The fate of the Ranch is in the hands of Gilbert Town Council.
The primarily light-industrial development on the town’s eastern boundary will come before council Nov. 15 with a recommendation to approve from a divided and deeply conflicted Gilbert Planning Commission.
Neighbors who reside in the Morrison Ranch area showed no such conflict. They voiced their opposition to the project in droves before the commission and to council, though the project has yet to be on a council agenda. No resident of Morrison Ranch, outside the applicant’s attorney, Adam Baugh, expressed support.
“The only people who support this are people getting paid to support it and people who are so entrenched in development and so used to making compromises that they don’t see a half of a block change as any different than the change on a single plot,” resident Brian Mosley said.
The commission voted 4-3 Oct. 20 to give the recommendation to approve a major General Plan amendment and subsequent zoning changes to accommodate the Ranch as written after a motion to deny recommendation and another for a continuance on the matter failed. Chairman Jan Simon and commissioners Lesley Davis and Anthony Bianchi voted in dissent.
The project
The Ranch takes more than 300 acres of vacant land from a former dairy farm, which had been zoned mostly for general commercial use as well as some business park and light industrial usages, and turns it mostly into light industrial.
The developer is IndiCap, a privately held corporation that specializes in ground-up industrial investment and development services in Arizona and Nevada.
The 302.4-acre site as presently constituted is zoned for 56 acres of industrial usage, 144.7 acres of general office space and 101.2 acres of general commercial. It is located between Elliot and Warner roads on the westside of Power Road.
The plan came before the commission for the first of two required public hearings Oct. 5, at which time it called for a change to 280.6 acres of light industrial and 21.8 of general commercial.
The proposed plan would build 4 million square feet of industrial employment uses and 126,000 square feet of retail space on the southwest corner of Power and Elliot roads and northwest corner of Power and Warner roads.
Baugh said developers are open to fitness, dining, retail, service uses or a hotel on the two commercial corners.
After public and commission at that meeting, the developer changed the proposal to further buffer the development’s western edge – which runs adjacent to homes in Morrison Ranch – bring retail development all along the project’s north end along Elliot Road and add some business park usage at the west end to serve a transition between the residential area and the industrial buildings.
Under the proposal put forth in the second hearing Oct. 20, the zoning would change to 255 acres of light industrial, 30.9 acres general commercial and 16.5 acres business park.
On the development’s western property line, there would be a 65-foot landscape buffer that would include a pedestrian trail, double row of trees, bench seating, white split-rail fence and an 8-foot block wall.
The building setback would be 212 feet from the property line. Part of the stipulations the town would require for approval is there be no signage on the west side of any industrial building within 500 feet of the residential area.
Baugh, in his remarks before the commission, said the present zoning does not make sense in the way it is configured and thus not a viable plan. He pointed out that since the land was rezoned in 2009 to what it is today, it has gone 13 years without a user stepping up for the land.
“It’s an obsolete zoning pattern, and there’s a time and a place that this should be revisited,” he said.
Baugh argued this plan is more viable as it matches what is along Power Road today as an industrial corridor with some retail uses.
“Three hundred acres is a rare opportunity to create major industries, not just fit somebody into old, obsolete buildings like in the northwest part of our town,” he said.
Residents’ concerns
Residents in public meetings and by correspondence have pushed to keep the General Plan’s zoning, objecting to the buildings’ heights, the lack of transition to residential housing, the development being too intense for the area, the proposal not fitting in with the vision for the Morrison Ranch area, noise and truck traffic.
The objections have been strong enough that Baugh, at the Oct. 5 hearing, admitted he may be “Public Enemy No. 1” among his neighbors.
Residents at the Oct. 20 meeting said the changes made to the plan after Oct. 5 did not go far enough in addressing their concerns. Some wondered why the plan was being rushed through without a chance for more thoughtful dialogue to achieve compromises, though the commission was advised that under the prevailing state statute, the case had to be adjudicated by the end of the calendar year.
Some residents underscored they were not opposed to development there, but said they did not feel this was an appropriate one.
“We would love to have something built here and to see Gilbert grow and thrive,” resident Jeni Everett said. “We support growth, and we agreed to some industrial zoning, but maximizing to this intensity is not helpful for our community.”
Everett pushed back against promises of job growth for the community, pointing to an employment capacity formula that showed the change in zoning would mean the potential loss of 1,313 jobs from what could be had under the present zoning.
Mosley called the proposed development the most intense in town.
“It’s so offensive and frustrating for people to tell us this belongs right next to our homes,” he said.
Mosley also called the idea that nothing else could be successfully developed on the land “just silly.”
“This is a pointless race to the bottom here with Mesa,” he said, adding that the light industrial developments on Mesa’s side of Power Road would be enough employment benefit for Gilbert residents.
“The point is why is (the land) not serving as the transition and the buffer from the sea of light industrial that’s crashing up against our homes,” Mosley said.
In his rebuttal remarks, Baugh said vacant land creates zero jobs and that the requested change from the General Plan is a response to market conditions and market changes, pointing to less people shopping at brick-and-mortar stores and more people working from home since the COVID-19 pandemic.
“There’s 87 acres of vacant zoned commercial land right now in the heart of Morrison Ranch,” he said. “If we can’t absorb that, where it’s 360 degrees of homes around it, how can we consider 101 more acres (of retail) along Power Road?”
Commission actions
Commissioners expressed concerns with the plan, but also gave credit to the developer for working to address the residents’ input.
While a couple of the commissioners dismissed residents’ concerns as hyperbole, Simon said he empathized with the residents, particularly those right up against the development.
“At this point I’m truly struggling,” he said. “This is probably the hardest decision I’ve made in the past three-plus years sitting on this dais. So, again, I commiserate, and I can commiserate with all of you.
“It’s really trying to mute some of the noise, and I don’t mean that offensively, but trying to think of it from a very logical and rational perspective and what is it that the town needs.”
Bianchi, who at the Oct. 5 hearing said he wanted to see more changes, said the project was still too “industrial-focused.”
"As far as my estimation goes, I understand that the current land use map may not be fully feasible, but I don’t see this as the preferred path forward in this regard,” he said.
Bianchi moved to deny the recommendation, but it failed for lack of a second from another commissioner.
Vice Chairman Noah Mundt moved for a continuance with a second from Davis so that the plan could be further worked on, but that failed on a 4-3 vote after some discussion as to why to continue the question.
The commission then discussed the possibility of further stipulations on the project, and Baugh even seemed to express a willingness to work within further parameters.
“When I consider the balance of this case, we are bringing in an industrial product with commercial shopping centers, and it won’t change the nature of what we’re trying to do,” he said. “But it can change the nature of what you experience along the west edge, so if that is the direction, I think we would be willing to work toward something like that.”
But Commissioner William Fay moved for the amendment and then the zoning to pass as written, with Commissioner Lisa Gage seconding. The commission passed those motions on 4-3 votes. Gage, an alternate, was filling in for Commissioner David Blaser, who recused himself.
The commission’s actions are not final, just a recommendation to council, which has final say. The item is expected to come before it at the Nov. 15 council meeting.
Tom Blodgett can be reached at tblodgett@iniusa.org or found on Twitter @sp_blodgett.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
The Ranch,
Gilbert Planning Commission,
Gilbert Town Council,
Gilbert General Plan,
IndiCap,
Adam Baugh,
Jan Simon,
Lesley Davis,
Anthony Bianchi,
William Fay,
Lisa Gage,
Noah Mundt,
Brian Mosley,
Jeni Everett,
David Blaser
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