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During its May 2 meeting, the Surprise City Council approved a preliminary plat for the Altamira development.

Altamira is generally located north of Pinnacle Peak Road and west of the Reems Road/155th Avenue alignment. A development with a revised plat approved in late 2015, Verdugo, is to the west.

During an April Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, planner Robert Kuhfuss said Rancho Mercado, which broke ground in April, will be crucial to the developments in this area and those already in place west of 163rd Avenue.

Rancho Mercado developer William Lyon Homes will build Happy Valley Road with one lane in each direction from 163rd Avenue to Racho Cabrillo to the east, connecting it with the Peoria stretch of Happy Valley Road and providing an east-west relief.

Altamira will have three lot types and 59 acres (about 33 percent) set aside for open space.

Phase 1, just east of Verdugo, will be built first. A park along the western boundary will be shared with Verdugo, and the trail system also integrates with Verdugo.

Altamira features Tuscan architecture.

• Also on May 2 the council unanimously approved a rezoning for a parcel north of Valley Vista High School and west of Paradise Acres.

It changed the zoning on the parcel from mostly rural residential with a slice of medium-density residential to neighborhood commercial. A planned urban development overlay defines acceptable uses in this area, orienting it more toward office and medical related businesses.



On April 20 the Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously recommended rezoning the planned 15.76-acre urban development in the Paradise Acres Commercial Center on land east of Reems Road, north of Tierra Buena Lane and south of Paradise Lane.

The rest of this quarter of a city block, from Paradise Lane south to Greenway Road and from Bullard Avenue west to Reems Road, is a unique mix. The eastern and southern boundaries form the heart of the Dysart Unified School District, with Parkview Elementary, the district offices and the Valley Vista Performing Arts Center along Parkview Place and Valley Vista High School just north of Greenway Road.

But the bulk of this area, 75 acres in all, is devoted to Paradise Acres, a rural residential community with large lots and almost a ranch feel.

The parcel rezoned is just to the west and has a long history of speculative development, Surprise planner Hobart Wingard said during the planning commission meeting. The parcel has five different owners.

By including an overlay with this rezoning, he said, the city can limit types of businesses arriving to those palatable to residents.

Surprise led a citizen review meeting in March.

Resident concerns led the city to strike animal hospitals, clinics and boarding facilities from the list of acceptable businesses due to noise