The Mesa City Council on Jan. 13 voted 7-0 to introduce ordinances for two annexations and set the dates for their public hearings following a long discussion.
According to council documents, the annexations include 64 acres at the southeast corner of East Southern Avenue and South Signal Butte Road, as well as 30 acres at the southeast corner of North Hawes Road and East McDowell Road.
The 64-acre area consists of five privately-owned, undeveloped parcels of land. The land is currently zoned as large-lot residential in Maricopa County, and annexing the area will establish comparable Mesa zoning of an agricultural district. The applicant who requested the annexation, Pew & Lake, PLC, who made the request for the owners, Bela Flor Holdings LLC, also submitted a rezoning application.
The rezoning application will rezone the land to limited commercial with a planned area development overlay to allow for a mixed-use development on the annexation area. If the council votes in favor of holding a public hearing for this ordinance, the hearing date is to be set for their Jan. 27 meeting.
Total assessed valuation of the 64 acres is $514,185, Principal Planner Cassidy Welch said in a memo to the council.
The 30-acre area consists of a privately-owned, undeveloped parcel, currently zoned large-lot residential in Maricopa County. The land will be established as comparable city of Mesa zoning of agricultural district. The applicant, Pew and Lake PLC, requested the annexation on behalf of the landowners, Colleen Horcher Trust.
Some members of the public speaking at the meeting expressed their concerns with the 30-acre development, saying that the accompanying properties and street lights would disrupt the view of residents living nearby.
“Just south of me is where the new development is going to go in and I just gotta say that we have the most spectacular view,” Paul Kennedy said. “We’ve been there for 27 years. We have the sunsets, we have the dust storms rolling in and the monsoons. It’s absolutely beautiful and we don’t want to lose that. Development is inevitable...but we would like to have that density reduced.”
Mesa Mayor Mark Freeman said the city of Mesa considers these things when they annex properties.
“I just want to point out that when we annex properties into the city of Mesa, we value and leverage our infrastructure,” Mayor Freeman said. “Our infrastructure is far beyond other East Valley cities.”
The applicant also submitted a rezoning application to rezone the property to single residence with a planned area development to allow for the development of a 65-unit single residence subdivision. If the council votes in favor of holding a public hearing for this ordinance, the hearing date is to be set for the Feb. 3 meeting.
Total assessed valuation of the 30 acres is $478,005, Senior Planner Joshua Grandlienard said in a memo to the council.
According to the city of Mesa’s website, annexation is the process by which Mesa expands its boundaries into adjacent areas not already incorporated into the city, which requires an eight-step process:
• Request a pre-submittal conference online.
• Prepare and submit all necessary documents for formal submittal online.
• Receive review comments and revise and resubmit documents online.
• Record blank annexation petition to start the 30-day waiting period.
• Provide notice to the public of the proposed annexation.
• Hold a public hearing to review the proposed annexation.
• Release the blank annexation petition to be signed by property owners.
• Attend a public hearing for discussion and decision.
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