By Roland Murphy | AZBEX, abridged
The Flagstaff Planning and Zoning Commission (met) on Wednesday, Oct. 28, and a proposed master plan from Symmetry Companies (made) up nearly the entire agenda with its various component requests.
The STL 290 Master Plan is intended to eventually put in place approximately 780 dwelling units in a range of housing types, a 120-room hotel/resort and 80KSF of commercial space on 290 acres of State Trust Land (that) Symmetry Companies owns along the planned extension of John Wesley Powell Blvd. and Ponavera Blvd.
Surrounding uses include large-lot residential and undeveloped land to the north, undeveloped residential land to the east, public forest land to the south, and planned single-family residential to the west.
To enable execution of this vision, the developer is requesting that the City of Flagstaff:
- Approve a minor Regional Plan amendment to change two designated activity centers in the plan area;
- Adopt its STL 290 Specific Plan as a regulating document for the overall development;
- Rezone 139 acres from Rural Residential with a Resource Protection Overlay to R-1 Single Family Residential with RPO, and
- Rezone slightly more than 72 acres of Residential Rural with RPO to 20.5 acres of Suburban Commercial, 24 acres of Highway Commercial and 28 acres to Medium-density Residential, all with Medium-density Residential.
The first item in the plan would implement a minor amendment to the Flagstaff Regional Plan 2030 to move the center point of one activity center north on the planning map, eliminate a second activity center and realign the road network to follow the future J.W. Powell extension.
According to the accompanying staff report, “Activity Centers are mixed-use areas where there is a concentration of commercial and other land uses typically defined by a pedestrian shed. A Suburban Activity Center can serve a Regional scale or Neighborhood scale. The activity center for this site is currently identified as neighborhood scale. Neighborhood Suburban Activity Centers are intended to be smaller, mixed-use centers at intersections of collector streets and neighborhood access roads providing connections to local goods and services, public spaces, transit, and the (Flagstaff Urban Trail System).”
Referred to as S12, the activity center to be relocated is currently situated directly on the Powell corridor. The amendment seeks to relocate S12 “to align with a lodge-focused Activity Center north of JWP Boulevard, along a proposed collector roadway. The Activity Center remains within the JWP corridor influence area but shifts from being directly on JWP Boulevard to a more neighborhood scale, lodge-anchored node, connected back to JWP Boulevard via internal streets and multimodal trails.”
The next item for consideration is adoption of the STL 290 Specific Plan, which would set development guidelines and land use standards, along with the circulation networks, open space requirements and implementation measures for the overall master plan. The rezonings are then needed to implement the specific plan.
Bottom line: The October 28 hearing was an initial review of a substantial, multi-part development proposal—not final approval. The most important distinction is between what Symmetry Companies currently intends to build and what the requested entitlements could legally allow. The second hearing and the final development-agreement language are critical to understanding the actual obligations and limits of STL 290. (ChatGPT)