Business View Magazine | November 2020

293 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE NOVEMBER 2020 FOUNTA IN HI LLS , AR I ZONA acre.” New development in downtown Fountain Hills include a contemporary and trendy four-story mixed-use project. There is no doubt that the ground floor commercial activities, clean lines, workout facilities, and modern colors will play an essential role in attracting tenants, especially young ones. “Another one of our big projects is adjacent to downtown along Avenue of the Fountains,” says Wesley. “It is an apartment project which is under construction. However, it is a different type of project than you usually see as it is comprised of detached, individual units. They are more like individual homes, so they offer you the best of both worlds. They give you the freedom of being a renter with your property being taken care of, and you can leave anytime you want, but you have the privacy of not sharing common walls. The developer will start leasing units about one year from now, and we are excited to see that.” Smith elaborates, “In terms of a younger widening sidewalks to create more walkable neighborhoods. This paradigm also exists in Fountain Hills. Wesley shares, “Fountain Hills was established as a master-planned community and was initially planned to grow to a population of around 70,000. Soon after the start of construction activities in the town, authorities approved lower density zoning. In the initial planning, there was a lot of commercial area designated in Fountain Hills. With the lower density there is not a need for as much commercial property and a need to encourage more mixed-use development. We have taken a step, recently, to amend our zoning ordinance. We have an overlay that impacts the main downtown. In the past, the ordinance allowed mixed-use buildings to have residential units above the commercial. However, for some reason, the number of residential units was limited to a maximum of eight units per acre, which was a bit low. The ordinance was revised to increase the number of residential units per