The controversial Mack industrial park earmarked for 9100 E. Bell Road will become a reality.
The Scottsdale Development Review Board approved during its Jan. 4 meeting
the aesthetics on the four warehouses by a 5-2 vote.
The 61.5-acre site is zoned industrial so the project will not go before the zoning commission or city council.
The project had been put on hold since the development review board’s Dec. 7 meeting because board members wanted the developer to work with city staff on shipping bay screening, bay door color, attempts to break up the look of the walls of the massive buildings and parapet heights, as well as the placing of some sidewalks and trees.
Five of the board members felt Mack addressed those issues in the interim period between meetings.
“I do think the responses that were made (by Mack) addressed in a fairly minimal way the comments that were made (by board members during the Dec. 7 meeting),” board vice chair Jeff Brand said. “I don’t think they aggressively addressed them. Sometimes you make comments and you kind of hope someone runs with them and say, ‘Hey great idea, were going to do that. We’re definitely going to do that,’ rather than doing just barely enough to address the comments.”
City Councilmember Barry Graham, who currently chairs the board, and board member Michal Ann Joyner were the two votes against approving the looks of the project.
“I think if they had just broken up the massing of those buildings that would have made it more compatible for me to vote yes on it although I still just don’t think a trucking facility is a good entrance to north Scottsdale, where many of us live,” Joyner said.
Graham echoed similar sentiments.
Two members of the public spoke out against the project.
Chris Irish, the DC Ranch public affairs director, felt Mack has not meet the development review board’s requests and said the sheer scope of the project, which comprises 608,170 square feet of building area, will dwarf everything around it.
Irish also expressed concerns that the project is going to create a traffic problem in the area by adding as many as 350 trips from semi-tractor trailers, though she noted that was outside of the board’s authority.
Board member David Mason did not share her concerns about traffic.
“(Pima and the Loop 101) a very busy intersection anyhow and an addition of 300 trucks a day I don’t think is going to be that noticeable,” Mason said.
J. Graber can be reached at jgraber@iniusa.org. We invite our readers to submit their civil comments pro or con on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.
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