Well, good evening, everyone.

Welcome to the Mesa City Council study session for January 26, 2026.

That could be a mouthful.

All members of a uh council are present.

Uh is Mr.

Adams uh joining by Zoom.

Do I know?

He's here.

He's here somewhere.

Yeah.

He's literally here or virtually here.

He's literally here.

Okay.

Physically.

Well, he'll he'll be there shortly then.

Ecumenically.

Present.

All right.

So item one is to review the agenda for tonight's council meeting.

I know we went over this agenda previously, but are there any other questions on the agenda tonight?

Yes.

Mayor, I'd like to take um item 7A off consent.

Okay, 7A.

7A is the resolution declaring proposed titles and schedules, terms, rates, and fees and charges for non-residential water utilities services to be a public record.

It's an introduction.

This says take action and introducing the following ordinance.

I think it was wasn't it introduced in December?

I thought it was introduced.

Is it introduction?

Okay, introduction.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

So we'll take action on the introduction.

Mayor, Mr.

You're fine.

I would like to take 5D off to discuss upstairs.

Okay.

5D.

Uh approving and authorized city managers to enter a funding agreement valley metro rail uh for the current light rail operations in the city of Mesa.

Okay.

5D.

Council.

Mayor, could we clarify with Councilmember Duff since it is introduction tonight?

Do you still want it off of consent or do you want to no?

We can just leave it on consent.

Okay.

Thank you.

Great.

Thank you.

Thank you for the clarification.

There's a presentation if you want on 9B, that's the Department of Child Safety of Arizona.

That's at uh University Drive and 80th Street.

Whose district is that?

That's a either two or five.

It's district five.

There it is.

Which one?

9B.

That's the Department of Child Safety, three acres.

A zoning request there to change.

Yeah.

Um, I'd like to see uh have Evan come up if he could and do the short presentation on 10A for people.

I've been working with them on this, but if other council members have questions about this.

So you're good with uh 9B.

Okay.

All right.

10A.

Evan.

All right.

All right.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh Council members.

This is case Z O N 24525.

Um it's a request to rezone from general commercial with a planned area development overlay to general commercial with a new planned area development overlay.

Um it's site plan review to allow for an expansion of an existing boat and RV storage facility.

You can see the subject property is cross-hatched here on the map in red.

One thing that I would point out is the areas to the north and the west, and in that gray color are all within the county.

So this is a uh a county island.

This is the only piece within the county or within the city within that county island.

Uh the general plan is neighborhood with a manufactured home subtype when based on when this application was submitted, it was reviewed under the 2040 uh Mesa General Plan.

It is consistent with um with that.

Um as I mentioned, this is for a new planned area development overlay.

There was a uh planned area development overlay when phase one went in in 2017 that had some deviations to setbacks on the east um in the north side.

This PAD is keeping those modifications and adding just a couple more for phase three.

In in the site plan here for phase three, and I think uh what council member go forth is getting at is is so phase three um is an expansion of the existing facility.

There is also a development agreement on your agenda today.

I mean it has to do with septic.

There is no city sewer in the area.

There is no city sewer proximate to this site.

And in 2017, when the original rezoning was done, the city entered into a development agreement with the property owner that says you can have septic, and we we tailored it to the number of restrooms that are provided in the office building that was built.

Further expansion of of that, so like this phase three expansion is going to require a development agreement to address the restrooms in phase three.

It's going to be set, they're going to put um to have this site ready to tie into sewer in the event that sewer comes down main street to this point.

But right now, sewer is just not not close enough to be feasible for this.

So, yes, it is a rezoning from for RV and boat storage, but it's really what it is is an expansion of an existing use.

Um I'm happy to go over any of the deviations if council has questions, but I won't spend a lot of time on those.

Um we are recommending approval with conditions.

Um and the planning and zoning board also recommended approval with conditions by a vote of six to zero.

We do find that it is consistent with the general plan as well as the overlays for a planned area development, um, overlay and a council use permit.

I know I kind of flew through that, but if anybody has specific questions, I'm happy to get into that.

So I have a question, Evan, about the landscape.

What why we're doing zero, I'm sure there's a reason, but zero additional trees and shrubs on the landscaping.

Uh thank you, Mayor.

Councilmember Go for it.

Let me get to uh an aerial here.

That was one of the deviations that was rolled over from 2017.

And the I think the reasoning behind that is it applies to the freeway side of the development.

And there are um requirements in the code or provisions in the code that allow to not have landscaping in a screen storage area.

Um that was not part of the zoning ordinance when this was originally um approved by council.

So that is what the deviation was for.

So they are landscaping main street, the parts that are are publicly visible, but the landscaping on the perimeter um would be zero in inside inside the fence.

But on the public facing side, correct.

There is landscape.

Correct, the whole landscape main street.

On Main Street, inside the perimeter is the zero.

Right is what you said.

Correct.

Okay.

And that is something that was that is not allowed now and is carryover from 2017.

It is.

I mean it it is allowed.

So there's provisions in the zoning ordinance that say if you have a screen storage yard that you don't have to to include landscape.

It doesn't tend to do well when you've got you know large vehicles and things moving back and forth, okay, which is the idea behind that.

But we also place more of an emphasis on the street side landscaping in that scenario.

Okay.

Okay, appreciate that.

Um, I appreciate that this is an expansion of and and something that was planned.

I mean, it's a it's a fairly industrial area to the west of it, obviously the the highways to the east.

So typically I'm not in favor of expanding and and adding more storage to the city of Mesa, but this was already there and an expansion of whatever what was existing.

Um, I understand.

Here's just a little sort of um critique on the report that I would like to see in the future.

I've seen these a couple of times.

Sure.

So when we have criteria for a CUP, you state the criteria in the report.

I would like to see why it um adheres to the criteria in the answer, not a restatement of the criteria.

For instance, the pro the number one approval of the PROS project will advance the goals and objectives of and is consistent with the policies of the general plan.

That's that's the criteria.

The answer is the proposed project is consistent with the goals of the neighborhood character area designation and and further is the implementation of the vision guiding.

It that doesn't really tell me why.

So if you if you could in the future on the report, when you state the criteria, please give us the why.

Why does it um uh why does it satisfy the criteria?

Understood.

Thank you.

Thank you.

That's all I had.

Anybody else has a question about this one?

Okay.

Thank you, Evan.

I appreciate it.

Thank you.

Well, it's a unique parcel on you know by itself island, really, with Main Street to the what south or north, and then the property parcel to the south of that freeway county.

Uh long time members of the community as well.

This is one of their specialties here.

Yep.

All right.

Thank you, Evan.

Thank you.

Also on the agenda will be uh a presentation take action on the City of Mesa fiscal year, the ACFA report.

That'll be done at the end of the consent agenda.

All right.

Council.

Hearing nothing else.

We'll move on to item two is to acknowledge receipt of board minutes.

Is there a motion to that effect?

Thank you, Miss Duff.

Thank you, Vice Mayor.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

Mayor, may I make a comment on this?

I just want to say how thrilled I am to see um St.

Vincent DePaul Medical Office and a Sprouse in District 3, which is um both of those are just great projects, which are reviewed in the minutes.

So I'm just excited and want to acknowledge that.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Well, with that, we're gonna move over to next is Current Events and conferences attended.

Council, is there anything you'd like to share?

Sure.

Ms.

Yes, on Saturday, I attended the Arizona um Museum and Natural History volunteer luncheon at the post.

It was packed over 8,000 hours.

I can't remember the exact figure of volunteers.

I think it was 8875.

Okay, almost 9,000 hours.

So that's significant for the museum, and it's been very successful.

And you can and I appreciate all their expertise and passion.

And when you walk into the museum, you can you definitely feel it, and I appreciate all the volunteers who uh spend their time um making the museum a welcoming place.

Um also that same uh day I w I attended the unity walk at Tempe Town Lake.

We um gathered with other East Valley cities and came together as a community and uh did a walk around Tempy Town Lake and uh it was very nice.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Anyone else?

Ms.

Taylor.

Thanks.

Uh I I was able to have the honor to go to the paramedic program graduation for the Mesa Fire Department, and uh it was really encouraging to see all these firefighters who had gone the extra mile to receive their paramedic training, and I got to see a firefighter with uh Mayor Freeman, who you said you worked alongside him for 18 years, and he still decided he was gonna take that extra leap and get his paramedic training.

And it just so happened, I don't know if everyone's aware, but um, there was a pretty substantial fire over the weekend in off of Dobson, not 2121 Pennington, and I was thinking what a what a mercy that we have these men and women who just went through this training to be prepared for these types of emergencies, and that type of emergency occurred.

Um so thankfully I called Chief Mary and she said that the firefighters who had been working on the fire were okay, and that the next shift had come in by the time I called her, so the original crew had gone to rest, and that uh the there were very severely burned victims, but they were being tended to, of course, patiently and lovingly at the hospital, and so um yeah, it was just an interesting coincidence that we were at that graduation, and then that happened.

So I was very grateful for those men and women.

And then uh on Friday, I had the S SRP watershed tour, so I got to see where all of our water confluences meet, and they were showing us Bartlett Lake and Horseshoe and uh the chain of lakes, Roosevelt, Apache, and Suaro, and kind of the different levels that they're at and where the water sources come from.

And it was a pretty incredible experience.

I had council member Adams with me.

I don't know if he enjoyed it as much as I do, but I love a good helicopter flight, so that was very exciting.

We're very grateful the SRP took the time to to show us that opportunity to see where Arizona's water comes from.

So that's all anybody else?

Okay.

Well, I didn't Rachel, welcome to the table here, the dias.

I I just noticed that you were here.

Yeah.

All right.

With that, uh Mr.

Butler, can you share a schedule of future meetings?

Mayor, Council, just a reminder that we will not have study session this coming Thursday, January 29th.

It has been canceled.

Our next study session will be Thursday, February 5th at 7 30 a.m.

And then the next council meeting will be Monday, February the 9th.

Thank you, Mayor.

All right.

If hearing nothing else from council, we'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

So thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mr.

Reddy.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

We are adjourned.

We'll meet upstairs shortly.

Thank you, everyone.