A site plan and preliminary plat for an industrial building on the northwest corner of Thomas Road and Val Vista Drive should be approved by the City Council, a Mesa board decided recently.
Two residents who live nearby expressed concerns about the development on general industrial-zoned land adjacent to homes and Loop 202. Comment cards also were read into the record for others with similar concerns at the Aug. 25 meeting of the Mesa Planning and Zoning Board.
The board voted unanimously to recommend the council approve the site plan review for the 13.1-acre property and, in a separate vote, a preliminary plat, with Chair Jessica Sarkissian and board member Troy Peterson absent. The City Council will make the final decision at a future meeting.
Jeff McCall of McCall and Associates Inc. is the applicant, and Thomas Val Vista LLC is the owner.
The project previously was discussed at a Mesa Design Review Board meeting, Mesa Planner Evan Balmer said during a work session prior to the meeting.
“The applicant did receive some comments from design review mostly looking for ways to kind of soften the appearance of the building as it is surrounded by residential development, to look at enhanced screen walls, enhanced landscaping, some additional articulation on the north side of the building that faces the 202. The applicant and I are still working through those changes,” he said.
The general industrial zoning for the property was established with annexation in 1981, Balmer said.
“At that time, the city envisioned larger heavy-industrial uses on this property,” he said. “So the zoning is in place. The GI district does allow for manufacturing, assembly, storage — those types of uses — and this request is not a rezoning.”
The building is set back more than 100 feet from both Thomas Road and the west property line, he said.
“The applicant did make some changes to the site to make it fit into the neighborhood a little bit better. Some of those are enhanced landscaping along Thomas. Industrial developments are also required to provide a percentage of the site for common open space; the applicant did provide that, they provided it along Thomas Road to allow for that to be used both by employees and residents in the area,” Balmer said.
The project’s first phase is one speculative building designed to accommodate a single user or multiple users, an outdoor screened storage area, parking and landscaping. A future building, parking and landscape may occur on the east side of the outdoor storage area, according to a project narrative from Kitchell Development Co.
“As part of Phase 1, Kitchell (is) to install all the landscaping within the 15-foot-wide landscape area in front of their property along Thomas Road and Val Vista Drive frontages,” it states. “The general industrial speculative multitenant building will be approximately 46 feet in height and approximately 108,000 building square feet.”
Resident comments
Two residents of the Lehi Crossing neighborhood spoke against the proposed industrial building during a public hearing.
“So now you are asking approximately 1,500 households and their residents who use Lehi and Thomas roads daily or more to put up with a speculative four-story, 108,000-square-foot building,” said Lana Hitchens of the 3100 block of North Los Alamos to the board. “That’s a minimum of 3,000 people ... up to 6,000 people or more ... that will be affected by the resulting large truck traffic hauling who knows what day and night and whose safety of mothers, fathers and children will be in jeopardy as well as school buses on a daily basis,” she said.
The building, which is adjacent to homes, is too tall, said Greg Hitchens of the 3100 block of North Los Alamos to the board.
“The applicant has designed an attractive building for their client and they should be commended for that effort. There’s just one problem for me — it’s in the wrong place,” he said.
Richard Dyer Managing Editor | East Valley @RHDyer
Meet Richard Richard Dyer has worked at Independent Newsmedia Inc. USA since 1987, starting his career in Apache Junction as a copy editor and being promoted over the years to work as the editor of the Mesa Independent, news services editor for the East Valley office in Apache Junction, managing editor for the East Valley office, news services editor for the East Valley office and eventually also for the newspapers at INI’s then-Chandler office, managing editor again and as a news editor covering Apache Junction/Gold Canyon and Queen Creek. He helped start the Florence Independent while the news editor covering Apache Junction and Mesa news. In January 2023, he became associate managing editor for the East Valley newspapers and in August 2023 became managing editor for the East Valley newspapers of Chandler/Tempe, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon, while also reporting on Mesa and Apache Junction/Gold Canyon.
Community: Since 2009, he has worked as a volunteer to design The Blue Guitar Magazine, Blue Guitar Jr. magazine and Unstrung magazine, which are projects of The Arizona Consortium for the Arts; and since 2014, has been overseeing the art submissions.
Education: University of Arizona with a master of arts in journalism and a bachelor of science in agricultural communication. Also continuing education at Mesa Community College in welding in a metal art sculpture class.
Random fact: Saw his first tornado on May 31, 2010, which was classified as an EF-2, as part of a stormchasing tour group.
Hobbies: He is an artist of welded-steel sculptures, selling his artwork at juried and non-juried art shows.
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