Regular Meeting - 1/24/2023 6:30:00 PM

is
um
okay I'm gonna give the 30 second
warning if you could all find your seats
please
good evening everyone welcome to the
Gilbert council meeting for January 24th
2023. I will go ahead and call this
meeting to order
and ask the vice mayor to please do the
presentation of student citizen of the
month Awards
thank you mayor I believe we'll have the
presentation up here
I'm vice mayor Kathy toke and it's my
pleasure to announce the names of the
Gilbert student citizens of the month
the recipients were nominated by their
teacher and principals for demonstrating
good citizenship and character we
appreciate the opportunity to not only
recognize these hard-working students
but to also thank all the teachers and
school administrators in the community
we appreciate all your efforts to
educate and influence our young
residents our schools are some of
Gilbert's greatest assets at this time
we're going to begin our student citizen
of the month presentation please enjoy
for those of you who are receiving an
award tonight a certificate and packet
will be delivered to your school and
we're going to begin with our elementary
schools and we're going to do this
in this fashion this time mayor do we
know if we're going to be having them
come back anytime soon that's a great
question I've had several people ask me
I think we would like to finish out this
school year with doing this virtually
but then I think we'd like to start next
school year by bringing people back in
person great we always miss seeing those
students and their parents are so proud
that they've been nominated and
recognized today so I will begin with
Ashland Ranch Elementary
Penelope Brown
Bridges Elementary Kate warwa Burke
Elementary Max
honani
Carol Ray Ranch Elementary Daniel Cortez
Chandler Traditional Academy Freedom
campus Anastasia heart
Chaparral Elementary Sawyer Mays
Charlotte Patterson Elementary Easton
rabikov
Christ Greenfield school Anthony Gomez
edger prize School Madeleine appella
Gateway Point Elementary Liberty Garvin
Higley Traditional Academy Xavier
Coleman
Islands Elementary
Carson Tyler
Mesquite Elementary Jackson kitamura
Oak Tree Elementary Emilio augury
Patterson Elementary sahana
Cody maila
Pioneer Elementary Cole damignani
Playa del Rey Elementary Sophie Graham
Quartz Hill Elementary brinland Frazier
Riggs Elementary Madison matichek
Santan Elementary
Eva tenti
Settler's Point Beatrice Sanchez Nunez
Spectrum Elementary Benjamin Bustamante
Val Vista Lakes Elementary Suki canal
Weinberg gifted Academy Michael Herndon
and now we're going to honor our Junior
High and high school students
American Leadership Academy Avery Miller
Fabregas I apologize I'm trying really
hard thank you
Campo Verde High School Sadie Bolton
Canyon Valley High School Sophia Ferrara
Cooley Middle School
Sadie
shipada
Gilbert Classical Academy eveline skilly
Gilbert High School Jackson JD Katella
Greenfield Junior High Wyatt packer
Leading Edge Academy Early College
Alexander Copeland
Leading Edge Academy Junior High
Samantha province
Mesquite High School Meredith Allen
Mesquite Junior High Adrian Pacheco
South Valley Junior High Camille Ricks
and I think that's it congratulations
vice mayor that is not easy I've done it
it is not easy to do thank you and thank
everybody for their patience but I want
to tell one story before we move forward
Penelope Brown was one of the first
names that the vice mayor listed and we
got an email Penelope's great great
grandfather Elvin lines was the first
graduate of the first grading graduating
class of Gilbert High School along with
his sister Myrtle lines Elven Line's
father George Willis lines also known as
GW lines was one of the first settlers
here in Gilbert he was one of the
original Town Council Members he was
also the president of the Gilbert Board
of Education so her grand great great
grandfather Alvin and great great great
grandpa GW lines which is just amazing
and now she's being honored as one of
our students of the month so that's fun
town history I think and I talk about as
big as Gilbert gets as small as it stays
and I think that's proof right there so
congratulations to everybody great
family lineage here in Gilbert too
thanks vice mayor that was great
now we will move on to the invocation
and the Pledge of Allegiance I have
Elder John and now it's my turn kamo
from the Kenya Presbyterian Church of
Arizona here to do the pledge to lead us
in the invocation
and I apologize if I messed up your name
um thank you
madame
and the vice mayor
and all others who assist our mayor in
Gilbert
allow me this opportunity to thank God
for each one of us here
Lord God Almighty
we humble ourselves Before the Throne of
Mercy this evening
to present to your servants who have
chosen
to guide our beautiful city into Greater
Heights we thank you for mayor Bridget
and all those who assist her we thank
you for all
her subjects who are willing
to support her to build a beautiful city
of Gilbert
this evening king of all glory I pray
that
you continue blessing them with with the
wisdom they need
and the strength the father and good
health we thank you that they have
chosen to put you first oh God we pray
that you pulled them fast too we thank
you that even in the actions we witness
them recognizing The Young Ones our
children father and we pray that you
continue to bless them and cover them
with your beautiful Mighty hand oh God
we thank you Father as we invite you in
this meeting may it be a beautiful
meeting dear Lord that will help this
city now and in the future for this we
pray and trust in Jesus name amen
thank you so much we appreciate you
coming out and offering an invocation
this evening next we will have the
Pledge of Allegiance led by Girl Scout
Daisy troop
3946. if I could ask these girls to
please come down to the front and if
everyone would please stand
thank you ladies I had a wonderful time
touring you around town hall this
afternoon hope you enjoyed yourself and
thank you for coming out to the Gilbert
Town council meeting by moms thank you
very much it was nice to meet all of you
you they told me they gave you some
cookies you're supposed to share with us
oh do I have to
they gave me three boxes of Girl Scout
cookies different kinds too bye I would
be happy to share those
next I will ask our town clerk Herrera
to please do the Roll Call
mayor Bridget Peterson here vice mayor
Kathy tilkey here council member Scott
Anderson here council member Chuck
bongiovanni here council member Bobby
Buckley here council member young
kaprowski here and council member Jim
Torgeson here a quorum is present thank
you
I would like to I'm going to change the
order of the agenda this evening I'm
going to move the mayor's comments up
from the end of the agenda to the start
of the agenda because I just want to say
a few words
um welcome back to our council chambers
I'm sure there will be bugs to work out
but we will get there
our team has been working diligently to
make sure we are all trained and a
couple of boards and commissions have
already met in this space so we're
excited to see how our first official
meeting goes this evening
I want to officially welcome our new
council members I know people believe
you run for Town Council and it's two
meetings a month and that's it but just
tonight we have a study session a
regular meeting and an executive session
scheduled these new council members and
our returning members have already done
a two-day retreat in December two full
days of orientation together and the new
members have had at least three full
days of training with the team mayor and
Council has 48 different organizations
and assignments that we serve on or our
Liaisons to I take about 19 of those
assignments and the rest are split up
between these great council members who
have all stepped up to fill those
assignments so I wanted to say thank you
very much for everybody and all your
work so far and look forward to serving
together at least over the next couple
of years
now on to some special Community
congratulations and I think I might have
some actual slides for these
um one let's see who you pop up first
and I'll do that one this one is I want
to congratulate the Highland High Hawk
at Palm team on their win as the
2022-2023 division one
Palm State Championship Champions let's
give these girls a big round of applause
I think it's so important to be able to
have these great celebrations when we
can and congratulate these awesome kids
that we have living in our community the
other one that I would like to say a
very big congratulations to is Julia
Crossley a sixth grader at Mesquite
Elementary School who was announced as
the Good Morning America Super Bowl kid
correspondent way to go Julia we'd love
to have her at a council meeting
following the Super Bowl to hear about
her experience and since she's a student
correspondent I expect her to come up
and speak to us so and then this
afternoon I received an email that a
student at Perry High School Joshua
Shunk
was named a finalist in this year's
regeneron science Talent search the
nation's oldest and most prestigious
science and math competition for high
school seniors which is founded and
produced by the Society of science I
didn't even know there was such a thing
this year the 40 finalists hail from 34
schools in 14 States and they were
chosen from a pool of over
1900 highly qualified applicants all of
whom completed an original research
project an extensive application process
Joshua and his fellow finalists will
participate in a week-long competition
from March 9th to March 15th well they
were undergo a rigorous judging process
and compete for more than 1.8 million
dollars in Awards including a top prize
of 250
000 the top 10 regeneron science Talent
search 2023 winners will be announced
during a live streamed Awards ceremonial
March 14th and I have to say wow way to
go Joshua way to represent Perry High
School and the town of Gilbert and
making it this far and good luck during
that competition I want to thank our
Daisy troop also for leading the pledge
this evening and just one more shout out
the Arizona City management association
also known as the acma is a professional
organization that provides training
Career Development and best practice
sharing opportunities for city managers
assistant city managers and those
seeking to get into City management
later this week at this year's
conference our own town manager Patrick
Banger will be sworn in as president of
acma for the upcoming year
congratulations Patrick
foreign
and now I will move on to presentations
and proclamations we have one
presentation this evening and that will
be by Kelly fost our budget director on
the presentation of the 2022 Gilbert
Benchmark report hi Kelly
good evening mayor and Council I'm glad
to be with you this evening we do have
our Gilbert Benchmark report and uh
kudos to Janie's heart she is the
analyst who works on all of this
information and puts it together and I
just get to be the face to bring it to
you tonight
so every two years Gilbert does a
benchmark report where we compare our
town in a lot of different areas to peer
communities Across the Nation and within
our own Community here so there are 75
benchmarks in the report again there's
eight major functional areas and 24
different divisions in the town that are
represented within the report we compare
with 41 other municipalities across 13
different states so it's very
comprehensive a lot of information in
the report
I'm just going to present a couple of
highlights for you this evening one of
them is the share of workers in stem and
STEM related occupations so on the
bottom we have the results from the
report two years ago and then on the top
through the report results most recently
so we actually increased from 13.5
percent to 13.6 percent so we have done
better and most of our peer communities
also have increased their share of STEM
related jobs
if we look at the vacancy rate for
commercial properties the vacancy rate
did go up a little bit from 8.6 to 9.1
but that is really common across the
board this is during the covid time and
there were some additional vacancies but
Gilbert increased only slightly in
comparison to some of the other
communities so we fared really well in
this area
next we've got the percent of utility
customers who receive statements
electronically and we did increase from
29 to 35 percent which was really great
some of our other communities also saw
some increases and then Tempe and Plano
Texas have some work to do
um but we wish them luck
the number of sworn officers per
thousand residents we increased so we
have 1.09 sworn officers per thousand
residents we're still on the low end but
we have done some investment into our
sworn officers and area to help improve
that so that we have the resources we
need
on average fire response times for 90 of
the calls the time to respond did
increase slightly from four minutes 44
seconds to five minutes we've talked
about this a little bit in the past part
of that is because During the covid
period there was additional protective
equipment that needed to be put on so it
increased response times and you can
even see that in some of the other
communities that they also saw a bit of
increase during this period of time as
well so it's helpful to see kind of is
it just us or is it happening kind of
broadly
the next one is surface versus
groundwater usage so the dark shaded
part is the surface water that would be
water that comes in on canals and it's a
rechargeable renewable resource and then
the light colored is the groundwater so
water we get out of Wells that comes
from the aquifer in the ground and that
one is not as rechargeable so we want to
our Target is to have 85 percent come
from the surface water and 15 from the
groundwater and we haven't we lost a
little bit of ground in this area we
know that our with our North Water
Treatment Plant that the new technology
will help us to be able to take more
advantage of the groundwater than we
currently are able to do so it will be
interesting to see the statistic over
the next couple of years as we get the
North Water Treatment Plant up and going
this is one of the areas that we watch
and the last one we have average annual
trash weight per household
Gilbert residents make a lot of trash
per household we are the number one on
this area and we did grow in the last
two years by about a hundred pounds of
trash per household per year which is a
lot of growth but both Tempe and even
Plano Texas grew by about 500 pounds of
trash per household per year so we
didn't grow as much as other communities
but it's definitely a trend that we
would like to see reversing as the trash
bill
they're paying the same month same
amount per month but more trash means we
need to pay more tipping fees when we
take that to the landfills so something
we need to watch and look at and keep
track of
that's just a couple of highlights from
our Benchmark report we take this
information the Departments look at it
it helps us in our decision making and
looking at what resources we might need
or what we might be able to do better in
the future
any questions
thank you Kelly any questions for Kelly
councilmember torrison
how does Scottsdale have such little
trash I realize you're looking at covet
and having much stress but
that's stunning to see how low that is
yeah some of that might be if they have
seasonal people who are only there for
part of the year so if you average the
trash they produced for the months that
they are there over 12 it would be lower
or if they had some smaller household
sizes if they had more retirees with one
or two people perked households that
could make a difference
yeah and councilmember koprowski
thank you mayor Kelly I guess my
question is kind of in line with the
trash as well do you think that it might
be because of some of the services we
provide such as the roll-off dumpsters
that gets factored into that
um
calculation but may not be offered in
other communities that's a really good
question that statistic that particular
metric is only based off the residential
trash it doesn't include the bulk trash
or any of the Roll-Off Containers so
just what you put out in your
black and recycle bins
councilman Bon Giovanni thank you mayor
um let's continue to talk about trash
then does that include recyclable or is
that just trash trash
um I don't believe it includes
recyclable
I can
get with our expert who put the the
statistic together and email that to you
okay thank you
she needs to phone a friend for trash
talk
any other comments or questions
Kelly great job thank you you sent us
the full report via email too we
appreciate you doing the presentation
tonight thank you thank you thanks nice
to see you
next we will move to Communications from
citizens and I will pass that over to
the vice mayor
thank you mayor I'm going to read a
statement about the protocol for
communications from citizens and then we
will call you down one at a time
you will have three minutes and
can you remind me the clock will be up
on the screen so that you'll be able to
see that when you're speaking so each
person will have three minutes
the Gilbert Town Council values citizens
comments and input anyone wishing to
speak before the council must fill out a
request to speak card for each item they
wish to speak on and submit it to the
town clerk or place it in the bid bin
prior to the start of the meeting the
communications from citizens portion of
the agenda provides citizens an
opportunity to identify for the Town
Council matters of Interest or concern
related to town government that are not
on the printed agenda under the
provisions of the Arizona open meeting
law the Town Council is prohibited from
responding to issues that have not been
properly noticed therefore the Town
Council may only listen to citizens who
wish to address them on non-agenda items
at the conclusion of the open call to
public response is limited to individual
members of the council responding to
criticism made by those who have
addressed the public body asking staff
to review a matter or asking them matter
be put on a future agenda per estate
statute I'd read it but you probably
wouldn't remember the number the town
asked that when your name is called you
come forward to the public podium
state your name and place of residence
and then begin speaking your comments
should be directed to the council not
the audience all speakers are expected
to observe common standards of decorum
and courtesy personal attacks political
speeches or threats of political action
are inappropriate in this forum and will
be grounds at the direction discretion
of the mayor for ending a speaker's time
at the podium
so um saying all that I'd like you to
know that we are looking at different
options as we move forward to make sure
that we hear from you and we'll be
talking about that more later but in the
meantime we're gonna I'll call a name
and then I'll mention who's on deck for
the next one because I don't think we
need to do three since we're not so far
to go so first up is door Elise Liddell
door at least just come on
forward and we'll get the microphone on
for you
to state your name and a town of
residence well good evening my name is
doralise Machado Liddell I'm a Gilbert
resident
um thank you for allowing me to speak I
want to speak tonight on the study
session because I can't speak during a
study session I would ask the council to
respectfully place that on an agenda
item so that members of the public can
speak during study sessions I think it's
a great opportunity to hear what the
public has to say prior to it going to
council and regarding the study session
and the
the park that we were just talking about
I have some concerns some of my concerns
are safety and when we're talking about
the food trucks and the alley I look at
circuit circulation one of my concerns
is there isn't the appropriate
circulation in the that area of the park
meaning the alley the alley is closed
off and I think that should be
considered in in the planning stages of
the the park itself the alley has an
easement on it and I think that that it
is a needed and necessary
pass-through for emergency vehicles if
you're going to house so many people and
have special events you do need to have
a lot of outs so that's one of my
concerns my next concern is no noise
mitigation I think that's one thing that
we talk about water but I think noise
mitigation is something that needs to be
considered we'll have competition
through the food trucks in addition to
the residents who live in the area and
and at this time we hear the the noise
which is is fine but if you're going to
have concerts and large events that will
impact when I looked at the renderings I
saw this really this overpass it looked
like a vehicle overpass I'm very
concerned if we see it we may think it
and it may become I never want to see an
overpass leading in to a residential
neighborhood I hope that it Still
Remains a pedestrian and will always
remain a pedestrian I think for the
safety of of everyone
park hours I think that that's going to
be an issue and I hope that you look at
that regarding what the park hours
actually are and consider that so in
saying that I never thought that I would
hear that that Park is an aging Park
when it was built in 2008 I think that
we need to consider what we're doing for
the future because the more technology
we place in it it's going to be outdated
people want to see
and and um enjoy a park in regards to
birds I think yeah but I also think
maybe you should identify trees it would
be given a nice opportunity for people
to learn about trees those are my my
concerns my major concern is safety
and that alley thank you
thank you Miss Liddell and I apologize
uh Echo love you're up next and after
Miss Love is Teresa Welker
thank you
hi hello my name is Echo love and I'm
Gilbert resident I'm following up with
you from an interaction that occurred at
the Town council meeting back on
December 13th if it is helpful for your
recall I am the resident who is under
the impression that I'd be given 10
minutes to speak but then at the podium
there was a correction and I was only
given three minutes
I also emailed Town staff on January
10th regarding this issue but I did not
receive apply thus I wanted to follow up
using this platform as well
at the December 13th meeting I spoke
regarding the madera's z2212 project
during that meeting I stated that the
developer had failed the traffic study
since that was the guidance that I had
been given by Town staff prior to the
council meeting
after I finished speaking Vice marientes
followed up with the developer and asked
if he knew what the individual was
speaking about when she said the traffic
study had failed
the developer then replied and stated
that he did not know what I was speaking
about and that the concerns were
provided were related to parking only
and there were no traffic concerns
that was a very surprising and
concerning statement to me since it was
in contrast with what I had been told by
staff
I followed up with Noah schumerth
planner 2 from planning and sewing after
the meeting and he stated that the
report did fail in the sense that it had
failed the first review within the
active design case he stated that there
was a good deal of work that needed to
be done on the traffic management side
of the site in addition to the parking
concerns Mr schumerth then went on to
explain to me that there were four major
traffic issues related to queuing
arterial distancing level of service
values and Higley and Ray Road
improvements because the traffic study
had already been returned to the
developer for review and the developer
had a meeting with Town staff the
following Monday to address these
traffic concerns I found it very
concerning that he was able to state to
the council that there were no traffic
concerns
all of this to say that I feel like his
statements represented a significant
impropriety as it was relevant to the
Town Council the vote that followed
immediately after that I was also
surprised that Town's staff neither Eva
cutro and planning Northern traffic
department who are said to be standing
by gave comment or clarification prior
to the vote thus I come to you today
asking for I guess guidance and
information on how information presented
to you by the developers live at these
meetings is verified for accuracy
because the votes do occur right then
what is to prevent a developer from
giving anyone false information
deliberately not deliberately or just
misconstrued that then results in a vote
in their favor versus one that's given
to the town
thank you for your time
thank you Miss love appreciate it
um Teresa Welker and then after Teresa
will be
it looks like McDavid Dobson
okay thank you
good evening my name is Teresa Welker
I'm a Gilbert resident and I'm here
tonight with my neighbors
to talk about the structure on at 2711
East Melrose Street we have lived on
Melrose Street for 13 years and we've
lived in Gilbert for 23 years
a few years ago a repairman came to my
door and when I opened the door the
first thing he said was do you realize
how blessed you are to live in this
neighborhood
as soon as I pulled off of Germaine Road
and into your neighborhood I just felt
so relaxed it's so peaceful here it's a
wonderful neighborhood
and I completely agreed with him
as you turn off of Jermaine there's a
tree-lined street with beautiful trees
you turn on Melrose Street and there's
a row of houses with acre lots big front
yards spacious
generous space in between homes to give
you that relaxed open feeling that we
all love and at the end of the street is
the cul-de-sac ensuring that our street
is quiet and for residential use
kids have the security to walk across
the street be outside and
we're so grateful to have this beautiful
neighborhood to live in
but now things have changed a little bit
on Melrose Street when you turn that
corner down the street
there's a
three-story
multi-unit detached stand-alone building
in the front yard at the end of the
cul-de-sac
and now when people come to my door they
say
why is someone building a house in their
front yard
and how was this ever approved
we've talked to many Town employees that
were shocked and surprised when we
brought up this project
some promise to get to the bottom of it
others said that it shouldn't have been
permitted
I urge you to take another look at this
I urge you to look at the plans if you
haven't seen them
and to look at the pictures that we have
presented to the Town Council
but better yet pictures don't really do
it justice
we would appreciate it if you would come
to our neighborhood
drive down the Treeline Street and turn
onto Melrose Street look at the
beautiful homes and the spacious Lots
and then pull up to this multi-story
multi-unit
detached building with two party decks
on top
in the front yard of the house on the
cul-de-sac
and ask yourself if you would want this
in your neighborhood
and if it should have been approved in
ours I appreciate your time and I'm
we're here to ask you to do the right
thing thank you
thank you Miss Walker
um McDavid Dobson
and after that will be Ernest Langdon
uh good evening my name is McDavid
Dobson or David
um I live at 2649 East Claxton in the
Poco Bueno Ranch neighborhood with the
welkers I am one street over on Claxton
uh when I saw what was going on on
Melrose I was somewhat taken aback my
family has more than a little bit of
history in Gilbert our farming operation
was right across the street from Joe
Johnson's uh epicenter I know Joe
personally we basically grew up together
um I worked very closely with the town
20 years ago to help part of the Golden
Triangle or the Gateway character area
with names like Linda Edwards and Jerry
Swanson and I think maybe even a few
people on the council or maybe even the
mayor
um
these people that we worked with back
then
had a a standard and equality about him
when it came to planning and zoning
there was a Structure about it and when
you see what's going on on Melrose
and Tamir or to Echo what Teresa just
said
everybody's shocked to say the least
how do you approve something in
somebody's front yard that's like this
especially when every other home going
down the street has a front door that
faces due north
and you approve a structure that doesn't
have a front door matter of fact it's
got four or five entrances spiral
staircases
party decks
it doesn't conform
there's no way if I were to have that
exact same structure try to be approved
on my property and somebody like Linda
Edwards was in charge of p z would I
ever ever have gotten that approved
it's just too bad
when I feel like
the neighborhood that I live in the town
that I've been in all my life
and we have this one little speck where
it seems like so much is being done to
let it happen and just not much is being
done to see what we can do to pause or
stop or look at it in a different light
I mean we've talked with people in the
town we've
tried to be open with our communication
and our frustration and it just seems
like there are more people willing to
try and make it happen than help us
to see if we can mitigate it or make
sure it doesn't happen and not only not
happen here in my neighborhood but
though it doesn't happen again
the Precedence that it sets in HOA or
I'm sorry non-hoa neighborhoods that are
going to allow this kind of development
especially if the town is going to let
it happen as well
is just
chaotic to me it's just there's not a
lot of structure involved with it
it scares me to be quite honest with you
I hope it doesn't come to this but if
legal action is necessary
I'd be more than willing to join with my
neighbors and make sure that we can get
this stopped I thank you for your time
thank you Mr Dobson we have Ernest
Langdon and after Ernest will be Diane
West
I'm Ernest Langdon I'm a resident of
Gilbert I appreciate you guys giving me
the time to talk to you
um I'm going to say I'm going to try to
summarize this the best that I can
this is
um
a structure that's being built at the
end of my street I take a right down at
the end of my street now there is a
structure that is two stories taller
than anything else on the street
it's in their front yard
it doesn't meet code and the interesting
thing is when this was pursued by the
people in the neighborhood and they
showed up to a meeting here at the town
they changed it from a guest quarters
which was what it was approved as denied
three times previously then approved as
a guest quarters and now all of a sudden
it is a home extension
This Is Not a Home extension this is an
apartment building
why do we know it's an apartment
building why do we know where they're
going to rent it out it has multiple
entrances
it has
wiring and plumbing for multiple
kitchens and washer and dryer units I
don't know about you guys but I don't
need three separate kitchens and three
separate washer and dryer units in my
home extension
the owners of this property have seven
other rental properties in the state
they have rented their own home out for
parties in our neighborhood that have
gotten well out of hand the details are
grotesque
this is something that should have never
happened and why it got approved and
then why on that morning of that meeting
it got changed I have no idea it was
built on top of easements that belong to
the town of Gilbert and to SRP
a cease and desist order was put in
place and then a couple of weeks later
you guys look ah we don't really care
about that it doesn't make sense for
that to be happening no logical reason
behind it
I am encouraging you begging you to do
the right thing here shut this thing
down it makes no sense it doesn't fit
with a neighborhood and if it's probably
not legal
we will pursue legal action if we have
to legal action means Discovery and
Discovery means all the documents the
communications come out and then the
truth will come out and I think that's
the part we should all be concerned
about thank you very much for my time
thank you Mr Langdon next Diane West and
following Diane is Terry Natty
thank you mayor Peterson and Council men
and women my name is Diane West and I am
a one daughter of my parents who live in
poco Bueno they live
right next door to the house in question
and that addresses 2711 Melrose Street
there are 22 res they are 22-year
residents in this in this neighborhood
as it's been said it's a quiet
neighborhood
with a very tight community of families
within I would say about 10 years
the neighbors started renting their home
out there have been multiple parties
that have turned into
disastrous situations
and now we have a structure
a three lower level basement two stories
two huge Decks that go above that
structure in the front yard
of their home clearly
we can make speculation about it
but
rather than speculate what might happen
or not happen in that structure
I think we need to just go back to the
basics which is how did this ever
how is this structure ever approved
I love mayor uh Peterson that you said
uh Gilbert as big as it gets and as
small as it stays I love that saying and
it captured my heart immediately
because that is our community
that is poco Bueno
there is certainty in that community
there is certainty that I know that my
aging parents will be cared for by these
amazing neighbors these amazing
neighbors can be assured that my family
will help care for their children and
families when in need
there's something about living in
certainty
and the uncertainty that has been
created by one family with one huge
structure
is alarming
I ask you I drove here
4.8 miles
to come to this meeting
I ask each of you
to drive 4.8 miles I don't want you to
look at it from aerial photographs I
don't want you to look at a site map
those will help be supportive in the
future
I need you to get in your cars
and drive 4.8 miles
and with certainty I'm going to go back
to that word with certainty I hope I
leave here tonight
knowing that you will
each of you drive 4.8 miles to Poco
Bueno
and see it for yourself thank you for
your time thank you for your service
thank you Miss Wist and next we have
Terry Natty and following Terry will be
Chris Welker
hi everybody my name is Terry nutty I
live in a county Island within the
Gilbert planning area
and I love the new digs and welcome to
the new faces
um
I received this book
from someone who is no longer on Council
didn't need it anymore
so this is part of the packet that was
given a counsel for the 2022
Transportation master plan
this is town of Gilbert Street
typologies I don't know how old it is
but I'm assuming it's
Circa 2022
on page 31
it talks about Minor arterials Ocotillo
Road is a minor arterial and it has the
standards which your engineer Mr David
falmiato wants to hold okatio too
which is great
but if you look there's five different
kinds of minor arterial roads there's
Recreation open space
there is residential which I think is
what we are
there's Neighborhood Activity Center
there's Regional activity center and
there's the Heritage Center
and each one of these
it has
key characteristics and Design Elements
and everything
and each one of the minor arterial roads
each of the five
say that the right-of-way can be 110 to
130 feet
I've been asking you to keep Ocotillo at
110 feet 55 feet on each side
all five of your minor arterial roads
say that that is okay
It also says that Lanes can be 10 to 11
foot
they don't have to be 11 foot they can
be 10 foot
it says that bike paths should be six
foot but they can also be five they can
also be seven
there's room for change
if you all pull this project out of the
bundle that you approved it as we can
stop the nonsense of the lawyers
we don't have to pay lawyers to do this
you guys have it in your own documents
I don't understand why this is a thing
please pull it back please pull your
project back to 55 feet on each side
it's within your own limits thank you
thank you Miss Natty next we have Chris
Welker and following Chris will be Amy
Langdon
good evening mayor Peterson and members
of the Town Council I appreciate the
opportunity to briefly address you and
thank you for your service my name is
Chris Welker I've been a civil
litigation attorney for 23 years and a
resident of Gilbert for 23 years and I'm
here tonight speaking as a resident of
Gilbert specifically a resident of a
home on Melrose Street I'll try not to
duplicate what's already been said and
value your time but I do think a few
points are worth reiterating
this project that we've been discussing
in the cul-de-sac of Melrose Street
again is built in the front yard is
being built in the front yard it's still
early in the construction stages though
it's gone up 30 feet into the air
it's 5 000 square feet
being built in their front yard blocking
their original front door
it has multiple entrances three levels
three kitchens
different entrances for each level
it has two rooftop party decks it has a
full gym above an RV garage again it's 5
000 square feet 30 feet tall facing Due
West while all the homes face due north
and it is clearly intended for rental
purposes how do we know the owners of
the original dwelling have rented out
their home
for short-term rentals for the last
several years they own seven rental
properties throughout the state that
they rent out as short-term rentals
again this is designed to be used for
multiple units it is essentially an
apartment building or a hotel complex
that's been built and permitted for a
front yard
we've met with the town we've had
numerous conversations with Town staff
we had a meeting on November 7th this
structure was initially approved as
guest quarters
but under the town's code it does not
meet any of the requirements for guest
quarters guest quarters must be limited
to one single story it cannot be taller
than the original dwelling it must
conform architecturally to the original
dwelling this does not meet any of those
requirements it's 33 feet tall it Towers
over the original dwelling and it is not
at all architecturally similar it faces
a different direction it blocks the
original home it's in the front yard
so when we met with staff on November
7th
we were told that that morning staff
changed the designation from guest
quarters to a home Edition
that is also inappropriate that is a
fiction everyone can see this is not a
home edition it's detached it stands
alone it's over 20 feet from the
original dwelling
it violates the single-family
residential use of this neighborhood it
will violate single-family zoning the
intent is to rent it out for multiple
units in violation of Gilbert zoning
ordinances it also violates the setbacks
it was allowed to be built within 20
feet of the neighbor's front yard
instead of the required 40 feet those
are just a few of the many many
violations that were approved for this
dwelling and we again plead with you to
please shut it down thank you
thank you Mr Welker
we have Amy Langdon
and following Amy is Nathan lesueur
hi Council thank you for having us and
clearly we are all very frustrated I too
am a neighbor on Melrose
we're here I'm not gonna repeat
everything but I am gonna Echo off of
what Chris said is that there are
several
events that have been changed or
violated all the way down to the fact
that what it was originally proved as as
guest quarters then it got changed and
it got changed he's he's being nice but
it actually got changed in the meeting
where the the individuals that were met
with said well I just changed it right
now we've made several attempts to reach
out to do this the right way to do this
civilly to do this
in the interest of what the own town has
your this town our town has set for
legality for zoning and planning it's
interesting that this is the first
meeting because there's two of you who
are new
um and the platforms of less apartments
and we're allowing apartments in a
residential neighborhood in a front yard
we have we want to follow zoning roles
and planning
let's make zoning rules and planning
um
Rule and regulation that needs to be
followed it's not being followed our own
Town members are violating that the
people that we're employing we have
um we have people being quoted in the
news Mr Torgeson you said well we must
respect the property rights of those who
own Zone Lan we must also respect the
rights of families that made their
Foundation there of owning a home and
that is what we have we own homes and
it's not safe there it is a safety issue
we've talked about rentals we've talked
about the things that they've done
I'm gonna keep this clean but I'm
talking about sexual nudity in the
streets in the middle of the street in
front of houses I have a nine-year-old
do you know how hard it is to teach a
then seven-year-old what all of these
things mean
we have examples of armed guards at the
door for parties who needs an armed
guard at the door for parties what you
do inside and what you have fine but
that's not acceptable the streets are
blocked we had Miss West talking about
her old parents these streets are so
crowded when they rent this place out
you can't even get you couldn't even get
an ambulance through
the neighborhood
history generally repeats itself a tiger
rarely changes its stripes and so we are
asking you to please come out please see
it for yourself our attempts to work
with you legally have been ignored
we need you to come see it you need to
understand what this is and you need to
take a look at the history of what has
been approved and the people who are
changing it
in order to pass it through thank you
thank you Miss Langton
finally we will have Nathan lesueur
hello mayor Peterson and vice mayor and
council members my name is Nate laswear
I live at 2714 East Melrose Street
um
I'm a fifth fifth generation farmer here
in the valley my dad was raised here he
raised me here
I've raised my family here
I love Gilbert
um
so I I am my front yard is 20 feet from
this apartment complex so it's almost in
my front yard
um
I just wanted to talk about another
issue that this thing has created I Echo
everything that has been said but per
the permit application the town requires
there are four checkpoints that a
applicant must fulfill the last one is a
site grading and drainage plan for the
lot
for lots that have on lot retention
that's us
um
we haven't had a monsoon season yet with
this structure we've had some light
steady rains and after these rains it
looks as if my front yard has been flood
irrigated
um
it took their front yard which was a
depressed front yard to now a raised
front yard and no retention
so it flows all into my yard so I one of
the things I've asked the town is could
I please have a drainage and grading
plan for 2711
the response I received back was based
on our research it has been determined
that there is no grading and drainage
report plan for 2711 East Melrose
that is only one of the problems with
this project
um I don't know how they were able to
receive a permit not checking off this
bullet point but there are many others
that they don't check off
um there's been some discrepancy in the
site in the setbacks for the facility
and with some creative
um explanations the town was able to say
their front yard is now there side yard
so they're only required 20 feet which
if you follow the town's explanation it
puts the original dwelling
in violation of the new setbacks that
have been created for this Edition
I'm asking for your help I've never made
a complaint in my life about the town of
Gilbert I love it here
I don't feel that a lawsuit is required
to help remedy a mistake that was made I
must I make mistakes all the time
all I can do is help remedy mistakes
I've made
I appreciate
council member Anderson he has been on
site the only responses now that I've
received is that the drainage problem is
A Private Matter
which was created by the town so please
help thank you
thank you very much Nathan appreciate
your comments that's it for the
communications for Citizens I just
wanted to take a moment and thank
everyone who took the time out of their
busy lives to come down and talk to us
about issues that are going to be before
us or maybe before us in the near future
as you know we're not allowed to talk
about these issues in this forum because
it wasn't agendized
mayor at this point I think I will turn
it back to you
thank you vice mayor we will now move on
to the consent calendar and I turn it
back over to you
first night
thank you for your patience as I I
learned my new duties
um on the consent agenda we have two
items that we will be pulling from the
consent agenda item seven which has been
removed from the agenda altogether so we
won't be taking a vote on that item and
item 21 which is the minutes from the
last meeting and since not all of our
council members were seated at that
point we will do a separate vote for
that motion
um
so we'll be looking for a motion to
approve
consent items number two three four
five six eight nine 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
17 18 19 and 20.
can I have a motion please so moved
seconded by council member Torgeson
please vote
I'm sorry mayor give me one second
first night Jitters
um Sean are you available
for icing
Sean's getting his exercise tonight
I hope you're counting your steps for um
walk from Maricopa Sean
laughs
all done mayor thank you motion passes
7-0
um vice mayor do you want to
make a motion on 21. very well thank you
uh yes I'd like to make a motion to
approve the minutes item 21.
can I have a second please second
councilmember Kapowski vice mayor and
council member krapowski please vote
and that motion passes 4-0 with three
abstentions from our new council members
thank you
thanks vice mayor great job first night
we will now move on to the public
hearing portion of our agenda items will
be heard at one public hearing at which
time anyone wishing to comment on a
public hearing item may do so comments
will be heard from those in support or
in opposition to an item
we have do we have any slips to speak
for public hearing
no May or not have been received thank
you so we have
um one liquor license I'm sure that
everybody wants to discuss the zoning
change so we have one liquor license we
have a property acquisition and we have
system development fees audit would we
like to entertain those in one motion
would someone like to make a motion
of approval
can I get a second
I'll second I have a motion from council
member Krause excuse me Anderson
seconded by councilmember Bon Giovanni
please vote
motion passes 7-0
I shut my mic off opening the public
hearing on zoning item
z22-13 conduct a hearing and consider
adoption of an ordinance amending the
town of Gilbert Land Development code
and I
is Noah coming up to present yes
so we'll have staff presentation on this
item since this isn't a developer item
it's just Town staff then we'll just
have Town staff doing a presentation at
that time I had I'd like the council
members to ask any questions that you
might you've got a full group here to
ask questions of before we bring it back
to the diocese for discussion but I'll
prod you along the way to make it easier
there we go
here we go
mayor Peterson vice mayor tilkey and
Town Council thank you for the
opportunity to present for to you
regarding the zoning case
z2213 the mixed use zoning LDC text
Amendment this is a case that each of
you have been briefed on previously so I
will do my best during the presentation
in Samantha Novotny who is also
presenting with me will do the same to
try to tailor the presentation to ways
that respond to some of the questions
and comments that were brought up since
while giving you a general overview once
more of what is specifically being voted
on this evening
uh so first we want to bring forward the
recommended motion for this case for the
Mixed use zoning that the Town Council
approved z2213 the text amendment to uh
the chapters that you'll see listed on
the screen there in each of their
sections uh to create three base zoning
districts mixed-use small mixed-use
large and mixed-use Regional in addition
to the creation of a mixed-use
development design guidelines booklet
that would be approved by the town
just to give you some background very
quickly on the where this case has been
thus far it's been about what you're
seeing today is almost exactly one year
since we started to at least consider
bringing a case like this forward we did
everything from a peer community's
analysis to places such as Henderson
Nevada and other communities that are
similar to Gilbert in the west to try to
understand what they're doing
successfully with mixed-use zoning we
went and we worked with many other
departments to ultimately begin the work
of creating these zoning districts in a
way that we believe is tailored well to
the town of Gilbert we have worked
closely with planning staff with members
of staff from most Town departments who
touch the everyday
practice of development in the town of
Gilbert we've worked with Community
Partners such as the Chamber of Commerce
we've worked with members of the
development Community we've talked to
members of the public about this we have
worked with developers them so elves and
ultimately worked with Planning
Commission and now Town Council to work
on developing a set of input that we can
use to build the best possible mixed use
zoning districts for the town of Gilbert
which is what you're seeing this evening
from staff
this is something that was brought up
previously to Town Council but it's
worth just briefly revisiting why you're
seeing these zoning districts at this
exact moment and we believe that this is
addressing four key problems that we're
seeing emerging from this current
chapter of Gilbert's development history
the first is that there's this interest
in mixed use developments it's no secret
that in Gilbert and around the country
you're seeing more and more proposals
for mixed-use developments and and you
see that in our own office and
development services currently but
developers lack the tools to clearly
propose them in addition the planning
staff lack tools to be able to determine
where these are best placed within the
town of Gilbert if for certain projects
at all and what is the best design for
mixed-use projects public officials such
as yourselves council members lack a
clear set of standards and tools by
which to measure and
proposed mixed-use developments further
potential success in the town and then
the current method that we use to
approve of some of the mixed-use
developments that already exist in the
town which are some of the town's most
beloved developments such as one example
would be the early phases of agritopia
they're not developed in a way that is
transparent and fair to the public they
use tools such as the planned area
development overlay and development
agreements which are not as transparent
for the public and makes it harder for
them to answer the question of what is
being built on the property next to me a
clear set of Standards is necessary for
the town
in addition uh the this is designed to
be a set of Land Development tools that
help us implement the general plan as it
was written it is an explicit short-term
implementation goal within the general
plan to create mixed-use guidelines that
are consistent with the general plan its
principles and action items and design
standards that it sets forth and it also
realizes a number of other land use
goals in that General plan which you'll
see on the screen to my right
in addition it provides constructive
flexibility for creating mixed-use
developments that are unique to
individual sites while still upholding
the Integrity of the general plan in the
Land Development code instead of
developments coming in and altering the
code to work for the development it is
turning this back around the other
direction the Land Development code and
the general plan are now making it clear
the kinds of what is allowed and what is
not allowed when it comes to development
and finally it realizes many goals that
we will that Define what we're moving
into in Gilbert this land use 2.0 a new
era of development as we transition from
what we've seen for the last 40 years
which is kind of building in farm Fields
Greenfield development into infill
development and a the challenges how
we're going to respond to the challenges
that come with that
uh and then just to to indicate that the
there's been an analysis done that
demonstrates that as written right now
the development outcomes from this
amendment are deemed to be consistent
with the principles outlined in the
general plan and the general plan was a
clear guiding document for everything
that was done and what you're seeing in
the ordinance that's in front of you
this evening
I want to the
the disgust in in uh to each of you of
the council members but I want to
provide a little bit more detail about
each of these districts and some of the
decisions that were made behind the
standards within each district and I'll
start with the mixed use small the mixed
use small is a district that is designed
to create small-scale mixed-use
development for uh again smaller sites
uh more of a neighborhood scale type of
development it's something that we've
seen examples of in the town in the past
there's a couple Provisions that I want
to highlight to to council members as to
provide some clarification the main one
being height height has been a Hot Topic
in the a town of Gilbert it's no secret
that height is a fundamental concept
that affects other properties around a
proposed project and what you'll see in
this proposal is that the height for
mixed use small is 45 and looking ahead
you'll see 65 feet for mixed use large
and 85 feet for mixed-use regional I'll
touch on those districts again in a
moment but I want to be clear on why we
chose the heights that we did and the
different pressures that planning tried
to balance in creating those numbers
these numbers are
a careful balance between where we as
planning staff were going which
originally the heights were slightly
lower than what you see before you and
also what the development community and
other members of this Outreach process
that we've conducted have brought
forward which is they wish to see higher
their taller Heights greater flexibility
and height and this is the balance
between those different forces planning
is believed that it's essential to
balance how hype might affect
neighboring properties especially when
we start to think of this as an infill
tool and so these numbers that you see
before you reflect a balance between
what was suggested and what planning
staff believed was appropriate to be
able to allow as a maximum height
without
overwhelming surrounding properties
there's also some other notes that I
want to just bring forward to you just
to explain briefly how these numbers
were arrived upon a landscape area was
brought to the attention of planning
staff about how we ended up with a 20
net Site Area uh requirement this is to
provide a certain level of flexibility
with mixed use development especially
with smaller sites you can understand
the challenge of providing a number for
open space in the way that we do for
different zoning districts when you're
dealing with sites that could be half an
acre could be a very small live work
unit or it could be a 10-acre site that
has a variety of different buildings on
it open 20 open space means very
different things on those two sites so
this is meant to create a number that is
kind of meets in the middle between a
potential development outcomes while
also still preserving a key provision
which is that the at least the majority
of that space be what we consider usable
open space it is not just a retention
Basin thrown in on the side as a way to
provide open space but it must be useful
and integrated into the development and
consistent with the design guidelines
that are provided for the mixed-use
districts this is because these
mixed-use projects which are often
having different buildings or different
uses working together it's critical that
they have open spaces that can connect
them well and be useful and mitigate the
kind of urban impacts of some of those
projects that may be built so that was
how we arrived at that landscape number
some of the other Provisions that you'll
see in these districts are laid out for
you in the ordinance as well and have
been available for review in the packet
I wanted to point out one more standard
before I just walk through quickly
through the rest of the districts and
that is this additional height
allowances provision which you'll see in
the additional regulations portion of
the new zoning districts it allows up to
a slight height bonus for developments
provided that they meet additional
findings of fact there's been pressure
put on planning staff in the past to
provide additional height and high
height incentives and things like that
for meeting certain criteria we wanted
to create a small bonus but only if it
met standards that really reflect some
of the lessons we've learned from past
development practices in the town that
being conformance with a set of design
guidelines clear separation from
single-family residential uses which are
the most sensitive uses to the effects
of height they have to have a reason for
using this height and generally that
reason with a mixed use project is the
presence of ground floor non-residential
uses which require more height on the
first floor so it has to include that to
to get that height bonus and then there
has to be adequate mitigation on the Imp
of the impacts of surrounding properties
which we go into in the design
guidelines in detail a little bit more
in the code that that's set before you I
wanted to provide this just because it
is essential that we're clear about how
we're approaching height with these
projects in addition to uh
all right because finding a balance
between the the flexibility that's
necessary to be able to encourage good
mixed-use projects while also not
overwhelming the existing Community
character of the town and doing infill
development well so I just wanted to
illustrate a little bit of that uh I can
quickly introduce the rest of the
districts to you now the mixed use large
district is designed to be a mid-sized
district for mixed-use development it is
meant to provide kind of medium density
development it is really a tool that is
designed to improve on some the the
outcomes of some recent projects that
you've seen in the town where you have
multiple uses on a site but may lie in
different zoning districts and may be
poorly integrated together this is a a
tool that has been already illustrated
by developers being potentially very
effective at integrating isolated land
uses together and creating more cohesive
projects you'll see just from the the
table before you uh that it follows the
landscape requirements that I mentioned
before there's a minimum site size of
five acres to ensure that larger
projects are not overwhelming smaller
sites and then there are things such as
an arterial setback transparency
requirements other regulations that are
essential for producing mixed use
development that really works well with
surroundings and creates good cohesive
internal sites when you have a site
large enough where you're having Master
site plans and things of that nature
I'll move through this quickly since
it's a little bit more technical
I find that there's the mixed use
Regional District which is a the largest
District it's designed for kind of
larger campus style developments and it
is for a very limited set of areas
around the town given that it needs a
property size of at least 10 acres and
it is one that is subject to the most
stringent development requirements to
ensure that the developments that are
coming in with that level of intensity
are designed appropriately and are
managing the impacts on surrounding
properties well
but you can only uh manage the effects
on surrounding properties well if we're
really thinking carefully about how
we're going to place uh mixed use
developments within the town and right
now the way that this is done is very
difficult the currently we allow Loft
above developments uh which is
commercial on the entire ground floor or
another non-residential use and
residential uses on the upper floors
that's allowed in many of our commercial
zones but commercial zones are used all
over the town in different contexts and
that provides a very challenging task
for planning staff to be able to dictate
where good locations are for different
mixed use developments so this is
designed to place more of that Authority
back into the hands of Council of
Planning Commission
and provide better guidance on where
those projects can go uh first I want to
note the first way that that's done is
that this is a zoning text Amendment
this is not a rezoning of any land so
that means that a rezoning application
is required to use this Zone in any
capacity any mixed use project that uses
these zones and there's interest in
using these zones from a variety of
developers has to come back through
Council to be rezoned that means that
every project gets evaluated by Council
to deem is this a good project for this
site and why we think that's an
important element for bringing mixed-use
development into the town of Gilbert in
the future additionally it has to meet
General plan compatibility and so
instead of creating a dedicated mixed
use General plan category which was is
nebulous because you're dealing with
projects all the way from the smallest
live work unit or building something
like what you would see in the Heritage
District
campus style developments we decided it
was best to integrate these districts
into General plan categories which
mirror the scale and density of
development that's already that's
allowed uh already in some of these
General plan categories and so mixed use
small you'll see primarily in those
neighborhood oriented districts in the
general plan neighborhood commercial
neighborhood office medium res density
residential as a way to improve some of
the development outcomes in some of
those areas and to match the densities
that you see in those areas mixed use
large you'll see in our some of our more
intense commercial Village Center kind
of higher density residential
categories and the mixed-use regional
uses our our most intense General plan
categories in terms of development and
the reason for that is because we wanted
to make sure that anything we allowed in
terms of height or density related to
mixed-use zones
was not going to be a dramatic deviation
from what is already allowed to be be
built in these areas in the general plan
in any Zone that's kind of similar in
development scale in the existing Land
Development code doesn't have a
dramatically different height or allowed
density as well and so this was us
carefully trying to calibrate these
three districts into our existing Land
Development code and make it something
that can allow mixed use development
that land use flexibility without a uh
upending the way that things have been
done in the town already again kind of
giving the giving the town new tools for
land use development which is something
that has been a theme of this project
since the beginning
I'll have Samantha explain just some
more specific provisions of the project
uh and then then we'll open it up for
discussion
all right so we covered the districts um
but what also is relevant is how these
districts fit in with our youth table so
we imagine the three districts fit in
right where that red line
that red line is between hvc and no
neighborhood commercial
so we really took this task to balance a
variety of uses within the project
considering neighboring uses the scale
of the development and any conflicts
with the existing zoning that neighbors
against where mixed use could possibly
go
and if you didn't know already we
actually do have three mixed-use type
districts hvc GVC and GBC so we didn't
create any New Uses we didn't recreate
the wheel here we really used those
three existing districts as a model and
then sort of Pare down what we wanted to
see what uses would we thought would be
appropriate in each of those our new
districts
um and then we also proposed two new L
limitations just for consistency to
create a parameter around the user size
and then
hours of operation
my uh notes died here
okay so this slide broadly covers the
modifications to the other part of the
LDC to ensure compatibility with the
districts that NOAA just covered earlier
and I want to take a moment here to
highlight a couple in particular one of
them is signage so
signage is very important and there's
there's a lot of new technology out
there and can get really creative and
it's important for businesses to
identify where their business is but we
want to create cohesion around that in
mixed-use developments so we're
requiring that a comprehensive sign
program be required for a mixed-use
development if a site is going to be
master planned it also makes sense to
plan out the signage as well and you
know really this is not a departure from
how signage is administered already on a
master planned sites
um the next one I want to point out is
um mixed-use districts would not be
allowed to be used in the Heritage
District overlay and uh that's the
second line there
um
so we we did that for a couple reasons
um we didn't want to cause conflict
between or undermine the tools already
in place for the Heritage District this
includes a lot of great tools available
to staff and to the public and council
members so like the Redevelopment plan
the body of Redevelopment commission our
design guidelines these are all tools
that
at this time in creating the mixed-use
districts could come into conflict a
mixed use zoning really is envisioned to
be a tool used for everywhere else in
the town
and the last
point that I want to cover is our
vertical development overlay districts
the two largest districts mixed youth
large and Regional have a height bonus
in the vdod districts which are areas
that already expect and plan for taller
buildings and you can see that in the
circled areas on the slide
if a development is interested in height
we wanted to encourage consideration of
using the land in the vdod areas since
again those areas are already planned
for taller buildings
if a tall building is going to go
anywhere in the town it should be in the
overlay District that supports that
and what's important here is that the
height bonus doesn't go above what
already exists and what's already
offered in the vdod and as Noah pointed
earlier this is a height sensitive
community and we also are we're
sensitive to that in creating this and
putting all the documentation together
and lastly I want to cover
um our mixed use definition so we
currently have a mixed-use development
definition it was created in 2014 that
was in line with a policy at the time to
encourage multi-family development
within Regional commercial the regional
commercial zoning District
however in creating the new proposal
from this evening it seems that this
definition was a little unclear whether
residential uses would or wouldn't be
required in order to meet that
definition so we propose an update and
that's a little more clear and takes
sentence structure from organizations
that promote best practices in mixed use
development
um I also want to note that the
definition includes language on creating
designs appropriate for the scale of
development and its surroundings
and uh I'll pass back to Noah to talk
about the design guidelines which will
really
bring home the vision of um of how we
want mixed use development to look in
our community
thank you Samantha so I want to address
one final piece of this uh zoning case
that is is we believe to be essential to
the success of mixed-use districts in
the town of Gilbert and that is a set of
design guidelines design when you're
dealing with multiple uses on a single
site is more important than ever instead
of thinking about simply mitigating the
impacts of a single use on other uses
around around it now you have to start
to consider the relationships between
users how you're going to not only
navigate the the potential impacts of
uses on one another but also think about
how those uses May benefit one another
by being in close proximity to one
another and those benefits can only be
realized through good design and so the
design guidelines were created from a
vast source of Inspirations from peer
communities from various professional
organizations and their best practices
such as the American Planning
Association the Congress for the new
urbanism and the Urban Land Institute
who directly had feedback into of this
project feedback but also feedback from
Community developers and partners about
what works and what doesn't in the
development Community for securing good
design and also examples from past
Gilbert developments both really strong
examples and places where we believe
that there could have been improvements
made had we used different tools to
implement those plans and so ultimately
these design guidelines which are
included in the the packet that's been
presented to you
try to create a set of guidelines that
can ensure development that can move
especially pedestrians between uses on a
single site without a vehicle can
increase the number of public and
semi-public spaces that really make a
development viable and interesting to
those outs even outside of that
development and create quality open
space that mitigates the impacts of
larger developments and ultimately
create Dynamic relationships between
uses and allow for greater economic
performance of those sites it's been
shown in studies that mixed use projects
can often have a longer design life
design viability than other projects and
so this is designed to try to capture
those benefits that have been seen over
a long period of time with some mixed
use projects in other communities that
have been around for a long time
these design guidelines apply to the
three districts that are presented
before you mus mul and Mur but also the
Loft above projects that I mentioned
earlier as a way to try to also bring
them in because they are technically
mixed-use buildings bring them into some
of the design benefits that we see from
these design guidelines being
implemented for them they currently
aren't subject to any design guidelines
our commercial design guidelines don't
really do anything to capture those
projects because they are a little bit
more of a newer design Trend than when
those were written in I believe 2000 and
those are allowed in the districts that
you see before you so those kinds of
projects would be subject to these
design guidelines unless there was
another set that superseded them such as
the Gateway area uh you know character
standards or things like that so that is
all detailed in the ordinance that is
provided before you
so I I went over this briefly to start
uh but I want to just be very clear that
this was not created in a vacuum this
was created by Consulting a wide variety
of entities who I've listed here who all
had Direct input into uh the things that
will work in this project that they
believe are going to be really
successful and the things that we need
to change and what I did for the two
slides here was just provide every piece
of feedback from these agencies and
departments that was integrated directly
into the ordinance that you see before
you sometime between September of 22 and
today and so you'll see that it was not
a small number of comments and some of
these which get into everything from
accessory structure Administration to
um you know the flexibility of
residential requirements self-parking
for residential uh in addressing
um
specific types of uses in the design
guidelines these are all different
pieces of feedback that were written
into the the attachments that you now
see before you
you will also see some of the feedback
that was provided by Planning Commission
with their vote on November 2nd and also
from their study session prior to that
and then also some of the key highlights
from the developer and Community partner
Outreach that we had so as you can see
this is really designed with a wide
range of of Partners who we work with
every day in development services and
who would be intimately involved in the
implementation of of projects using this
zoning these zoning districts going
forward and so this gives us a certain
degree of confidence in coming before
you with a with a project that's been
well vetted
so in conclusion I want to end with two
statements that are used from the text
of our design guidelines that really
capture the key outcomes that we want to
create from promoting mixed use zoning
in the town of Gilbert as a tool for uh
planning and other development services
going forward and the first is creating
development greater than the sum of its
parts it's what I've been saying
throughout the presentation of trying to
think about well if we're going to allow
multiple uses on a single site to try to
promote a higher quality of infill
development and you know better projects
for mixed use development going forward
how can we do that in a way where we're
actually not only just getting the
benefit of having the uses in the town
of Gilbert but actually then creating
projects that are inviting and allow
those uses to work together well with
their surroundings and with uses on that
individual site this is possible and and
can be done in ways that are really well
tailored to the Suburban environment of
Gilbert and finally the goal of this
this project was to try to create a tool
that increased developer flexibility for
mixed zoning because as I said right now
there's very few tools and the tools we
do have are pretty difficult to and
inefficient to administer while
providing greater Town control over
mixed-use site placement and design it
is about again kind of turning that
script over where the town is now
writing prescriptive tools that we can
use to determine if we're going to see
mixed use development for the
foreseeable future how are we going to
design those mixed use sites where are
they going to go to maximize the benefit
that they have for the people of the
town of Gilbert
and with that we'd like to bring forward
the recommendation uh to a recommended
motion to approve z2213 uh the mixed-use
zoning standards for three mixed-use
districts mixed use small mixed-use
large mixed-use Regional and the
mixed-use development design guidelines
that accompany these districts and a
variety of other mixed-use projects in
the town
thank you for your time mayor Peterson
vice mayor tilkey and uh Town Council
Noah if I could just bottle your
enthusiasm for energy
you're fun to watch thank you for that
thank you Samantha for standing beside
him yeah
it's um that was a lot to present you
did it very efficiently and effectively
I believe any questions from Council
Members I'm gonna look down the line
do you have any questions for the staff
at this point yes
um on on the mixed use large council
member can you pull your mic a little
closer or stick closer thank you okay
there we go is that better hopefully on
the mixed use large what type of
development and and I know I'm sure you
probably said the height but you did
have a lot of enthusiasm going through
there but what what is the maximum
height and what are these going to be
hotels is this that
I mean more there's been more than just
hotels but will there be high big
high-rise apartment buildings what what
is included in that
council member of Buckley uh or Buckley
I I do apologize thank you that's a
really good question and a really
important one to ask and I'll go back to
the mixed use large standards uh to
answer the a couple components of your
question there so the first was the
height question so the maximum height
that would be allowed uh would be for
the vast majority of projects uh again
barring some of the very specific other
examples such as the vertical
development overlay districts it would
be 65 feet which is slightly ever so
slightly taller than what we currently
allow in most of our commercial zoning
districts such as General commercial for
example uh you and you you mentioned the
hotel projects and hotels very well
could be a component of one there's a
project that is on the near the SanTan
Village Mall it is called the north side
at San Tan Village that includes a 54
foot tall Hotel I believe that's in the
regional commercial zone right now that
would be a hotel in a retail Center that
are integrated together that could be an
example of a project that might use the
mixed use large
districts I think a great example to
consider would be the Gilmore which was
recently approved in a zoning Case by
Town Council there's actually a very
small picture of it in the top right
corner there it's a little bit taller I
think it's just a tiny bit taller than
what you might be allowed to build in
this Zone but it the the concept of the
project is uh is there so you would have
for example you see the kind of Loft
above units there there's also more
commercial dedicated areas that are part
of that development in a variety of
buildings that both include residential
and don't include residential the issue
we had with that site was how to
integrate all of those uses together
effectively in a way that was really
attractive and so this is designed to
maybe take some of the developments such
as that and continue to think about how
we can involve evolve some of the site
planning on those sites to make those
uses into great together a little bit
better something like just a hotel on
its own or just a multi-family building
on its own are actually the things we
want to avoid with this we don't want to
create sites with this District that
just have single uses all kind of
dotting a site that don't talk to one
another and so there are Provisions in
the code that are explicitly meant to
ensure that people are actually using
this as a mixed-use code not just say as
you mentioned build a hotel here build a
multi-family project here right yeah so
I'm trying to improve on some of those
single-use sites there so so out of all
three of these is 65 feet that's a like
you said about what we have right now is
that the highest that without asking for
a height increase what is the highest
someone can come in and uh be
conformative with the hype that they
want the Dual product
right so for the um the mixed use small
would be 45 for the Mixed use large as
you mentioned it would be 65 feet you
cannot go you cannot go higher unless
you were to do the requests that I
mentioned here where you could add one
about one story of additional height
provided you meet all of the standards
that are there that include increased
setbacks that include not being adjacent
to single-family residential uh
protections on surrounding properties
things like that and then the mixed use
Regional would have an 85 foot height
limit and all of those Heights again are
designed to try to just uh manage the
fact that when you deal with mixed use
development with different uses other
than residential you generally have
taller floor Heights and so you have to
be sensitive to how height might change
slightly from say our existing
commercial single-use districts to make
sure that those different uses can all
fit together and fit within a height uh
that that's realistic for some of the
types of projects that you're seeing
coming forward
so you said there's it's 85 feet is the
highest
or 65 I I apologize these are two
separate zoning districts that are
allowed in two different types of
General plan categories so the again the
mixed use large is 65 feet uh and if you
are rezoning to mixed use large you
cannot go higher than that again or it's
85 feet if it's a mixed-use regional
rezoning those are two different zoning
districts
um they would be considered completely
differently from one another okay well I
I guess to to put my question a little
bit better what is the highest building
Gilbert can build to be conformed yes so
is that the 85 feet the so this would
not be the tallest that can be built in
the town of Gilbert um it would be for
base zoning it would be I believe pretty
close to tide for tallest it would be it
wouldn't be completely unprecedented the
tallest building that can be built in
Gilbert is in one of our video D areas
which you saw mapped earlier there are
buildings that can go up to 150 feet
with a development bonus there but
that's very rare and has to use a
development bonus Matrix with the town
that I don't believe any development has
ever used for the mixed-use districts
that you see before you the absolute
highest it could go and that's being in
the correct vertical development overlay
district with all of the design
guidelines and all the standards met is
105 feet it could not go higher than
that under any circumstance and that's
only in about 0.5 percent of the town's
land area
and that's what we're voting on right
now adding right okay there's what I
pointed out is just in the Blue Area
there
um it's there are specific sites that
are greater than 10 acres and that area
would be allowed to use that Max height
up to I think it was 105.
um that's the only those are the only
sites that could use that I'm gonna can
I interject for a second sure
um we are not voting to increase that
105 feet tonight that's part of the
vertical development overlay District
that could be done automatically without
the zoning code change that we're doing
tonight correct correct there are many
developments I could already use that
height in those vertical development
overlay districts we did not want to
increase the heights that are allowed in
any of those districts with mixed-2
zoning I didn't want the council member
to be confused that we were actually
voting to allow up to 105 that's already
allowed 105 feet is already allowed in a
certain location with certain conditions
so that we're just talking about the
three different changes potentially to
the code this evening
thank you all right you answered my
questions thank you thank you council
member
council member Bon Giovanni thank you
mayor
um no I'm a strong supporter of um mixed
use and applaud you and your team for
the hard work you did to put put this
whole thing together a couple questions
being 23 or I'm sorry being 13 days old
and being fed through a fire hose
um my knowledge of zoning is probably
the smallest compared to all my
colleagues here so I'm going to ask a
couple of questions and uh hopefully
they won't be um too amateurish okay
um what did you mean by on your
presentation you said mend parking
standards to provide shared parking
strategy
council member Bon Giovanni I'll move to
the slide that that discussed that
uh the uh amend parking standards to
provide shared parking strategy so right
now what we have in the code is an
allowance for certain developments to
use shared parking provided that they
come forward and get an administrative
use permit and demonstrate that
different uses on the site are
supportive of allowing shared parking
hours are different they allow you to
use the same parking spaces for
different uses because they're hours of
operation and their peak hours of
traffic don't intersect with one another
what that means there in in perhaps I
didn't make it entirely clear is it
allows what we're looking at is that we
have a parking study that is in progress
right now that is evaluating our use uh
our parking uses that are in our code
the uses that we use to regulate parking
and the ratios associated with those
parking as well as our administrative
procedures that includes shared parking
and so we instructed our consultant that
we're working with to provide some
guidance on the best practice practices
for especially Suburban communities such
as Gilbert to have easier to administer
shared parking standards for mixed-use
projects and so that's what that means
when you see the note on the screen to
be amended with completion of parking
study ongoing uh what that what that
reflects is the fact that we're looking
to have these districts be potentially
integrated into that parking study to
make sure that when we're thinking about
shared parking with uses that are close
to one another we're doing it in a way
that's responsible and allows for those
different spaces to be shared without
under parking some of these sites
because that can be a challenge with
mixed-use sites is under parking so
we're trying to get out ahead of that
and address that so does the number of
parking spaces affect the number of
dwellings per acre
council member could you repeat the
question yeah does the number of parking
spaces available affect the number of
dwellings a developer can can you or can
put up um uh per acre sure uh I
development director Kyle is uh is uh
has a has a story and an example of this
that I think is worth sharing
mayor Peterson um council member of
angiovanni
um
to go back to the first um question
about the shared use just kind of an
example of what that would be a lot of
times if there's a office use and a
retail use together maybe that person is
driving into the office and they're
going to park and go to their office but
they're also going to go to the retail
Center and get a cup of coffee or have
lunch or whatever so we don't
necessarily need to double up on all
those different parking spaces and
create a sea of asphalt if we know that
there's a parking arrangement in place
and so this allows us to kind of go into
that shared parking and really make a
difference in how we're parking things
to your second question it's actually
just I think the opposite so the number
of dwelling units drives the amount of
parking spaces so I'll get the numbers
wrong but let's say it's a one bedroom
apartment you've got to have two parking
spaces a two bedroom apartment so it's
it's the parking is driven by the the
density I mean I guess you could flip it
but that's how that is kind of
calculated as well so with that said um
will you allow underground parking
in any of these absolutely I'm sorry
mayor Peterson councilmember Bon Jovani
yes absolutely one of the projects we
have coming forward uh now at Ray and
Higley actually has underground parking
as well
thank you
great question we have a couple of
projects in Gilbert are one that I can
name in Gilbert at valvaston Williams
Field that has underground Park don't
you I'll put Juniper and Gilbert is that
considered underground great question
any other questions at this time for
staff councilmember Torgerson
your office will have underground
parking the
uh what what was meant by self Park
mayor Peterson uh council member
Torgeson what's meant by self Park is a
that the residential use has some sort
of secured parking or some sort of
separate parking that is dedicated to
the residential use it ensures that if
someone lives in that building for
example or in that set of homes that
there are parking spaces always
dedicated to those residents that would
mean that we generally want to make sure
that before we even consider shared
parking that we are those residential
uses have the appropriate number of
spaces on their own so that there aren't
worst case scenarios occurring with with
parking for for residents and and
something that your comment there was
suggests a question I had uh when you
said homes rather than Apartments is
this something that could also be for
smaller homes entry-level homes or any
home actually uh
fee simple homes as well as let's say a
small commercial use in the center of it
mayor Peterson councilmember Torgerson
probably not because the density is a
little bit higher so I don't know that
you would hit some of those density
levels with single-family homes or
smaller homes like that this is meant to
be more of a mixed use kind of a stack
project if it came in at that density
level it's something that could
potentially happen but I think it'd be a
little bit of a stretch to get there
thank you if I'm wrong we still allow
horizontal mixed use but it's okay
other questions for staff at this time
councilmember Anderson
I always happy to hear during your
discussion about the design guidelines
that we included the police department
because I think the design of Open
Spaces in this uh these zoning
categories it's important that they be
safe spaces too and I know they're very
well versed in ways to design those open
spaces so they are safe spaces so I'm
glad to see that
um
I'm going to ask Kyle
Samantha mentioned signs and Kyle knows
how much I love signs
and it talks about in the in the new
districts more complex signage policies
our A-frames complex signs
mayor Peterson councilmember Anderson I
wouldn't say that A-frames are complex
signs A-frames are temporary signs that
are allowed to be placed in the
community the complex science would be
more of the way finding and the street
signs inside of a development
I'm just concerned that given the
densities we're going to have both
businesses and residential that
there's the possibility for a lot of
A-frame signs going up
which reminds me that I'm still owed
another report either from Sarah or you
on I think on on A-frames and how it's
been accepted in the community the
business Community still sees them as
important drivers of their business
I don't know Sarah is that
something
don't don't you don't need to come up
that's okay I'll talk to her later mayor
Peterson council member Anderson Well
Sarah and I all work together on getting
that information too thank you
he always has to bring up a frame size
um questions councilmember koprowski
vice mayor no
um I have a couple so you did mention
that this would not be allowed in the
hvc zoning but you also mentioned I
believe that I caught that it would be
allowed in the GVC zoning is that
correct
mayor Peterson Council uh
to some degree
there that addresses a slightly a
slightly separate uh provision so for
the hvc uh the Heritage District yes we
determined that it was best that we
don't immediately include the mixed-use
districts in the Heritage District
because the hvc zoning tool was
explicitly designed to carry out the
Redevelopment plan and the design
guidelines for the uh for the Heritage
district
and so in that area we would want the
input of Redevelopment commission about
how they might want to handle this and
how it may affect the Redevelopment plan
to review that work with OED and some of
the other departments involved
specifically with the Heritage District
to make sure that those those mixed-use
zones work for that Vision but that was
a uh something we wanted to leave to the
discretion of of the input of that body
as well as for the current zoning
right in addition the the mayor Peterson
the hvc zoning allows for mixed use
development as well what you saw with
the GVC and GBC is simply that when we
have a mixed-use building uh div or a
mixed-use project that is allowed
currently in those zones which are in a
certain area of the town they also have
to be respondent to the site and uh the
building design guidelines here the
zoning itself can be used in that area
as well and would be compliant to those
design guidelines but as for GVC and GBC
those are those also for those Loft
above projects would have to comply with
the design guidelines we could use those
as a tool for promoting better design on
those projects as well
okay and for the um Mur you talked about
it would automatically allow 85 feet I
think and since it is already in the
vdod
um what is allowed automatically in the
vdod is it 65 75 I can't remember
uh mayor
mayor Peterson in Council that depends
on the the base zoning District the base
zoning right now ranges from uh usually
about 75 to 105 feet which you could get
by right and then by participating with
the town and the development bonus
Matrix that's included in the Land
Development code you could reach as high
as 150 feet for I believe it's regional
commercial in areas one in five but I
don't I would have to review the code
again I don't remember off the top of my
head but yeah so that that's how the
video D is administered and those would
be obviously right along the freeway in
a spot that would really handle
something like that not right up against
single family residential or anything I
was just concerned with the 85 feet but
it sounds like it really does fit the
code that we already have in place so I
don't have an issue with that and it was
I thought it was interesting that you
talked about
um the pad process and how this makes it
more visible if you will to the public
because we really when I came on the
Planning Commission I think we did pads
like almost every project and then we
really stopped doing pads and we only do
them very infrequently now really I
think
um and so it was interesting to hear
your evaluation of that and how you
think this will bring it more to the
public and they'll have more input and
they'll understand what the Project's
going to contain versus a pad that we
could shove a whole bunch of different
things into a project and it wouldn't be
as clear that was my technical term
shove stuff into the project so I
appreciate that you pointed that out and
does Samantha have a comment on that
yeah I did have a comment I'm glad you
brought that up um I uh mayor Peterson I
wanted to point out that in our
pre-research we actually pulled a few
old pads and used those numbers in
drafting the outline at first we really
relied on previous staff
um
history and experience in addition to
projects that have been approved what's
worked in the town and and how can we
inform what we're creating here
that's great I love it I love um how
you're looking at all of these different
um
definitions and designs and guidelines
and
um I think I think I was on that 2014
multi-family steering committee were you
on that 2014
I know I was with Joan Kroger anyway I
was on that 2014 multi-family steering
committee that you're talking about the
definition and everything that came out
of there so it's interesting to see how
it's
moving forward and changing as the
community is changing and bringing
different options to us so I appreciate
that I I appreciate the work that has
gone into this and the different things
that you're pointing out to us things
that I don't think I've thought about
for a while so thank you for that any
other comments or questions for staff at
this time because once I close the staff
comments we'll be bringing it back to
the diocese for
discussion
last call
okay thank you team appreciate you
I will somebody shut my mic off
I will bring it back to the um diocese
now for discussion
and any comments from anyone
okay to go thanks thank you vice mayor
um first I just want to congratulate the
the team this has been a long project
and quite frankly I think we were
talking about this 20 years ago when we
were ahead of our time and we weren't
quite sure what this could look like
because the market wasn't there and um
when I read through it um
I would say that the residents and
businesses of Gilbert should feel
comfortable that with these guidelines
we are asking for a lot for them to come
in and ask for a mixed-use project so it
I believe that
um
by providing the guidelines that we have
it provides those developers who want to
invest in our community to understand
the standards that we have an
expectation for and of course those
guidelines provide flexibility which is
important because not all not every
Project's going to fit in a box and so
we've put a lot out there that um
we've spent a lot of time looking at the
past as you said best practices and it
shows in this document and so I feel
very comfortable at this I appreciate
how many years it's taken to get here
and here we are and I will be in support
of it thank you thanks so much I think I
need to close the public hearing I don't
have my cheat sheet up here for public
hearing so I think I need to close the
public hearing bring it back to the
council for discussion any other
comments
councilmember Anderson
um I feel the same way that vice mayor
tilkey feels about this but it has been
a long time coming I
unfortunately I can remember 20 years
ago talking about it
um
but I think for our city of the future
initiative it's this is this is a great
example of how we can address much of
what is in that initiative when it comes
to the quality of life here in Gilbert
we've talked about implementing a
property maintenance code which will
certainly go a long ways in addressing
some of the issues of cities as they
mature but I think design guidelines and
very specific guidelines along with
zoning districts such as this will do
the same thing as that maintenance code
may do is
we have certain standards that we will
ask for in Gilbert and they're outlined
in very specific and very clear so thank
you for the uh for the the work that
you've done on this
have they have they presented before
didn't didn't you get a new word Noah
has no that's usually directors council
members September I mean okay wow
um it's usually directors or that they
have a secret word that they have to
work into their presentation when they
come present for the first time Noah has
presented to us Samantha have you
presented to us I don't think so no this
is your first time okay they did an
excellent job thank you very much the
words have been quite interesting over
the years yes
any other comments questions
yes councilmember Torgerson I just
wanted to remark again Noah
I want you on the QVC Channel
yeah just sell away my friend sell away
um actually I I do appreciate the work
in there and I know Kyle's got extra
gray hair over it so that's good but
I'm very I read through the packet and I
had asked
Kyle earlier and figured the answer
later but uh I like what it is I like
the fact that Scott's pushing against
A-frame signs because somebody will
probably buy more from me and I'll make
more money and then I just want to say I
appreciate that and thanks for getting
back to me Kyle
and I will um I will Echo everything
that's been said I I do support this I
again I thank you for the work that has
gone into this I also want to point out
that the Chamber of Commerce and Sarah
watts is here this evening um submitted
a letter to us supporting this their
public policy look I know you presented
to them in their public policy sent us a
letter to a recommend approval of this
too so that's always great that we can
hear from our business Community whether
they like A-frame signs or not council
member Anderson and I would be happy to
accept emotion on this if someone would
like to attempt to do so
thank you um mayor I'd like to make a
motion to approve item 23 zoning the
2213.
can I have a second
I'll second that I have a motion by vice
mayor tilkey seconded by council member
Torgeson please vote
motion passes seven zero way to go team
great work thanks for all that
discussion this evening and Noah again
I'm going to bottle Your Enthusiasm
now we'll move on to it kind of reminded
me of Ken snow a little bit
um
now we'll move on to administrative
items
we
right
can you see it we have reports from
boards and commissions and committees
does anyone have anything to report this
evening
vice mayor yes thank you mayor
I wanted to mention that we are a
Communications subcommittee has met
twice and since
we aren't allowed to talk to you all
about anything I just wanted to give you
a couple updates that we are working
with the town clerk's office at this
point to um review and update our
request to speak cards so it'll be
easier for the public to understand how
to use those and also working with both
the Town Clerk and digital team to
produce a video outlining public input
processes that we can use not only here
but online and so I just wanted to let
you know that that's in the progress and
you'll be seeing that more but just an
update on that and while I haven't
attended the first meeting
um
for the mag domestic violence Council I
got an email that noted that February is
teen violence prevention
months where they are featuring webinars
series every week and if you're
interested I thought it had information
not only for your team but as a parent
how you can talk to your teen and things
that you can be looking for and I
believe you can sign up online through
azmag.gov but I thought um some people
may have an interest in that thank you
thank you vice mayor um any other
reports from anyone
now we will move to Communications
report from the town manager on current
events look at me looking to the left
right at you
thank you mayor members of the council
can you guys hear me okay okay
um first I got a question for Noah did
Kyle really force you to call him
director Kyle no
because I can follow up with him on that
nice work okay a couple items for you
mayor I've got two
happy but sad announcement about some
very long-time employees who will be
leaving us soon to start
we have a senior water distribution
utility technician Susan Logan who is
celebrating her retirement on February
1st after over 22 years of service in
Gilbert Susan started out her career in
Gilbert in the water metering Department
before promoting to the water
distribution Department as a utility
worker
she served for nearly 20 years and was
promoted into the senior role in 2015 in
her years of service Susan has
demonstrated her drive and dedication to
the team and has been awarded 37 on the
spot awards for taking initiative
improving process working on special
projects and supporting co-workers her
performance and enthusiasm led her to
being selected as the 2007 employee of
the year Susan has gone above and beyond
as a mentor and leader and coached her
team in the AZ water hydrant hysteria
competition earning second place in the
Statewide event both 2019 and 2022
Susan's dedication to our team and to
the water industry will leave a lasting
Legacy that will be forever grateful for
and which we are exceptionally proud of
who wish Susan all the best in a
retirement in future endeavors
next and and this is a name and a face
that I'll bet many of you know after 27
years Jody Becker uh in our parks
department one of our beloved Park
Ranger and a park ranger supervisor at
that she retired on January 11th Jody
has been an employee with Gilbert Parks
and Recreation since 2000 or January
1996 and has been an instrumental in the
development of the Gilbert Park Rangers
this team started with two non-uniformed
caretakers that would assist with the
maintenance duties at Gilbert Parks
today the team is fully uniformed and
works closely with facilities
maintenance and the Gilbert Police
Department Jody was highlighted in the
July 2020 issue of Parks and Recreation
magazine distributed by the national
Recreation of park parks Association and
she was also a Gilbert MVP for
Innovation winner in 2014 and we will
miss Jody greatly we do have something
special we're going to do for him we're
going to put some A-frame signs out in
front of town hall thanking them for
their years of service as a special way
to commemorate
both sides of the A-frame yes
and then lastly I wanted to thank the
Gilbert staff and volunteers that
participated in the regional point in
time count that is done annually it was
a very cold morning they go this is part
of an effort to get a handle on the size
of the population in this region of
people that are experiencing
homelessness not only Dykstra Dykstra
has been doing it ever since I've been
here and Melanie helped lead that team
for us this morning so very appreciative
of what she does for us and all the
people who showed up on a cold morning
to do that thank you
thanks for mentioning that Patrick next
report from Council on current events
councilmember Anderson I just realized
as you were
doing those recognitions at the
beginning of the meeting there is one
other person that we ought to recognize
who is also a graduate from
Perry High School the starting
quarterback of Patrick's favorite team
the 49ers Rock Purdy is a Perry high
school graduate
yeah he plays this week
yeah yeah that's great we have some
great talent coming out of Gilbert any
other yes councilmember kopreski
good evening being from an Asian
cultural background I just wanted to
wish everyone a Happy Lunar New Year
that began on Sunday the 22nd mayor year
of the rabbit be full of Happiness
prosperity and health and I hope you
enjoy some of the regional events that
are happening around the area in
celebration of that
thank you councilmember caprese any
other comments from report from Council
well I did my report at the beginning of
the meeting so we are done I will recess
the regular meeting and we will be
moving upstairs to reconvene an
executive session
mean