Controversial Morrison Ranch Project Wins OK

Article originally posted on HERE on June 28, 2023

The first phase of a mega light-industrial project that includes a 16-acre landscape buffer, commercial and up to 750 multifamily units is anticipated to break ground in about a year.

Town Council gave its stamp of approval last week for the developer to move forward with The Ranch – which includes 271 acres of light industrial uses and the Residences at the Ranch project, 39 acres of open space, residential rentals and retail development on Power Road between Elliot and Warner roads.

“I think if we look around this room, it’s quite different than it was in November of last year regarding this project,” land-use attorney Sean Lake told the council June 20. “There has been a substantial amount of work that the neighbors had put in, their time in working with Langley and Colmena and IndiCap on this project to try to work together to try to come up with a solution.”

It took eight months for the developer and a core group of seven Morrison Ranch residents to agree to a project that both could live with.

Originally the proposal was to rezone 286.6 acres for light industrial uses and 24.7 acres for general commercial development. But angry residents packed public meetings, objecting to the large amount of light industrial adjacent to their community, the truck traffic, noise and building heights.

After Council urged the parties to find a resoluteion, the developer replaced its zoning attorney with Lake; Stacy Brimhall of Langley Properties stepped in to negotiate with the residents.

The revised plan dropped light industrial uses to 71% from the original 93% and sets aside the 39 acres as a buffer between the existing Morrison Ranch homes to the west and the future proposed industrial uses on the site. The developer will include $20 million worth of off-site improvements such as street lights, curbs and landscaping at Elliot, Power and Warner roads.

The developer also agreed to a number of restrictions such as banning sexually oriented businesses, dispensaries, crematoriums, recycling-type facilities, hazardous waste storage and manufacturing of semi-conductors on the property, according to Lake.

Residents who helped hammer out the new proposal stepped forward in support.

“Apartments and industrial aren’t popular with residents,” said Brandon Ryff. “In this proposal it does have both. I ask that everybody look at the bigger picture because this plan has significant changes that will protect the people of Morrison Ranch.

“If you vote for it, this will secure those critical protections for Morrison Ranch residents. If you vote against it this will surrender those critical protections and that means that the next time a developer comes along, and he may not be as kind as Stacy Brimhall, means we start over again. It means we begin the whole process of trying to secure all these protections we worked so hard to establish.”

Jennifer Wada told council members that the plan before them reflected “a lot of hard work and frankly a lot of compromise.”

“I – like many of my friends and neighbors – no longer oppose it,” she said. “We as residents didn’t get everything that we asked for and most of us still believe it’s too much residential near our neighborhood.

“But with the added retail, transitional residential buffer and green space amenity, we hope that what has made this project bearable on paper will also make it bearable and parts of it even enjoyable when it is built out.”

Wada asked council members to uphold the vision and plan if they approve it.

“We are at the mercy of the Town and developer that it gets built the way it is presented,” she added.

Ryan Handelsman said that resident acceptance grew with each iteration of the plan, which addressed a lot of the hot topics such as safety, traffic, use restrictions, transition areas and the desire for additional retail.

“I am excited to hopefully patron some of these destinations of restaurants and retail shops,” he said.

Staff and Lake touted the project’s economic boost for Gilbert.

“This will be one of the largest projects in the town, as far as tax base goes,” Lake said. “We’re talking upwards of $1 billion worth of assessed valuation or taxes that could come out of this project.”

The additional revenue will help the budgets for both the town and school district, he said.

“We all want to have better schools and funding for the schools and so that money then goes to the schools,” Lake said. “That’s what we all want with that tax and that’s without producing many children at all because most of this project will be a commercial-type neighbor.

“So they will not only pay into the system for the school district but they won’t be putting a lot of school kids in the system.”

Economic Development Deputy Director Jennifer Graves said the project will generate jobs.

She said Gilbert has just over 133,000 resident workers and about 92,000 jobs, which means 41,000 people commute.

“At present Gilbert’s development inventory and land use do not position the community to respond to opportunities to grow these types of jobs,” Graves said.

“With only 6% of Gilbert’s total land use designated for employment, only about a third of that still available for development and existing inventory of employment industrial space sitting at less than 3%.”

She said that employment and commercial-oriented developments provide fiscal benefits such as impact fees, construction sales tax, lease tax and utility taxes.

The project will be built in phases.

Phase 1 includes the landscape buffer with a pedestrian trail, bench seating and a white split-rail fence along the west side of the site, facing the Morrison Ranch homes. Phase 1a includes the multi-family and mixed-used developments along the west side of the site as well as commercial development along Elliot Road.

Phases 1b, 2 and 3 are the light-industry construction and are contingent upon the completion of phases 1 and 1a, according to the developer.

John Birkinshaw, Colmena Group’s vice president of development, said after the meeting that the first phase will likely kick off in 12 to 14 months and that it will take six to eight years to build out the project,

“It’s all market-driven,” he said

Councilwoman Bobbi Buchli was the sole dissenter, voicing concerns that the truck traffic won’t stay off of Elliot Road as residents wanted.

“That’s a bit of a concern for me,” she said. “We can’t guarantee where they’re going to go and I get that you are trying your best to have them exit in the most appropriate way but I have a little bit of concern because they could take Elliot or they could take Warner all the way out to the 101.”

Lake said the developer’s traffic engineer “believes that just about all the big trucks, they’re going to choose first and foremost get on the freeway because there’s less accidents, less problems.”

Councilman Chuck Bongiovanni said he could see the project’s benefits and recalled what Kodak did for his hometown’s school district.

“I saw the benefits of having that kind of tax base for my education when I was younger,” he said. “A good friend of mine mentioned to me the other day that the best negotiation is when everyone walks away not happy but satisfied and I think that’s exactly what happened.”

Vice Mayor Kathy Tilque said she is “very confident that as we move this project forward everything that is in writing will be adhered to.”

Councilman Jim Torgeson said the new plan is better than what could be built on site by right – such as apartments on 100 acres instead of 34 acres as proposed.

“By all metrics,” he said, “it’s a great looking project and it’ll be good for our town and everybody accepted a little less than they wanted to get there. Again, to see them not have industrial facing these homes, for them not to build up to a 100 acres of mixed-use apartments and bring this down.”

Councilman Scott Anderson thanked all those involved in process.

“Planning is a process,” Anderson said. “It’s not an event and sometimes it’s a messy process but the idea is to get to a point where we find the best solution that will benefit everybody that’s concerned with whatever we’re working on and planning. Tonight I have to take my hat off to everyone”

Mayor Brigette Peterson said during her time as a planning commissioner sitting through 184 meetings, she’s seen developers and residents work together to come up with a better project but in this case, “you all went above and beyond.”

She added that she is not a fan of putting 750 multi-family in an area when there’s a 760-unit apartment project, the Tuscany at Gabriella Pointe, going in at the southeast corner of Higley and Warner roads near Morrison Ranch.

“I’ve struggled with this case a lot,” she said. “I haven’t liked it from the beginning.

But “you’ve come to a compromise and you’ve come with the best-case scenario for everyone.”