Queen Creek council introduces annexation request

The Queen Creek Town Council held its first public hearing Wednesday on a request to annex a small parcel of Maricopa County land that will allow a local real estate development firm to expand its parking lot.

No members of the public spoke on the request. The council is expected to vote on the annexation at a meeting in October.

Carder Development is requesting that the town annex the 0.72-acre site.

In 2025 and 2026, Carder Development received entitlements and building permits from the town to build a 17,070-square-foot, one-story commercial office building on approximately 1.79 acres at 26214 S. Ellsworth Road. The proposed parking site is immediately north of the building.

“Their upcoming effort is toward extending the parking (and) no additional structures, no expansion of that structure. It’s simply an opportunity for them to provide additional parking and clean up that vacant parcel that really is unusable and can’t really be developed,” Erik Swanson, planning administrator, told the council.

At its Sept. 9 meeting, the Queen Creek Planning & Zoning Commission recommended a rezoning and site plan for the proposed parking lot.

“The Carder family had actually hoped to acquire this parcel and make it part of the original approval back in 2024, 2025, but they were unable to make that happen at that time,” Carder Development’s representative, Chris Webb of the Rose Law Group, told the commission. “Fortunately, about 12 months ago, they were able to successfully acquire the parcel, and so they decided to come back through the process here so that we can add it to the (main) project.”

If the council approves the annexation, the site will receive the equivalent zoning of residential. The council will take up Carder Development’s request to rezone the site to light commercial at a future meeting.

The property is located north of the northwest corner of Ellsworth and Happy roads in Maricopa County and will have 50 parking spaces.

The site is bordered by rural-residential uses in unincorporated Maricopa County to the west, the Carder development to the south, future office uses within town limits to the north, and vacant commercially zoned property east of Ellsworth Road, which is planned for future commercial and auto-oriented uses, according to a staff report.

Janet Perez can be reached at jperez@iniusa.org. Please send your comments about this article to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines.