Staff has received an application to annex 1,250 acres of land located near Queen Creek Road and 187^th Avenue. Per adopted policy, staff is requesting that City Council consider the annexation proposal and provide direction to Staff on proceeding with the state statutory requirements for annexing land into the City.

 

Annexation of land has a significant fiscal impact. A brief overview of anticipated public infrastructure and services impacts is included in the staff analysis section of this CAR. A detailed fiscal impact will be included in future City Council reports. There is no fiscal impact associated with authorizing the staff to proceed with the state statutory requirements for annexation. Authorizing the process to move forward does not commit the City Council to approve the annexation.

The city of Goodyear has an annexation policy adopted by Resolution 2001-768. In addition, Arizona State Statue regulates annexation. Below is a brief summary of the annexation process:

• Staff conducts a cursory review of the annexation proposal.
• (tonight’s meeting) Staff provides an impact analysis of the annexation proposal to City Council. The City Council will consider the proposal and make a determination on whether to authorize staff to proceed with the annexation.
  • If authorization is not provided, then no further action on the annexation will be taken.
  • If authorization is provided, staff will move forward with the state statutory requirements for annexation.
• After further staff review of the proposal, a blank petition containing the legal description and map of the annexation territory is filed with the County Recorder.
• After the blank petition is filed, there is a 30-day waiting period. A public hearing must be held within the last 10 days of this 30-day waiting period to receive public input on the annexation.
• Once the 30-day waiting period is over, the blank petitions may be signed and collected.
• Once all petitions have been collected, the annexation may be scheduled for a City Council meeting for consideration.

The proposed annexation territory includes 1,250 acres generally located between 187th Avenue and 203rd Avenue and between Pecos Road and Queen Creek Road. It is located west of Perryville Road and south of the Waterman Wash. The property is adjacent to city limits on the east and south. The County zoning is RU-43 which is equivalent to the City’s AU (Agricultural/Urban) zoning district which allows one-acre residential lots and agricultural uses. The property is within the Goodyear Municipal Planning Area and is designated as “Neighborhoods” by the General Plan which permits a variety of housing types and neighborhood commercial.

The property is mostly undeveloped land used for farming. There are some buildings and materials located on a portion of the property at Queen Creek Road and 191st Avenue. These buildings are related to the agricultural use of the property. The areas surrounding the property are mostly undeveloped, agricultural uses except for an operational dairy just north of the property. The Arizona State Land Department owns the land just south of the annexation territory.

The applicant has indicated that after annexation, they wish to move forward with rezoning the property to facilitate a master planned community to be known as, “Estrella Highlands”. A rezoning application has not been submitted, but the applicant has indicated preliminary plans to develop the property at 3.8 dwelling units per acre which would generate over 4,600 dwelling units.

The proposed annexation territory appears to meet the contiguity, size, and shape requirements as specified in state law for annexation. The City’s annexation policy sets out staff evaluation criteria for annexations, the most significant of which is the ability to provide basic services in a timely manner with acceptable revenue to cost ratio.

State Statute requires that upon annexation, there shall be an approved plan, policy, or procedure to provide the annexed territory with appropriate levels of infrastructure and services to serve the anticipated new development within 10 years of the annexation date. Staff has not received any infrastructure plan, instead, the intent is to  impose general obligations to construct infrastructure needed to support the development of the annexed property through the creation of a pre-annexation development agreement. The pre-annexation development agreement will need to be scheduled for the same Council meeting as the annexation.

It should be noted there are 15 separate ownership entities in the annexation territory. The applicant has stated that they are authorized to represent most of these entities and staff is working with the applicant to verify this. One property owner – Nationwide Assets LLC – is not part of the future Estrella Highlands master planned community plans and may not wish to enter into this development agreement nor sign the annexation petition. This property is currently vacant/agricultural and zoned RU-43.

The lack of common ownership is problematic.  Having a separate development agreement for each owner is not feasible because the development of any single parcel is not going to support the substantial amounts of infrastructure that will have be constructed to serve the development.  Having one development agreement with multiple property owners will also present a challenge in that all of the obligations under the development agreement would have to be joint and several which will likely lead to problems in the future. 

Water and wastewater
Annexation into city limits will include annexing the territory into the city of Goodyear water and wastewater service areas. The property has an Extension of an Analysis of Assured Water Supply dated May 13, 2019. This means that the owner/developer has demonstrated to the Arizona Department of Water Resources (ADWR) that there is a volume of groundwater physically available that could support future applications for Certificates of Assured Water Supply in an amount that can serve the property as it is currently zoned and may be able to serve the planned Estrella Highlands Master Planned Community. What is unknown is the quality of water that exists. Moreover, because the physical supply is groundwater, there must also be a plan to recharge or replenish the groundwater which does not currently exist. The applicant proposes addressing these items in a development agreement.  

Roadways and transportation
There are portions of existing County right-of-way along Tuthill Road that would be included in the annexation. The annexation would include this right-of-way and the upon annexation, the city would be responsible for maintaining the roadways. Tuthill is a paved roadway but it is not built to city standards, it would be the responsibility of the applicant, at the time of development, to improve the road to city standards.

The County is maintaining portions of Queen Creek Road between Tuthill Road and 187th Avenue (1 ½ miles). In this area, Queen Creek Road is an unimproved dirt road. Since it is not public right-of-way there is no obligation to the city to maintain the dirt road. However, there could be issues if we stop maintenance of the road and it is used by the public or needed for emergency services.

There are also existing private roads along 191st Avenue, 195th Avenue, and Ryan Road. Although these are private roads and not public right-of-way, there could be requests in the future for the city to take over maintenance and/or improve the roadways in the future.

If the city annexes this territory, the city would immediately become responsible for the maintenance of 1,320 linear feet (L.F.) of existing right-of-way. At full build-out of the anticipated Estrella Highlands development, the following public right-of-way would be anticipated:

Emergency services
The annexation territory is currently served by the Buckeye Volunteer Fire Department Fire District. Upon annexation, it would be served by the city of Goodyear.
Although the area is agricultural in nature and so the anticipated emergency services would be low, there would be some impact to emergency services. The area is accessible by Tuthill Road, which is paved but does not provide access to Goodyear fire stations. To access the area from Fire Station 186, emergency services would need to travel on Perryville Road, which is paved, to Queen Creek Road, which is unpaved and may not be able to support emergency service vehicles. Many of the roadways in the area are private and the city does not have the right to use them. Additional services such as police and sanitation would also be served by the city of Goodyear.