Speaker numbers apply only to this recording.
The Surprise City Council held a work session on October 21, 2026, to discuss the city's emergency preparedness related to a hazardous material storage facility, specifically focusing on the existing RinChem facility and its proximity to a proposed 1,500-person federal detention facility. City planning staff and the Surprise Fire-Medical Department (SFMD) provided overviews of zoning, fire code compliance, and tiered emergency response systems. Council members unanimously expressed full confidence in SFMD while directing strong criticism toward the federal agency for its lack of emergency planning and communication.
Very good afternoon, everyone like to call this City Council work session Tuesday, October twenty order. Mayor Starter. Present. Vicemair Greenberg. Here. Councilman Haney. Here. Councilman Duffy. Here. Councilman Melton. Present. Councilman Hastings? Here. Councilman Judd. Here. Thank you, Mayor. We have poem. Thank you, Madam Clerk. Please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance. I Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. And to the Republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Madam Clerk, please read item number one. Item one presentation and discussion related to a hazardous material storage facility. All right. Good afternoon, Mayor and Council. We are here tonight. This presentation this afternoon is response to Councilmember Duffy's request for staff to research what a catastrophic event would look like at a chemical storage facility within the city. So tonight, the first few slides, we're going to talk about zoning, address what the process, the RinChem process looked like when it went through zoning. The remaining will be our fire medical team describing the city's emergency response to a hazardous material event. So with that, I'm going to turn it over to Driver. Thank you. Good evening, Mayor and Council. So the agenda for tonight, I will start out with the entitlement process for the RimCEM facility, and then I'll turn it over to my colleagues in fire department to talk about compliance. Fire department responses for hazmat response operations and emergency management. So the entitlement process for the RIMCEM property began back in 1996 when the site was part of a larger annexation into the city of Surprise. In 2020, it was part of a larger rezone application from light industrial I-1 to General Industrial I-2. This rezone was an effort to expand the amount of loud uses under the industrial zoning district with that I-2 designation and allow for some of those development standards that come along with I2 as well. This was approved by City Council in a public hearing. Fast forward to 2022, a site plan was approved for the RinCem property for warehouse distribution in outdoor storage. The plans and reports were submitted to the city for review and approval, and it was found to be in compliance with city code. In 2022, a building permit was issued for the property and the facility, went through the construction phase, passed all necessary inspections, and then ultimately in 2024, uh a certificate of occupancy was issued, and they were allowed to occupy the facility and begin operations. So with that, I will hand it over to FIRE.