After a two-hour hearing and discussion at a recent meeting, the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors approved a zoning change that will allow a waste and recycling facility to be built off of Loop 303.
After an initial attempt to gain approval for a site north and east of the Loop 303 exit at El Mirage Road, the owner sought approval for a site slightly to the west.
At its Feb. 23 meeting, the board unanimously approved a change from one industrial designation to another, with a long list of conditions for the proposed Republic Services transfer station.
Stephen W. Anderson, attorney with Phoenix-based firm Gammage & Burnham who was representing the developer, pointed out the recycling and transfer station will be on the edge of an industrially zoned area, near the large WestWing electricity substation. He said there are sound walls that keep the facility out of view of nearly all residents across Loop 303.
Arizona Fire & Medical Authority officials recommended a second fire-only emergency exit be created, in addition to the main exit off of North El Mirage Road.
Supervisor Clint Hickman, whose District 4 is home to the facility, motioned for approval of the rezoning and was adamant he wants all conditions met. He said he is sensitive to noise concerns of the Corte Bella and Crossriver communities south of Loop 303.
Hickman asked Anderson if the facility was meant to serve the immediate area or parts of the Valley much farther from the site.
“We’d like to have trucks going not far at all,” Anderson said. “We want this to be for the Northwest Valley.”
There were more than 1,800 signatures gathered on petitions in support of the WestWing facility. However, there were more than 6,000 signatures on petitions in opposition, along with 220 written appeals to the county’s Planning and Zoning Commission’s 6-0 approval recommendation in January.
Thirteen of those appeals were filed after the board issued a Feb. 23 report on the project. The Feb. 23 meeting included a lengthy hearing with public input for and against the station rezoning. Proponents touted the benefits of recycling, while the opponents focused on a variety of concerns.
Robert Baxter said he’s a member of the Crossriver HOA, which has homes across Loop 303 to the southeast of the facility.
“I am opposed for three reasons: health, environment and property values,” Baxter said. “It is morally and ethically irresponsible to place this kind of facility so close to a residential area. The wind contamination, dust and appearance will be unacceptable ... I have seen a similar site in Gilbert, near Stapely Drive and the canal, near residences, and the dust is unbelievable, even at 6 a.m., when five or more trucks are parked in the center lane for near-constant unloading. You wouldn’t want this next to your neighborhood.”
Hickman said he wanted to make sure the approval wouldn’t make the facility a start of major industrial expansion in the area.
Anderson pointed out the transfer and recycling station will largely fill out the bottom section of an industrial area, next to Loop 303, so future rezoning requests would be unprecedented, if wanting to place industrial facilities west of El Mirage Road.
A pair of hearings for a 654-unit phase of the White Tanks Foothills master-planned community, near Northern Avenue and Citrus Road in the Waddell area, were postponed to the board’s March 9 meeting.
Jason W. Brooks is a News editor for the Daily Independent and the Chandler Independent.
He covers the Chandler area for both yourvalley.net and the monthly print edition while writing for and assisting in the production of the Daily Independent.
Brooks is a well-traveled journalist who has documented life in small American communities in nearly all U.S. time zones.
Born in Washington, D.C. and raised there and in suburban Los Angeles, he has covered community news in California, New Mexico, Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska and northern Arizona.
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