County OKs split of 2 residential lots near Goldwater Range
In a rare divided vote Monday, the Yuma County Board of Supervisors allowed a commercially zoned property on the northern boundary of the Barry M. Goldwater Range to be split into two residential lots.
The vote was 3-2, with Supervisors Tony Reyes, Russell McCloud and Darren Simmons voting yes and Supervisors Lynne Pancrazi and Martin Porchas voting no.
The almost 1-acre lot is on County 14th Street west of Avenue 14 1/2, surrounded by the Foothills Golf Course on the west and north, and on the east by the first in a row of eight single family homes, from which six owners sent a letter in support of rezoning it from Local Commercial uses to Low Density Residential, 20,000 square-foot minimum lot.
The bombing range is across the street, so the area is within a one-mile buffer created in the county’s 2020 Comprehensive Plan, which states no residential lots smaller than two acres will be permitted, to reduce the number of residents who could be affected by overflight noise or other activity originating on the range.
The homes to the east sit on lots of around half an acre, and were built before the Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2010.
Steve Gerber, representing property owner Sashas Arizona LLC, said the land will be split in half between two new residential properties, and the plan got a score of 290 out of a possible 300 when being analyzed by planning staff.
“This is not new development or anything like that, this is an infill project on an existing lot, existing subdivision. All it does is allow this to be split into two residential lots,” he said.
The county Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval by a 7-0 vote at its May meeting.
Marine Corps Air Station-Yuma uses and oversees the eastern half of the enormous Barry Goldwater range, which covers more than a million acres between Yuma and Gila Bend.
Gabby Black, community planning liaison officer
for MCAS-Yuma, said the base opposes increasing residential density above the 2-acre limit, for safety reasons and to limit the amount of residential noise complaints called into the base.
She said base leaders would be OK with commercial zoning, since any business customers would presumably be there for a short period of time. If no one wanted to build anything commercial on the small, isolated lot, it could be used as community open space.
Black pointed out more of the Marines’ top-tier F-35 fighter jets are being transferred to MCAS-Yuma, with a total of 72 planes anticipated when the plan is fully enacted.
“We are very fortunate. We are so fortunate and so thankful because Yuma is such a supportive community and we are not restricted in the number of operations that take place,” she said.
The base recorded more than 185,000 aircraft operations last year, she said, while Luke Air Force Base in the western Phoenix metro area is restricted to 76,000.
There was extended debate by the board on what to do with the relatively small property, with all five supervisors weighing in. A couple shared their experiences having to live with “the sound of freedom.”
Pancrazi, who represents District 5, warned that putting any more homes than necessary close to the range or MCAS-Yuma could chip away at community support for the military’s presence, and other installations watch cases like this.
“There are a lot of places that are wanting those F35s, and they are asking things like ‘How did that one go? How did this rezoning case go?’” she said. “It’s known in federal circles and military circles that some of the zoning things we are dealing with are jeopardizing MCAS.”
The ultimate outcome could be the base’s closure, costing Yuma up to thousands of civilian and military jobs.
District 1’s Porchas likened this situation to an application for a permit to add a guest house to a lot in the Tierra Mesa neighborhood just east of the base, which was denied by a 3-2 vote of the board.
He voted in favor of the guest house then, but questioned other board members’ willingness to reverse themselves on allowing higher densities near military installations.
In the November case McCloud, Simmons and Pancrazi voted to deny the permit, while Porchas and Reyes were in favor of it.
“From what I heard today, it’s density and noise. We just heard about when the planes come in so low, the base gets complaints or calls.
“These decisions are tough, I would like some sort of regulation — I hate to make these decisions, I understand the owner’s right to a lot, but I’m going to be consistent from now on. So my answer is no,” he said.
McCloud, along with Reyes, was on the board when the current comprehensive plan was adopted, said he didn’t recall seeing the buffer as a hard-and-fast rule for existing lots.
“My thought process at that time when we were processing all that information, was that will primarily prevent (encroachment) east of mountain (Telegraph Pass) where there isn’t already development. That way you haven’t taken anyone’s property rights away,” said McCloud, representing District 2.
However, “where there’s already homes built there and you’re talking about adding two homes in an area where there’s hundreds, literally, is a completely different frame of reference than what was intended to create that buffer,” he said.
Reyes said he tended to agree, and the situation would probably be different if it involved a large number of homes.
“But at this particular time, I think this is one of those occasions where we’re finishing something up which started some time ago, and I don’t think we’re making that much of a change,” he said.
Simmons, whose District 3 includes the project site, said the new homes would be in keeping with the character of the surrounding neighborhood.
“It just brings it along with the other housing in the area, and cleans up two lots, or one lot in a residential area which is kind of an eyesore, in the housing area, because there’s nothing built there. It’s just desert in a residential area,” he said.
In other action on Monday’s agenda the board:
• Adopted the final budget for fiscal year 2019-20, which also began on Monday. No comments were made at a public hearing for the budget and Truth in Taxation state statute, which requires one whenever property taxes collected are expected to increase beyond what would be brought in by new construction.
The total property tax rate will remain the same at 3.6844 per $100 assessed valuation, but increased property values are expected to bring in about $1.5 in additional revenue.
Increasing employee pay was a focus of the budget process, and the final result includes a 2% increase for all employees, plus another 1% on their anniversaries, as long as their evaluations state they “meet expectations.”
Department heads can award another 1% to up to 10% of their employees who are their top performers. This increase won’t kick in until June, since the county is now doing employee evaluations on the anniversary date rather than all at the same time.
County Administrator Susan Thorpe said Housing Department employees will all get the 2% raise, but will not be eligible for the other increases unless enough funding is provided through the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
• Adopted an agreement with Yuma Regional Medical Center to provide medical examiner services from July 1-June 30 for $236,708, with options for annual extensions up to five years total.
YRMC has not renewed the contract of Dr. Victor Alvarez, the county’s longtime medical examiner, so the county will contract directly with YRMC for those services.
Under Alvarez, the county sent most examinations which required a forensic pathologist to the examiner’s offices in Pima or Maricopa counties, and Thorpe said it would likely be the same under the new agreement, using the hospital’s other pathologists.
But any additional costs related to that would be borne by the hospital and not the county, Thorpe said.
• Approved a request from KDC of Yuma, LLC, for modifications to the county’s subdivision regu- lations for sidewalks, perimeter roads and major collector streets for the proposed Purple Mountain Ranch subdivision, located on the northeast corner of Camino del Sol and Calle Ventana in Mesa Del Sol.
• Rezoned a 4.55-acre parcel at the southeast corner of Avenue 14½E and Pamela De Fortuna from Rural Area-10 acre minimum (RA10) to Suburban Site Built-2 acre minimum (SSB-2), requested by owners Steve Olafson and Shannon Mason.
• Discussed a possible text amendment to the county zoning ordinance section governing temporary buildings and site uses. Most of the board members said the language proposed by the Planning and Zoning Division expanded regulations much further than they had expected after the last discussion, and agreed to hold a work session on the topic.
• A work session followed the regular meeting for the presentation and review of the “preliminary final” Comprehensive Permitting and Enforcement Policy for the Department of Development Services, and the review will be covered in an upcoming Yuma Sun story.