River Cities Business Journal: Real Estate

KINGMAN - The proposed General Plan amendment, a move the city is pushing to allow for the Kingman Crossing Traffic Interchange off Interstate 40, was met by a skeptical, critical and displeased group of nearly 120 residents at a meeting Jan. 25, at the county administration building.

City Manager Paul Beecher told the incensed attendees that “there is nothing, I repeat, nothing, cast in concrete” regarding the Kingman Crossing project. City plans so far have put an overpass or underpass approximately 1-1/2 miles east of Andy Devine off I-40. The city-owned property south of the interstate, approximately 168 acres, would eventually be rezoned from its current open-space land-use status to commercial, allowing for retail growth. Because it is the biggest complaint the city receives, the Kingman Crossing project would address the traffic gridlock on Stockton Hill Road. Another benefit of the crossing is it would bring in more revenue for the expanding city, Beecher said.

The meeting was intended for the city to cover the issue of amending the General Plan to make way for the crossing. Gary Jeppson, the development services director, showed a Powerpoint presentation that briefly outlined both the process for a major amendment to the General Plan, the city's zoning and land-use bible, as well as a presentation of alternative solutions to divert traffic from the residential neighborhoods surrounding the proposed interchange. The Miner incorrectly reported before the meeting that the city would be introducing a new plan to move the interchange farther west. The plan was to move the main streets connecting to the interchange farther west.

But as quickly as Jeppson's presentation ended, residents walked down the stairs of the county administration building's conference room, pulled the microphone to their mouths and laid into the city for not being forthright with the plans, not explaining the traffic impacts, and not first establishing how the commercial land would be used before amending the General Plan.

One after another they spoke, each bringing an individual complaint with the same mistrusting, skeptical and displeased sentiments.

The only Kingman resident to address the alternatives presented by Jeppson did so to point out that Central Avenue, one of the streets that “could” be used to divert traffic from the Seneca neighborhood, wasn't 74-feet wide, as the presentation had shown. It is actually about 20 feet wide.

It was clear from the 10 or so people who spoke, that commercial development in the city is not their biggest concern.

“I would love more businesses,” property owner Bonnie Tomlin said, but because of the lack of trust the residents have in city government officials, people are fearful of amending the General Plan without a '”general plan” of what the city wants to do with the land near the interstate.

“Tell us what's going on. Sell the property, then tell us what's going to go in,” she said.

Tomlin, as well as several other resident speakers, seemed to back the opinion of Dana Hlavac, a public defender in the county, who said that it doesn't make much sense in the public's eye to give up 160 acres of currently zoned open space for unknown commercial land.

“Why amend the General Plan before knowing what's going to go in there,” he asked. If the city were to inform the public of what kinds of stores would be placed on the commercial land, he said, it would probably receive more support.

Beecher stated he would not argue over the chicken or the egg, or the horse and the cart - whether the amendment to the General Plan should come before the eventual rezoning. He did say the current process is the best way for the city to have the most control over the future of the land. If it were to sell the property, it wouldn't have as much say in what types of businesses go in, he said.

The public's fear is that if the General Plan is amended, City Council will have less trouble passing commercial rezoning ordinances in the future when developers enter the scene looking to build. The public wants to know before giving consent to amend the General Plan what the impacts will be on the city, the individual neighborhoods in terms of traffic, and the types of commercial business it can expect to see on that land.

Tim Walsh, of Mohave Engineering Associates, Inc., said whatever retail shops fill in the commercial land, once rezoned, they would provide a buffer from the noise coming off the freeway to the neighborhoods.

He also made the point, following one woman's request to have the developers come to these meetings, that it's always a one-sided debate at events like these because the people who attend are the ones who are displeased with the plans.