200601.13

Planning Panel Approves New Mayo Clinic Zoning

Weldon B. Johnson, The Arizona Republic

A rezoning plan for the Mayo Clinic breezed through the Scottsdale Planning Commission without opposition.

The change approved late Wednesday will be subtle and gradual for neighbors of the clinic near 130th Street and Shea Boulevard.

The land will go from being designated commercial office to holding special campus district status.

“This will actually result in a reduction in the amount of development on the property over its current zoning,” said John Berry, an attorney representing the clinic. “Actually about 20 percent less than its current entitlements.”

“When Mayo came to town, there was no zoning district that fit the unique type of uses Mayo was planning for their campus,” Berry said. “Back in 1985 or so, we had to use whatever tool was in the kit bag at that time, that was this commercial office or CO zoning. The property had CO zoning on it and it’s worked just fine over the years.”

However, over the course of the next two decades, the clinic will move some offices and other facilities from its Scottsdale campus to the hospital campus at 56th Street and Mayo Boulevard in Phoenix.

That move is designed as a convenience for patients and doctors. It puts office and examination facilities closer to the hospital.

It also will allow the clinic to become more of a collaborative research community.

“They could probably do that with their current zoning, but Mayo wants to do things the right way,” Berry said. “The right way is to use a zoning category that was put together about 10 years ago for just these types of uses.”

The Mayo Clinic will be the second facility to use the special campus district zoning. The Cattle Track arts community near McDonald Drive and Miller Road already received the designation, and the Taliesin West architecture center is applying for it.