By Harold Kitching
Casa Grande Dispatch
No one from the general pub- ic spoke during Thursday night’s public hearing on requests for three amendments to Casa Grande’s General Plan, but a spokesman for an investor group said his principals who bought land where a subdivision never was built have concerns about changing land use to commerce and business just to the west of The Outlets at Casa Grande.
The property, north of Jimmie Kerr Boulevard, was originally known as the Shops at Palm Court. When the General Plan was updated two years ago the land was designated as neighborhoods, which permits some commercial uses.
To the west on the other side of Mitchell Road is the Casa Vista subdivision that never went further than infrastructure and perimeter walls. It was pointed out that the people who bought the property from D.R. Horton are investors, not homebuilders. They contend that changing the land use to commerce and business could bring in operations
they feel would be detrimental to their ever selling the property.
Arguments in favor included that the area, north of the major Union Pacific Railroad line and to the west of Interstate 10, is more suited for business and commercial than residential, bringing more employment.
Because major amendments to general plans require two hearings at different locations, no decisions are made at the first meeting. The Planning and Zoning Commission will forward its recommendations to the City Council after the second meeting Nov. 1 in the council chambers at City Hall. Thursday’s hearing was at the Public Safety Facility on the far north end of the city.
The second request heard Thursday night was to change land use from neighborhoods to manufacturing/industry on 80 acres at the southwest corner of Peters and Burris roads. That area has seen a rise in industrial development.
The final request was initiated by the city to change land use from neighborhoods to open space on 36 acres and from manufacturing/industry on 24 acres, all north of Kortsen Road, south of the north branch of the Santa Cruz Wash, east of Burris Road and west of Thornton Road.
If the request is approved, the site, which abuts Dave White Regional Park on the west, would be used for treated wastewater recharge facilities, putting that water back into the ground and earning the city water storage credits from the state. The area, eventually linked to the park, would also be a riparian inter- pretive recreation area with trails around the recharge ponds.
The city planning staff has asked for favorable recommendations on the three requests.
