Council tables Westcott Funeral Home rezoning
New apartments will be coming to Mingus Ave. and Willard Street, pending approval of building permits.
On April 21, the Cottonwood City Council unanimously approved a general plan amendment and zone change for a vacancy 1.14-acre parcel with the APN 406-32-022W, at 259 W. Mingus Ave., clearing the way for the Clemenceau East Apartments, an 18-unit multifamily apartment complex west of the Willard Street roundabout.
“Development will include the construction of two six-plex buildings along Mingus Ave. and one six-plex building behind the two front buildings,” the letter of intent reads. “All three buildings will be two story, and each apartment unit will be approximately 960 square feet each. It will also include a new driveway onto Mingus Ave., supporting on-site parking, open space, on-site sidewalks and the necessary utility connections.”
The approvals, sought by applicant Zachariah Bednar of Clemenceau Townsite LLC, change the parcel’s designation from Planned Development to High-Density Residential and rezone it from single-family to multi-family.
The Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved the design review application at its March 16 meeting, during which three members of the public spoke against the proposal. P&Z also recommended the zone change to council.
City Senior Planner Tina Hayden said it conforms with the city’s General Plan and allows for uses and densities consistent with the neighborhood.
“We’ve heard from many members of the public citing concerns about traffic density and noise and trespassing” with regards to the proposal, Hayden said.
Verde Valley Community Development Organization Executive Director Mary Chicoine spoke in favor of the approval, citing it as an example of in-fill development, building on an existing vacant parcel within the city limits and not expanding outward.
“This project is exciting in that it’s walkable to health and restaurants and the post office and transportation,” she said. “We are always talking about the need for housing, particularly for health care workers that come here and cannot find a place to live and it’s within two or three blocks of the hospital.”
Matson Breakey, a board member at the adjacent Cottonwood Seventh-day Adventist Church School, raised a concern that future residents of complex to the west may spill over into the church’s parking lot and that there may noise spill over from the school during sports events and community gatherings.
“Our biggest question is the ability of the church school to hold classes, especially during the construction phase of the building,” Breakey said. “We have classes that are pretty much right next to the building site, and we’re concerned about the noise that it’s going to cause the disruption of this school. … We also are concerned about the safety of these children in the school.”
“On Feb. 2, the applicant held the required neighborhood meeting to which the owners of property within 300 feet of the site were notified by city staff,” the council packet reads. “There were no attendees, and at the time the report was written for the Planning and Zoning Commission, staff had not heard from any member of the public.”
Council members did not have any questions for Hayden, and did not opine, instead proceeding to unanimously approve both resolutions for the complex.
A rezoning request from Single-Family Residential to Multi-Family Residential council — that would have cleared the way for a 96-unit apartment complex on the current parcel of Westcott Funeral Home at 1013 E. Mingus Ave. — was tabled indefinitely.
The P&Z Commission had recommended approval of the project, brought by Yuma Enterprises LLC, at its March 16 meeting. No timeline was set for when the item might return.
