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We'll get started in just a couple of minutes here.

We'll go ahead and get started.

I'd like to uh call to order the regular council meeting of August fifth, twenty twenty-five.

Um our invocation this evening will be offered by Vicar Terry Polarski of Resurrection Episcopal Church.

This prayer is offered from the Episcopal public.

There we go.

All right.

Thank you for inviting me.

This prayer is offered from the Episcopal Common Prayer.

It's a prayer for local government.

Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, down upon those who hold office in this town of Gilbert, the spirit of wisdom, charity, and justice.

A steadfast purpose, they may faithfully serve in their offices, promote the well-being of all people, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

Amen.

Here.

Councilmember Young Kaprowski.

Councilmember Monty Lyons.

Here.

Councilmember Jim Torgeson.

Present.

The quorum is present.

Thank you.

We do want to excuse Council Member Kaprowski who was unable to attend uh this evening.

Uh there are no presentations or proclamations this evening, so we'll move directly to public hearing items.

We have uh nine public hearing items.

I'll ask the council are there items that you want to uh have separate discussion on item three.

There are none others.

I will open the public hearing on items one, two, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine.

And close the public hearing and ask the council for discussion and/or motion on those items.

I move to accept all those items as written in the agenda.

It's been moved and seconded that we approve items one, two, four, five, six, seven, eight, and nine.

Please vote.

Motion carries six zero.

We'll move on to item number three.

General Plan GP24-08 zoning Z24-20.

We'll ask staff or presentation to begin.

Good evening, Mayor and Council.

Thank you.

These items before you tonight are GP 2408 and Z2420, also known as Aura Santan.

The first request, GP 2408, is a request for a minor general plan amendment on 14.24 acres.

It's located along Market Street, south and east of the southeast corner of Alvista and Pecos Road.

And the request related to the general plan is to change the land use classification from regional commercial to uh residential 25 to 50 dwelling units per acre.

The companion case Z 2420 is a request to amend the Valvista Square PAD on those same 14.24 acres.

Um the request in that case is to rezone from regional commercial with the planned area development to mixed use large with the planned area development.

As I mentioned, the site is located south and east of the southeast corner of Valvista and Pecos Road.

Um it's the area highlighted in blue.

It's currently a vacant property.

Um along Valvista Road to the west of the subject site is the VA hospital to help orient council.

Um and then the kind of notch uh to the northwest is the novel multifamily project, and then north of the site is a bank and an Aldi grocery store.

Uh this is a uh copy of the general plan map showing our planned uh land use classifications in this area.

Um it's the area highlighted in blue.

Um you can see that most of the properties in the immediate area are zoned for general or are uh have a land use classification of general commercial.

Um there is that small notch that I had mentioned before just to the northwest that's uh got a similar uh land use classification is being proposed on this property of residential 25 to 50 dwelling units per acre.

Looking at the zoning map, we see a very similar pattern here, uh largely surrounded by commercial across the street, uh across Valvista is general commercial, and that's the autoplex.

Uh surrounding the area largely is regional commercial zoning district with that multifamily high zoning district just in proximity to the site.

Uh the applicant provided a zoning map which depicts the area that is the subject of this rezone.

Uh it's 14.24 acres, as I mentioned.

I thought it also might be helpful to walk council through the development history of this property.

Originally it was zoned in 2012 under the Valvista Square Development Plan.

This is the development plan that the applicant seeks to amend as part of this request.

Um it's a portion of the development plan.

Um it when this originally came in, it was that whole development property at the southeast corner.

Um it provided for a variety of commercial uses, uh, connectivity between the various uses, including pedestrian connections and roadways.

Over time, this development has been modified in 2019 specifically.

Uh the applicant came in and requested a rezone for that multifamily project that I mentioned.

In 2019 was the time that the town uh adopted a multifamily high zoning district, and this was one of the first projects that came in under that classification.

And that brings us to today where the applicant is looking to further amend the Valvista Square PAD.

Uh again, they're requesting to uh change the general plan to a residential category and uh propose a mixed-use development on the property.

This would still remain part of the Valvista Square PAD, but would alter the development plan for this specific portion of it.

Um the applicant is processing a concurrent design review application, and so I wanted to provide the council um just a uh image of what that concurrent application that is being reviewed looks like.

And so I wanted to provide the council just an image of what that concurrent application that is being reviewed looks like.

It proposes 357 units with a density of 21, 25.1 dwelling units per acre.

It's broken up into three different buildings.

Buildings one and building three provide office space on the ground floor.

Building one provides 10,727 square feet of ground floor office, where building three provides 5,000 square feet of office on that ground floor.

Buildings one, two, and three vary in size or in height from three to four stories.

With this application, the applicant is requesting a number of deviations from our standards within the mixed-use zoning district.

Specifically in mixed use, the idea behind this zoning district is that they oftentimes are in field development with the goal of pulling these buildings closer to the street.

And so, unlike a typical zoning district that has a setback requirement where the building is is has to be a certain distance from the property line.

In the mixed-use zoning district, one of the requirements is to pull that building closer to the street.

And in this case, the requirement is that the building be built within 10 feet of the property line.

There are some existing constraints with the property and in terms of easements that exist that prevent them from building to that build to line.

So the applicant's requesting a deviation from that standard where they would build the building 45 feet from the property line.

And the final deviation that they're requesting is a reduction in the amount of floor space that must be retained from the original zoning district.

So with our mixed-use zoning districts, we do require that 20% of the total floor area of the development be a non-residential use.

In this case, the total building site is 460,540 square feet, which would amount to the applicant being required to provide just over 92,000 square feet of non-residential use.

In this case, the applicant is proposing 16,000 square feet of uh non-residential use on the ground floor, which is a reduction from the 20% requirement to 3.49%.

To provide some additional context to the area, the site is located within the central 202 core growth area identified on the general plan.

As you can see on this density map, the property is located where indicated on that yellow star.

One of the areas of highest multifamily density within the town.

That being said, the growth area does support high density residential development where residential uses are closely integrated with retail office uses in a compact development.

So when the applicant first approached staff regarding development of this property for a multifamily use, we understood that there were merits to residential in this area and suggested that they consider a mixed-use zoning district.

The mixed-use zoning districts were created in uh 2023 within the land development code, and the standards developed at that time were very mindful that the town that as the town approaches build-out retention of our non-residential employment generating land uses is of significant importance and was the basis for the 20% of retained use requirement.

As you can see from this graphic, residential land use makes up the bulk of the community at 70.8%.

Commercial land use makes up 9.5%.

And while staff understands the context of the area and the commercial development in the area, we're not in support of the significant deviation to the land development code in the case from 20% down to 3.49%.

In addition, staff took this to the Chamber of Commerce in March of this year, and the feedback that we received also from the chamber was that they do believe that the project is a fit for the mixed-use concept, but they were encouraging the applicant to conform to the town's requirements for the mixed-use zoning district.

So based on that significant deviation from the land development code staff's recommendation on these items is denial.

However, should council wish to approve these, there are conditions of approval that are included in your packet that we would uh ask that you include in any motion.

Planning commission did hear this last month as a uh one of their hearing items, and they recommended approval of both cases.

I'm happy to answer any questions that council might have.

Thank you, Ashley.

Questions Councilmember Torreson.

Uh before, I believe you said it was zoned in 2012.

What was the zoning before that?

Do you know?

Uh Mayor, Councilmember Torgison.

Uh I will have to look that up and I can get back to you.

I don't recall off the top of my head.

Well, that's okay.

It was just and when did the current owner purchase this property?

Another question that I'll have to look into.

Thank you.

Councilmember Bonjavani.

Thank you, Mayor.

What was the um final vote from Planning Commission?

Do you know?

Uh Mayor and Councilmember, the final vote was seven, though.

You might have said that.

I'm sorry, Ms.

Chef.

Thank you.

Could you uh summarize for us, Ashley, the discussion that happened at and maybe council member Lyons can help with that also about this item?

The discussion at the Planning Commission.

Yeah, uh Mayor and Council.

Um that's a great question.

So uh the commission, I think, understood the the challenges with this property um given its location along Market Street.

It doesn't have arterial footage.

Um so I I think largely based on that uh they were comfortable with the applicant um moving forward.

Having said that they provide uh uh portion of the ground floor as an office space.

Um I think just ultimately they recognize those challenges about vehicle trips and um the ability to develop that on a on a road that doesn't have great visibility.

Councilmember Lyons.

One of the things that I think needed to be brought up is that this was originally um say originally it was impacted by the um COVID-19 pandemic and how people built things out, and um there were some other developments just north of there that were able to get established quicker and uh ended up putting this particular parcel at a disadvantage for development.

So because there's no real traffic down through there that would drive people toward businesses, it it provided some challenge for them on how to develop it.

Okay.

Um so I I just want to clarify.

So this is regional commercial right now, and this is where we're not I don't know, I'm not comfortable with taking a regional commercial zoning and putting in the high density properties.

Uh we're we're already low on our commercial uh zoning and and commercial that we need, and the town needs that.

And I I just wanted to confirm that I'm you know looking at this correctly, and I know that the planning commission did deny that for and for all the original denial.

I you know I totally agree on.

Um I just don't I I don't know.

I'm just wanting to say that I'm not in support of this.

Uh Mayor and Councilmember Buckley, just to clarify, you are correct.

They are looking to rezone from regional commercial to mixed use, which would allow for residential.

Um the staff is recommending denial, but planning commission did recommend approval.

Okay, okay.

That makes me that makes me feel a little bit better.

But I just wanted to confirm all of that because I did see I did see where someone denied it and someone else approved us.

So all right, thank you so much.

Councilmember Buckler.

Thank you, Mayor.

I uh I also noticed in the packet that planning commission and our staff were on different pages on this, and um it's not always typical, especially on a 7-0.

So I I had actually reached out to staff just to get kind of an underlying why um before coming to this meeting.

And my understanding is um uh you know what I was advised was that um it makes sense, but staff's denial uh had to do with the um letter of the law with a code.

Uh it's not doesn't comply with the code as is, so there was a note.

Um I'm tending to look at it more in the spirit of the law.

I know that the chamber uh had said um that it does make sense uh as long as there are some of these mitigations to add in this office space in there.

Um the planning commission was 100 percent unanimous that it made sense based on where it's at and the obstacles that um uh uh you just stated um with it not being on an arterial road and difficult for commercial.

So um I wanted to just get that on the record that I did do ask some questions behind the scenes to get why why were they not on same pages?

That was what uh what I learned.

Scott Good input, thank you.

Councilmember Torgerson.

Just to clarify from Sarah to me.

While the Gilbert Chamber believes the parcel for the proposed project is a strong fit for a mixed use concept, we encourage the applicant to conform to the town's definition of mixed use to meet the standard requirements.

We encourage the applicant to conform to the town's definition of mixed use to meet the standard requirements.

Right now they are at 3.49 when the requirement is 24%.

20%.

So they do not meet the requirements, therefore they do not have that endorsement.

I understand I understand that.

Thank you.

Other comments or questions of staff.

If not, thank you, Ashley.

We'll invite the applicant.

I'll open the public hearing at this point.

Come down.

Mayor and Council, thanks for your time.

Uh Adam Baugh, 2525 East Arizona, Built More Circle.

I would do my best to answer your questions, but you may stump me on one or two.

But the good thing is I watched a TV show one time called How to Win a Million Dollars or something like that.

And you can phone a friend.

So I've got an architect and a landowner here.

So to the extent I can't answer your questions, I think somebody smarter than me can.

Councilman Buckley, I I certainly appreciate your position.

I hope my presentation might help provide some clarity and and maybe if I'm lucky enough, change your mind.

But thank you for that.

I appreciate it.

Um you might need to jump in your DeLorean a little bit to go back 21 years to understand the history of this case.

And so if you give me the grace to sort of walk you through the why, I think you'll see that this is actually more in line with the original approvals were to begin with.

And as you look at this property, here's some of the context that is surrounding us.

Um there is the novel apartments kind of north of us, and Aldi grocery store north of us, the VA hospital west of us, three hotels to the south, and the other vacant pieces will be a fourth hotel, a bikini beans coffee shop, um, an office right there where mountainside fitness used to be.

Directly south of us is a retention basin.

I think that's gonna play into part of my presentation a little bit later on, and then you have the winco.

But I I wonder if any of you have ever actually driven this road, and I'm sure you have, but probably not frequent enough to realize what is not happening here.

And the the story that is valuable for you to understand is how we got to this particular alignment and why this application makes sense because that alignment.

Now, when it was annexed in 1999, this was all greenfield and lots of opportunities to create a better design project.

And at the time, in 2004, there's a group called Woodbine, Woodbine Partners, and they are the folks who developed Kierlin Commons.

And Kierlin Commons and Scottsdale is a big mixed-use project with residential above Lofts and commercial on the bottom.

And they had a lot of success success with Kierland, and they wanted to create the same thing here in Gilbert, and so they create a PAD called Main Street Commons.

And the reason why I circle these boxes in red is it shows that their intent at the time was an outdoor kind of mall concept.

The future residence uses were proposed, ground floor commercial, and this circulation that flowed with an outdoor mall.

And they worked closely for that, and I think that plan made a lot of sense, and they were anxious, and there was a lot of publicity in it.

The unfortunate part about that project was that nobody could predict what would happen in 2007, 2013, and at that time there was a recession, and their failure to get out of the ground prior to the recession ended up becoming the greatest hindrance to this property today.

And so as a result, this property and what was multiple parcels were split up and in a distressed cell sold to multiple different owners.

And the idea of this uniform vision of this outdoor mall really couldn't be achieved with different ownership groups and no um combined uniform vision.

Different people started by different parcels, and some people got some, they put together a new plan called Valvista Square, but it was just a concept.

They weren't developers themselves, they're just now property owners of distressed assets, and figured we'll find fish that will bite on this at some point later on.

And so here we are today, 25 years since the original zoning of commercial, and 21 years since this whole outdoor mall, Main Street Commons concept came into play, and yet there's never been a single pre-app on this property, nor a development application.

And I think the reason is because of this roadway alignment that faces this property.

Now, here's a map of Kerlin Commons and the mix of uses in that area.

You say good balance between retail and flex industrial and office and multifamily and hotel.

When I look at the trade area here, it's a predominantly retail trade area, about 66%, two-thirds of it.

And I don't fault this at all.

I think this is actually great.

And frankly, we wanted to have retail on this property for for several years.

At least 21 owner, 21 years since Main Street Commons, and at least 26 since the original 1999 commercial zoning.

So this isn't a rush to do something on here.

It's actually probably waiting too long for something to happen.

But as you can see, this balance of what was should have been a main street Kieran Commons focus hasn't really been able to materialize.

And this is one of the last pieces.

And the reason why it is, I'll get to it in a second, but I want to share what we're doing today.

16,000 plus square feet of commercial on the bottom floor, 357 units above.

Of the three buildings, two of them have ground floor commercial.

And part of this is to achieve this urban design.

We have buildings closer to the street, more of a walkable environment, and the residential live and above.

If I was to develop under my open under the current zoning of RC, there is no open space requirement.

We not only meet the mixed use standard, but we exceed it at 28%.

And our parking spaces at 636 are tremendous.

And I'll tell you a little bit of how we got there, because that's not where we started.

As some of the council members may know, I was significantly less parking than when I started this case.

But the reason why I showed you this image is to show you how it interrelates with the context around there.

There's multifamily right next door to me, but there's a retention basin directly south.

And so because this street has so much of a retention basin, but no one's no building will ever be built there, there's not a lot of reasons to drive this street.

It is not a street of significant traffic.

It is the biggest reason why nothing has been proposed here over the years.

This helps you give us get a sense of what the ground floor looks like.

Areas in blue are our commercial, areas in yellow are our parking garages.

Areas in red is the kind of supporting services of the residential, but everything in white is a residential serving purpose.

And so we have started a case with significantly less commercial, and that's when the chamber first saw this.

At the time, we only had about 9,000 square feet of commercial, and that was it.

And the chamber saw why this made good sense, they just wanted us to get closer to what the ratio is.

But nor did they understand how the town does the math on the ratio.

I'll cut right to it.

When the town does the math, they count all four stories of the building, including the required parking garages.

So we're sort of being penalized because the parking garage is goes into the numerator.

So as a result, it looks like we are significantly lower.

If I was to take out the parking garages, we're more like 16% of the ground floor.

And so, in a lot of ways, I don't think it was intentional, just sometimes when you draft codes and ordinances, you don't think through some of those unintended consequences of it.

But when I started this case, and as I met with some of you early in the beginning, part of it is to get some feedback, part of it's to get some coaching, part of it's to learn what I need to fix.

We were 366 units, 9,000 square feet, and only 563 parking spaces.

But as we met and realized we need to do more to provide more parking, we need to do more to provide more commercial, and as we heard from the chamber, they encouraged us to get closer to that standard.

And as a result, I can only add commercial relative to the parking spaces to serve the commercial.

I would love to have a whole lot of commercial on here, but if I don't have the parking spaces to serve it, I can't squeeze it in there.

Under the town's method and math, it would require me to have 90,000 square feet of commercial.

And if 90,000 square feet of commercial could be built here, we would just have built it to begin with.

And hopefully there'll be enough parking for that as well.

But as you can see where we've changed it, we've added 16,000 square feet of commercial and 3,000 square feet of outdoor commercial plaza areas.

And the reason why I say that is because the code doesn't make me provide parking for these outdoor plaza commercial areas, but they are commercial amenities because they strengthen the commercial ground floor levels.

It gives more outdoor areas, gives a greater street presence because of these outdoor plazas are along the street.

So you can have outdoor seating, outdoor greeting areas, outdoor amening spaces, but I don't have to count for parking code.

And as a result, it actually makes my storefronts more visible, more activated from the street level without penalizing me by having to park it.

So we've come and we've done something beyond what the code requires related to open space and to the commercial amenity space outdoors.

So I know better to bring something before you without having a good reason, and I hope I at least can explain four reasons why we're here today.

There's things that we couldn't control that are in direct hindrance to the execution of this project.

So I'll walk through these four here.

First of all, and Councilmember Lyons alluded to this briefly, but I remember reading the Gilbert News section of the Arizona Republic.

And at the time, there was two projects coming at the exact same time of similar nature.

Santan Village, Outdoor Mall, and Main Street Commons, Outdoor Mall.

And in fact, they were at such a similar pace that they started competing for tenants.

So we called it a little bit of an arms race.

And because the outdoor mall at Santan Village got ahead of leasing before Main Street Commons, Apple, who was committed to Main Street Commons, jumped ship and went to Santan Village.

Well, the folks at Main Street Commons still believed in their project, and so they started to put in the infrastructure and they put in that curvy road that's right in front of our project.

And as a result, they started to get in a sort of a heavyweight boxing match with Santan Village.

But what they couldn't control was that the recession came.

And so even though they put in the road, the recession caused this project to stall.

Santan Village was deeper down the process and didn't have the same impacts that this one did.

So that's why zero tenants were able to come out of the ground here, even though the street lights, the roadway, the curb, the gutter, the retention, all were in place.

And so as a result, when these distressed assets get taken back by lenders and sold, they become broken.

And this great vision could not be executed anymore.

With multiple owners, they start to do what they do best, which is just buy assets, hold them, hopefully someone will buy it.

And trying to corral four or five different cats is a hard thing to do.

And so the project failed.

But this is the second part.

When they main street commons came in and put in that street, which is here in red, it had served a great purpose because that's what you would do with an outdoor mall.

But when that product deleted itself, commercial traffic isn't driving this road anymore.

And as a result, this back part has been neglected and overlooked.

And so while it's been consistently marketed for commercial purposes, no commercial user wants to come here because of the significantly low volume of traffic.

And this is the town's uh street traffic numbers.

And I think this helps tell the story best.

The difference between the dot and the circle three, which is at the top, and the circle six, which is at the bottom, is a difference of almost 850% of traffic volume at the top versus the bottom.

To give you some idea, if I was to combine the east and west traffic during the AM peak time and then evening peak time, it's about 29 cars a minute on Pecos Road.

Compare that to our property frontage, it's three cars a minute on Market Street.

And this is the town's traffic data.

And the unfortunate part of the ownership, and I don't represent the owner, I try to represent the developer who wants to purchase this from the owner.

The owner is here tonight, though.

Is for the unfortunate part for the owner is trying to convince a commercial user to buy this property with three cars a minute is a very, very difficult, almost impossible thing to do.

But something else happened because you had two different owners.

The owner of the VA hospital had an opportunity to sell this land to the VA, and the town was excited about it, and everybody was happy about it.

And I think this has been a benefit for our community.

The unfortunate consequences once the VA hospital came in, the whole idea of Main Street Commons ended.

But the roadway was still in place.

And so it sort of killed that vision, and you had to start to work with what did you have left over?

What are the bones?

And so as a result, you start to see these little hodgepodge, I call it piecemeal type of development.

A bank comes in, the Aldi's, then you see the apartments, and then you see the bikini beans down here, and that vacant piece next to it's gonna be a fourth hotel.

And as a result, these frontages along Pecos Road and Val Vista are coming in because that's where the chips are.

But I don't think you'll see anything coming along Market Street, particularly because there's a retention basin, so no one's driving it over for that reason, and only three trips a minute isn't enough to move the needle for a user who wants to come there.

So as a result, this VA hospital, as much as it's a benefit to communities, really changed what the future what the intended land use plan was here.

So then we start to look at other options, and you ask yourself, well, I think retail story just spoke for itself.

I don't need to double down on that one.

So you'd say, well, should we do single family homes here?

I don't think anybody on this council would ever invite me back in this room if I was to bring single family back over here.

So you ask yourself, well, how about industrial?

But there's certain areas where industrial works really well in town where you intentionally have it steered, and this isn't one of those areas, particularly with the semi-truck traffic that comes with it.

So is this a land that would be maybe a government-owned facility?

Would the town like to build a park or another municipal facility?

I don't know, but we'd be willing sellers if you want to.

But I don't think this really fits in with your master plan either.

And so then we look at, well, is this a large office campus site?

Because frankly, that would be my first guess.

This should be an office property.

Why is this not an office property?

Well, directly south of us is 40,000 square feet of vacant office.

It's been marketed for a year and a half.

So if someone wanted to come in and buy office, they can do it right now.

It's ready.

You just got to change the utility bill into the new name, and you can go occupy that space.

Or if someone wanted to rent, let's say 4,000 square feet of just a small little office, you can go directly north of us at Rome Towers where there's empty spaces.

And so there's no world where I can build a large campus of office post-COVID environment when I can't find people who wanted to occupy the existing office right nearby.

And obviously, if they wanted to build office, they would go to Rivillon, where there's a lot of empty big box office there.

And so if I'm gonna poo-poo the idea of office, why would I there dare present to you a plan with office on the bottom?

In the office market between Chandler and Gilbert, there's 8.5 million square feet of office inventory.

That's currently 31% vacant.

In Metro Phoenix, there have been five office buildings built in the last year.

Four of them are build a suite, which means there's a user who's saying, build me this office.

But no one's building speculative office.

So we think though that we have the right use.

If office is so bad, why are we proposing it?

There's a Goldilocks zone that works.

Our ground floor office space can be demised as small as 1,500 square feet to 4,000 square feet or bigger.

And that's what's missing in this area.

I will be honest.

The cost to build that office square feet, I can't rent it out for the cost of case it is to build it.

It's too expensive to build it.

But because I can have multifamily above it, I can subsidize the cost to build it.

I can underwrite it that way.

And so even though there's a whole bunch of office conos just north of us on Valvest Road in Boston Plaza and Gilbert Spectrum that were built 25 years prior and have probably lower basis and cheaper rents.

We can compete on those rents because I can subsidize it with my multifamily above it.

And now I have the quick Goldilocks zone where I can accommodate people who might be a service provider of the VA hospital next door who's like, I only need 15 to 2,000 square feet, and you're within walking distance.

Or someone who says, I I'm a tax guy and I need 4,000 square feet.

This is the Goldilocks zone of what works for us.

And so I feel like in a weird way, it's come full circle.

I'm back to what the original plan was, which was residential above commercial.

That's what Main Street Commons was.

And while the rest of the project area, the VA hospital, the Aldi's, the bank couldn't achieve that vision, or even the novel apartments next door.

We're actually one of the ones that restore it back to what it was supposed to be all along.

And you see these areas in pink right here.

You see that area going from the building up towards Aldi.

The reason why we have that pink, that's an intentional pedestrian node shaded with trees, grass, and canopies.

Because we're trying to drive people in a walkable way to Aldi's.

And the same thing to the Winco.

You see that on our east side, we're trying to drive them in a walkable way to the Winco.

So the only two retail uses next to us, we are pushing people in a walkable way to those places, restoring back what was supposed to be all along.

Someone asked me the other day, well, what's the difference between the current zoning and this zoning?

The reality is the current zoning can already allow this.

It's just that my main building in the middle doesn't have commercial on the bottom of it, and that's the only difference.

But the benefit is under this mixed use, I provide 28% open space, and in the current zoning, I wouldn't have to provide any.

Now, Chamber of Commerce did write a letter, and at the time it was very early in our process.

I would say we were probably on our first submittal.

And I think the coaching that comes from that type of opportunity directed us to improve the site and bring in more commercial.

And we we struggled.

We lost a number of units to add more commercial.

But when you lose one unit, it's one parking space per unit.

But it's not the same ratio for commercial, it's one parking space for 200 square feet of commercial, so it's not as a simple one-to-one.

And but what we did is by decreasing our open space and putting in more parking, we went up to almost 80 more parking spaces, which allowed us to get more commercial.

The unfortunate part is there's literally nowhere left where I can squeeze in one more parking space.

So I don't have the room to get a single extra square foot of commercial.

With that being said, though, I think the planning commission saw what was happening.

This property is never gonna be a retail center.

This property, but for its roadway alignment, would have had a tremendous success as a big, big power regional retail center.

But the infrastructure came in before the recession, and we had to live with the consequence of it.

But it's not a question of me doing this too soon.

I almost think it's me waiting too long, or in my case, the owner waiting too long to try to direct force something to come here, and nothing would come.

And so by doing this change to mixed use, we're bringing it closer in line with what the original zoning was.

We make meaningful use of this property, we accept the reality of this corridor that's not really being driven the way it's supposed to be, and I think we don't cannibalize the office of market that's already struggling here post-COVID to begin with, but we actually make a meaningful use of the property.

I don't believe there's anybody in opposition, but I was very grateful for the wisdom of the planning commission who liked the use and recommended approval 7-0.

And while I can appreciate staff's position, I actually appreciate their position.

They like the use, they just wish we had more commercials, so it's not really a question of this improper.

The consequence, unfortunate for us, is that when you do the math and the code, they make us count the parking garages on the ground as part of the total denominator, which unfortunately deflates what is our commercial provided.

I think it's one of those things where we'd probably go back and revisit if we could if we could have seen this three years ago when the code was written, but nonetheless, that's the proposal, and I know I've rambled and talked way too much, but I'm happy to answer any questions you can have, and um hopefully I've been able to tell you the why behind why we're here.

Thank you.

Questions for the applicant.

As you so aptly uh pointed out during your presentation, the RC does allow residential development along with commercial.

What led to the decision to do a rezone rather than work within the RC?

An excellent question.

I'll come back to here.

The middle building on the bend of Market Street.

It's the only building that doesn't have ground floor commercial.

As a result, I'd have to I'd have to rezone at least that little building there.

But even my parking garages.

This is the funny thing about the code.

The code requires you to have covered parking and parking garages for residential units.

But then the code then tell me I'd have to uh commercial.

And so I don't have ground floor commercial where the parking garage is or where that middle building is.

And that's the really the only reason.

Thank you.

Other questions?

Councilmember Bongiovan.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um Adam, so the commercial on bottom two buildings.

Are you saying it's just office or what is it?

Yeah, look, I don't have a lot of confidence that it would be successful retail along that bend.

It would have come to begin with.

I suspect it'll be mostly professional offices.

Maybe if we're lucky the coffee shop, possibly, but suspect mostly professional office.

You got four hotels soon.

Well, those hotels, unfortunately, aren't known for their food.

So you've got potential for restaurants, you have potential for coffee shops.

You have other potential there.

Um, this this one's tough for me because I was very excited about this, and you know that.

Um I felt that general commercial wouldn't work here.

Maybe it's over the years we you know made that mistake of whatever would happen.

I was really looking forward to mixed use here.

Um but to me at three percent, I mean it this isn't mixed use, it's it's just use, you know.

And not for me, not taking advantage of the more commercial offices that you could have had there with all those hotels.

Um I think mix you know, missed the mark on this, you know.

Um I'm kind of I'm kind of unsatisfied compared to what I was when we first started talking about the possibilities that could be here.

Could I politely push back?

If you look at the hotel south of us, we actually have our commercial directly across the street from them.

That's um the area on our west end.

So we put our commercial closest to where that might be used on the bend of market street.

There's just a retention basin across the street from it.

I know the area well.

I okay.

I have conferences in that and well with those hotels.

That area along Market Street is the spot that's actually furthest away from where a commercial customer would have to park.

So it's very unlikely that that commercial bend would be utilized in the same way.

So we tried our best, and that doesn't mean it has to be professional office, it could be hotel serving frontage there.

I just my hunch tells me something different, but I could be wrong.

Okay, all my questions.

What year did your customer or the seller buy this property?

I think it was 2010 to 2012, but he's here and he might be able to.

I know he's put in a speaker card, so he can he probably answer that question when he gets up here.

And then in 2019, a portion of it was rezoned multi-family high.

I well, I wasn't the applicant on it.

I don't know the story of it.

Um just cleaning that off of what I heard.

That's that's what you see in the map right there next to us.

It was purchased as regional commercial and in 2010 or so.

And then 2019 a portion of it was rezoned multi-family high.

Yeah.

Now we're sitting with what's left of the cake.

Yeah.

So someone might ask, why didn't they just rezone all of the piece back in 2019?

Um the owners should probably you should probably ask that question from what have they been trying to do to attract there.

They've been resistant to doing anything but retail here.

So I think they were holding out, but they can probably tell the why and the efforts of marketing the uses that they've had over the years.

Um thank you, Adam.

I do have some uh requests to speak cards.

I think one of them is the owner, uh Morgan Neville.

Uh thank you, Mayor and Council members.

My name is Morgan Neville.

I'm a resident of Chandler close by.

Uh I'm with the Park Corporation.

We're the owners of the property.

We purchased it in 2009, kind of writing about the worst part of the recession.

We purchased a total of 58 acres uh in the immediate area, uh all contiguous.

And uh I've been managing that asset from that time till now.

Uh the property was regional commercial with uh with uh the mainstream main street commons PAD.

That was the uh zoning when we when we purchased it and started combining some of the parcels from the various owners that Adam was talking about.

Uh I've worked in that period of time uh very closely with the town staff and previous councils uh over the whole time period.

We've worked on plats and replatts and engineering and got design guidelines and several of the rezonings.

Um strategically, we always viewed the entirety of the 58 acres as one big mixed-use parcel.

And to date, of the 58 acres that we originally acquired, 34 acres have been developed.

Uh 17 of the acres as retail that comprises two grocery stores, two banks, a veterinary practice, a sorted neighborhood retail, uh, quick serve restaurants, uh, and um also nine acres of medical with the the VA clinic, uh 8.6 acres of the Novell project uh that's been alluded to, uh, which was the previous multifamily high rezone, and that was done by that developer.

They uh uh um tied up the property and and came before council and was granted that rezoning.

Um so this leaves uh 24 acres left.

Uh uh 12 and a half acres is a subject property we're talking about this evening.

The other 11 and a half acres uh is where we're going to do all the retail that someone was just asking about.

Uh it's it's three pads and then one super pad, the hard corner Valvista and Pecos.

That's 7.3 acres.

And uh so we've always had very high hopes for all of the property.

We've said no to 50 or 60 uh different users that just weren't right for this property that just would wouldn't fit the overall ultimate vision of what we were trying to do.

Uh, that's to the consternation of the brokers who've been working with us that whole time, just bringing us things, and we uh ownership has declined.

Lots of things uh I don't think us or the town would have been proud to have there.

We could have done it, could have sold it and wiped our hands of it, but we but we have not.

Uh we've been raiding for the right things.

But of the 11 and a half acres that's remaining uh if this rezoning goes through, uh there's three pads that are pad ready, ready to go.

Those will be restaurants, either sit down or um also mean my time's done.

Yes, you have three minutes.

So I'm done.

Finish up.

Okay.

Uh we tried to market the property as class A office space for seven years from 2013 to 2020.

Three different national developers uh trying to do office space there, and then COVID happened.

Hope COVID happened, and uh it was heavily marketed.

Uh retail has never been uh an opportunity there, and so that's why we're standing uh here in front of you tonight.

Adam's pointed out the reasons why this subject property uh has dismal uh retail uh potential.

It's been exacerbated by the fact that no one's talked about, which is there are no immediate rooftops in this area except the multifamily to the immediate north, but for a normal retail environment, you need rooftops within a mile, mile and a half radius, but we've got a freeway that blocks uh 50 percent of the site's access, a retention basin, a regional park, an auto mall, a huge medical campus, uh, and uh uh a giant large-scale retail center to the north of us.

So uh there's not enough roof rooftops, so the only thing missing is rooftops, uh, and um that's what we're proposing to put here uh in a very uh succinct way.

Uh the last thing I'd like to say is that um you know not only do we think we have the right developer here, but we just think this is the right time for this.

We're in a national housing crisis, a uh national housing crisis.

Our metro area suffers even more from that.

Um, and we think this is the right use for the right time.

High density multifamily housing is the most efficient form of housing to develop to put to put roofs over people's heads, and the people that are already at Valvista Square, the banks, the grocery stores, they want this, they support it.

I'm pretty sure a couple of them have submitted uh comments in support of this.

And lastly, there's been no neighborhood opposition to this whatsoever, and I'm here to answer any other questions you might have.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next up, I have uh Tim Rice who has three minutes also.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Thank you, Council members.

Uh my name is Tim Rice.

I have I am a almost 20-year resident of Gilbert.

Um, and I've been the last 12 years in uh more the Morrison Ranch area.

Uh so this is really kind of my backyard.

Um I I had more to say, but uh I would like to say that most of kind of what I was saying on in an observational perspective.

The guys before me kind of put all the numbers to it.

Um when we first moved here, uh we lived in an apartment building.

Uh most of the choices, you know, Gilbert was a great place to live and raise my family.

Um all the apartments in the area were 80s.

Um since then I've watched very little happen until recently.

Um I will I wanted to say uh my biggest support of this project was in a lot of ways, it's one of the first ones that I've seen where it's going in a place that's you know it it's a vacant parcel.

The infrastructure is there.

I've seen a lot of properties and units going up on pieces of property that are surrounded by regular single family residential, um, have good access with streets, but they're residential streets, they get congested, they get crowded.

Um, and still a long ways from grocery stores, gas stations, coffee shops, restaurants, all that kind of thing.

This project, all of that stuff is in place, just like gentlemen before me said, Um, so from an observational resident standpoint, this project on this site seems to make more sense than a lot of the units that I've seen go up.

And so I just kind of wanted to say that and I appreciate your time and uh I don't know if you have any questions for me, but uh that's what I wanted to say.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

I did receive some uh public comments online um from Brandon Hall, Jeffrey Hall, Sharon Hall, and Chris Yacub, all in favor of the project.

So thank you for that.

At this point, I'll close the public hearing and bring it back to the council for discussion and or action on this item.

Councilmember Bucklin.

Thank you, Mayor.

I'd like to um just make a couple of statements and then offer a motion.

So I think there's no dispute that anybody on this council, those who are here and those the one who's vacant tonight, we we want as much commercial as possible.

We don't want as apartments per se just because of the the rental taxes gone.

Uh but right now it is a big hole in the ground.

Um the chamber, the advisory board, uh staff, one of the staff leadership agreed that mixed use really fits based on all the things that were said, I'm not gonna rehash.

But it makes sense for mixed use.

I think what where we end up squabbling is on the details, uh, you know, how much commercial or how much open space we we tend to go through those circles.

Uh I will say when I first saw this, um the uh developer and Adam had a long way to go.

And um, I think that they let they stepped it up, they made improvements, um, and I think that um I always worry when we draw lines in the sand that no matter what can't have this.

The time, the situation requires us to use critical thought, and um it is a hole in the ground that is producing zero revenue right now.

Our staff is short.

Um we need to raise revenue for a lot of different services.

We're the as Patrick showed in June, we're the the lowest uh in terms of take from citizens to provide services, and we have to raise revenue.

I realize that we're not gonna get the rental tax out of it, but what we are gonna get is um 300, I think and 57 apartments in the right area that are going to be um spending money in that surrounding area in here in Gilbert that are gonna be many on Amazon, and we have the use tax.

So I think that from where I sit, everybody has done a lot of good work between the developer council discussions, the staff, the advisory board in getting us to a close point of compromise.

Therefore, I would like to make a motion to approve this as written.

More discussion.

We'll have some more discussions.

I withdraw the motion for discussion.

Save that.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor.

Okay.

I I just want to clarify that, and what no one is talking about is commercial.

And we need the town needs, we're already low on commercial land.

I have nothing against this development.

I have nothing against the apartments that are there.

But the the town of Gilbert, and I'm looking, I just want you to know where I'm looking from.

And that is we need the income from a commercial properties to sustain the town.

We're almost at build out.

That that is a huge uh you know point to be at.

Once we get to build out, and we've if we let all our commercial property go, we are not going to have the income to sustain this town after build-out.

And if we keep doing this, because we you know the developers keep coming in wanting to put in either apartments, which is fine, and and that's all fine and good if we if you put it in something other than commercial zoned property, and that's where I'm coming from.

And uh, because it you know, I kind of just blurted out as I usually do, what I think, and I wanted to confirm a little bit about why and where my thoughts are coming from.

And I'm I'm very adamant that whatever tenure I have here, I want to do what's best for the town of Gilbert, what's best for the residents in Gilbert.

And I just don't think that agreeing to certain developments that do not give us the commercial that we need and to have to have that income.

So anyway, that's that's it for me.

Thank you.

Councilmember Bongi Vonnie.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, I agree a lot with what um Vice Mayor uh Buckley said.

Uh you know, normally I don't want to give away commercial space for residential unless it makes sense.

And this is one area that I believe makes sense, but I was hoping I was hoping to hit it out of the park on this one.

Um there's only a couple of properties that I know of coming before us the next couple of months where I would be more apt to say, okay, I'll change, I'll I'll agree to the vote and and change uh commercial to residential.

Uh again, this was one of them.

Um I just think where we missed the mark on this one was office space on the on the bottom.

I I fully believe those hotels would have brought in enough customers for restaurants and and some coffee shops or or maybe little you know boutique shops to take advantage of all those hotels there.

Um I I really wanted to hit this one out of the park because I really like this property idea uh because I don't think general commercial would have worked in this area because of the factors that um Mr.

Ball uh mentioned.

Um I just I can't support it with with just um office space on the bottom.

I'd rather see more revenue generating um businesses underneath there comments council member Lyons just a couple observations.

Um today as I drove down um Greenfield Road toward this area, there's uh a couple large developments there with large vacancy signs on them.

And um I look for I know the applicant talked about the uh housing um prices that we have in the country.

I think what people are looking for though is single family homes they can purchase, and I'm starting to see uh homes rent being built.

Um, and I think people want things that they can buy.

Um my perspective, I I think we're reaching the point where we've had several developers come with us with these ideas for these multi-use high-density housing, and I just think the time for that for me personally has passed to what council member uh Buckley said.

Um the commercial is critical at this point, we're reaching build out.

There's a lot of I I would characterize as orphan pieces of property.

This is where it becomes difficult for us to find fits.

But I know in some of the cases where we've had developers tell us this is the only thing that you know is viable.

I have been told that there's been people that have approached them, and it's uh they don't want any, they don't want to do it.

And uh so I think that there's a return on investment that that the property owners are wanting, um, and I understand that fully, but it it needs to be considered what does the town of Gilbert need and its citizens expect.

So for me that that's an issue, and and you know, when I look at the commercial going from 20 percent down to down to three, that's just not adequate.

And I know there's a town close to us here to what council member Buckley had talked about, you can't sustain a town and the services that we've come to expect without the commercial uh property available.

And just one last thing on the traffic issue to what council member Bon Giovanni said as far as the uh hotels being there, uh those are going to need restaurants to service them and uh having I think that there's some opportunities there with that property that um if you focus on those kind of things to provide services for the people that are there, there may be some options.

So I'm just not personally comfortable with the reduction in the commercial space.

I don't think it's in our best interest, honestly.

And a lot of that was my opinion, so and I'll give you that.

But uh I think it's critical that we know when we get to this these final pieces in town, we need to be very thoughtful about what we're doing, and I'm not really keen on giving up a single square foot of commercial land in the community, just me personally.

Councilmember Torgas and the uh a couple things I just want to note.

No neighborhood opposition, there's kind of no neighborhood there, so let's get that in perspective.

But uh just on the residential area, it would bring in 5.3 million dollars plus of system development fees, which is substantial plus the commercial system development fees.

Uh unfortunately I would rather see fee simple because Gilbert is a place where we want people to acquire the American dream.

The American Dream isn't renting the rest of your life.

American Dream is owning something.

Uh we've talked a lot about retail, but destination things, events, uh, a university, a hotel, god forbid a hotel went across the street instead of here.

Um the failure for me is the fact that there's just not enough, whether it's retail, office, some sort of commercial to meet some sort of standard uh to get there.

I I agree that it is not an optimum uh spot.

I agree that uh it could be much better, but uh through the years it's been cut into for various reasons, whether it's uh somebody going broke and fire sailing it, uh somebody selling off a portion for multi-family high, whatever it would be, we can blame a lot of reasons.

But that 3.49% is scary to me.

And to know that I have yet to see somebody say, gee, I want to turn multi-family high into commercial, uh, because it reduces the property value, increases the property value to go to multi-family high where you're building 25 to 50 minutes in an acre.

Um I find it very difficult.

I just you know, hopefully we can all sit here and balance what the pros and cons are.

And certainly I think uh Adam did a fantastic job of bringing a solid case forward as you referred to it as a boxing match.

Uh this were our boxing match, Adam, and I consider you a friend.

You're Frazier and I'm Foreman.

Um I'm not comfortable.

Thank you.

You want is this something you'll add to our discussion?

For okay.

I don't know if Fraser and Foreman had a round two, but I know high okay, good.

Anyone did watch the Tyson Holyfield one a couple of times.

Um one of the things is I'm really good at is reading the room.

I think that's helpful.

If you grant me the opportunity to consider uh continuance is to analyze if there's a way to put more parking to provide more commercial, uh Councilmember Bongiovanni and Lyons under the town's code, I think you have to have two stories of just office and commercial, which doesn't happen unless you're in an urban area like DC or New York City, you know.

Um it's a significant amount that this isn't possible.

I think we are in unintentionally penalized because we've got to count the park and garages in that ratio, but then the town makes me put parking garages for my project.

But if um you'd be open to giving me a continuance, we can go back and maybe look more at the bottom floor units.

I don't know what that number would look like, because it's gonna be triggered by parking.

The other thing I can look at is in the mixed use district.

Funny enough, it allows you to have a parking reduction because these parking spaces for residents are open for commercial in the daytime.

And so if a resident leaves in the daytime, that space becomes available.

And maybe I don't have to actually add a functional space, but we can look at that 10% ratio that the mixed use district does allow you to utilize.

If I can look at that math differently, maybe there's a way to put some more uh ground floor commercial.

So I don't know what that number is without doing exercise.

If there was an opportunity for continuance, it gives me a chance to explore that.

I don't know if it's gonna move the needle a lot, to be honest, but I do think it's worth evaluating because then I can come back with maybe something more realistic.

I can tell you that there's a lot of great dining right nearby for all those hotel users.

Um Market Street near San Costco, Sam's Club and the mall has fantastic dining.

I don't know if we'll be able to compete with them, but I do think there's room for us to do some improvements.

If you would be willing to grant me that consideration, I can do our homework and see if we can um address the the common concern that I'm hearing.

Thank you.

We'll consider that.

Let me uh make some comments before we uh take any others.

Um, I generally do feel the same as the the council.

Um we have to be very careful and take each of these on a case by case basis.

Um I would encourage all of you if we do continue this for a period of time and have uh I would I would prefer to get some more commercial development in there also.

That's that's I think increasing that three percent up would be advantageous.

But I would encourage the council if we do have some extra time between when we take action on this, pull out the book that was given to us when we started talking about the City of the Future initiative.

Remember strong towns?

Remember the importance of density in creating density is what creates revenue for us.

Uh the density is what brings commercial development.

So and you'll remember those maps that were drawn that shows uh where we are in Gilbert.

And I think uh the the location of this site makes it pretty uh clear to me that from land use perspective, I think it's appropriate what they're doing.

But I would like to have some more commercial, I'd like to have him explore that and see if we could get to that point.

So I'll entertain a motion if you're willing to look at doing that.

I'm willing to make a motion to continue this until what would our appropriate date be to allow the applicants to uh revisit this solid time to continue.

Yeah.

How long, Adam?

Oh yes, ma'am.

First meeting in seven uh mayor and uh council.

I was gonna suggest October 14th.

Um you have a meeting on September 9th as well, but I think the turnaround on that might be eight for them to um to their do their work and then for staff to review the the changes.

So I would suggest October 14th.

I'll second that.

If wait, hold on.

If that's amenable to the applicant, can you comply with that?

We'll find a way.

I think it's the exercise the house is figured out if it's yeah.

Okay.

So for October 14th.

I'll second that.

It's been moved and seconded that we postpone the item until October 14th.

Please vote.

Yes.

Motion passes six to zero.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mayor.

Okay, so we're moving on to consent.

And we have does anyone we have items number 10 through 35, I believe.

Let me look.

10 through 36.

Yes, 35.

Councilmember Torgeson, we're going to add number 37 at the end, so you can announce the boards and commissions.

And does anyone have any questions on items 10 through 35?

Do you have any questions?

No.

No questions.

All right, Councilmember Torgeson, if you would like to.

I thought she was gonna grab the microphone for a second.

Right.

So this is actually item number 37.

Uh this is regarding the public works advisory board and the appointment of five individuals.

And just as an aside, the public works advisory board or people that look at things such as your sewer and some water.

Uh it's the citizens of this town that comprise that and look at uh different things, whether rates or repair schedules or different items that are brought in front of them.

So it's actually a very important board, and uh every applicant that applied was actually worthwhile.

Every single one of them was good, and I was very impressed by most of them.

Young Koprowski is the liaison.

And so for our boards and commissions, we will consider the appointment to the public works advisory board of Seth Templeton, Greg Froilick, Mark Horn, and Jason Robinson with terms beginning August 15th, 2025 and ending August 14th, 2028, and Eric McCleskey with a partial term beginning August 15th, 2025 and ending August 14th, 2026, and a full term ending August 14, 2029.

And I'd like to make a motion to accept that.

Or no, we can keep that in.

I'll do the overall motion.

Yeah.

All right, thank you, Councilmember Torgeson.

And congratulations to the new board members for the new board for the board.

Um okay.

So I would like to uh if we have I'm gonna ask one more time in Mayor, do you have a question?

No, I don't.

Okay.

Um no one has any questions, then I will make a move to approve items number 10 through 37.

And can I get a second on that?

Second.

Seconded by council member Buckley.

I mean Buckland.

We're forever doing that.

Um all right, I have a motion and a second, and please vote.

And it's carried six zero.

And with that, I am going to give this back to the mayor.

Thank you.

And submit a special task taxing district impact statement to the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors and authorize the mayor to execute the required documents.

Do we need a presentation from staff on this?

Mayor, members of the council.

We don't have a presentation ready, but we do have Lauren Hickson here if there are any questions that she can answer for you.

Any questions for Lauren?

No.

I'll entertain a motion.

I'm I make a motion to approve item number 38 for a special district.

I'll second that.

It's been moved by Vice Mayor, seconded by councilmember Torgeson to approve the item.

Please vote.

Motion carries six zero.

Item 39 is uh council administration consider adoption of the council meeting schedule for the calendar year 2026.

I hope you've all had a chance to peruse that.

Looking for a motion to uh adopt our schedule for next year.

I'll make the motion to approve.

I second it.

Move by council member lions, seconded by vice mayor, please vote.

Motion carry six zero.

We're now at communications from citizens, vice mayor.

All right, we're moving right along here tonight.

Um okay, so to start communications from citizens, I'll be reading the rules of decorum.

And here we go.

So we value the participation of our community members and robust exchange of ideas.

However, it's essential that this discourse remain respectful and constructive, reflecting professionalism expected in such forms.

Misinformation and personal attacks undermine the collective efforts and do not contribute to the productive dialogue necessary for our town's progress.

This is an opportunity for the public to address the town council directly about issues impacting the town.

Accordingly, the town council will not allow for moments of silence or playing of music or other recorded materials which could distract from the meeting decorum or violate copyrights.

While we understand and appreciate the passion our community members bring to this session, we remind everyone that clapping during the meeting is not acceptable.

This practice can disrupt the flow of discussion, potentially intimidate others, and detract from the respectful atmosphere we strive to maintain.

Tonight we'll invite you to come up to the podium.

When you come up to the podium, please state your name and your city of residence, and you will have three minutes to directly address the town council unless otherwise indicated.

If the current speaker will be using three minutes of another person's time, that person should stand up.

Well, you don't have to stand up, just state your name and the city you reside in and acknowledge that you are donating your three minutes to the current speaker.

In accordance with the state law, we are able to provide responses to public public comments during the meeting.

Please be assured that your concerns and inputs are heard and valued.

So our first speaker, and I'm just taking them in the list that was handed to me, not in any particular order, is Bradley Heck.

Are you still here, Bradley?

Madam Vice Mayor.

Madam Vice Mayor, thank you very much.

May I make a point of privilege and ask if I would like to speak after Commander Frank of the American Legion speaks first, and I would like to speak after him.

Okay.

I don't I don't see any problem with that.

All right.

Um Frank, if you would like to come up, you will have three minutes to speak.

Thank you.

My name is uh Frank Banachesky.

I'm the commander of American Legion Post that has uh 2,000 members there.

I'm also a first responder of 9-11 of Afghan vet and a Iraqi vet, um, also earned the bronze star.

I want to uh thank the police department and the fire department.

Um you don't know, a week and a half ago, one of our vets uh committed suicide in the driveway.

Um I failed to get there in time uh to stop it.

I was three minutes late.

Um, but the professionalism of the fire department and the police department must be recognized in this matter.

They uh treated the scene and and the vets that showed up there with respect, and they protected the body by putting a cover over it when um neighbors were trying to take pictures of it.

So I just wanted to personally thank that.

Um also want to thank Dan and the town and his team at the town council for allowing me uh to see the plans coming up uh for the road of Ash, Ash Road there, and unfortunately unfortunately with the current plan, um, it would um basically take the American Legion and shut us down.

Uh the amount of parking spaces lost, uh, about 30 percent of my membership is over 65 uh years old and would not be able to get to my American Legion Post by Legion Post uh if you don't know uh provides approximately about 300,000 dollars worth of charity a year to the local community.

Um we also provide affordable meals uh for members and public at this time, and I know we're opening to the discussion board, and I look forward to working with uh Dan and the council and trying maybe to resolve this issue uh currently, but I did want to bring it to your attention.

So thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

And uh Bradley, if you would like to come up, honorable mayor and uh Madam Vice Mayor and Councilman.

Um the reason I wanted to talk in addition to Frank is we're not against by the way.

I'm a member, I'm a resident of Queen Creek, but I've been a member of American Legion Post 39 for approximately 20 years.

So I actually think Gilbert is my hope, not Queen Creek, but please understand that.

Um I'm here in addition to Commander Frank is to explain.

We're we are open to some negotiations on this.

I understand from looking at the plan, and we've talked about the plan for numerous years about the extension of Colomer and Ash to go around the downtown area.

I just want to throw out the option to you folks to say we're open to negotiate.

Is there something you can do to help us maybe move to a better location, but still be in the downtown area of Queen uh of Queen Creek, sorry about that, of Gilbert.

Um so just want you to know that please call us.

We'll be happy to work with you.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you very much.

All right, our next speaker will be Josh Reynolds, uh Mayor, members of the council, Josh Reynolds.

I'm a resident of Gilbert and uh former employee of your fire department.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Um, after a recent post by the Queen Creek PD social media promoting coffee with a cop, I had to come speak tonight.

It was a funny lighthearted video that went viral and has been the most successful post that that account has ever created as an officer ordered a black cup of coffee.

So I'm here tonight to try and explain my situation when I was employed here.

It might be new to you and new to those watching, but it's nothing new to Patrick Banger, Leah Reinheimer, Rob Duggan, or Dana Birchman.

Before my forced retirement in July of 2022, I posted a video with a coworker telling him how I liked him like I like my coffee, strong, bold, and black.

Um it was a well-received by almost everyone, including the firefighter who I made the video with.

On February 22nd, a week after I posted that video, I was called by my assistant chief letting me know I was being investigated and put on paid administrative leave, effective immediately for a post on social media.

Fast forward exactly one month later on March 22nd, that same chief called me to update me on the investigation, and I was told that it was determined that they were needing to take this investigation to a third party, an outside third party.

Um due to the complaint that came in on March 3rd.

So my response was if a complaint came in on March 3rd, why was I put on paid administrative leave on February 22nd?

He was definitely taken by surprise, told me he would get back to me.

He called me a few hours later and told me two complaints had come in, one internal and one external.

This conversation grabbed the attention of my lawyer and I, and we requested and received the external complaint.

That complaint was an email from a Jason Smith, and our research through metadata and FOIA requests showed Jason Smith is not a real person.

It was an email that was created on the day.

Sorry, let me back up.

It was an email that was created on the day the complaint was sent in.

Leah Reinheimer and Chief Joe Bush, the fire chief at the time, responded to this complaint via email, and Jason Smith never responded back to them.

In fact, the email was never even opened.

In my opinion, it was all fabricated to cover up the person who made the internal complaint.

I would imagine Dana Birchman, the former digital media director, has a pretty good idea who Jason Smith is.

So over the next three months, I was sent to an outside investigator, and they did multiple interviews with me and many of my old co-workers, and they didn't get the information in those interviews they wanted.

The town can uh the town still pushed forward and dragged this into July.

So on the first week of July, exactly three weeks before I hit my 20-year anniversary, they presented me with an option to stay on paid administrative leave until the end of the month and retire in good standing.

And if I didn't choose that option, they were terminating me effective that day.

My lawyer informed me that I had caught the town in a lie, and I had a tough decision to make.

Fortunately for me and the fellow taxpayers of Gilbert, the Goldwater Institute did an investigation into my situation, including what role Dana Birchman had played.

When that story broke in January of 24, 2024, that was all over the news.

It was at um I'm almost done.

It was at that time Dana was forced to resign, and it was either March or April of 2024.

That story that the Goldwater Institute did, in my opinion, is the only reason why Patrick Banger acted and finally held her accountable for her actions.

This was this was the fast three-minute condensed version of my story, but until Patrick Banger, Rob Duggan, and other town leaders start to own their wrongdoings and show some accountability.

Thank you, Gilbert.

Thank you.

Um our next speaker will be Steve Laval.

And Dan Reynolds are you here.

Okay.

And you're donating your time.

Okay.

All right, Steve, you'll have six minutes to speak.

And if yeah, if you'll state your name.

Yeah, my name's Steve.

Well, you guys know me.

Uh well, you guys took a little vacation.

Uh I kind of missed this place.

Um, let's see, where do I start?

I don't know, man.

It's been so much going on in the national scene.

We've seen so much in the news about how people in position of power abuse that power and lie to us, and how the news themselves present that misinformation and disinformation that we always talk about in these things before we get up and talk.

And uh the same thing, the field dossier is the same thing with the bancher dossier that I brought up uh a while back when they had a law firm do an investigation, of course, an outside law firm.

And uh I've proven many of those facts in that report be false and misleading.

Uh but yet nothing really has happened to those who continue to act uh out of uh how do I say this that without without any real integrity, and they do it because there's no accountability held to them.

All right.

Unfortunately, uh it's been three years now since I was working in this fire department and uh was getting it written up for saying black coffee.

They didn't like my response, they fired me.

So it's been three years, and I'm not gonna stop because I believe uh nationally, it's been about eight or nine years, and it's starting to come, the the truth is starting to come out.

So the truth will come out.

Uh what's really important right now is um there are uh there's there's an assistant chief that's actually leaving this department, going department in Idaho uh by the name of Corey Girard.

He was uh head of the training division, I believe, when the Hosegate stuff went down, and three very good employees that never had any disciplinary action, two of them decided to leave this organization.

Uh one of those guys was uh, well, Corey happened to be his uh best man in his wedding.

Uh 27-year friendship.

But Corey chose to lie during an outside investigation there to protect Corey's job, stuck his friend in the back, did not have his six, and lost that friendship.

Twenty-seven years, just gave it away so he could keep his job, his his position.

Why do I bring this man up?

Well, he's leaving.

It's one reason to bring it up, which is good for the town.

The other side of that is that there's another gentleman in the town that unfortunately had his career adversely affected by this same man.

He doesn't work in the fire department, he supports the fire department.

Happens to work in the fleet department.

And as you guys are gonna see on your consent calendar, there was something in there about Hughes.

Well, the way this kind of works is Pierce manufactures the fire trucks for the town, and Hughes, a lot of the mechanical work, maybe our fleet can't do, or they give advice to our fleet.

Well, this particular gentleman in the town had a great work and relationship with Hughes, and Hughes happened to have a job opening come up.

Well, because Corey was responsible for that fleet department, this particular individual was probably the main person in charge of our fleet.

Poor he couldn't let that guy go to Hughes, so he couldn't let that man take an outside job, go for an interview.

He contacted his contact at Pierce, made some comment roughly, don't quotes here, not verbatim, about hey, I can't have him leave.

I can't have Hughes hiring people from the town, because then I'm gonna have to outsource all my mechanical work.

Who gave Cory Girard the right to stop that man from bettering his career moving on to a different company and allowing him to provide for his family and his children?

Who gave Corey that authority?

And how how how does he how does he even look himself in the eye?

It's disgusting.

If Corey wanted to keep that man, he should have countered an offer.

If it was that important to the town, that's what they should do.

But Patrick Banger refuses to hire from outside, continues to push diversity, equity, and inclusion on the inside, hides it.

He doesn't want any diversity when it comes to hiring from the outside.

Because if that happens, he's gonna get people that have other experiences and other capabilities, and it's gonna show how weak the leadership team is.

So fortunately for that man, he didn't get Hughes.

Never interviewed him.

He didn't even get a chance to go to the job, even though Hughes had told him they were very interested in him.

So it's a good thing for the town that Corey's leaving because I don't think he's a very good person, and I think he he lacks integrity.

The last thing I'm gonna leave you with is we all know who the next assistant chief is going to be.

His name's gonna be Ryan Cadden.

All right, and I just want you guys to know that because it's pretty predictable what goes on in these organizations on the inside.

Okay.

Ian's a good person.

He's a smart man.

I don't think he's I don't think he's dummy at all.

Okay.

I just hope he can keep his integrity.

I hope he keeps his spine and is able to say no to this leadership team that actually doesn't lead but rules with authority and doesn't hold themselves to the same uh rules and and and uh internal policies that they want to hold all the employees to.

So thank you for your time.

Okay, thank you.

With that, that ends the consent, and I'll give it back to you, Mayor.

Thank you.

On future meetings, uh, we have a couple of items to come up on study session.

One is the uh study session related to electric vehicles that may be purchased by the town, and a study session related to bike helmets and uh helmets for minors on e-bikes and so forth.

So those are future items.

Yeah, Mayor, members of the council, we are uh going to schedule the discussion on electric vehicles at our fall retreat as a fall retreat item, and then the electric vehicles, bike helmets will be on August 26th.

There's an additional item that will be on that night as well in regards to water rates and our water system.

Thank you.

Next is a report from uh the town manager.

Thank you, Mayor, members of the council.

Tonight, I'll start with our department and division highlights.

And it is August 14th.

It's night National Financial Awareness Day.

So we're gonna highlight our finance management services department.

This is the team right here, led by Hawk and Johansson.

He is the director of that department.

And I'll run through some of the services.

They have actually a broad range of services they handle in that department.

Our finance, our accounting and financial reporting, procurement, tax compliance, and utility billing.

And if I could, I want to take just a minute minute and talk about the conversion to our new utility billing program.

And um again uh provide some guidance on how to get your new account set up.

Uh um, the driving need for switching that over is our other system was over 15 years old and it was no longer being supported by that vendor, and we would be open to security concerns as well as uh no additional or new updates to provide the latest features to our residents so they could uh best manage their water usage and their accounts uh with the town.

The new system is from a different vendor, so we were not able to just port all of the accounts over into the new system, so it required or necessitated setting up a new account.

And we want to make sure our residents understand you don't actually need to do anything until you get your new bill and it'll have your new account number on it, and then you can go to the website and enter that in.

It takes less than five minutes to set up a new account.

If you don't use our new system, or if you don't use an online system, if you just mail it in, then you don't have to do anything at all.

You can continue to mail your check in as you always have.

Uh, and to again remind everybody during the transitionary period there will be no late fees or no disconnections and a quick update in our old system.

We had 44,150 users who were registered.

So in the first five weeks, we now have 49,575 registered users.

So we're actually seeing more users uh set up their online accounts that represents about 50 percent of the accounts we have at the town.

There's almost 100,000 account holders now.

Um, and again, if you'd like to learn more about this, you can go to our website where you can find more information.

Um we've also got a link to an email address for those that would like to get their new account number ahead of their latest bill.

You can email that.

That is the quickest way to get a response to us.

We have added additional phone lines and additional personnel to answer the phones, but unfortunately, waits are still longer than we would like as we've got a large number of people calling in.

But we'll continue to do apply resources to that and get everybody set up and transitioned over.

I wanted to highlight the department itself.

Um, for the 33rd year in a row, they've received the National Award for Excellence and Financial Reporting as well as a clean audit opinion.

In 2025, they issued 2,235 contracts.

Gilbert has over two 23,000 licensed taxpayers.

We've got it, uh we've increased department revenue by over 400,000 in fiscal 25.

And again, Gilbert is has triple A ratings from all three national credit bureaus.

Moving on to retirements recognitions and awards.

We want to recognize Captain Adam Hellman for his 32 years of dedicated service to the Gilbert Fire and Rescue Department.

Adam was one of our original uh firemen who uh joined the department when he was first uh we when we stood up our municipal department back in the early 90s, and he's been a valued member of the team through the years, demonstrating unwavering commitment, bravery, and a true passion for service.

Moving on to organizational accomplishments, I want to highlight something that we discussed last year preventative MRI program update.

Thus far, we've had two employees have recently had early stage one cancer detections thanks to the town town's preventative MRI program.

Early cancer detection has the opportunity to significantly improve outcomes, rates of recurrence for early stage cancers are less than 5% as compared to over 20% for advanced stages.

Treatment for stages one and two cancers typically range from 15 to 60,000 in cost versus 60 to 300,000 or more for stage three and straight stage four treatments, and the invasiveness and the time of care significantly reduced in early stage treatments.

I also had the uh people team put together some costs to our plan outside of providing uh enhanced services to our employees to help them maintain their health and wellness.

It also saves our plan money as well.

If you look at the various forms of cancer, the early stage average cost versus the late stage average cost in all of those categories, you'll see it's significantly more expensive to our plan to treat these in the late stages.

So again, thank you for your support of our workforce and this program, and we look forward to more of our personnel taking advantage of this through the years.

Lastly, I want to welcome Mario Paniagua.

He is our new assistant town manager.

He will be overseeing finance management services, management and budget, the people team, and parks and recreation.

Mario joins us uh after a 27-year career with the city of Phoenix with the last 10 years spent as a deputy city manager.

So I'd like to now ask Mario to come up to the microphone, introduce himself to you, uh himself to you, and to our greater community.

Thank you so much, Patrick.

Uh Mayor and Vice Mayor, members of the council, thank you for this opportunity to formally introduce myself to you.

Uh I just can't say enough about how thrilled I am to be part of the Gilbert uh leadership team.

I am now one weekend to the job, and uh I I uh I'm so impressed because everyone that I've met uh truly espouses and reflects the values of the organization, being kind and driven and bold and humble.

These are these are not just empty words.

These this is not about uh trying to cultivate an image or a farming or um just trying to create an empty facade, but these are genuine uh uh values that the employees uh truly exhibit day in and day out.

And so I'm I've been very impressed with that.

I'm excited to work, Mayor and Council, with each of you to advance the city uh forward as a as to continue as a top winning award-winning city, uh town, uh municipality, and uh I'm just excited about that.

Oh, you know, as I've as I've spoken with folks uh that I previously worked with about coming to this position, uh many of them actually live in Gilbert, and uh as I talked to them about this community.

Uh I've been waiting for somebody to say anything negative about the town, and uh that just hasn't happened.

And that's I'm sure that's no surprise to you that I've heard nothing but great things uh about this community.

So um I just want to uh express my thanks to you all, and I feel very blessed to have this opportunity to be part of the team.

Thank you, Mario.

Did you give him a secret word?

You did.

Did you catch it?

I didn't catch it.

I saw Mary laughing.

He was very clever how he worked that into his speech.

He took a page from the mayor's post about assembling his squad for the youth council, and it was Aura farming.

For farming, okay.

Yes, I've never heard of that before.

We tapped one of our Gen Y employees to uh help us out with that.

Thank you, Mayor and Council.

That's all for tonight.

Thank you.

Well done, Mario.

You stumped us.

Uh reports from the council.

Councilmember Bon Giovanni.

Thank you, Mayor.

Parks, here we go.

Dive into a splash-tastic evening at Gilbert's Last Splash.

Get hop and swim your way to Mesquite Aquatic Center Saturday, August 16th between 5 30 p.m.

and 8 30 p.m.

for a whimsical water adventure like no other.

Whether you're a resident or a visitor from a far-off land or welcome to frolic and waves of fun.

Enjoy toe-tapping tunes, swirly water, water slides, giggly games, and glowing delights.

Grab your goggles and get ready for a spectacular memory.

Also, step right into the world of support and smiles at Gilbert's first ever adaptive resource fair.

On Saturday, August 23rd from 9 a.m.

to 12 p.m.

The Gilbert Community Center will twinkle community spirit.

Whether you're seeking new connect connections or valuable resources, you'll find a delightful mix of local organizations, support services, cheerful social groups, and vibrant vendors, all under one welcoming roof.

Bring your curiosity and join us at full fair of friendship and discovery.

Thank you.

Other reports.

Actually, just a question, Mayor.

Thank you.

Patrick, can you uh have someone send out through email or something so that uh when you talked about the full body MRIs so that our hard work employees know how to access that easily?

Sure will Kenny.

We we did quite a bit and we'll continue to do so, but I'll have other people send some out.

Thank you.

Welcome.

Councilmember Lyons.

Uh yes, Patrick.

Um was there a reason we're pushing the electric vehicle conversation out to the fall?

Uh Mayor, Councilmember Lyons, yeah.

So we talked about what the timing for the need for that vehicle is, and we believe we can wait until the fall retreat, and then that would give us a good period of time to do a comprehensive analysis of electric vehicles and then uh have a conversational robust conversation at the retreat.

Okay, thank you.

Thank you.

I have a couple of items I wanted to report on.

That uh I've had I had the opportunity the past couple of weeks to attend a couple of events.

Uh first was that I wanted to recognize Redemption Gilbert uh church here in their heat relief uh program, their respite center.

Uh having the opportunity to tour that center, and I was very impressed with the services they're providing to those uh who want to get out of the heat, the homeless, uh people are in various situations during their lives, and and uh uh Redemption Gilbert is doing a wonderful job in providing for them.

Uh I know there are various other churches in the community that are also providing uh cooling spots where uh people can go if they have nowhere else to go.

The other thing that I was able to do, um the second slide was Gilbert Fire and Rescue sponsored a back to school shopping event with our great partner uh Coles.

And uh we had sixty students from Gilbert Public Schools who were selected uh and were were taken around by volunteers and firefighters to buy back to school clothing at Kohl's and and uh we want to thank everyone uh like SRP American Legion and others who donated to this.

Thank you very much.

And um last thing I want to report on was uh something I did today, which was a listening session at Gilbert High, and that went very uh well.

I I had the opportunity to sit down.

Umffictor King and myself had the opportunity to sit down with about uh what we just Valerie, about 40 or 50 students, and had the opportunity to talk about uh what's on their minds about Gilbert.

It was a very productive time.

Anything uh anything else?

If there's nothing else, I'll take a motion to adjourn.

I'll make a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

We are adjourned.