Santan Sun News Staff
City officials have approved preliminary plans for a 199-lot subdivision near Alma School and Queen Creek roads.
The new housing track, known as Mariposa, would occupy a part of Chandler that’s already filled with several single-family home subdivisions.
The L-shaped neighborhood would fill an open parcel — one of the few left in the area — on the northwest corner of Alma School and Queen Creek roads, adjacent to the Goodwill shopping center.
“Mariposa will offer future Chandler residents a diverse selection of housing options while creating a sense of community on a challenging, unusually-shaped site,” developers wrote in planning documents.
The subdivision is expected to have gated entryways, a community pool and a park with playground equipment.
The 199 lots would consist of three different housing types: single-family, detached clusters and paired units. The two-story homes would range in size between 1,280 and 2,550-square-feet.
The land was originally platted in the 1990s to hold 354 multi-family housing units. Developers decided to scale down its units in order to curb the amount of traffic the subdivision will generate.
Some residents of the neighboring subdivisions expressed opposition to Mariposa to city planners, citing concerns about traffic and land density.
“The ultimate design of this site has taken into consideration neighbor input on landscaping, architectural materials and the desire for a meaningful buffer on the north and west side of the property,” Mariposa developers wrote in response to community feedback.
A condition was added to the project’s plans that obligate Mariposa developers to pay half the cost for replacing a wall that borders the Clemente Ranch neighborhood.
The Chandler City Council approved a preliminary plat for Mariposa on July 11 and rezoned the land to accommodate residential uses.
“Modern construction methods will be employed to bring about a sustainable community, and the architectural detail will rival that found in other residential communities being built in the City of Chandler,” developers added in planning records.
Chandler added 1,713 new housing units during the most recent fiscal year, which were about 230 more units than the previous year.
