• The agreement pushes for more verticality. After selling its 207th home, Mattamy will complete a market study to examine the viability of third story options — to add to the detatched, two-house attached and two story options it will offer at the start. Mattamy can start down this path earlier if it chooses to, in the fourth phase. The southern portion will be developed last, as the fifth phase, and will have to come back for its own plat.
“The idea is to provide some flexibility. Mattamy’s goal has always been to drive some density here but they want to start with something that is feasible,” said Brian Greathouse, an attorney with Phoenix-based firm Burch & Cracchiolo.
• To meet density requirements, the Mattamy development of 56 acres will be combined with a 22-acre strip along Litchfield Road, that does not have a developer attached. This future development will have a density requirement of 15 dwelling units per acre to bring the total 78acre parcel up to 10 units.
Former councilman Leo Mankiewicz, a member of the General Plan 2035 Advisory Committee in its early months, submitted a letter to be read before the presentation.
In it, he detailed his opposition to the project’s single family detatched homes, stating they are similar to other new developments in Surprise. He also stated the Mattamy design would inhibit auto free pedestrian walking areas.
“The Mattamy Homes at Surprise Center is merely a further spreading ofsuburban sprawl onto what should be our downtown. There is nothing imaginative or creative about this gated development. In fact, you won’t be able to tell that there is a downtown west of Litchfield because the roofs will simply spread across it in continuity from the bedroom community across the street,” read an excerpt from his letter.