By Jason Stone | YourValley
With north Surprise residents still upset with the traffic situation on 163rd Avenue, the Surprise City Council emphatically rejected a rezoning March 18 that would have brought a commercial and apartment project to the intersection with Jomax Road.
Each Surprise council member said no to allowing for a 475-unit residential development with an adjoining commerce center with office and retail space on the northeast corner of the intersection.
The rejection came weeks after the Surprise Planning and Zoning Commission recommended the zoning change be denied.
Developer Seth Jardine, owner and president of EcoVista Development, tried to sweeten the pot with four concessions he offered to council since the P&Z meeting. But some council members questioned if one of those offerings — assessing a $5,000 permit fee for each unit of multifamily to raise $1.6 million for the city — was even legal.
