Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout09/16/2004 Study Session MinutesMINUTES OF RANCHO MARANA STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL SEPTEMBER 16, 2004 PLACE AND DATE Marana Town Hall, September 16, 2004 L CALL TO ORDER By Mayor Sutton at 5:00 p.m. All Council Members were present and seated on the dais except for Council Member Escobedo who was excused. II. GENERAL ORDER OF BUSINESS 1. Amendments to Rancho Marana Specific Plan Mr. Reuwsaat outlined the study session's purpose. He pointed out that radical changes for all areas included in the Rancho Marana Specific Plan had been recommended and one of the areas slated for change, the Town Core, was the topic of this workshop. Mr. Reuwsaat .remarked that the discussion would further define the Town Core in a manner in which the Council saw fit and not allow the Rancho Marana Specific Plan in its totality to drive the process. Kevin Kish distributed a brief history and timeline of the Rancho Marana West project and said that the original specific plan was adopted in 1990. He noted ~ that the plan sat dormant for approximately nine years before it was amended to splitting the developers' responsibilities and updating circulation plans. He pointed out that when development pressures from the environmental issues on the east side of Interstate 10 up into the farm fields on the west side were coming to the attention of Town officials in 2000, the Town Council completed the Northwest Marana Area Plan. He remarked that the Rancho Marana and northwest Marana development activity began in 2001. He said that Farm Field Five was submitted and that a mandatory update of the Marana General Plan for the Growing Smarter issues was ratified by the voters on March 11, 2003. '' He noted that this amendment confirmed the circulation pattern from the Northwest Marana Area Plan. He continued by explaining that Vanderbilt Farms came online soon after, then Rancho Marana 154, both with completed development agreements. He said that the Specific Plan and the Block Plat for Vanderbilt Farms was in the process of being taken before the Council for review and consideration. MINUTES OF RANCHO MARANA STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL SEPTEMBER 16, 2004 Mr. Reuwsaat commented that in this process and from Council direction as well as senior management, the time needed to be taken to conform to the Council vision, the owners and developers of the properties agreed and have gracefully pulled out those areas from the specific plan in order to go through additional processes to ensure that the end result would be a product the Town could be proud of 50 years from now. He said that the developers as well as the property owners understood the needs and the vision and were on board to move forward with the Towri s proposed approach. Jim Mazzocco spoke before the Council regarding this project and said that this was a vision for the Town Center. He said that the area known as the Town Core was the triangular area encompassing Sandario Road, Barnett Road, and I-10. He agreed that confusion had been caused by the multitude of names for this area and that staff's goal was to clear this confusion by exact definition He explained that his staff was recommending that more information be brought before Council about the Town Center building guidelines, more specificity in design guidelines, the districting of the town center and a better understanding of what type of land use mix fit in that area. Mr. Reuwsaat said that a complaint from both the private and the public sectors was the uncertainty of the Town Core design. He said that by pulling this section out and spending more time on areas that were not the traditional attached residential, the Town would be able to provide the detailed specificity that a developer or property owner could bank a project on and go forward to build out. He noted that this was not currently found in the specific plan to a comfortable level for all. Mayor Sutton asked if any member of the public. wished to speak to this issue. No speakers came forward. Council Member Honea commented that the area encompassed by Barnett Road and the Sandario Road alignment comprised the Town Core. He asked how some of the other areas mentioned had been added to this area. Mr. Mazzocco and Mr. Reuwsaat both replied that this was part of the Northwest Marana Area Plan. Mr. Reuwsaat said that there were a multitude of terminologies and documentation along with the Council vision that the staff planned to incorporate into one or two main documents. He said that this would provide the public with solid expectations in terms of development. 2 MINUTES OF RANCHO MARANA STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL SEPTEMBER 16, 2004 Council Member Honea stated that these plans needed to be locked into one document that referenced all of the past documentation so that the Town vision would be clear. He remarked that high-density and quality was not a big sponsor item for him but that if the town was going to do that then quality becomes a big issue. He said that if smaller lots were the norm in northwest Marana then a high quality, middle to upper end product should be the result. He said that he thought the design guidelines were more important than the zoning densities in the Town Core. He said that he would personally like to see hard zoning on this section of town and that he was not trying to take anything away from the property owners. He said that there could be four or five plans for Rancho Marana. Council Member Comerford said that it was confusing to have so many names for each development, none of which were reflected on the maps. She said that she was happy to hear that the area definition was a main goal of Town staff. Council Member Blake agreed that the confusion was very frustrating and that it was impossible to track. Mayor Sutton commented that there had not been a vision associated with the previous planning of northwest Marana. He noted that earlier planners and Town staff would not have believed the northwest area could develop so rapidly and at this time instead of as predicted by 2020. He spoke briefly about providing all of the Marana residents with an equal opportunity to own a home within the Town boundaries and that he felt the .citizens trusted the Town officials and Council members with the planning vision. He concluded by stating that it was critical for the Town staff and Council members to understand the design concept and planning vision for northwest Marana. Council Member Honea stated that most of the developers began projects at a reasonable price but raised the prices by a minimum of $26,000 after finding that their product was in such great demand. He said that the homebuilders would be selling the homes for as much as possible and he noted that he understood the principle of capitalism and didri t begrudge the builders this opportunity. He went on to say that by developing the Town Core area at a higher density that the Town would be able to offer a more affordable housing product to the lower income buyer. .-~ 3 MINUTES OF RANCHO 1VIARANA STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL SEPTEMBER 16, 2004 Mayor Sutton agreed with the Council member and added that lot sizes basically set the home prices. He said that if the Town kept on the track of minimum 6,000 sq. ft. lots and did not compliment it with other options then the housing product in the northwest area would become unaffordable to most residents. He pointed out that Tucson and Phoenix were predicted to be ranked in the top five in real estate homes sales over the next five years. He said that Marana had to be really familiar with the housing trends so that a fair price range could exist. Council Member Comerford commented on her experience while sitting on the Planning Commission at the time when the Northwest Marana Area Plan was first begun. She said that some of the earliest concepts were probably more on target than was thought at that time. She stated that it might be a good idea to take another look at those concept boards. Mr. Reuwsaat remarked that 14 months ago senior staff and Town Council members were worried whether anyone would build a house and move out in the middle of a farm field. He said that the northwest area's development had been so successful and that the Council needed to take credit for this success. He stated that the Council had created the environment through the type of financing and product quality where approximately 16,000 lots were in various stages of planning. He said that it was time with that kind of pressure to do exactly what the Town was currently doing, to go from the Marana General Plan and avoid the mistakes of other neighboring communities. He reminded the Town Council of the direction they had given senior staff at the 2003 Council retreat. He said that this direction was to look at the development services and to begin creating adequate staffing to meet the increased housing development. He asked that the Council look at the situation through the perspective of a year ago and to be aware that the staff's workload was currently tenfold that of last year's and that it was appropriate to take time out to earnestly study the Town Core vision in order to ensure the correct choices for the future. Council Member Blake remarked that he had experienced what he described as the California real estate "bubble" ten years ago when he and his family moved to Marana. He related that he had purchased a three bedroom house on a nice sized lot and that he had also made a good down payment on the mortgage. He related that, after five years when he moved to Arizona, he still owed $8,000 more than he could get for the house in the real estate market. He ~``4' cautioned the builders and developers not to bid the price of the land up too high because this would create a situation like that in California. 4 MINUTES OF RANCHO MARANA STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL SEPTEMBER 16, 2004 Mayor Sutton asked if anyone from the public wanted to comment on these issues. An unidentified resident asked if there was a timeline set for the completion of the central core of the northwest area. Mayor Sutton replied that a timeline would probably be announced after the Council retreat scheduled for later on in September. Susanna Montana, Grier Road resident, commented that she would like the specific plan to conform to the area plan. She didri t agree with the Barnett Channel concept and said that it was not a good idea to abandon a public right-of-way. She said that if the developer wanted to build a green space then they needed to do it on their own property. She said that she did not see any reason to create a pedestrian trail in the right-of-way and that she thought this concept was basically an amenity for the residential subdivision to the west. She commented that she did not dislike density but that she thought design, separation between lots, and scale were very important. She said that the high density areas should be lower scale and that there should be a transition between the rural ranch-style housing to the apartment-style housing. She said that the Town Center should be a walkable, friendly pedestrian scale development which could be accomplished through transitions and pedestrian pathways. She encouraged the Council and staff, if the entitlement of the specific plan was going to be changed, to conform to the area plan and incorporate design guidelines that required transition in height and scale. She asked that the Town core be a walkable community. Mayor Sutton thanked Ms. Montana and noted that the keyword in her remarks was transition. He agreed that the success of the Town Core concept was built around transition and buffering. Greg Wexler, developer, remarked that the commercial area in the Town center would require a great deal of thought. He said that what would be marketable today was something that might not be what the Town wanted. He said that he would pull out his commercial development area and work with the Town on its design. He said that the existing market associated with the residential area surrounding the Town center was supporting no less than 4,500 sq. ft. lots with two-story mixed detached housing. He said that he was slightly concerned with the timeframe and thought that a group of Town officials and developers ~'' might be wise to visit other communities with mixed uses. He said that a variety of different densities in one locale created a competitive market. He remarked that quality was the key. s MINUTES OF RANCHO MARANA STUDY SESSION MARANA TOWN HALL SEPTEMBER 16, 2004 Mayor Sutton said that competition created better pricing and better options for all levels of homebuyers. Mr. Reuwsaat announced that there would not be a Council meeting on September 21St and that there would be a group of Town officials going to Lake Havasu to the Governors Conference on Rural Development on October 5th. There was no further discussion. XI. ADJOURNMENT Mayor Sutton adjourned the meeting at 5:50 p.m. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing are the true and correct minutes of the Rancho Marana study session held on September 16, 2004. I further certify that a quorum was present. e yn onson, Town Clerk ~`®e``®seao'®Pr®®rs~~ i ® ~'~~ CQR®oo TF ' ~ q ® ~ ~ _ R~J ,~.;~