PARADISE VALLEY – Paradise Valley residents would welcome a Ritz-Carlton resort in their town, but many remain concerned about the project’s proposed residential uses, each on less than an acre.
That was the message relayed this week to the Paradise Valley Planning Commission, which held its first public hearing on the Ritz-Carlton application.
The Ritz-Carlton site is on 123 acres with 105 acres in Paradise Valley and 18 acres in Scottsdale.
The Paradise Valley site would include a hotel and residences, while the Scottsdale portion will be developed with condos and resort retail.
An estimated 70 to 80 people crowded Paradise Valley Town Hall on Tuesday to hear details about the new Ritz-Carlton.
The 225-room hotel and related development is planned on a parcel bordered by Lincoln Drive to the south, Indian Bend Road to the north, Mockingbird Lane to the west and Scottsdale Road to the east.
Most residents who attended the hearing seemed fine with plans for the hotel.
But many residents told the commission that they continue to be concerned about the project’s proposed residential uses on less than an acre.
The project includes 26 1-acre home lots, 51 detached homes on 10,000-square-foot lots, and 84 resort patio homes. The actual resort would take up only about 25 percent of the site.
In addition to being opposed to resort homes on less than an acre, residents also expressed concern about increased traffic in the area, the height and setbacks of the proposed homes and loss of existing mountain views.
Residents Bruce and Geneva Spigner live near the project and were concerned about increased traffic as well as the fact that they would be looking at the backside of homes ringing the perimeter of the Ritz-Carlton property.
As currently designed, the front yards would not face existing streets.
Resident Janine Brown, a Realtor, said she welcomes a Ritz-Carlton, but not homes on less than an acre.
She said such housing would sell in a heartbeat, but would not be in keeping with the quality of life in Paradise Valley and its one-house-per-acre zoning.
Several letters signed by multiple residents in support of the project were read into the minutes. In addition, the commission received 15 speaker request cards from people in the audience who did not wish to speak, but who are in support of the project.
The Planning Commission will hold a work-study session on the Ritz-Carlton July 10, said Eva Cutro, the town’s planning and building director.
The meeting begins at 5 p.m. at Town Hall, 6401 E. Lincoln Drive, but the Ritz-Carlton discussion is not expected to begin until around 7 p.m., she said.
Diana Balazs
The Arizona Republic
