City lifts limit on Hogenes Farms permits before completion of new overpass

The developer of Hogenes Farms can now build homes without any limit tied to completion of a Green Road overpass at the Union Pacific railroad tracks.

An earlier stipulation limiting TRS 15, a division of Marbella Homes of Paradise Valley, to construction of about 800 homes until the overpass was built was removed by Maricopa City Council as part of its Sept. 21 approval of amendments to an agreement with the Hogenes family and the developer.

The original stipulation was included to limit the amount of traffic on McDavid Road, the only access to the development without an overpass. The city has said previously that a study showed the need for the overpass at 1,300 homes.

The initial development agreement between the city, Abraham and Barbara Hogenes, and Hogenes Farms was signed in April 2007.

The huge community, initially to be called Maricopa Meadows II, would span 773 acres – bordered by the Union Pacific railroad tracks on the north, McDavid on the south, Green Road on the east and the Rachel Road alignment on the west.

The Planned Area Development for the site calls for a mixed-use, master planned community with medium-density residential zoning. With that zoning, which typically has about 3.5 homes per acre, the Hogenes Farms property could accommodate about 2,705 homes. That equates to about 7,000 residents, using the U.S. Census Bureau average of about 2.6 people per household.

Phase I of the project would include development of 124.5 acres on the property’s south end at McDavid Road. Phase II would cover 165 acres on the southwest side of the parcel.

According to Rodolfo Lopez, the city’s acting director of development services, Phases I and II of construction total 775 homes.

Lopez said he expects improvements on Green Road to begin within two years and construction of the overpass to take 12-24 months. Currently, the portions of both McDavid and Green roads adjoining the property are dirt roads.

The developer’s share of the overpass costs will be paid through impact fees, which vary depending on where the development is taking place. In general, impact fees are lower in the northern part of the city (north of Farrell Road), where there is more infrastructure in place.

TRS 15 will pay impact fees of $5,473 per home ($2,965 for streets, $1,207 for parks and recreation, $674 for police services, $496 for fire services and $131 for libraries.)

In addition, it will prepay an additional $3,500 per home toward transportation infrastructure, bringing the total of its impact fees to $8,973 per housing unit. The transportation impact fee will be due to the city by Dec. 15 or when the community’s final plat is recorded, whichever is first.

With current zoning, the developer can build multi-family units in future phases, though none have been outlined thus far. TRS 15 would pay total impact fees of $7,489 (including the additional transportation fee) per multi-family housing unit.