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Buckeye Council has annexations, more on busy agenda

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BUCKEYE — The City of Buckeye is set to grow a little bigger, if two processes that are part of the City Council’s Tuesday agenda are completed as planned.

The council’s regular meeting, set for 6 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall, 530 W. Monroe Ave., has a full agenda that includes two annexation items.

Kerry Prout of Buckeye 54, LLC, has requested a public hearing for annexation of a parcel that’s about 54 acres. As annexed unincorporated county land must enter a city’s system at equivalent Maricopa County zoning, Prout plans to subsequently apply for re-zoning to Buckeye’s light industrial (I-1) zone and to seek site-plan approval for a warehouse/office facility.

The parcel is located on the southeast corner of Rainbow Road and Southern Avenue. It’s north of both the Union Pacific Railroad and Buckeye Canal Road.

Prout’s proposed development includes two buildings — one about 316,000 square feet and the second about 525,000 square feet — with adjacent truck docks and parking as well as trailer-parking stalls.

It has not been determined if the project would be built in phases.

The narrative in a staff report leaves it open for Prout to change his design plan considerably, prior to site plan review, depending on how the market responds to this location.

Tuesday, Prout is only going to get a public hearing on the proposed annexation. A second public hearing, council questions and a vote on annexing the 54 acres will take place at a later date.

However, the other annexation item on Tuesday’s agenda is further along in the process. The Agua Fria Union High School District, along with Maricopa County’s flood control and conservation districts, have agreed to let Buckeye annex 594 acres of unincorporated land that will include Canyon View High School.

The agreement will allow Buckeye to provide police and fire service to the high school and to patrol areas along Bethany Home Road.

The high school is located near the northwest corner of West Bethany Home Road and North Perryville Road, not far from the Glendale and Goodyear city limits.

However, per state law, annexations must be involve contiguous land of a specified shape, in order to reach the farthest point of annexation. The county land Buckeye would annex to get to Canyon View High School is along the southeastern slopes of the White Tank Mountains.

The annexation has already been the subject of one public hearing. The council can grant final annexation approval Tuesday.

The only other hearing item on the agenda is a proposed agreement with n Arizona Public Service and the City of Goodyear to combat brackish water. The $2 million cost of the program is intended to be split between Buckeye and Goodyear, but the contract calls for Buckeye to be on the hook for entire $2 million if Goodyear cannot manage its $1 million cost share for budgetary reasons.

Buckeye has $1 million in its Fiscal 2023 budget for the project.

There are several expensive items on Tuesday’s consent agenda. One is a $1.4 million contract with Sutphen Heavy Duty Rescue Pumpers for two $700,000 fire trucks — one for Station 701, on Miller Road along the southwestern edge of downtown Buckeye, and the other for the yet-to-be-built Station 707 in the southeast part of the city, where much development is being approved.

Another proposed expense is associated with the Canyon View High School annexation. The city is proposing a one-third/two-thirds cost sharing with the Agua Fria Union High School District, with the city picking up $118,000 of the cost of the two-year contract, with the district paying $201,000. However, all but $25,000 of the city’s portion in the first year is grant-funded, and grants will cover half of the second year of the contract.

A non-profit that fights Internet predation of minors has a memo of understanding it wants the council to approve as part of Tuesday’s consent agenda. Our Underground Railroad, or OUR, will contribute about $26,000 to the Buckeye Police Department’s investigations of internet crimes against children by funding the purchase of the GrayKey Forensic data extraction device.

There are also water-rights items on Tuesday’s consent agenda.

There is an executive session scheduled Tuesday for 4:30 p.m. The stated purpose of the session is for the council to “consider its position and instruct the city attorney and city representatives regarding the city’s position concerning contract negotiations for the purchase of real property and related rights.”