SAN TAN VALLEY, AZ — The Town Council held a public hearing on July 15 for the first San Tan Valley annexation case, at Gantzel Road and Lone Star Lane. However, the council took no vote. Mayor Daren Schnepf said the item was for information only, with any action to follow at a later date.
Retail Pitch for a Vacant Pinal County Corner
The roughly 3.33-acre property sits at the southwest corner of Gantzel Road and Lone Star Lane, just outside the town boundary. It is vacant and holds Suburban Ranch zoning in unincorporated Pinal County. Additionally, the annexation territory crosses Lone Star Lane and reaches the Queen Creek Wash, Community Development Director Gilbert Olgin said.
Olgin pointed to a nearby shopping center that includes a Target, plus storage, Dutch Bros and Dairy Queen locations to the south. Meanwhile, subdivisions stretch to the north and south, rural homes from a 1970s-era subdivision sit to the west, and the Pecan Creek sewer plant operates directly across Gantzel Road.
Lone Star Partners LLC is listed as the developer in the annexation narrative. “If this application is successful, they would like to rezone the property to commercial, and we are concurrently processing that as we speak,” Olgin said. He added that the rezoning cannot take effect until the annexation finishes. A companion application seeks a C-2 commercial designation, according to the narrative. As for what would be built, Olgin said, “This is going to be an area for some retail, possible restaurant, but that’s still in the works.”
Attorney Alex Hayes of Withey Morris Baugh spoke for the property owner and said the group is “honored to be the first annexation application to come through the town.” He described the likely uses as retail, restaurants and possibly medical office space. Frontage on a major arterial across from the sewer plant makes new housing unrealistic there, in his view. He also said the project would broaden the town’s tax base, and he noted one of the owners is a commercial broker. Asked why the group chose San Tan Valley, Hayes said the owners want to join a town they hope will welcome the project and help shape development along the Gantzel Road corridor.
How the San Tan Valley Annexation Process Works
“Staff was working on this case before we became an official acting town, which was legally allowed,” Olgin told the council.
State law also sets the signature bar. The petition needs the owners of at least half the taxable property value, plus more than half of the people who own taxable property, within the territory. Additionally, the parcel touches the town for more than 580 feet along its eastern edge, well above the 300-foot minimum, and the annexation would create no county island.
Town Manager Brent Billingsley outlined remaining steps, including a newspaper advertisement. Olgin confirmed the site is posted and notifications went out to every government entity with a say in the area. After annexation, San Tan Valley would take over maintenance of the annexed portions of Gantzel Road, which the petition says Pinal County maintains today. The commercial rezoning and a later site plan review would each follow as separate steps.
Neighbors Cite a Private Road, Traffic and CC&Rs
Hayes told the council his team sent notice letters to surrounding property owners within what he thought was 1,000 feet. He said his team also held two neighborhood meetings at the Queen Creek Library. According to Hayes, the plan changed slightly after the first meeting to address concerns over parking placement, and the second meeting drew two attendees with general questions.
A resident whose property sits directly next to the site disputed that account. He said the one meeting he was aware of drew severe pushback, and his household never received notice of a second meeting. Lone Star Lane serves four residential properties on a narrow lane governed by a private road agreement, he said, and pulling onto Gantzel Road is already difficult. He also objected to an early concept for the site: “We would be driving through a parking lot to get to our home.” Furthermore, he said his subdivision has CC&Rs. When he asked before buying whether commercial could come in, he was told no — these are ranch homes with cattle and horses. He said the same group earlier failed to rezone a five-acre lot near the Dairy Queen for a medical facility through Pinal County. He has filed a public records request and plans to “go to the mat on this because it’s my home.”
Suzanne Sallus, who lives in a neighboring community, called traffic on the two-lane road horrible and said crossing Gantzel into the Lone Star properties is very dangerous. In addition, she described Dairy Queen traffic backing up on weekend and weekday mornings. Her community also fought the earlier five-acre medical building proposal, she said, and she opposes this annexation at this time.
Hayes had earlier told council members that existing easements will preserve access for the homes along Lone Star Lane. He also said a traffic impact study, required during rezoning, will recommend right-of-way improvements and traffic control.
Karen Mooney, a Pinal County Planning and Zoning commissioner who also sits on San Tan Valley’s Interim Planning Advisory Committee (IPAC), said she is neutral but wants clarity on whether the landowner approached the town or the reverse, a question she said is circulating on social media. Jeanne Stockton of Johnson Ranch said she fully supports annexing commercial property. Still, she asked whether the council should table the case until the HOA legal issues are resolved, to keep the town out of potential litigation.
Mark Linder, who lives in a rural community north of the site, said the town keeps gaining fast food, car washes and oil-change shops while multi-acre rural residential land disappears. He said Queen Creek and the county supervisors treat CC&Rs as a civil matter for the courts. “Be different. Be better than them,” he urged, asking the town to make sure neighbors support a project before rezoning.
“CC&Rs are a civil issue. They don’t involve the town,” Billingsley said, while calling it a legitimate concern the applicant and its attorney should research and answer. Separately, Olgin said the town typically requires commercial and industrial developers to install screen walls and buffering to shield neighboring residents. Council Member Daniel Oakes told speakers the council hears them, raised concerns about projects that change midstream, and said he wants low-impact commercial if the town can shape it.
Queen Creek’s Planning Boundary Still Covers the Gantzel Road Site
The parcel remains inside Queen Creek’s municipal planning boundary while a general plan amendment on the surrounding area sits pending. In February, Queen Creek’s council directed staff to evaluate removing two developed Pinal County areas from its planning boundary, citing impact fees the areas never paid, the cost of serving them and San Tan Valley’s incorporation. Subsequently, on June 3, Queen Creek’s council voted 6-0 to remove the southern area, about 489 acres south of Combs Road that hold roughly 5,000 residents. That vote came despite 151 public comments opposing removal, some from homeowners who said they had long expected to join Queen Creek. Staff there concluded that serving the area would cost more than it returns.
Queen Creek’s northern amendment covers about 878 acres, including the Country Mini-Farms, Vinwood Estates and Landmarke/The Quarters communities. However, Queen Creek’s Planning and Zoning Commission continued the case in May at staff’s request, and it remains pending. Residents of those communities were split at a spring neighborhood meeting, and many voiced strong interest in Queen Creek fire and medical service. In February, Queen Creek Council Member Jeff Brown said residents in the northern area largely oppose additional commercial development along major arterials like Gantzel Road.
Billingsley told the council the town notified Queen Creek of the annexation, as required, has not heard back, and will follow up. He also confirmed the parcel sits inside the Queen Creek Water service area.
Signatures Will Determine Whether the Annexation Advances
Once enough owners sign the petition, the council could adopt the annexation ordinance for publication by the town clerk. Only then would the commercial rezoning, and later a site plan, come forward for their own reviews.
