thank you and welcome again to the Mesa city council meeting for the evening of Monday February the 13th all of our Council are present we will begin this meeting with an invocation offered by Pastor Mike Cash of East Valley will Baptist Church followed by the Pledge of Allegiance so Pastor cash we invite you to the microphone please stand for the prayer and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you mayor let's pray heavenly father thank you so much for the opportunity that we have today to come to you thank you for this time and this place we thank you for our mayor vice mayor the council members all the city officials and elected elected officials and employees those who work behind the scenes Lord oftentimes we know things we don't see and understand that they have to deal with and go through we just ask that you give them wisdom we ask for this meeting in particular that you would get the glory and everything that goes forth in this city Lord we ask that you would be honored and glorified again we thank you for a place that we live in where we can freely make our wants known our wishes known thank you for the opportunity not only this country but in this state in this city Lord that we have to do the things that we freely want to do and Lord again I ask that you would be with us in this meeting we thank you for being our savior our guide for being one wiser than we are in Jesus name we pray amen amen please join me in the pledge I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you the first item on our agenda tonight is Awards recognitions and announcements and we do have one Proclamation under this agenda item and it will be to recognize February as Black History Month this month encourages people to become more knowledgeable about black Heritage and honor the many black leaders who have contributed to the progress of our nation tonight we have with this members of mesa's human relations Advisory Board the national form of black public administrators and the Mesa East Valley MLK committee thank you all for being here tonight before we present you with the proclamation and take a group photo I'd like to invite Marcus mckenner to say a few words on behalf of all the organizations actually Travis Travis Scott right our great Chief Information officer Travis thank you mayor and Council thank you for this Proclamation for this uh recognition of Black History Month um to move forward in a progressive manner we have to remember where we came from so this is important and we really appreciate the city of Mesa I'm recognizing this this important month to us in our history thank you Travis thank you to you and to all the organizations that we're honoring tonight we had a wonderful MLK parade and event and a lot of work went into that that was our 25th anniversary MLK event a celebration in Mesa Arizona so that was a particularly meaningful event for us but thank you I'd invite the council now to come down and if everyone who's representing one of those organizations if you please come up and join us in a photograph we'd appreciate it thank you thank you thank you hello good to see you guys I'm gonna stand behind you guys I want to stand back here [Laughter] find a reason able you're in the front Oh no you're just fine thank you man do whatever Andrea tells you to do are we do we fit like maybe foreign [Applause] thank you again to everyone who came to help us kick off that celebration next item on our agenda is the consent agenda we'll invite Mr Kevin Christopher forward to read that agenda Mr Christopher thank you good evening mayor and council members these are the items on the consent agenda all items listed with an asterisk will be considered as a group by the city council and will be enacted with one motion there will be no separate discussion unless a council member or citizen request in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered as a separate item item two approval of minutes of previous meetings is written item 3A at the liquor license application for sauce pizza and wine 3426 East Baseline Road item 3B acting liquor license application for about your battle one day event March 4th 9760 East Cadence Parkway item 3C act on liquor license application for ultimate imaginations one day event February 25th one North McDonald item three D act on liquor license application for Chipotle 9259 East Ray Road item 4A act on Bingo application for Good Life RV Resort 3403 East Main Street item 5A approving contract for police evidence facility construction manager at risk guaranteed maximum price number two this project is funded by 2018 and 20 22 Public Safety bonds and Public Safety sales tax item 5B approving contractor purchase a dispatch recorder for the Mesa fire and medical Department item 5c approving a three-year term contract with two years of renewal options for pavement marking materials and traffic paying for the transportation department item 5D approving three-year term contract with two one-year renewal options for five Master job order contracts for well-site drilling Construction Services item 5e approving three-year Cooperative term contract with two years of renewal options for overhead crane and hoist testing maintenance and repair services for the Water Resources Department item 5f approving three-year term contract with two years of renewal options for engineered wood fiber material and installation for the parks recreation and Community facilities Department item 5G approving dollar limit increase to the three-year term contract and two years of renewal options for landscape maintenance services for Parks retention basins and sports fields for the parks recreation and Community facilities Department item 6A approving resolution to enter into an intern governmental agreement with the Arizona Department of Health Services allowing the city to receive reimbursement for the Mesa fire Medical Department participating in an immunization program for children and adults including flu and covid-19 vaccinations item 6B approving a resolution to enter into a memorandum of understanding with Maricopa Association of governments for an arterial life cycle program project on Power Road East Maricopa floodway to the San Tan freeway Loop 202 item 6C approving a resolution to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with the Mesa Unified School District to establish an opt-in library card sign up for students through the school enrollment process item 6D approving a resolution to enter into an agreement with the United Food Bank for a grant of coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds item 6E approving a resolution extinguishing a portion of a water and sewer easement located at 5215 South Ellsworth Road to allow for commercial development on the property item 7A introduction of ordinance regarding zoning case 22-916 for property located west of Lindsay Road on the north side of Southern Avenue rezone the bonus intensity Zone overlay and site plan review to allow foreign office development item 7B introduction of ordinance regarding zoning case 22-977 for property located south of McKellips Road and West of Ellsworth Road rezone with a bonus intensity Zone overlay to allow for development of a single residence subdivision and item a approving ordinance amending title 3 chapter 2 Section 1 of the mesa city code governing the organization of the City's Fire Department to reflect the name Mesa fire and medical department and to add language describing the expanded scope of services mayor and council members these are the items in the consent agenda thank you Mr Christopher Ms Mosley are there any blue cards for any item currently on the consent agenda no mayor all right thank you we have a motion made by Ms spilsbury for approval of the consent agenda seconded by Mr Freeze Freeman please vote click the wrong button can you do your motions again okay that's too fast thank you uh so Ms spilsbury has the motion seconded by Mr Freeman please vote give that uh the consent agenda passes unanimously uh the item we have off of the consent agenda today is our items 9A and 9B this is for rezoning and development agreement for property property generally located east of Gilbert Road and on the south side of East McDowell Road for the development project commonly known as Sweetwater or Homestead at Lehigh Crossing I know we have several blue cards have you received any additional blue cards since we started the meeting I have received one more to speak and one not to speak and we also have one caller on the line okay this is the last call for blue card so I see there's one behind you as well um if you wouldn't mind go ahead and bring those up I know that we also received prior to thank you very much prior to the meeting we received several online comments uh you gave me these numbers earlier we had 33 online comments received 31 of which opposed the zoning case and two supported it I'll also note that in addition to the online comments we received several emails on this case uh 22 to be exact 18 opposed the zoning and for supporting okay so having said that we will begin hearing from those of you who have come to let us know how you feel about the zoning case and I'll just take them in the in the order that they are in uh that they have in the stack in front of me uh we have set aside three minutes for each speaker and we have several speakers so we'll be here a while feel free if someone has said something that you agree with and you can say never mind I agree with Susie or if you want to designate a spokesman to cover two or three people all those things would be appreciated but we'll we'll start with the top of the stack and again uh at the end of three minutes we'd ask that you conclude your comments first you will hear from David KIPP this is in reverse order okay you didn't give me a chance to prepare huh here yes go ahead Mr Kip you have three three minutes okay so my name is David KIPP I live at 1610 East tomosa Vista which is in one within one mile of this project my opposition to the project is that it doesn't meet the same population density as the rest of the neighborhood this area is unique in Mesa that most of the residents live in single-family homes on relatively large lots and there's nothing similar within one and a half miles of this location to the north is Lehigh to the Northwest is sorry to the Northwest is the Pima Indian reservation and the South and to the south east and west are both custom neighborhoods with single family um single-family homes I think the building of a roundabout on the 101 I mean the 202 and McDowell I think will contribute to a lot of congestion and traffic um that's that's the main thing I want to say okay thank you very much Mr Kim next we'll hear from Stephanie Burnham Stephanie Burnham thank you welcome Stephanie thank you I do agree with the previous speaker um I did send an email but I am going to read it our Lehigh area is noted for being a more rural feel within the city limits area the city of Mesa like every city needs different neighborhood zones if you will to have a comfortable diversity for their current and future citizens there's nothing wrong with having an area where there are bigger properties bigger homes a place where families can spread out and live in a less stressful less high traffic um you know an easier quieter place to live not everyone feels comfortable living with hundreds of other people stacked on top of one another in buildings that are crowned together no matter how good the amenities are or how luxurious the apartments are they still amount to a lot of people packed in one small space no multi-family housing will raise property values in Lehigh or their Hermosa Vista neighborhood it is the nature of Apartments to be used harder because of turnover of residents what are these things going to look like in 20 to 30 years even 40. homes in our area that are 40 and more years old look great there's a lot of properties that are well taken care of because people who come to our area come to stay foreign we don't feel the neighbors and I that I have talked to that this is an appropriate use of that little piece of property we know that it's a difficult one but we feel like there is a better fit that something can be come up with and we ask why didn't the city open up that land to acre lot Parcels so that a few more people can build there and have the kind of lifestyle that is lived in that particular area the city of Mesa has gained many sources of revenue which is good up to a point but it is also really good to maintain what we have that is good and fix what's broken and we are asking that you not vote Yes on this we are asking that you look at other proposals other things that can be built there thank you thank you Miss Burnham Maryland Crosby good evening mayor council members uh Marilyn Crosby 2560 North horn I want to speak to a subject I'm not sure that many of the attendees today will speak about I know that you're going to hear comments about roundabouts and density but I want to speak to you about the general plan the statutory requirement that that zoning and rezoning ordinances are in compliance with the general plan and I feel that this project is very much in opposed to the general plan if you read the plan it's 238 pages long so I'll spare us a speed reading episode but 229 times is the amount of times that the importance of character of a neighborhood is referenced in the general plan 32 times is a number of times that the sense of place and the importance of that is referred to in the general plan when you're looking at section 15 which is a litmus test for determining the applicability in a from a Planning and Zoning perspective these are some of the criteria that are supposed to be a test Mark for determining if it's an applicable project or not if I can read from a few other of the the criteria says is the proposed development consistent with adopted sub-area or neighborhood plants I would say this is not is a proposed development consistent with the standards and guidelines established by the character type does it provide an appropriate infill development does it further enhance the intended character of the area does it improve safety within the area does it add to the sense of place and I can go on and on with the other requirements that are in here but the answer is consistently no and so I have raised the question a few times now you might remember me from a few weeks ago that I've felt like staff reports I feel like they tried to do a good job but I don't feel like they actually capture the sentiment of this project and the opposition within the neighborhoods that surround it I am opposed to the traffic of the roundabout I've read this I've read different studies myself about roundabouts and it is not a cut and dry answer if roundabouts are safer or more dangerous in this circumstance the data indicates that it is more dangerous because you're talking about a multi-lane roundabout you're also talking about other complicating factors of hills and freeway entrances and things that make this a very definitively more difficult roundabout than others I would ask that you seriously consider opposing this I know that there's been a lot of consideration and Outreach to you which I think says something in itself I thank you for your time and wish you a good decision thank you Marilyn uh Connor Crosby okay he didn't check the uh well I wish to speak is Connor Crosby here is that a relative of yours Merlin yes yes okay thank you that's noted Michelle mccroskey okay welcome Michelle thank you all right I'm short I'm short here um well Michelle mccroskey 3021 North Chestnut Circle in Mesa um thank you for hearing our comments today I promised you the last time I spoke with you that I would come back with some information we found so number one we did reach out to ADOT again to discuss the roundabout and everything else but because we didn't really have a different plot plan um their decision was there's not we don't really have any place to go until you do and we felt like that we'd accomplished enough there but we did have a very good meeting with Planning and Zoning we found out some information of why some of our feedback we talked about history not being correctly reflected we found out why and we gave we got a lot of good information for them we did understand more of the challenges of that parcel but that really wasn't depressing because we realized there were some things we probably could have done to help that process along to the planning Department's credit I actually noted that they updated their PowerPoint so they accurately reflected as much as they could the history of all the different meetings we've had on that and we are wiser still the next time we have a project like this to work with them on so my assignment on this project was to focus on the traffic and safety issues of the project I'll admit that this was kind of a steep learning curve for me I'm not the traffic engineer um but I have done my research and so the first thing I did was I read the traffic study that was done by the analysis and the comments I can tell you on that is simply that they chose some data that was 2018 and they and the growth projected for that was three percent so they basically they used old data and they underestimated the growth in this particular area they could have done better on that but the most important thing that I got out of this was on page four where they projected the traffic coming out of this project if they move forward on it 1906 Vehicles a day every weekday 1900 cars back and forth back and forth back and forth every day every weekday that that project is going to be in place and so that's why we have a roundabout so I also sent all of you the studies on some studies on roundabouts and what makes them so challenging here if you and I were talking about a single line roundabout we would all raise our hands that this is a great deal but you cannot put a single Lane roundabout on McDowell there's too much traffic and the studies are pretty clear that if you put a two-lane roundabout on that intersection you're going to increase collisions by 62 percent in all transparency injuries will probably be down because quite frankly when we go around around debate we're not going at that high of a speed but they do 62 percent and so if you vote to move forward on this that's basically what you're voting on so um from a safety standpoint anyway you cut it a two-lane roundabout is going to increase Collision rates by 62 percent that project is not the right fit for this area and you're going to hear some more histories about the history and why this happened and yada yada and that's not my part of the presentation I know a lot of you feel pressured to vote for this I get it very uncomfortable very awkward some of you and I know really well and I hate being on the other side of an argument with you but safety is safety and I can't ignore the facts so if you choose to move forward on this and you have the documentation showing the the studies on a two-lane roundabout then you have to accept the responsibility for the Collision rates that are coming so thank you very much thank you Michelle Morgan Porter welcome Morgan good evening mayor and council members I'd like to speak to you on a different point of things as many of you know tomorrow is Arizona's birthday and part of what makes Arizona is Lehigh Lehigh came before Arizona became a state many people in Lehigh and all of their families came before Arizona was a state and I would like to think back into the old 1800s of what would they think of how things are going at this moment would they think that a use of nine acres even if it cannot be farmed would be a great place to put four or five six hundred people I choose to believe that that is not what they would choose they would choose to put a park or single-family homes where people could raise and grow their own food of cattle swine horses to go ride on that Canal I believe that they would choose that option instead and that is the option that we are based on in this area in this city the city became a city because of Lehigh so I believe that there should be opportunity for other options our opportunity came from these people they trekked across many many miles to get to this area and grow a life and so I believe that there should be opportunity for other people to come in and give options that are with the zoning requirement especially not with something of a change so big I believe that they should you know have an option for a park like there has been presented in earlier years that got denied because of funding I do believe that that should be in consideration due to the fact that that was a promise that the city made when they purchased this property that that land would become a park we had city of Mesa legal council come in to a Lehigh community meeting and say that there was a park going on to that property and that promise has not yet been fulfilled I believe that this land would not be there if those promises had not been made and just think I know many members that go riding along that canal if there are apartment buildings there are small children that live in apartment buildings small children like big animals small children like to throw things at big animals that Canal is a very dangerous place for horses if people throw things I myself have lost a horse on that Canal just from being scared I cannot imagine what screaming children even if they are well-behaved children all children scream I cannot imagine being they're losing my horse due to something like that because of such a big area I do hope that you keep the promise of that land being made a park I do hope that you take this into consideration of what this city has been founded on founded on promises it's been founded on opportunity and opportunities what should be given to others to keep this land what it was designed for I do hope you have a great decision and a great day thank you thank you Morgan Robert Walker welcome good evening my name is Robert Walker 1140 East Sorensen I uh I've lived there 45 years moved there as a young man I was there before the 101 was put through and all the changes that went during that time and I think the city fought long and hard for us to have access under Gilbert Road and across McDowell because we have access for horses right through there it seemed like it'd be a real shame to uh plop a bunch of Apartments there and and that would be the only access for those apartment dwellers to come to our neighborhoods is through those and it would make maybe a dangerous situation for us to ride horses through there I I liked what Morgan said about the park that'd be a great thing to put there um nine nine Custom Homes would be nice there too with horse privileges um just hate to see us lose that pathway to to a good riding toward the river thank you thank you sir Robin Fenn welcome Robin thank you um I've not been a resident of Lehigh for the last century but my wife's family has been I married into it and we moved into our home at 3035 North Gilbert Road before it was ever part of the city and when the city came along and annexed us in they told us that that all of Lehi which at that point Lehigh went clear out to Val Vista even claimed it out to Granite Reef Dam that it would all be One Acre Properties and they have backstepped on that because we have Condominiums and smaller homes built further east on Lehigh Road and problems are starting to crop up with that high density now you can have problems happen anywhere but when you have secure families and people that live there then you have a much more stable environment the second thing that I think they're really missing the point on here is they put a horse path right down Gilbert Road to connect into this canal horse path except they didn't put a Crossing across the freeway for horses to write on so they have to use the sidewalks in order to gain access to it and if you put a roundabout on McDowell it's going to be nothing but a shooting match for what car can hit what horses are going through that intersection because there won't be a designated Crossing for the horses and in our section that's north of McDowell there's probably over 200 horses that are living in that area right now so I'm definitely opposed to anything other than I like the idea of a park but rather than a park I'd like to see a horse or equine facility put in there that would better service the community of the entirely High area thank you thank you Robin uh Wendy Fenn thank you my name is Wendy Ben our family's been on the same property for a hundred years they're generationally high my grandfather helped settle the Lehigh Valley I know Mark Freeman you know him George Gilbert Haws um my mom was born and she died in Lehigh those born in Lehi knew my grandfather he had a chicken farm after World War II the American government contacted my father my grandfather because he had such a great ratio of fertilized eggs that they wanted fertilized eggs sent to Germany because there were no chickens left over there to feed them over there so my grandfather shipped his chicken eggs over to Germany also during World War II the U.S government was trying to put the Japanese families like in concentration camps type of thing um and we had a lot of good Japanese families that lived on Lehigh the sikahimas the Chicagoans the sados for instance um they were not allowed to leave or not allowed to cross Main Street so my grandfather would go and buy their groceries for them and return their change to them um Lee was Lehigh was a community back then that helped people and now it's turning into how can I get rich how can I pad my own pockets it's Community where we need to look out for one another and have our acre lots or bigger so that we can live the lifestyle that we were promised I hope you vote against this development thank you thank you Wendy David Betty might be did I pronounce your last excuse me Mr Beatty thank you I knew I was wrong as soon as it came out of my being called worse thank you Mr Beatty good evening and I appreciate your time and listening my name is David Beatty I live at 2636 North Stapley Drive and uh my family first moved to Lehigh in 1969. so as you're starting to hear there's a lot of vested interest there's a lot of people that have been there I've now with my children and grandchildren we've had four generations there I have friends that have sixth generation Generations so is this not uncommon so would somebody in apartment complex know that they might know their next door neighbor well we know each other and we work together and one thing I'd like to really bring up is I personally contacted people around that property and I was amazed that the ones I contacted did not know what was going on they have not been contacted and I contacted property that was as close to you as you could get to that property and they did not know what was going on so I don't see this as an open and transparent project especially after it was filed under another project to eliminate all the previous opposition well as you can see I'm passionate about it because the way I see this apartment complex is like dropping a football stadium into my backyard and it is definitely not compatible um they may have complied with a 500 foot rule but that's because there isn't anybody within 500 feet so nobody was contacted um they knew what the property was zoned for when they bought it I have to live with this within the zoning they can too it at the point where they asked for to be rezoned that's where I get to speak up and and say what I want uh 222 units is a long ways from being able to put eight or nine homes on that property as it is currently zoned which means you're gonna probably have to allow for about 400 cars can you imagine those going in and out every day from what it is now um those residents are not going to have a vested interest in this community you're going to have higher calls for service more police more fire just ask your police department near police department and firemen how many calls they go to apartment complexes uh you're going to have a definite increase in calls the roundabout you know everybody's talking about the studies well I have a brother that lives next to the 202 and McKellips the roundabout on the east side and I'm going to tell you it's hilarious how many wrecks are there I told him he should put up a camera and post YouTube videos uh it's no joke there's going to be a lot of wrecks and and it is not compatible with the the horses in the area so looks like I'm out of time I appreciate your time I I think you can tell I'm opposed to this project and I hope you vote against it at this time thank you thank you Mr Beatty Ryan sandstrom very Jazz good to see you Mr Freeman members of the council my name is Ryan sandstrom I live at Forest Knolls Estates which is approximately 0.8 miles from this project we live at 1655 East Menlo councilman Freeman Mark has that I've had the privilege of seeing him at my home knows very much the dynamic of the neighborhood that we live in just a little personal history I'm from Mesa grew up here my whole life my dream was to move back and to live in different into friendly Cove Forest Knolls the reason for that is because I have a young family and it is absolutely the most conducive place in my opinion to raise a young family because it has larger areas where you can grow up and spread your roots um two years ago we bought a home that I've saved a lot of money to do and almost paid a million dollars for that home and then all of a sudden I find out on Saturday literally Saturday of last week that this project was proposed and I thought to myself what did I just get myself into I've been hoping to live in this neighbor neighborhood my whole life and now all of a sudden it's going to be overrun with a with a quick little development to make some money um to be clear I Am pro real estate I'm pro-owner I'm pro-business development I'm an entrepreneur myself I I am encouraging people to do that kind of thing but not here this is not the right place to put 222 units and councilman Freeman I think there's a better use for this property there's been a lot of proposals whether you use a third acre half acre one acre I don't care what the what the particular size is but putting 222 units on three and three stories and encroaching literally on everybody who's been there for a very very long time is just going to destroy the nature of this area I will consider moving I know my property value is going to decrease I know this is going to be a huge impact on my kids and I want to speak to that very clearly this area is zoned for hermosa Vista Elementary three of my four kids go to Hermosa Vista if you have 222 apartments that go into this area how many kids 400 kids 500 kids has the council considered what this school impact is going to be my kids already are very busy at their classes and we moved here because of those schools and now all of a sudden you're going to say oh sorry we have to now build another school and now we have to go find some other area for your kids to go I think that would be devastating I think you really have the potential to do something valid today and do something wonderful and and help a lot of these people we're all the vast majority of the people here today are in opposition of this proposition because it matters to us as people it matters to us as as Property Owners it matters to us and our kids I think it would be a real shame to allow this project to go forward thank you for your time thank you Ryan Nikki Rousseau welcome thank you my name is Nikki Russo I live at 1731 East Menlo a little closer to this development than Ryan or Dr KIPP um and my concern is that the developer is asking for multiple exceptions to for my rating anyway that that this is what it should be but we're asking for this why is the city considering granting those exceptions to to cram into this small place um all these apartments uh if they want if they purchase this land and as someone previously said and knew what it was zoned for then they should develop it that way if they want a zoning exception or they want to change to put multi-family units in there then they need to to give a proposal that fits within what the rules already are but clearly this development is too big for this piece of land or they wouldn't be asking for all those exceptions to the rules that are already in place to make sure that Mesa is safe and comfortable and I would be interested to hear why the city council is considering granting all those exceptions it's too many units in too small space and I do understand the need to make economic decisions I moved back to Arizona about a year and a half ago from the Chicago area grew up here and I have I understand the economic pressures but this isn't the answer um and and to speak to that I would ask are any of these units going to be affordable housing has anybody raised that with the developer um you know the the cost of rent in Mesa is prohibitive and people who have grown up their whole lives here can't afford to live here anymore because of the way the property values have skyrocketed um so who you're going to attract with this development is not long-term basic people you're going to attract the people who have been changing the character of Mesa and Arizona over the last two decades nearly two decades that I've been gone it's a different place than where I grew up and this will make it an even more different place so I would encourage the council to stick to your guns on the rules that make Mesa what it is and not Grant those exceptions thank you thank you Nikki Kim van Ripper hello my name is Kimberly Van Riper I live at 505 East Lehigh Road and thank you for the time to speak this evening when we speak about this property you cannot speak about it without recognizing the historic relevance of it Chrisman was one of the founding fathers of Mesa and the freeway was altered due to some of these historic homes right now we're looking at taking that Heritage and there's a historic overlay if I believe still on this property that's going to be lifted uh with your vote tonight you know you're taking away something really special something that you can't get back and replacing this historic relevance with Apartments is not something to be proud of and it's something you should think really really hard on this was supposed to be a park Lehigh Falls no it was uh you know there were lawsuits on this property about easements and accessibility and finally it comes down to Apartments it's clearly not compatible people in the area feel like it's not compatible and it does nothing to speak to mesa's history to the original Homestead of one of the founding fathers and this shouldn't go unsaid I heard a story about a lemon tree that it was a record setting Lemon Tree on this property It produced 1800 pounds of lemons this is what I heard during one season there was a market there where people went to go get produce and now it's going to be paved and made into Apartments please consider all of the things like this and at very least maybe push this off and allow some of the neighborhoods who haven't had a chance to really get into this and look at it and give their input to do so please put it off set it aside for tonight or vote no thank you thank you Kim Clark welcome Kim I'm Kim Clark my address is 3007 North Gilbert Road Mesa our family's been a resident of the Lehigh Community for more than 30 years when I spoke I spoke at the initial public hearing on October 20th October 2021 and again in the hearing on July 27 2022 regarding the zoning change at the October meeting I presented a petition that was signed by I actually got 156 signatures uh opposing the development I also presented results from an online survey where 59 of 61 respondents did not approve of it numerous other people also as has been mentioned a boss has also have also submitted comments and spoken spoke in opposition to the project unfortunately the developers efforts to move the project forward have not addressed these concerns in addition the staff report indicates the modifications of to the development plan that they satisfied the city's standards however they failed to deal with the unique aspects of the area and respond to issues voiced by many in the Lehi community as we're trying to get the message across Lehi is a historic active agricultural area with acreplus lots and livestock privileges horses and other livestock are common in this long-established Suburban Ranch family community the proposed apartment complex is adjacent to the Lehigh celebrity planned and will have a significant impact on the surrounding neighborhoods the substantial increase in population and Associated increase in traffic and proposed roundabout will present safety issues for Livestock and Feed haulers and even horseback riding we have already seen an increase in auto track auto traffic in Lehigh which is increasing the risk of accidents I think there was one accident with a horse already furthermore the buffer zone highlighted in this by the city actually directly connects and affects surrounding neighborhoods through planned injection points and accesses to paths along the canal and equestrian trails so before a decision is made that I'll irreversibly just transform the community please consider that this is one of the last areas of Mesa characterized by its long well-established history please help us preserve this history which is embodied within the Lehigh Community we urge you to consider an alternative use of this land that is more compatible with the area and will help retain some of the character that attracts people to the city of Mesa now not reading off my notes I know there's a lot of pressure um there's a lot of people moving here at the state developer probably even Federal pressure to try and increase housing and and add more housing but there has to be alternative sites that are more suitable for this density housing thank you thank you Kim that concludes all the blue cards that I have as mostly have there been any other cards submitted no mayor but we do have Scott Neil on the line that was calling in to speak okay thank you I'm sorry I would have had him go first if I'd been aware of that let's go ahead and invite him to so he's holding on the telephone correct correct Steve Neal Mr Neal are you with us he submitted a card with Scott okay I'm sorry Scott Neil Mr Neal can you hear us Mr Neal you need to unmute your phone if you're on the line Mr Neal if you can hear us would you go ahead and unmute your telephone and speak up and we'd be happy to hear from you all right speak up if if and when you get this message maybe we'll hear from Mr Neal maybe we won't at this point uh can you hear me now can you hear me now thank you Mr Neal yes please go ahead I wore out star six on the keyboard sorry I'm in a resident see Steve Neal 1154 East Lehigh Road been a resident for there for 29 plus years 36 plus in Mesa so I consider myself a newcomer in my Mesa shout out to all my Lehigh neighbors who've been talking today and to you the city council and Mayors great to have a chance to visit with you about this um it's really unfortunate that the the Salt River Team America pending Community didn't give up a couple hundred feet of land so that the freeway didn't get pushed and end up closing Lehigh Road and I remember the Chrisman Farmhouse being part of that decision also so that was really unfortunate really orphaned this piece of land left it you know cut it off from our homely Lehigh Road and left it there uh six responded for one time cold Frost got it one year I you know that it was hope been hoping for some productive use of that land for a long time and it's been anything but that for this stretch uh over the years I've driven by and just taken a curiosity trying to make Lehigh and Mesa a better place driving down that lonely little stretch of road and seeing that the drug deals going on ended up calling the police many times uh so I do admit it more than once I think I broke up Lovers Lane I apologize for that and one night I approached the pickup truck there with the driver slumped over the wheel very concerned this is all on the east side of Gilbert Road on that little piece of Lehigh Road and uh turns out he was passed out from drinking too much and the police came and hauled him away a funny incident that happened one time there on this crazy stretcher Road was um drove by and there was a sofa sitting there across the road and I thought well the poor Zan hero is not going to be able to drive around that at least somebody ought to move that out of the way for him so he doesn't cuss too much and and so I rolled it over and a set of keys fell out son of a gun at that set of keys didn't have a basis Central post office key fob on it and so I had the crazy idea we'd make Mesa a better place not just Lehigh I went down to the post office and put a note in the post office box when the couch is in the dump the keys will be back in this box and uh lo and behold I checked every day a couple days later the couch was gone so the keys were back there so the crazy thing about this little piece of land is that it's been you know just left there to do no good and every attempt to do some good with it's come to nothing so far so you know I'm I'm in support of doing something I think you've been doing a lot of due diligence all you and your staff so I guess I'm in support of you um in regards to roundabouts or traffic circles I I manage them just fine uh I'm in Houston at my daughter's house right now and they put in five traffic circles in her neighborhood before my wife corrects me and you know the people are adapting to it and it's working out pretty well thank you Mr and uh Mr Neal you can't see the clock but you're out of time so if you could wrap it up for us please tonight I was exactly at the end so I appreciate it very much and thank you for your time thank you for calling in Mr Neal thank you for your patience all right I think that concludes the blue cards that we um would the applicant like to speak thank you Rachel uh mayor council Adam Baugh 2525 East Arizona Biltmore Circle as I wrote down the names of the folks that spoke and kind of figured out where they live I recognize that a lot of them live you know West and North somewhere between one to three miles away and I asked myself why would folks who live not immediately next door but within that drive distance care and I think it's because Lehigh is a special place and so while you may not be proximate the desire to I think promote Lehigh as best as possible is important it's ingrained in them they've spent time living here so I certainly can understand recognize why they would come to a meeting tonight and why they have shared their their feelings and sentiments throughout the length of this case one of the things that I've seen as you're planning as a curve of the year is how change circumstances require you to revisit old ideas and one of the things that I'll show you today is what are those change circumstances that maybe require maybe a fresher look at the site than what historically has been the high when I look at this site I see some odd things it's a is it up on your guys's okay perfect thank you um it's a Remnant parcel it's a parcel that's been left over after time has passed and as you see those things there's an unusual size unusual shape but when you drive the property you have a different experience the property is depressed below the grade of the freeway depressed below the grade of the McDowell Road and it's depressed below the grade of the homes to the South and so what makes it unique and why it might be needs a different look at it today than historically is because of these site conditions not only that it doesn't have any actual legal access to Gilbert Road but for only one home per the deed restrictions on the property so while most of the folks and feedback that you heard today are from folks west of Gilbert Road this property per the a DOT title only allows one home to use Gilbert Road there's also some things that are occurring that unfortunately make the site rather unsightly illegal dumping graffiti transient activity some drug use I think the comment before me by the speaker mentioned the the couches that are dumped on the property like like the rings on a tree you could age the life of this property based on the number of couches that have been removed over time and most recently a Skidoo that I saw when I was down there I don't know how somebody got that down there here's the view from McDowell Road this view tells you how depressed it is and The Irregular topography that exists on that property today or the view from the upper Canal that's more than 50 feet taller than it so at the lowest grade of this Canal View it is still higher than the highest point of any of our buildings this is consistent with the general plan it's in the neighborhood and the Suburban character area which does allow multi-family permitted along arterial streets and freeways and also your German talks about infill sites and the desire to solve the problem of infil sites every info site I've worked on has always had its challenges they've always had opposition a lot of that though is because in order to address the difficulty of infill it does require some careful consideration deviations and sometimes density when we started this case in 2021 or actually Ryan looking at it much sooner than that we had an rm5 Proposal with 350 plus units four stories tall 50 feet tall we heard a lot of feedback was regarding views and building Heights and privacies and density and traffic transient population that was feared would be brought to this property and even phrases like those people and as it now today even hearing things like overcrowding schools we don't take those concerns lightly we recognize that that is a sentiment that is often shared with these uses but it is one that we needed to spend some time addressing and so as we went forward looking at this we've been able to make a number of changes and you'll see that with us today we've lowered this project and the Heights and the stories associated with it significantly we've lowered our density dramatically and we've implemented a number of things to improve privacy that I'll get into a little bit further today one of the key things we worked with and why you heard a lot of sentiment from Lehigh residents this is not actually within the boundaries of the Lehi sub-area per the city's policy Maps but it is an area that is important to them but one thing we have done is spend a lot of time in recognizing some of the feedback from those who are most approximate to this which include the South Side development while that neighborhood is 50 feet taller than us it still was an area of focus for us so what we ended up working out is we spent some time together here is figure out how do we lower our Heights and putting together a Good Neighbor policy that has expectations in place regarding management Landscaping lighting we put together stipulations that put a cap on the number of Stories the number of units the way the light works the how the balconies are shielded from things that may be considered unsightly we put a cap on how we can grade the property a number of things have gone in places that have been extraordinary that I haven't done in other circumstances but recognizing the value and importance of this area this is the timeline of the project but I think I'm going to spend most my time looking at the the letters in blue that's where we really started to make some significant change between October 2021 to where we are today working with the Lehigh Improvement District board meeting with neighbors one-on-one revisiting the site understanding where the most sensitive concerns are revisiting with ADOT and Mesa how to design the roundabout and as we've progressed through that finding a way to find support by the Planning Commission in July of this year with unanimous or excuse me July of last year with unanimous recommendation approval yet not bringing the case forward the ninth after taking the time it was needed to develop and resolve the issues is been significant here so as we have modified this request going forward we've now changed it it's an rm4 instead of rm5 we've removed all three bedroom units this would be 60 single bedroom units and the remaining balance 40 two bedroom and that's important distinction because I heard today one of the first times about overcrowded schools when you have predominantly one bedroom units you don't tend to have a student age population for schools and and very even minor in the two bedroom units but we removed the three bedroom units because we heard a concern from Neighbors that there would be multi-generational families living or multi-families living in one unit we want to remove that concern we've updated our traffic analysis and a lot of the numbers that you've heard have been 1906 daily traffic trips that was based on a traffic study of 350 units our new plan is 222 units about 1400 daily trips and you should not focus necessarily on the number of trips in a day because if trips are happening at 2 am in the morning does anybody notice or experience it our emphasis has been on the peak trips in the morning and the peak trips at night when most of the people are on the road and those numbers are really low also during this time we've Revisited how we design the roundabout not the type of roundabout that you experience in Mesa presently today but around about that hasn't been implemented here but has been implemented in other parts of the state that are larger aprons around them and mountable curbs only because of concerns from folks who are worried about horse trailers and how it can impact them that's a substantial change that we made for I think a small amount of people but a more a very very important group of people in this area we've also spent a lot of time and I think this hasn't been mentioned in this meeting or the preparation for this today is the benefit of the improved Trailhead that requires coordination with three different agencies SRP ADOT the city of Mesa so this proposal and I think I'll jump ahead to slide this gives you an idea of how the building will look relative to its depressed location in fact this is an old rendering this is a four-story building when we started it so you can actually if you can imagine it being about 11 feet shorter in height yet even still this building as depressed as it is below the grade lets you see how little impact if any it has on The View corridor what we have done is analyze the traffic study and this traffic study talks about this development on Gilbert Road alone if you look at that fourth bullet point we'll only add 75 cars a day just to give you some perspective 18 000 trips are happening along Gilbert Road right now or um that's the volume that's occurring we are 75 cars because we don't have an access point to Guild Road for our project to affect Gilbert Road would require a very circular route of traffic to get there um the roundabout itself has capacity to feed up to 40 000 or almost fifty thousand fifty percent um 50 cars a thousand cars a day we are significantly below the capacity and I think staff has done a good job analyzing that for you um I I said to my client on this unfortunately we gave staff too many homework assignments but they really stepped up and helped us understand what is the true traffic impact of something like this not the perception but the roundabout is important it's probably one of the most important issues on this case and as you look at the roundabouts that are designed presently they have curbs you can see the curbs there in that picture and sometimes they can be difficult to maneuver because of that vertical element what we are proposing is something that you see like this in Wickenburg the Wickenburg design has a truck apron that goes around it that truck apron has a mountable curb and so rather than your trailer hitting a vertical curb and maybe tipping or have an impact like that it works well in fact um we're going from what could be oversized Lanes with enough room to expand as needed these mountable curbs allow for easier travel but most important and why I think Strat ADOT and the City of Mesa have looked at this so closely is it will actually reduce traffic impacts and accidents because it forces people to slow as they approach a roundabout rather than make those tight left turns that are occurring right now the other benefit of it is it prevents u-turns from occurring and also wrong way drivers on on-ramps and that is a concern you do hear from time to time with freeways how do we stop these wandering wrong way drunk drivers a roundabout prevents so much of that at the end of the day it is safer it helps traffic slow down it's proven by The Institute of Highway Safety to be 75 percent less accidents and at the end day I don't think ADOT would be willing to put their stamp of approval on this design nor the city of Mesa unless they felt there was significant value for it in lieu of what the other options might be the other significant benefit that comes along with this is the trailhead improvements If you experience this proper right now today you will see trash and debris and Thirst Buster cups and some drug paraphernalia but it is not an area that's inviting to anybody to walk to jog or to ride a horse by doing the trailhead Improvement here we are donating land to the city we will improve that area that Improvement will be approved by SRP and ADOT in cooperation with the city of Mesa but at our cost and our maintenance obligations and what that does is it fills in I think a missing link that the town the city spent so much time creating in these trails from made to review all the way up to Granite Reef Dam but in this spot now that linkage can be fulfilled and I think that's one of the reasons why we spent so much time trying to get it right just the grades of the property and how Ada access Works have been important to us but how those areas are laid out will be critical and what this will do is create a safer place for the Lehigh residents and the folks in the Hermosa Vista area to also be able to use that Trailhead so at the end of the day what are some of the benefits no more illegal dumping no more skidus on the property no more transients or some of the other trash things that have occurred in there a new Canal Escape that actually makes it inviting to walk on new Trailhead improvements improved vehicular safety solves so many of the site challenges that are inherent with site and when people talk through why not something else the reason is something else requires so much expense and cost to solve that it doesn't bear itself out with such low density that people are asking for I can't do that with nine acres and I clearly a park doesn't create the type of Revenue needed to solve these site issues what we can do is though provide new diverse housing opportunities at a very healthy rent price point that creates New Economic Development without some of those negative impacts so at the end of the day when you think through what is best here and what's changed I don't think we'd be having this discussion if a freeway had not come here I think this Lehigh area is a special area and it would have been contiguous with the rest of it but it's not it's literally excuse me figuratively an Island by itself surrounded by a hill on one side a freeway and another side McDowell Road on one other side and then a little bit of a Gilbert on other side the fact that it's an island to itself is a circumstance created by ADOT and the way this freeway was aligned and because it's such unique odd shape parcel it requires a different fresher look than what maybe has historically been this is not a disruption to Lehigh this is a recognition of of how special the place it has been by putting it here and away from any large lots that otherwise might be adjacent to it I think it complies the general plan and that's why staff say would recommend approval it complies with site plan criteria it complies with this staff recommendation the unanimous approval from the PNC commission a reason why ADOT and SRP are so excited about it and I think the city hopefully too because it creates benefits that can't be solved to the site today I have gone on way too long if I consider the number of gray hairs we've all generated from something like this Mark Freeman used to be blonde back when this case started but I appreciate the deliberation that each of you have considered these residents have something special in this area that cannot be overlooked or understated but I also recognize that we have a different circumstance today than old Lehigh in the past and the best way to make something meaningful is something like this that addresses all those challenges in recognition of the impacts that it has today with that in my presentation but of course standing by if there are any comments I'd also let you know we have Daryl Truitt from EPS who can maybe answer any questions that you might have regarding some of the traffic information that has been presented to you today thank you Mr ball I think uh council do we have questions for Mr ball okay Miss spilsberry go ahead hi thank you um I feel comfortable with the roundabout questions that I had downstairs um but I still don't feel like I've gotten a great answer on the neighborhood Outreach especially the neighborhood to the South that's up on the hill so were they reached out to did they get the letter and both times like why are we having people say they just found out about it yeah it's perplexing to me too before my involvement there was another lawyer participating in the case but I know Ryan Nelson developer on this case has had multiple meetings with folk scenario there's been two neighborhood memes have been Zoom meetings there's been two sets of public letters that have gone out that comply with the state statutes and city ordinances I've met in some of the neighbors homes for times or so on the row houses right behind us in fact that led to the letter that you may have seen in your packet withdrawing some opposition in fact those meetings helped us guide us to the plan changes that we needed I know that I wrote down a lot of the addresses here folks that live one to three miles away wouldn't receive notice of it because of their significant distance farther away but in addition to the million requirement it also requires it to be sent to HOAs and registered neighbor organizations and the reason why the city does that the expectation is that gets promoted to whoever it gets sent to within their mailing list I would say the inverse is true the fact that folks three miles away are participating in this case lets you know that notice has gone out significantly greater than what is the otherwise requirement now every case I've had always there's somebody that mentions notice doesn't receive but within the boundaries of what's required of a statute and the number means we've had in the newspaper articles in the Facebook posts and next door it's been more than normal So when you say that no you mean South okay okay um that's my only question for the applicant thank you any other questions for Mr ball Ms Duff yes I have just a question um I see we have a pedestrian pathway and access to the trails is there pedestrian pathway goes under the there's a underpass I guess does it go connect to the park and ride Could you actually walk and ride um no the the connection point is at the McDowell the south east corner of our site where the park and ride is is on the north side of the 202 Freeway there's no there's no way there's no tunnel underneath to that but it does connect to the city's new Trailhead and path that will go on that other side of that of Mcdowell so there's a it's there's a there's a linking to a Trailhead that the city is putting in that goes on the trail behind Lehigh Crossing to the east right yes right but there's no way to really get to the park and ride oh through off of Gilbert Road the other direction towards uh McDowell so I don't it'd be really cool especially when you have a part of apartment I don't know how you get to have an alternative to picking up we might need a suspension bridge to cross I just thought about it while I was here and otherwise I would have drove out there and kind of looked at the infrastructure but it would be really cool if you didn't have to drive across the street to pick up Transit not the street but the freeway but I I don't know know if there's any Pathways I think that would require some degree of coordination with ADOT I think we're asking to go under the freeway overpass you can just walk along the trail to Gilbert Road and walk up Gilbert Road to the park and ride yeah just get on Gilbert Road yeah and Gilbert Roadhouse sidewalks without intersecting okay reflection there's a there's a sidewalk that connects you could either go through The Pedestrian underpass and then you'd be on the side of the road of the park and ride and then you could walk on the sidewalk along McDowell that would take you to the park and ride or you could okay good it's about a it's a quarter mile yeah for anybody who's wanted Transit instead of you know as a very close to Transit so I want to take advantage of that that's the only question I have for you thank you thank you Ms Goforth um so you in this presentation that said on Gilbert Road excuse me you would only add about 75 cars correct that's because there's no access from our project to Gilbert Road so for us to get to Gilbert Road we'd have to exit off McDowell either go south or north and wrap around to Gilbert Road yeah my name is Daryl true EPS group we did the traffic study 75 cars north of McDowell a lot of people who go south of the DAP McDowell or South if they're going to go on get on the freeway and head to Phoenix to go to work or are they going to go the other way there just aren't that many people that want to head out to Shea Boulevard or the Indian Reservation so north of Mcdowell we're just talking about the impact on that neighborhood there that's North I think okay excuse me thank you any other questions for the applicant thank you Mr Bob thank you I've been told we might have left someone on the phone as uh is Sean Lake holding to to speak he was on the line but I don't know if he wishes to speak apparently sent a text message indicating he would like to speak Mr Lake are you there am I unmuted now yes Mr am I unmuted now we hear you yes go ahead mayor council members it's a pleasure to be here on this side as a neighbor uh it doesn't happen very often uh my family we've only been part of Mesa I'm finding out I'm a newcomer we've only been part of the Mason since 1976 with Golden Hills and Bush Highway out there my wife and I have lived here uh up on the Mesa just up on the Mesa for about 27 years uh just up the hill and so we've known about this project I I kind of Google Maps a lot of people that spoke we live closer than most people that spoke here this evening but we live just up the hill and we have known about this and we have uh been involved in a lot of my neighbors know what's going on so I know that was a question for the people up the hill know what was going on yeah we've known what's going on this has been an extremely unique piece of property for a very long time this is where my children learn to ride motorcycles and learn to drive cars and there's really been nothing done on this property for a great deal of time since the freeway went in and really created this isolated hole if you sit in the property or you're watching your kids ride their motorcycles you really do sit in a hole surrounded by freeways and roadways and canals they're just kind of Unto yourself and so I agree with Mr Bond his statement's about that um I think what they have done the concessions that they have made along the way make this a good project we take this big good use for this property quite frankly I think it should be a more intense use like a retail gas station or Industrial Development but I don't think that would go over well I think this is a good compromise use I think this is a good use that will provide a Housing Opportunity for my children my kids we've raised our children living here in the last 27 years and there's not a lot of places to go for them to go buy homes in Napa anymore because of what's happened over the last five years and so this will provide an opportunity for my children to find a place to live and so I think that's a good uh outcome of this development I think they've made great concessions they have great buffers on the North a freeway great bumpers on the south the Mesa and the and the canal and east and west and so it's surrounded by great buffers it really doesn't impact anybody the traffic will go out to McDowell and those of us that take McDowell many times every day is not as busy as it could be certainly not as busy as Mckellips and saw that the McDowell Road certainly can handle the limited amount of traffic that would uh be produced here would I prefer a park here absolutely but I don't think all of the residents of the city of Mesa think that's the case but if the city council wants to build a park here they certainly at any time even after the vote tonight can come by this property from this property owner and build a park but I don't think that's in the cards I think what's in the cards is a good development here that my children will be able to have an opportunity to live and other people's children will have an opportunity list I think this is a good concessions good compromise good changes I think this is a good project that should be should be supportive in my neighborhood I live just up the Mesa from this project so with that I I support this project and it urge you to do so thank you mayor did I make it under three minutes uh yes I think you did good your timing was right on thank you thank you Mr Lake all right thank you I believe that concludes all the blue cards all of the folks on the line we've heard from the applicant Council uh any council members wish to discuss these items Miss Pillsbury I just wanted to ask Mary maybe if you could tell us from your point of view how it complies with the general plan I think that's a valid point in that we need to make sure that we're looking at that so the general plan designation on this is the neighborhood and So that obviously is promoting residential uses and it's a Suburban so it's the the sub-area type is Suburban it fits within that character area for those residential type uses within that General plan designation okay thank you I grew up in Mesa and I grew up in North Mesa and um I thought until just a few years ago when I got on Council that Lehigh was its own town I didn't even realize that Lehigh was just a part of Mesa that's how special and unique you guys are and I had lots of friends who lived in Lehigh and um it's a beautiful area and I love it and I I even when it means that you're unhappy I love seeing residents get engaged and come and I read all of your emails um I've I've listened intently to all of your thoughts and feelings and I I want to thank you for coming um and and being here to participate in the process because it's so important I a similar project in my district um I talked to the I reached out to May's public schools and talked to them about the same concern um and I was told around almost the exact same number just a little bit over 200 units would be about 30 kids that's it not 500 so it's way way less than what I thought too when I asked um with with the one and two bedroom as stated um I also just I was going to say what what Sean just said is that I have six children and a lot of them are entering young adult stage and I want them to stay in Mesa and I want them to live here and there's not a lot of places and I would love nothing more than for them to get an apartment in Lehigh with these wonderful neighborhoods and wonderful peoples and wonderful churches and and a place that we're right after they get married they could rent an apartment here and that they could be a part of your community it would be a great place for them to come and so anyways I have a lot more thoughts and stuff but I um I've really looked into all the safety concerns I feel really comfortable that the roundabout um you know it there's obviously it's been mentioned but the death number just decreases drastically at that slow speed and I so I feel good that that is the right way to go with this roundabout so those are just some of my thoughts um and and why I will be in support of this project thank you Miss Pillsbury I know Mr Freeman has Mr you want to go ahead yeah so while you have Barry cued up let's talk about the historic uh designation and tags and when that happened how that happened can you give us some dates and timelines and what the council action if it moves forward what that will do tonight so what are the requests sorry mayor council one of the requests of the city council tonight is to remove the historic overlay and back in April of 2010 the historic preservation board actually made a recommendation to remove that historic overlay because it was a fire on the site that had destroyed the buildings they were removed so the the historic value of the site really was lost when those buildings were lost so one of the actions that city council will make tonight is the in the request is the removal of that historic overlay which was a recommendation from the historic preservation board back in 2010. and that should have probably been done sooner than tonight obviously it was just probably omitted through time or or has it happened during the rezoning process it's happening through the rezoning process um to allow the development her had another project come in on that site it probably should have come to city council sooner than where we are today well I do have some comments because I I wanted to be very thorough on what I said and and I appreciate all of you some of you my neighbors and friends and yeah this is this has been very important to me because we all have a passion for our neighborhoods and I've had many meetings on this parcel for the past two years trying to work out different issues on it but this Parts parcel has been available to purchase for the last 16 years it's been available and it does have a historical significance for Lehigh in fact I'm going to get a little historical on you my great great grandfather homesteaded this ground and he raised his family there his wife lived there he died in 1890 and then his wife lived there for a period of time and then she could no longer manage the farm she moved to Mesa then her two sons took over the property divided it up and farmed it for many decades I remember taking my grandfather out there to visit his cousins and even then the farm itself was very dilapidated it was poorly taken care of and the Orchards were falling in disarray today has been pointed out I've been out there many times through the years in my elected position has turned into a trash collection a place for urban camping graffiti drug use as well as illegal ATV dirt riding sex trafficking Motocross activity and More in fact I've requested our transportation and police department to monitor this area and they do that quite frequently or Transportation paints covers the graffiti in the tunnel probably every two weeks and that comes at a cost for our people here I can see a resurrection into a beautiful development where this will complement the area and provide a diversity of housing that we desperately need the developer for this project is making a significant investment approximately 70 million dollars to make a luxury market rate professionally managed apartment complex I spent additional time working to make sure that the unused portions of the land would be integrated into the project and would be contiguous to the 5.4 million dollar Trailhead that we will be building this year just on the other side of the McDowell tunnel head this will make it a safe and desirable access for all users including our equestrian users which January 30th this year I participated in trail ride from Val Vista cul-de-sac On the Canal bank utilizing all the assets that we have there are 55 people on horses they're approximately horses and drawing wagons and approximately 90 people using this Trailhead commemorating the Pioneer Crossing into the Lehigh area this is something that is personal to me and I enjoy that so this will be a desirable access for all users including the surrounding neighborhoods for future planned and multi-use paths as far as blaming the city at this point a buyer and developer are engaging in a zoning process it is not the job of the city to tell the developer what they should build but rather vet out any proposals brought forward staff has done their due diligence and is supported by the Planning and Zoning Board and is recommending approval foreign my colleagues and I spent an incredible amount of time to make sure projects are compatible with our respective areas sometimes there's a lot of tear shed and people are upset but we try to make and work out the best solution that fits to everyone I've studied the crash data on McDowell and Gilbert Road the intersections you've heard about that the amount of left turn crashes that have happened there and the Damage that's been caused and the injuries a roundabout will help mitigate that and today McDowell Road the traffic count is at 11 000 cars per day on McDowell Road and the capacity is 33 000 cars per day so you can see there's not a whole lot of significance if four or five hundred Nineteen Hundred cars use that per day there is a Good Neighbor policy in place that protects the homeowners on top of the hill you know Mesa is a family City the Mesa average rent for an 850 square foot apartment is if you want to guess between fifteen and eighteen hundred dollars they say 30 percent of your gross monthly income should go towards rent to pay a fifteen hundred dollar housing cost one in need to make six thousand dollars a month in income that would translate that that person would make seventy two thousand dollars a year in gross income this is the reason for these apartments is as far as skilled Workforce our young professionals that Mesa needs to continue to attract Economic Development and jobs in our city this housing is for our young families our sons and daughters grandparents parents who want to stay in the area but cannot afford a six hundred thousand plus house in the area a single family home I know our area is special I live there too there are families who want to downsize and new families that will grow it's important that we create a variety of housing for the area for everyone can stay in the area this project will pay tribute to the history of the area by having design elements that capture the historic significance of the Chrisman Homestead these are many reasons why I support the project and look forward to be added value to one of mesa's great historic areas thank you man thank you Mr Freeman other comments uh I'll weigh in uh I'm pretty sure I lived closer to this than anyone who has spoken tonight I have lived in the neighborhood adjacent to this property for 30 years 30 of the 62 years that I've lived in Mesa Arizona so I'm very familiar with this piece of property and I was always pretty pessimistic that it would ever develop given the the challenges that are tied to this piece of property it as has been indicated this is an island that was created by the development of the 202 Freeway and um I won't tell you the things that I personally have seen and heard and found uh on this property and on the sheep herder Park property adjacent to it but but the status quo of this property is not good this is not something to preserve this is something that needs to be rehabilitated and again I've been very pessimistic that that was ever going to happen given the the challenges the topography I just didn't see how anyone could come in and do it cost effectively so I've I've been very surprised that this developer has been been able to to make a proposal that makes sense uh I can tell you all the the wish list that I've heard from people about what to do with this property none of that is possible because of the development costs to make that property accessible and to to have to provide the infrastructure that's necessary for that property to be developed so uh this is the only viable solution for this property I have I was on our Council when this property was purchased from the Chrisman family I was on this Council when we made the decision to put The Pedestrian underpass underneath McDowell to connect this property with the with the property to the north ever since that was constructed The Pedestrian bike horse Canal or a pathway that's been through there has been very underutilized and has been not a good place a lot of Nefarious activity occurs there I'm excited that with the the potential for this piece of property because we are as Mr Brady indicated spending many million dollars to the to the north of this to create a Trailhead that's going to give recreational access to the people of Mesa to to utilize that wonderful Canal that goes from McDowell uninterrupted all the way up to the Granite Reef diversion Dam it's a very unique and wonderful Trail six miles where you can hike or bike or ride a horse and you won't interact with any vehicular traffic that's a very special piece of property and this the improvements associated with this apartment complex are going to allow uh for the folks who live in my neighborhood to the south of this property to access that pedestrian underpass in a safe way for the first time ever so that was one of my asks for this development to go forward is for them to to improve that part of this project so that the public would have access so it wasn't just a development for for the those who lived there but also for the communities the neighborhoods that surround it so there's been a lot of great questions raised tonight I I appreciate the passion of the residents of Lehigh I assure you that if we thought this was Lehigh we would fall on our swords to protect it everyone is is very committed to preserving Lehigh keeping Lehigh Lehigh I honestly can tell you this is not Lehigh this is a Remnant piece that was created as a result of the freeway and it's like I say not something we we want to preserve this is something that is in desperate need of Rehabilitation um so for all of those reasons I uh I I appreciate my my council member Mr Freeman representing me in my neighborhood he's been Relentless uh for the last couple of years in holding the the this development to some very high standards and chasing down every Rabbit Hole of possible concerns uh and so I appreciate the time that Mr Freeman has spent on this so I've been having said that uh I can tell you if I wasn't the mayor I would be sitting out there and I would be arguing for this zoning case uh on behalf of my neighborhood and if I didn't feel that way I you know there's not enough money you can pay me to vote for his own case that I thought was going to be detrimental to my neighborhood or that I thought was going to detract from Lehigh all right having said that um I see that it canceled any additional discussion on this case I see that Ms spilsbury has made a motion seconded by Mr Freeman for approval please vote all right the Voting is unanimous in favor of the agenda item the next thank you very much for everyone who came we appreciate your passion about your neighborhood we appreciate you coming and sharing your thoughts with us uh the next item on our agenda is items from citizens present Ms Mosley I have two requests to speak do you have anything more than that no mayor they're the only two all right thank you we'll begin with Gail Merritt Gail are you still here she's here okay thank you welcome Gail you have three minutes thank you um good evening my name is Gail Merritt I live at 2863 East Fountain Street there are two homes in my neighborhood that have one one home has a group home for disabled and another home has assisted living in it and those two homes have never bothered me the whole time I've lived in the neighborhood a year ago at 2865 East Fox which is just a straight north of me I found out from a friend that there was a felon recovery house that had gone in next door to her and other than them lighting a lot of firework there has been no problem with them and so I haven't thought about it very much until um about a month ago I noticed people moving into the home across the street from me and I couldn't really tell who the mom and dad were you know because I usually go over to visit and introduce myself [Music] um but I couldn't tell who was moving in there were a lot of adults going in and out on the 21st of January police were there in front of the house they had been called to break up a home between I mean break up a fight between residents and in the house and then as the police were there an ambulance showed up and took away a resident that had overdosed the police told our neighbors the the the the the new hot the house across the street from us was a substance abuse recovery home when I found this out I called my neighbor and friend Mike Kennington who I know you all know he's a neighbor he told me to call Mark Freeman who is an old friend of mine I'm sorry that I oh you're fine did I say that you were inside jokes you can't drop Mike Kennington and Mr Freeman's names and not get a reaction in this way okay okay all right do you are you enemies or something okay okay all right all right okay um so I have put in a complaint of the Code Compliance um about what's going on across the street um uh two weeks ago I was outside working in my front yard and I heard the screaming and and verbal abuse and uh cussing going on and notice the the neighbor across the street had the window open in in their top floor and um then about four or five days later I was standing in the front yard and I heard more screaming and yelling going on between a man and a woman upstairs and there were three people that were outside in the in the garage and I said what's going on upstairs do you should I call the police and then one of the lady ran upstairs and then the fighting stopped um three of the residents who who don't look like the normal residents in our neighborhood we're outside smoking they were on they were sitting on the curb by the mailbox and a couple of children that I knew that that go to Mountain View we're walking down the street coming home from school and then they came over to my side of the street because they they they just did and I assume it's because they felt uncomfortable Gail you're out of time so if you could just wrap it up okay I'm wrapping it up I don't understand why we have these homes in our neighborhoods we've got you know nice homes this is where my husband and I went to retire and to live out our our lives and meanwhile we've got homes that we're we're afraid of of our safety we are we can see our home value plummeting and I wish we could stop having these kind of houses thank you thank you Gail William Bodine all Mr Bodine is coming up I'll just say because these items aren't on our agenda to both uh Gail and William we can't engage in a dialogue with you and so but we can certainly talk afterwards totally aware thank you Council it's been a long evening my name is William Bodine I live at 2847 East Fountain Street right across the street from this new drug house that came into our neighborhood it's not very fun is it to have a drug rehab house next door to you or you or you because you think of your safety your children your neighborhood your friends seniors who've retired there we want to retire there I don't know now I don't know now what's unique about this is that they are not in compliance with regulations they're not registered with the city of Mesa they started this without registering letting them know that you're you have this house in our neighborhood and they're operating a business here you know if I decide to start a taco shop tomorrow at my home and I had the police come out two times have a drug overdose have a transient walking up and down our street and even invited into the drug house you wouldn't extend them any benefits you wouldn't extend them any extensions to say hey get get your acting cord we'll give you another month to get your registration complied with no you'd shut me down you shut me down within several days so think about that as we struggle as these neighborhoods we we're in the nice niche market we don't live in the million dollar homes we don't live in the 300 000 homes right in the middle and it's profitable for people to try and come in without being registered with the city of Mesa and take advantage of that additionally this drug house is shares a back wall with this other house this Correctional Facility house police have already said we've seen needles on your street not never heard of that before in the years that I've lived there we have transients walking down our street now pause pushing shopping carts with their belongings never been there before what can be done you have the capacity I saw it tonight you changed the zoning you did it you can do that if you want to you can look at the codes have they violated the codes when they remodeled the house do we check to see if they actually kept those codes in force I don't know I guess I've talked to the code Department to find that out so you can make that choice you can decide not to have a network of drug houses in our little Community how many more as a developer and try and put another drug house in because it's profitable to that LLC that is resides in Tempe doesn't have to deal with it um enact new codes and zoning ordinances I've seen you do it tonight and there were hard decisions made a decision on this little neighborhood come and see it go visit the drug house see what it's like I'd be happy to sit on any Advisory board that the council will put together ask me I'll help I I'm assertive I'm aggressive you know you can you can feel these strip malls with these type of institutional residents they're empty fill them up perfect spot for them Council thanks for your consideration good evening thank you for being here Mr Bodine that concludes all of the items on our agenda for this meeting is there a motion to adjourn thank you Mr Summers and Ms spilsbury all fever favor please say aye aye thank you we are adjourned foreign [Music]