(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents Atlas Global Development.)
By Shawn White | The Tribune
At last week’s Winslow City Council meeting, a major step forward was taken in the development of the Winslow Commerce and Industrial Park, a 1,479-acre project located in southern Winslow led by Atlas Global Development. The council approved a rezoning request to designate the area as a preliminary Planned Area Development, or PAD, and finalized a development agreement to guide the project. The development agreement is essentially an extra set of rules put on a developer so that the city will be cooperative in developments that have a large impact on their communities. Although this is an important step in the process, ultimately the council will still need a final PAD with several bouts of additional information before a shovel ever hits that red dirt.
“We worked closely with Atlas to ensure this plan protects our neighborhoods while providing opportunities for job creation,” said Jason Sanks, Winslow’s Planning and Zoning hearing officer. The PAD divides the property into two zones: a Commerce Park to the north, focused on light industrial uses, and a heavier Industrial Zone to the south. The design is intended to balance economic development with community preservation. “We literally went line by line to get rid of the heavy stuff because we did not want heavy industrial next to neighborhoods,” Sanks explained during the meeting.
For the 1,200 acres that the city is selling to Atlas Global for the project the city wanted to make sure that this land specifically benefited the most job creation. This is why the city has negotiated to keep data centers off that land because although they are profitable, they offer very few jobs for the footprint they occupy. As much as 25% of the project could be data centers, which could be costly in both energy, water and infrastructure.
The PAD also includes detailed guidelines for other development, such as mandatory setbacks for taller buildings, orientation rules for loading docks, and requirements for earth-tone building colors and landscaping. “These protections are built into the zoning itself,” said Sanks. “This zoning is tied to the land, so whether Atlas keeps it or sells it, the protections and responsibilities stay in place.”
