While the vice-presidential candidates debated on the national stage on Tuesday, Buckeye City Council met for a short 35-minute meeting and granted an investor's request to rezone agricultural land for industrial uses.
The area, located at the Northeast corner of State Route 85 and Southern Ave., consists of nearly 144 acres of agriculture fields. It was previously zoned as planned residential before last night when it was approved as a planned area development. The request was presented by the city's planning manager, Ken Galica. The plan, he said, is to provide space for industries such as light manufacturing, assembling, warehousing and wholesale in addition to the some offices and potential retail uses.
Galica said the I-10 and 85 intersection has primarily been envisioned in the city's General Plan as an area for commercial development, while the areas further south on the 85, like these 144 acres, were planned as light industrial.
"For this particular property, we would envision, you know, primarily with light industrial," he said. "The types of the commercial here would be a sandwich shop for their employees or dry cleaners. I wouldn't expect any regional style of commercial here."
Galica provided a brief history. City staff began working on the land-use change as an amendment to the General Plan at the end of 2021 with it going through the public process in the beginning of 2022. The amendment affected nearly 2,500 acres along SR-85 south of Baseline. The goal was to create a designated area in the city intended specifically for light industrial use.
"Council changed it through an extensive public process with several workshops and meetings to discuss that with the real intent that this would kind of become one of if not the city's primary economic engine for light industrial type of development," Galica said. "Rather than trying to accommodate a pocket of light industrial here a pocket there where you know you have the Five Below and Funko warehouses in an area that is not necessarily or wasn't intended really for the light industrial types of uses. "
The General Plan amendment was approved in the summer of 2022 and, since then, various owners within the corridor have rezoned their properties to match. Galica said he expects some of the light industrial development to begin in the next six months. The 144 acres brought before Council on Oct. 1 is owned by multiple entities that do not have a specific development plan yet, he said.
"Are the current owners' farmers?" Orsborn asked directly.
Galica deferred the comment to George Quinif, a designated broker at Peak Group who represented two of the property owners: AL-BO Limited Partnership and Cardinal Capital Company LLC. Qunif described the companies' legacies as being in farming. Cardinal Capital has moved its farms around the valley, beginning in Phoenix then Glendale, Goodyear and finally Buckeye. Al-BO is a family partnership of farmers from Iowa who purchased the Buckeye land as an investment property. While the owners are not directly farmers themselves, Quinif clarified, they do have a heritage in the farming industry.
"I guess the point I'm trying to get to is just, especially that the public understands that it's not the city that owns the property and it either has been owned by a farm or farming family, it's currently owned by investors, and the investors are bringing it forward with the plan for development," Orsborn said in response. "It's not a force from the city to go from farming use to industrial use."
Qunif nodded, saying the investors were supportive of the General Plan amendment change initiated by the city. "The goal here is to, with the mass of 144 acres being zoned, to attract hopefully a large manufacturer type lease," he said.
"Love hearing you say large manufacturer out loud," Orsborn replied.
There were no public comments on the matter. The Buckeye Planning and Zoning Commission recommended Council's approval on Sept. 10 and the request passed unanimously at the Oct. 1 meeting.
IN OTHER BUSINESS
City council unanimously approved numerous consent agenda items in a single vote. Those items included the following:
- Took action to exchange 222 gallons per minute of the city's water capacity in the North Airport water system for 6.5 acres of property owned by RDP Land LLC. The exchange will allow for the expansion of the North Airport Road Water Campus. The value exchange came out to be just over $1.4 million.
- Amended the date to elect a vice mayor from the first regular meeting of January to the first regular meeting of December.
- Approved the final plat of Verrado Victory District Phase 10A. The 51-acre plot of land contains 150 single-family lots and the approval will allow for further expansion.
- Submitted a $599,400 Community Forest Corps grant with the US Department of Agriculture's Forest Service Urban and Community Forestry's Inflation Reduction Act Program. It would support a three-year project in which youth would plan 100 trees and 100 shrubs in the downtown area. The funds additionally would supply the salaries for one current landscape foreman and two part-time contracted personnel throughout the duration of the program.
- Accepted a $4,645 grant from the Arizona State Library Archives & Public Records State Grants-in-Aid Program to purchase new furniture for the library.
- Submitted a $766,365 grant to the Maricopa Association of Governments for the purchase of two new street sweepers.
