A roughly five-acre lot near the corner of South Power Road and East Guadalupe Road in Mesa is headed back to city planners. The proposal: rezone the long-vacant parcel for 78 for-sale attached homes — townhomes — and move away from the 120-unit rental apartment plan that stalled at City Council in June 2025. The Mesa Planning and Zoning Board holds a public hearing on August 26, 2026.
If you live near Power and Guadalupe, here is what changes
That empty lot you pass every day — the scrubby desert parcel roughly 270 feet east of the Power and Guadalupe intersection — could become a gated community of 78 attached homes. It has been vacant for decades. That has its own costs: an overgrown commercial pad does little for nearby property values or neighborhood feel.
The switch to for-sale homes matters to neighbors for a specific reason. In 2025, residents told the City Council they did not want more rental units. They wanted people who own their homes and have a stake in the neighborhood. The redesigned project tries to answer that directly.
Traffic at Power and Guadalupe remains the sharpest concern. Residents cited a fatality at the intersection roughly two years before the 2025 hearing. Seventy-eight new households add vehicle trips at a node that feeds the US-60 and Loop 202. No new traffic study results appear in the verified record for the 2026 filing, so that question is likely to come up again at the August 26 hearing.
On the housing side, Mesa townhomes citywide were selling for a median of about $339,900 in August 2026, with roughly 575 attached units active across the market. In a valley where the overall Mesa median hit $455,000 — down 1.6% year over year — for-sale attached product near the Superstition Springs corridor offers an entry point for buyers priced out of detached homes.
What is Park North? A five-acre site with a long history of failed plans
Mesa annexed this parcel in 1983. In 2010, the city issued a commercial office rezoning. Two separate commercial and retail projects were proposed over the following years. Neither was built. The developer, Excolo Development LLC, describes the site as a “long vacant, non-viable commercially zoned site.” A Maricopa County Flood Control District canal runs along the southern boundary, which further limits what can be built there.
The site sits in Mesa District 6, the same district represented by Vice Mayor Scott Somers. To the north is a park with baseball fields. A school campus borders the south side. Commercial development lines the west.
The roughly 5-acre subject parcel, outlined in yellow, sits northeast of South Power Road and East Guadalupe Road. A park lies to the north; a school campus borders the south. (City of Mesa planning file, case ZON24-00708)
From 120 rental apartments to 78 for-sale townhomes: how the project changed
Excolo Development, in partnership with Porter Kyle, filed the original proposal in early 2025. It called for 120 rental apartment units on the site. The Mesa City Council voted in June 2025 to grant a continuance rather than approve it. Six residents spoke against the plan. Vice Mayor Somers cited an April 2025 Phoenix multifamily market report showing an 11.7% vacancy rate and rents falling 2.1% market-wide. Resident Andrew Clayden raised traffic safety and argued that rental units would prevent families from building ownership.
The 2026 filing is a different product. Case ZON24-00708 now asks for 78 for-sale attached single-residence lots — what Mesa’s own zoning ordinance defines as townhomes or rowhouses. Mesa code defines an attached single-residence unit as “a single residence dwelling unit, located singly on a lot or parcel, but attached through common vertical walls to one or more dwellings on abutting lots or parcels.”
The unit count dropped by 42. More importantly, the zoning request changed entirely. The 2025 proposal sought to modify the existing Limited Commercial with Planned Area Development Overlay (LC-PAD). The 2026 filing seeks a full rezone to Multiple Residence-3 with Planned Area Development Overlay (RM-3-PAD) — a different zone class, not a tweak to the old one.
The official vicinity map for case ZON24-00708 shows the roughly 5-acre subject site and surrounding zoning designations. (City of Mesa Planning and Zoning file)
RM-3-PAD vs. LC-PAD: what the zoning change actually means
Mesa’s RM (Multiple Residence) zoning family allows up to 43 units per gross acre. The RM-3 designation sits within that family and explicitly permits small-lot single residences, townhouses, cluster housing, and multiple-residence housing. The PAD overlay lets the developer negotiate site-specific standards — setbacks, landscaping, design details — as part of the approval.
The current LC (Limited Commercial) zoning is meant for retail and commercial uses. It has not produced a project on this site in more than 40 years. The rezone to RM-3-PAD is a clean break from that commercial designation, not a variance or a minor adjustment.
One of the proposed exterior elevation options for Park North, showing a bungalow and craftsman design with dark charcoal tile, white stucco, and wolf grey brick veneer. (BMA Architecture for Park North / La Vida Homes)
August 26, 2026 hearing: what the agenda says and who is involved
The Mesa Planning and Zoning Board takes up case ZON24-00708 at its August 26, 2026 public hearing. City staff planner Charlotte Bridges recommends approval with conditions. The full project team includes BMA Architecture on design, Upfront Planning and Entitlements LLC on planning, WERK Urban Design as landscape architect, EPS Group Inc. as civil engineer, and Rose Law Group PC as legal counsel. The land is owned by P&G Land Development LLC. Excolo Development LLC — established May 2019, headquartered in Mesa — is the developer of record.
The Park North site plan shows all 78 numbered lots along Guadalupe Road, with retention areas, utility lines, and amenity spaces. (EPS Group, Job No. 23-0217)
The P&Z board votes, then City Council decides
The August 26 hearing is not the last step. The Planning and Zoning Board holds the public hearing and makes a recommendation to the City Council. It does not issue a final decision. The City Council holds its own vote, and that vote is the binding one.
If the board recommends approval on August 26, the case moves to City Council for a final vote. No date for that council hearing appears in the verified record. If the board recommends denial, the developer can still appeal to City Council. Either way, the project is not approved or rejected on August 26.
Residents who want to speak on the project should plan to attend the August 26 Planning and Zoning Board hearing. That is the public comment window before the board makes its recommendation.
