Goodyear staff outline strategic-plan priorities, say zoning ordinance rewrite and capital projects are coming

Development Services Director Katie Wilkam told the Goodyear Planning and Zoning Commission on Jan. 15, 2025 that the city’s strategic plan — adopted by the City Council in November and in effect through fiscal year 2028 — centers on five focus areas and includes action items that will involve development services.

Wilkam said the plan’s vision statement is that “the city of Goodyear will be a great place to live, work, and raise a family,” and noted the plan emphasizes action items this year rather than large vision changes. She told commissioners the plan covers fiscal and resource management, economic vitality, a safe and vibrant community, an innovative and high-performing organization, and infrastructure.

Wilkam highlighted several items tied to development services: evaluating processes to streamline the development timeline; assessing incentives for housing diversity (an item assigned to the city manager’s office that Wilkam said will begin in fiscal year 2026); a large project to comprehensively rewrite the city’s zoning ordinance (Wilkam said the ordinance has not been comprehensively rewritten since 1999 and gave the example that “typewriter repair is 1 of the listed uses in our zoning ordinance”); and work on programs to preserve safe, well-maintained neighborhoods.

On infrastructure Wilkam noted the strategic plan lists capital improvement program (CIP) projects, including a highlighted item she identified as “Australia Parkway bridal design and construction.” She said development services will be involved because the department conducts development review and interfaces with the city’s CIP program.

During a question-and-answer period a member of the public said the Indian School Road improvements have been under construction for more than five years and described severe delays and traffic issues in that area. The speaker said the traffic signal for that stretch has appeared in the budget repeatedly but has not been completed.

Wilkam said she would follow up with detailed information. She explained that traffic-signal and road-completion work in that corridor involves coordination with Maricopa County and state land parcels, large drainage facilities and overhead power poles that must be relocated; those factors, she said, have contributed to delays. Wilkam also said some nearby road work has been completed by private development while the city must complete the half-street adjacent to state land to fully finish Indian School Road between Perryville and Citrus.

Wilkam told commissioners the zoning-ordinance rewrite will likely come to the commission in phases, with work sessions on specific topics and requests for direction as a project plan is developed. She invited commissioners to be involved in visioning and potential joint council–commission work sessions tied to that effort.

Wilkam closed by asking commissioners to send additional questions by email to her or another staff member named Alyssa; she offered to provide follow-up details on CIP timelines and specific projects.