Queen Creek council votes allow for industrial site

The Queen Creek Town Council has approved an amendment to the general plan and a rezoning that will allow a developer to build an office/industrial site at the northeast corner of Rittenhouse and Germann roads.

The council unanimously approved the amendment and rezoning at its Feb. 5 meeting. The items were part of the council’s public hearing consent agenda in which all matters are passed with one motion and vote.

Members of the public are allowed to speak on individual items on the public consent agenda. No one commented on the amendment or rezoning.

Developer Evergreen Investment Company LLC asked that the land-use designation for the 10-acre site be changed from neighborhood to industrial to allow for the proposed Depot at Rittenhouse.

The site was also rezoned from medium-density residential to employment-A.

While there is a residential subdivision near the site, the rest is bordered by industrial land. The site is bound by Rittenhouse Road to the west, Germann Road to the south with the Cortina residential neighborhood south of Germann Road, and the Union Pacific Railroad to the northeast. There is also vacant land zoned for general industrial north of the railroad within Mesa.

Further to the east is Sossaman Road, and light industrial development within Mesa.

The proposed Depot at Rittenhouse is a 112,319-square-foot building “that offers flex-office, medical, industrial and business park type-uses.”

“Understanding the town’s desire to capture new employment growth, and to compete with the employment demand occurring immediately next door in Mesa, it’s imperative to have a property that differentiates from the others and pushes Queen Creek to the top,” according to the developer’s narrative report.

The Queen Creek Planning & Zoning Commission recommended approval of the general plan amendment and the rezoning at its Jan. 7 meeting.

Because the proposed project is within the Mesa Gateway Airport’s overflight area, the plan was reviewed for compatibility by the airport authority.

In a letter to the Queen Creek Development Services department, a planner at Mesa Gateway Airport wrote that industrial development within the overflight area “is generally considered a compatible land use in proximity to the airport.”

“Any development at this location, due to its proximity to (Mesa Gateway Airport) will be subject to frequent aircraft overflights and will be affected by noise. Occupants will hear and see aircraft landing and taking off from the airport and may experience aircraft overflights that generate noise levels considered by many to be ‘annoying,’” Airport Planner Ksenia Kerentseva wrote.

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