of what makes the men's final four a larger than life event one important initiative that we've already launched is read to the final four it's a free Statewide contest to inspire Arizona third graders to accelerate their reading skills in a bracket style competition the champion school and readers will be crowned on Friday April 5th and we're thrilled to share that already we have 15 ,350 Arizona third graders participating from 59 school districts and 240 schools across the state including 150 tital one schools and yes we are excited about it and I have to tell you these third graders have already read more than 10 million minutes combined and they are just getting started you'll notice that many of us are wearing sneakers today we are recognizing the 30th anniversary of coaches versus cancer and we'll have more on that later and now it's my pleasure to introduce Arizona governor Katie Hobbs a true champion for Arizona for its residents and for the Min and for the men's final four hi good morning everyone it is great to welcome the NCAA to Arizona and here to East Lake Park an integral part of this community and Central piece of Phoenix history it was here that Phoenix's civil rights leaders came together as they push for equality and today this Center serves as both a reminder of the past and a place to recognize progress today we are lucky to be celebrating two things we are officially just 80 days away from the start of the NCAA men's final four and this historic facility will soon have have refurbished basketball courts both inside and outside as you know Arizona is no stranger to hosting major sporting events having been the home of Super Bowl 57 the Waste Management Phoenix Open and the World Baseball Classic just last year and each time we show off why Arizona does it best and that's exactly what we'll do again in April tourism is a big part of Arizona's booming economy and the men's final four will have a Maj impact on businesses across the state especially in the lodging Hospitality restaurant and transportation sectors in 2017 the last time Arizona hosted this event the final four generated $324 million in economic impact and I have no doubt that this time around will be just as successful if not more but the benefits of the men's final four go far beyond the economic impact this event also leaves a positive Legacy that will endure long after the games have been played today you'll hear more about important Community projects that will take place in the runup to the 2024 men's final four one of them right here at East Lake Community Center A Gathering Place enjoyed by so many local residents I want to thank the NCAA for choosing Phoenix to host this iconic championship for the second time in seven years no doubt our partnership will continue far beyond this year's games and I also wanted wish Arizona's teams the best of luck as they pursue their dream of playing in State Farm stadium for a championship so to our Arizona State sundevils University of Arizona Wildcats gr Canyon University anal opes and my Elma moders team the Northern Arizona University Lumberjacks I know you will all make Arizona proud thank you so much Governor thank you so much for being with us and really for all of your support it means the world okay and now please welcome councilwoman Kesha Hajj Washington who represents Phoenix City Council District 8 we are in her home right now and so we're happy to hear from councilwoman Washington good morning good morning and welcome to District 8 is my pleasure to have you here today East Lake is the has a long and glorious history in the Phoenix Community it was established back in 1889 as a Gathering Place for neighborhood meetings picnics concerts sport events and other recreational activities for African-Americans the center and its namesake played a central role in the civil rights movement in Arizona it hosted numerous rallies and visits from civil rights leaders such as Dr Mark Luther King the park was also the starting point for many Civic marches to the Arizona state capital and has hosted a large Jun te celebration for many years and on Monday we started our annual MLK March right on the street next door I am so excited to announce that the indoor and outdoor basketball courts here at the historic East Lake Park will be refurbished in the ncaa's final four Legacy project presented by Degree deodorant you will hear more of the details of this project later in the program but I am so grateful to for the support of the NCAA univ liver and the Phoenix local organizing committee to provide a positive and lasting impact on our community thank you each and everyone of here for being here today and have a great day thank you so much for joining us we are really excited about the project here and the NCAA men's final for legacy project presented by Degree deodorant I cannot wait to see the unveil in April now we're going to roll a quick Sizzle vid video before we get into our panel so check out the screens Phoenix was born for basketball a place where the love for the game runs deeper than the canyons and the excitement is as endless as the Arizona sky in Phoenix basketball fans are not just Spectators they are the heartbeat of the game this level of passion is the reason why the 20124 NCAA men's final four is coming to the Valley from April 5th to the 8th the madness tips off with the NCAA men's Final Four FanFest presented by Capital One a sports Wonderland full of interactive games with special celebrity and athlete appearances for fans of all ages to enjoy the March Madness Music Festival presented by AT&T Capital 1 and Coca-Cola turns Phoenix into the hottest ticket in the country with a free 3-day concert series featuring some of the biggest acts in music the day before for the semi-final games Reese's men's final four Friday and the nabc Reese's allstar game take place each one of the final four teams will take the court at the stadium for a day of open practices a rare chance to see top student athletes close real close and absolutely free join us at tip off tailgate presented by Nissan for the best pregame party in the city fans can enjoy enjoy pep Ries musical performances basketball themed games plus food and beverages the men's final for dribble presented by Buick is a once in a-lifetime opportunity for kids 18 and under to receive a free official NCAA basketball to dribble along a route through Scenic Downtown Phoenix and then of course the madness the top four teams fac off in the most anticipated college basketball games of the year Phoenix you've been waiting for this moment and it's finally here the valley the passionate fans the [Music] atmosphere everything is [Applause] ready okay well we are going to get started with our panel the first one is going to focus on college basketball and the NCAA tournament and it's my pleasure to welcome Dr Charles mlen on your right um Dr mclen is chair of the NCAA Division one men's basketball committee as well as the southwestern Athletic Conference commissioner please welcome Dr mlen next to him is Dan gavit NCA a senior vice president of basketball and Josh bartlein who was still tired from last night's game apparently feel like I played in the game I was just watching you sound like you played in the game so Josh is here uh because he was the captain of the 2013 Michigan men's final four team in addition to being our CEO of our very own Phoenix Suns and Mercury welcome Josh thank you okay so Charles we're going to get started with you tell us what it is about Phoenix the greater area the valley the state that really makes this a place that you want to bring this Marquee NCAA event Jay thank you for the question and obviously dealing with the basketball vernacular that question is a layup for me very easy the weather um you know we got here and some people told us that it was cold it's not cold at all uh I left 9° and Al abama you know 70 this weekend this is what Phoenix in the valley is all about the Magnificent weather and we know this it's going to be a long cold winter to be able to come here in the spring celebrate and be able to immerse ourselves in the culture that's here within this community it's you know mindblowing to us uh within the committee you know second and it's somewhat underrated uh a lot of our our championships are in the South and in the East but now that we're you know in the mountain time zone is going to be somewhat unique to be able to start early and finish early and again we think that is going to lead to a lot of uh additional spending uh within the community because they're going to have additional time to visit Phoenix and visit all of the wonderful restaurants and all of the things that Phoenix uh has to offer and thirdly uh being from the Deep South we kind of pride ourselves on you know the community and I feel the same here as I do you know in the Deep South everyone uh is very collegial they're nice you know have to say hats off to Arizona State for the Magnificent job that they've done the local organizing uh committee visit Phoenix the volunteers it's just the people and that ultimately what makes a final four and that's why we've come back to Phoenix because you put on a magnificent show yeah thank you that means a lot to us and Dan you were here for the 2017 men's final for the first time we hosted uh and we I'd just love to hear kind of what you thought about that experience why you wanted to bring it back so quickly in 2024 well incredible experience for the teams that were fortunate enough to be here you know it was only the SEC this is only the second time in the last 29 years that the NCA has had the men's final four in the western part of the United States the first time of course was in 2017 and as Charles noted it was just an incredible experience for the four teams that advanced here and we know that because every year after the final four we make a campus visit to the four schools that were fortunate enough to be in the men's final four we visit with the president athletic director coaches student athletes and we know for certain that North Carolina Gonzaga Oregon and South Carolina who were fortunate enough to play here three two of them for the first time ever in the men's final four had an incredible experience here in Phoenix in the Valley of the Sun and we're fortunate and know that uh whoever advances and is lucky enough and talented enough to get here in April will have that same kind of experience experience couldn't be more thrilled to be back excellent thank you well just sticking with that kind of history I mean you have amazing basketball Roots it's in your DNA Dan there's nothing you haven't done in college in college basketball um but talk about kind of the history of Arizona and what our history good afternoon welcome to the formal meeting of the Phoenix City Council we'll begin with an invocation from fire captain Troy holtorf Father in heaven we thank you for this day and for every single person in this room and in this city we bow not just our heads but our hearts to you now father we know that it is you and you alone who can help you are the one who holds this city together and we thank you now for the amazing and unending unending Grace that you give us God you have shown us time and time again how you can take something small and do big things with this it like five loaves of bread and two fish you are the same God father The God Who multiplied blessings then can multiply Blessings Now we pray that we would believe that just as your first followers did help us to believe Lord father we ask for you to bless today's meeting all the little things that are being put into action would you use them to produce big things big results according to your will and your way we trust in you because Lord you are enough your grace is sufficient for us and Lord we pray that we would build this city using your Plum line of Truth not ours we pray that by your grace we wouldn't stray from it please forgive us where we have father take us back to your heart God we your children need you help us to do what is good and to run From Evil we know that when we do this God you the Lord of Heaven's armies will be our helper the one who goes before us and the one who stands behind us help us God protect us be with us it's in the name of the faithful one Jesus Christ that I pray this amen please remain standing for the pledge of Alle councilwoman Deborah Stark will vice mayor Deborah Stark will lead us flag United States stands Nation indivisible andice for thank you Captain and vice mayor we'll Now call the formal meeting to order will the clerk call the role councilwoman Ansari here councilwoman wado here councilwoman Hodge Washington here counc councilwoman O'Brien here councilwoman Pastor here councilman Robinson here councilman wearing vice mayor Stark mayor goo here Mario baras is with us to provide interpretation as is ELC dwarte Mario would you introduce yourself yes mayor thank you as you've already mentioned my name is Mario wahas and together with my colleague Elsie darte will'll be serving as today's Spanish interpreters I'll now take a moment to introduce ourselves to our Spanish speaking audience [Music] thank you mayor thank you will the clerk please read the 24-hour paragraph the titles of the following ordinance and resolution numbers on the agenda were available to the public at least 24 hours part of this council meeting and therefore may be read by title or agenda item only ordinances number G 7161 7 172 and 7218 through 7220 and s50 493 through 50529 thank you will the City attorney please explain the role of public comment yes thank you mayor members of the public may speak for up to two minutes to comment on agenda items comments must be related to the agenda item and the action being considered by the council General comments that go beyond the scope of the agenda item must be made in the citizen comment session at the end of the agenda the city council and staff cannot discuss or comment on matters related to pending investigations claims or litigation additionally any member of the public who appears before Council in their capacity as a lobbyist must as required by Phoenix city code disclose this fact before addressing Council the city code requires speakers to present their comments in a respectful and courteous manner profane language threats or personal attacks on members of the public council members or staff are not allowed person who violates these rules will lose the opportunity to continue to speak thank you item number one is boards and commissions as revised vice mayor thank you I'd like to move to approve mayor and city council boards and commission nominations as revised second second we have a motion in a second we do have one public comment on this item Richard right not seeing Richard all those in favor please say I I any oppose nay passes unanimously congratulations to our new Commissioners we will now hold a swearing in ceremony and thank you for your service hand I do that I will support the con the United States support States and the Constitution and laws of the state theit and laws of the state that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the Al and defend them against all enemies foreign and domestic enies and that I will faithfully and impartially dis discharge the duties office of discharge the duties of the state your office according to the best of my ability so help me God service to the city congratulations and welcome AB e thank you all for your service congratulations to Gail Knight on her doctorate as well the city council provides an advisory role on liquor licenses to the State of Arizona we'll go next to that portion of our agenda vice mayor do we have a motion yes I move to approve items two through six second we have a motion in a second any comments all those in favor please say I I any oppose nay passes unanimously city clerk are we ready for ordinances resolutions new business planning and zoning yes mayor vice mayor do we have a motion yes I move to approve items 7 through 60 accept the following items 15 24 26 30 43 48 58 and 59 noting that item 57 is continued to February 7th 2024 that item 59 has additional information and excluding these additional items for virtual public comment item 40 and can the clerk confirm if there are any other items that should be excluded for imperson public comment yes mayor vice mayor also excluding item 14 that would be item 14 second all right we have a motion in a second roll call Ansari yes wado yes hjj Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes Gayo yes passes 90 item 14 is an exciting one an ordinance authorizing the issuance of General obligation bonds do we have a motion move to approve uh Richard is here to provide comments um for clarification this is uh item number 14 I just um yeah so I'm not opposed um I just want to say that this grants really need to go to Central City neighborhood invested in over time um in one of those neighborhoods uh the streets are cracked uh the speed bumps don't have painting on sidewalks are in disrepair there are no shade trees um as his help on this and I will be Yamin Ansari she is my member so thank you thank you I want thank councilman hudge Washington for chairing this campaign which will help bring new resources to our entire city from library to fire station roll call Ansari yes wado yes Hodge Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes Gayo yes passes 90 item 15 is an agreement with the Maricopa County Community College District for student placements I move to approve item 7 15 second second noting that councilwoman Pastor will not be participating in this roll call anari yes wado yes Hajj Washington yes O'Brien yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes Gayo yes passes 8 Z we next go to item 24 which is authorization to apply accept disperss funds related to a climate pollution reduction Grant do we have a motion I move to approve second we'll go to councilwoman anari for comments thank you mayor I'd like to start by thanking the Biden Administration and our members of Congress who spearheaded voted for and passed the inflation reduction act our nation's largest ever investment in climate response and mitigation Phoenix along with many other cities in the valley have very ambitious and important climate goals goals that would be much much much harder to accomplish without this historic support from the federal government I wholeheartedly support this Grant application it could provide up to $500 million for Maricopa County cities to invest in electrification weatherization public transit and much more thank you thank you this is an exciting one that gives us real resources to address a very important challenge but also improve quality of life reduce People's Energy bills and more so looking forward to you supporting it roll call Ansari yes waro yes hjj Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes Gayo yes passes 90 item 26 is amend ordinance to add Federal Community Development block rant funding for marville Parkway Terrace affordable housing program do we have a motion I move to approve item 26 back in we'll turn to councilman gado for comments thank you mayor mville teris is in District 5 is a multifam property community of 108 spacious one-bedroom apartments that serve seniors 62 or older and persons with disabilities the property is a twostory garden style Rental Community located minutes from shopping restaurant healthc care facilities transportation in a senior center it has on-site service coordinators to assist with medical appointments business correspondents finances supplemental food programs support services and Community programs and weekly transportation to the grocery store rental cost is based on household income today's request has no impact on the general fund it is a request to authorize the city manager to add up to $1.5 million of Community Development blog blog Grant federal dollars to address additional Rehabilitation construction costs because of increase in price prices operations efficiencies resident amenities and for safety code compliances purposes I am excited to see all these improvements not only because it makes the lives of our residents better but also because it is a testament to the important work we are doing in District 5 to provide more and great opportunities for affordable housing I want to thank Deputy city manager Gina Montes and the housing and Neighborhood Services Department and staff for their hard work and and for this incredible project thank you mayor thank you roll call I'm sari yes wado yes hod Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes goo yes passes 90 item 30 uh partnership with Community Legal Services I move to approve item 30 second councilwoman andari thank you mayor a couple of comments here um in a year when we saw over 83,000 evictions in Metro Phoenix when quality housing is Out Of Reach for so many having access to Le legal services for eviction proceeding is essential to keeping more Phoenicians off the streets in Maricopa County 94% of landlords have legal representation in eviction proceedings that number is only 1% for tenants this contract is very important but we need to do more to protect residents from evictions in cities that have established right to counsil for eviction laws meaning that anyone facing eviction has access to a lawyer they saw an average of a 77% decrease in the number of cases that ended in eviction that is an astounding number in Metro Phoenix that would have meant around 64,000 fewer evictions last year I encourage City staff in this Council to seriously consider right to counsil for evictions legislation it could not only keep families hous but results in significant net savings as well one example is from Philadelphia that where estimates show that a 3.5 million investment in right to counsel would save the city $45.2 million annually it's time we take greater action to stop more evictions and I do want to give a big shout out to the team at unemployed Workers United for bringing right to to my attention thank you thank you I am looking forward to support item 30 navigating the eviction process can be stressful and daunting we know that tenant tenants who have dedicated close assistance will likely see better outcomes and right now as we continue confronting an affordable housing shortage in our community we need better outcomes I want to thank Community Legal Services the organization that this item will support for all their work and support of residents in need the City of Phoenix will continue to step up to ensure people have a place to call home roll call I'm sorry yes wado yes hjj Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes Gayo yes passes 90 item 40 is taser equipment parts and accessories move to approve item 40 second we have a motion in a second we have a comment online from Jennifer Jennifer the floor is yours you guys for speaking with me today um so I would like to add on this particular motion to add two pamphlets for the responding officers to be able to have um it is my understanding from speaking with the commander that these two p uh that one of these pamphlets used to be accessible to the officers and it would be a pamphlet to be able to hand to family for to families that have received information that their loved one uh has passed away um this one of course hits very close to home for me because my son was killed on February 17th unfortunately the officers that were responding were unable to answer questions and were unable to provide me with phone numbers I was asked to just Google it in order to even find the medical examiner's office um and ma'am this is a very serious feel deeply sympathetic could you connect it to the the item please your comments oh okay so as far as um to add two pamphlets the first one you have to connect it to Tas officers to have those pamplets again okay and that that is very very important um just we need you to speak to tasers okay then I'm unable to do so okay we we will take you first in public comment this is very important we just have to comply with the open meeting law does not mean it's not serious it just has to be on the right agenda item okay all right thank you for that important testimony roll call I'm sorry yes yes yes Hodge Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes GGO yes passes 90 item 43 is a request to issue a solicitation of proposals for the South Central to implementation move to approve item 43 second motion the second any comments looking forward to supporting this one hopefully it'll be some real continuity with implementing the plan our community members have worked so hard on roll call oh we have I'm sorry we have a comment Mike uh Mike Mike Peterson as pertaining to item number 43 the trans the transit revision I do have concerns I'm neither for nor against it as it stands right now but I do have serious concerns about businesses being possibly uprooted through this like what happened with the light rail expansion in Mesa how if you go from Country Club all the way to Stapley all these businesses that went out of business got replaced with well nothing and then you look at the south Phoenix situation with the four lanes or no train that came up again a very common concern is that this would in fact be yet another road diet and if that's the case the perceived the perceived outcome is local businesses getting well ran out of business and then replaced with chain stores Starbucks McDonald's and whatnot but the reality as you'll see from Mesa and from Dunlop on the extension Dunlop and 19th all the way down to 19th and camel back there's a whole lot of nothing and there's already not a single major shopping center anywhere within one mile of the light rail so as it stands right now where does the light rail go the airport and where else airport stadium and that's pretty much it everybody's businesses end up getting uprooted for well who knows and we need to make sure that this isn't just another ride road diet thank you for your time thank you Diane Barker good afternoon mayor and city council my name is Dian Barker I reside in district 7 I've been living in seven different cities mainly Phoenix for over three decades so I'm very familiar with transit in many areas way before we even got skip rims of the light rail man's uh at grade rail he wouldn't get himself on the bus I am in support of this we've already built down down there so now we need to finish out the to with the infrastructure but this is what I'm after today and I've brought it up before the city and the county the county thought it was a good idea I'd like to see the solicitation show the climate that SI the city lives in that these vendors understand when they're building out here in Phoenix we need shade we need water and we need mass transportation we have a many people that either have one or no automobile so anybody that is thinking that it's always and there's some people that can't drive we've had people that have served this country and are injured and they can't drive so we need Transit so I'm saying in a solicitation you need to have the people prove that they understand the climate of the city as a bus rider or rail rider I've been stuck without shelter with nonworking vending machines for the fair Buck then you get on and get harassed and get kicked off if you don't have a ticket this is not right we need as my dad said when he saw all the organization charts in government for Transit he said he was an Air Force Colonel I think the problem is nobody's at the top thank you any Council comments roll call Ansari yes wado yes hjj Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes Gayo yes passes 81 item 43 is revision the Phoenix city code chapter 32 will the clerk read the title item 48 item 48 is for ordinance g721 18 an ordinance authorizing the city manager to amend phix city code chapter 32b flood planes by adding a new subsection to Article 5 Section 32 b-20 dob pertaining to construction materials and methods vice mayor thank you uh mayor I move to approve item 48 second call Ansari yes wado yes hjj Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes goo yes passes 90 item 58 is a public hearing at the northwest corner of 59th Avenue in Lower Buckeye in district 7 we will open the public hearing we do not have any members of the public so we will close the public hearing this is in district 7 so I will turn to councilwoman and sorry motion to approve the item per the planning hearing officer's recommendation and adopt the related ordinance second roll call Ansari yes wad yes HJ Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes Gayo yes passes 90 now for item 59 which is amending the city code related to parking reductions for multif family development we'll begin with the staff report thank you mayor members of the council as you said item 59 is a request to modify the zoning ordinance to update parking and loading standards for multi-developer Trisha Gomes and our team team lead on text amendments Chris deparo have done an outstanding job leading this effort for us I'll turn to Mr deparo to give an overview what the text Amendment addresses and the changes that have been made through the course of the public hearing process thank you uh mayor Gago and uh members of the council um I'll just start with um a summary of what staff had originally proposed last last year which was some parking reductions as follows first was to multif family housing Citywide requirements for affordable housing Citywide reductions for the infill development District which is located mostly along the light rail reductions in the walkable Urban code for market rate housing as well as walkable Urban code affordable housing and just a little reminder that downtown code already has reduced parking requirements and administrative options reduced further so nothing's proposed at that time this page actually summarizes how it's evolved a little bit since we first proposed it last year um the gray column is actually what the city's existing requirements are the blue column is actually what the original staff recommendation was the yellow column is what Planning Commission recommended and green is what's currently proposed so for Citywide staff have actually did hear um that some changes were requested so has actually increased the initial request from 1.25 spaces up to 1.5 spaces for dwelling unit Citywide um staff also heard for Citywide affordable housing uh that the proposed reduction of 50% was perhaps not something that was desired at the time and staff have modified the proposal to not propose any reductions for affordable housing Citywide um in the infill development District um staff had proposed a 50% reduction of the city-wide requirements that had received a recommendation of approval from Planning Commission so that is still in staff's modified proposal of a 50% reduction for Citywide requirements for the walkable Urban code um staffer proposing to make a reduction to 05 spaces per dwelling unit um there was a recommendation from Planning Commission to increase that slightly staff did hear that but actually changed the number a little bit to0 75 to reconcile it with um some other requirements so that it didn't turn out that um affordable housing was actually requiring more than regular housing in wode um in wo code there is already a provision for affordable housing uh we basically made a um proposal to reduce it down to zero um that was requested that we not do that so we have now proposing to just maintain the existing requirements um the change the biggest one from before is Staff did add one for special needs populations we already have that parking reduction in the ordinance but it's by use permit only so it requires a public hearing staff are actually proposing that you can get up to a 50% reduction for special needs populations with the submitt of a parking study sign basically sealed by a registered traffic engineer and a larger reduction if you also still go to a use permit hearing and then the last item um staff had proposed to introduce passenger loading area requirements in the woo code that was approved sorry recommended for approval and that has remain the same in saf's modified proposal that was a lot on that one thing I'm very happy to answer questions about any and all of that um otherwise um staff are recommending approval per the January 10th 2024 Memo from the planning evelopment director and Adoption of the related ordinance thank you thank you we will go for a motion after we have heard the public hearing but does anyone have questions at this point or should we do them after the public hearing after all right thank you we'll begin with the public hearing we'll begin with Jacqueline followed by Neil hello my name is um Jackie rich and I'm um part of a neighborhood Coalition of greater Phoenix um we've been involved in this um uh Amendment from the very beginning I put down that I was opposed but I'm not exactly opposed so I should have just you should have a box for It's Complicated um anyway my my main concern is just that the um the definition of special needs being elderly and also um disabled is not a thorough definition and plus there's the also others so I find that that's a little bit vague and that's something that I'd like to have further clarification on because I think it gives the zoning administrator a lot of um flexibility and no with no public input um just a traffic study which I assume would be done by the developer thank you councilwoman start would you like Jackie to sorry why don't we go ahead and ask that question and and quite frankly I I I joke cuz I'm almost 70 and I I'm elderly I am defined as elderly and I kid that I'm special needs but I'm really not special needs I can still walk and I think I still have my mental capacity maybe not some people would probably say no but could you clarify that and then my question is when when we do talk about elderly we really are talking about elderly that have special needs like speci Memory Care um assisted living it's not for example if I decided I wanted to live in a 55 plus apartment complex you're going to weigh parking for us we're still going to have to meet parking just because we're 55 or older we still need to be parking so could you clarify that because I think I might have been part of the problem because I go around telling everyone I'm a special needs person and I realize I'm not I I'm but I am elderly vice mayor Stark members of the council your assessment is accurate I'll I'll read just for the definition as it stands in the ordinance today and again which we aren't changing persons or households with special needs such as but not limited to the disabled and elderly this Pro provision as the ordinance as you hit on has generally been applied to facilities that care for residents meeting one of those conditions we are adding a provision that allows for reduction uh coupled with again two criteria being met one of those populations is present and second a traffic engineer is demonstrating through a sealed parking study that they can show that based on those populations being special needs they're not going to have the parking demand and again that's going to be using the it manual that's going to be a very limited amount of populations uh so we fill with those two Protections in place uh it provides an opportunity for a unique set of developments to come forward but certainly not a lot happy to answer your questions thank you and then mayor when we get to comments I have some additional comments about special needs thank you thank you sorry we kept you up there Jackie maybe wasn't necessary but appreciate it uh Neil is next followed by Andrea Neil Hadad speaking on behalf of the neighborhood Coalition of greater Phoenix so uh thank you mayor vice mayor and councel so as Jackie said the neighborhood Coalition uh has participated in the vetting of this text Amendment proposal since it was first introduced to the public at the end of June 2023 we spoke at 12 of the 15 Village planning committees to register our concerns as you know nine of the vpcs denied the proposed text Amendment and the Planning Commission offered a pair down version of The Proposal that Mr depara went through before so we are generally supportive of The Proposal but we think that there are several items that need clarification I think you worked on some of that uh now vice mayor Stark addressed some of those things about special needs and uh also we have a concern about elderly so we continue to have some questions what are the criteria for Less demand for parking or alternative sources who determines less demand um what are the public processes what will the request for reduction go through the Quasi judicial process um and then as referenced by the deputy planning director so any additional uses would be determined by the zoning administrator so under what circumstances might the zoning administrator Grant an exemption um you know we've had many comments and discussions about this text Amendment and you've received a lot of input from citizens vpcs and the Planning Commission we just than think that there's a need to tighten up the definitions and specify the process of how it will be done so um that's what we're looking at for from Council today so please provide definitions and clarify the process so thank you for the time thank you Neil good to see you doing well uh Andrea is next followed by Nicole Andrea the floor is yours okay can you all hear me yes I'm online okay great um hello my name is Andrea Luna serantes I'm a community organizer with unemployed Workers United I am in favor of AG agenda item 59 to reduce parking requirements for multif family development um within our campaign our fight for affordable and accessible housing is a crucial part of our takeback our homes campaign we launched that campaign to stop landlords from discriminating against renters Phoenix and Tempi who rely on public assistance and ensure that folks can have access to housing reducing parking requirements will ensure we have more space for a community live in um possibility for more affordable housing and people to be housed as well we should be investing our energy in making sure people have a space to live rather than space to park their cars parking requirements also limit the ability to for to create affordable units um with affordable housing developers often saying that parking requirements liit their ability to make projects come to fruition we support this text Amendment because we believe it'll allow our city to grow responsibly and create more density where we need it it will allow for better use of space and make sure we continue to grow a sustainable and vibrant City I hope everyone on Council supports this item today and thank you for your time thank you Nicole is next thank you mayor and Council I'm here in support of the parking reform PA and applaud the work that the community and planning and development staff has done and kudos to chrisop pero and its phenomenal work and Fielding questions at the vpcs however the proposed language in my opinion does not go far enough and arguably uh we would be voting on the necessary reform needed if staff's diligence and evidence-based research was supported and trusted initially uh many large cities have made bold necessary uh parking reform changes they will be the future of increased business and tax revenue as we remain increasingly in debt to spraw likee zoning codes and I know city council continuously asks for and advocates for and supports better land use that opens up more land for housing businesses jobs tax revenue and open spaces and parking reform will get us a lot closer to those things that we want and the quality um and also towards quality housing at affordable rate um we need to protect our residents and I really do look forward to uh new and improved language in the future as it relates to not only housing but especially to commercial we need that especially in this area where we are increasingly becoming more dense and we need to become more dense um but also we need to allow space for those types of middle use businesses and housing to come in and um with that that concludes my comments and thank you thank you we'll close the public hearing and I'll turn to the vice mayor thank you may now do you want me to make motion first or should I make comments would you do a motion I will do a motion so I move to approve the January 10th 2024 Memo from the planning and development director and adopt the related ordinance second now recognize thank you so um we all know that affordable housing is a Critic issue in our city and I think we've really stepped up and we're trying to address that uh several years ago we adopted an affordable housing uh plan and in that we talked about various text amendments that we needed to do in the zoning including accessory dwelling units looking at that middle income type of housing duplexes and and and Tow houses and we also talked about parking and so I think we have found a good compromise we need to recognize that Phoenix is unique we're not like every other big city we have rural areas we have Suburban areas and we have urban areas we really are a special City you don't see that in a lot of other big cities like San Francisco or New York or Chicago and so we have very very much competing needs in our city so I I do like the fact that we've landed on a 1.5 I think it simplifies it for the development Community but it also ensures that we're having parking in our suburban and rural areas I seriously doubt if someone's building in Desert Ridge or auki they're not going to build it without parking so at least we've given them a standard that makes it very easy for them to assess when they're developing and I also appreciate that you've taken into account um public transit and we have made some um um some changes in our public transit area obviously if you're close to public transit you're less likely to have a car but in Maricopa County people that can drive only 8% of the public does not own a car so we still are a car Centric County city and so I think what we've done along our mass transit areas is a nice compromise as well one of the issues though that is growing is special needs especially when it comes to elderly baby boomers are here we're not going away anytime soon if I have my way I'm going to be around here to annoy you guys for a few more years but having said that um a lot of my cotton peers have special needs Memory Care Assisted Living they may need to have a nurse available and so they move into a complex where there may be some staff to help them there are also other types of of uh physical disabilities amongst us we need to address that and we need to assure that we're helping get those types of facilities built it's critical but the important thing I think we need to note is these special types of facilities know how to address the type of parking they need they know how many handicapped parking spaces they need they know how many parking spaces they need for staff for visitors when I was planning director we actually went to a use permit for special needs because we recognize it's hard to really do a variance when the hardship is it's a Memory Care so we went to the special use and over the years they've all been approved and I checked with NSD we've had no complaints and so I'm the one that suggested to staff that maybe we need to do something with regards to special needs I would have said just let them do the entire parking plan and submit it to staff but staff wisely cautioned me know a lot of our neighborhoods during the village process said we still need to have some input to it so I think they came up with a great compromise and I really do appreciate what you did with that um so I think it's time for us to take a leap of faith we need to address affordable housing and again the biggest area of Need for affordable housing in my humble opinion is for special needs so I I really thank staff for everything they did I appreciate hearing what the villages had to say I think we had a very lengthy process but we've come up with a compromise one thing I've learned in planning is when everyone's a little dissatisfied the planners did a good job so thank you I appreciate everything you did especially you Chris thank you mayor thank you we'll go to councilwoman O'Brien and then councilwoman andari thank you so much mayor so I know that when we uh looked at this chart before um because I'm in my district is part of the city that is uh much more Suburban we we are just now getting um well we'll be getting the light rail on uh Saturday so that's very exciting but it will just be the very Southern edge of of district one and so um we have some con my folks had some concerns and so I want to make sure though that these are parking standards for when we deal with housing right this is not going to impact our retail centers or our commercial Industries correct I can see your head nodding but no one else can mayor councilwoman Brian that is correct okay thank you very much um and and will you explain what a minimum standard is Chris you want to take uh yeah mayor gu go councilman O'Brien uh the minimum standard is something that uh you know we Implement saying that when we look at a site plan it's like if you when we say per unit so in other words if something has 100 units at the 1.5 rate there would be required 1.5 spaces per unit so that's 150 um that is a current requirement for one and two bedroom apartments it's actually a very current requirement it just that we now separated by all the bedrooms and through the development process a lot of times that mix changes every single review every time the architect resubmits they look at they do a pro for they look at and go we need to change a number of bedrooms and every single time then they have to change their parking and often when they're providing excess parking which as we found in doing some of the research as you requested for district one it's not a big deal but ones that are a little bit closer to providing the required tend to be like now I have to adjust everything on my plan every single time they get mad at us and there's lots that goes on so we basically averaged out and the research that we did particularly for district one showed that essentially um in terms of what they're providing because they are allowed to provide more than the minimum they're providing plenty more than the minimum in all those cases and including more than what we're getting now we we hoping over time as things change that maybe things come a little less car Centric but in areas that are far more Suburban this provides them current standards now that will actually work that we believe and I appreciate that and that is important to folks who live in my district because we don't even have bus service for the northernmost of my district and so when you all proposed this change to to make one number for no matter what kind of however many numbers of rooms in in the apartment or the the town home or condo that was a concern to me because in the northern part or in my district we are getting more three bedroom F uh places uh which means there's more people and and so I asked you all to look at the the multif family housing that was being built in my district and what that looked like and you provided me with a chart do you have that with you all today and if I just want you to speak to those numbers so that folks can see how that what it looked like with the old the standards we are in currently and then what it was look like given to the new standards and a little bit what you were just saying thank you absolutely uh uh mayor goo councilman O'Brien um this chart was some selected ones of um most of them are a little bit more recent we wanted to look at what's been developing more recently this is a couple that are a bit older there all of these on this particular page or district one um I'm sorry I didn't call it out with a little bit of different color there but in the middle you'll see there's a column that says required parking existing and it's broken out how we currently calculate by 1 two three bedroom how many bedrooms I had we you know just pulled a lot of data and then redid the calculation based on what the staff's current proposal would be in terms of what the amount would be and then you can see what the difference is and and if you see like for example in the very first one The Retreat Apartments minus 40 meaning we would require 40 fewer spaces but we were talking a difference of about 5% up there and uh in terms of what you get and you know ironically I can't read my last two columns because I have a little video screen over it um so on that one um you see the differences that they actually provided in this case 953 spaces which were 193 over the existing minimum and we don't have anything in this to stop anybody from providing more than what they wish to do it's basically um developers responding to demand and what they think they should do and um the spaces provided per unit in the very last column to give you an idea was 1.99 um and if you go down that entire column you're going to see that most of them are very close or above 1.5 which is one of the reason we settled on that number so we had some very definite data up there um most of it is in excess the ones that were closer to 1.5 were um especially in the Nara PUD which you see at the bottom of the page they had been granted a 10% reduction from Citywide requirements because they were also proposing a lot more unique types of housing in that PUD that were a little bit different than your standard single family and they thought they could do something a little bit less so apparently that was granted at zoning but it's still pretty darn close to 1.5 it is very close and that that is probably the only other part of my district that I would tell you is going to become um walkable or is walkable as it is um almost all built out and so I do appreciate you doing this extra research so that I could ensure that these new parking standards would be um helpful and beneficial to to my area as well as the the rest of the city um and then the we all received a lot of emails so I'm going to move to another part of this process is that you all took it out to the Village planning committees um and they got to vote whether to approve or or not and with modifications um I believe Neil referred to that and then we made some modifications it went to the Planning Commission next um and then some additional modifications were were brought made and brought to us the question is why didn't we take it all back out to the Village planning committees and can you speak to that mayor councilwoman O'Brien as I think vice mayor Stark touched on we're really proud and grateful for the feedback and the contribution that the village planning committees provide not only our Tex Ament process but our resoning process and and they're really the first touch point in that hearing process uh to give us insight as to how this request make either does or doesn't make sense in a particular area there as we hit on in our presentation their feedback was I think heard and implemented by the Planning Commission and as we Endeavor to continue to modernize our ordinance and keep keep discussions like this going I I think the that sequential sort of structure of our process really serves us well to try to make some real progress uh towards some of these changes if if we were to uh require either developer to go back or us to go back every time if if there was a change I think that would really probably add add some layers to the process that no one would want to see and so with that I'm I'm proud of the contribution that they've played in this process that they'll play in upcoming processes and we ensuring that they are they are heard and then implemented as it goes to the Planning Commission ultimately to you thank you Josh because it is very important as as a community member that did once serve on a village Planning Commission I know you don't want to do that if it doesn't feel like you're being heard so I I appreciate that the Planning Commission commission took their recommendations in and incorporated into what what they made as a recommendation to city council and that we were able to continue to compromise as um vice mayor and and even uh councilman Robinson has said right a compromise is well hopefully it's win-win for everybody or in some cases if everybody's a little unhappy then we probably got it pretty right um so I I do appreciate uh that very much thank you thank you mayor we'll go to councilwoman andari and then councilman wearing sure thank you mayor um I think this reduction in arbitrary parking minimums is a great step forward for Phoenix and I really want to thank staff for all of your hard work and uh to getting us to this point um I think I have made my position clear on this I think there's a lot more that we need to do um I know uh to the point of compromise I think this is again a great first step um but the concept and and movement around parking reform we are not alone in this um this this is a a policy that's gaining momentum worldwide because um we know that space that's currently used for parking oftentimes empty space and arbitrary I really want to emphasize the word we are reducing arbitrary parking minimums because in fact we are actually putting this decision into the hands of the individuals who are truly the experts the developers who are the ones building the project so I think that's an important point to make as well but again we are uh not the first city to do this quite the contrary but um I agree that Phoenix is unique and we have unique challenges in our case in particular I think um you know we have uh we've said this number but we have 12 million parking spots for four million people in the broader Valley and I think that's something that um we should work towards amending in many cases uh is especially in retail and and I know this this policy of course is only for multi housing but in many cases I think we see retail centers in our city with vast um and extra amounts of parking that are not necessary and even uh Desert Sky Mall is now in District 5 but uh was in district 7 and I I just want to um point out that when meeting with the developers of that mall and the ownership of that mall they came to us and we had a conversation around parking and they're actually going to be changing their parking and reducing significantly because they actually know they have far too many parking spots for the amount of people and that's the case in a lot of retail centers so just want us to continue thinking boldly about this and and really I know it's a different way of thinking because we are a car-centric city we're a car Centric country but there are so many benefits to parking reform again reducing and one day hopefully eliminating arbitrary parking minimums will allow us to better utilize that space I have talked with many uh developers especially affordable housing developers who point to these arbitrary minimums as a reason why their projects might not pencil out why they might not be able to have as many units of affordable housing in their projects it's very costly to build a parking space I've heard dber is around 40,000 per space which is crazy um and so I hope we just continue to think about this um I hope this helps our affordable housing issues I know it'll improve air quality and just so many benefits um and I know the phased approach is a smart model cities like Atlanta and Minneapolis have taken a phased approach to parking reform and it's been very effective and and I hope you'll also work to collect data from um the results of of this effort so that in the years ahead we can continue to make more improvements thank you thank you councilman wearing thank you mayor Chris I think a couple different times if I heard it right I want to make sure that I did you referenced excess parking like this was a common problem that we have to stamp out like it's the plague is that it seemed like we're kind of trending in that direction uh councilman wearing I'm sorry if you read into perhaps any type of inflection I would just really mean you to comment on the fact that most developers do actually provide excess parking so we had some concerns expressed about thinking that everybody who's coming in is providing exactly the minimum required so if we reduce it how do we deal with that but what we're trying to say is we can reduce minimums to make things work as things change over time so that people aren't be Holden to something like an arbitrary minimum but that most of our existing sites um we're finding people have provided more than is required and depending on the area depending on the need for cars there is still an ability to provide what the developer feels is appropriate for the site we're not putting a cap on anything to make sure that people can't provide the parking so if there's a desire to do that it is still possible um mayor I all I can say I'm not trying to poke fun I just I hope someday I I get to hear about a lot of problems either through email or personal experience the city has I can't wait to have a personal experience with this open vistas of parking spaces everywhere that I can see because my experience whenever I go it seems like anywhere is there's not enough parking and I spend a lot of time driving around parking space um and looking for parking space ASU traffic hell if I go to speak over there I just dread it absolutely dread it um they could say well you should take the light rail yes and then I get to take the light rail back if it's an evening thing and then drive home I'd rather just drive and then go straight North to go home um anywh time you go to the gym that's anytime kind of uh during the day activity I don't really do that but if I drive by one I mean it's always packed I've had that experience I mean Saturday mornings forget it um my kid school I mean I could go on and on it seems like anywhere I go excess parking is the problem it's that people are relying on minimums but I'm going to focus on one specific example where I I really felt bad for the folks because it's not so much an issue in District 2 although I wouldn't want to tell that to the people who live by Horizon High School because I get complaints about that all the time anybody who lives near a school has people parking including my old neighborhood I don't live there anymore but by Paradise Valley High School people there's not enough parking and people drive and there's no light rail there's no real option so they Park in the neighborhoods the residents hate it and it becomes a big issue I hear about we try to address the extent we can but I really felt bad for the Neighbors uh it's not my district but along I think it's 7th Street uh it was the yard restaurant it was I think it was a week night I was going to somebody was having a retirement party and wanted to show my respect and go they're were moving out of state I mean there were signs all over don't park in our neighborhood there was no option because there wasn't anywhere close to enough parking not even close and so I guess and that was like a Tuesday night not a Saturday night so I guess we probably had minimums for them they probably did the minimum or some extra I don't know we were assured that would be enough and it's not even close to enough and now those neighbors are miserable I don't know if any of them are here today but that's certainly been an experience I saw I felt bad for them I know my office gotten complaints about that specific neighborhood not recently but it's happened in the past so again anything that tells me that we have too much parking we need to reduce it I'm trying to reconcile that with my driving experiences I'm only one of 100 1.7 million phenicians but I don't think I'm an outlier either that doesn't make a lot of sense to me I I can't reconcile those two things I used to probably to surprise my colleagues I also recycle pretty fastidiously by the way um I used to actually bike to work and and school um it was just more convenient I in in the days before Twitter it was how I validated myself I guess now people talk about how great they are on Twitter but at the time I just felt good riding my bike rather than driving a car and you know what I still had I lived in a condo I still had a car the car didn't disappear just because I was you know riding my bike to work it still existed it still needed a place to keep itself while I was on my bike then I would use it to drive places on the weekend so just because we're not everybody's going to take the light rail every single place they go and the bus that is not realistic and probably doesn't desribe one person in Phoenix now they may not all have cars but I think Deb cded that sounds accurate 92% do and the other 8% most of them probably are like I wish I could afford a car so I I have quals about this and what I'm hearing just doesn't represent my Driving Experience after 56 years on this planet and that's concerning but I definitely wouldn't tell lots of the voting public that their problem is there's too much parking in any way shape or form because they're probably going to have the same reaction to that I had want to put that out there thank you councilwoman H Washington um I want to start off and say I think the goal is admirable um anything that we can do to reduce the cost of housing is definitely something I'm in support of um I'm very happy to see that the affordable housing units are are getting the same equal treatment as regular development because I believe individuals that reside in affordable housing they should have the same rights as every resident so I want to say that but I also want to encourage the department um in a situation like such as what we had where the majority of the villages voted against this initiative um in one case one of my Villages spent almost six hours discussing this item and for it to not even be taken back to them for some level of input and feedback it does make the volunteers feel like their input is not heard so I would ask that if it's possible for the Department to take back these items um for future feedback because I don't believe this is the end of the road for this discussion I believe that it's just the beginning of these um of the these changes and I think we do need to take it back to the Village to see what can be done um to make it better I believe it's a work in progress this is a first step but we definitely need to make sure that the villages get the get the feedback and the respect that they deserve by at least we revised it so significantly that it was different than what the originally opined on and there may have been things that they could have helped us craft a little better um this is not to say that I am necessarily opposed to what we currently have because I do believe that the goal is admirable but I do believe that we should definitely especially when there's a a overwhelming denial by The Villages that we take their feedback seriously and return um to them for further input I also think that we should continue to track the excess if any parking that the developers choose to um to add that are outside of our requirements because I think we I think it's helpful to compare Phoenix to other cities but we have to acknowledge that Phoenix is also a unique City we don't necessarily have all of the other infrastructure that some of the other cities have that individuals can rely on um for transportation needs so we definitely want to make sure that we are finding a solution that works for the City of Phoenix not just based on what other cities done um and then I also want us um to keep track of um because one of the concerns I have is there some parts of our city and parts in my district where where we there are certain certain populations that are disproportionately affected and those individuals for reasons um for socieconomic reasons sometimes have to um double up in a home and they need multiple spaces and how do we keep track of that I don't want us to over have over more spaces than needed but we also want to make sure that we're not putting situ putting them in situations where they're not able to park their vehicles in a safe space near their residence so I just want us to make sure that we are just just not stoping right now on this conversation by simply saying we have we are making these changes and these changes are good enough I want to make sure that we are committed to The Next Step also of review and evaluation to see what works from what we are moving forward and what doesn't work and what needs to be tweaked so those are my comments uh I just wanted just one explanation I know what it is but one of the comments that I received also was a further uh was infill development and some individuals are not clear what that means could you take a few seconds a few minutes to explain that councilwoman Washington uh mayor Geo uh yes in fact I will show you right here um one of the things that we tried to make clear that perhaps wasn't on um the way we use the word infill stopping at the word infill was that it means the infill development District which is clearly a district adopted with set boundaries on the map that you see um by uh Council so any reductions to infill would be only in these areas here which you can see is actually primarily along the Light Rail and our higher Transit corridors thank you for that clarification I just wanted us to put that on the record like I said I got some questions of just not understanding where the infill would where that infill um provision would apply so thank you for that um but other than just reiterating the need for us to um be cognizant of our Villages the the input that they provide as well as making sure that we are evaluating this to make sure we are actually serving in the goals that we hope to serve with this um those are my comments mayor thank you thank you any additional comments We join my colleagues in thanking Chris and Josh for this long process we really did listen to The Village Planning Commission feedback and I appreciate you taking my feedback and others vice mayor Stark and my colleagues put a ton of time into this so thank you for sitting down with people who a variety of different goals all admirable but not all going in the same direction and and this does balance a lot of different needs to me it is a important step forward for sustainability and housing we know we have a shortage of affordable housing in this community and housing generally it is wonderful that people want to live here but we got to make space for all of them cutting down on our minimums means we'll have the ability to build more housing in places where cars would have been parked thereby lowering cost cost to build and rent this is another step forward in our journey to become the most sustainable desert city and appreciate everyone who put time into this including people who went to so many meetings and and really participated in the conversation with that I believe we are ready for a vote roll call I'm sori yes yes hjge Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes GGO yes passes 81 thank you that includes the agendized porion of this meeting we will now go to the final portion citizen public comment and I will turn to our City attorney to introduce this portion thank you mayor during citizen comment P members of the public May address the city council for up to three minutes on issues of Interest or concern to them the citizen comment session is limited to 30 minutes the Arizona open meeting law permits the city council to listen to the comments but prohibits council members from discussing or acting on the matters presented thank you we'll begin with Jennifer box as promised and then we'll go in person to Eric Nelson uh yes thank you uh I do apologize for the previous confusion I wanted to suggest that there be two pamphlets that could be provided to police officers the first providing phone numbers such as like the medical examiner's office main telephone numbers or even a phone number of the officer that was on scene um unfortunately when I received the death notification that my son had been killed on on February 17th uh they officers were unable to provide some of this information I only had just literally a case number on a little index card and was told to Google it uh I know if I was told that that there's probably lots of families out there that were also told very similar things of just Google it well just Google it is very difficult when you're in crisis mode and you're just trying to figure out where your child's body is at um the other one that I wanted to present is I live near 51st Avenue in Baseline and there is a high opioid and Fentanyl addiction over in um my neighborhood and with that being said I know that the police officers are some of the First on scene to see the consequences of drugs and um and those that are affiliated with this I would like to see some sort of pamphlet uh provided to the officers to where they would be able to provide not just uh coming out and telling everyone to get away from the corner but maybe be able to provide them with resources of here's churches Charities things like that that might be trying to do their best to combat this crisis thank you thank you so much for that very important testimony and again we're very sorry for your loss and we will see if we can't do better we will go to Eric followed by Julia tager uh hello oh uh hello my name is Eric uh I came here to talk today about ideas about ideas and how they come to fruition um I got my start in politics with the Obama Administration it was pretty cool and it actually emboldened me to come turn in ideas to city city leaders people like that uh one idea I turned into both Greg Stanton and uh to the mailbox at 334 Westman rad Street was the idea that became this thing called skybridge Arizona and that seems to be going well for people um but it's funny because while um while they were uh dedicating a quarter billion dollars of the of the state's money to my idea I was walking around with no shoes homeless so I would just like to point out that everyone ideas maybe were something and um you know maybe explain to people who saw me walking around yelling at the sky talking to myself maybe there's a reason for that um when we have ideas like water fountains that uh don't that still give cold water in the middle of summer things like that come from an area of compassion understanding that I encourage members of the city council to keep up with um another idea I had that I was actually way harder to get done than the skybridge idea was to have uh people who are unable to own firearms become detectives I think that will uh pay dividends for a while to come for the city um one of the positive things about other people taking my ideas is that I only have to take credit for the ones that work out to be honest um and a new idea I have is I noticed that uh the fire engine number eight has a q ball on it so it's very recognizable and I think uh I think whoever came up with that idea I think that's a really good idea for community outreach and it makes people feel less like the Matrix rolling up and actual people are rolling up to help them so I think the city should start allowing each uh Firehouse to put their own little emblems around the numbers I was thinking maybe like a Larry Fitzgerald jersey for engine 11 or a Swingman for engine 23 but I think if we could uh personalize the vehicles a little bit it would help with our community outreach efforts um and that's about it thank you for your time thank you Julia is next and then we'll go to Tristan on Virtual comment hi Deborah um I'm here to talk about Mystery Castle uh so a demo permit was put in for mystery castle for a full demol demolition uh November 22nd 2023 uh the historic preservation board denied it so there's a year hold on it but November 22nd 2024 it can be demoed um I have tried to get in contact with the owners of it I have tried to talk with other people about you know why is there a demo permit and nobody seems to know why uh I know that you know they've had $100,000 in vandalism and there's been issues all over the city with historical institutions needing funding um what I've heard is that you know people are aging out and and they don't know who can take over the building I know that they're trying to work with the historic preservation office I had a phone call earlier that they're doing a scan of the building to see what it might cost to repair it but the concern is that it could be Millions um there are other options I think that we can look into but from my timeline right now there's only 8 to nine months left before it could be demoed and that property is a beautiful property it was built in the 1930s by Boyce um well by Boyce Gully for his daughter uh Mary Lully the story is amazing he came out to Phoenix Arizona because he had tuberculosis and he was going to die and he wanted to make his daughter a sand castle that would last forever so he made her a wheel castle and Mary Lully was she got that property in 1945 when he died and she had taken care of it all the way until 2010 when she passed away um and she even wrote a book on it called my mystery castle I know most of you here are parents um and you're love for your child Never Dies and his love for his daughter never died her love for her father never died and I don't think we can let this property die either there are always other Solutions out there I have spoken with the Coler Foundation which I guess many people don't know about the foundation but they will um they work on repairing art buildings so what they do is they come out they look at a property they take photos they have the photos go to their assessors get an estimate they get the property as a gift they work they Preserve back to what it was and then they either gift it to a historical institution or to the city and that's an option with this building you know they love folk art this is a folk art building I just want to present it to the council because I've talked of other historical institutions that don't know about this and I know if the community knew about this that we could help these women who own the property save Mystery Castle it's a great building and it should be preserved for the future I'm working on the sunny so Brock garden and Maran told me for 45 years no one helped her no one listened to her and I'm the first person to help her or try and get a historic status and save it and I know you have many important things but if you could please just consider this and take a chance on saving this property I would really appreciate it and I appreciate all you do for our city thank you thank you Tristan is next followed by Tony thank you mayor and Phoenix City Council yesterday you received a petition from the Arcadia Camelback Mountain neighborhood association regarding board of adjustment training reform currently you have new board members who have never had any formal training and existing members who need refresher training on board policies and procedures hearings are taking place and decisions are being made that involve wrongdoing procedural violations and decisions that do not adhere or even address the zoning ordinances your hearing officers they issue thorough findings the facts relating to the zoning criteria only to have these decisions overturned on the basis of opinion rather than application of the zoning tests by this board these issues need to be addressed and need to be corrected acna requests the following please number one stop all Board of adjustment actions and decisions until immediate mandatory training on policies and procedures for their role as Board of adjustment members is completed number two Institute a formal onboarding training program for new members which teaches the policies and procedures for the role and assigns of a board of a a board of adjustment staff Mentor for the first six months three Institute mandatory annual refresher training for all existing board members and make it an open meeting in compliance with State statutes and open to the public number four decisions made made by the board must address section 307 of the zoning ordinance which includes the four tests for a variance and two factors for use permit criteria and these decisions must be done so in proper procedural form five when overturning a Z's decision the member presenting the motion must clearly State why the zho decided incorrectly this request is submitted by ACA it's supported by the Arcadia Osborne neighborhood Association it's been recognized as an issue by assistant City attorney Daniel engl it's been requested by Jonathan Ammond an existing board member in his deposition where he admitted wrongdoing on his case it's been requested by board member Wally Graham on record at a board of adjustment meeting and it's been attested to by your newest member Michelle dods who desperately wants formal training City this lack of training is putting the city of Phoenix in a liable situation for their decisions if these members are not trained properly thank you for considering our petition thank you Tony is next followed by Richard uh hello my name is uh Tony speaking for fund for empowerment um remember uh last year when they were doing the uh the cleanup in the zone um what they were doing they were um like when the cameras were around they were bagging everyone's stuff up like they were supposed to but I noticed with like last month people still sleeping on the sidewalks in the zone area and staff members from the um Human Services campus were coming out and when they were doing their inspections with the cops um if the homeless people if they weren't there with their stuff uh instead of bagging it up and holding it for them they were taking it and throwing it in a dumpster and that a lot of those people had a lot of stuff and it were like uh personal belongings so I was wondering why they uh they were not uh obeying for um the Judgment that came down against the city and um and I found out they're still doing that if they catch people uh sleeping out there they'll warn them to leave and if they don't take their stuff they just throw it in a dumpster so a lot of that stuff is hard to uh replace for people like that so thank you thank you of important testimony Richard is next followed by faith mayor and Council uh thank you for being here today uh my name is Richard H I use they them pronouns I'm a longtime resident of Phoenix having grown up in marville and currently reside in the Central City I live in a subdivision called Chris Christy Croft and have recently formed a neighborhood organization with my community called vanmore 1923 we are a diverse Community majority of lwi income I am bringing to your attention today a through truck problem we have along 21st Avenue between West Filmore Street and West vanan Street large trucks come through this stretch of my neighborhood every day from early morning hours to late night hours these trucks wake me and other residents up early in the morning and keep us up late at night in addition to noise they pollute our air um and degrade our infrastructure we had four water main breaks alone last year which can be attributed to heavy trucks there are no through truck signs posted southbound at 21st AV in Filmore Northbound at 21st AV in ven there are no right turn by truck signs westbound on ven Street and 21st AV and no left turn by truck signs eastbound on vanen stre vanen Street and 21st AV I have brought this issue up to Neighborhood Services who told me the department for this is Street Transportation I contacted Street Transportation who told me the police deal with this after an unenjoyable conversation with the non-emergency police number I was given the contact info for the community actions officer for my area I contacted them and their supervisor about this and haven't received follow-up nothing continues to be done about this we need your help and we'll be reaching out to our city council member anari for further details and ask for help um I was also registered to speak for item number one I know it's passed um I just wanted to express my interest in becoming a member of the Central City uh Village planning committee there is one vacancy listed online um I called the commissioner Anthony Anthony Grand day earlier today and requested to apply um thank you for your service and your help thank you we'll ask that our community action officer follow up with you and I do think that you finally found the right person uh faith is next followed by Anita hello everybody Council my name is Faith Karns I also volunteer for funds for empowerment um um I'm here to speak about housing for the disabled and for the handicapped a lot of times we will get into these very very small small places where it's very hard to even try to move the chair around and try to consider you in a room in a wheelchair not being able to go left not being able to go right and and only being able to go forward and backwards it's not fun but I am asking for more room in these handicapped Apartments we need so much more room than what an average person needs we need bigger bathrooms bigger bathtubs bigger just about everything and I only have one more thing to say um if we could do something about the trains I live at 209 with Jackson and I live right by the railroad tracks and unfortunately that train is very very loud and at about 3: in the morning when it blows its horns at 3:00 a.m. approximately by the way it's not really Pleasant and it's not just me but there's a whole group of people where I live that are subject to that so if there's any way we could please either put a wall up there or some kind of sound barrier because it's going to be me or the train and right now the train is winning and with that I'll close thank you we'll see if we can't follow up on the quiet Zone and and other items which we do expect to be coming to council see Anita is next followed by Mike Peterson good afternoon mayor in city council I'm Anita Lewis of 68 years hero cancer survivor um and widower I'm here today because um the services that I pay for in the city I have not had access to um someone is has compromised all of my devices I can't seem to um get used to use any of my devices in my home and every day that I leave my home my home is broken into and um I believe they come in while I'm asleep I live alone um and I'm in uh District 8 I'm having problems with people using radio frequency on me daily I'm actually being tortured every day um my phone I have no privacy my phone is I don't know I guess it has censors on it then even when I cut it off it comes right back on I don't I don't know what to do I need help I um I'm I'm not able to to get um food the food that I do get it's something's done to it even when I go out to eat my food is I don't know they put some chemicals or some substance on it even it's the substance is put throughout my house um my water is not drinkable I'm not a I'm able to cook but there so much radiation in my home um I I don't know what to do I'm lost um I I need help I'm I'm I have no one to advocate for me and everywhere did I go no one wants to help me I've gone to the police they laughed at me um I've been to the attorney general they haven't done anything I went to the f FBI they they didn't do anything um something's been done to me I don't know what but um I feel like my body is deteriorating and every place that I go to try to even get my vitamins and stuff they're um doing something to everything that I purchase after I get it is no good I could taste taste it taste the um whatever substance or chemical that they're using and I believe that someone made me sensitive to whatever it is and um I don't know what to do I know I feel like I'm um being thank thank you for this testimony appreciate yeah I know it was not easy to share thank thank you forun we'll connect with her thank you councilwoman we'll go next to Mike Peterson followed by Michael Smith something that I've been finding very concerning lately are with the road diets what may or may not be Road diets with the light rail expansion at the expense of local businesses and with the lack of concern shown for the citizens it seems more and more like the city is taking on a socialist policy akin to Oakland San Francisco Oregon Seattle and no offense but I live in Phoenix not Seattle and then we look at the people that speak here and realize they're full of lives they have fears they have hopes they have dreams they have reasons to be here and be and speak and then they look at the city council and see cold emotionless eyes pushing socialist policy that just turns people empty depressing and then you look at what happened with covid-19 and our City's lockdowns and our City's mandates and the curfews and you realize that all these businesses shutting down none of them got back to normal none of them really recovered it just goes on like a half dead half alive half awake half a sleep emptiness and that's why when this election season comes you need to you need to vote for people with life in their eyes I mean I'm looking at the eyes of each person on this Council right now and I see nothing no sadness no hope nothing thank you thank you Michael Smith is next followed by Christina Tyler uh Christina is next followed by [Music] Frank hi my name is Christina Tyler and I came here to speak about um a police encounter that I had dealt with uh during March of last year where my vehicle was stolen from me by an auto mechanic uh this mechanic and the way that the police went about the situation is they decided instead of looking at the written evidence of this mechanic uh choosing to basically try to force extort money from me and ex and hold my vehicle hostage when based off of the terms and agreements uh that I had paid in full because he was refusing to give me my vehicle back when there was time allotted that was agreed to and I even extended that time to three and a half weeks um and I still wasn't getting my vehicle back uh the thing is is that um I even made it clear to him that I was going to go to city state and federal departments whatever departments was necessary to handle the issue well then he decided to pull basically saying well because you're threatening that now my rate is $95 an hour and this that and the other and you're going to have to pay me for the work that I did or I'm putting a lean on your vehicle and instead of City PD looking at the written evidence and seeing that this man was doing a crime against me extorting money against me and yet you're still allowing this man to practice his business within this state I am wondering when you guys are going to choose to look at the written evidence at this point in time I don't care about the fact that this man stole my vehicle what I care about is making it to where this doesn't happen to other people we need need to have it to where the written evidence is being looked at and treated as when a person is saying hey my vehicle is basically being held hostage this person is trying to hold extort money from me and wouldn't even uh All City Towing how to go out there because I even had to go um to the Arizona Corporation Commission to even try to trace uh where the business address was and the thing is is that this should have never happened and for you guys to even look at this as a civil case what is civil about somebody trying to extort money from you and trying to force by using their business as leverage when are you going to look at the written evidence when are you going to have police officers look at written evidence that is my question to this city thank you thank you Frank is next followed by Elizabeth vle hello s hello council members my name is Frank Urban I live at 209 West Jackson um also volunteer for with fund for empowerment uh I think that now I know you guys just recently allocated like 89 million to affordable housing and that's a great start but I think it should be I think it should be an ongoing process um especially because uh affordability should be affordability for everyone the homeless included and people on Social Security included um with that I'll close thank you Elizabeth is next followed by Cody sorry for the journey okay so um what we did you may have seen that we have our meetings outside right and we do um a variety of activities um including telling your story and leadership development and how to have a little protest we had a little silent protest a while back ago and you know we collect a lot of data and input at these meetings you know um and again uh I've said before that we try to keep um everything basically fact-based um which is uh what brings me to our letter uh let me just open it up real quick I'm going to see if I can get through it [Music] um uh let's see sorry um Council sorry I don't want to waste your time um okay it's uh a basically um word for word what people have said to us and I may have to make it briefer um we believe that policies need to be shaped by constituents who have lived experience of any particular circumstance that they are subjected to and that dat in policies are incomplete without their presence um we would like to address the following issues of which you may or may not be aware uh we need funding for stable long-term housing and a clear path to get there there need to be more vouchers especially ones which go Beyond 3 months and can lead to evictions these can be permanent or temporary however permanent housing is the goal this housing should be provided without such conditions on it so that people are not essentially dumped back on the streets for non-compliance with excessive rules focused on minor behaviors which would not be cause of eviction in any other property these include having more than the approved amount of clothing for example there are many many many tiny violations that you can get thrown out of facilities for uh SMI people are often targeted as non-compliant even though such conditions may be considered discriminatory and a potential violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act um there's a group that was with us that lives in a motel I won't say what service provider operates it but they feel as though they're more in a prison than in a hotel there's uh fences they're not allowed to work at night um you know basically they're subject to code violations that again would not be evicta under any other circumstances um uh Services need to be provided in a respectful manner again that uh follows the Americans with Disabilities Act uh certain shelters uh including cast will or ke to change uh campus will not essentially not let you stay if you are disabled excluding many people physical disabilities emotional behavioral disabilities and other conditions and I've sent the letter sorry it took me so long to get around I sent the rest of the letter to you um it it has various concerns again that are um Coming directly from the population and and fairly data driven and also focus on employment and how to be productive economically thanks thank you Ari will be our last speaker good morning mayor and or good afternoon mayor and city council my name is Ari Huber uh and I an organizer with Unite Here Local 11 uh I'm here today because there are serious concerns about Phoenix Sky Harbor airport that this Council must investigate just last week multiple whistleblowers airport workers employed by SSP America filed a complaint with the Transportation Security Administration alleging multiple violations of ferally mandated airport security regulations by their employer SSP in the complaint at least four employee whistleblowers alleged that SSP management sought to use a so-called back way to channel non-striking employees around the picket line in a manner that also circumvented mandatory TSA screening as reported by workers in using this backway managers repeatedly LED unscreened employees into sterile and restricted areas of the airport including locations connected to the airport tarmac and near passenger aircraft in attempting to undermine the strikers the complaint alleges SSP appears to have broken National Security and Federal Aviation laws as a airport tenant SSP America received special authorization from the city of Phoenix to access Sky Harbor facilities but must comply strictly with federally mandated airport regulations violations alleged in the complaint have taken place in the midst of an ongoing labor dispute between SSP and its Sky Harbor employees last November multiple employee whistleblowers alleged that SSP managers approached them to offer to take them around the back way in order to avoid contact with striking co-workers as part of the terms of SSP America's lease agreement with the city of Phoenix the company commits to abide by the regulations outlined in Phoenix's airport security program under certain conditions failure to abide by these rules could be grounds for the city to revoke all or part of the company's lease depending on the offense violations of federal and local airport regulations can also subject violators to referrals for Criminal Trespass charges or federal fines of up to $4,900 $50 we urge the City of Phoenix to take these concerns regarding the operator they hired to operate at Sky Harbor Airport seriously and ask that the city council not turn a blind eye to what SSP is doing thank you thank you for that testimony we are adjourned [Music] just see those S bells jingle and ring jingle jingling tooing