Residents opposed to site plans for a 51-acre parcel in northeast Mesa now await the outcome of a development agreement scheduled to be chalked out by the City Council today.

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The agreement, which will be the subject of a closed door executive session, is expected to be made public on Friday.

Councilman Scott Somers said he’s concerned because usually a development agreement is between a city and a developer. But in this case, the person they’re dealing with is the landowner.

“This is why these things are moving more cautiously,” Somers said.

Many Las Sendas residents living next to the parcel on the northwest corner of McDowell Road and Ridgecrest have mainly opposed the four- to six-story heights proposed for parking and office structures.

They also oppose the option of developing drive-throughs, and many are concerned about the overall quality of the proposed mixed-use project.

The council earlier this week put a restriction on the building heights to four stories. Besides the height restriction, drive-throughs, currently not on the site plan, also would be restricted to banks and pharmacies.

Further, such a site plan modification for drive-throughs, if needed, would go back to the city for a public review.

Las Sendas Community Association president Nick Camillone said the homeowners group is concerned about the final shape the agreement would take.

He hoped that the agreement would keep in mind their concerns. Camillone added that they could live with four stories, although three stories would have been preferable.

The development agreement, which would address quality and development phasing issues, would be binding on current and future landowners, according to city officials.

Greg Marek, a representative of another residents group, the LS 51 Residents Committee, said while four stories is better than six, they would like buildings to range from two to three stories.

Marek noted that when the landowner, JCA Holdings Principal Chris Arnold, had presented an earlier version of the site plan to the council, the council had sent the plan back asking that the residential component of the project be lowered to 30 percent. Instead, Marek said, 40 percent of the current site plan is now earmarked residential.

Marek said he hopes to convince council members to consider reducing the residential component to 25 percent to 30 percent and restrict the building height up to three stories.

He suggested the site plan could have more numbers of office and parking structures instead of homes to compensate for the reduced height.

“We would totally support that,” Marek said. “That way the property owner gets his residential component, the city gets office space and we get lower building heights.”

Somers, meanwhile, is taking issue with the idea of trading building heights from six to four stories at the cost of losing hundreds of high-paying jobs.

Developer Chris Arnold’s zoning attorney, Reese Anderson, said the city wants to preserve as many jobs as it can but that it never gave Arnold a target number.

“They do want to have as many jobs as possible, yes,” Anderson said.

Furthermore, Somers said planning the phasing for the project development is vital. He doesn’t favor building too much residential initially and then reaching a point when new residents would then oppose commercial development on the site.

“My fear is we add all these houses on 40 percent of the site and none of the commercial is built initially. Then when that comes in the picture, a future council will have to deal with another Lowe’s,” Somers said, referring to a highly volatile case in west Mesa, where residents unsuccessfully fought a proposed Lowe’s Home Improvement Store.

A development agreement, a consensual binding contract, is usually done in the case of large-scale projects where issues such as sales tax incentives or impact fee credits are involved.

City officials said in this case, demanding high quality from the project was a priority, that could be brought about through an agreement.

Marek said he skeptically awaits the agreement. He said he hopes to convince council members to lower the height more and achieve their objective of more jobs through his suggested alternative.

Somers said he’s disappointed that for a parcel zoned as a business park, the number of high-paying jobs it would now help create would fall short of the city’s expectations.

Mesa has been pushing economic development in order to attract highly-skilled workers and move away from its bedroom-community image.

“This is the highest economic demographic living in Mesa. So if you’re going to build boardrooms, this is the place to build,” Somers said.