That's all we need to do then is his town okay sir.

Okay, good evening.

Uh I would like to call this meeting of the City of Eloy Planning and Zoning Commission meeting to order.

Today is Wednesday, December 18th, 2024.

The time is 601 p.m.

Ms.

Belinda, may I have a roll call, please?

Chairperson Stephen Paulson.

Present.

Vice Chairperson Conrad Tolson.

Commissioner Edwards Alceda?

Commissioner Alan Crawford.

Ex official Andrew Senton, he's absent.

We have a quo.

Okay, thank you very much.

I'd like to ask everyone to stand for a pledge of allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

One nation under God.

Okay, thank you, everyone.

Moving on to item four.

A motion to approve the September 18th, 2024 meeting minutes of the City of Eloh Planning and Zoning Commission.

Do I have a motion to approve?

I'll make a motion to approve.

Okay, I have a motion to approve.

Do I have a sec?

I'll second the motion.

Okay, I have a motion and I have a second.

Ums Belinda may have a roll call, please.

Vice Chairperson.

I'm sorry.

Chairperson Stephen Paulson.

Aye.

Vice Chairperson Conrad Tolson.

Commissioner Edward Salceda.

Aye.

Commissioner Alan Crawford.

Aye.

Okay, thank you very much.

The motion carries.

Okay, moving on to item five.

New business.

Possible discussion and our action on the following.

Item A is a request by the applicant to continue case number RZ PAD 2024-006.

That's the Sonoran crossing to the January 15th, 2025 Planning and Zoning Commission hearing.

The application is a request to rezone approximately 122 acres of land located at the southwest corner of West Houser Road and North Australia Road from currently zoned as General Industrial I2 to General Industrial I-2 with a planned area development overlay or pad.

Do I have a motion to continue as requested by the applicant?

I'll make a motion to continue.

Okay, I have a motion.

Do I have a second?

Second.

Okay.

I have a motion or I have a second.

Ms.

Belinda, may I have a roll call, please?

Chairperson Stephen Paulson.

Aye.

Vice Chairperson Conrad Tolson.

Aye.

Commissioner Edward Salceda.

Aye.

Commissioner Alan Crawford.

Aye.

Okay, thank you very much.

Vote is unanimous.

The request has been continued until our next meeting.

Okay, item B.

We're going to conduct a public hearing and make a recommendation to the Eloy City Council on case number RZ PAD 2006-037.

And that's the Picacho View One Planned Area Development, Poblano Solar.

Proposing an amendment to the Picaccio V1 Planned Area Development to permit solar utility utility scale generation and battery energy storage system facilities as an allowed land use in all underlying zoning restrict uh districts of the PAD.

The development will be located near the west side of South Toltec Road and West Mulligan Road on approximately eight hundred and sixteen acres of land.

So I'd like to open the public hearing at this time.

Uh commissioners, good evening.

My name is Andrew Yancey.

I'm an attorney at Bergen Freaks Smalley and Overholster.

For your records, we're at 4343 East Camelback Road in Phoenix.

Pleased to be here before you tonight representing long road development for the Poblano Solar Project.

The overall project is on about 93, I'm sorry, 938 acres of vacant private land in Eloy.

I know you're familiar with solar projects, so I won't belabor some of the basics here.

Eloy does have a specific solar zoning ordinance that sets requirements, in particular for setbacks, buffering, decommissioning, roadway dedication improvements, and things like that.

We are going to comply with the ordinance in all those regards.

And also, you know, obviously be happy to take any questions you have.

I do before I get started, I want to make sure I thank Dan and Belinda for their work on this.

They've been very helpful and appreciate all their work on it.

Blenda, could you do the next slide, please?

So just real quickly on the solar developer here.

This is Long Road.

They're a national renewable energy developer.

They got projects all across the country, but they've got a lot of experience here in Arizona as well.

They're operational projects in the state, produce enough electricity to power about 500,000 homes, and they have three more large-scale projects in construction right now.

Next slide, please.

This is the Pablano project area you see outlined here in blue.

It's located uh about three and a half miles from downtown Eloy.

Um kind of a irregular shape there, but uh looking at Toltec is sort of the eastern border, and then uh Milligan is basically the southern, I'm sorry, yeah, the southern border of it.

Um it's vacant land.

There aren't any water rights or utility services on this land.

There are some 230 KV power lines in the area, so that makes it very attractive for the solar use.

Uh, you can also see a lot of the surrounding land is vacant.

There is a landfill just up Toltec from the project.

Uh, you also may be familiar with the Sawtooth Solar Project that was approved a few months ago.

That is immediately to our southeast.

There are also some existing residential properties to the west of us in the Arizona City area of the unincorporated county.

I'll touch on that in just uh a couple more slides as well.

Next slide, please.

So the zoning for the site, there's actually two different PADs that are on this 938-acre property.

Um the blue outlined area there is the Pikacho View.

That's the vast majority of our project.

It's just over 800 acres.

Um, and that is your item B here on the agenda tonight.

Um, item C is the Eloy Valley PAD.

You can see it outlined in green.

That's just about 120 acres, but it all comes together to make the same project.

And we're not creating these PAD boundaries.

They they pre-exist in our interest here.

Um the zoning on the PADs is primarily uh residential and neighborhood commercial.

These were both zoned in 2006.

Um, there's been no development since that time.

So the proposal today is to amend both PADs to allow the utility scale solar use as an interim use for the project site while maintaining the underlying zoning categories.

Next slide, please.

So just a few you know, quick facts about the project.

Longroads looking to build up to 175 megawatts of solar.

That's with uh photovoltaic panels.

They'll be on those single-access tracking racks.

Those are the ones that allow the panels to move throughout the day and track the movement of the sun.

Uh, also looking at a battery energy storage system of up to 200 megawatts as part of the project as well.

Um, as I believe you know, these types of projects really don't strain the water or wastewater infrastructure.

Um, again, we we will comply with all the solar ordinance requirements.

One of the things that that involves is uh roadway dedications and improvements.

In particular, here we'd be looking at improvements to uh Toltec Buttes, to Milligan, to Alsdorf, and to Toltec Road adjacent to and some of it going through our property.

Next slide, please.

This is just a very high-level conceptual site plan.

Uh, the the gray areas are where the solar panels would go.

Um, also conceptually looking at that uh area in the in the different colors for the battery system, the project substation, and the uh O and M area that is adjacent to the large power lines on Milligan Road.

That is adjacent to the large power lines on Milligan Road.

Next slide, please.

This is the western portion of our property that does border that unincorporated uh area with residences on them.

We have taken some uh particular design precautions around that area.

Um looking at a hundred-foot building setback and a 30-foot landscape buffer um around those those areas on the west and the north there.

You can see on the west, there's also some additional separation created by overfield road.

Uh in addition, the initial project footprint actually had uh more of the project coming out further to the west, but we removed a commercially zoned corner in the southwest there to kind of create a little additional buffer to portions of that Arizona City community.

Next slide, please.

And finally, just a couple additional items before opening up for questions.

Uh, we did have an open house for this project a couple months ago.

A few neighboring landowners showed up.

We have had two letters of support from neighboring landowners, and we have no opposition on record.

Also just wanted to note the the project does have some local benefits taking this vacant land and putting it into a productive use.

We're estimating about 300 construction jobs that would occur over an 18 to 24 month period.

Um then there could be up to five full-time workers during operations.

Also, at if it's uh built out to its full capacity, we're anticipating approximately 20 million dollars in local tax revenue over the 30-year life of the project.

Next slide.

So uh appreciate your your time and attention to this matter.

Happy to take any questions.

Uh happy to come back up for the the additional um item on the agenda as well if you want to separate them out a little bit, but uh we respectfully request your vote to recommend approval of these two zoning cases this evening.

Happy to answer any questions.

Okay, do we have any questions?

Yes.

Um the write-up said that you did have a meeting with the residents, and you said there were it said there was attachments, but there weren't any in my in the package I had did.

Did you have anything as far as the I think it referenced uh citizen participation plan, property owners within 300 feet, notification, radius map.

And I know you did have I was out there, you do have site postings, uh, neighborhood meeting notice and sign-in sheets.

I don't I don't see any of that unless it wasn't it was emitted from my packet.

Did anybody else have that information?

Can you turn your microphone off?

Chair, I do know the sorry Dan Simmer, I do know they were submitted.

Um it may have been our error and not including them, but they were submitted.

We do have them on record.

Okay, and they were and there's also mentioned a couple of adjacent letters or yes, they were also provided.

That may have been our error as well.

Commissioner Tolson, uh, I I do have a copy of each one of those letters and hard copy that I'm happy to hand over if you'd like to see them right now.

Yeah, sure.

Maybe that's a marked up probably.

Sorry, just one moment here.

Uh may I approach you?

Would you like me to hand them to staff?

Is that one?

This is one email form.

It was actually a little back and forth in us and just email this.

Maybe as an attorney, I should have said you may approach the bench.

I'll always find it's better to ask permission.

Is my colleague is reading that I did I did find it interesting that there are evidently a couple of uh folks who own land in the area said uh hey if you ever want more land, maybe you could give me a call.

So they were trying to maybe think about uh leasing their land as well.

I Chairman Paulson, yes, I would say that it was probably the most uh frequent comment we had at our neighborhood meeting.

So um uh Mr.

Simer, you say we do have copies of this in the file, these these letters of support, we do have those in the file.

Yes, Chairman Chair, yes, we do.

We have them in a file.

It may have been as we as you had noted earlier before to me, we did have issues with their upload, so that may have been what it was.

Okay, does anyone have a wait?

I just anyone have any other questions?

You've got questions, so go for it.

I'm still going.

All right, so then the other thing is in the presentation you said that uh there was a hundred foot buildings set back around the property, and then a 30-foot landscape.

Is the land 30 foot in addition, or is that three 30 foot within that hundred foot setback?

Yeah, uh Commissioner Tolson, uh good question.

That 30 foot landscape buffer is within the 100 foot setback, uh meaning code requirements, it would be a lesser landscape buffer.

We've extended the landscape buffer in that particular area.

Was that done to kind of satisfy some of the concerns the neighbors?

Uh Commissioner Tolson, uh preemptively, yes.

We have not heard any uh specific uh concerns noted from anyone, uh, but we've at the outset of the project wanted to go ahead and put that in there.

And uh I noticed that you did remove from the from your plan parcels 408 01-011 G and B.

And uh if we do approve this, I'd like to have that noted in the record on the written record that those are even though because the the documents we have shows them in there, and I just like to have that noted that they have been uh or they will not be improved anyway.

I we're gonna bring up the plan to look at PowerPoint.

So the boundary of the project, if you go back, that's the entire boundary of the project.

So you can see there.

Yeah, there's one part of uh part of that that showed appear to show anyway, those parcels I mentioned.

Can you go back one, please?

Commissioner Tulson may ask, are you referring to the parcels on the west side of the property?

Yeah, yeah, right.

So Commissioner Tolson, um the actual APNs are extend farther, so a portion of those are excluded from the project boundary while a portion of them are within.

This this boundary is shown here, matches the legal description we submitted, and and this is consistent with our proposal.

Just to confirm to the uh utility scale uh solar code that we have covers such things as dust control, weed abatement, and uh decommissioning all the usual things that we have required for solar projects.

Is it is that already covered by the code chair members of the commission?

Yeah, the the existing code covers the decommissioning.

There's a bond that has to be posted for the decommissioning.

The dust control is a county requirement, so they always are required for it to comply with dust control.

Uh it's regulated by the county.

We have no authority over dust control.

We decided do not.

Uh as it pertains about weeds, uh and the other issues we've been having with some of the solar facilities.

It's uh covered in a our property maintenance code.

Um, and we have started uh as if you're referring to some of our other sites.

Uh we are taking active enforcement to now that we've got a few of these up and running, and so they are covered.

I think that's that's all I've got for now.

Thanks.

Okay, thank you.

Anyone else have any questions at this point in time during the public hearing?

Hearing none, I declare the public hearing closed.

So now I'm looking for a recommendation to the Eloy City Council on case number RZ PAD 2006-037.

Do I have a motion?

I'll make a motion to approve.

Okay, I have a motion to approve.

Do I have a second?

I'll second the motion.

Okay, I have a motion and I have a second to approve.

Ms.

Belinda, may I have a roll call, please?

Chair Person Stephen Paulson.

I'm advice Conrad Tolson.

Commissioner Edward Salcela.

Um I'm gonna vote no only because I have concerns that there were I've been out there, there's a lot of houses out there, and I'm just kind of concerned that even though there was postings and things, I'm just a surprise nobody showed up other than we had letter from two property owners that appear to be not at residence there, but they're absentee landowners.

So uh I think you're gonna have a quorum anyway, but I'm gonna vote no on it.

Thank you.

Commissioner Edward Sela.

Aye.

Commissioner Alan Crawford.

Aye.

Okay, the motion carries via vote of 301.

Thank you very much.

Okay, item C.

This is related.

So it's to conduct the public hearing and make a recommendation to the Eloy City Council on case number RZ PAD 2024-001.

And now this deals with the Elo Valley specific plan PAD for poblano solar proposing an amendment to the Eli Valley specific plan, planned area development to permit solar utility scale generation and battery energy storage system facilities as an allowed land use in all underlying in all underlying zoning district of the PAD.

The development will be located on approximately a hundred and twenty-two acres.

Mr.

Chairman, again, uh Andrew Yancey about the same as last time.

I just like to uh you know thank you for your support.

And again, this uh matter is part of the same project as the last matter.

If I could also just briefly uh address what uh Commissioner Tulson said on on the last matter, I absolutely understand your position on it.

I did want to let you know there was one resident from Arizona City who showed up to our neighborhood meeting.

He he told us that he had spoken with several others in the neighborhood who had seen the signs and said, Hey, will you tell us what they say?

And he didn't have any opposition, he has several several questions, but I did just want to let you know that there was an Arizona City person who showed up at that meeting.

Okay, thank you very much.

Do I have any other input for this item from the public hearing section?

Okay, okay.

No input, so I will close the public hearing at this section.

Okay, now I'm looking for a recommendation to the Eloy City Council on case number RZ PAD 2024-001.

Which is the Eloy Valley specific plan PAD for poblano solar.

Do I have a motion?

I will make a motion to approve.

Okay, I have a motion to approve.

Do I have a second?

I'll second the motion.

Okay, thank you.

I have a motion.

I have a second to approve.

Ms.

Belinda, may I have a roll call, please?

Chairperson Stephen Paulson.

Aye.

Vice Chairperson Conrad Tolson.

Aye.

Commissioner Edwards Sosena.

Aye.

Commissioner Alan Crawford.

Aye.

Okay, thank you very much.

The motion carries unanimously.

Thank you.

Thank you for your uh coming out here on this holiday time.

Appreciate it.

Okay, moving on to item number six.

Informational item.

This is the planning and zoning commission members and staff will give updates on relevant events and activities that they have attended since the last meeting and any future events, activities, and potential agenda items.

These items are for information only and no action will be taken.

Okay, colleagues.

Do I have any input?

Any exciting things you've been participating in?

No, we're not all that exciting.

Okay, how about Dan?

Thank you, Chair.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh, we have just a couple items for you.

As a reminder, uh, if you haven't, and if you're still interested in serving in the planning commission when we reform it next uh in the next couple months, uh please uh send your uh an email of interest.

You don't have to fill out the whole application, you just gotta send an email or uh to Belinda.

Uh a couple sentences about yourself.

Um your commission ends um uh in February.

If you wish to proceed, please fill that out also.

Uh so it'll be good.

Uh we we are anticipating the sit forming the city council subcommission subcommittee in January and with appointments in February, and the first meeting in March will be the new commission.

So, and that's where we take on a whole role.

Um second thing as that we wrap up the year.

We had a slow start, but we had a very busy second half of the year, and I want to thank you all for your service uh and time that you've put in.

It's been very much appreciated.

And the last one is on uh January 13th.

We are going to the city council for approval of a contract to start our general plan update process.

And the general plan update.

We assuming that that contract will be approved on the 13th, we're gonna be doing a staff kickoff meeting at the end of January.

Uh we may do an early one in uh an early meeting with the commission in February, but if not, we'll be probably coming in definitely with the new commission to bring you up to speed on where we're going and uh that approach.

It's anticipated to be a year-long year and a half long process in time for ratification by the voters in the 2026 election.

So we passed the 10,000 uh population requirement of the state that requires now that every 10 years we get a ratification of the voters for our general plan.

This will be an entire overhaul.

So it's it's looking out and also I'm planning to have an RFQ sent out for the air park area.

That is the area around the airport, the airport.

Uh one of the first actions of the new commission will be adoption of the airport master plan that's been under process.

So we'll probably have a few work sessions or like a work session of two on that, and then that's been a two-year process, and that's gonna be related to uh just the development and the future planning of the airport itself, and then hopefully in that same time frame we're doing the general plan, we'll do the master plan for the air park.

So that's all we have, Chair.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you.

I appreciate the input.

Sounds like we're gonna be busy next year.

Potentially.

Okay, do I have anything else?

From any of my esteemed colleagues.

Doesn't sound like it.

Okay, we'll move on to item seven, which is a motion to adjourn.

Do I have a motion to adjourn?

So I'll make a motion.

Okay, do I have a second?

I'll give a second.

Okay, we have a motion and we have a second.

All in favor, aye.

Aye.

All opposed.

Motion carries.

This meeting is hereby adjourned.