2025.1119.SPAC.SUMMARY.VERBATIM.TRANSCRIPT
Town of Fountain Hills — Strategic Planning Advisory Commission (2026-01-28)
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TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION NOVEMBER 19, 2025 A Regular Meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission was convened at 16705 E. Avenue of the Fountains in an open and public session at 4:01 PM Members Present: Chairman Patrick Garman; Commissioner Bernie Hoenle; Commissioner Paul Smith; Commissioner Joseph Reyes Members Absent: Commissioner Randy Crader; Commissioner Polly Bonnett Staff Present: Town Manager Rachael Goodwin; Deputy Town Clerk Angela Padgett-Espiritu TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS SUMMARY MINUTES OF REGULAR SESSION OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION NOVEMBER 19, 2025 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Patrick Garman called to order the meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission at 4:02 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Members Present: Chairman Patrick Garman; Vice Chairman Geoff Yazzetta Commissioner Bernie Hoenle; Commissioner Paul Smith; Commissioner Joseph Reyes Members Absent: Commissioner Polly Bonnett and Commissioner Randy Crader Staff Present: Town Manager Rachael Goodwin and Deputy Town Clerk Angela Padgett- Espiritu 3. REPORTS BY COMMISSIONERS AND TOWN MANAGER 4. STATEMENT OF PARTICIPATION 5. CALL TO THE PUBLIC 6. CONSENT AGENDA a. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the Minutes from the Regular Meeting Held on October 22, 2025. MOVED BY Vice Chair Geoff Yazzetta to APPROVE the Minutes of the Regular Meeting Held on October 22, 2025, of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting, SECONDED BY Commissioner Paul Smith Vote: 5–0 | motion passed unanimously 7. PRESENTATION No presentations 8. REGULAR AGENDA a. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Future Strategic Plan – Signature Strategy: Infrastructure Multi-use Public and Private. • The commission discussed multi-use or mixed-use public/private infrastructure strategies as part of long-term strategic planning, focusing on roads, buildings, and town facilities, not zoning. • A key concept explored was Design-Build-Finance (DBF) and Design-Build-Finance- Operate-Maintain (DBFOM) models, where a private entity finances and builds infrastructure and the town leases it over 20–30 years, ultimately owning it without issuing bonds or raising taxes. • The lake liner project was used as the primary example: o The project is complex, unique, and would benefit from outside engineering expertise. o A lease-back model could simplify delivery but would likely cost more long-term. o The town currently has $6.6M saved, while projected costs are $17M. o The liner is currently in good condition; replacement timing is uncertain and based on future indicators. o The Sanitary District is a key stakeholder due to water supply, though the infrastructure is town owned. • Commissioners debated whether public/private financing truly costs more, noting potential benefits such as avoiding tax increases and enabling projects sooner. • Broader applications beyond the lake liner were encouraged, including: o Renewable energy projects (solar on town buildings, shade structures, biophilic design). o Permeable pavement for water management. o Permanent, accessible public restrooms, especially downtown in anticipation of increased tourism from the Dark Sky Discovery Center. o Electric vehicle, bike, scooter, and golf cart charging infrastructure, including future-proofing new developments. • Existing examples of shared or leased infrastructure were noted, including: o AMR leasing space at the fire department. o Museum and Dark Sky Discovery Center operating within town facilities. o Elks Lodge leasing the Golden Eagle Park concession stand. • The town has vacant land parcels (no unused buildings), which may present future opportunities for hybrid or multi-use development. • Overall, the commission agreed the topic is valuable for 5–10 year planning horizons, with flexibility for staff to explore pilot projects if advantageous. No formal action was taken. b. CONSIDERATION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Approval of the 2026 Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting Schedule. MOVED BY Vice Chair Geoff Yazzetta to APPROVE the 2026 Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting Schedule, SECONDED BY Commissioner Paul Smith Vote: 5–0 | motion passed unanimously c. UPDATE: Progress of the Town’s Current Strategic Plan • The commission reviewed the status and effectiveness of the 2022 Strategic Plan, focusing on what has been completed, what is ongoing, and what has stalled or may need to roll into the next plan. • Staff explained that most initiatives show progress and are marked “ongoing” because they represent continuous practices (not one-time projects), such as process improvements and relationship-building. • Economic development and business attraction efforts are active, including: o Improvements to the permit process o Updates to economic development websites and tools o Stronger partnerships with the Chamber of Commerce, HonorHealth, and local businesses • One notable area with limited progress is the biophilic/environmental initiative. While the formal program was not adopted and momentum stalled, several core principles (trees, shade, cooling, environmental awareness) continue informally. • The Town remains engaged in regional park and trail connectivity efforts through Maricopa County, aiming to link parks and trails across jurisdictions to support walking, biking, recreation, and tourism. • Discussion on grant funding highlighted challenges: o A dedicated grant writer may not be cost-effective due to limited eligibility for need-based grants. o Successful grant applications require detailed staff input and ongoing reporting, which strains capacity. o AI tools may now help with writing, but identifying viable grants remains difficult. • A significant concern is the Facilities Reserve Study: o The last study dates to 2014 and is outdated. o Progress is stalled until financial policies are updated to support systematic reserve funding. o The Town lacks sufficient reserves for facility lifecycle costs (roofs, HVAC, mechanical systems), creating future financial risk. • Coordination with the school district’s facilities master planning effort is underway, creating opportunities for shared planning around vacant land, underutilized buildings, and community assets • Commissioners suggested using clear progress metrics (e.g., green/yellow/red or percent complete) to better track implementation. • Overall conclusion: the Strategic Plan has driven meaningful progress, but funding constraints, administrative changes, and infrastructure needs mean several initiatives should be carried forward and refined in the next strategic plan. d. UPDATE: from the Commission Work Groups • Garman noted commission work groups were highlighted during a recent Council update. • The commission will hold two outreach sessions per year. • Two public feedback events are planned for Q1 (Feb–Mar): o One at the Community Center o One potentially through the school district/high school • Purpose: gather community input on strategic tasks. e. DISCUSSION AND POSSIBLE ACTION: Future Agenda Topics • There will be no December meeting; the commission will reconvene in January. • The commission has three remaining strategic pillars to review in the spring: o Economic Development o Quality of Life o Safety o Land Use (identified as the likely first topic) • Infrastructure and finance-related strategies have already been addressed. • The plan is to: o Complete discussion of remaining pillars in the spring o Compile notes and priorities at the June work session o Develop a draft strategic plan over the summer o Return in the fall to review, refine, and socialize the draft • The group agreed to start with Land Use in January, with staff support from Development Services and Economic Development. f. COMMENTS FROM THE CHAIRMAN • Confirmed the schedule through 2027. • Planning continues through next summer, followed by editing and Council coordination in Fall 2026–2027. • Goal: final approval of the next Strategic Plan in 2027. 9. ADJOURNMENT MOVED BY Vice Chair Geoff Yazzetta to APPROVE adjourning the meeting of November 19, 2025, of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission, SECONDED BY Commissioner Paul Smith. Vote: 5–0 | motion passed unanimously Chairman Patrick Garman adjourned the meeting of the Strategic Planning Advisory Commission at 5:04 PM TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 1 of 29 Post-Production File Town of Fountain Hills Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting November 19, 2025 Transcription Provided By: eScribers, LLC * * * * * Transcription is provided in order to facilitate communication accessibility and may not be a totally verbatim record of the proceedings. * * * * * TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 2 of 29 GARMAN: I'm going to call to order the Fountain Hills Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting for November 19th, 2025. Angela, can you do roll for us, please? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Sure. Chair Garman. GARMAN: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Vice Chair Yazzetta. YAZZETTA: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Hoenle. HOENLE: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Reyes. REYES: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Commissioner Smith. SMITH: Here. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: And Commissioner Bonnett and Crader will not be present for this meeting. We have a quorum. GARMAN: All right. Thank you very much. I really think today we're going to go from one to two to four, correct? Is there anybody from the public, any submissions, comments? Anybody submit anything online? Okay. No? Okay. PADGETT-ESPIRITU: No. yeah. There's no call to the public. GARMAN: Okay. Oh, I'm sorry for statement of participation. I usually read that if there's somebody here to comment. All right. So we're going to go down to consent agenda. And we're going to talk about the consideration and possible action, which is the approval of the minutes of the regular meeting we had on October 22nd. There was a lot going on in that meeting. We had a lot to talk about. Do I have a motion on the table concerning the meeting minutes for October? YAZZETTA: Move to approve. GARMAN: Got a motion to approve. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 3 of 29 Is there a second? SMITH: Second. GARMAN: All right. Thanks. We got a second from Paul. Any discussion about the minutes, so people get a chance to read through them? I don't know about you all, but I depend on those minutes as we go along. We cover so much during these meetings, and synthesizing the high points in those are extremely valuable. So thank you very much for all you do with the minutes. The record of what we talk about is so important. Any other any other comments besides me? Okay. We'll go to a vote then. So all in favor of approving the minutes from the monthly meeting October 22nd, 2025, say aye. ALL: Aye. GARMAN: Any opposed? Hearing none. Motion passes unanimously. Thank you. Okay. We're not going to have any presentations today. If you remember, we could not cover everything that was on the agenda from the October meeting. We were talking about our strategic pillar, which is land use. So that's why we had the presentations then. We don't have any today. We're going to go down now to regular agenda. Is there any motions on the table when we get to the regular agenda? YAZZETTA: Chairman, I'd like to move the approval of the 2026 calendar from B to A. We'll just flip flop those two items. GARMAN: All right. There's a motion on the table. Is there a second? HOENLE: Second. GARMAN: All right. Okay. Just so you know, the motion on the table is to move the approval of the 2026 Strategic Planning Advisory Commission Meeting schedule up to the first or A on the regular agenda because I think we'll be able to get it done pretty quickly. Any other discussion on that? Nope. Okay. Motion on the table. I just read all in favor say aye. ALL: Aye. GARMAN: Any opposed? Hearing none. We're going to cover that agenda item first. Thank you all. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 4 of 29 So that agenda item is the strategic planning schedule. Just to review -- and correct me if I'm wrong. So this is 12 months, I believe, for '25. We were off on July, and I'm trying to do a chronological order, July and December, and then we meet ten times in between that. We've done it in different ways over the past. So I don't know if there's any discussion. Anybody have a something they wanted to say about the schedule? If you think there's -- it's good or you'd like to make changes? YAZZETTA: I move to approve as proposed. GARMAN: So the motion on the table is to approve the schedule like we had it last year, which was no meeting in December and no meeting in July. Is there a second? HOENLE: I second. GARMAN: All right. And we have a second. So if you remember last year, then just to extend a little bit, that means we are, again, going to end kind of our yearly session. It goes -- well, we start in August and it ends in June. Remember the last two years, we've had workshops in June, which has been effective in preparing us for the next sessions that start in August. And I'm thinking that we're going to do something similar to that this year as we get through the tasks underneath our signature strategies. So any other comments? Okay. All in favor of the motion on the table, which is to have our yearly calendar look like it did last year. All in favor say aye. ALL: Aye. GARMAN: Any opposed? Hearing none. Is that -- the motion passes. Is that good, Angela? Clear? PADGETT-ESPIRITU: Perfect. GARMAN: All right. So that means our next meeting after today, which is November, will not be until January. All right. Thanks. Okay. So now we're going to move on to a discussion and possible action, which is the future strategic plan, signature strategy infrastructure. We covered two items in infrastructure at our last meeting. The one we didn't get to was the signature strategy called multi-use public/private, as far as infrastructure. Remember, we're talking about, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 5 of 29 again, infrastructures, roads, buildings, things like that of the town, and how they might be affected by multi-use strategies in the future. Multi-use public, multi-use private, or combination of the two. All right. It's on the table. Does anybody have any comments to open up the discussion? I know Paul, you're here to help us. Did you want to step up and help? So I'll get the conversation going. So multi-use or mixed-use is the way we phrased it last year in our workshop. And we're not just talking zoning here. We're talking about financial as well. Are there strategies that we've used in the past or any plans in the future as far as funding or hybrid projects that are, you know, maybe partial public, partial private? Do we have anything like that that rings a bell? I can give you some other examples, but I wanted to see if, if anything comes to mind. SMITH: Yeah. So Chair, Commissioners, the one project that comes to mind for me is our lake liner project, so. And the only reason being is we've kind of already looked into this. It's not really -- I don't know if it's fitting the criteria of what you're discussing, right. It's not really a partnership, but there are companies that will help you build a big project like that and lease it back to you. So it's more of them managing the project and making it easier for the local government to do a large project like that. Is that kind of what you're discussing here today? GARMAN: That's what I was calling DBF. SMITH: Okay. GARMAN: Design build finance. That's what I saw, or a design build finance operate maintain. SMITH: Okay. GARMAN: So it's exactly what you're saying. We're a private company, can go out and find the capital needed to finance. The government does not have to do a bond or anything like that to bring in revenue. Private company helps put the plans together, gets the capital to fund it, builds it. But with the promise, the contract that the government will lease whatever they build over a certain amount of time, twenty years, thirty years. And at the end of that time, it belongs to the town. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 6 of 29 SMITH: Yes. Yeah, exactly. So is that what we're trying to discuss here? GARMAN: That's one of the things. One of the things. SOLDINGER: Okay. Yeah. So we've actually had some really brief conversations with one company that's kind of approached us about this, and what we've -- we've only learned a little bit, but basically, it would cost the town more in the long run, but it would bring their expertise. And they have a lot of different people they work with in companies. So they're almost like a construction manager. And yes, they build the project for you with their expertise and their people. And then basically the town would lease it back from them, and it would just make it a lot easier for the town. But the cost would be a lot more than if we did ourselves, basically. So again, it's very preliminary. We just kind of looked into it. But those are just the basic premises that we've learned so far. Yeah. REYES: What type of facilities were they proposing to build and lease back? SOLDINGER: It would be the lake liner. REYES: Oh. Just the lake liner. Okay. SOLDINGER: Yeah. Because it's going to be such a large project for us, and it requires a lot of expertise. It's a very, very big project for us, and there's a lot of things related to it that would be challenging for us to do. REYES: I understand. Thank you. HOENLE: So my question would be, how did they redo the Tempe Lake, because they had to dredge it and do all kinds of stuff. SOLDINGER: I'm not sure. GOODWIN: So the Tempe Lake is still a pass-through lake. It's still fed by the river, and there's still an exit for the river where ours is a closed system. There is no exit point for the water. We have a concrete and lined lake bottom if you want to call it that. A swimming pool. Sure. We call it that too. So the engineering -- and then, of course, you know, we have this thing in the middle called a fountain that has a lot of other engineering elements that -- and then, of course, our irrigation also draws from it. So it is a pretty unique system in and of itself. So the process is a very -- is very unique. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 7 of 29 There's nothing out there that we can duplicate. So we need to draw on the engineering experience that kind of far exceeds what we have in-house. HOENLE: Does the Sanitary District have anything to do with that process? SOLDINGER: We own the lake and the lake liner, so not really, although Rachael knows more about it, but the water comes from the Sanitary District, and we hold it for them. So there would be some conversations that would be had with the Sanitary District when we move forward on something like that. GOODWIN: Yeah, I would say the Sanitary District is definitely a stakeholder with us in this process. What their role will be is very -- is still very fluid because, as they said, the infrastructure is ours. The water that's coming in is provided by them. So there's lots of questions as to where does the water go in the meantime? What can they help us do? How can we work collaboratively to reach the best process, because it's going to be a very arduous process once we get going. SOLDINGER: And there are a lot of environmental concerns that maybe the town didn't consider 25 years ago when we did at the time. So Kevin would know a lot about that. I wish you were here. He's really good at knowing all those factors. HOENLE: So if you use one of these companies in a leaseback manner, does it change at all the approach in terms of getting the work done, in other words, start to finish, replace the liner, start now until it gets done, phase it out. Does it make any difference? SOLDINGER: It's almost like hiring a construction manager to help you with that process. And they have a wide range of different experts they work with, so they kind of know who's good at what. So they basically just come in and advise you and make it a lot easier. That's how I understand it. HOENLE: Got it. SOLDINGER: But there's a cost associated with it. And it's kind of unclear what the cost is. It's basically like you just have to wait and see, almost, so. REYES: I didn't want to get off on the lake liner, but -- I say but. Our understanding, you know, dating way back as long as I've been doing the strategic planning, is the town has been socking money away and has an appropriate amount of funds to do the lake liner TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 8 of 29 when it needs to be done. SOLDINGER: We have some. REYES: I can go back and look at our minutes from like 2021, '22, '23 meetings. So you're saying we -- GOODWIN: We have some. We do not have near enough. SOLDINGER: We have 6.6 million today saved up for the lake liner. UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: I mean, it would double up, don't you? SOLDINGER: Yeah, about 17 million is what we're estimating at this point. REYES: What's the longevity right now? SOLDINGER: Thirty years, Rachael? REYES: No, I mean, how much left? When do you plan on having to -- GOODWIN: That remains to be seen. The reality is that there was a 20-year warranty on the lake liner, which was up in 2020, which is why we did the study in -- I don't remember if it was 18 or 19, maybe years get mixed up, as to what condition it was in so that as that warranty was expiring, we had an idea of where we were at all. All indicators show that the lake liner is in good shape. We have no concerns. We've been doing evap(ph) tests on a regular basis. You know, it's -- the way we've been trying to explain is the idea is that it's not a failure that's going to happen overnight. You're not going to just all of a sudden spring a leak, right? Your pool is not going to empty overnight. You'll see, there will be indicators. There will be signs. You will start to see small changes, those types of things. So when that happens, when those indicators start occurring, we want to be able to begin the process. But up until that lake liner could last 30 years, it could last 50 years. There's -- it's a big variable. REYES: Okay. So back to this topic -- I mean a couple of things. When you -- I'm not convinced that it would cost more at all for the town, for the taxpayer. It's my understanding that it would not require some type of bond or an increase in taxes on town folks. You can have a -- you know, the contractor that the public or the private entity can -- you can remove a tax burden on them, and they can save money through there too. So I'm not convinced that that it would cost more over time, but if it costs a TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 9 of 29 little bit, you know, some people might trade off having a new something that you didn't have to raise taxes for in the town. It just takes 20, 30 years, or more to pay it off. So my question is for folks not to just think about the lake liner, but you know, a statement would be something along the lines of the town would experiment with would choose a -- or choose a project to something like that. So it would give you the freedom. We wouldn't tell you, hey, you need to do -- have this toll on this road and this, you know. It would be to let you explore it and see if there might be something advantageous to it. And if you think a performing arts center that might take, you know, somebody could, as we're seeing with those apartments. Sorry I brought that up, but, you know, it takes ten or so years for somebody to try to get the capital. The government could make it advantageous for a private company to undergo that, and then the government would just lease it from them. Lease to buy over time. YAZZETTA: Yeah. I'm sure a lot of larger governments do that in Arizona. We don't currently. I know City of Maricopa, I've been told, they have agreements with some of the developers where they remit some of the sales tax that they get from them back to them to help facilitate some of the building. So there are unique things being done around the state. Certainly, something we could consider, you know, with those types of projects. SOLDINGER: And if the commissioners had any thoughts on infrastructure areas in the town, I mean, roads, buildings, centers. You know, if you think this might be a way to get something over time. Remember strategic planning five years, ten years out. Not something we were going to do tomorrow, but something the town might dabble in. It might be helpful and see if it might be good. Bernie. HOENLE: Couple of things that have come up in the past. And one has been solar on all the city type buildings. If we could implement renewable energy, increasing shade, which has already started, and that went along with another part of our previous plan about biophilic putting in plants and trees to cool things down. And that helps preserve HVAC because you reduce the temperature, and it's easier on people. And then putting TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 10 of 29 in things like permeable pavement in parking lots so the water goes through and it's used instead of just running off, so. I mean, if you start looking at renewable energy type things that could be introduced as programs or projects, then that's another step in that infrastructure section. GARMAN: Thanks, Bernie. I'm furiously writing that down. Yeah, Paul. SOLDINGER: I think the other thing, and I've brought this up before, but is we're going to have an increase as the Dark Skies project opens up, we're going to have an increased amount of need for restrooms for disabled people, for older people. And in talking to the people over there, you know, the plan is, and it's nothing secret, is they'll be busloads of people coming into this town. And at that point, there's going to be some problems. They even said they have they're having an issue trying to figure out issue. It's a poor choice of words. They're having to reconstruct how their restrooms inside are working for disabled people to be able to get in and all. So I think it's going to be an increased situation to where that downtown area is so close is -- it's going to be an issue at some point. We only see it with the -- right now, with the Wednesday farmer's market. I don't know how many people are there. The fairs don't they bring in or their porta potties, but we're talking about something that that needs to be done on a permanent basis. They don't need to be, you know, a lot of the communities are putting in those situations are putting in unisex bathrooms, which are much smaller and easier to deal with. But I think it's something that's going to need to be done in the future to deal with old people and young people, and disabled people. We can't walk three or four blocks to, you know, to get to the restroom when it's time to use it, so. GARMAN: There is current consideration of possibly putting a restroom in the downtown area. We just talked about that at the council meeting last night, actually. It would be closer to where (indiscernible) is, and it's very early stages, but they're -- just to let you know, there is consideration for that starting probably next fiscal year. Go ahead, Bernie. HOENLE: Okay. Favorite topic of everybody in town. Electric vehicle charging. Now, those have been beaten up. They've got potholes to show it. I mean, there are like TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 11 of 29 Tempe, because of the university, they've gone into charging stations for the scooters, because that's their common way of traveling around there now. Not even e-bikes. It's e-scooters. And there's more of them showing up in town, and you see them going down rather quickly on the side of the road, and they leave them laying around some places and some places, so that gets to the second part of that infrastructure for racks for these things, for bikes and for scooters if people are going to be using them more in a normal daily life. But you've got more people using the electric golf carts now. You've got, of course, cars, big vehicles, you've got bikes, you got scooters. They're going to continue, and the way they charge keeps changing. So the technology is going to keep evolving. But the whole idea is that if it's going to be out there and available, what can you target that we could maybe support? I mean, the cars and those vehicles are number one. It's an easy target. But if we miss that one, is there any way of relooking that in the future? Like as apartment complexes come in, they could be encouraged to have electronic charging capabilities in those areas. That's just a thought. GARMAN: Did you have a comment? No. Moving a little bit, but still kind of on the same topic. But do we have -- I'm looking kind of I was looking at the strengths of our town instead of trying to make our town something we're not, but try to emphasize the strengths. And you know, we have great recreational facilities and opportunities, and outdoors. Do we have any thoughts, any combination products -- projects that put together residential, commercial, and recreational, or any combination of those two? Do we have combination? Do we have any commercial recreational, commercial residential. Do we share anything with anybody? SOLDINGER: I'm trying to think. Not really. The only -- I think we -- and I'm not too familiar with this stuff -- GARMAN: Does anybody pay us rent to use any type of infrastructure? SOLDINGER: Oh, yeah. The fire department, AMR, the ambulance service, they pay us rent to use the fire department. It's a little different than the situation. You brought up the Noon Kiwanis building. We actually own that building. GARMAN: Really? TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 12 of 29 SOLDINGER: Yeah. So they operate other -- I don't believe they pay us rent, though. I think it's just a -- like you mentioned, a nonprofit, more of a government relationship there. I could be wrong on that. I haven't looked at that in a long. I just kind of remember hearing about it from my staff and not really looking into it much. But yeah, I'm aware of that. That one. GOODWIN: Yeah, you're right, Paul, they do. If it's -- if they pay rent, it's pretty nominal. I want to say it's like a dollar a year or something. And just as a reminder, one that gets sometimes forgotten is the museum is housed within a town facility, though it's operated independently. SOLDINGER: The Dark Sky Discovery Center is the new one, obviously. GOODWIN: Yep. SOLDINGER: Would it be on town land and then the garden next door? GARMAN: Do we have town facilities that are sitting unused? SOLDINGER: Town parcels. GARMAN: We do have parcels. GOODWIN: Yep. SOLDINGER: Yeah. We -- that's coming to council soon, actually for consideration. So we own some vacant land that's not being used, not being developed. But buildings, I don't believe so. GOODWIN: No, not buildings. The last building that I can think of would have been probably the old firehouse that was south of Shea on Saguaro. When the new firehouse was built on Fountain Hills Boulevard, that was auctioned, so it's no longer in use. SOLDINGER: At Golden Eagle Park, the concession stand, we rent that out to the Elks Lodge. It's a nominal amount, but they've been doing really well with it. They've been raising revenues for the town, providing donations to local programs, and that's been a really good relationship for us. GOODWIN: It has. GARMAN: Okay. Any other comments? Looking to my left, right. No. I keep looking. You know, there's a lot of ingenious things that towns do across the United States. It's a TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 13 of 29 way to get funding, I guess. And we like things in this town. I mean, with the Dark Sky Center, we have a community center. We have, you know, there's -- anyways, I keep thinking about it. SOLDINGER: Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Especially if -- some of these developments we've talked about don't move forward. There's going to -- there might be available land and different conversations to have, so I think it's a good topic. GARMAN: All right. All right. No other comments. I'm going to move on to the next agenda item. Thanks for helping with the conversation today. GOODWIN: (Indiscernible) . SOLDINGER: Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. GARMAN: Yep. Thanks. Yes. Thank you. Okay. So now I was going to move down on the regular agenda to Item C, which is update, progress of the town's current plan over the last few months. I asked Vice Chair. He worked with Rachael to look at the current plan that's been in place since 2022. And to kind of look at the progress, what's been done, what's still ongoing, what maybe hasn't been touched and might not be attainable over the time of the current plan. So I was asking Geoff, Rachael, who's the POC? GOODWIN: Say, I'll be happy to take the lead. GARMAN: All right. Thank you. GOODWIN: And then you guys are welcome to chime in. In front of you is an updated 2022 Strategic Plan that sort of outlines the different priorities, strategies, the responsibilities and then the current status. So some are more densely filled out than others. I think that, and it's to be expected given the different tasks. Some are more finite than others. You can kind of scroll through. I'm not going to read them all to you. I'll just hit a couple of highlights, but you'll notice a lot are implemented/ongoing, i.e. They're not something that are just one and done, right. It's a new way of trying to do business. It's something that we are -- that is, consistently either evolving or updating. It doesn't just go away. I'm just going to put it that way. So the first one obviously is about businesses and attract -- and business attraction. A number of different things TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 14 of 29 and a number of different perspectives on how that's been done, whether it's our permit process, which is identified as something, whether it's updates on our ED websites and other software that we've been working with to help promote development there. It's also relationship building with Chamber of Commerce, as well as other folks in our community, such as Honorhealth, and again, other businesses to help not only attract new but retain those that we have. GARMAN: Is there any that comes to mind that haven't started yet? GOODWIN: Any of these items in the entire plan or just this section? GARMAN: Yeah. It would just something that's like -- no, no, I'm sorry. I know you're -- GOODWIN: That's okay. No. GARMAN: I know you're doing -- you're good. GOODWIN: That's okay. GARMAN: I'm just interested because I see a lot of complete ongoing, complete ongoing, in-progress ongoing. Is there any -- it's like haven't started? GOODWIN: I will -- I can draw your attention. Actually, Bernie, you kind of touched on one a little bit earlier. If you go to page 3, about two-thirds the way down under strategic -- the prior -- is this one, continue to improve public health, well-being, safety of our town. It mentions biophilic. To my knowledge, the biophilic initiative is stalled, which is kind of noted there that it was not adopted and that there was not a forward progress. I believe that there was a committee that there was some -- you know, there was a interest group that was sort of leading and championing that project. But to my knowledge, it has stalled. Am I wrong on that? HOENLE: No, you're absolutely right. There were plenty of things that were already in place around town that you had started, and Kevin was doing. And there was like a $250 fee to join an organization so that you can share projects, ideas, expertise, and continue the effort, and that didn't happen. So everything else stopped. So I think, in the long run, we're doing what the concept was behind the program. We're just not officially part of it. GOODWIN: I would agree with that. I think the principles behind it are in place. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 15 of 29 HOENLE: I seem to recall what -- I don't know, over a year ago. That was a hot topic that got discussed here and got canned, so to speak. Like, nope. Take that out. You want anything to do with that? Let's change that around, which took us from all that momentum and things that were being done. It stunted the movement. Certainly. And I do remember there was even a mention that we should go back and look at the environmental plan. These other things. It was quite like many things with little time and settled and dying, and kind of forget about it. But it certainly, I think, it's an area that could, as Bernie promotes, could, should maybe even occasionally become addressed from that more. GARMAN: You know, every one of these is really -- whoever on your staff that went through this, they did a great job. Yeah. Let me say that, you know. GOODWIN: Good. I'm glad to hear that. GARMAN: I read all these, and I was like -- but even on this one that we're talking about, I mean, biophilic is one thing, but I don't think we mentioned -- I mean, the task is work with local environmental organizations. It doesn't say. GOODWIN: Yep. GARMAN: Right. GOODWIN: Yep. GARMAN: So we did that on purpose. I remember at the time we had biophilic in there at one point, and we took it out to make it a little more general. GOODWIN: Yeah. GARMAN: But Dark Skies, I mean, that's a huge one. What are we doing, participating in Maricopa County parks plan to expand connectivity of parks? I know we've talked about that. Is that something that we're doing? GOODWIN: Yep. We sit as representatives for the East Valley on their board. Maricopa County is trying to interconnect different ways, different modal options to get from different park spaces because they do cross obviously multiple jurisdictions, multiple ownerships from -- and they'd like to be able to create a way that you can get through into parks without just hopping in your car and driving. So being able to interconnect, TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 16 of 29 whether it's through hiking, biking, thruways, those types of things. And then they're also developing their next strategic plan and where they're going. So understanding that the -- all of the different communities within Maricopa County, you know, support that. And they want to integrate our goals as part of their goals to make sure that we're all moving in the same direction. So yes, we help work towards that and sit on that board. HOENLE: In fact, the hot topic today in the Arizona Alliance for Livable Communities was trails and connecting all the trails that are already there. They don't need to build new ones, but figure out how you can connect the dots all the way from Nevada down to the border, through Arizona, and looping around Bullhead City and things like that. And then they talked about a tourism area that's growing that they call credit card biking. And it goes through -- a lot of these trails go through small communities. But then, if you have a rest stop or someplace where the bikers can stay overnight, then it is another business proposition, the opportunity that's there. So there was a lot of discussion on connecting the trails. There's emphasis. There's funding available. They are training. In Cave Creek is going to have a big training for people to maintain trails, I think the 22nd of November. But so it's a pretty strong group of advocates that want to continue doing that. GOODWIN: Very much. SMITH: Where did they start? I mean, did they start (indiscernible) -- HOENLE: Everywhere. I mean -- no. SMITH: No. HOENLE: Right now, they're just looking to get permission to go through reservations, to go through property. Usually, it's on state property that didn't go through with them. GOODWIN: I'd say it's trust lands and (indiscernible)lands and things like that. HOENLE: But there's a lot of them out there, so. And we've got multiple trailheads around here in Scottsdale and all that, so. GARMAN: Geoff. YAZZETTA: It would be -- let's see here, the third page, utilize services of an experienced TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 17 of 29 grant writer and researcher. So this came up during our discussions earlier this year. And so staff are likely to undertake this, although it's been considered. Should we look to implement this or add it into the next iteration of the plan, or is this something, Rachael, that you just think isn't a starter for the town of Fountain Hills? GOODWIN: It -- YAZZETTA: I know it's kind of a tough question, but it's like -- I know there's, you know, financial limitations and, you know, how much mileage do we get out of this. It's just -- is this something that just, you know, isn't worth pursuing or? GOODWIN: I think that's a good question, Geoff. It's a little bit of a catch 22 when you sort of get down, because theoretically, it's a great idea, right? Having someone that is experienced and knowledgeable in doing that is extremely valuable. The flip side is that they are -- the knowledge that is needed to actually draft said applications often lives with those that do the day-to-day work of that, and I'm just going to use the experience that I have when we talked about we did a grant to get a restroom over in Four Peaks Park, and we had to discuss why it was needed. What is the demand? Who are the users? YAZZETTA: Sure. GOODWIN: Only the staff that do the work over there can really tell that story. Now, granted, a grant writer can probably draft it well and, you know, put the story together, but the details of it would be lost, and so that tends to be what's difficult. I'm going to caveat that, and we've talked a little bit about this, Patrick, I know this is big for you, which is AI, which is, you know, a lot of that is now available to us in those writing tools, which is where that grant person proved the most valuable. So if AI can help us write stuff that gets us over that hump. Now, if it's someone that is actually finding the grant opportunities, that's probably one of the bigger hurdles is actually identifying what grants are out there, what qualifications there are. Do we meet those qualifications, and then can we meet the demands or the outline of the criteria of the grant. For instance, I know grants have been a hot topic here. We've talked about it lots of times. But you know, a lot of grants are need based, and our community doesn't meet the TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 18 of 29 threshold for a lot of that. YAZZETTA: Sure. GOODWIN: So it's a little bit of a catch 22 when you talk about it. So we have been successful with grants. We have not been successful with a grant writer. YAZZETTA: Follow-up question to that. HOENLE: And then the -- add on to that is the follow-up in the reporting requirements. YAZZETTA: Sure. We require on reporting, yeah. Absolutely. GOODWIN: It's not enough to just get the grant. Then you got to follow through. YAZZETTA: Sure. Do you think it would be worthwhile, maybe to narrow the scope where it's -- we would identify somebody who would then go out and identify any number of grant opportunities that might be worth staff pursuing. Because how much time do you and the other members here in town hall spend, you know, just research like, oh, hey, we could apply for that. We qualify for it. Is that something that we might want to include, like, if we just kind of edit this a little bit for the next plan? GOODWIN: Possibly. Again, I think we've had -- there's been a lot of false start. I don't say it's a false start. It's a lot of good intentions that have come from this. YAZZETTA: Yeah. GOODWIN: We've had the discussion multiple times, and it seems like it always sort of fizzles at some point. There's been a number of leadership academy projects that have attempted this. There's one that actually was trying to put together a database of grant opportunities. Again, it's something that is very much a living document. If you don't -- YAZZETTA: Sure. GOODWIN: If you don't take care of it and update it and keep it, you know, valid it, it becomes stagnant and then, oh, well, this grant timeline cycle changed or this one, they moved to a biannual process, right, so it can be -- YAZZETTA: It's very fluid. GOODWIN: It is very fluid, and -- yes. YAZZETTA: Got it. Thank you. HOENLE: And adding on to that, we actually had conversations a couple of times TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 19 of 29 between the school district and the town. If we could share a grant writer, half and half, or something like that. Again, it just comes down to who's going to manage the individual, who's going to control it. And then funding and their time, and the most practical use out of it. It just there are lots of pieces to make it work. Okay. GARMAN: There's got to be, I'll call it, a third-party contractor out there, or you know, a small business out there. They look up grants and offer them to public, or even private or towns or whoever. You don't think that exist? GOODWIN: I think it does. I think, again, you have to buy membership to it or pay for access, which we've done in the past a couple times. But at what point does it pay for itself, and what pay, you know, because I know there's -- I think -- I'm pretty sure there's a big federal one that you can kind of follow. But the same thing, you got to be pretty active and on point and checking it and being engaged with it. GARMAN: I think the key -- I'm sorry to keep interrupting, is what you already mentioned, though. It's the town decides, you know, you and your staff. This is what we want to do. We want a bathroom here. We want a mobility corridor here. And you look for grants for it, charging stations, things like that. Or you just go out and see what's out there, and you're just fishing with this big wide net, and you come back and say, well, here's 20 grants. Do any of these fit our town, you know? Then who's in charge? Who's the strategic plan? Does the strategic plan just do anything that you can find a grant for, or is it, you know, narrowly. This is the direction we're heading. If there's a grant that helps us, great. If not, then we'll find another way. Do you know what I'm saying? It's kind of -- GOODWIN: Yeah. GARMAN: -- the balance. Right. Sorry. Go ahead. GOODWIN: That's okay. No. If we wanted to highlight one other thing, actually, the one right above that reference is an update to the current facility reserve study. That one is likely not going to be completed by the end of this strategic plan. It is in progress, but I'm going to use the word "stalled" again. We're at a point where it is -- we need some -- we've basically determined we've got to do some policy updates before we can TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 20 of 29 get too far into that. GARMAN: Where is it again? GOODWIN: It's right above the one we were just -- right above the grant discussion one. GARMAN: Page -- SMITH: 3. GOODWIN: Page 3. GARMAN: -- 3. SMITH: Right above where you -- GARMAN: All this. GOODWIN: Uh-huh. GARMAN: Oh, okay. What policy needs to be changed in order to just -- GOODWIN: It's some of our financial policies and some of our -- so not to go back to lake liner conversation, but the way the lake liner is being saved for is a result of policies that happen at the end of each fiscal year. When we say, okay, we have this much money left in the bucket, whether it's from savings, whether it's from projects we didn't get done, whatever it's from. And at the end of the year, the council determines how all of that remaining funding gets allocated. Most of it goes into CIP. Portions of it have been going into the lake liner savings fund, right? Some of it goes into streets. And that's how we've been doing the projects that we do. What hasn't been happening is them putting money into our facilities and anticipating the -- just the mechanical and life cycles of all of our things, whether I call them things, you know, it's the roofs, it's the HVAC, it's the plumbing, it's the electrical upgrades, whatever it is, right? It's all of those infrastructure things that ten years ago or more was outlined as we need to be setting aside $1 million a year for these things. And we -- at the time, were not able to fiscally do that. And those decisions were, well, we can only do so much. So now we are at a point where we do not have the funding built up to take on some of the costs that we're incurring. One of a good example that you'll probably hear about later this year is, is all of the roofs on the buildings on this campus need to be replaced. Days like today, you really notice it. And you know, we did not necessarily put aside anticipating -- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 21 of 29 anticipation funding for those things. So what do we do now? So we have to go back to how are we going to actually build up a reserve fund to address the -- to address our facilities. Then we can go out and say, okay, how much do we need. So we need to get we need to go a little deeper into some of that. YAZZETTA: Understood. GOODWIN: Does that answer your question? YAZZETTA: Yes, it does. Thank you. GOODWIN: Okay. GARMAN: But we have a -- so what -- do we have a current facilities reserve study. How long ago was that done? GOODWIN: 2014. GARMAN: Sounds like something we might want to include in the next strategic plan. GOODWIN: Probably. I would think that this is a rollover item, yeah. GARMAN: We'll put -- it'll be two stars. Bernie. Sorry. HOENLE: So I'm chair for the facilities master planning for the school district, and we've had participation in the meetings from the town. And we will continue to dialog as we come up with a plan for our physical facilities and for vacant properties, and take a look where the town is going, what direction it is. We have a process going on now for sale of vacant land. We have voter approved sale or disposition of property at the Four Peaks Park that we've talked on and off a couple of times. We have excess square footage of property internal to buildings with classrooms, things of that nature, especially like where the little falcons are on Lafayette. So there are -- and we have playground areas that are open and underutilized. So I've talked with Kevin about that. So there's multiple things that I am working on right now with that hat to try and combine some of the efforts that we need to do and see how we can interface with the town and the community. This is going to take probably about another six to nine months to come up with a final plan, but it's the first time we've done it in a strategic fashion with the district. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 22 of 29 GOODWIN: All right. So moving on. Those are the ones that kind of stand out as you -- if you were asking for what, you know, hasn't made forward progress or may want to be considered to be added and included in the next go round. You'll see that in -- on page 4, the middle section there regarding development, investment plan, and schedule. The facility reserve is noted there, too. So that would be something we would want to make sure gets rolled over along with that project. GARMAN: Which one? Where is this? GOODWIN: The middle of page 4. GARMAN: Yeah. Supporting task. GOODWIN: So if you go under the current status. GARMAN: The infrastructure condition report? Is that what you were talking about -- GOODWIN: Uh-huh. GARMAN: -- the infrastructure condition report? GOODWIN: Yep. GARMAN: Okay. GOODWIN: So it notes in there the facility reserve. That's part of what needs to get rolled over with that project that we just talked about. GARMAN: Okay. GOODWIN: So again, there's another -- there's quite a few milestones that are noted in here, whether they are singular projects such as, you know, the active transportation plan. It's done. It's not an ongoing, but there's plenty more that are where we continue to work on, you know, initiatives such as sidewalk gap elimination and the addition of bike lanes and some other things that we've been talking about in those initiatives. Is there anything else on here that you guys wanted to highlight or talk about specifically? GARMAN: If this was on a spreadsheet, each supporting task, I wonder what the grade completion like if green and red or green, yellow, and red, like 80 percent complete, you know, 15 percent ongoing, five red. You know what I mean? Ongoing would be like yellow. I don't know if we could -- I don't know if we need to spend enough time. I'm TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 23 of 29 just thinking, how much of the current plan do you think has been implemented. GOODWIN: I would think -- GARMAN: We need to fiber plan it, it's supposed to extend out. I mean, it can continue to go, but you think a large portion? GOODWIN: Uh-huh. I do. I think if you look at this, you can show almost every almost every supporting task or initiative has some progress. Some more than others, of course, but there's been significant progress on a number of these, probably far over and above what was originally anticipated when this was drafted, I would assume, and I don't want to speak for that because you guys were obviously the heavy lift in that. But I think that a lot of the staff take these and run with these and use these to make inroads in ways that we never even anticipated. GARMAN: Thanks, Bernie. Yeah. There's veterans in the group. There's this training that you do with -- I know that we do junior officers, and we do it with middle career NCOs. It's like a confidence course. You go on, and it's physical. So you go out, and it's like, think of it as a playground, and they have different lanes. And the goal is, you know, here's two boards and a sack of sand and you need to get across. You know, there's two ladders, and there's like ten feet in between, and you need to get your five folks from one side to the other go, or you need to get your five people over here without touching the ground or -- just all kinds of weird things, and they give you guidelines. And they teach you really young that you don't need to tell people how to do it. You tell them the goal, and they surprise you. And it's amazing the different ways the human brain thinks to get to that other -- to accomplish that task. And some of that's in strategic planning as well. You don't tell people how to pound sand, how to suck the lemon. Sorry. I have a lot of military sayings I can say. But people will surprise you. So I think that's exactly what you said. I try to keep it, you know, specifically general and generally specific in a plan so that you give a goal and then it surprises you how organizations get there, so. Paul. SMITH: Well, I was going to say, I think you're absolutely right. The creativity of people TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 24 of 29 can be amazing if you give them the right thing. I think most of these that are ongoing, it all goes back to the town does not have a lot of different buckets of revenue, and it gets stopped, and that seems to be the mental process of everybody, because that's the way we are. We revolve around the dollar bill. And so I can understand why some of these are going, and then they're stopped. There's not any funding to finish that up and going. So it's a monumental task, and it's an ongoing. We don't -- we're not -- we even see this same thing in states where their maintenance of roads and bridges and such as this, because that money is being diverted, but they have more of a large group of -- to keep taxing people, you know, and we don't have that kind of thing. So I think it's a monumental task to have to get some of these things finished and working, you know. GOODWIN: Yeah. Paul, I would second that and sort of add to it, and the fact that it this also crosses multiple administrations and different administrations have different priorities. So you know, when there is only so much funding to go around, different things become the priority and move up or down the list. So things that may have had forward progress at one point may take a back seat to something else that is more timely or sensitive to a new administration. GARMAN: Like we said in -- was it November -- in October, crowdfunding, right. We just need to crowdfund everything. Magic wand. Sorry. It's all my notes. Any other comments? This is great. By the way, this is awesome. The big piece of paper. I'm going to keep this and use my highlighter at home. But please -- and both of you, keep a list or write down. I tried to highlight when I was going through it, but things that you absolutely think we need to include in the next plan, that's really, at the end of the day, we need to make sure we're capturing those, so we can include those, talk about them. Okay. Sorry. I misplaced my agenda. All right. We're going to move on then. So thank you for the discussion on the town's current plan. Any -- we're going to move down to D, under the regular agenda, which is commission work groups. Any comments? By the way, I did highlight the -- your work groups in the outreach last night when I was talking to the to the council as -- YAZZETTA: I caught that on the stream later on in the evening. Thanks for the shout- TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 25 of 29 out. GARMAN: Yeah. Yeah. SMITH: You also committed to possibly increasing some of those activities. GARMAN: Did I? YAZZETTA: Well, you said two. GARMAN: I said twice a year. Yeah, twice a year, and might have been -- YAZZETTA: They could have been -- GARMAN: -- for this section. YAZZETTA: Both in March, but still twice a year. GARMAN: Yeah. We'll be doing one at the community center for the strategic -- excuse me, the strategic tasks. And then Bernie had expressed interest in doing one through the school district, maybe at the high school. So those will be our two events to gather feedback for the task level topics, so. HOENLE: And you're still planning those maybe first quarter or spring? GARMAN: Yeah, first quarter. Yes. Yeah. February, March, you know, we'll kind of just figure out dates and run with it. HOENLE: Yep. I had a slide with your -- GARMAN: The word cloud? HOENLE: Yeah. GARMAN: Yeah. HOENLE: But I -- GARMAN: You nixed that one. HOENLE: Yeah. I was like, they're letting me out of here. They're not asking me a lot of questions. (Indiscernible). GARMAN: Yeah. There's a full house last slide. HOENLE: So I was like, let's move on to. GARMAN: Yeah. Okay. No, that's all I have for updates is we'll be working on those in the first quarter next year. HOENLE: Awesome. Thanks. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 26 of 29 GARMAN: Okay. That's the work group we have right now. I'm going to move down to E, discussion and possible action. So future agenda topics. So this is November. So we won't have a meeting in December. We'll be back in January. So we have three more signature strategies or -- excuse me, pillars to talk through in the spring. We've already talked about the signature strategies and some tasks under finance. We just completed infrastructure today, so we have left. I'll just paraphrase economics, quality of life, safety, and land use. So I'm going to pick one of those. But we're going to get those three done in the spring and look back at all the awesome notes that we have for the year, and try to put those together and have a conversation in our annual workshop in June to try to list the tasks that we can agree on kind of put codify into a draft, come back after the summer with a draft plan, and start editing and talking about what that draft plan looks like and socializing that draft plan. All right. That's -- clear as mud. Okay. So did anybody have any comments on what, in any order, economic, quality of life, safety, or land use that you want to hit first when we come back in January? Can I just pick a name out of the hat or, you know, I'm always interested in what Geoff has to say on land use. So I might put land use up front in January. YAZZETTA: (Indiscernible) and land use. GARMAN: Well. All right. GOODWIN: So just for the sake for staff so that we can make sure we have the right staff here. Are you thinking John Wesley and Development Services and/or Amanda Jacobs, our Economic Development or both? YAZZETTA: They have presented together several times. I think if they are both available, it might be good to have them both here. GOODWIN: Okay. YAZZETTA: I feel like this pillar is more geared towards like zoning and what can be done in certain areas of town. But I think it would be good to have Amanda's feedback as well. Should they both be available. GOODWIN: Yeah, I think they go hand in hand a lot of times, so. Okay. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 27 of 29 GARMAN: Where's the building is on Avenue of the Fountains that they talked about last night, three stories. GOODWIN: The new and -- GARMAN: Apartment's on the top and -- GOODWIN: Yeah, the SEP that they approved? GARMAN: I was trying to figure out where on the Avenue it is. GOODWIN: It's right next to Chase Bank. So the open land there. GARMAN: The open land. But with the little apartment in the back, you know, the -- GOODWIN: No. GARMAN: No, that's by the food place. GOODWIN: No. If you walk down there, you'll notice kind of -- GARMAN: It's open now? GOODWIN: Yeah. It's just dirt right now. Uh-huh. GARMAN: Awesome. That looked really cool. It was a nice picture. That'd be great. That's a great model. I was like, blown away, I was like wow this is great. Okay. All right. So we'll try to come back in January. Right now, everybody seemed to be okay with land use. We'll prep, have your ideas. We'll send out I'll send out some notes on land use, and we can talk about that in January. And then if you need any help, you know, planning the workshops after that, we can kind of recruit and talk about that in January. Okay. All right. So that's future topics. So I don't know. I'm going to be careful with comments from the Chairman. I talked -- I think I just relayed in my previous comments about what the schedule is from now until next summer. So I think that's enough. But that's kind of generally what I have laid out so that we can basically spend what is next year, '26? '26, in the fall through '27 to make the necessary edits, socialization, interactions with the counsel to try to get the next plan approved in 2027. It's just around the corner. All right. Thanks. All right. So that's the end of the agenda. We're moving on to agenda item 9, which is adjournment for today. Is there a motion on the table? YAZZETTA: Move to adjourn. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 28 of 29 GARMAN: Motion on table to adjourn. Did I hear a second? HOENLE: Second. GARMAN: Second. Any discussion on whether we should leave? No discussion. All those in favor in adjourning for the day say aye. ALL: Aye. GARMAN: Any opposed? Hearing none. We are adjourned. Thank you all very much. TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS NOVEMBER 19, 2025 STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING Page 29 of 29 APPROVED: ____________________________________ PATRICK GARMAN, CHAIRMAN ATTEST: ____________________________________ ANGELA PADGETT-ESPIRITU, DEPUTY TOWN CLERK CERTIFICATION I HEREBY CERTIFY THAT THE FOREGOING MINUTES ARE A TRUE AND CORRECT COPY OF THE MINUTES OF THE REGULAR STRATEGIC PLANNING ADVISORY COMMISSION MEETING OF THE TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS, ARIZONA HELD ON NOVEMBER 19, 2025. I FURTHER CERTIFY THAT THE MEETING WAS DULY CALLED AND HELD AND THAT A QUORUM WAS PRESENT. ________________________________ ANGELA PADGETT-ESPIRITU, DEPUTY TOWN CLERK