Diana Balazs
The Arizona Republic
Sept. 5, 2007 06:11 PM PARADISE VALLEY – The new Ritz-Carlton Paradise Valley Resort should include more single-family homes on 1-acre lots.
That’s the message the Paradise Valley Planning Commission relayed to the developer of the proposed mixed-use project Tuesday during a work-study session to review a new site plan.
The commission also set a public hearing about the project for Nov. 6 Jason Morris, a land-use attorney representing project developer Scottsdale-based Five Star Development pressed the commission for a hearing date.
Morris noted that the developer had listened to the commission’s concerns and had incorporated changes to its site plan, resulting in an almost entirely different feel to the plan.
The previous site plan called for a 225-room resort hotel, 26 1-acre single-family homes, 51 luxury single-family homes on a minimum of 10,000-square-foot lots, and 84 resort patio homes.
The new plan includes the resort hotel, plus 10 single-family homes on 1-acre lots, 51 luxury single-family homes, each with a minimum lot size of 18,000 square feet, and 106 resort patio homes.
Several commissioners lamented the loss of the 16 1-acre home sites under the new plan.
Commission Chairman Richard Mahrle called for a straw poll and a majority of the commissioners raised their hands in support of the larger lots.
“I think the message is we need more 1-acre lots,” he said.
But by reducing the number of 1-acre lots to 10, that would allow the developer to increase the lot size of the 51 proposed single-family luxury homes to a minimum of 18,000 square feet, from 10,000 square feet. That would allow for a single-family feel without the homes being on top of each other, Morris said.
The commission suggested that by shaving some of the square footage from those 51 homes, a few more 1-acre lots could be added.
The town’s residential zoning standard is 1 house per acre.
The Ritz-Carlton would be governed by a special use permit, rather than the residential zoning requirements. Even so, the commission felt that providing additional acre lots would complement the existing 1-acre homes in the area.
Commissioner Lou Werner reiterated that the 1-acre residential zoning standard is the foundation on which the town was built.
