Cave Creek approves agreement for Carefree Highway property

By Jeff Wendt
Mail

The town of Cave Creek approved a transfer development rights agreement May 21 with the developers of a piece of property on the southeast corner of Cave Creek Road and Carefree Highway.

Black Mountain Marketplace, as the property will be known once developed, will include a Mountainside Fitness and other assorted shops and restaurants.

The 13-acre property’s development agreement was approved by council prior to issuance of any building permits or that the project must comply with the minimum undisturbed land requirement of 20%.

The owners of Black Mountain Marketplace proposed to disturb the entire property to accommodate the design for future development, while exceeding the minimum landscape area by providing 27% landscaped area.

In return, the developer plans to dedicate a total of 98,298 square feet of required undisturbed area near hillside parcels placing the area in a conservation easement per the town code.

Senior Planner Steven Perales said these requirements will not stop their plan moving forward.

“Just want to make a key point though that it’s not going to prevent them from still having to adhere to the required landscaping requirements, which they are going to landscape 27% of the of the site,” Perales said, “and majority of it will be street frontage and installing trails and so on.”

Councilmember Cynthia Driskell was concerned about how much water might be used for the proposed development, but Perales eased Driskell’s concerns.

“I’ll let Luke (Luke Kautzman, Development Services Director) chime in on that one, but I’m probably going to beat him to punch, this property is going to be serviced by city of Phoenix water,” Perales said.

Driskell, in making the motion, liked the trade-off of open space added to the town’s growing holdings.

“Thank you for the information on the development,” Driskell said.”It looks like a good move forward to do the transfer development rights and keep adding little parcels to our open space.”

Mayor Robert Morris agreed with Driskell on the addition of the open space.

“It’s really good thing because we’re trading a piece of property that is going to be commercial, and the undisturbed portion is a loss, but in return we’re getting undisturbed land on a mountainside right in the view corridor, so I think that’s a good trade,” Morris said. “It’s the whole purpose of the code.”

Jeff Wendt
Reporter | Phoenix/Cave Creek

jwendt@iniusa.org

Meet Jeff
Jeff Wendt started at Independent Newsmedia in January 2023, after 25 years working for Gannett and The Arizona Republic. Started as a high school sports scoretaker, worked up to reporting high school sports and then became an associate high school sports editor in 2002. Also worked in the Design Studio as a copy editor.

Community: Jeff serves on the Board of Elders at his local church.

Education: Arizona State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication

Random fact: Attended Game 2 of the 2001 World Series.

Hobbies: Playing video games (yes still the kid in me), watching reality TV, playing poker.