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COMMENTARY ANEW (No. 2): A Continuing Dialogue
On the Annexation Agreement between the City and Pulte
Pulte Agrees to Build Offsite Road
on the 1940 Acre Site Owned by
the Focus Property Group
This past weekend, Olga and I were very fortunate to have attended as guests Lance Burton’s magic show benefit for the Shriners and their selfless efforts to help children in need of special medical treatment. For this event, Lance showcased a number of magicians, including his son, who were exceptionally good and very entertaining. Even when you think you know how the magic was performed, you’re frequently left bewildered and wondering, "could she really fit into that tiny little box?" While recalling our evening of magic, I'm thinking that this will allow me to transition to a discussion of our own form of magic-like accomplishments right here in Sun City.
We in Sun City are indeed fortunate to have our own magician of sorts, since, as it turns out, this person can pretty much gin up just about anything he puts his mind to. Take, for example, that muted call many of us read about in a recent edition of the Anthem Compendium. [Anthem Compendium] No, I am not referring to that warning to residents to be leery of those easy chair gadflies. The call, or announcement, I'm referring to was admittedly so faint that we might have missed it were it not for the fact that it tapped into our desire to be safe and tranquil in our trips in and out of the community. It got our attention because the issue that Favil West had alluded to was something very near and dear—the ability to travel safely on our parkways and with a minimum of traffic congestion. Exaggerating only slightly, Mr. West had it about right when he was quoted at an earlier event as saying that our community is virtually "land-locked." [LVRJ Article] By implication, Favil understood that Sun City was headed for some type of roadway disaster in the future, a proverbial collision of sorts if we are not able to secure real traffic relief for those growing number of vehicles that will be moving through our community. Sun City is now about 70% completed, and in a year, we'll be roughly 84% completed. This updated report follows by 2+ weeks our initial Commentary article on this same topic. Initial Commentary article.]
Unless I am mistaken, the needed traffic relief that is being sought on our behalf will come not from exploring alternative options or from innovative "Plan B" type endeavors, but from voicing our concerns in a meeting with folks from the Focus Group. According to Mr. West:
"Over the next few months we will be keeping you informed on issues associated with the
heliport issue as well as the West Henderson Project. The focus of Bob, Dick and I will be to
ensure that the roadway system is built as quickly as possible. We will continue to develop a
dialog with the Focus group understanding that the best way to get what we want is to be a
good neighbor." [Anthem Compendium letter, July 19, 2004.]
"We're land-locked," said fellow board member Favil West. "We are desperately interested in
that roadway system to the west of us. We will be in the middle of this to force, to the extent
we're able, the roadway system to get built right away." [The LVRJ article, July 15, 2004.]
Apparently, our folks are going to talk with their folks about our traffic concerns and the need to get those roadways to the west of Sun City built quickly. How quickly? Mr. West was quoted in the Review Journal as being in the middle of this roadway issue "to force . . . the roadway system [to the west] to get built right away." As we at The SCA View have learned, the amount of force that will have to be exerted on the Focus Group will not have to be great at all.
Here is the point where some mystical, perhaps even imaginary, magic dust appears to have been floating about on this pressing traffic issue. For the moment, let’s pretend to eavesdrop on that conversation between our folks and the folks from the Focus Group.
SCA Folks: "You know, we understand that you’re going to be completing those roadways to the west of Anthem far off into the future, perhaps up to 10 years from now. We understand and appreciate the fact that infrastructure needs, like roadways, are traditionally extended only so far as there is a need and demand for housing. As a result, those roadways way up by Democracy and Bicentennial will be the last to be built.
"But, you see, we are going to have a real traffic congestion problem in Sun City if we cannot do something to provide an alternative or temporary roadway exit for those 12,000 families looming on our southern border. We’d really like to be able to send some, if not most, of those 12,000 future family members to the west and then down Maryland Parkway to St. Rose. What we do not want to see are those 12,000 future settlers moving up and down Anthem Parkway and Sun City Anthem Drive and exiting onto Eastern Avenue. Is there anything we can do to get those roadways built sooner?
Focus Group Folks: Without so much as a twinkle of the nose, or even a call to Lance Burton, the Focus folks respond something like this, "Why, sure enough, we’ll be obliged to work with you in accomplishing that roadway objective." "You just go tell your residents that we’ll be happy to work with the City and Pulte on bringing these more critical transportation roadways on line sooner than they would have been completed. Happy we could help you in this matter."
SCA Folks: Sensing a victory, our SCA folks quickly corked that "hard won" traffic solution genie into their bottle and headed home to spread the good news in some appropriate fashion. And not unlike Lance Burton, at the unveiling of the good news, the bottle would be uncorked and, voila, the traffic genie remedy would magically appear. Our relieved residents would be forever thankful that our future traffic problems had been resolved. As we will learn, however, the resolution of this new roadway matter did not occur just now but had already been accomplished more than four months earlier, reminding us of the mysterious accomplishments of Michael J. Fox' character, Marty McFly, when he would return to the past to change the future in the movie Back to the Future.
Listening to this hypothetical dialog might lead one to suggest that, indeed, a generous sprinkling of some magic dust enabled our negotiators to work their will so effortlessly on those less able and unsuspecting folks at the Focus Group. How else could we account for such a preferred, almost magical outcome?
Well, leaving magic and magic dust aside, there is a better, more accurate explanation for what really happened. As we had reported in our initial Commentary article, there was some evidence that the City and Pulte had been talking about this very issue—that is, getting a roadway built in the west to haul those families out of harms way, that is, away from Anthem and Eastern Avenue.
Since that time, we have learned that the City and Pulte had been negotiating over Pulte's construction of a secondary road to the west of Sun City, among other important matters, for several months, recalling that the Planning Commission hearing on Provence was repeatedly delayed from January, when first scheduled, to when it was finally heard by the Commission for the first time on 8 April. [Report on Hearing] Leaving the politics of the timing of these events aside, the City and Pulte ultimately came to agreement on the terms of what is called an Annexation Agreement,[1] a formal document that sets forth the City's annexation of that 482 acre parcel into the City of Henderson. This 20-page document also sets forth their agreement with respect to Land Use, Public Utility Services, Streets, Municipal Services, and legal remedies and related matters. In brief, it describes what the City will do and what Pulte will be obligated to do in connection with the development of Provence. [City's 8 April Staff Report on proposed master plan.] The Annexation Agreement itself was not executed and approved by the parties until 27 April, at a special City Council meeting and on the same date the City Council gave final approval to Pulte’s master plan for their Provence development. [Annexation Agreement (5 pages).]
For our purposes, the only section of relevance is the section on STREETS, which is Article 5. And, specifically, section 5.3, which runs about 2½ pages, sets forth a very specific mandate on what Pulte is required to do, when and where:
"5.3 Alternate Project Access. The parties acknowledge and agree that a
secondary public access route to the Provence Annexation Area through the
1940 Acres is required on or about the time the 200th C of O [certificate of
occupancy] has been issued in the Provence Annexation Area, . . . ."
The proposed alignment of the secondary route is set forth in the Agreement. Exhibit E, Fallback Alignment, graphically shows the proposed route of what is referred to as the "Offsite Road." A portion of Exhibit E is reproduced below.
According to the definition, the Offsite Road to be constructed is routed "to the Provence Annexation Area, from existing Bicentennial Road west of Anthem, to Maryland Parkway, proceeding north on Maryland Parkway to Volunteer Boulevard. The Offsite Road may be a Temporary Road . . . ."
As set forth in the Agreement, Pulte is required to take certain steps and at such time as the Agreement specifies, which correlates to the number of building permits the City will approve. Further, the Agreement sets forth in some detail what takes place in the event Pulte is not the successful bidder, at 5.3.3, beginning at the bottom of page 10 and page 11, which I will not repeat here except to note that the Agreement states that the City will hold up action on approval of Focus Group’s master plan proposal, et. al., unless Focus provides Pulte with "Necessary Rights" to proceed with construction of the offsite road.
Bottom Line. The bottom line is that there is and has been in place for more than three months an executed agreement calling on Pulte to build a road, which may be a temporary road, connecting Provence and Anthem Highlands residents going west on Bicentennial to Maryland Parkway and north on Maryland Parkway to Volunteer.
What will happen at the juncture of Maryland Parkway and Volunteer is between the City and the Focus Group, insofar as the City's mandate on Focus to construct Maryland Parkway between St. Rose and Volunteer.
Perhaps we can afford to wait to see how that old familiar adage, "You can lead a horse to water, but . . . ." turns out on the question of whether that roadway will in fact provide the needed relief that the roadway was intended to mitigate? But, admittedly, I doubt we can afford to wait. I hope that our resident leaders will want to explore other roadway options and not wait until it’s too late.
In the end, it is my opinion that the City will be hard pressed to demonstrate that 70% of our southern most newcomers will, as the City and Pulte had projected and relied upon in making their roadway plans for Provence, travel west to go north and northeast to Henderson’s shopping areas. Are we going to end up falling prey to our ultimate detriment to that outrageous percentage assumption that only 30% of those 12,000 residents will use Anthem Parkway and Sun City Anthem Drive?
It’s not yet clear whether the illusion of having secured traffic relief from this roadway agreement between the City and Pulte will measure up to the reality of actually achieving that needed traffic relief.
Ron Johnson
August 4, 2004
[1] The Annexation Agreement is part of what the City refers to as Bill No. 1942 "Annexation of approximately 482.26 Acres." That much larger document is 87 pages and may be accessed on this website from the Annexation Agreement page, which contains and will bring up for view Article 5 (STREETS) and Sec. 5.3, a 5-page .pdf file, including the map showing the proposed secondary road route.
The proposed "Fallback Alignment" of that future Pulte-built roadway is shown below, via the heavy-width black line from Bicentennial to Volunteer by way of Maryland Parkway.
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