The community meeting held on the 4th gave very few answers. The attorney present for the State Land Trust was there to review the zoning change for the adjoining acreage that runs along Germann all the way down to the corner of Schnepf Road. They want to change this zoning to Urban Employment as well. The plans for when everything was initially zoned have changed based on the re-routing of Rt. 24. The road was initially planned to turn south towards Germann before returning east. That has now been changed to run straight east from where it's going to connect to Ironwood. Because of that plan, they made 2 more zoning changes to the acreage currently going up for auction. The current zoning is set for ANY industrial purpose, or commercial application. No residential allowed. They will allow any structure up to 90 feet high that can hold humans (the power lines in that vicinity are 80 feet tall for comparison), or a non-human occupied tower of up to 180 feet. Think storage or cooling tower. The prior meeting had discussed things like a QT possibly going on the corner. There had never been mention of large scale industrial.
The current acreage zoned urban employment runs along Germann from Ironwood all the way down to Kenworthy Road. The attorney stated that any plant that went in there would have to meet city and state requirements, but when pushed on the timelines stated by LG, demurred by stating that things can happen quicker with pre-planning. So, on one hand, she intimated that the process for approval COULD take awhile, but yet, it may not. She would NOT discuss specifics of the plant, only insisting that the State of Arizona Land Trust would not want to sell the property to someone who would eventually devalue their other surrounding pieces of land. However, by re-zoning to this new urban employment, they could allow further large scale manufacturing to come in and do whatever they want. She also said that the state plans on selling of ALL the state owned trust land, some 9 million plus acres. Of course, that's several thousand acres a year, so it will take a while. But she specifically stated that if you live near state trust land, eventually you will see it disappear.
I met a lot of people there who put forth other issues with this property being turned into a factory. Concern for the water supply was high, especially as many properties nearby have their own wells. But with that was concern for the nearby schools. Right on the corner of Kenworthy and Germann is Combs High School. Many were concerned for the health and safety of the children. Many were concerned for the increased traffic, specifically the heavy duty semi's that would be hauling materials in and out at all times, and the danger of those materials they would be carrying. The county had stated in prior meetings that they didn't want the people living in the area to worry about increased traffic on Germann with the extension of Kenworthy or Schnepf Roads. But the attorney stated that the county would have to work with the town of Queen Creek regarding these extensions... implying that the roads would be extended whether the county liked it or not.
The attorney's big push was that they agreed to a 300 foot buffer from the edge of the 150 foot buffer that was Germann Road. That this area was to be left with no structures, only parking lot or landscaping. Sorry, but 300 feet isn't a big distance when you're talking about a 90 foot high factory. The fact that the exterior face of the facility had to meet the city's "beauty standards" set within the last 5 years was her other big push. Plus, she stated repeatedly that a residential development may have meant more cars than the factory, negating that the semi's create worse issues than most traditional vehicles.
Most everyone was concerned by the lack of transparency on the city councils' part, with changing the zoning and the news reports stating that the city has made so many high dollar concessions to essentially buy the approval needed. Many felt that this was very shady to say the least.
The first 1214 signatures were given to the attorney at the end of the meeting, to take back to the state trust department to show that we do not want this in our community. I am going to be getting further copies of the petition to the County and City.
The attorney also stated that any emails that are sent to the board members become part of public record, and that they do want the community's involvement. I will be collecting the emails for the state land trust department heads and will post them on this petition as soon as I can. Please, if you haven't already done so, send an email out to our county planners and city board members. Your time may yield us a response once they learn that there is serious opposition.