Final Decisions Pending on Two Chandler Planning and Zoning Items

Chandler, AZ – The Planning and Zoning Commission of Chandler granted continuance over the request for a use permit to conduct outdoor cooking adjacent to the Tortas El Guero restaurant, 611 N. Arizona Ave.,  in a Planning and Zoning meeting on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

The request from the Tortas El Guero restaurant was the only active item on the agenda for the meeting. It was presented to the Commission and an audience of about 30 by Bill Dermody, City Planner, after nine consent items, which had been discussed by the Commission and Staff prior to the regular meeting, on the agenda were approved.

“This one was a denial recommendation which means automatically we have to discuss it,” Dermody said in an interview after the meeting.

The request proposed that the outdoor cooking be permitted to take place daily within two parking spaces west of the restaurant’s front entrance.

Dermody, representing the Staff, recommended to the Commission that the request be denied due to the fact that the site already had insufficient parking in comparison with a code requirement. He added that the approval of the request would only expand the parking deficit.

The applicants of the request, Gustavo and Marjorie Lom, also stood before the Commission and asked for other possible options for where to conduct the outdoor cooking.

“We’ve definitely thought of putting tables out and just setting up a place for people to eat, but I really do believe that it would be better for people to see what we’re cooking,” said Marjorie Lom in response to a Commission member’s suggestion to use the restaurant’s current outdoor space for a seating area instead.

“I think that actually seeing the cooking going on attracts people,” she added.

The request will again be reviewed after the two week continuance, at the Oct. 1 meeting for the Planning and Zoning Commission.

One controversial item was removed from the agenda earlier in the week after the developer’s attorney, David Cisiewski, requested a continuance until the Nov. 5 meeting.

The item proposed rezoning for a commercial retail center on the northeast corner of Arizona Avenue and Riggs Road.

Riggs Residents for Retail Diversity, Inc. (RRRD, Inc.) voiced its opposition to the rezoning through community meetings, with their most recent one attended by three City Councilmen as well as other concerned residents, said President of RRRD, Inc., Kirk Sibley, who attended Wednesday’s meeting.

“I think it’s great living in a city where [Council members] actually get out of [the Chandler Library Council Chambers] and get in touch with the community,” said Sibley in an interview after the meeting.

The RRRD, Inc. was founded in 2004 when concerned residents succeeded in fighting against the proposal of a similar retail center, a Wal-Mart, in the same area.

Sibley said that the RRRD, Inc. wanted neighborhood shopping, including smaller anchors, not destination shopping.

A lot of community involvement is expected for the Nov. 5 meeting, Sibley said.