Two rezoning requests presented as a first reading agenda item drew lengthy discussion from the Safford City Council at its meeting March 24.The first zoning request was to rezone approximately 7 acres located at the southwest corner of 20th Avenue and 26th Street from general commercial to multifamily residential
Two rezoning requests presented as a first reading agenda item drew lengthy discussion from the Safford City Council at its meeting March 24.The first zoning request was to rezone approximately 7 acres located at the southwest corner of 20th Avenue and 26th Street from general commercial to multifamily residential.
Commonwealth Capital, a development corporation based in Columbus, Ohio, asked for the rezoning so it could build 64 “market-rate” apartments on the site. The company would leave empty a small area adjacent to 26th Street for commercial purposes.
Planning and Commun-ity Development Director Pete Stasiak told the council the rezone had passed the Planning and Development Committee and gave it a favorable review.
Stasiak said there was, however, an issue about water drainage that was brought up at the Planning and Zoning meeting.
He said Commonwealth Capital would like to have the water drain through pipes that would take it under 20th Avenue and into the retention pond behind Freeman Dam.
Stasiak said Bill Konopnicki, who is a state representative from Safford, voiced his opposition to the rezoning at the same meeting.
Konopnicki owns 56 acres directly to the east and south of the project that he has platted for a 168-lot upscale subdivision called Vista Grande. Phase one of the subdivision is under construction.
Stasiak said the Vista Grande subdivision does the same thing with its water drainage, sending it under 20th Avenue through pipes and into the retention pond.
Mayor Ron Green asked if allowing more water to drain behind the dam might result in overfilling it.
Stasiak said the water already runs down the area and most of it ends up in a ravine behind the dam.
Special Projects Manager Robert Porter said the increase of water into the watershed would be insignificant. He said the increase by both fully constructed developments would be less than 1 percent of the area’s capacity.
Don Griffith with Commonwealth Capital passed out an informative packet to the council members and went over his project.
He said his company has developed many projects in the Southwest where there was a need for market-rate housing. Griffith believes Safford is severely lacking the type of upscale market-rate apartments his company builds.
Griffith’s plans include 64 two-bedroom, two-bath apartments with 978 square feet of living space in eight buildings. Each unit will come with a number of features, and on-site amenities include a swimming pool, playground and a community building with a club room. Griffith says the apartments will rent for about $800 to $850 per month.
As far as drainage goes, Griffith said his project would do a better job than any commercial project.
“The drainage from a project such as this that still has a significant amount of grass and green areas would aid in draining this property a great deal better than if it was done as a commercial, hard surface, no green space product,” he said.
Mayor Green asked what, exactly, Konopnicki’s concern was.
Stasiak said he was worried that an apartment complex might lower the worth of his own subdivision, but Stasiak said the complex would look a lot better than any commercial entity the land is already zoned for.
“I think this is a much better-looking project than if you had 9 or 10 acres of commercial projects sitting on that corner,” Stasiak said. “(That’s) a lot of asphalt and buildings with air conditioners and those types of things on top of it.”
Another first reading rezoning issue raised the eyebrows of the councilors.
Stasiak presented a request from a developer to rezone a little more than 26 acres from a planned unit development to a mobile home development district.
The land owner, Rob Merrill, wants the rezoning to build a manufactured home community on permanent foundations. The site was previously rezoned from agricultural-residential to planned unit development.
The site is located off Hollywood Road, north of the Copper Canyon I subdivision and east of the Sunrise Village RV & Mobile Home Resort.
Merrill owns about 50 acres stretching to the Gila River but is planning to develop only the southern 26 acres. According to Stasiak, the southern 26 acres are not in the flood plain.
Mayor Green said he had personally seen a house completely underwater in the proposed site area during a flood in 1968.
“It looks to me like, if we had that same water situation here, this whole thing would be underwater,” he said. “I really question putting these homes in that place because I’ve been there when that’s all underwater.”
Stasiak reminded the council the area had already been rezoned for a planned unit development and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency flood plain maps show the area to be outside of a 100-year event.
Green asked what the city’s liability would be if it allowed the homes to be built and they were flooded.
City Attorney Johnny Guthrie said as long as the city goes by the FEMA maps it would not be liable for flood damage.
See Sunday Courier issue for story on the Downtown charette story.
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