By Roland Murphy for AZBEX
The site of a stalled Build-to-Rent plan at the SEC of McCartney Road and State Route 387 in Casa Grande is being reimagined as an expanded commercial and residential development in a set of requests before the Planning and Zoning Commission.
Villages at McCartney Ranch was planned as a Build-to-Rent property in the McCartney II Planned Area Development, and a General Plan amendment and PAD rezoning requests were approved by the Casa Grande City Council in 2022, creating a 34.05-acre mixed-use development site. The PAD was placed in the “Community Corridor” land use designation, with a single-family area placed within the “Neighborhoods” designation.
By October of 2024, no action had been taken, and there were no land sales or project updates, so the plan was marked “canceled” in the DATABEX project database.
Now, however, property owner and developer Garrett Development Corporation (as GDC MR LLC and KEMF MR INVESTMENTS LLC) has come forward with new requests that will significantly expand and modify the site.
Under the requests, the 34.05-acre site will be expanded “to 75 acres by incorporating some acreage currently designated for single-family within the abutting R-2/CR zone,” according to the materials supplied for the April 2 Planning and Zoning Commission meeting. R2-CR refers to a Medium Density Multi-Family Residential zone with a Component Residential overlay.
The meeting took place after this issue went to press. Actions taken will follow in a later report.
In the expanded PAD, the commercial section will expand from 11 acres to 37.86 acres to create “a continuous commercial corridor along Pinal Avenue from McCartney Road, narrowing in width to the Kinder Morgan (El Paso) gas line to the south.”
In total, there will be three commercial areas. Area A will include a planned Walmart and several pad sites for a total of around 27 acres. Area B will be 6.3 acres, and Area C is roughly 3.75 acres. The current plat and site plan under review deal only with Area A.
Editor’s Note: The retail operation is variously referred to as “Wal-Mart” and “Walmart.” We have chosen to use the latter throughout for consistency’s sake.
Walmart’s interest in acquiring its portion of the site and building approximately 212KSF of retail space, including the anchor store and commercial pads, is the driver behind the update requests.
According to the submitted narrative, “This update will provide the acreage needed to transform The Villages at McCartney Ranch into a development that will generate employment opportunities, bring desirable commercial services to the area, and update the entitlements to permit a variety of residential uses. The development will provide an appropriate land use solution for this undeveloped site in a growing part of Casa Grande.”
It goes on to say, “This request is simply a continuation and expansion of the existing Community Corridor land use and PAD zoning previously approved, with similar development standards and permitted uses to the previous amendment approved in 2022… The adjacent property known as McCartney Ranch II will remain under the approved Neighborhoods land use and conventional R-2 zoning district, which permits single-family residential use as well as multi-family and alternative housing product options.”
The owner is specifically requesting a minor General Plan amendment to change 34.05 acres from Community Corridor and 42.89 acres to a combined overall site of 74.71 acres of Community Corridor and an amendment of the PAD to expand The Villages at McCartney Ranch PAD to include the full 74.71-acre updated site.
Land inside the PAD will be divided into roughly 37.86 acres for commercial and 36.85 acres for residential. The residential area is divided into Parcel 1—a 15.45-acre parcel along McCartney—and Parcel 5—a 21.4-acre area south and west of the commercial space. These will be developed as either single- or multifamily.
Maximum density on Parcel 1 will be 20 units/acre, and Parcel 5 will allow up to 12 units/acre. According to the materials, this designation “could include a variety of housing, including low to medium density housing options such as cluster lots and townhomes.”
The commercial portion will generally have maximum building heights of 35 feet. Area C, however, will have maximum heights of 25 feet, since it is currently zoned for single-family residential, and taller development would be disruptive to the overall area.
Staff has recommended approval with conditions.
Some nearby residents, including the Coyote Ranch Homeowners Association, have expressed opposition, particularly to the redesignation of Parcel 5. They assert the change will harm the neighborhood character, strain traffic and infrastructure capacities, increase crime in the area and potentially damage home/property values.
To the last point, the letter says, “While actual evidence is scarce on the true impact of dense multifamily residences on the value of single-family homes in the immediate vicinity, what is without question is Coyote Ranch contains some of the nicest and most valuable homes in Casa Grande. Adding multi-family residences to what is effectively the backyard of these exclusive and valuable homes will dramatically decrease their curb appeal and potentially negatively impact the home values.”
Materials list Garrett Development Corporation as the owner and developer. Planning and civil engineering services are provided by CVL Consultants. Y2K Engineering conducted the traffic impact analysis.
