Mesa City Council Study Session - August 25, 2025
Mesa City Council Study Session - August 25, 2025
The Mesa City Council held a study session on August 25, 2025, to review the agenda for the upcoming council meeting, discuss a zoning case (Sienna Ridge) in District 5, and share updates on conferences and community events. The session began at approximately 5:00 PM and lasted under an hour.
Discussion Items
- Rezoning of Sienna Ridge (District 5): Staff presented a rezoning request for a 29-unit, 4-rent product development at Sienna Ridge. A key point of debate was the garage size deviation of 8 inches from the code-required 20x20 feet. Councilmember Summers opposed the deviation, arguing that shrinking garage depth (to 20 feet) would not accommodate SUVs and full-size trucks, potentially leading to parking problems on private streets and bleeding onto public streets. The applicant claimed all cars and full-size trucks fit in the garages. Councilmember Go Forth noted that the development includes two garage types: plans one and two have 19'2"x20' garages, while plans three and four have 25'x20' garages. The project provides 17 guest and ADA spaces against a requirement of 61 spaces, a ratio of less than half. Councilmember Duff supported the deviation, stating it aligns with surrounding municipalities, reduces home costs, and preserves living space. Councilmember Smith (district representative) agreed, noting that buyers can choose floor plans based on their vehicle needs.
Key Outcomes
- Councilmember Summers maintained his opposition to the garage size deviation, but the majority of council expressed comfort with the plan. The item was scheduled for a vote at the regular council meeting later that evening as a 7A item.
- Council removed the item from the consent calendar after prior discussion, leaving it for a separate vote.
Conference & Event Reports
- Arizona League of Cities & Towns: The mayor, vice mayor, and several councilmembers attended the annual conference, where councilmembers Go Forth and Duff moderated panels on transportation funding and public safety hiring/retention, and the mayor participated in a resolution committee on public safety.
- Civic Craft Program: Councilmembers Adams, Duff, and Allen (noted as "Julie") joined a new year-long leadership program through the Arizona League.
- Community Events: Councilmember Adams reported attending Waterworld in Lehigh, where he became dehydrated and injured a hamstring, with Mesa Fire and Medical staff and Officer Nick Curitan providing care. Councilmember Allen won a cinnamon roll bake-off with the fire department. Councilmember Go Forth attended Smith Junior High's curriculum night to support youth engagement, and the mayor attended the Mesa International Film Festival (130+ films), which aligns with the ASU Sidney Poitier New American Film School.
- Water Advocacy: The mayor joined other mayors in the Arizona Municipal Water Use Association to advocate for CAP water resources.
Future Meetings
- A study session and Audit, Finance, and Enterprise Committee meeting were scheduled for Thursday, August 28, 2025, at 7:30 AM.
Meeting Transcript
Well, good early evening, everybody. It's time for study session here. Uh for August 25th, 2025. All of our council members are present. Appreciate every repeat everyone being here. Item one is to review the agenda for tonight's council meeting. I know we went over this earlier. Uh is there any things that you like, council? From staff. I think we have one thing for a rezone in D6. Is that right or D5? It's D5, right? Yeah. And then it's a 7A for the rezoning of Sienna Ridge at 29 unit. It's not a patient. Okay. All right. Council, this might be a short study session. Anything else? Mary, would you like to say anything? So, Mayor, we did provide the all of the council member uh district coordinators with a summary of the uh garage sizes for the adjacent jurisdictions. So if anybody had any questions, we're happy to answer any of those. Yeah, I think that was uh topic of conversation at the earlier one. Vice Mayor, are you good with everything on that? It's off consent, right? Well, right now it's on Cassandra unless you want it off because we removed it last week. Did we remove it? It's off. Okay, it's off. Okay. I'm just curious, I guess, if Councilmember Summers, did you when you saw the garage size like that Mary sent over, did you have thoughts on that? Yeah, we made we had a discussion about this at the last study session, and my my concerns were with the the size of cars aren't getting any smaller, and yet we're shrinking in garage. And I know that in in one instance or several instances, the garage square footage is larger, but the depth is is still coming down, so you can't get an SUV in there. And this is a higher density product. I have no problem with with the development itself. My concern is as we continue to erode standards like this, uh we're we're gonna just create parking problems for the future. So I I just can't. So your same concerns um exist from last Thursday, even after seeing like the comparisons and all that. My concern is it's the same. So it's up to the council, obviously, whether or not that we're gonna accept the PAD, but you know, I I don't support it based on that. Well I would like to offer one clarification. I and I think I don't know if you all can um verify, but according to the applicant, all you said an SUV wouldn't fit. He says all cars and full-size trucks fit. I don't think that's the case. When you when you look at a 20-foot deep garage, that's a really tight fit going in there and just looking at some research of mine. Some will, some will, some won't. My concern is you know, when you look at again, I don't want to keep repeating myself here, but I I think as we shrink that standard with the the growth of uh, you know, particularly when you have something of this high density, you're gonna end up having people parked trying to park in the street, and there's no really place to park in this type of development, so that's gonna bleed out onto the public streets, and while that's legal. Why are we shrinking a standard? I think we created that standard for a reason. Maybe it wouldn't give me as much heartburn if this were say more of a downtown thing when it's we're looking at a car light development, but this is suburban.
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