The Maricopa County Board of Supervisors’ Sept. 2 approvals of a pair of rezoning requests from Arizona Land Consulting have advanced two projects that could serve to establish a massive mixed-use area near Tonopah with data centers, an amusement park, an indoor theme park, hotel and restaurant uses, retail, multifamily and a film production studio.
AZBEX was the first outlet to report on one of the recently approved rezonings: a more than 300-acre plan known as Camelback Creek. That case requested “General Comprehensive Plan Amendment (CPA) of the Tonopah/Arlington Area Plan to change the Rural Densities (0-1 du/ac) to Mixed Use with a zone change from Rural–43 to IND-2 IUPD to support mixed use development that may include residential, commercial, industrial, and entertainment uses.” (AZBEX; Aug. 4)
Camelback Creek’s proposal focused on industrial uses, primarily warehouse/distribution and data centers.
The second approved Comprehensive Plan amendment and rezoning is for Balterra, a 593-acre site immediately across from Camelback Creek on the east side of 411th Avenue. While that proposal is similar, the Balterra site appears to have a hospitality and entertainment focus.
A local news article estimated development costs for the combined efforts at between $6B and $10B. No development plan is in place yet, but ALC officials plan to submit them for administrative review and approval before any construction begins, as noted in conditions recommended by the Maricopa County Planning and Zoning Commission last month.
According to the submitted requests, a development master plan for Balterra “was approved in 2006 to accommodate development of residential, commercial, mixed-use, recreation, education, and public facility uses. However, the Site has remained vacant since that time and no companion rezoning case was approved in furtherance of the DMP.”
Designating the site as Mixed-Use, the request argues, “will further economic growth in the area by developing both long-term and short-term employment opportunities. Long-term employment will be created by the development of uses with highly skilled employment opportunities, such as warehouses, data centers, and power generation uses. The proposed residential, commercial, and entertainment uses will support the proposed industrial uses and create additional employment opportunities for residents in the surrounding context. Further, temporary employment opportunities will be provided through construction activities related to the development on the Site.”
In recommending approval for the Balterra requests, County staff said, “The zone change would connect to and extend existing industrial and commercial zoning to the west of the subject site and is in keeping with other similar land use designations directly along Interstate-10. The proposal is consistent with the surrounding region’s land use and development patterns.”
Most of the surrounding land is agricultural and undeveloped. No resident or landowner statements of opposition were received prior to the hearing. Other mixed-use and industrial/data center developments are located in the general area, including Hassayampa Ranch and Belmont Mixed-Use.
Neither site’s submission identifies specific uses beyond general development types. The article, however, quotes ALC owner Anita Verma-Lallian and provides a conceptual rendering from Gensler, giving a much more specific overall vision that includes “a movie production studio, amusement park, hotels, retail and a sprawling data center campus.”
Verma-Lallian also owns an Arizona independent film production company and said the studio component could help fuel the state’s “scant” film production infrastructure. The state has an incentive program for qualified film, television and commercial productions, with one of the requirements being filming in a dedicated studio of 10KSF or larger.
Arizona Land Consulting is the owner. Planning and engineering services are provided by Colliers Engineering & Design. Berry Riddell LLC is the legal representative.
