Parking lot
Under consideration will be a request by the ownership of Donovan’s Steak and Chop House, located at 3101 E. Camelback Road, to rezone a parcel of land that the business currently owns, from R1-6 (residential) to P-1 (surface parking lot). Prime Land Assets, which owns Donovan’s, acquired that property in 2005 for the purpose of expanding its parking area.
At the time, a home existed on the lot; Prime Land Assets ultimately had that home torn down. It first brought its zoning change request before the city in 2005. That zoning change request was subsequently denied, and another request made in 2007 also was denied, due in large part to a great deal of resistance from the Brentwood Estates neighborhood to the south as to having a parking lot encroach into their residential area.
Since that time, Prime Land Assets has erected a 6-foot block wall on the south and west sides of the residential property, effectively blocking the now dirt lot from neighborhood view and eliminating the possibility of pedestrians cutting through that lot to get to the steakhouse or to Camelback Road.
An April city staff report relating to the latest rezoning request requires that, if approved, the owners would need to meet certain landscape and setback requirements including the planting of trees and shrubs with particular regard to the south and west sides of the walled property. In addition, the perimeter wall will be finish faced, most likely with stucco, and painted, and no pedestrian access will be provided from the lot to Mariposa Street.
After more than three years of dissent, the owners of Donovan’s and the leaders of the adjacent Brentwood Estates neighborhood have reached an accord, whereby the residents’ group would support the parking lot addition—with those stipulations to protect the neighborhood—and Donovan’s would, at last, support the removal of a zoning overlay that would allow for a parking garage behind the steakhouse and inside the neighborhood itself.
Parking garage
The zoning overlay that would have allowed for a two-story parking garage where three homes along Mariposa current sit was first put in place more than 20 years ago, and was specifically tied to zoning for an adjacent commercial office project. Ultimately, no developer came forward to complete this project, and in 1994 the commercial office zoning was re-zoned to C-2 for Harris’ Steakhouse, the predecessor of Donovan’s.
Without the adjacent C-O, the P-2 zoning for the parking lot should have reverted back to residential for those three homes. However, despite staff recommendations and even a recent Phoenix General Plan that shows those homes to be zoned residential, the actual official reversion never took place.
The owners of those three homes have recently requested the P-2 zoning remain, perhaps in hopes of commanding more money in this down market for a home that could be razed and, with the acquisition of the other two homes, made into a parking structure. However, nearby residents contend, and the city’s Planning staff agree, that the P-2 zoning could never be developed without the original C-O zoning it was tied to.
The ownership of Donovan’s previously also supported keeping the P-2 zoning, but the recent written agreement made with the leadership of the Brentwood Estates neighborhood states that Donovan’s will withdraw its support in return for the neighborhood’s support of its parking lot addition.
The reversion case was supposed to come before the City Council at its May 5 hearing, but Councilman Sal DiCiccio asked for a postponement, leaving Brentwood Estates neighbors frustrated and puzzled at the further delay in an already decades-long process.
Hal DeKeyser, chief of staff for Councilman DiCiccio, explained that the councilman wanted to ensure that the owners of the three residential properties in question had an opportunity to come to the table one last time. They have been largely absent at the various hearings and meeting held over the past several months, and while they and their Brentwood Estates neighbors have been battling over this issue for some time, it is DiCiccio’s hope that the issue can be resolved with “a little more peace in the neighborhood,” DeKeyser said.
“They [the Brentwood Estates leadership] have basically won on this issue,” DeKeyser said. “The councilman just wants to try and see things resolved in the most amicable way possible, so that neighbors are no longer pitted against neighbors.”
The City Council is scheduled to hold its recessed/zoning meeting 5 p.m. Wednesday, June 2, in the Council Chambers, 200 W. Jefferson. Note that the agenda is available online under Public Meeting Notices/Agendas on www.Phoenix.gov.
