I attended Monday night’s Planning & Zoning meeting even though the industrial rezoning I had questions about had been pulled from the agenda. I’m glad I went, because another rezoning item caught my attention. The property is about .90 acres in the Heritage District at Mercado and Main. It was previously owned by the City of Maricopa and sold earlier this year for $328,616.64. The new owner wants to put a food truck court there.

I want to be clear. I support the Heritage District. I grew up in Gilbert, and I would love to see our Heritage District someday become something like downtown Gilbert, with local businesses, restaurants, and places where people actually want to gather. I would love to see this food truck court succeed. My concern is not the food trucks. My concern is the process.

The property still has old Pinal County zoning. For the owner to use the City’s Heritage/Maricopa Station Overlay, the property needs City zoning. According to the City’s own staff report, the current General Plan designation is Public/Institutional, so during the current General Plan blackout, Public/Institutional is the zoning district that will allow the foot truck overlay. But the same staff report says that designation is not reflective of the property and surrounding area, and that after the blackout ends, the City intends to initiate another General Plan amendment to give the property a more appropriate designation. In simple terms, the proposal is to rezone the property to Public Institutional now so the food truck court can move forward, and then change the General Plan later to something that better fits the property. That concerns me.

I also feel for the applicant. The purchase contract clearly states that the buyer was responsible for investigating zoning and whether the property would be suitable for the intended use. The City sold the property “as is.” But based on what was discussed at the meeting and what is contained in the documents, conversations about using this City-owned property for a food truck court were already underway before the City resolved these zoning issues. It is fair to ask whether the buyer may have been led down a path believing the project could move forward, only for everyone to discover later that the zoning created a problem. I do not know the answer, and I am not blaming the property owner.

The public notification also deserves attention. The first City notice said the property was being rezoned to City General Rural. That later changed to Public Institutional. The City did send a second round of notification letters to surrounding property owners and updated the sign on the property. But if you are a nearby resident and receive a notice that a property is being rezoned to Public Institutional, what do you think that means? Most people are probably thinking school, church, library, hospital, City building, or something similar. They may not understand that the purpose of the rezoning is to allow a food truck court through the Heritage/Maricopa Station Overlay. To me, that matters. Residents should be able to understand what a zoning change is actually intended to accomplish without having to understand the difference between a General Plan designation, base zoning and an overlay.

At Monday night’s hearing, commissioners asked questions about the zoning, timing, parking, access, and how we got to this point. I thought they did exactly what Planning & Zoning Commissioners are supposed to do. They asked questions. P&Z requested a continuance to allow time to answer questions and provide more information. That is not a failure of the process. That is the process working.

Planning & Zoning Commissioners are required to consider whether a rezoning is consistent with the General Plan, whether the change is necessary, and whether it protects public health, safety, peace, comfort, and general welfare. How do they make those findings without asking questions?

There is one more issue residents should pay attention to. Other property owners in the same area have reportedly been told they must wait due to the General Plan blackout. If that is the case, residents deserve to understand why this property can be placed into a zoning classification now that the City already acknowledges is not the best long-term fit, with plans to change the General Plan again later.

There may be a reasonable explanation. Then explain it.

This is not about stopping a food truck court. I hope the applicant has a successful project. I would love to see the Heritage District become the destination many of us have hoped for. This is about consistency, transparency, and making sure the same rules apply to everyone. If something went wrong somewhere along the way, fixing one problem should not create another.

Tena Dugan
Candidate for Maricopa City Council