The developer for the proposed Park Place Phase II and Phase III project is under the gun to get plans in for review or face expiration of the development agreement.

The deadline for permits to be issued is June 16, according to Development Services Director John Wesley, or the development agreement terminates.

The Town Council voted 3-4 to deny a motion to grant a 90-day extension for the deadline. The developer had requested an additional year.

Vice Mayor Gerry Friedel, Councilman Mike Scharnow and Councilwoman Sharron Grzybowski voted to support a motion by Scharnow for the 90-day extension. Mayor Ginny Dickey and Council Members David Spelich, Alan Magazine and Peggy McMahon opposed.

“We had no communication from (the developer) for two years regarding this project,” McMahon said. “Now you are asking for an extension based on your failure to be proactive.”

“Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency,” Spelich said. “You wasted (more than) four months by not listening to Planning and Zoning.”

The developer said they believed Planning and Zoning had said the plan complies with the development agreement.

“The whole world was shut down,” Bart Shea with N-Shea Group said, referring to the pandemic. “We are just asking for a timeout so we can move forward.”

The original development agreement, which included the timing deadlines, was approved in June 2016. Phase I of the development was completed along Avenue of the Fountains in late 2017.

The developer asked the council to consider amendments to the agreement in February this year. There was no request for a deadline extension at that time. The council took no action on the request, saying the proposed amendments were inconsistent with the development agreement.

A week later the Planning and Zoning Commission approved a site plan for the project with several caveats which would have brought the plan into compliance with the agreement. Those included changes to how commercial business space was incorporated into the plan. The commission asked that commercial space be featured at the intersection of Avenue of the Fountains and Saguaro Boulevard.

On March 1, the council unanimously rejected another plan for the site calling out the commercial space, which council members saw as being “buried in a basement.”

It was April 19 when the council finally approved the site plan for the project, roughly 60 days prior to the deadline.

The council did vote to approve a professional services agreement with Shums Coda to provide third-party plan review and inspection services for development of the Park Place Phase II and Phase III projects.