The Planning and Zoning Commission has delayed consideration of a request for a zoning change on property at Palisades Boulevard and Mountainside Drive. The application is to accommodate a proposed apartment complex. The commission asked the developer to take additional time to see how they could address neighborhood concerns.

The request is to take two parcels of approximately three acres each (one is zoned R1-10 single family, and the second is R-4 multifamily) and rezone them to a single R-3 multi-family district of 6.3 acres.

The developer, Senderos at Fountain Hills, proposes 80 units in four buildings on the site. Michael Maerowitz, an attorney with the firm of Snell & Wilmer, represented the developer before the commission. Maerowitz said the units are initially being built as a rental development but will have an overlay for potential sale of condominiums in the future.

Maerowitz said by combining the parcels they are able to reduce the density of the development and provide 61% open space on the site. He noted that 70 units could be developed on the parcel zoned for multi-family and could be done with only building plan approval. He said they are doubling the size of the development and adding only 10 units.

Maerowitz added that the developer had canvassed the neighborhoods and found little in the way of opposition to their plan.

The neighbors at the meeting were unimpressed. While some raised concerns about the density, aesthetics of the plan and blocking views, the downward slope from the neighbors tends to minimize where view corridors would be blocked.

The neighbors raised concerns about existing traffic conditions including speed on Mountainside Drive, line of sight on the hilly terrain. They noted that a driveway into a condominium complex farther south on Mountainside is designated for emergency and is gated and locked. For the Four Peaks Condominiums there was no access built onto Mountainside.

The intersection of Mountainside Drive and Palisades Boulevard sits about a block west of the busy intersection at Fountain Hills Boulevard with Fountain Hills High School about a quarter mile farther west. The neighbors said there is heavy traffic on Mountainside at times students are coming and going from school. They said speed on Palisades Boulevard makes the access off Mountainside always dangerous.

The new complex would add two driveway access points to Mountainside in addition to the three streets that intersect on the other side, creating additional hazards, according to residents.

Residents noted that stop signs along Mountainside on the side streets are frequently ignored and there is significant street parking on the side where the complex would be built. Staff and the developer said posting the street for “no parking” should not be a problem.

State Senator John Kavanagh, who lives in vicinity of the proposed project, said he does not agree with the developer that this is a downzoning for the site.

“This is a historic up zoning,” Kavanagh said. “Stick with the (parcel) already zoned for multi-family. I don’t think you can get the number of units the zoning would allow.

“This is an aesthetic problem, a traffic problem and the community doesn’t want this.”

Maerowitz said the developer is prepared to build 70 units on the three-acre parcel without a zoning change. He showed a concept plan for such a development.

The commission asked the developer to move the units farther down the slope to the extent possible and explore the option of moving one of the access driveways onto Palisades Boulevard. Moving the driveway access to Palisades requires working around several drainage issues where washes come together at a designated detention basin.

The commission has postponed considering a recommendation to the council until it meets in March.