With the construction on State Route 260 nearing its final completion, the town of Camp Verde has been hoping new businesses will take advantage of the real estate alongside the widened artery.
At a meeting on May 22, the Camp Verde Town Council unanimously approved a zoning change that would allow for some local businesses and residents to take advantage of that real estate. The council gave the first go ahead for a planned mixed commercial and residential development at the intersection of Aultman Parkway and State Route 260.
The new development — tentatively dubbed Boulder Creek — is the latest from local developer Dugan McDonald, of Sefton Engineering Consultants, who has been responsible for numerous projects around Camp Verde and throughout the Verde Valley.
McDonald’s plan is to have the front part of the 185-acre parcel that abuts State Route 260 be used for commercial and retail development, with areas behind that featuring single-family and multi-family homes.
As a longtime Camp Verde resident, McDonald sees this project as in line with not only his own goals, but the needs of the Camp Verde community.
“The needs within the community that we looked at first and foremost was the need for affordable housing, the need for workforce housing,” McDonald said. “And that means condos or apartment-type living spaces. Also we have provided within the community a place for custom homes as well. We didn’t leave anybody out and then also we provide ample space for commercial opportunities, for investment, growth and the creation of jobs within the community as well.”
Carmen Howard, of the Camp Verde Community Development office, backed up McDonald’s assertions that this development fits with the desires of the town, giving a strong recommendation to the council to approve the plan.
“Not only does the project correspond with the general plan, it all corresponds with strategic plan that the economic development department put together,” Howard said at the meeting. “We see this as the potential catalyst to bring development down 260. This rezoning action is the type of project that we would like to see going out that way to encourage 260 development.”
“We plan to develop that corridor such that it’s compatible for what we would call ‘good ideas,’” Steve Ayers of the Camp Verde Economic Development office said. “That development is pretty much in line with what we want — some commercial, some residential — and hopefully it will be done well at some point. I hold out the best for that parcel out there because it’s pretty prominent. It’s kind of that center piece between Camp Verde and Cottonwood.”
In addition to the residential area, McDonald’s plan for the commercial zone is of pedestrian mall-type area, with both retail and hopefully coffee shops, as well as some green space, allowing people to spend a while in the area as they shop.
The project is still a way away from completion — McDonald estimates that it will take several months to finish planning and preparing and hopes to break ground about a year from now. The development is also complicated by lack of sewer connection on the site. According to Howard, the town is applying for a grant to pay to connect the area to the town’s sewage system. In the meantime, McDonald hopes to start construction on the parts of the development — the commercial section and the single- family homes — that can be supported by a standard septic system rather than a full sewer connection, with the hopes that the rest of the project can be finished afterwards. McDonald hopes sewer connection will be ready by the time that construction starts.
“The design on this, the way it’s broken up into different components, really allows local contractors to be involved,” Mayor Charlie German said at the meeting. “With kind of design, it gives a lot of people locally a bite at the apple.”
