Do you have one of these over there?

I'd like to call this uh to order this planning zoning commission meeting on this Thursday, December eighteenth, uh, two thousand twenty-five.

Could uh Renee Wee please have roll call.

Commissioner Perry.

Here.

Commissioner Holland.

Here.

Commissioner Leonard.

Here.

Chair Chapman.

Here.

Vice Chair Spada.

Here, Commissioner Bash.

Here.

We have a quorum.

Okay, thank you.

If you'd please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance.

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

Indivisible with liberty and justice for all.

Thank you.

And uh he's gonna be with us from now on.

Due to the promotion of Lloyd Abrams, I he's still gonna be a director for uh assistant, but he's been promoted to the assistant city manager.

And for those of you that uh have not read it, there's a great article about uh Director Abrams' biography in the local independent newspaper.

And Director Abrams is with a great wealth of knowledge and always the guy, uh the go-to guy, literally to answer any questions that we've had in the history or in the planning for the future.

We're gonna miss you and uh can count on your positive impact on our cities future.

Congratulations on your new assistant managing position.

I don't know if they but anyway, thank you for your service.

It's been been great.

Thank you, Chair Commission.

Uh, I just want to say it's an honor to be up here, and it's an it's an honor to be um promoted to acting assistant director for um the community development department.

We have some um good update presentations for you later tonight, but nothing additional at this moment.

Okay, thank you very much.

Okay, with that we have uh opportunity for those who would like to uh speak on a non-agenda item tonight.

We have a public hearing for that.

We'll open the public hearing.

Is there anyone, Renee, that we have that would like to speak?

No, Chair.

Okay, thank you.

We'll close the uh public hearing.

And we'll move to our consent section and uh item number one.

Consideration and action to approve or disapprove the November sixth, twenty twenty-five planning and zoning commission meeting minute.

Any discussion?

If not, I'll accept a motion.

I move to approve the November 6th, 2025 Planning and Zoning Commission regular meeting minutes.

I'll take it.

Second, any further discussion?

Then we'll go ahead and vote.

Motion passes with five votes in favor.

Okay, thank you.

We'll move on to item number two.

Consideration and action to approve or disapprove the December 4th planning and zoning commission meeting minutes.

Do we have any discussion?

If not, we'll accept a motion.

I move to approve the December 4th, 2025 planning and zoning commission regular meeting minutes.

Second, it's been moved and seconded.

Any further discussion?

See none, then we'll go ahead and vote.

Motion passes with four votes in favor.

Okay, thank you.

We'll move on to uh item number three.

Consideration and action pertaining to the conditional use permit, CUP with site plan for McDonald's, a drive-thru restaurant facility generally located west of Cerival Avenue and south of Cactus Road within the Sycamore Farms Planned Area Development PAD.

Case FS 250515.

Okay, thank you.

And we have Alex with us tonight.

Good evening, Chair and Commission.

The item before you is for a conditional use permit with site plan titled McDonald's at Sycamore Farms.

Case FS250515.

The area of the project site is 0.85 acres and is located west of the southwest corner of Cactus Road and Cerebal Avenue.

The zoning of this property is Sycamore Farms PAD, and the zoning of the surrounding properties are also PAD to the east, west, and south, with the Prasada PAD to the north.

This project proposes a 3,843 square foot drive-thru facility on a site that is 37,026 square feet.

The land development ordinance states that convenience and takeout restaurants shall have a minimum of one parking space per 150 square feet of gross floor area.

This project proposes a 3,843 square foot building.

So a minimum of 26 parking spaces are required.

25 regular parking spaces are being provided, as well as two ADA accessible spaces for a total of 27 spaces, 10 of which abut the sidewalk at the front of the facility.

The eight spaces located to the south of the site are being provided through an approved parking agreement.

The site will be accessed via an interior drive aisle that connects to cactus via an existing driveway to the east of the site.

Full access, ingress and egress from both directions is being provided from the drive aisle.

The red dotted lines demonstrate the pedestrian connectivity from the site out to the existing sidewalk on Cactus Road.

The site also provides pedestrian access to the interior of the commercial development.

The project was evaluated against the following criteria.

Drive-thru facilities are required to be a minimum of 25 feet from the nearest public right-of-way and 75 feet from residential properties.

The drive-through aisles are required to be at least 11 feet wide with a 25-foot radius on curved sections.

These drive-thru aisles are 12 feet wide with 20 feet at the 25 feet at the radius.

The site is required to have an exit that does not provide access directly to the right-of-way.

This site is accessed via an internal drive aisle that connects to the existing driveway.

The site is required to provide at least 140 feet between the entry point of the drive-thru and the menu board.

Oh, sorry about that.

59 feet are being provided.

It is also required to have at least 100 feet between the ordering facility and the pickup window.

102 feet are being provided.

The entrance to the drive-thru is required to be separated at least 300 feet from the nearest drive-through entrance.

The nearest drive-through entrance is 536 feet away from the proposed drive-through entrance.

A minimum of 140 feet of stacking distance is required for each lane.

These lanes provide over 160 feet of stacking distance.

So long as it is screened using architectural features and landscaping.

This project is screening the drive-thru window with the use of a decorative trellis, landscaping, and uh screen wall.

Canopies are required to be consistent with the building design and shall not exceed 14 feet in height.

The canopy being provided matches the building and has a height of 10 feet 8 inches.

The PAD states that the architectural styles may vary within the development, but the architecture must be consistent with the, but the quality of the architecture must be consistent with the surrounding development.

The primary colors used for this project are black and gray.

And the materials used on the exterior are primarily painted EIFS panels with faux wood paneling.

Varied roof lines have also been incorporated to also match the existing nearby development.

The proposed building colors and material palette will match the existing nearby developments and complement the surrounding area.

The proposed landscaping meets the requirements of the PAD and the land development ordinance.

On site, the applicant is proposing approximately 30% of landscape coverage, which meets the minimum number of trees and shrubs required as required by the LDO.

All plants being installed are listed as low water use and drought tolerant plants by the Arizona Department of Water Resources.

An in-person neighborhood meeting was held at Sonoran Heights Middle School on September 30th, 2025, which was advertised per the requirements of the municipal code.

There was one attendee with general questions about building design, queuing, walkability, line of sight, parking, occupancy, and the status of the development.

If the commission wishes to approve the subject conditional use permit with site plan, case FS250515.

Staff recommends the commission approve subject to stipulations A through E.

The applicant as well as myself are available for questions.

Before we uh open it to the commission for discussion, this does call for a public hearing, and we'd like to open that public hearing.

Renee, is there anyone that would like to speak?

No, Chair.

Okay, thank you.

Uh seeing none, then we'll close the public hearing and open it for discussions for our commissioners.

Seeing none, then we'll uh accept a motion for uh this item.

I'll move to approve the conditional use permit with the site plan for the McDonald's at Sycamore Farms case FS 25-0515, subject to stipulations A3s as outlined in the report.

Second.

Been moved and seconded.

Any discussion?

Then please vote.

Thank you, Alex.

Thank you, Chair and Commission.

Have a great evening.

Motion passes with six votes in favor.

We'd like to move on to uh item number four.

Presentation and discussion to review fiscal year 25 citywide transportation update, including city construction projects, city design projects, regional improvements in planning for future.

Oh, you have repoils.

Uh good evening, commissioners.

How are you tonight?

I get the uh dubious honor tonight of uh coming to PNZ and uh following my man Alex and uh actually getting a presentation on Trevor's first uh first day up there on the daya.

So I'm uh I'm really excited about that.

Um if y'all don't know me, I'm Eric Boyles.

I'm the transportation director here at the city.

Um I get to I get to build roads and I get to help people get from point A to point B, and it's something I love about my job.

So I'm very excited to be here tonight.

I'm going to kind of take you on a journey through kind of what we've been doing here in the in the last uh couple years here at Surprise and give you kind of just an update um citywide on kind of what we've been doing in transportation.

Uh so here's transportation by the numbers.

So currently we have over 100 million dollars in roadway improvements under construction right now.

Um we also have uh over 100 million of roadway projects uh under design as well.

So you can kind of see we're we're building now, but we're also kind of uh designing what we're gonna be building here in the future.

Uh and then at that same time, we have over 7.5 million dollars in signal projects uh either under construction or design right now uh to kind of help our signal network and uh make our transportation network as efficient as possible.

Uh so I'm gonna give you a first rundown on what we're doing right now out there.

Um 163rd Avenue Improvement Projects.

This was one of our projects in our 2023 Geobond uh that was adopted by the residents of the city.

Uh construction started in January of 2024, and the anticipated completion date is 7 of 27.

Now I know a lot of people will see that timeline and say, oh my gosh, that's that's a really long time.

But uh one of the great things about this project is we really advanced this project well ahead uh of when it was actually supposed to start construction.

Um when ADOT uh implemented dual rights on US 60 uh to help with the flow to get people off of US 60 on to 163rd.

Um we kind of went in and added another lane.

Um so we kind of advanced that a lot sooner than we would have, uh but it did provide some relief for our residents up there.

Um so uh one of the things I think I'm most proud of is you know our additional lane uh from US 60 uh to Pat Tillman was done in March of 2024.

So you can see we started in January and we had pavement done in roughly three months.

I don't know if I've ever seen any any project done at the city go that fast before.

So something that we were really proud of.

So scope of this project is we're widening roadways to basically doing the full build out of 163rd, all the way from US 60 up to the JoMax Road intersection.

Uh it also includes traffic signal installations along that corridor as well as uh other intersection improvements, curb, gutter, sidewalk, drainage improvements, uh, street lighting uh to kind of help that that main corridor up there in North Surprise.

Um right now, uh like I said, that the additional lane was a significant milestone, but we also implemented the Happy Valley Road traffic signal in October of 2024.

And then I'm happy to report uh we're done with what I'm calling the first phase of that from US 60 to Happy Valley.

We're pretty much done.

Um, and we released it back to the residents.

So hope they're very happy about that.

Um so coming the beginning of the year, we're gonna move from Happy Valley Road uh up to Joe Max uh and get the rest of it kind of widened.

Uh kind of moving down here to um surprise proper uh cactus road uh from Litchfield Road to the BNSF crossing.

Uh construction started in that in October of 2024, uh and that was completed in August of 2025.

Uh we widened that uh roadway roughly half a mile.

Uh we did some rail crossing upgrades, uh road and rail safety improvements.

Uh and then there was a traffic signal that was uh installed there.

Um so one of the things you'll see, you'll see multiple projects along Cactus Road uh that I'm gonna highlight.

Uh but our goal on that is we're roughly gonna be widened the cactus road almost from uh the eastern end of our city all the way to the west.

So uh providing another major arterial connection uh east to west to kind of help serve Bell Road and hopefully we'll get some of uh some of our commuters off of uh that roadway and kind of down south a little bit.

Um so that's that uh this is what we called uh that first cactus project was what we called little cactus.

This is uh this is big cactus.

Uh so where we widened cactus road all the way from Contlanes to Reams.

Umstruction started in March of 24, and then we actually completed that one in November of 2025.

Um so roadway widening along two miles.

Uh we had a 303 that kind of bisected that, made things uh a little bit challenging, but uh we kind of got it uh we got it done.

We have uh new signals at Greer Ranch, uh Prasada Parkway.

We had the full build out of the intersection at uh cotton and cactus, which uh will help uh school drop off uh at Legacy and just help kind of in and out flow uh along that.

So now let's move into kind of some of the projects we have in design.

Uh so this is the final stretch of cactus, like I told you.

We're gonna get all the way to the to the very west.

Um so we're gonna widen Cactus Road from the 175th Avenue to the roughly the Beardsley Canal.

Uh it's roughly a mile and a half of roadway widening.

Once again, curb gutter, sidewalk, street lights, uh raise median, uh, traffic signal improvements.

Uh designs roughly a little more than 30%.

Um we've selected our CMAR contractor, they are on board, and we're roughly um anticipating design to be completed uh the summer of 2026.

Um and then anticipated construction will start in 27, pending that pesky right-away that we got to get on all of these projects.

Um then here's our our major one it's Happy Valley Road widening.

So I'll go from 163rd to our eastern city limits.

As you guys know, Happy Valley Road serves as another major thoroughfare for our North Surprise residents.

Uh, anytime that there's uh uh accident or something at 163rd, this is their other way to access the 303.

So what we're gonna do is we're gonna try to road uh widen the roadway roughly three and a half miles, traffic signals, curb gutter, and sidewalk, improve drainage crossings so that we can kind of get people in and out of that area of the city.

Uh once again, designs at 30%.

We have our CMAR contractor on board.

Uh, we're anticipating design to be done in summer of 26, then also start on this one, uh start of FY27, you know, pending any right of way that we have to acquire.

Uh Wadell Road.

Um, this is kind of another effort to maximize our arterial roadway network within the city.

It's also one of our bond projects.

Um, this is going to widen Wadell Road from 175th to Cotton Lane.

Uh, so you can kind of see we also have curb gutter sidewalks, traffic signal improvements.

Um, and then this project will actually complete the widening of Wadell Road from eastern city limits uh all the way to our western city limits.

So to once again provide another RTO roadway to help serve Bell Road.

Uh design started in July of 2025, and we're also uh anticipating to start construction in FY27.

And then this is uh this is my my my what I call my pet project.

Um this was uh one of the things that uh we worked with uh city council on is how do we increase our access points for North Surprise?

Uh so we looked at seven or eight different options.

Uh the Jomax Road extension project roughly runs from Dysart Road to 126 uh drive over there by Vistancia.

Um it's a very small segment of roadway, but it's one of the ones that we could build in a in a short period of time uh to provide another east-west connection for North Surprise.

Uh so we executed an IGA with the city of Peoria.

Um they are cost-sharing that with us.

Um, it was a very good effort between Peori and Surprise to get this done.

It made sense from fire's perspective and mutual aid response to get you know fire in and out uh to serve that area as well as our residents in time of of when 163rd is either congested too much or or shut down for whatever reason.

Uh design is currently at 30 30 percent.

Uh, we've actually just brought on our CMAR contractor.

So we're working on that, and we're anticipating to complete design in I'll say probably mid-2026, and then also start construction in uh FY27, I think that's where that's gonna end.

So if you can't tell, we're gonna be really busy in FY27 with a lot of these projects that are currently under design.

Um so now I kind of want to give you a uh uh a look at what we do uh on the regional perspective as well.

So kind of covered all everything that we do as at the city, uh, but we also work with our regional partners to try to solve some of the larger uh transportation uh challenges that we face.

Um through some of our advocacy efforts and some of the work that we do now in the Capitol by uh our our intergov Jody Toss and our council members.

Um we actually received funding to do uh a number of interim or near-term improvements at US 60 and uh state route 303.

So as you can see in December, you know, we added additional turning lanes off of the state route 303.

We added additional right turn lanes on to 163rd.

Uh we actually widened or we didn't widen, but we got uh approval to get three lanes there because before it was kind of scalloped down at the bridges.

Uh so we worked with ADOT to uh kind of work on some of their design guidelines and get FHWA to approve kind of shorter lane widths on the bridge so we can get three lanes from the state route 303 TI all the way up to one 163rd.

Um and then in November, we also added a third left turn lane out for 163rd.

We did some work on some of the off ramps, and then we added another eastbound lane just to do everything we can in in the short phase to kind of help help an already congested area, but kind of maximize everything that we had on the ground.

Um so we didn't stop there.

We went to a got uh we did some more advocacy.

Uh we fought for some more funding to do a second phase of near-term improvements um in that area.

So what you'll see here is the big one, and this one is uh an additional right turn lane onto State Route 303 for all the traffic that's coming off of 163rd.

Right now it pitches down just to that one turn lane on there.

This will provide a second one, it'll help traffic kind of move a little bit easier.

Um we're gonna lengthen some of the acceleration uh the off ramps or the on ramps, excuse me, um, and then do some safety improvements along US 60 to help just the US 60 flow a little bit better as you're traveling down to the TI.

Uh construction started on that in October uh of this year, and we got roughly about 145 calendar days, so it's slated to finish up kind of springtime of 2026.

If you've been out there, they've already graded the the additional right turn lane.

So uh I think we're gonna get that uh additional right turn lane open a little bit sooner than uh than uh springtime.

Um here's here's the big project, right?

In prop 479 when that was adopted.

This is the new TI at uh State Route 303 and 155th.

Uh so the city worked with uh ADOT uh to conduct a project assessment.

So originally uh you may have heard that uh we had a alignment of uh a new TI at the Litchfield Road alignment, which was much farther east.

Um so in that study, we identified where would a location be along State Route 303 to pull the most traffic off of the 163rd intersection.

Um that ended up becoming the 155th alignment.

Uh it basically pulls off roughly 33 percent of traffic off of that 163rd uh TI.

So uh we're trying to get as many people off there and directly onto the 303 as we can to help uh the residents in that area.

Um it also uh reduces traffic volumes um on 163rd or on US 60 as well, you know, because everybody comes off the TI and has to go north to get on to 163rd.

So it should help US 60 as well uh as 163rd.

Um so you can kind of see some of the stats there.

Uh it reduces wait times uh along that area um roughly about 2.3 minutes uh during peak time.

I know that doesn't sound a lot, but uh uh as as many of you know if you've ever been there during peak time, sometimes it could be a lot longer.

Um so we're hoping that uh this will really provide them another uh in point uh access in.

Um so you can kind of see from the map there, along with the TI, the city's gonna have a pretty heavy lift to actually make the arterial connections right now because Pinnacle Peak Road kind of ends uh at that development right just short of the canal.

Um so with this project, we're gonna extend Pinnacle Peak over as well as bring 155th down from Happy Valley Road and then eventually connect McMick and Way so that we have three points of access for North Surprise.

Um I don't know if this is open for questions, or if you want to get through your presentation, Eric.

I'm willing to take questions at any time if you want.

I'm I'm pretty easy going.

So it's just a quick question.

So coming off of Pat Tillman, you'll be able to cross 163rd onto Pinnacle Peak, pinnacle peak right now.

As you say, it it ends where that um uh development is behind the CCV on 163rd.

Then you'll have to put a bridge in over the canal uh to make this connection.

Uh Chair and Commissioner Perry, that is correct.

Wow.

Uh I didn't realize this.

And then so then you'll some folks will be able to come down uh to McMicken to hit this interchange in the other direction if you're up on those developments on Happy Valley, which are east of uh 155th.

Jaren Commissioner Perry, that is also correct.

Oh, that's excellent.

We're trying to get as many access points into that TI as possible.

Okay, thank you.

That that was my question and uh and my delight.

That that was my question and uh and my delight, uh thank you for the Christmas present for all the folks of us that live up in that area.

Well, I I I you're welcome.

It's not just me.

Um just one another point.

Uh Pinnacle Peak currently is a you know two-lane road.

Uh that'll be widened to a four-lane road, uh, as well as uh 155th, and then uh McMickan Way won't carry as many traffic volumes, so we'll probably keep that as a two-lane connection um just until uh you know we get development out to that area, uh depending on how that goes.

And is that 155th bridge over the Beardsley Canal?

Uh do you have an idea now how many lanes that will be wide?

Uh I asked that at a meeting uh a couple of weeks ago when we were talking about rezoning in there.

Uh Chair, Commissioner Perry, uh 155th is slated to be four lanes in each direction.

Um it will we're not through the design yet, but we're gonna build out the intersection kind of for full build out.

So I think you'll see a much larger intersection that feeds into our arterial roadways for future, you know, expansion, whatever that may be.

Um, but we really do want to get as much people through that intersection as possible.

The last thing we want is free flow access to State Route 303, but we're holding them up at an intersection uh just north of the TI.

Thank you.

Um so timeline and funding.

Um, like I said, all the funding's identified in Prop 479, but we do have a large significant local share that we have to do with the construction of those arterial roadways.

Uh final design is currently underway uh right away in utility clearances at the ADOT level uh will start in 2027, and we're anticipating construction to start in 2028.

Um ADOT is partnered with the city, ADOT will be leading that project because ADOT will be building the TI, so it makes a whole lot of sense for them to build the arterial roadways as well.

Uh last thing I would want is uh a nice new Ferrari of a TI on there, but I I ain't got my arterial roadways done yet.

Uh so I think it made a lot of sense for that to be a regional project led by ADOT.

Um, and then here's really the the ultimate um uh uh answer to some of the the problems that we have in North Sabrise, and that is the State Route 303 US 60 full traffic uh system interchange.

Uh some of those pictures that you see right there are kind of renderings out of our US 60 corridor study, which I'll talk about a little bit later in the presentation.

Um, but I'll give you a little bit of background.

So we completed a feasibility study for this in in June of 2022.

Um we we fought for some funding to get that done.

Um, and that's where some of those short-term or near-term improvements were identified out of that study, but it also contemplated the full build out of what right now is an interim TI or what I'd like to call like a half TI in that area.

Um it also provides a solution for 163rd uh and US 60 grade separation.

So that bottom picture there you see there, that's uh a raised 163rd over the railroad uh at a single point uh urban interchange.

Um and then it also uh contemplates uh basically the full build out of the State Route 303 US 60 TI.

Um that thing is uh uh one of the biggest ones I've seen.

Uh I I worked at ADOT for a long time.

Um I I don't know if I've seen one bigger uh than that in Arizona.

You can see it's basically three levels um you uh with US 60 topping it, uh State Route 303 coming through, and then we still have uh uh some US 60 lanes uh uh underneath it.

So um timeline and funding for this one.

This is this one's gonna be gonna be a little bit pricey, um, but it is identified for funding in Prop 479.

Um, we're actually uh design is slated to go in 2028 to 2030, pre-design first, and then uh final design, right-of-way in utilities in 2030 and construction in 2033.

Um, so it's our job at the city.

We know that it's not gonna be fast enough.

Uh so how do we bring that forward, much like we did uh the US uh the State Route 303, 155th TI.

Um, so we're gonna try to work with our partners to advance that.

So hopefully um once we construct um the the new interchange at 155th, we're moving right into construction uh on this this guy, and we're gonna we're gonna have a whole lot more happy residents uh up in that uh area of surprise.

Um so now, oh yep.

Could you go go back to that uh slide, Eric?

Um I know that we're we're quite a ways away.

I mean, we're talking six to eight years for that uh for this ultimate interchange.

Uh my question is, is that going to require, and and the the answer may be not known at this point.

Is that gonna require uh a rerouteing of 163rd in that area or of the connections?

And and the reason I'm asking is because of the development, uh commercial development specifically that's going on uh right in that area.

Um, and that will continue with the Sante Trails, and then if uh Honor Health uh does anything, um that that access and egress could be affected if you've got a uh uh an interchange over there.

And is that all part of the process, or will there be uh internal rerouting, or is it just too early to know?

Uh Chair and Commissioner Perry, I I think it's a little bit of both, right?

Um I do think it's too early to tell right now.

We are not into design on this just yet.

Um, but any time you build uh you know a grade separated uh interchange, much like that, um, I think you're gonna have to figure out a way of how we uh egress traffic out while it's being constructed, i.e., if you remember the Bell Road uh interchange over here where we grade separated Bell Road, right?

Um so it's something that we'll be looking at.

Um, but you know, just to be completely honest with you, it's um sometimes you you do have to crack a few eggs to uh to make an omelet.

So uh, but as always, we kind of we'll we'll work with ADOT, we'll work with the design team to try to minimize the uh impacts of our of our both our residents and our commercial developments uh in the area while that construction goes on.

Great.

Thank you, sir.

Um so then what's what's next, right?

We've we've gone through construction on our journey, we've gone through design.

So how do we plan for the future?

And I think uh uh being a transportation guy, I think this is probably what I'm most proud of and most uh most excited about is how are we going to grow into the future?

Um so one of the things that we uh undertak here uh roughly about you know six to eight months ago, really um was our first uh transportation master plan here at the city.

Um, you know, we also doing a US 60 corridor study uh that I mentioned with MAG and uh and ADOT, and then also State Route 74.

Uh so we're we're we're into deep into the planning efforts on all of our major corridors in that North Surprise area um to kind of see where we're gonna be, not only now, uh, but where we need to be in the future.

Um so my baby or my uh my my effort here is uh our surprise transportation master plan.

Um, like I said, it's currently underway.

Um we are trying to you know establish a foundation for what um our transportation network's gonna currently looks like uh and then what it's gonna look like in the future.

Uh we're covering all different modes of transportation uh under that plan.

Uh and then we are really doing uh a lot to solicit input and feedback from our residents.

Um I I think one thing that uh I am most proud of is the amount of resident engagement that we that we have and we've planned for this uh TMP is probably far more than uh you've ever seen with any TMP.

Um me also being uh an old finance guy, um, I'm also taking a I think a unique approach of uh how we look at uh funding uh in the plan, right?

Um one of the things that I've always struggled most in my career uh as I look at some of those plans, it's great to have a plan, but how do you deliver a plan, right?

So I think we will we will look at framework and we will look at options not only to identify the needs, but then how do I fund them?

Um so I can deliver a plan that the residents can know that at least we we we have a shot at uh you know bringing some of those uh improvements that we've identified in the plan.

Um it's gonna identify our immediate needs, short term, midterm, and then also long term.

So uh we'll be able to use this and update this plan moving forward, and uh it'll kind of drive uh no pun intended, uh, how we how we develop out there uh in all of surprise.

Um secondly is our US 60 corridor study.

Um this is wrapping up.

Um I think it's basically uh early 2026, they're ready to issue this one.

Uh but this is kind of where some of those uh improvements that you've seen that I talked about, uh those major regional improvements are identified.

Um we actually worked with uh MAG to take a look at our arterial roadways um as part of this study as well, and we're gonna incorporate um the findings out of this study into our master plan as well.

So we're complementing each other as uh we go with that, and we're all kind of speaking the same language at the city level and in our regional level as well.

So um, like I said, this one will kind of develop uh what our realistic future network and what the US 60 corridor will actually look like uh from that TI all the way up to State Route 74.

And then finally, uh least uh not least uh as our State Route 74 corridor transportation study.

Uh, this really is the future, you know, as uh US 60 is kind of uh, you know, kind of is here and and it and and it will be for the next few years, but even looking long longer term out as we develop, State Route 74 is gonna be in the same bucket that we are with uh US 60 now.

So we're starting to plan for this and see kind of what what does that need to look like uh as we develop out in North Surprise.

Uh MAG is leading this one as well.

Um, and we are anticipated to be done probably mid-2026.

I know that says late 2025.

Uh they had a few hiccups at MAG trying to get the study over the finish line, but um they're working diligently to get it done.

Um, so this will kind of leave the framework for what uh our State Route 74 looks like.

And with that, I'm done done with the road trip or you know, whatever you want to call it, uh the journeys, and I'm uh be willing to entertain any questions or comments from you guys.

First let me say thank you for all the hard work you're doing.

Gee, you got a lot accomplished this last year.

You got great plans uh for our future here.

And boy, you're doing a lot of work, boy.

Thank you for that.

Chair, I appreciate it.

Thank you.

So, gee, what a great staff you must have too to help work with you.

I I can't do it without them.

I I uh you know, no, no offense anyway.

I think we got the best team uh around here.

Um even though I know he's he's he's trying to say something else over there.

Oh, thank you very much.

Well, let's open this up for discussion.

Did anybody have any questions?

Boy, that's that's impressive.

Must did a great job.

Okay, you're no commissioner Perry would have another one, you know.

Well, just for that uh all I was uh all I was going to say, but I may have to withdraw my comments was to thank you so much, Eric.

Uh you have not only uh are doing all of this planning in the background, but you have been the public face uh and with with Lloyd.

Uh, but you've been the public face, uh, especially in North Surprise at all of the meetings in terms of really hearing citizens' comments.

And some of them are helpful, and some of them are uh comments to uh to be considered.

But you are always there to speak to folks.

You're uh you've made friends in the uh North Surprise and in District One because of your willingness to listen, and more than anything, because of your willingness to react quickly.

Uh I have been to meetings where citizens have made some comments, and within a day or two, Eric's got a team out doing things uh to uh to improve uh the roadway.

And he's been very effective at everything, but putting a sign up before Pat Tillman so that you can see that at night.

And that's um, but uh I know that Eric will be right on top of that now.

But thanks for thanks for the good job.

Chair and Commissioner Perry, thank you for your kind words.

Um it's one of the things I love most about my job is I get to interact with residents.

Um, so you know, I mean uh a lot of our uh council members kind of joke, you know, it's uh it's the small stuff that we can get done quickly, is what sometimes makes the biggest difference.

So uh that's what me and the team have kind of adopted and what we try to do.

So uh I appreciate everything.

Thank you very much for your presentation.

Thank you.

Thank you, staff for the great work.

Okay, we'll move on to item number five.

Presentation and discussion to review fiscal year 25 community development department and planning and zoning commission activity.

Oh, name off the stage.

Oh, yeah.

Dr.

Boyles is such a hard act to follow.

It takes three of us in community development.

So uh myself, Mindy, and Trevor are here to give you an update about um what's been happening on the development side of things this past year.

So we're gonna start with the activity that has come before you all on the planning and zoning commission.

Then we'll get into what the community development department has been doing that maybe you don't see.

And then we'll touch on ongoing development activity.

So starting with planning and zoning commission activity, starting with the mission rather, the planning and zoning commission exists to promote the health, safety, and beauty of the community and secure growth and development within the city in conformance with the general plan.

And you all do that by evaluating a number of cases each year.

This slide shows the last four fiscal years, the number and type of cases that you have reviewed.

And as we all know, that number has dropped off significantly as our state legislature has mandated a variety of entitlements become administrative versus coming before you all.

So this year you had 65 cases that you reviewed, the majority of which were site plans and final plats.

When we talk about the approved preliminary plats that came before you all, we've got them mapped here.

So there were four that resulted in almost 1,300 lots.

Final plats.

Again, here we've got residential and commercial.

So there were 29 total, resulting in 914 platted lots.

And this is just another way of looking at the total approved final plates.

Moving on now to the community development department.

We exist to guide responsible growth in the city to deliver exceptional service and proactive planning, permitting, building safety, and code enforcement, supporting surprises vision for sustainable growth, livability, and community resilience.

Our vision is to create a well-designed and vibrant surprise that honors our heritage, embraces innovation, plans for the future, and connects people to opportunity and build strong and safe neighborhoods where everyone thrives.

So as a department, this is what we're working towards every single day.

We are led by assistant city manager slash our ongoing director, uh Abrams, and then myself, Mindy, and Trevor acting as assistant directors over various divisions of the department.

As an administrative team, we're responsible again for the oversight of those divisions, supporting council's goals and initiatives, and of course, solving today's problems while thinking about the city's future.

Our business operations division exists to support development and permitting software, so the applications that we use to actually facilitate development.

Our business operations team is also responsible for managing all of the financials.

So they develop our annual budget, they manage our contracts for goods and services, and they manage over 80 development agreements.

This is our business ops team in front of our project utopia sign.

Project Utopia is a big effort that we have going on behind the scenes.

We are looking to replace our existing development software, and we're looking to what do we want to use for the future.

How can we be more transparent?

How can we make some improvements, integrate with our ESRI GIS systems to just have more functionality that we're lacking?

We're working on a system that's been fantastic to us, but it is about a 20-year-old system at this point in time.

So this has been a multidisciplinary and departmental effort.

There's not a city in the department that has not weighed in on internal requirements gathering.

So we've met with each of the city departments that have a role in development and said, what do you need?

How do you need it?

How do we serve you better?

And look for a system that or systems that can help us do that.

And we will be starting our external requirements gathering come January.

So we're actually we've got a survey out now to anybody that's interacted with our current development system or processes.

If you've ever pulled a permit from the city, we want to hear your feedback about what that experience was like and then how we can do better.

So we're really taking our time to make sure that we're surveying everybody that so that we have a system that really can take us the next five, 10, 15 years into the future.

In terms of business operations, this slide shows the revenues that we've brought in.

So we were down a little bit from last fiscal year, but still doing relatively well at about 19 million dollars.

And then these are the sources that fund that revenue.

It's largely our permit fees, as you can see, and administrative fees.

They research legal access, ownership, et cetera, and they manage the city's land and lease agreements.

You can see here some FY25 projects that they were participated in.

This team works very closely with Director Boyle's transportation department when it comes to roadway CIP projects and making sure that we have easements of access and right of way.

They appear in front of you often.

They're responsible for design review and pre-application meetings.

They spearhead the city's development processes, and then they do case management and current and long range planning efforts.

So some big initiatives that our planning division completed was the update to the general plan.

We are currently working on the desert rural overlay that will that was adopted as part of that plan that we will be coming before you hopefully in the next four to six months on.

They also worked on the continuation of the Prasada and Prasada North developments, Asante, and then zoning text amendments related to the legislative updates.

With that, I'm going to pass it over to Mindy.

Good evening.

Development services and building safety are responsible for the intake and processing of all building permit applications, in addition to temporary use permits and special event permits.

They do all plan review and building inspections, both residential and commercial.

On the multifamily side, Artero Apartments and Orchard Springs.

And then a staff driven initiative was to update our international building codes to the most recent version.

And with your support, City Council did approve the adoption of the international codes and the local amendments on December 2nd.

Our plan review team maintains an excellent response time.

So 97.3% of the 17,141 reviews that were completed were on time.

So statistically, that's one of the highest on time or early data sets across the region.

On the residential permit side, we issued 2,711 residential permits, 384 pool permits, and then there was a decline on the multifamily and the condo town home permits this year.

So there were two multifamily permits, the two complexes I mentioned on the previous slide, and 154 condos or townhomes.

So that decline is reflective of the broader regional trend there.

This map shows the concentration of residential permits.

So obviously there was a um high concentration up in the north part of the city with uh Desert Oasis and Asante, and then down on the southwest um corridor in the Zenjero area.

Uh commercial permits uh remain um consistently high.

So we processed 305 commercial permits this year.

Um, commercial square footage was down, but still significant at over a million square feet of commercial space, and our valuation was at 152.1 million.

Um, this map may be a little bit hard to see, but that is the distribution of the 305 commercial permits along primarily heavy concentration along the 303 corridor, Bell Road and Grand Avenue.

Um, so our TI activity is another indicator of economic health.

So TI work means spaces are being activated.

So we're at a high over the last five years of 223 TI permits issued, and um almost 650 square thousand.

Let me say that again, 650,000 square feet of um activated uh commercial space.

Uh the valuation is over 51 million.

Uh so we are slightly down on our building inspections uh in on our building inspection count at 59,000, um, but that is still a significant number of building inspections for our team to complete uh in one year.

Uh code enforcement continues to safeguard uh neighborhood compliance.

So the code enforcement team is responsible for the education and enforcement of um all of the codes that we touch.

So the property maintenance code, the sign code, all of the enforcement for the international building codes, uh, the zoning ordinance, the LDO, our short-term rental node or short-term rental ordinance, as well as multiple other city municipal codes.

Um, some key projects for code enforcement this year.

We continue to work on our uh strategic effort to improve uh to reduce blight and improve livability within the OTS.

So this year we partnered with the surprise police department and HSCB to coordinate our first graffiti paint out event.

So we had many residents volunteer to assist with this event, and we removed graffiti from over 22 properties within the UTS that morning.

Code Enforcement has the first trainee program within the division.

So we worked with HR to create an inspector one trainee position.

And we brought over an internal employee from sports and tourism, a groundskeeper, put him through the inspector one training program, and he's successfully been promoted to the inspector one permanent position.

So we're really proud of him.

Code enforcement continues to monitor the approved semi-truck parking locations, the two locations throughout the city.

So we're ensuring that those properties are clean and they're in compliance.

And we're also monitoring any illegal semi-truck parking throughout the city and working with PD surprise police department to report those issues.

And we've had some technology enhancements this year.

So we've worked with our IT GIS team to create an app that allows us to track and visualize all of the graffiti locations throughout the city.

And we're also tracking quantifying the number of illegal like snipe signs, the signs that are stuck in the intersection.

Oopsor, intersections throughout the corner.

So we're tracking and able to visualize that on a map as well.

So code enforcement opened almost 5300 cases, and we've closed almost 50 100 within fiscal year 25.

Our inspections were down slightly this year to 14,439.

I will attribute that to two things.

We were short-staffed part of the year, and second, we had a very dry year in fiscal year 2025.

So normally we have a very robust weed season where we have a lot of um vegetation violations throughout the city, and it was it was pretty dry.

So I believe that's why our numbers were pretty low there.

Thank you, Chair Commission.

Um, so as Mindy and Tiffany stated, you we have a lot of development going on throughout the city as a whole.

Um, but I wanted to highlight a few and provide some kind of visual updates for some of the major projects going on.

So on the commercial side um in Sycamore Farms, uh the new fries on Cactus and Cerebral is now open along with their fueling station.

There's some inline tenant suites connected to that fries that are about to come online.

And then um just adjacent to that, there's an EOS gym that is nearing completion, as well as the pads um out along Cactus Road that are um either constructed under construction or just recently received approval.

Just uh west of that is the home depot development that is completed and opened.

Uh the uh this development has um some pad spaces out front as well along Tactus Road.

Uh, we've had some pre-application meetings for those, but nothing approved or under construction there yet.

Moving over to City Center here, um, the first phase of the Simon Seary development um, right, um, just north of where we are now is complete.

Um, you'll see here some of the uh most of the the tenant suites are filling up and all of the out parcels are completed.

And so you can see here mission barbecue farmer boys and better buzz.

Moving up north to the Asante Trails area at 163rd and Pat Tillman.

Um, this is another Simon City development.

Um there's uh an L-shaped commercial property there uh with about nine different commercial pads.

Um those are all under different stages of the development process.

Um there's some buildings being constructed and nearing completion, um, others in various stages of the development review process.

And then just south of that um is the recently approved lot three of Asante Trails that'll have a grocery anchored uh shopping center as well.

In Prasada North, um, further completion of this development.

So you've got the um the American furniture on the west side, and then on the east side of Prosada Parkway is the uh target anchored shopping center.

The inline tenants have uh been filling up and the out parcels, uh including Starbucks, Chase, Shake Shack, Portillos, um, those are all um just about done, if not already completed and opened.

There is one more um inline major uh tenant in that um that shopping strip that is uh currently under review.

There were a few hotels um that were approved and under construction, so live away suites is near Grand and Mountain View Boulevard.

Um that's uh nearing completion, and then Fairfield Marriott is just about done in Prasada on the multifamily side.

There's the Estilla at San Hero Trails.

This is one of those bungalow built-arrent communities in Zanjero Trails at Cactus and Peryville, and then Album Surprise, just west of uh where we are here at Parkview in Paradise is a traditional multifamily development that's under construction, and then also here in City Center is a new townhome product that is um underway.

Their their model uh fourplex is um just about done.

Um and they've gone vertical vertical with most of their buildings as well.

And with that, we'd be happy to take any questions or comments.

Well, thank you for the presentation.

Looks like you folks have been really busy too, you know.

And it's great to get an update from from all of you, all the things that are happening.

It's it's uh kind of exciting to see all the new things that are happening to our city.

So we'll open up for discussions.

Anyone from the commission?

Any questions?

Boy, great presentation.

Well, you don't have any questions.

So thank you very much for your presentation and you guys thank you.

Thank you, Staff.

Okay.

Um other future agenda items that are interested in uh for the commission.

If not, then uh I would like to uh just make one more comment about our new assistant uh city manager.

Congratulations for your promotion, and also our assistant director Trevor.

Congratulations for both of you and welcome aboard.

And uh with that, I'll entertain a motion for adjournment.

I'll motion to adjourn.

Second.

So move to second.

Voice vote for all those in favor, say aye.

Those opposed, those abstain.

We are adjourned,