Header image alt text

Joyce Clark Unfiltered

For "the rest of the story"

Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.

We are all familiar with the farm land wrapping around Walgreens and the small commercial center located on the southwest corner of 83rd Avenue and Glendale Avenue. The people that own the trailer park in this area also own this land.

Yesterday I received an Interested Parties notification letter inviting me to an Open House neighborhood meeting. Here is the link to the notification letter: RV proposal

Interestingly, my office, to date, has not been informed of this upcoming meeting. I suspect after the applicant’s representation reads this blog, my office will receive an invitation.

Since 1984, for nearly 40 years, this land has been zoned as R3. R3 zoning is multifamily zoning at 20 units to the acre. If it were to develop as R3 there could be a maximum of 340 units, probably 2 story. However, with extractions for streets, landscaping, buffering, open space and retention, my best guess is that there would be somewhere between 275 and 300 units.

What else can be developed on R3 zoned land? Here from the Glendale Zoning Code are the permitted by right uses: single residence dwellings, multiple-residence dwellings, boardinghouse and public schools, parks, and playgrounds.

The property owner, states that their only other option of choice, by right, is to put multifamily on this site and the city could not stop it. To do so would be a “property taking.” There is no consideration by the property owner of a single residence development. That option has been rejected.

However, multifamily is not what the property owner is proposing. If you read the letter which I offered in the link above, you would learn that they are proposing to develop a “high-quality, luxury RV resort.” The applicant states that 3 times on page 2 of the letter.

Here is an excerpt from the applicant’s letter: 

“Although two-story apartments could be built on the site under the current zoning, we believe views from two-story windows into the neighboring homes would raise concern by those neighbors. We believe there is a better use for this infill property given its location in Glendale.” Page 2, paragraph 1

Knowing how surrounding residents feel about apartment complexes, this statement could be perceived as a threat. In all fairness, Yucca district residents have not objected to all of the complexes being built in the Westgate/Zanjero area, west of 91st Avenue.  That creates a synergy of population mass that supports these entertainment areas. However, the suggestion of another apartment complex in our immediate area would be met with a great deal of resistance. Keep in mind this parcel is within the 83rd Avenue corridor where nearly all the district’s large lot developments are situated.

In the applicant’s notification letter, the amenities being offered are: on-site manager residence; high-end clubhouse, which would have a small convenient market for guests to purchase small necessities; and within it includes office space; fitness center; kitchen; activity and game rooms. The outdoor amenities they offer are: a large, resort style swimming pool with seating; BBQ; pickleball courts; and a dog park.

I did extensive research on what luxury RV resort parks offer as standard amenities and here is the list:

  • Cable
  • WiFi (All Sites)/Hardwired
  • Free Phone Jacks at Each Site
  • Heated swimming pool/spa – heated?? We don’t know.
  • Clubhouse with fitness center, business center, social hall, game room and activity area; big screen TV with new release movies; and a library area
  • Laundry facility
  • Resort store
  • Playground with tot lot and splash pad
  • Dog park
  • Picnic table rentals
  • Gas fire pits and fire pit rentals
  • Recreational activities as standard offerings: basketball, horseshoes, badminton, pickleball, bocce, putting green
  • Extra Cargo storage (for those needing additional space)
  • Full hook-up 20/30/50 amp
  • Water and waste disposal
  • Propane rental on site
  • Private restrooms with shower and toilet
  • Extended driveways
  • Casitas
  • Patios with propane grills and outdoor furniture
  • Grass lined concrete pads
  • Outdoor lighting
  • Shade trees at every RV site
  • Pull though spaces for RVs
  • Manager and activity coordinator on site every day
  • Age, pets and style of RV permitted are restricted
  • Gazebo style community kitchen
  • Handicap accessible

As you can see, they are a long way from meeting the list of amenities found at a luxury RV resort. I also propose a limitation on the length of stay as this is not intended to be a permanent living RV park but rather is designed to accommodate temporary visitors to the Westgate/Zanjero/Vai areas.

Although the numbers are difficult to read on their rendering of the proposed page 5 conceptual plan, it appears there will be 159 RV sites. Less than a third are pull in sites.

There are stipulations that must be incorporated along with amenities that will ensure that this is an upscale RV Resort Park:

  • An 8 foot perimeter wall on the west and south side of the existent shopping center as well as to the west and south sides of the proposed development.
  • Since there will be a constant turnover of patrons on vacation, it becomes critical to use enhanced and extended buffering adjacent to any nearby or adjacent single family residential use to mitigate any extraordinary partying resulting in noise or music. That would include to the west where there is the RV park and to the south where there is single family residential.
  • Enhanced and upgraded entry way yet with muted signage. RV users will not be the casual motorist along 83rd or Glendale Avenues but rather will have found this park through RV sites on the internet or by word of mouth.

Their letter invites you, the public, to a neighborhood meeting:

“We are hosting a neighborhood open house meeting to provide information and answer questions regarding these requests on November 7, 2022, at Towne Place Suites Glendale (Conference Room), 7271 N. Zanjero Blvd., Glendale, Arizona 85305. We know people have different schedules, so that is why we have set this up as an open house style meeting. The open house will run from 6:00 PM to 7:00 PM. Feel free to arrive and leave anytime during the 60-minute window.” Page 5

I object strongly to the concept of an Open House meeting. All of the neighbors attending do not hear the questions posed or necessarily receive the same response. They have scheduled this meeting for one hour (which I think may be too short). Their format should be a sit down meeting where the presentation is made at once to all attendees and questions/responses are made to all attendees at one time.

Yucca district residents from these neighborhoods not only need to pass out the word and become informed about this meeting but should attend as well:

  • Rovey Farm and Glen Eden (across the street from the proposed project)
  • Large lot development single streets of Cavalier, Montebello, Georgia and Orange
  • Residential subdivisions of Shalimar, Desert Mirage, Parkside, La Buena Vida, Missouri Estates and Missouri Ranch

If this land must develop as an up-scale, luxury RV resort park then it darn well should be one.

© Joyce Clark, 2022      

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which is in accordance with Title 17 U.S. C., Section 107. The ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law and who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such material. For more information go to http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use,’ you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.

GAIN EVENT

This Saturday, October 22, 2022, the City of Glendale will hold its annual Getting Arizona Involved in Neighborhoods (GAIN) event at Heroes Park (at the intersection of 83rd Avenue and Bethany Home Road) from 10 AM to 1 PM.

We encourage neighborhoods to create their own neighborhood watch program. Why bother? Let’s begin with a basic question. How well do you know your immediate neighbors? We tend to be isolated from one another, especially in our own neighborhood. Do you have a relationship with your neighbor immediately to your right? left? across the street? Sadly, the answer is probably no. If you or your children were in trouble, could you count on your neighbor to help? GAIN is a doorway to getting to know your neighbors.

Some of your neighbors are home all day. If they saw a person trying to get into your car or house would they know enough about you to realize that someone may be trying to rob you? GAIN encourages people to report suspicious activity and helps your neighbors to learn that the person trying to get access to your home or car should be reported.

Now I will admit I liked the old GAIN format a lot better than the current one. Ten, fifteen years ago instead of an event at a centralized location, neighborhoods were encouraged to hold block parties on one night in October. Councilmembers, police and fire personnel would try to visit as many of these neighborhoods as possible. I, typically, had a dozen or more block parties to visit on that special night. While I may not have visited all, I went to as many as I could. They were wonderful! Neighbors got to meet neighbors and I got to meet many people living in great neighborhoods. It gave me the additional opportunity to learn what concerns and issues these neighborhoods had.

Again, I encourage you to attend the GAIN event this Saturday. There will be: Police K9 & Drone Demos | Emergency Response Vehicles | Raffle Prizes & Giveways | Safety Displays/Info Booths | Meet City & Community Leaders | Military & Public Safety Recruiting | Teamup to Clean up | Children’s Activities | Music by 96.3FM Real Country | Children’s fingerprinting.

I encourage you to attend to learn how to set up a Neighborhood Watch. With crime on the rise a Neighborhood Watch seems like a good investment of your time and talents.

Every week I send out a weekly Enews letter to subscribers. If you have never bothered to look at it, you’re missing out. It’s chock full of information. My Council Assistant, Shannon Beck, has made it even easier to sign up for my weekly Enewsletter by creating a QR code to subscribe. Here it is:

Just use your phone to click on this code and it will take you right to the Subscribe form. Fill out the form, submit it and you’re good to go.

On the subject of QR codes, here’s another one for you. Don’t miss a single post of joyceclarkunfilted.com . Click on this QR code to read the latest blog:

We didn’t stop there. We now have monthly calendars in the newsletter. Simply click on a date and it will bring up any events that are occurring on that day. Want to know which streets in the Yucca district are scheduled for pavement management? We’ve got that. Want to know what’s happening in downtown Glendale? We’ve got that. Want to know what happened at the last city council meeting? We’ve got that.

Why am I sharing this information with you? I want you to be informed about what’s happening in Glendale. Even more importantly, these events and venues give you the opportunity to share what concerns you the most. I want you to be involved in your community. I want you to attend events specifically designed for your and your family. I want to hear from you. Together, we can make Glendale an even better community for all.

© Joyce Clark, 2022      

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which is in accordance with Title 17 U.S. C., Section 107. The ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law and who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such material. For more information go to http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use,’ you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.

Disclaimer: The comments in this blog are my personal opinion and may or may not reflect an adopted position of the city of Glendale and its city council.

Last night, Saturday, October 1st, I had the privilege of attending the annual Rocky Mountain Emmy Awards. The reason for my attendance was that my “Beyond the Headlines: How to build a lake” was nominated for an award in the Public Affairs Program category. Here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AaxlBYerWug .

 

I learned a lot. This award is a big deal as it is part of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences, Southwest Region covering Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, and Southeastern California. All the nominees were TV stations, universities, and professional production companies. Glendale was the only city nominated for any award and the only city to win in its category.

The award banquet was held at the Chateau Luxe which is quite like our very own Civic Center in downtown Glendale. It was a black-tie event and attendees were dressed to the nines.

I was delighted to be sitting next to Lin Sue Cooney and her husband, Tom. Lin Sue retired from news in August of 2015.  She now shares her skills and talents with Hospice of the Valley (HOV) as their Director of Community Engagement, overseeing their marketing, business development, fund development, volunteers, and creative services.

How did we get to last night? Every councilmember has the ability to produce their own half hour programming. My intent with my series called “Beyond the headlines” has always been to go beyond the news headline and to go in-depth into a topic. When I knew Heroes Lake was about to start construction, I asked our Media Department to take video and drone video footage from the start. I told them I wanted to do an in-depth segment on building the lake. I, like most people, assume it’s an easy construction job and can be done almost immediately. As with most construction projects, it’s a lot more complicated and time consuming than we think. Add to that, I was pressuring the city’s engineers to get the job done in about 8 months. I was always asking, what was the status of the project? Staff knew that every time I saw them, I would ask. It got to the point the first thing they would tell me was the status of the project.

In meeting with Sue Breding, Public Affairs Administrator; Jessica Mensch, Producer, Writer, and Editor of the video; and Luis Jacinto, Photographer and Drone Photographer of the video, I laid out my concept for the video. I wanted to explain how complicated such a project is, what is involved, why it took so long to build and what the cost was. After all, it’s taxpayer dollars and our citizens should have the opportunity to learn for what and how those dollars were being used.

The first draft presented by Jessica and Luis was very good but didn’t quite reflect my vision. After conversations they went back to the drawing board and their next effort was perfect. It captured what I had envisioned and was extremely professional. At that time, I quipped that they should enter it for an award. That is exactly what Sue Breding did. She submitted it for an Rocky Mountain Emmy Award. I remember how excited she was when she told me it was one of three nominees in the Public Affairs Program category. Little did I realize what a big deal it was to even be a nominee. To have won in that category is even more spectacular. My very own Emmy statuette has been ordered and it will receive a place of prominence in my office.

I may have had the idea for the video, but it was due to the professionalism and talent of Jessica and Luis that we won. You, as a resident, should be very proud of Glendale’s staff. Often, they are the best and brightest in their respective career fields.

So, we won! You should be very proud of all of Glendale’s achievements for its staff regularly and routinely wins awards in all kinds of fields including finance reporting to water management.

© Joyce Clark, 2022      

FAIR USE NOTICE

This site contains copyrighted material the use of which is in accordance with Title 17 U.S. C., Section 107. The ‘fair use’ of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Section 107 of the US Copyright Law and who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democratic, scientific and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a ‘fair use’ of any such material. For more information go to http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond ‘fair use,’ you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.