Rural land that is now Anglin Dairy is in the early stages of a concept to convert to housing. The impact on traffic on SR 238 is being explored.

 

It’s early days, but the long-range impact of a master-planned community on the westside of town could be a roundabout leading to an overpass.

Green Road has long been an important corridor in transportation planning, though it does not look like much now. The dirt road, which is mostly unimproved, runs from the northern boundary of Maricopa south across State Route 238 and down to Garvey Avenue at the railroad tracks. South of the tracks, it runs from Madison Avenue down to McDavid and then down the westside of Maricopa Meadows.

Along the way, Green’s northernmost stretch borders the current Anglin Dairy. Owners of that property wish to turn the low-density agricultural land into a community of single-family and multi-family housing, with a mixed-use portion at the northwest corner of SR 238 and Green Road.

City planner Ryan Wazniak said a roundabout at that intersection is under consideration. He called it a “traffic-calming measure.”

City engineer Josh Plumb said a four-legged roundabout is being explored, “with a potential overpass on Green Road.”

The City’s long-range transportation plan has the possibility of a Green Road overpass crossing the Union-Pacific tracks. The idea is to give residents on the southside another corridor north and relieve traffic on John Wayne Parkway as the city grows.

Anglin Dairy was back before Maricopa Planning & Zoning Commission on Monday for a public hearing on its request for a major General Plan amendment. The project involving 493 acres on an L-shaped property is only at the concept level.

Another public hearing is scheduled Sept. 28 at Copper Sky. The P&Z Commission may take action at that hearing.

The current dairy is bordered by state land to the east, Gila River land to the north and Ak-Chin Southern Dunes to the west. Developers are asking for a re-designation from low-density, medium-density and mixed use to master-planned community on the General Plan. That is considered a major amendment because it is over 160 acres.

They are not yet seeking a zoning change.

Wazniak said the City and developers will be taking several factors into consideration, including traffic flow.

“The intersection is being evaluated for what it can do for this facility type as it approaches the urbanized section of the City of Maricopa,” he said.

Commissioner Ted Yocum noted, “its use as a dairy is becoming noncompatible considering the direction we seem to be going.”

Commissioner Dan Frank called for more diversity in the types of multi-family projects that are coming before the commission. “Almost everything we’re getting is medium-density.”

A portion of the property is in the Vekol Wash watershed, an issue Plumb said would likely be addressed as the site develops.