New Carefree General Plan Referred to Voters

After failing to reach agreement in June, the Carefree Town Council on July 2^nd reached supermajority support for a new General Plan, referring the plan to voters in the upcoming November 5^th election.
After a 14-month public involvement process, in the June Council meeting a version of the plan referred to the Council by the Planning & Zoning Commission received the support of four Council members, one short of the required supermajority. The lone remaining sticking point concerned a Special Planning Area (SPA) that had been the target of organized opposition for months. After a very long meeting, the arguments for removal did not prevail, but with only four of seven votes the motion to proceed also failed.
In the days following the June meeting however, at the request of two Council members the Town staff worked with Maricopa County to permit a final decision on the General Plan to be delayed until July 5^th. The Council members then placed reconsideration of the General Plan on the Council’s July 2^nd agenda.
During this time Council members worked with Town staff in searching for a compromise position that could be acceptable to all parties. Language requiring open public meetings and a citizens advisory group was added to make resident feedback initiatives more explicit, and Mayor John Crane participated in language modification and finalization. Additional changes included reducing the size of the SPA by five acres and adding dark sky restrictions.
In the July meeting, Mayor Crane said about the compromise proposal, “by approving the plan before us… we will give our residents better opportunities to participate, to know what’s going on, to influence the outcome.”
After public input and during Council discussion, Council member Vince D’Aliesio said to residents, “taking our recommendations and… putting them on the November ballot empowers (the residents) to decide what happens.” “We want you to decide.”
The revised General was then approved by a unanimous 7-0 vote and referred to the ballot.The ultimate acceptance of this plan will now be up to Carefree voters in the November election.  
Carefree Unity July 3,2024