The Gilbert Planning and Zoning Commission on consecutive 7-0 votes approved a general-plan amendment (GP24-08) and a rezoning (Z24-20) to allow a mixed-use, high-density residential project known as Aura at San Tan on a 14-acre parcel southeast of Pecos and Val Vista Roads. The approved change amends acreage from regional commercial to residential at 25–50 dwelling units per acre and rezones the property to a Mixed-Use Large district with Planned Area Development overlay.

Ashley (planning staff) told commissioners the applicant proposes roughly 357 multifamily units and about 16,000 square feet of ground-floor office/retail across three buildings and is requesting multiple deviations from the Mixed-Use district standards, most notably a reduction in the required minimum nonresidential floor area from the code’s 20–24% standard down to approximately 3–4% of total building floor area. Ashley said staff was concerned about the scale of residential relative to nonresidential floor area and recommended denial; the Chamber of Commerce had urged compliance with code standards in March.

Applicant representative Adam described a long history of the site, explaining the original mixed-use vision was undercut by the 2008 recession and later parcelization that left a roadway network and ownership pattern not suited to conventional retail. He told the commission that, if parking garages’ floor area were removed from the denominator used to calculate required nonresidential percentage, the project would have about 16% ground-floor commercial by area. Owner Morgan Deville of Park Corporation said the overall 58-acre assembly already contains retail, grocery, banks and a VA medical facility and that the subject back parcel had seen no pre-application interest for commercial development in decades.

Commission discussion focused on the arithmetic used to compute the nonresidential percentage, parking and build-to-line deviations, the local office market and the practical likelihood of attracting conventional retail to Market Street given low drive-by traffic counts. Commissioners who supported approval cited the site’s history, market conditions and the applicant’s increase of ground-floor commercial area from earlier iterations. Commissioners who voiced caution emphasized preserving commercial land supply in the town’s core growth area. When asked about conditions, Ashley noted staff included a range of conditions in the staff report and the applicant said it had reviewed those conditions and was agreeable.

The commission passed both the general-plan amendment and the rezoning with conditions listed in the staff report (Attachment 8). The rezoning approval includes the applicant’s deviations and the conditions the staff recommended as part of the PAD amendment record.