborhoods, regional commercial, employment, and recreational open space.

It's within the text of our general plan where it talks about how intense uses could occur within our general plan.

When we talk about general plans, think of it as the ultimate blueprints for what we want our city to look like at ultimate build-out.

Chandler's general plan, it's a strategic plan.

As part of general plans, it's important that we engage with the community to learn their goals to be part of the general plan update.

Our current in-place general plan was approved in 2016 and was ratified by the voters with an approval rating of 85.8%, and no amendments have occurred since then.

Due to our population exceeding over 50,000 persons, state statute requires that we look at 17 different elements.

A general plan is not just a land use document.

We have to take into consideration circulation, open space, public safety, housing, water resources, and a whole list of items.

And so we it was important that we worked with the other departments to ensure that we capture all of their visions for the city as well.

Either they could just re-adopt the current one in place or they can make revisions or completely rewrite it.

It must be consistent with our general plan.

It's a good healthy check to you know go back and review your general plan because there's new development trends and factors within cities.

10 years ago we didn't have self-driving cars.

There's been a change in how people move throughout the city, where people purchase their goods.

So it's important to come back and engage and see what the trends are.

It's a good check to come back and check with the community to ensure that our visions and our values are still the same.

And ultimately, the city of Chandler is approaching build out.

At the time of the approval of the 2016, we were at 85% built out.

At the start of this general plan update last year, we were at 94% of that 6% of remaining land.

So we really needed to take a consideration of how we want those parcels to develop.

So our general plan timeline, it really started in October of 2024, but it's been a whirlwind of a year.

And then come May, we started our public outreach.

We were really tasked with trying to figure out an innovative way to engage with the community versus the standard open houses.

Logan Simpson had some great ideas.

We hosted a series of panel chandler talks to engage with the community to get the information out.

And so from there, the consultant then also started meeting with stakeholders.

There were 54 one-on-one interviews that were held with community members throughout the community.

And then it just went really quick.

And so October 1st, we had our final draft prepared.

State statute requires that we post that for 60 days for the public to review.

And then after that, we met with our resident advisory committee.

They met seven times.

They were there to make recommendations to the consultant and to city staff.

So as we come to the end of our timeline, you know, throughout this whole process, we've engaged with nearly 4,500 community members through a series of drop-in events, Chandler talks, questionnaires, rack meetings, we had a web page dedicated to it.

We had social media postings, and then our last public event was our mobile immersion lab.

It was an open house all day where we took all the feedback that we heard throughout this process and Logan Simpson was able to put it into a 2D model and project it onto a 10-foot 180 degree screen for residents to experience what that could look like, what their future could look like.

We had a great 200 people attended that event.

So what's changed since the 2016, the 2016 general plan amendment?

We have some minor housekeeping, you know, just the layout of it.

You know, we worked with all the different departments to ensure that the policies in place were still relevant.

We had to update our timelines and just information within it.

But our more significant changes is you know, we updated the vision statement in 10 years, you know.

Uh we wanted to ensure that we were still guiding development and ensuring that we were creating a community for the residents.

We did make some changes to our future land use map.

Um, and then I'll walk through those changes.

So before you is our future land use map.

Um we have our 2016 and our 2026 plan.

As you can see, we we didn't add any additional land designations.

Uh we kept the four, um, and so only a couple of properties changed.

There was a property in the downtown area uh that was uh purple, it was for employment, but we changed it to residential to align with the recently approved downtown regional area plan, and then uh along Price Corridor, there were some single family subdivisions that mistakenly had purple put over them.

So we cleared those up.

We also reduced the amount of growth areas we had under the 2016.

We had six different growth areas.

We removed two of those because we currently have two area plans in place, which give further guidance to how those areas are to develop, the downtown regional area plan and the air park area plan, which were both recently approved, revised and approved within the last five years.

We also changed some of the naming and expanded some of the boundaries to allow for more development within those areas and the naming conventions.

We wanted to align with uh economic developments uh naming conventions for branding.

Uh within the text of the general plan under the neighborhood category, uh, we increased the what urban residential density was from 18 dwelling units to a minimum of 26.

We didn't put a cap on it and the regional commercial category that land designation under the 2016 it did say that there was a compatible mix of residential densities, but because regional commercial are generally the areas where people come from outside the city, their larger commercial hubs, we put some language in there that urban residential density could be provided within those areas as long as there was consideration for the capabilities for uh water, sewer, streets, and uh it was a compatible land use with the surrounding land uses.

I know at the last meeting uh commissioner uh Billstein, you know, had a comment about transportation, and we did take a look into it.

Um if a development was to come in, you know, the public transportation that it occurs within the cities onto a fixed route.

Uh, so we wouldn't be able to require that somebody go get a bus to run through their development in order to get the density, and we need to remember that our general plan is very high level.

Um, and so that transportation is just making sure that the roadways uh are capable to handle the traffic.

When checking with our traffic department, they said a majority of the roads within Chandler are fully built out and able to handle most densities.

Our employment category, again, 10 years ago, you know, we didn't have distribution facilities.

Uh, I believe FedEx wasn't even built at that time.

Um, so we really had to take a look at our employment categories.

Um it's important when we were looking at this, we always remembered that, you know, when Chandler, pardon me.

Um, so in 1979, uh Intel started construction on their first uh property on Chandler Boulevard.

At the time, our population within Chandler was about 30,000 people.

Uh fast forward 10 years, um, the population uh exploded to 90,000 people within a decade.

So we always wanted to ensure that you know we're still trying to capture those uh innovative type users.

So we put some language in there that uh we will continue to um we will continue to welcome high-tech manufacturing, uh pioneering research and emerging technologies, um, advanced manufacturing, knowledge-based industries, advanced business services, next generation software engineering, and healthcare services.

We work closely with our economic development to craft this language, as well as uh we use the uh 2026 council strategic framework for targeted industries within the city.

We also added some language about how residential could occur within employment, but it points to specifically looking at the growth areas for more defined policies.

So, for instance, South Price Corridor growth area.

This has always historically been reserved for employment, and residential has never been considered within our South South Price Corridor growth area.

We did add a policy that um residential could incur uh as long as it was it included true vertical mixed use, allowing for employee and residential uses centered on a common design theme and proving that uh infrastructure was in place to support the the higher densities.

Another thing that we took a significant uh change from our 2016 to our 2026 uh general plan is we added an implementation action plan.

Uh state statue requires that you know cities kind of check back and see how they're doing.

So we worked with the different departments to establish their goals for the next 10 years, and so we can keep track of how we're doing as well.

Um we did have that 60-day public review period.

Um it was open from October 1st to this December 1st.

Uh, we received 88 comments from the public from 19 different uh people, resulted in 50 revisions, uh minor tweaks.

Uh, we had some comments made from staff uh which required 33 changes.

Oh, I'm sorry, uh 33 revisions, and then six uh revisions from our consultants to update some images within the document.

And Lauren, a lot of those are just wording, a lot of it is just technical, how much stuff more than okay.

Uh and that uh through the through the chair, uh that list of all of the comments that were made were added uh as an attachment to your memo.

And just for the public who doesn't really see that there was just a lot of commas and some other stuff, grammar the grammar police, so to speak.

Thanks.

Yeah, and there, you know, there was a lot of a couple of comments regarding just uh ensuring some language regarding some bicycles and um food waste, and um so we we took those into consideration and modified some of the policies.

Half those comments from the public were from one person, if I remember correctly.

That is correct.

Okay, all right, and so um as I come to the conclusion of my presentation, you know.

I I wanted to discuss a little bit more our resident advisory committee.

Um they were appointed by the mayor.

There were 21 residents within the community that came and met, and they were our sounding board.

Uh, we went before them to meet on a variety of different topics.

Uh if I could, I would like to uh invite up the chair of the uh resident advisory committee, chair uh done to make a statement.

Thank you, Lauren.

Do I have to make a status name and address for the record?

Okay, just check with the city attorney.

Don't want to get in trouble here.

So thank you, Chairman.

Commissioners do you need my address?

2180 West Marlin Drive in Chandler, Arizona.

I came here when the city was 29,000 people.

So I enjoyed that comment.

I'll just be brief.

I'm not going to go through the points, but I really want to brag a few things, brag about a few things that has occurred through the process that I think will make this general plan probably one of the best in the valley.

First of all, your recommendations that you made for the membership of the resident advisory committee, it was a great committee of 21 individuals.

Some were short-term residents, some had been here for a long time.

Some were involved in small businesses, large businesses, schools, the chamber, they gave great comments and they really participated in a way that really impressed me.

They asked difficult questions.

But I think all the members understood the aspect of build-out and what that means for the city.

But I think build out gives you the gives you the opportunity to do things differently.

Gives you the opportunity now to go out and encourage unique development, especially those remaining areas that are that are vacant, but also for redevelopment opportunities, which we discussed quite a bit.

Thanks for your involvement in terms of development and why people want to be here.

And I think we just accepted the fact that we can't have everyone here, but we could have certainly more people here, hopefully with more affordable housing, but with doing things a little differently.

Actually, three different dioceses.

I can go back.

Never did I see public participation at the level that we did at this time.

And the consultant did a great job in directing and directing staff.

And I I can't imagine a better system for a general plan in this valley.

The bottom line, how we felt about the general plan was it works.

There was no need to throw out this general plan.

It has worked so effectively in the past in allowing the commission and the council to direct those developers to come before us.

But we we need to tweet it, and that's what we did.

And uh and so I I um commend the uh commend the committee, uh their involvement.

I don't see anyone here, but are there any committee members here?

Okay, but um you chose a great committee, and and I think it's an exciting general plan, and I thank you for your review and approval of it.

Thank you very much.

Thank you, Mr.

Dunn.

Laura.

Thank you, Chair Dunn.

So at our final meeting for the resident advisory committee, uh, you know, they ultimately had to uh vote on the draft and make a recommendation.

So our meeting was held on December 9th of 2025.

Um, and we reviewed all of the comments.

Uh there were two major comments that came out of that meeting.

Um, you know, we renamed growth area one.

We had it uh called Uptown Chandler to align with economic development.

But when you look at the screen, the circle is the area of the growth area indicated.

But in reality, economic development, their boundary of uptown encompassed all the way west to Alma School Road.

Um, and so we decided to stay with the the current boundary and rename it to its original naming uh from the 2016 general plan as North Arizona Avenue.

Uh there is language currently within our draft.

If any of those underutilized commercial properties along Alma School Road were wanting to develop with a higher density, there's language in place that could allow for that as long as it was a transitional um a transitional um transitional development to existing single family developments that surround it.

rename it to its original naming uh from the 2016 general plan uh as North Arizona Avenue uh there is language currently within our draft if any of those underutilized commercial properties along alma school road were wanting to develop with a higher density there's language in place that could allow for that as long as it was a transitional um a transitional um transitional development to existing single family developments that surround it and then uh we removed any uh texts regarding future light rail because that was not discussed during any of our meetings nor with the public and you know in discussions with transportation you know the city does not have the ridership in order to warrant light rail throughout the city so and at that meeting the RAC uh uh recommended approval and chair human did sit on um our RAC our resident advisory committee and he did recuse himself from voting uh so he could take part in this evening this evening's vote and so with that you know my final slide is you know staff comes before you with a recommendation to uh recommend that the planning and zoning commission recommend approval of draft pl 2510 chandler general plan update entitled Chandler 2026 general plan evolving the Chandler way and with that I open up the floor to any questions questions for staff Mr.

Billstein thank you chair uh lauren you know you and staff thank you so much for everything you did it's it's really uh comprehensive and it's exciting to to see all this exciting for for this general plan and um I just a couple of general questions for some folks who aren't as familiar with the process and you guys had some great engagement but we have a large city with lots of folks who who may or may not get into the weeds on this sometimes and I think you had mentioned that in the previous 10 years of the last general plan there have been no amendments is that correct uh through the chair commissioner Bill Stein that is correct so if a developer or wants to come in and and has a unique idea or something that maybe again it's a plan it's a framework that years from now is and I I get that we update every 10 years what is the process to amend the general plan or what does that look like?

Yeah through the chair uh Commissioner Bill Steen, you know, one of the things that's uh served us very well with our current 2016 general plan and our draft is it's very broad um and so there's a lot of work around to allow for us to um it's not so uh site specific um so it gives us a lot of guidance in order to help guide development um but if somebody did want to let's say come in and change a open space a green a green color to let's say employment or residential to yellow or to purple um they have there's one time a year that they're able to file an application it's in November um and um they have to meet the timelines and it has to be of a certain size I believe it's uh five acres it gets triggered um we did have one um in the last 10 years we had one that was going to file um but we let them know that we would we couldn't be in support of changing unemployment use to residential because it fell within our Chandler airpark area plan and we had more specific plans in place that called that out for employment type uses.

Perfect thank you I appreciate that and then I think you you also mentioned which was really interesting about the um I appreciate you following up with the traffic department about the infrastructure and what does that look like and I guess some of this a little bit more for my curiosity is hearing that almost every street has full capacity and that we are close to 94% or we're at 94% build out is there a plan for the city to look at those streets that aren't at full capacity and see what would trigger the city to get involved with that or are we waiting for future development to come in and and that would then build out those streets um because Chandler's done a great job where you know we do have nice wide roads for the most part but those maybe that limited amount that isn't at build out how would we address that?

Great question through the chair uh commissioner Billstein uh there's uh a traffic master plan transportation master plan that gets looked at every five to ten years um and that's the place that they would determine if there's not a level of service being offered or the capacability it's not capable of handling the amount of traffic um you know that would warrant a widening and possibly taking of properties in order to widen the road but a majority of the roads that run through our arterials are built built to the full built out standard.

Lauren let me jump into the Commissioner Billstein so in the last bond election um that also came up so there are the mass transportation master plan there are a few roads left like Warner Road more on the north side of Chandler that there are plans to widen some of those roads they're very very expensive to do.

Yeah um so the focus on this last bond election was making sure we repaving roads and things like that.

But it is in the plan staff looks at that all the time and it's more North Chandler because really when you go south that was all design uh the former mayors and council did a great job that all those roads are three lanes with bike lanes turn lanes all that kind of stuff is there.

The former mayors and council did a great job that all those roads are three lanes with bike lanes, turn lanes, all that kind of stuff is there.

So but North Channel is the challenge because of the limited space and the expense of doing it.

But there are plans.

I know Warner Road's one of them that we pushed out probably into the 2030s to do, but those have been addressed.

Yeah, no, and that's really exciting because you know that's one of the things you hear from folks all the time is traffic.

And so I I think the more planning we do around it is fantastic.

This will be my last question, I promise.

Um, because I I do think it's great that we're discussing it, we're talking about it.

And I know that uh former mayor donne had mentioned that uh a focus on part of this was also going to be affordable housing.

Can you say what what area where we focus that attention and um if we're if we're trying to encourage more affordable housing in the Chandler area, where is that called out?

Yeah, great question.

Through the chair, Commissioner Billstein.

Um of recent, you know, we just had the the middle housing bill uh come through.

Um, and so you know, within a mile of the downtown center, you know, any property that has a single family home is able to build up to a four-plex by right.

Um, we're currently in the process of going uh creating pre-approved plans for a single family home, a duplex, a triplex, and a four-plex, as well as an ADU.

So uh if a resident wanted to develop a property, they wouldn't have to go and hire an architect, they would just have to pay for that plan, and they it takes out the busy work of that, so it gets more units into the market quicker.

Um, and then our housing department, you know, has been working, you know, to redo uh like villas on the queen.

That's I believe gonna open in about a month.

And so they're planning to move residents out of some of the older housing and into that one and then redevelop those properties uh with double the amount of units to allow for more affordable housing.

Um and I know that they've been in in talks with uh some home builders to possibly come in and and build some affordable housing within the city.

No, that's perfect.

Thank you very much.

I appreciate it.

I I think us as a city looking at that moving forward with the more diversity of housing, creates a better diverse community.

And and and I I love the fact that we've taken so much time to think about that.

So thank you.

Any other comments?

I got a few, Lauren.

Um here.

First of all, I want to thank Mayor Dunn for leading the thing.

Jack Sellers and everybody else on the rack was it as the mayor said, it was an amazing group of people that really had great impact.

Um the emergent thing, I went to that, that was really cool, was different.

Uh a lot of AI stuff that was used, and so I I thought you guys did a great job on that.

Ums is this general plan is a general, and I think we've done a great job.

The fact that in 10 years we didn't have anybody come in for a general plan change, which is great.

Um, another thing I like in this plan that I brought up during the sessions was the water and sewer capabilities.

You know, we're we're saying you can possibly put something someplace, but do we have the infrastructure to be able to handle it?

Um, which I think is super important.

Um, and then the the also that there's wording about quality jobs, the type of jobs we're looking for.

I think when I was on council, we did a really good job of specifying lots and water usage and things like that.

So when people look at the general plan, they understand that Chandler's really looking for that quality job.

Um, to Mr.

Billstein's point about affordable housing, we're kind of a um uh our own enemy in a way.

We've created so many amazing jobs that people want to live close, they don't want to drive far, and when they're making the money they're making, I remember when Northrop was coming on Price Road and we had some neighbors concerned about their home values.

I just kind of chuckle a little bit.

And like the Northrop guys said, our people want to live close, they're making great money.

So we're kind of a our own worst enemy in certain certain things, but we've had great jobs, you know, channels been successful.

So I just want to thank staff again, everybody, David, and this is his third one.

You started when you were seven, uh seven or eight, I think when you did.

But um, Lauren, you did a great job.

I appreciate all the effort on this thing.

And uh, I think the residents we got 85%.

We'll have to get our consultant who's doing this, we'll have to challenge them to get up to 88 or 89.

But it was well thought of and the public input was great.

I to the mayor's point, we never had that before that many people.

I think you guys did a great job reaching out.

So any other comments from commission?

Okay, if not, we'll need a motion on the item.

Excuse me, sorry.

Motion uh move to approve uh uh the draft PLH 250010 Chandler General Plan update.

Okay, second second.

Okay, any further discussion?

Any further anybody in the audience who'd like to talk on this item?

So on that, okay.

All the vote, all those in favor of the motion say aye.

I any opposed, any abstentions?

Thank you.

Motion carries unanimously.

This will go on to council when you guys, February what?

Yes, so uh your recommendation will be on a council agenda on February 5th.

Do they have to have two readings also?

Just one.

Just one.

Okay.

Um it's going through a resolution, and then uh at the city council meeting, they'll be voting on the draft, and then also to put the draft on the ballot for the residents.

Uh we're shooting for the primary ballot uh in August.

In August.

Great.

Okay, cool.

All right.

Um, any other member comments?

Okay.

The next planning zoning commission will be held.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Um yeah, just to uh remind everyone that this Saturday from 10 to 2, we're having airport days out at our amazing airport.

So anyone that can hear this, I hope you'll consider heading out and enjoying some time.

They've got some really great um engaging activities, and then of course you can find an airplane if you get on the list and get there soon enough.

So I hope everyone will join us out there at the airport this Saturday from 10 to 2.

Those are fun events.

So if you haven't, yeah, it's a great event to go out to and get to see the airport out there and all the different stuff we have.

So if not, staff any comments city attorney?

Okay, with that, we are adjourned.