Just two weeks after having its project plans continued to a later date, the city of Maricopa's Planning and Zoning Commission voted on June 23 to approve a plan for the first phase of a new residential development called Sanctuary.
Rankin Real Estate, a Phoenix-based developer that works on land deals and industrial parks, is developing some 330 acres near the northeast corner of Hartman Road and Maricopa-Casa Grande Highway. The commission gave it the go-ahead to move forward on the first phase, which calls for 339 single-family lots to be built on about 83 acres.
Kernit Rankin, founder of his namesake firm, told Homes.com that the next step for Sanctuary is to start selling the lots to home builders. He added that the timeline for this will be "as the market permits." Rankin purchased the land in 2017.
The commission voted to continue the project on June 9 to get more clarity from a city traffic analyst. Commissioners expressed concerns at that meeting over the smaller lot sizes and the limited access points currently planned for the community. Phase one calls for one primary access point for residents and another secondary all-access emergency access road.
There are additional phases to the development, which could include more than 1,000 single-family homes should it get entirely built out, that call for additional roads into the community. Some commissioners pressed the Sanctuary team at the June 23 meeting on building out an additional road in the first phase before possible economic challenges could impact the project's timeline.
After being informed the developer had met the "technical" requirements of the code with two points of access, the commission went into an executive session before returning to unanimously approve the project.
The median sales price in the city of Maricopa is $354,900 — more than $100,000 lower than Phoenix, according to Homes.com data. The city, which recorded a 25% jump in population from July 2020 to July 2024, has been a popular option for manufacturers looking to build out their operations due to its availability of vacant land.