The planned approximately 21,500‑acre preserve in North Phoenix will set aside portions of land for recreational and educational use while protecting the desert’s natural and cultural resources. It will span roughly from Cave Creek Road west to 67th Avenue. From the south end, it encompasses an irregular area from near the Central Arizona Project canal north to the city boundary.

Committee members realized the need for paseo setback requirements when they learned one of the proposed changes in the amendment requires perimeter fences or walls adjacent to the preserve be view fencing or low seat walls. They agreed with the change because it increases the natural view, but felt paseos so close to private properties would disturb residential privacy.

Committee member Byron Sampson, wanting to prevent the preserve’s users from seemingly lurking near someone’s back yard while on a public pathway, proposed construction of paseos be 15 feet to 50 feet from the adjacent property line.

The committee voted 9‑0 in favor of the amendment with additional language addressing paseos.

Paseos are one of 11 allowed design methods, or treatments, for the edge of the preserve. According to the amendment, open‑edge treatments encourage a sense of ownership of the preserve by the greater community rather than limiting it to those living near the edge. The preserve will have approximately 150 miles of perimeter.

Part of the amendment revises the allowable amounts of specific edge treatments to ensure the most desired types are provided. A minimum of 60 percent of the preserve edge is still required to be open and accessible to the public, but 40 percent of that must be a primary type such as open space, a paseo, single‑loaded street (housing or other development on one side only) or municipal facility. This marks a 10‑percent increase.

At the same time, city staff, along with the Arizona State Land Department and the development community who provided input on the amendment over the last year, recommended a 10‑percent decrease in the maximum allowable amount of secondary treatments. They recommend no more than 60 percent of the open edge be schools, joint‑use parking areas, cul‑de‑sacs, T‑intersections or retention or detention basins. The use of wash corridors and alternatives such as an artistic wall or vegetation as a an edge treatment require staff approval.

Another part of the amendment deletes the “applicability” table requiring certain depths for edge treatments. “We felt that it was kind of hamstringing the developer,” Feld said.

The preserve will have jagged boundaries. With the deletion, developers and city staff will have more flexibility to decide required depths for open edge treatments on a case‑by‑case basis to work with those natural boundaries.

The majority of the remaining changes in the amendment are for organizational and clarification purposes. “We really did a lot of work with clarifying the intent,” Feld said.

For example, members of the Desert View Village Planning Committee, who by a vote of 8‑2 recommended approval of the amendment, made a clarification regarding gated development. They emphasized that gated development adjacent to the preserve is prohibited unless the 60‑percent open edge is provided and used language to discourage it altogether.

Other changes to the amendment moved or combined sections for clarity and also enhanced the approval process.

“With the way it’s written now, you have to have this triad of agreement,” said Boyd Winfrey, principal landscape architect with the city’s Parks & Recreation Department. The Planning Department, Parks & Recreation and Development Services departments all have to agree on development in the preserve.

The amendment will be presented to the Parks Board on May 25 and voted on in June. It is scheduled to go before Phoenix City Council July 5.

For more information, go to http://phoenix.gov/PLANNING/sonindex.html.

Reach the reporter at ambria@thedesertadvocate.com.