The West Valley This Week
Forever chemicals. Mini storage. Movers and Shakers, oh my! Here's what you need to know about one of the hottest growing areas in the U.S. this week.
Once an agenda item gets board approval, it’s very difficult to reverse it. That’s why we’re paying closer attention to West Valley cities’ and school boards’ meeting agendas.
Here’s what we think is of interest this week in the West Valley.
GOODYEAR PUBLIC MEETING
“The city of Goodyear will hold a public meeting to gather input into housing, homelessness, public service, and community development needs for the FY2024-2025 Action Plan for Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) Funding.”
LINK - You can watch this online.
MEETING DETAILS
5:00 pm on Tuesday January 16, 2024
Goodyear Recreation Campus Classroom 2
420 South Estrella Parkway, Goodyear AZ 85338
PLANNING AND ZONING
Wednesday night, Goodyear’s Planning and Zoning will elect a new chair and vice chair. This is important. In 2023, the commission had several absences and the vice chair had to conduct meetings.
P&Z will hear two issues, as well.
Whether to rezone of approximately 51 acres generally located at the northeast corner of N. Bullard Avenue and W. Van Buren Street. The “rezone would change the currently allowed uses on the property from preliminary Retail and Business Park to Light Industrial with a PAD overlay that would allow for Convenience Storage Mini-Storage on the eastern portion of the property.”
Whether to rezone of approximately 71.48 acres generally located at the southeast corner of N. Bullard Avenue and Interstate-10. “The rezone would change the currently allowed uses on the property from preliminary Regional Retail to industrial with a PAD overlay that would allow certain additional permitted commercial uses including a large retail/convenience store with a convenience use gas station and car wash and the ability to utilize a Comprehensive Sign Package for the development of freeway pylon signs.”
Buc-ee’s Travel Center Proposal:
Goodyear lawmakers have made it abundantly clear. They only consider the Planning and Zoning Commission’s rulings to be “recommendations.” No matter what P&Z decide, the seven people who sit on the Goodyear City Council have the final say.
PLANNING AND ZONING MEETING DETAILS
Wednesday, January 17, 2024 @ 6pm
Goodyear City Hall - Council Chambers, 1900 N. Civic Square, Goodyear, AZ 85395
Meeting Agenda - Arrive early to fill out a speaker card. Each speaker is limited to three (3) minutes.
IN THE SCHOOLS
The Agua Fria Union High School District will nominate and swear in its board president and vice president for the upcoming year.
The district was in the news this week.
In the News: Goodyear school slated for water monitoring well to test for ‘forever chemical’ PFAS
RECAP: “Millenium High School in Goodyear may house a test well for the U.S. Air Force to test the amount of PFAS that may be in the water under the school’s property.“ - Daily Independent
The consent agenda is of particular importance this week. Item 8.10 covers the agreement to allow the Government to access its property.
What we find interesting is that this agenda item is on the consent agenda.
A ”consent agenda” is a tool where “non-controversial” items are placed on an agenda to streamline a meeting. While the goal is to approve mundane items quickly and move on, it’s also a place where I’ve found ‘not-so non-controversial’ items can squeak by.
Also on the agenda is item 8.2 - Out-of-State Travel Requests.
Last month, we reported that at the last AFUHSD meeting, the governing approved picking up the tab for 4 of their own, (Governing Board members Eric Cultum, Vickie Landis, Vice President Gina DeCoste, and President Trey Terry), plus 9 staff from its District Office to fly out to the National School Boards Association Conference. The National School Boards Association conference will be held in New Orleans this spring. The consent agenda vote from motion to passage was 25 seconds.
Wednesday’s consent agenda item 8.2 includes $25,740 in travel requests from staff. If approved, this would bring the total of staff travel request approvals to - from calculations according to what’s available on the agendas - $197,826.15 since August 2023. That number does not include the four board members also attending the National School Boards Association conference this spring. This number also does not include travel requests from the July 2023 governing board meeting - for which we have not readily found the full number of people who requested travel during that meeting. Those 3 additional approvals could tip the total over $200,000 during this school year to date.
These staff travel approvals do NOT include field trips for which teachers, coaches and students have raised their own funds or are using tax credits.
Here are a few travel requests that caught our eye:
NOTE: To be clear, I have requested comment from the district and governing board on multiple occassions by email and by phone since December. Not getting responses to my questions, I filed a handful of records requests. I have been asked by the district’s legal counsel to wait for a comment until my records requests have been compiled. I am hoping to get a response within the next two weeks.
The public may attend the school board’s governing meeting and request any item be pulled from a consent agenda for public discussion and individual vote.
AGUA FRIA UNION HIGH SCHOOL DISTRICT MEETING DETAILS
Agua Fria Union High School District #216, 1481 N. Eliseo Felix Jr. Way, Avondale, AZ 85323
*Doors open at 5:00 p.m. - Meeting begins at 5:30 p.m.The district will only hear 30 minutes of public comments. Arive early to fill out a speaker card. “All members of the public wishing to address the Board are required to complete a Public Participation form and to give the completed form to the Superintendent prior to the meeting.” And, “Individual comment will be limited to no more than 3 minutes each, and no more than 30 minutes will be devoted to the Public Comment Portion of the Agenda.”
PEOPLE SHAPING THE WEST VALLEY’S FUTURE
Here are the West Valley Movers and Shakers we’re watching this week.
Christy Kelly: Candidate for Arizona Corporation Commission
Tamara Floyd: Candidate for Goodyear City Council
Nathan Madden: Candidate for Arizona State Representative in Legislative District 25
Whatever you do this week… make it great.
Send your news tips to jen@news2jb.com.