The public hearing is coming very soon!! If you will be in the Florence area on Thursday, December 15th, please attend the public hearing! It will take place at the Pinal County Planning and Zoning Commission at 9:00 AM, Thursday, December 15th, in the Emergency Operations Center (EOC) Hearing Room, 31 N Pinal Street, Building F, Florence AZ 85132. (Map: https://goo.gl/maps/CNqYiYhMVhz ) Get there early! It will be hard to find parking, and you should allow yourself a few minutes to find the correct building and meeting room. Here is how the process works: (1.) Planning and Zoning Staff (employees of the county) analyze the application and make a recommendation based on the technical and legal merits of the application. This analysis is complete—you can see a summary here (2 MB): https://www.dropbox.com/s/y1l60fju752njgl/Staff%20Recommendation%20without%20maps.pdf?dl=0 (2.) Planning and Zoning Commission (appointed commissioners) review staff's recommendation and hear comments from the public in the Public Hearing (on Thursday). Then they vote, and issue their own recommendation to the County Supervisors. (3.) The County Supervisors (elected officials) will make the final decision (probably in January). Staff issued their report of all the technical merits of the rezoning application, and is recommending DENIAL. This is good news, but this is just the beginning! The Commissioners could recommend conditional approval, giving the developer time to address all the technical and legal issues. This would NOT be a good outcome—it could leave the rezoning issue hanging over the monastery for years to come. If the Commission sees huge public opposition to the project, and hears all the problems it will create for the neighborhood and the monastery, they are much more likely to deny the rezoning COMPLETELY. SO IT IS VERY IMPORTANT TO ATTEND THE PUBLIC HEARING! Let the Commissioners know you are opposed to the rezoning! A PDF with the Staff Summary only (including their recommendation to deny) can be downloaded here (2 MB): https://www.dropbox.com/s/y1l60fju752njgl/Staff%20Recommendation%20without%20maps.pdf?dl=0 The PDF of the complete packet can be downloaded here (1507 MB or 1.5 GB): http://pinalcountyaz.gov/files/pzpacket/Packet_2016-12-15.pdf