e good afternoon thank you for joining us on May 15th 2024 before the formal meeting of the city council convenes we will have the Park Central Community facilities District board meeting I'll call that to order will the clerk call the rooll board member conin board member galinda here board member jves here board member wado board member hjge Washington here board member O'Brien here board member Pastor here board member Robinson here board member waren ing Vice chair Stark chairwoman goo here item number three is the fiscal year budget and proposed five-year Financial forecast board member conin do you have a motion on item three yes I move passage of both matters second we have a motion and second any discussion roll call Conlin here yes yes Galindo yes Jes yes wado yes HJ Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes GGO yes passes 110 thank you we are now adjourned we'll begin the next section of our meeting with an invocation from fire captain Troy holtorf okay can I get myself organized would you all pray with me Our Father in Heaven as we begin this meeting help us to remember you remind us of who you are you are a faithful God even when we are faithless you are faithful always to the end you never grow tired or weary you never sleep or Slumber you are an everpresent help God you are merciful and gracious slow to anger abounding in love and faithfulness this is why we make time to pray and honor you father you hold the answers you are the hope that we need in this city so God please help us restore us father lead us to Still Waters and Green Pastures may this be our posture in the orientation of our hearts as we commence this meeting may your will be carried out today and may we be your people who say in God we trust it's in Jesus name I pray amen amen thank you Captain please remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance The repblic indivisible for all mayor this is Steve jvy can you hear me thank you Steve we could hear you make a comment but not I could not hear what it was well I just want to thank yes this is aside from the cfd board matters but I wanted to take the opportunity since I had the uh the council full Council there and and most of the city's staff I met oosa Manor and we had a ribbon cutting last week and I want to thank you you all personally on behalf of St Vincent deul for your involvement participation uh I know councilwoman Washington was there and many many of the staff were were present and I just want to say thanks for all your support and the project is going well thank you so much and congratulations we'll Now call to order the formal meeting of the Phoenix City Council will the clerk call the role councilman Galindo here councilwoman wado here councilwoman Hodge Washington here councilwoman O'Brien here councilwoman Pastor here councilman Robinson here councilman wearing vice mayor Stark here mayor Gayo here Mario bras and Elsie dwarte are with us to provide Spanish interpret ation Mario would you introduce your team yes mayor thank you hello good afternoon my name is Mario bahas and together with my colleague elte will be serving as uh today's Spanish interpreters for our meeting now I'll take the time to introduce ourselves to our Spanish speaking audience gracias thank you mayor thank you so much I'll now turn to our City attorney to explain public comment 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 councel 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 the person who violates these rules will lose the opportunity to continue to speak thank you I'll turn to the city clerk to read the 24-hour paragraph the titles of the following ordinance and resolution numbers on the agenda we're available to the public at least 24 hours prior to this council meeting and therefore may be read by title or agenda item only ordinance number G 7257 through 7262 S 843 through 885 and resolutions 22196 and 22201 through 22209 thank you we'll next move to the meeting minutes councilman wearing do you have a motion on item one yes mayor I move to approval of the minutes uh for Wednesday November 17th 2021 second comments all those in favor say I I oppose nay vice mayor do we have a motion on item two yes I move to approve December 1st 2021 minutes second comments all those in favor say I I he oppose nay passes unanimously councilwoman Pastor do you have a motion on item three yes I move item number three of 125 202 second comments all those in favor say I I any oppose nay passes unanimously councilwoman HUD Washington do you have a motion on item four yes I do I move that we adopt the November 15 2023 formal minute second a motion in a second any comments all those in favor say I I any oppose nay passes unanimously boards and commissions item five vice mayor do we have a motion yes motion to approve mayor and city council boards and commission nominations second have a motion and a second any comments all those in favor say I I I any oppose nay not see anyone to be sworn in today so we will go to the liquor license portion of our agenda the city council provides an advisory role to the State of Arizona vice mayor yes I move to approve items 6 through 24 second motion a second any comments all those in favor say I I any oppose nay passes unanimously city clerk are we ready for ordinances resolution new business planning and zoning yes mayor vice mayor do we have a motion I move to approve items 25 through 104 accept the following items 44 60 61 62 63 90 101 102 103 and 104 noting that item 45 is being continued to June 26 2024 item 64 is requested to be withdrawn item 103 has additional information item 104 is an add-on and can the clerk confirm if there's any other other items that should be excluded for inperson public comment mayor vice mayor no other items need to be excluded second Motion in a second any corrections roll call galinda yes wado yes Hajj Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing yes Stark yes Gayo yes passes 90 we next move to item 44 which is a public hearing this is related to the local alternative expenditure limit for the November 5th 2024 ballot we will open the public hearing do not have any members of the public to comment so we will close the public hearing I now recess the formal meeting and call to order the May 15th 2024 special meeting of the Phoenix city council will the clerk call the role councilman galinda here councilwoman wado councilwoman Hajj Washington here councilwoman O'Brien here councilwoman Pastor here councilman Robinson here councilman wearing vice mayor Stark here mayor geko here we are now on item one of the special meeting the adoption of the local alternative expenditure limitation for referral to the electors of the City of Phoenix resolution 22209 do we have a motion so move second we have a motion in a second this is an important resolution that allows our voters to allow the city to set our budget based on our available resources uh really very important to the continuing function of the city we go through this every four years a huge thank you to the advisory committee uh including Brian Willingham who is here today any comments roll call Galindo yes wado yes hjj Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes GGO yes passes 90 the special meeting is now adjourned and I reconvene the May 15 2024 formal council meeting do we have a motion as to the order of the meeting I move to suspend the meeting rules and take one 4 out of order and hear it next second we have a motion and a second all those in favor say I I I any oppose nay motion passes unanimously item 104 is related to the Central Station naming and it is an item brought forward to name it for Greg Stanton nearly a decade ago mayor Greg Stanton decided that when it came to Transit it was time to go big he brought together the city council and Community to write and ultimately approve an increase and extension of our dedicated Local transportation investment a $32 billion plan to improve our transit system Transit 2050 which was Proposition 104 on the ballot secured our Transit funding base until the year 2050 I was honored that then mayor Stanton asked me to chair that Campaign which was passed by the voters Phoenix is one of the six six cities in the region whose dedicated Transportation tax funds our Local transportation needs local funding is essential because Arizona is one of the few states in the nation where the state does not have funding dedicated to public transportation since entering public office improving local bus service Paratransit and the formation of high-capacity Transit have been top of mind for Greg Stanton I am proud to support the naming of the Central Station read development project planned for 300 North Central Avenue for the Greg Stanton Central Station and am excited to recognize his service he has also been a longtime advocate for our downtown and this is a project that helps improve and connect our downtown we uh are recommending we follow a similar process to the one we used at the City of Phoenix when naming the most recent terminal for Senator John McCain which would send that recommendation to the Heritage Commission forie review and recommendation Greg's Vision has improved multiple modes of transportation Citywide including bus Light Rail Paratransit streets bike lanes and active Transportation when Central Station is operational next year it will provide important connectivity and trips including half a dozen local bus routes it will also provide access to the dash circulator a designated space for dial ride Paratransit service multiple rapid and express boots and an bus routes and an ASU intercampus shuttle Light Rail service will be augmented with the opening of the South Central Light Rail station which will extend service to Central and Baseline the Greg santon Central Station will not only serve as a major Transit hub for the community but will stand as the city's primary downtown B bus and Light Rail Transit Center this is one of multiple Transit centers we have named most recently for thelda Williams who served as both councilwoman and mayor and in addition to the Ed Pastor Transit Center at Central and Broadway which is an operating C Transit Center with beautiful historic building and tens of thousand dollars of art it will continue to remain a Transit Center unless this Council decides otherwise and I think we have no intention of doing that we want to grow the importance of the Light Rail and open an expand more activities today is about honoring some of the people who today is about honoring an individual who has helped improve the city and our transit system Greg Stanton was an excellent mayor whose leadership improved the lives of those who live there and I believe it is exciting and O great opportunity to honor him and his legacy we'll next go for a motion mayor I move to request that staff start the process for the Heritage commission to review naming the transit Central Station center after Greg Stanton and to come back to the city council with a recommendation I have additional comments after the motion receives a second mayor we have a motion do we have a second second we have a motion in in two seconds uh we'll recognize I think I heard councilman Robinson first and I'll go back to councilman O'Brien for comments thank you so much I am excited to make the motion to honor former mayor and current congressman Greg Stanton with a request to the Heritage commission to consider naming the new Central Station the Greg Stanton Central Station although I am on the other side of the political aisle from my friend many of the actions Congressman Stanton took as mayor are things we do see eye to eye on his support for Public Safety his dedication to our parks and preserves and his understanding of the needed revenue streams for future city needs and growth I value all the ground work he laid during his time as mayor and as a council member in Phoenix that led to the building blocks like investing in biosciences which has created the vibrant and Innovative stretch of seventh street from Roosevelt to Van buen and focusing on increasing the trade between Mexico and Phoenix by helping to open the first trade office in her herio Mexico um this council is able to build off of those building blocks and continue making America's fifth largest city successful as mayor Congressman Stanton was strong supporter of public Transit and Le led the effort to help create the t2050 plan which lays out the Valley's public transit system for the coming decades it only seems fitting that Council honor former mayor Stanton by naming the upcoming Central Hub the first Transit Center to feature the right Light Rail and bus station bus connection the Greg Stanton Central Station thank you mayor thank you vice mayor thank you uh mayor I I support report this and I I will tell you why I I was at the thelda Williams uh Grand Opening and Greg spoke and I was quite moved by what he had to say and it it reminded me that he has done just as much as um Dela has done for light rail he's had a strong commitment and he still has it in Congress he's always trying to help us with funding and I think uh we should honor all of our Mayors for some of the great things things they've done and this is probably one that stood out for uh uh mayor Stanton uh I am very supportive of the idea and and I hope that we pursue looking at other um in whether it's a park or another light rail station for some of our former mayors who've done so much for our city thank you thank you councilman wearing uh at John McCain's memorial service at the uh National Cathedral Barack Obama got up and said uh you know John always did have a sense of humor and he's having a joke right now by making George Bush and me stand up here and say nice things about me I like that line actually um and being a republican I I don't know that I've ever quoted Barack Obama so there's a first time for everything um but I was thinking about that quote last week when the mayor and SE Scot from her office handed me a letter saying a bunch of wonderful things about light rail so anybody who knows anything about me thought that might be out of pocket for me to sign but I was happy to do it uh for mayor St former mayor Stanton uh I thought this is a a very worthy honor for him uh just a couple quick things um by the time I'm done I've been on this Council for about 15 and a half years which will be a quarter of my lifespan at that point Greg's a year or two younger than me and I think he's did at least 16 years so he'll have spent a quarter of his life plus obviously his other public service in support of the city he always worked he was always fair with me and a gentleman I thought he was a very good public servant even if on some issues like like rail I might disagree and uh I definitely thought this was a a worthy honor for him for what has really been for him you know a pretty much a lifetime of service uh for Phoenicians and I thought that should be respected um I guess a cross party aisle um I that was a factor I definitely thought this was something that that he had earned through really hard work and it was a uh worthy acknowledgement of his efforts and I appreciate you bringing that forward mayor thank you councilman Robinson mayor thank you very much you know I support this particular motion also because I think Congressman Stanton truly is deserving of this honor I had the opportunity to work with with Greg going back to the well when he was first in office as a city council person in district 6 I was with the police department and the one thing that I think is most important that has always stood out about Greg is that he always considered what was best for the community he was always about the community he was always about not just the the community the residents in district 6 but in Phoenix as a whole and what we have seen since his time in um in Congress is that same heartfelt desire to do the right things for the the right reasons you know and for all of these reasons and for all the years I've known him I just think it is the right thing to do at the right moment at the right location so I fully support this motion mayor thank you very much thank you councilwoman Pastor I'd like to uh acknowledge the mayor council members staff and most importantly the residents of the City of Phoenix history has shown that that naming of a building monuments or streets has its share fair share of controversy recently prior City of Phoenix Council Members and the mayor changed the name of squa peak to pesta Peak to honor the memory of a fallen Arizona Soldier and it was the right action to take today we are discussing the naming of a significant Economic Development Hub I believe it is an immense honor to name a government-owned building for individual ual from our community who are admired and who have made an everlasting impact in lives of many to share a brief Journey Through History Ed Pastor was the first Mexican-American elected to represent the State of Arizona and Congress beginning in 1991 he is also my father while the congressman was known to be a Workhorse not a show horse he was is also one of the most prolific members of Congress to bring resources to his community and to the state this is a fact and one that is important to remember the congressman brought billions of dollars to Arizona and to the City of Phoenix through public transportation projects such as the light rail Light Rail was one system that connected communities and transport trans transformed the trajectory of economic development in Phoenix temp and Mesa before Light Rail workers in my workers workers in my district and in other districts felt left out of a cultural Renaissance and a development in downtown Phoenix light rail changed all of that light rail and bus systems are not simply lines that run from point A to point B you see these transportation systems are Economic Development pieces connectors of communities which congressman Pastor LED they changed the lives of many Phoenicians to recognize Congressman pastor's efforts in this Arena the city named South Phoenix Transportation Hub in his name for years Latinos especially our young people who are of Latino descent had the opportunity see one of their own community members honored for his work and bringing more resources to our city today begins the process and recommendation to name the new Central Station absent of Congressman Pastor I am here not as a daughter but as a person who wants to make sure that history is not forgotten just like the naming of Barry Goldwater John McCain and Lincoln Ragsdale will not be forgotten as documented the current Ed Pastor bus station Hub will be repurposed an RFP will be issued with the intent to add housing and the intent of Housing and the building to be Blended my contention is that the new Transportation facility a hub for both Light Rail and Business Systems should have the name of Ed Pastor to carry the history and to preserve it some say that this matter is trivia some say there's already too many buildings named after him I say that history is never trivial especially history that resulted in a dramatic shift in our City's Economic Development and Community Connection through the advocacy lobbying and putting in countless of hours of work by Congressman Pastor in order to bring resources to our city I have several questions but I can wait mayor councilman gado thank you mayor I would like to make a substitute motion to start the process for the Heritage commission to review naming the transit center after Congressman Ed Pastor or Congressman Greg Stanton to come back to the city council with a recommendation second we have a motion and a second we'll go to public comment now Sonia Gomez followed by Mary Durand not there and do we have Mary do we have Mary Rose Wilcox right Brian Fernandez thank you so much mayor and councel um very nice to uh to speak before you today I'm Brian Fernandez uh and until the voters decided to kick me out I represent Southwestern Arizona and the Arizona Senate I just want to speak today on this uh particular issue um I would like just talk for one moment about Ed pastor and uh the influence he's had on so many people throughout Arizona um he is someone that I I would not be here personally without him and I know my mother who uh preceded me and she's now head of USDA Arizona would not be where she is either uh Ed Pastor inspired so many um one thing that I Greg Stanton's a a old family friend and I and I very much uh appreciate everything that he's done and really count him as one of my dear friends um Ed Pastor was on Appropriations his first term uh which is anyone that knows about Congress is unheard of no one ever gets on appropriation first term um Congressman Stanton I believe is in his fourth term and may get it next year uh he did that uh by building uh coalitions amongst many people uh and even once he was on Appropriations he built coalitions uh to bring so much to Arizona I mean we see it here in Phoenix but we've also see it throughout Arizona I just um me personally uh and the people that that elect me would very much like to see uh Ed Pastor be named as uh or the building be named for him uh and I did submit a letter for the record signed by several legislators I just found out about this earlier today but I uh talked to a few people and um we signed a letter and so you have that and I hopefully it'll be on record thank you so much and it's so great to see so many friends on Council thank you pet ra Falone is next followed by Sonia pestor well good afternoon mayor and Council and thank you for this opportunity to speak today and I know there's a two-minute limit um I first want to thank each and every one of you for your public service because that's what I think we're doing here today it's honoring not only Ed bastor but also Congressman Stanton which today is not about not letting Greg Stanton get his his time in in in the Limelight but what we are doing is really preserving the history and The Narrative of this state and and and as councilman uh Laura Pastor said he was our first Latino in the state of Arizona to be elected to congress now what the point I want to make is that we are honoring Congressman Pastor for his legacy for his gifts not only to Maricopa County but to Yuma County and to Pima County and probably other areas that I don't know about I first encountered Yuma County and with with Congress Andor out there working with Farm Workers and they have the best funded military best in Yuma County because of Congressman pastor and multiple other uh projects in M County so what the point that I want to make today is that I when my children grow up and my grandchildren grow up I want them to we I want all of us to be able to point to buildings that recognize the service the public service and sacrifice of public life leaders like yourselves and I would hope that one day you all want to be in that situation and not want to have it displaced by somebody else's request we found out yesterday that this item was going to be at the added to the bottom of the agenda today and thank you for moving it up to to forward mayor and Council because I do think we need to give it its time today but again I just want each and every one of you to remember that one day you will be in the same situation where you want your community to recognize your public service and that's why we're here today we want Congressman pastor's uh Life and Legacy to be preserved so that all your future children all future citizens of the City of Phoenix will recognize them thank you thank you Sonia pestor is next followed by Tiffany pestor good afternoon thank you mayor and city council um I'm going to try and make this as brief as I can I have a time limit um obviously my name is Sonia Pastor the congressman uh is my uncle Laura Pastor is my cousin and Congressman Greg Stanton is a very good friend of mine he um in fact gave a tour of the capital in Washington DC last week for my son and my nephew uh my comments are not about Greg Stanton as I stated he is a friend and obviously he is a very accomplished member of Congress and he has done great things for our community this is about preserving the history of a great man a man who ensured that we had transit services in the city the reason why we have light rail is because of Congressman Pastor what I have not mentioned is that prior to um my current career I worked for Valley Metro I was a consultant and I was responsible for assisting with the Outreach for the light rail extension in South Phoenix and cap by 10 working with the former CEO of Valley Metro the city manager Mario pagua Maria hayatt who is now retired and several other individuals in the city of Phoenix we came to the conclusion and made a recommendation to extend the light rail to downtown and then to cap I 10 included in those discussions was the fact that the Central Station in South Phoenix would its purpose would have to change and therefore the former CEO along with City staff recommended that the Central City Light Rail station would become the Ed Pastor station in preservation of Central City I recall this because we had several conversations and City staff was very concerned because this included Federal funding what I ask is that you continue this motion and you offer stakeholders stakeholders the appropriate opportunity to participate in this conversation thank you Tiffany pestor is followed by Robert pestor good afternoon Council and mayor I um have the Good Fortune to have married my husband Robert Pastor my name my given name is Tiffany Lucero I'm an Arizona native and I have witnessed firsthand what the congressman Ed pastor and what the congressman Greg Stanton have done for this state and for this community they both deserve recognition the method in which that I have even just heard here today by which um the current building is is being sought to be named I think creates a a a basis for pause and I think that there needs to be some pause to investigate how we got here and to remember our history and remember what work was done not just by Congressman pastor but by Congressman Pastor in conjunction with mayor Greg Stanton I think it's important not to act hastily I think it's important to pause that is all Robert pestor is next followed by Verma pestor good afternoon mayor council uh my name is Robert Pastor I'm a lawyer with the law firm Montoya Lucero and pastor and I'm here really uh for my aunt my aunt Verma um and she's here because to with her husband they dedicated their lives to improving this community to serving the people of Arizona uh our family's been in this part of the country since the 1860s and I have seen lots of new people come to town plant their flag and say we're going to create change we're going to make a difference and everyone can get their chance and they can do that but I want to make sure that this Council preserves history because my uncle his brother others like Danny Ortega Ronnie Lopez they started a movement in the 70s to give voice to Latinos to make sure that we were heard and today that movement continues right we're not just Farm Workers and cooks and people who clean people's houses we are doctors we are lawyers we are congressmen I want my children to be raised in this city and I want them to go and see buildings and say hey that's a brown boy just like me he made a difference like my wife just said I think we need to kind of look a little more closely about how we got here and why we're here how this came to be this is not Greg Stanton is a wonderful human being he continues to do wonderful work for this city for the people of Arizona I'm concerned that instead of acknowledging history we're trying to rewrite it because we know that when this light rail was planned it was planned on a big scale and we know that some buildings were going to become obsolete as the city continued to grow so I'm going to ask you to please like my wife said take a pause let's look at the facts and let's make sure we preserve history not alternative facts Verma pestor is next followed by Raina how are you good to see you thank you mayor GGO and Phoenix City Council I am Verma Pastor wife of the late Congressman Ed Pastor as you know the congressman was instrumental in securing Federal funding for marokopa County and the City of Phoenix for bus and Light Rail projects this journey started as early as in the 1990s with a congressman securing funding until the city received a full funding Grant agreement from the Federal Transit Agency in 205 so there was a lot of years in between the way he provided the funding the congressman continued to support the city and county in bringing to fruition three key Transportation initiatives resulting in the Phoenix 2000 plan in 2015 Ed as allegeny to the city and to this project continued postretirement from Congress as he served as a first chair of the city Transportation Commission which led the way to the 2050 plan along this journey several of you in the community community including elected officials staff and commit committee members have personally said to me the plan to move the congressman name from the Transit Agency at South Central location to the central location as eventually the south cental location will be shuttered I understand and appreciate Congressman sten's work in Congress and as mayor because he as a congressman worked in tandem however Ed was instrumental in securing the initial federal dollars close to half a billion according to actual house committee appropriation reports from 1999 to 2014 the congressman solidified 4255 million doll for Light Rail and additional $56 million for busing projects thank you and I humbly ask you to include Congressman Eda Sour's name for consideration naming the trans cender to the Heritage commission thank you thank you Raina is next followed by Ricardo thank you uh city council for members I'm not a politician and and I don't like it to be in the way to be learning things in the way I been learning today I'm a first bed in my family as a Mexican I come in this country and I love the process one of the things I be learning when I become a citizen there was at Pastor teaching art children so many things he com into our schools he com into our communities and recognize people like him is very big for our community has a first bance one of the things I also learning is the due process and I think so in here the due process they not working in the right way because as a p uh PEX in this country and this community and this city I never learning about this issue until today and this is why I was in my doctor appointment and I come in over here because for me it's not fair to don't let the community know what it is happen and I don't say Stanton is not right person he amazing men but I think so Legacy in here in the world for the men he was working for many many years to bring to this city so many FS is not right what they is doing in here right now thank you and I do appreciate it to have the consideration to have it our community to come in and speak pick up in this issue not coming and pass by like always please this is not a issue they need to be a big Haw for the next person because he is coming we need to have consideration our community and I appreciate it thank you thank you Ricardo is next hello everyone um my name is Ricardo I'm a resident of of West Phoenix um and I'm here today uh to oppose this because um I believe that it is wrong for us to take a Transit Center which is going to be at the heart of our city which as was mentioned earlier um uh is being redeveloped and is going to be improved and for it to not use to be on to honor uh Congressman Ed Pastor who really the whole reason why we have light rail is because of him and so I think it's a mistake and I think some of the folks on the council may not have understood how much uh uh of really a slap in the face this is to CH uh chos uh here in Phoenix when you uh make this type of proposal again I want to reiterate what a lot of people said here this isn't about Greg Stanton you know I am a supporter of Greg of Congressman Greg Stanton I will continue to support Greg Stanton and if there's another Transit Center that is going to be named after him I'll be happy to support that as well but I think this particular Transit Center um like we heard before was understood to be named after Ed pastor and for those of you uh that don't know I've spent some time working here at city council and through my conversations with staff it was understood that this was going to be named as P the at Pastor Transit Center so the fact that it's being changed now uh that is why I consider this a slap in the face to uh uh our uh Cho history uh here and so I want to caution uh our council members before they make the decision to vote in favor of this just what type of impact and what that says to chos here uh in Phoenix so keep that in mind thank thank you thank you that concludes public comment May C vice mayor um can I I I guess I'm confused because I we have an ed Pastor Transit Center and I did not realize there's discussion of changing it or closing it down could I get confirmation on that I and then the discuss question of naming this particular station after Congressman Pastor I don't recall us ever being briefed on that maybe I wasn't brief but I don't remember but but what's happening right now with the current Transit Center thank you mayor members of the council I'm Mario Paka Deputy city manager and um just to just to give some insight on the current Transit Center and along with me here is Jus sap in the public Transit director so the current Ed Pastor Transit Center at Central and Broadway Road um thank you has uh has been a Transit Center for several years and um however there have been changes uh along the for the with the transit system and so there have been some discussions about potentially looking at reusing uh potential reuses for that site uh potentially redeveloping but nothing nothing uh formal has happened with that there's been no no formal action on any of those discussions it's mainly been informal discussions happening about potentially reusing that site because the the site isn't the Busy Transit Center that it once was um but it currently is Ed P Pastor Transit Center and functions that way today um uh but in a in a it's not quite the same as it once was and I would just look to Jus to if you would add anything that I might have not included in my comments think I think mayor members of the council I think Mario summarized it correctly it is a Transit Center today and operates as it has for I I believe over 20 years as a Transit Center but Mario's correct years ago we had more routes end there um so we had a little bit more activity however under t2050 as previously discussed we have expanded service and the footprint of you know the geography of that we cover so we don't have as many routes terminating there but we do do have Transit service adjacent to it we have two local routes a rapid route and of course a central uh uh light roll platform being uh constructed literally across the street so it's still active just not at the level it was 20 years ago when it was first built sorry um but given that light rail is coming to uh South Phoenix isn't there a potential to kind of reimagine that maybe add a bike uh do some things to really complement what's already there may members of the council vice mayor Stark yes we as Mario mentioned earlier we've had conversations about potential options for reimagining that site uh but nothing's been solidified no RFP has been issued today well I as one would love to explore that and and I don't think that that would take away from the legacy of of uh Congressman Pastor if we reimagine it and make it only better um I I am aware that we have a Transit Center named after him and so I think it's now time to honor Greg Stanton thank you mayor thank you councilwoman O'Brien thank you um so I just want to go over to make sure I understood the answers to coun or to Vice mayor's questions so there are no definitive plans to shutter or take down the current Ed Pastor Transit Center that's correct okay so whatever plans for the future have not been decided and we absolutely could keep that asset and improve it and and make it better than it is today is that correct that's correct I'll any any discussions have just been informal discussions but nothing nothing official and it's nothing that's been through the C okay um additionally a couple of the speakers today brought up um and I and I think including um my colleague uh councilwoman Pastor brought up that these discussions about naming um Central Station after Congressman Pastor have been going on for years and so I'm going to say that this is the first time and while I realize I'm I'm going to say one of the newer not the newest but one of the newer council members um I I've never heard about the Central Station being named after former Congressman um Pastor so that is news to me but um I appreciate you answering my questions we are spending 50 million or so as a region to enhance ticketing we are pushing hard for people to go to ticketing on their mobile phones every Transit Center has less activity is that right and we'll continue at an elevated level mayor members of the council yes the expectation is that with the newer options that we are doing under the new Regional Fair collection system that City of Phoenix has been do uh undertaking jointly with Valley Metro that there would be basically La less cash cash collection at Transit centers um and so members of the writing public would instead use reloadable Fair cards and app on their phone thank you councilwoman pastor yes um I would like to know what you have told the community uh regarding because there's community members uh regarding uh the current plan for South Central and it was a plan that we voted on and Community showed up and said we do not want this to be changed the second piece is I would like Chris Macky to come up to the table um to discuss uh the fact of what we voted on uh to send that property to the FTA to be able to ask if we could repurpose that property and the intent and the writing that went into it of what what's really going to happen um so first of all what did you promise South Phoenix constituents that that Central and vuran was supposed to be transferred the name of Ed Pastor on Central and Broadway was supposed to be transferred to Central and vanan I did not ask for it I was told by staff and community that that was going to happen and those conversations were on with the South Central collaborative along with the artists that toured that space so I want to get real and Frank and quit dancing around the questions thank you mayor and councilwoman Pastor there there have been informal discussions with you and and others about potentially moving the name of the Ed Pastor Transit Center from from where it is today to Central Station and I do acknowledge that that's something that we have talked about in the past uh but obviously that's a council decision there's a process for that needs to go through the Heritage commission and ultimately is decided upon by the council so any any discussions about that have been purely informal discussions and with acknowledgement that that is a council a city council decision that's not something that any staff member can promise would happen it's only the city council that can decide that I I understand that the city council can decide that however there is a process to go through with the heritage peace so I'm just putting that down if anybody read the process and the Heritage process we're doing this a little backwards um but I asked Chris Macky to come to the table because I know under councilwoman onari and others and that were uh part of meeting with the South Central Collective for several years three years at least uh discussing what was going to happen to that space and we voted on uh in subcommittee and Council for that site to be disposal uh and that site was included in the 2425 list sent to the FTA the intent of that is to write and there's two rfps that that have been discussed one was to activate uh the building where the Ed passor name is centered right now to activate that building it came from community staff met with community and told them we are going to write an RFP so that we can activate this space simultaneously we will be writing an RFP to re look at what this space is going to look like that could be affordable housing mixed housing the building will be saved but it will be blended with the project I don't know if I'm correct I'm wrong or I'm smoking dope mayor kcom Pastor um if I could take just a moment to kind of walk through the process that we've done on the site so far you're absolutely correct former council member anari did bring groups together on a number of occasions to talk about and reimagine the site it was her guid Ence in the year before she left that we work with Transit we'd been out to tour the site together to consider moving forward with a request for proposal on the site in our 2425 list of properties that Economic Development would propose to get ready to take out for request for proposal we did bring it to the subcommittee it was on our list uh that is just the broad stroke of of starting the process it's making sure that Council doesn't have any any issues with some of the properties that we're considering taking out it could be taken out in 24 it could be taken out in 25 26 that just starts the process Mr sapen and I then to even go any farther would have to write a scope of work that the council would authorize then we'd have to visit with the FTA since there are financial partners jump in if I say this wrong um that we would have to take it to the FTA to gain their concurrence that they would allow for either additional development or Redevelopment to happen on the site we then come before subcommittee with staff scope of work for a recommendation for an RFP we then come to the formal council for that recommendation uh we would then open an RFP and see what type of responses we have at this time we don't have council's formal authorization nor have we requested it to go out for an RFP it's been Community meetings with former councilman anari and on the subcommittee we did take forward each year we take for a full list of items that we may propose to take out for RFP in the in the coming year Mr zpan did I say that correctly okay yes you did uh and mayor members of the council uh Chris is correct we do have a federal interest in the Ed Pastor Transit Center property we did receive federal funds A little over 20 years ago for the land acquisition and for the construction of the site so anything we did uh relative to council's approval uh such as taking out an RFP for redeveloping the site number one we can put all our wishes and Desires in there as to you know ret retention of the site the building that's there is councilwoman Pastor correctly called out but secondly we would have to just like we did with Central Station uh get FTA approval and walk them through what if anything we're going to do to the site and we wouldn't you know there wouldn't be shovels in the ground basically until we got FTA approval but that would be one of the components of issuing an ft an RFP is getting FTA approval thank you and we have a great record of using this process to actually enhance sites so for example we have also gone to the FTA with an RFP for Central Station and it has created more amenities so it's I think made it even more desirable councilwoman HUD Washington thank you mayor I just wanted to clarify make sure it's it's a it's a lot of moving Parts at the moment I just want to make sure I understand the current status of of of everything at this juncture at this juncture has an RFP been issued regarding the current current um property that houses the Ed passor Transit Center mayor councilwoman Hajj Washington no we have not come to seek council's authorization formal authorization on a specific RFP we have concurrence from the subcommittee that it's on a future list okay that's what I wanted to clarify because I heard uh what seemed to be conflicting information I just want to make sure I confirm that um like councilwoman O'Brien this is um in the recent day is the first time I've heard that this was a consideration to name it after Ed pass store um the Central Station so I'm just trying to also Identify some information on the extent of the community meetings that may have con been concur uh conducted to get this feedback is there anything you can add for that for me you said they were conducted with councilwoman anari's office I'm just trying to get some more information as to maybe time how did we determine the stakeholders just who had input into this conversation and what was the at the end of that meeting what was the conclusion mayor and councilwoman Huds Washington yeah there was there were some Community meetings with uh that were facilitated by councilwoman ansari's office along with councilwoman Pastor to with members of the community in South Central specifically to talk about potential uses of of the um Ed Pastor Transit Center site at Central and Broadway um and so the really the stakeholders were uh were joint effort of the two Council offices bringing those two groups together to talk about again the potential reuses of of that site and what what could be done there um and so that I I think that's the extent is anything else that you would add Chris Macky mayor councilman Hajj Washington no those were those are the meetings we met on site walk through the building with the community to gain some insight into what they Envision for the potential adaptive reuse of the building and if I just want make sure I understand this very clearly um that if and until the council says otherwise the Ed Pastor Transit Center would remain in its current operational state may members of the council that is correct so um thank you so much mayor thank you so we will I think first have a roll call on councilwoman guardado's no councilwoman pastor's motion word vado's motion and then if that does not succeed we would then go to the original motion is that right Denise yes mayor all right roll call gind Dela War mayor can I explain my vote please do thank you I think that given the conversation that we've had here um today um commitments that have been made to the community I I think that you know we have two different congressmen who have done a lot for for this community um when it comes to Transportation I'm hopeful um that this motion will move forward so that we can have a more robust um conversation at the commission and that we can figure out um who who the center will be named after and hopefully um we will give that opportunity to the community so that they can come together and also be able to weigh in on on the decision um that we will at the end will be making um I will be voting yes Hodge Washington I too would like to explain my vote mayor please do um thank you um I do believe that both individuals are duly deserving of the honor um I believe that um Greg standon has made an impeccable Mark in our community when it comes to Transportation um we often hear the story of how he relied personally on public transportation um this is not to denize the legacy of Mr Ed Pastor as well I do believe that he has made great strides and it's a it's a key figure in a Latino culture here in Arizona that we want to definitely respect and honor um I'm going to vote no on the substitute motion just because it's abundantly clear from what I've heard that the Ed Pastor Transit Center is going to remain uh until Council says otherwise and I don't believe that council is uh is at the position where they're going to say no to or they're going to modify the Ed Pastor Transit Center O'Brien may I explain my vote mayor please do um I also will be um voting no on the substitute motion um I think that it is time to um honor Congressman Stanton for his contributions as well and I believe that we should look at um if it's either leaving reimagining making the current Transit Center a better place um that there is that Center and so I'd like to work with Council on ensuring that that becomes um continues and becomes a a great legacy for Ed Pastor thank you Pastor I would like to explain my vote please do um I believe uh the council doesn't have the full information in front of you and are making a decision that the community asked for and once again Community is shut out of some of the decision making conversations were had conversations were told and said artists were there the South Central Collective was there and that discussion has been happening but if we want to reimagine this Center we can but what I'm telling you in the 2050 in the transit piece is very clear of the discussions and I will get the dialogue and minutes so that every one of you understand what has been happening for the last six years I will be voting yes Robinson wearing I'd like to explain my vote please do uh um you know as I said earlier uh I was presented with the opportunity to sign the letter and I thought that was an appropriate and worthy honor for someone even if I disagree with him sometimes a worthy honor for somebody who has worked very hard and given a large chunk of his life uh to this city I thought that was appropriate and I said in immediate yes and I was proud to do it um but that is no reflection on what I think of the pastors uh Mrs Pastor I think you know that uh I enjoyed talking to your husband more than Maybe no offense guys any other elected officials I've dealt with I I enjoyed him thoroughly as a person um as someone to work with um enjoyed him very much uh you know I I guess I would just say this is certainly not a reflection of what I think about him and if you have some other suggestions of what would be a worthy honor for him I I can only speak for myself I certainly would entertain them so um I made this commitment I'm not GNA back off that but I would certainly uh welcome any opportunity to honor Ed pastor's service and would would think would be appropriate uh thank you and I'm voting yes or no excuse me Stark if I can explain my vote we have a Ed peser Transit Center and it sounds like there is a vision to make it bigger and even better and so I will vote no because I think we also need to honor Greg santon GGO no fails 2 to six we are now back on the original motion wonderful thank you and I think important to clarify Greg Stanton did not ask for this station to be named for him so think it was a surprise to him roll call on the original motion Galindo oh can we um mayor may I explain my vote please do um I'm sorry I have a severe cold and not feeling well so I'll be as precise and concise as possible um mayor I um I have and maintain the highest respect for the late Congressman at pastor and his long Legacy of service to community his strong support for the City of Phoenix transit system is without dispute Ed cared for Arizona he was a product of the copper Corridor for the sake of clarity at no time was there a conversation or decision made to demolish repurpose the site with affordable housing or to close the historic site of the Ed past store transition station on Broadway and Central located in district 7 this information is both unfounded and unfortunate I am committed and dedicated to ensuring that this Center serves as a heart and is a continued location for Transit and hopefully soon a go-to center for resources to assist the community and the neighborhoods located around it but because my employer was contacted regarding this issue it now becomes necessary to remove any potential for irregularity and for that reason I abstain from this vote wado mayor can I explain my vote please do thank you um as much as I admire the word that Congressman Stanton has done I think there's a lot of great work still ahead of us I thank him for his leadership and for all of the heart work that he's been doing but I still do believe um that we bypassed um what the community really wanted um to happen um in in this station um so I will be voting no hjge Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor no Robinson yes wearing Stark yes GGO yes passes 72 so this will now go to the commission and then it would come back to the full Council this is a process we've used including with the McCain terminal naming so multiple hearings for people who want to be heard we next go to item 60 which is an IGA with Maricopa County Community College District do we have a motion I move to approve second and noting uh councilwoman Pastor has an employment relationship with the Maricopa County Community College District and because of that financial interest she is not participating in this item so we'll declare a conflict there any comments roll call Galen delva yes wado yes HUD Washington yes O'Brien Robinson yes wearing Stark yes goo yes passes 70 item 61 do we have a motion I move to approve we have a motion in a second Council pestor had asked to make comments on this councilwoman pestor does not need to make comments any other comments roll call galinda yes wado yes hjj Washington yes O'Brien Pastor Robinson yes wearing wearing Stark yes Gayo yes passes 80 item 62 is a request for reconsideration councilman HUD Washington thank you mayor for the op thank you mayor um exactly two weeks ago we voted on a last minute amendment that um well first off let me move to adopt item 6 sorry item move to reconsider as outlined in my letter dated May 8 2024 second Motion in a second we'll recognize the councilwoman HUD Washington for additional comments thank you your honor thank you uh mayor um exactly two weeks ago we voted on a last minute amendment that would forever bar individuals who had filed certain claims against the Phoenix Police Department from serving on the citizens review board we engaged in a robust discussion on the Das we heard the need to ensure that all civilian votes were considered including those who had filed claims against the police department and we also considered whether those with out of state law enforcement experience should be eligible it was reiterated during those conversations that the civilian review board should be a trusted place for concerns without any appearance of bias and propriety and the need to ensure that the information was equally shared amongst the board members although a vote proceeded I contined to believe that the decision warranted further consideration and I made no secret about my intent to bring this issue back to you for reconsideration before doing so I reviewed the ordinance language from 18 other jurisdictions that we as a council were provided with as examples I looked to see what the other jurisdictions were doing and pulled excerpts based on the concerns I I heard from you council members on May 1st 2024 I urge you to reconsider and allow a vote on the proposed changes in additions to section 20en 14 A1 as outlined in my 8 2024 letter thank you mayor thank you we have a motion in a second any discussion roll call galinda yes wado yes hjj Washington yes O'Brien yes pastor Robinson mayor may I explain my vote please do thank you I I think compromise is important in all these situations and I still have a difficult time with um not allowing someone with law enforcement experience as a voting member on the board who could provide that background that experience yet we will allow somebody who may and granted it could be 10 years out but I always worry about how long someone could hold on to something um and I get it I I want to compromise I want to look for a way to move this whole thing forward and do the right things but I think fair is fair and I think if we're going to not consider someone with a law enforcement background not necessarily from the Phoenix Police Department or anything like that if we're going to leave that out I'm I'm I'm going to have to vote no no on this one thank you mayor where in Stark yes GGO yes passes 72 the motion to reconsider has passed which means we now go to item 63 with the clerk read the title item 63 is for ordinance G 7258 and ordinance relating to the office of accountability and transparency amending chapter 20 Article 1 Section 20-1 of the Phoenix city code Article 2 sections 20-5 through 20-10 and 20-3 and repealing and deleting sections 20-11 and entirety adding article 3 sections 20-14 through 20-17 and amending Article 4 sections 20-26 nicely done uh do you want to introduce the item I can go ahead and make the motion uh wonderful go ahead councilwoman I mooved to adopt item 63 with the Amendments as noted in my May 8 2024 memo second Motion in a second any comments before we go to public comment uh uh Ben Laughlin all right we have no Ben Laughlin so we will go I think to the councilwoman HUD Washington thank you mayor um as I stated when I ask for reconsideration I believe that this draft language addresses issues that were raised by this Council in theas and I think it's a reasonable balance of uh it's a reasonable balance and compromise for this Council and it ensures that the that all voices we are a civilian review board it's inclusive and not strives to be exclusive so with that I I ask my colleagues to support this motion thank you roll call galinda yes marado yes HUD Washington yes O'Brien O'Brien pastor Robinson yes wearing Stark yes GGO yes passes 61 thank you we next go on to item 9 day which is an amendment to Phoenix city code chapter 31 will the clerk read the title item 90 is for ordinance G 7261 an ordinance authorizing the city manager to amend Phoenix City Cod chapter 31 streets and sidewalks to allow the city manager or design the authority to revoke temporary encroachment permits pursuant to section 80. vice mayor I move to approve second any comments roll call Galindo yes wado yes hjj Washington yes O'Brien Pastor Robinson yes wearing Stark yes GGO yes passes 70 we next go to the planning and boning portion of our agenda item 101 is in councilwoman Stark vice mayor Starks District we will open the public hearing Julia tagert I'm fine yes I'm opposed to this uh my community was not told about this I just found out about this and left a volunteer luncheon to come uh I've been on the phone with other people in other block watches like Pala Verde blockwatch who had come to a community meeting to talk with the owner about not wanting a storage facility at this place they did not know either um I've been texting with other people who were against this that they can't come here because they have worked today and they didn't know either um a storage unit is not good in that area I've talked with business owners multiple times I know this has brought been brought up at City Council meetings planning and commission there are so many businesses in that area being affected by homeless problems I mean I could go on and on for it there is a street issue too where there is a community of single mothers that live in Housing Development there there's kids that play in the street we had talks with the owner multiple times I asked about you know Street safety what could that be done there was nothing that he said could be done on that the owner of the property said he wanted to work with the community this is not working with the community when we get blindsided and I have people saying I didn't know that this was coming up I would have loved to do a public comment cuz it affects some the storage unit place that was put in next to them they told me that it affected their Community very badly and they have an increase in crime and they didn't want this to happen again you know and I am speaking about it because I live in that area you know I know there's a storage company right across the way that's been there for over 40 years there's one down the street there's another one down the street we don't need another one there could be such a better use for that land and giving it cfree status is a blank check the last time I checked there was no company that wanted to buy it there was no blueprints there was no design and it's very hard for my community to clean up all the messes we've already done Hatcher Road is a perfect example we were able to clean that up but that's taken five years if we get this storage unit I don't know how long it would be for us to clean up this area too because it's going to be an issue and I would just put a pause on this so my community can come and put their public comments to you because they didn't know and I know I'm the only one so far registered and I would love for them to be able to say what they want to say to you thank you thank you Marty Hall afternoon my name is Marty Hall I represent the owner of the property uh thank you for this opportunity uh the very first thing I want to bring to your attention is uh this property is located at a dead end Street it is uh there's only one way access uh singular access to this property it is um currently Zone r110 the nearest sewer system that's even available to this site considering that is zone r110 is in excess of 500 feet so the economics of extending a sewer for a singular parcel for r110 uh just doesn't make a whole lot of sense one number two is we've preceded um from the very beginning in uh following all the protocol that the city has has required us regarding notification to all the U neighbors as well as our adjacent neighbors uh we've met with all the adjacent Neighbors in making sure that we're addressing any concerns they have uh to date um I don't believe there is any of the adjacent neighbors that have any issues what we're what we're trying to accomplish uh we've met with a village hearing we appeared before Village hearing they voted in favor of this project the planning staff has recommended approval for this project um in in um response to the young lady that just spoke here they asked us to appear before their uh which I believe they refer to as this Sunnyside historical um organization we met with them there was um six people six or seven people that had signed in asking questions we met with them well for well over an hour um reviewing what we were proposing answering their questions and they had asked at that time let's just continue this because no one came up with a solution that was any better than what we'd already had presented we have not heard from them ever since then uh so it is uh my opinion oops thank you very much for your time thank you any questions for any of our folks we will I believe that's everyone so we will close the public hearing and I will turn to the vice mayor thank you mayor I had an opportunity to talk to some of the village committee members the majority were in support I also had an opportunity to talk to some of the adjoining property owners originally there was some issues with access and they've been resolved so I'd like to make a motion to approve per the staff's recommendation adopt the related ordinance second second second a motion and a second any comments roll call Galindo yes wado yes Hajj Washington yes O'Brien yes Pastor Robinson yes wearing Stark yes GGO yes passes 8 zero items 102 and 103 are related items we will have one public hearing but two votes we'll begin with a staff report good afternoon mayor members of the city council with me today is deputy director Trisha Gomes and planner three Sarah s they'll give the presentation for item 102 and the companion 103 thank you mayor members of the council items number 102 and 103 are located apologize uh items number 102 and 103 are located approximately 863 fet uh south of the southwest corner of 51st Avenue in caror Road item 102 is GPA lv- commercial Commerce Park various residential designations and Resort item 103 is z- 53- 22-8 is a request to reone to plan unit development to allow single family and multif family residential commercial uses and some Commerce Park there is single family residential to the north and east with a mix of traditional and large Lots the large lots are within Maricopa County and the city to the West is the Loop 202 Freeway and the heila River Indian Reservation southeast of the subject site is the South Mountain Park and preserve the Healer Foothills PUD includes 12 development units and three distinct character areas the LaVine Village planning committee recommended denials file and approve with modifications to add residential 1:2 3 and 1/2 to 5 and 5 to 10 designations by an 8 to zero vote for the general plan Amendment and recommended approval of the planning of the Pud zoning request per a staff memo with modifications and additional stipulations by a vote to 8 to Zer the Planning Commission recommended approval of the general plan Amendment per the LaVine Village planning committee recommendation by a vote of 8 to Zer and recommended approval of the Pud zoning request per the staff memo dated April 4th 2024 with a modification and deleted stti potion by a vote of 6 to2 this depicts the land use map designation changes recommended by The Village planning committee and the Planning Commission the applicant has continued to work with the community and councilwoman Hodge Washington's office to address concerns and has agreed to several revisions to the stipulations as outlined in the memo dated May 13 2024 a brief overview of the changes include locating residential office uses away from existing residential towards the street and Southern perimeter of du1 and8 reserves du2 for a hospital use for the first five years removes auto dealerships and retail sales and rental from du2 prohibits multif family development within the designated L-shaped area in du8 reserves 50 acres for res a resort use in Du 9A 9B 10 for the first 5 years prohibits tobacco oriented and marijuana related businesses adds landscaping and shade or cool Paving requirements for auto dealerships adds bonus Provisions to earn additional units from the base requirement and requires by annual Land Development updates for three years then transis transitions to annual updates and with that staff recommends approval of GPA lv- 3-22 per the planning commission's recommendation and Adoption of the related resolution and recommends approval of z- 53-22 per the May 13 2024 Memo from the planning and development director and adopt the related ordinance I'm happy to answer any questions thank you so much any questions um so we will have uh two presentations now 10 minutes a side uh each side is welcome to use their 10 minutes as they see fit so if you would like to pass to multiple speakers you may do so um anyone who doesn't speak during that time period will have two minutes to speak and address the council the applicant can reserve to two minutes up to two minutes for rebuttal if wishing to do so we'll begin with Wendy Rell for the applicant uh thank you Madame mayor members of the council I'm hoping staff can help me out and pull the presentation up and either be my Vanna White or give me the clicker thank you thank you Wendy Rell with the law firm Barry Rell 6750 East Camelback it's my pleasure to U finally be here on behalf of the Lin's family I may need help advancing it there we go so this is a case that we have been hard at work on our vision here is to create uh a mix of an EV focused Auto campus which will generate over 50 2 million in annual sales tax revenue for the City of Phoenix it will include a level one trauma hospital where there's a huge need in this community uh it will also create a reservation of land for a 50 acre Resort site that we're working very closely with Chris mackon it will provide the first trail head into South Mountain Park in LaVine working with the city of Phoenix to provide a fire station through a development agreement and it creates a mixed use retail development includes some Billboards create branding opportunities for LaVine and some much needed housing I will tell you that this is a down zoning from the original tiar Montana PCD it's actually a reduction of 929 units from those original entitlements all of this of course necessitated by the construction of the Ed past Door freeway that has come through when we began this case there was significant opposition uh there we were really even over a 100 people back in October of 2022 and we have been hard at work several Village hearings um enough to ultimately earn a unanimous recommendation of approval from the leine village planning committee those are not words I get to utter very often and certainly not ones I get to utter on a 300 acre PUD so how did we earn unanimous Village support we agreed to 45 some 45 modified stipulations that we very carefully negotiated with Village leadership and with the LaVine Community from a high level they included a improved traffic solution ultimately a reduction in height additional step backs and setbacks from existing residential we added single family r118 and du8 we reduced the height of the hospital Tower we agreed to a setback and a buffer we added sustainability standards we added additional architectural standards we agreed to come back through pH on much of it and we agreed to work with the neighbors on 47th Avenue in ultimately privatizing their Road probably the biggest component of our success creating that success at the Village was again creating r118 or agreeing to r118 and du8 creating what we called a synergistic plan with the line Community including one-story homes adjacent to Australia and 47th Avenue with a 50- foot landscape setback and no vehicular access onto Australia or 47th Avenue again ultimately helping to privatize 47th Avenue there was one sticking point however as we got through Village and through Planning Commission and it related to the density at the LaVine Village we had a recommendation of a what I'll call That Base density of 1,00 units and we were afforded a 500 unit bonus with a level one trauma Hospital the Planning Commission was willing to allow us to go back back to that 2200 units with A700 base and a 500 unit bonus but they're continued to be concern as we headed to council and so we have been very hard at work with the councilwoman Hajj Washington the council office with the LaVine leadership and with the LaVine community and ultimately we have reached a compromise that compromise is essentially the developer it gets their deal they get the 2200 units but the community gets their terms and the type of density is the community is the very density that the community has been asking for from the beginning and we think this is a very carefully negotiated and a very fair compromise so essentially the way it works is we have the 12200 units by right we have a level one trauma which would give us the ability to bring 500 more units in if we have restaurants and Retail that are greater than 15 Acres then we earn 250 more units if we provide senior housing um defined as 55 plus deed restricted then we can earn an additional 150 units and if we provide platted Town Homes using the SFI we get an additional 100 units so with that we are very grateful for the hard work that everyone was willing to put into this case with us uh we have a what we think is a very successful project for the City of Phoenix it will have a level one trauma Hospital EV Auto campuses which is a h tax revenue generator Trail Head Resort and more much needed housing you can see through this that we have done a significant amount of Outreach and hard work with the community and we're very pleased to have this compromise today before the council as evidenced by the 30 page memo and additional 14 stipulations that we've agreed to before coming here so um with that Madame mayor members of the council we would respectfully request your approval I'm happy to reserve the remainder of my time for rebuttal as needed and and of course happy to answer any questions that you might have thank you and for your rebuttal would you would you like to go after all other speakers yes please all right uh John is next and again you have 10 minutes if you want to have multiple speakers that's fine if you want to use the whole 10 minutes that also works thank you Madame mayor it's John bisell by the way realize that name's a little difficult to pronounce but uh I don't think I'll need my 10 minutes in its entirety so that's okay um thank you for having me here today um I was the appellant that filed the uh appeal May 1st and uh obviously the community had some concerns regarding the density because from day one this really has been about density and uh I wanted to take the opportunity to uh thank Kesha personally um I first met with her back in January to share the community's concerns um her commentary to me was almost like who are you does anybody even agree with what you have to say and of course my position at that time was uh um I'm a voice of one today but I'll have the whole Community behind me when I come to the city council and uh I think when you saw the pictures of the LaVine Village when we got the community mobilized um we packed that place and we just didn't pack it it had standing Rim only but uh I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for Kesha's efforts and so I want to take the opportunity to thank her and uh the whole team that's worked okay here we go so the community put together a whole bunch of things that we wanted to see if we could get incorporated into the heel of Foothills development and we're pleased to say that uh um Kesha and the developers listened to the bulk of what we had to say um there's still some things that we would have liked to have seen Incorporated but at the end of the day we really have to stand back and say what did this development look like when it started and what does it look like today and from the community's perspective some of the things that uh we were after um we we were able to get the the V Village to embrace with us you know some of those significant items at the February 12th meeting was um they did not endorse the hila Foothills development as it was originally drafted they agreed with a decrease in density size a recommendation of single family residences along a stray and 47th Avenue um we secured a major win for the residents there in terms of uh having them agree to limiting the building height at the resort at 20 ft for for the first 100 ft versus the proposed 40 so that was cut in half um we had them address some Landscaping options because the concern was what does Landscaping do for the view and uh I actually created the 1200 units and I was really very pleased to see that the council adopted that um in terms of their Baseline um as Wendy mentioned there was a huge synergistic win for development Unit 8 um when we talk about large Lots across Ross the street farms and acreage it just made zero sense to have the type of density that was opposed across the street and again um I could talk until I'm blew in the face but without Kesha's help and I wanted to personally thank the Lions family and the development team as well because obviously a few folks didn't Embrace what the commun the community was trying to uh push back again I wouldn't be here today um I'm still looking to read though to work something for my Bermuda Triangle and he knows what I'm talking about for Tia Montana so I'll leave it at that um the 47th Avenue folks also will have the ability to uh have their Road completely privatized so we think that's a great thing as well again very generous offer by the development team to uh foot the bill on that and uh kha was very Innovative in terms of uh how she crafted the elements that would allow this plan to go forward from 17700 to 2200 units because I can tell you uh for those that answered your email you saw the presentation I sent you from two weeks ago that looked entirely different than what I'm presenting here today and uh uh kich was able to discuss a couple more items the 55 plus which was a big item for the community because uh LaVine um there's a lot of older residents in LaVine especially in the acreage areas surrounding this development and quite frankly as they age there's nowhere to go so to have a 55 plus area in the community that's just outstanding and uh kha we just want to thank you for helping facilitate that activity as well as uh ownership of the Town Homes rather than just uh rental units um I put together a lot of presentations because I met with a lot of people and this chart kind of summarizes uh excerp from some of those it all started with the flyer that we sent out again to get the community involved and you know get their uh participation here and uh I think with the uh show from the community and a reminder to the village and the development team that what's the character of LaVine Rural and we appreciate the fact that uh you made every effort to uh try to help us with that so the bottom line is um with the great prog progress that Kesha has been able to facilitate over the last couple weeks um the community folks that I represent are dropping our opposition to this um development and we're going to support it now when I say that are there going to be people opposed to this of course there are I can't speak for everybody 100% but in terms of the organized effort that we had to try to make betterment for the community I'm like I said Kesha has just done an outstanding job uh facilitating that and again I want to thank the Lions family the development team um for recognizing that last chart I want to leave you with is uh a call to action you're not going to get off that scotf free so one of the concerns the community still has is this development um changes the Zoning for the resort area um and the resort area by the way on this chart is right up against the base of South Mountain there one of the most pristine areas we have left in LaVine and it's currently zoned when this passes at 40 dwelling units per acre and in talking with Reed if the if the development builds out 2200 dwelling units there isn't an opportunity to build more dwelling units in the resort the resort should just be a resort the community's concern is when I talked with uh Marsha bushing from the planning Council regarding the South Mountain they had an area designated for the resort off of Seventh Street it never happened and what wound up happening is it just defaulted to the zoning which was multif family and they built multif family there the community's concern is in the event that we don't get a resort buyer or builder in five years what's going to happen that area is going to be zoned for 40 acres 40 units per acre density as opposed to the current 20 which is what the RH uh resort is for Section 629 and what I'd like the council to do now I'm not sure how the process is if somebody needs to make a motion or how it works but if we don't see what happens in terms of a resort and that lands just there granted the developer going to have to come back and say hey uh we couldn't get a resort it's already zoned for 40 per acre we're capped at 1,700 so why don't we just go ahead and build 40 per acre that's not compatible at all with the area so what we're asking for today is however you need to do it uh we'd like to see the council take a motion and if we can't get a resort by fire put it back to the 20 units per acre because the developer going to have to come back anyway to present whatever they're going to do in the event they can't find a resort buyer or developer but at least that protects the community to a degree because at the end of the day five six years from now I might not be here you folks might not be here and everyone's going to forget this discussion kind of like the discussion on the uh uh train terminal um we we just can't have that so I'd like to have that documented today because that discussion will be opened up later and with that I'll give you a minute and 24 seconds back thank you thank you and John do you want John to stay okay no I'm sorry it's a thought she has a question but not um uh count vice mayor so um I am familiar with rions and it is a process you can't simply revert without going back to an actual public public hearing and I know I've been out of planning for a few years but is that the way the law still works uh mayor um vice mayor Stark members of the council um you are correct if if this was conventional zoning it would it just couldn't uh re revert back in the Pud obviously if there were modifications to address that the council would need to make a modification so I guess what what I'm saying is we can revisit it but it doesn't automatically go back to 20 I just wanted to you I I you shaking your head like you understand that so okay I just wanted to make sure everyone understood that I I know we've used that stipulation in the past but sometimes I think people don't understand that means we reopen and have another hearing so thank you thank thank you mayor thank you we will uh next go to additional comments we'll begin with uh virtual public comments with Dan Penton followed by Joanne Jensen hello can you hear me we can thank you Madame mayor and members of the council my name is Dan Penton I'm a resident of LaVine um I appreciate all of the arguments for in the presentation yes this has been a a long tedious uh R development proposal going on somewhere north of two years now however I'm disappointed that in the year that South Mountain is fa is celebrating its 100th anniversary that we're proposing to put a sprawling 80 acre 10 dealership Auto Mall that will do nothing but bring more urban heat island and and all kinds of urbanization to the base of South Mountain in one of the most pristine areas of Phoenix that many that over that you know has over three million visitors a year you the council our village planning committees we're supposed to be you know the community we're supposed to be stewards of this park okay one of the largest Municipal parks in the country in the world even yet here we are in a in an attempt for a money grab because there is no other purpose for this other than private interest the city may see tax revenue but this is a wholly a private Endeavor yet we're this is going to be something that is lost forever there's been no environmental impact study like there was done with the freeway um I think at a bare minimum there should have been some some you some you know some mindful or forethought given to the the you the heila River Community this is their traditional cultural property so I just I'm just I'm calling on you guys to keep that in mind there was a a park ranger at South Mountain that worked there for over six years and he he understood the magic of South Mountain he spoke of it with reverence he and he emphasized its Rarity in the heart of Phoenix he said it might be the only place where you can find yourself out on a trail and still getting you still get a feeling of a sense of wilderness and I'm just saying that that that should you hold on to that thank you for my than for the time thank thank you uh Joanne is next and then we'll go in person to Linda can you hear me can thank you very much Madame mayor members of the city council thank you for taking my comments I am Joanne Jensen 8303 South 17th Drive Phoenix Arizona 85041 I am a member of the LaVine Village planning committee and one of those eight who was finally able to vote unanimously in favor of the heila Foothills proposal that you have uh in front of you I believe that this proposal will bring the variety of housing it will bring the variety of commercial and the variety of tax paying incentives to a community that has long been asking for it I am very excited about the way that the community our council member our um our other stakeholders including the developer have worked together over a very long period of time in order to bring this to you today so this is a full-throated support and thanks and I really do believe that it's going to enhance the quality of life in Lavine the uh I'm very interested in the incentive program which I think is very creative and I imagine that it may be one of the first times we've seen it but it may not be the last I think it's a great way to address everyone's issues in a very creative way and I thank you very much that's all I have for today thank you Linda is next followed by Maria good afternoon mayor and Council I appreciate the opportunity to speak today uh my name is all right um I'm the chair of the LaVine Village planning committee and have been involved in this for coming on two years now so um I've seen it through the process and I won't take long but just want to uh reiterate what Wendy was saying I do feel like as we've worked through this process all stakeholders have been able to express their priorities and have those priorities addressed and I appreciate councilman Hodge Washington's efforts in that and the community for being involved and I do think that this is a good proposal that brings in all of the interests brought up over the last long time of working on this thank you thank you Maria is next followed by Frank hi good afternoon when I first found out about this proposed development quite frankly I was horrified because this was the last pristine area of Lavine at the base of South Mountain but um through you know working with my neighbors working with the representatives of the Lions family Reed and Wendy we were able to find compromises that the community can live with and and made the development better and ultimately we came to an impass at one point and without the leadership of our Council woman I don't think the community and everybody could have come together so you know when I read your website um councilwoman you know it says you build compromise and you really do and get people to come together so I wanted to thank you for all of your efforts and LaVine is very lucky to have you as their council person um and I want to thank the Lions family and Reed and Wendy and everybody for all their efforts um I think people have spent thousands thousands of hours on this so um we do support the development as currently proposed so thank you thank you Frank is next followed by Stephanie thank you what uh what hasn't been addressed here is the traffic coming off of this this field hay field across from austal on one side 51st Avenue on the other side now they proposed to put uh apartments in there which is 17 I think 1,700 that equals out to about 3500 people well that equals out to about 3,000 cars you have one one road getting on to the freeway you have North and South you have 51st Avenue one road now you're taking 3,000 cars out there every morning every night all during the day because there's no services in that area and even if they put in small Services there's no big Services there like big shopping center type situations now I keep hearing on the TV this morning they told me not to turn my lawnmower on today we're they're talking about putting three ,000 cars sitting there idling trying to get on to that freeway every day all day long from now on from here till eternity so there's a simple way around this you just reach in there and take those 3,000 cars out pick them out of the out of the equation take those 3500 people out take them out of the equation you take those apartments out take them out of the equation go back to 19 uh 2017 and get those those rules that make that whole section on the E on the west east side of 51st Avenue you make that into houses like it was originally designed that brings you down to two or 300 cars well that's a heck of a lot different than these 3,000 sitting there idling because you're going to have to idle to get onto the freeway so this is my problem thank you thank you Stephanie is next and then Wendy I'm Stephanie herd I live at 10207 South 47th Avenue in LaVine um I am also the vice chair of the village planning committee I am in favor um this is a 290 acre PUD it's huge it's the last chunk of land that we have an opportunity to have a lot of input on I'm really here to thank everybody that was involved led by Linda we brought everyone together everyone involved together um I want to thank the community for not just coming out and giving input but for Learning and understanding the process uh bringing other people out I want to thank our planner nelli she got hit hard with a lot of stuff and we really appreciate her we're very glad that she didn't quit I want to thank the uh Village committee for all the extra time they had to put into it I want to thank the planning department they helped a ton with language some of the comments from earlier we worked hard to get this language as solid as we can because we can't trust developers all the time um I want to thank Economic Development Chris gets calls texts meetings at random and thank you for all the future texts calls and meetings I also want to thank Wendy ryell you may know it's can be difficult to appreciate a zoning lawyer but Wendy actually I like and resp respect you a lot and you made this so much better so you guys are very smart for hiring her I think she's fantastic um Kesha Rockstar we love your lawyer hat you helped with the language you helped with the compromise at the end I appreciate you so much and most importantly this would not be the PE it is if it weren't for Linda she went over this she spent so much time on it I can't even tell you how um any other any anybody else wouldn't have given it this time so we owe you a ton for this thank you so much and thank you everybody for everything you've done thank you and Wendy if you could address some of the sustainability elements uh in addition to whatever you else think is important to emphasize yes of course um mayor members of the council first if you had told me at the end of this case that I would have the support of Linda Stephanie The Village as well as John and Maria standing before you I would have told you you were crazy so uh we are very very grateful for the leadership um across the board and all the hard work to have gotten here um you asked me specifically to address sustainability so we agreed to additional sustainability measures not only in the original PUD at the Village level they had us add additional required items and sort of up the anti of what we had to include um in the most recent there was also concern expressed making sure that the the auto dealership Lots don't become something that contributes to the heat island so we agreed to additional shading measures there um one way that we can achieve that is through traditional structured shade landscaping or by use of cool pavement so those were additional heightened requirements that were placed on us thank you I just want to ask I'll ask a few questions and then I'll make my comments I want you to take a second to address um one of the concerns we've heard from Frank regarding AA and 5 55th yes of course so um Madame mayor uhair council woman Hodge Washington so actually that was probably the biggest concern we had in the very beginning was transportation and how we were dealing with 51st in Australia because it it frankly is a problem today uh and we will thank the streets department and planning staff working with us and came up with what I think is quite a creative solution which is essentially Shifting The Road South private to in in effect privatizing culde sacking estraya letting it maintain more of its existing condition and really making our community more insular so you didn't have the amount of traffic going into the neighborhood so we worked hard to create a better transportation solution here um that was pretty warmly embraced by the rest of the community thank you um the only other question I wanted you to specifically address and and I guess the comment would be respect to the location of the Auto Mall we tried to move it as close as possible to the freeay recognizing the uh beauty that is a out mountain is there anything else you would like to add on that uh for sure so it was very carefully placed and in fact one of the requirements that you had of us or the last minute negotiations was to make sure that everything stayed south of Australia and it really is tucked up against the freeway it's also sort of well buffered by the development before you get to heila Foot Hills Parkway some additional of the town homes multifam so it really is visible off of the freeway but it is kept away from the rest of the community we also have pretty strict design guidelines for the three character areas that help ensure it is um well done thank you so much that concludes my questions I'll go ahead and make some couple couple remarks I want to start off first by saying thank you to staff especially uh Nali she de she did a phenomenal job of managing the community's concerns on this um I want to also say thank you to the applicant Wendy Rell and her client the Lions family for ensuring that they were receptive to the community feedback I want to also say thank you to the entirety of the LaVine um LaVine Village planning committee L led by the chair Linda ABG they did a phenomenal job getting this to where it was even the Planning Commission it went a little different than we thought but it gave us an opportunity to make the Pud better I want to say thank you also to lcrd they also chimed in with their comments and in order to make this better John bazelle and Maria Regan as well and the community as a whole for their active participation um this PUD as you heard spans almost 300 acres and it's one of the last remaining um acreage in the LaVine Village um this proposed development guarded a huge deal of Med uh media coverage um when it first started and for us to be sitting here today where we have very what I would call not to minimize the um the opposition that was stated to have as little opposition as we have right now I think it's a great example of what happens when we compromise and we work towards a common goal I think everyone everyone in appearance um wanted to figure out how best we could make this something that the entirety of LaVine would benefit from and be proud of and I am proud to sit here and make the motion for a a PUD that will bring us the needed commercial it would also bring us our needed Clos the public hearing sorry my apologies um but same sentiments I'm here I'm proud of the Pud it includes the commercial that LaVine desperately wants it includes the residential options it's a new Housing Opportunity we will probably um hopefully they will bring some Town Homes to our area which is another uh variety of housing that we need in this area and it will hopefully bring the hospital for our in for our residents as well as a 55 plus um fine to find my language here um so I would like to move to approve item number one or two for the plan Planning Commission recommendation and adopt the related resolution second we have a motion and a second congratulations councilwoman the uh Kisha haaj Washington incentive plan may become a a good role it really was a unique way to get things done and achieve multiple different goals so thank you to everyone who who made that possible uh for those who don't follow City uh hearings as much it is pretty unusual to have so many different carrots to achieve Community goals and I I think it may become something that we news more and more often so congratulations to everyone who put it together it is truly a carrot focused way to achieve the property owners goals the the partners as well as the community needs the lines family I think we've been talking for 12 years about a level one Trauma Center so gosh that would be great to see that open you've made a lot of commitments we are confident you're going to keep them and that we're going to achieve multiple different goals of the Community from housing supplies to uh celebrating South Mountain Park and it's cool that this is moving forward in the 100th anniversary year there's a chance that auto dealership will be the most sustainable in Phoenix so that will be exciting to see so congratulations to the councilwoman tanelli to all of the community leaders for those you who don't follow the village it is a big deal to get this kind of vote out of there this is a bunch of educated involved folks who have very high standards and I think two months ago I'm not not sure I thought this level of people coming together would would be possible so a real credit to many many people any additional comments vice mayor yes I just want to say good work to the councilwoman and um I know I've heard from residents because I have a few friends that live in LaVine I think you know one of them he's a neighbor of yours and I know there's a huge need for the hospital so I think that's a real win and uh I do appreciate all the hard work you did on this I certainly will be supporting this motion roll call galinda yes wado yes Hajj Washington yes O'Brien yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes GGO yes passes 80 item 103 councilwoman HUD Washington thank you mayor I move that we approve per the May 13 2024 Memo from the plan and development director and adopt the related ordinance second we have a motion and a second roll call galinda yes wado yes HJ Washington yes O'Brien yes Robinson yes wearing Stark yes goo yes passes 80 that concludes the agenda portion of the meeting congratulations to all involved we will next go to public comment and I'll turn to the City attorney to introduce that final section thank you mayor during citizen comment 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 will begin with Elizabeth Venable followed by Ed Hermes one second sorry sorry sorry okay so um I see my minutes are restarted but thank you for waiting for a second I see um so obviously I represent the fund for empowerment and the people that meet outside are called the houses leadership project and so that's who you walk through when you walk through our meetings and part of the reason why we uh meet outside is to be viewed as uh constituents of the City of Phoenix because we reside and uh shop and off often work in the city of Phoenix right and um as constituents we are very concerned that uh voices be represented in the budget and I know it's a little bit late in the budget process but we wanted to give our input um basically what our priorities are I emailed you actually the full text of our priorities as amended by all of our members today uh I so I don't won't include all the parentheses and all the individual details but I will go over the list really briefly because I only have two more minutes um the first is housing with uh wide Vari of stipulations but not just limited to SMI for a variety of uh people in the city and affordable transitional and long-term housing for people who have experienced homes second shelters especially ones that are compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act and includes support for service animals a fair rules charging train security professionally minded staff possession storage cleaning and free from hazards hygiene supplies and support to attain real compliance support of Staff trained counselors available on College 247 job programs this is a huge component of what people want people do not necessarily want to be given things they want to be sustainable self sustainable they want to be able to work and a lot of people only need assistance in obtaining such employment or um you know specific programs that eliminate barriers to those their employment Transportation especially free Transportation are more accessible to people who are lwi income or are facing homelessness especially a demand for 24-Hour Transportation uh even unreasonable as that might seem as very effective for um people to be employed etc etc education and skills trainings for quot jobs of the future and other vocational programs medical assistance and outpatient Community Mental Health Services because actually not everybody qualifies for Access um 247 public restrooms these are critical and drinking fountains food assistance with emergency support to retain in present to remain in present housing vouchers eviction prevention and legal assistance in eviction proceedings heat response and cooling centers that allow sleep this is a large during the day even and child care those are our primary uh feedback from our members we think that these are appropriate policy responses that can address and prevent homelessness thank you Ed is next followed by Eric thank you Madame mayor hi for the record Ed hermis 212 West monoco I'm here today as a president of the Carnation neighborhood association and I'm here today to ask the council to to put on the agenda and to vote to end the reverse Lanes on 7th Avenue and 7th Street uh as a president of a neighborhood association it's often hard to build consensus there's one thing that our neighborhoods have consensus about it is ending the reverse lanes because of the deleterious effects that they have in our communities especially on our businesses along 7th Avenue and 7th Street which are made inaccessible oftentimes because of how our residents have to drive out of the way to avoid them because not only just a confusion but because they hurt the connectivity between our communities our community is is Resolute against the reverse Lanes recently I'm coming here today because recently out of ASU was published a fantastic study I just stumbled a upon and I have copies for everybody on the council I'll also email them to you as well where the data shows in the traffic account show the reverse Lanes do not work in 2024 and a they were put in in 1978 and 1981 in a Time pre State Route 51 right now pursuant to ashto standards the reverse Lanes do not justify themselves and the deleterious impact that they have in our communities especially on our small businesses in the Melrose area and on Seventh Street as well they really negatively impact those businesses because people cannot access them one of my good friends who wishes you could be here today uh from short leash hot dogs talking to him yesterday he said we would love to sell coffee we would love to sell donnuts in the morning but we're on the quote wrong side of sth Avenue people literally and legally cannot get to us and won't get to us and we have to adjust our business hours because of it it's hurt our businesses it's hurt our communities long enough we're asked that you put the this on the agenda ask that you do read the study uh and the gentleman who headed up the studies here today Muhammad I believe he's going to speak with you shortly as well to give you a brief overview of it but ask that you review it and put it on the agenda to finally end the reverse Lanes so thank you so much Madame mayor and Council and if I could oh would you mind passing these out thank you so much thank you should be enough for everybody thank you thank you Eric is next followed by Dave uh hi my name is Eric um today I came to speak about something specific before I get to that I want to bring up the whole thing about uh what's to name the central uh the Central Station after uh I I'm I know I knew um I knew Ed pastor and I know Greg Stanton and it's it's hard because they're both Legends in my eyes but I would point out that my friend Earl Willcox basically does everything in his neighborhood and one time I said to him uh you know why why is Grant Park why isn't it called Willcox Park and his reply was is you're supposed to wait till till after someone dies to name something after them so it's kind of an Unwritten rule I don't know if yall are comfortable with breaking that um so any what I came to here to talk about today is uh probably in my opinion the most prestigious Redevelopment uh opportunity in in Metro Phoenix um I lived in South Phoenix for the last three years I'm moving out soon but uh one thing I noticed is when they were talking about the downtown cores and connecting them to other cores uh the other day I was walking from my house on 28th Street in Broadway to Downtown Phoenix and uh I took away by a church that I go to sometimes and one thing I noticed is if you go up 12th Street there's acres and Acres of the most primest Mo other than the fact that's it's kind of south of the dump it's some of the most Prime real estate in the city of Phoenix we're talking enough room to build anything you want South Phoenix is one of the most historically underserved areas of the city uh it's a St and putting Light Rail down there to get it kind of activated but I think if we could build a South Central Downtown Phoenix in the area I'm talking about which the city already owns a large part of the land I noticed uh I think that we could then connect sort of uh downtown going by 24 Street to this sort of uh this new downtown area and you could they would have a downtown in between Downtown Phoenix and downtown TP and um I I was going to suggest we put a hospital there because South Phoenix is desperately needs a hospital but I think the location that the people who left and apparently didn't care that much uh I think that that location is probably better because most of the shootings in South Phoenix happen on the southwest side anyway but I really encourage you guys to take a look at the area of land I'm talking about and do your best to buy up as much land around the park the park that the City of Phoenix already owns uh because I think we could bring a lot of stuff to South Phoenix that's not there such as maybe a big box electronic store the things that people expect the amities that people expect that South Phoenix is currently lacking and like I said there's more than enough land to do whatever you need to do with it um with that said I would just like to add that uh reverse lanes are hella dangerous thank you for your time thank you we have Dave NEX followed by Julia thank you mayor and council members my name is Dave Riley I am a licensed traffic engineer in Arizona um I spent the first part of my career as a consultant and then the next part I was at ADOT and I specialized in doing Special Projects similar to the Phoenix reverse Lanes um I have a draft study this is separate from the ASU study that was referred to earlier that um that I would like to share some of that data with you I've had the privilege of already sharing some of that data with some of the members council members here um there seems to be good consensus that the way the reverse lanes are today is not good they can't stay so the question becomes do we get rid of them or do we make a change right now they don't meet National traffic standards they don't meet Arizona traffic standard so that change would be adding 438 digital LED signs to these streets so they they they would meet standards this would um make them less confusing but what I found in looking at this data of the reverse Lanes these signs won't address the big problems so there's five five big things that I found that I was I can't say I was surprised um because you can see it with your own eyes if if you drive them um 7th Avenue and 7th Street are the lowest congested streets in the whole area so that's talking Thomas to Northern and 16th Street and 19th Avenue even includes i7 the 51 Central you take all those and you look at delay per mile 7th Avenue and 7th Street are the lowest so what happens when we take the reverse Lanes away they are still the lowest now that came out of um Muhammad's ASU study that was referred to earlier um and so they're just not needed um the next thing is losing that Center turn lane it is a big deal um it it it does make it hard to get around number three these things are dangerous traffic accidents are two times higher than a normal Road in rush hour that results in one excess crash every day because we're choosing to have the reverse Lanes going number four um it forces any left turning traffic to go through an unsignalized Road that's a neighborhood or a business this parking lot fifth is they are unpopular thank you thank you Julia is next followed by Muhammad I've brought up Myer Castle to you so much I know you guys probably think I'm the advocate or the face for the castle um there was a k Jazz article that went out about the Demolition and I asked K Jazz I saidwhat was the response 990,000 clicks within the first day uh and the the person who did the article Robert Pella got hundreds and hundreds of messages about the castle the demolition um and then the next article came out that everything inside the castle has been given away so I was surprised to find Mary Lou's bed for sale on Facebook Marketplace for $800 I just checked it still for sale um when I messaged some of the people that were selling Mystery Castle relics they told me in August they all went into the Castle picked what they wanted took it out of the castle took it home and now are just selling it and that some things went to the dumpster they don't know uh that broke my heart that broke a lot of people's heart if you get the chance to watch dubbie Ables did a uh City of Phoenix video where she toured the castle of Mary Lou and Mary Lou talked about every single piece and what it meant to her her family's Pottery her father's bed all of that's gone you cannot find it back you can't get it back you can't I've talked with Professionals in the industry who have said you're lucky if you can get any of the items back where would you even store them so all of that is gone um which is heartbreaking to me I've had other historical institutions that are going through the same issue with different properties you know being destroyed or up for demolition or things just going away I think the City of Phoenix really needs to figure out a solution so we don't run into this solution this problem again I mean it's a horrible thing to lose we're not going to get any of those items back I had someone come in who made custom dolls for Mary Lou and was able to send me photos of the Dolls she made and she told me the story of why Mary wanted those dolls you know we're not going to be able to find that unless you go from the 1952 book and try and cross reference to make sure everything that was in the castle is actually what you're getting I mean it's just a terrible piece of History to lose and with the albeto house we were lucky that got postponed this one still isn't postponed I it's just it's an issue I keep seeing I have Tombstone reaching out to me about how they can save their properties I have Scottdale all these other places that are coming into the same issue I think it would be great to find a solution for this so we don't run into this down the road we wouldn't want this to happen to toora Castle this wouldn't happen to toora Castle it's happening to Mystery Castle it will happen to more properties down the line as we grow so I would just like you guys to consider some sort of solution for historic places and things so we can have you know our history saved as we're going we need to have our history we don't have a phoenix Historical Society we had a phoenix History Museum that went away you know all we have is the Arizona historical society so we need more Phoenix history so we can learn from our past and grow thank you thank you Muhammad is next followed by Nicole yeah my name is Muhammad I'm a recent graduate student at ASU majoring and transportation engineering so a few months back I got to uh read the report that was published by the City of Phoenix uh which was uh contracted to a private firm and I believe it was published in 2021 and upon reading the report I observed that the report overlooked very basic fundamentals uh within the traffic operation of reverse lanes and one of the agendas that the uh study failed to measure or calculate is the lane utilization rate which in layman terms is how many drivers are actually driving on the reverse Lane so the uh the study or the report concl concluded that the uh if we were to REM move the reverse Lane that travel time would increase up to 40% which is simply not true since if you're not measuring the lane utilization rate or how much uh traffic is actually driving with the reverse Lane so your assum your assumption is simply not true so in my study one of the agendas that I measured is the lane utilization rate which I found to be uh very low which were almost uh less than 6% in the afternoon and maybe had acceptable uh rates from 7 to 8 but for the remainder of the four hours were extremely low the the other agenda that I calculated which as uh David reiterated is the Collision rate being twice as much on Seventh Street and 7th Avenue I also conducted a collision comparison with two other streets that don't have the reverse Lane and the uh collisions that occurred on Seventh Street and 7th Avenue were much more significant than any other nearby streets that don't have the reverse Lane and I just want to conclude that in uh in the traffic engineering world it's often a tradeoff between safety and minimizing delay and the way I see it and with the current conditions of the reverse Lane that it's failing at both metrics of safety and minimizing delay thank you thank you so much Nicole is next mayor council thank you and thank you Muhammad um I'm realizing my eyes are not that well right now so I'm going to try to do my best reading this um Phoenix is a city that thrives on connection and streets serve as those conduits to community connections streets not highways um yet outdated reverse Lanes on Seventh Street and 7th Avenue continue to sever those connections instead of being streets their hostile Highway bypasses that ignored the needs of Central Phoenix residents and communities reverse Lanes have no culture no meaning other than to rush our past and urban core these lanes are barriers they force drivers on detours isolate residents and stifle local businesses which are the livelihood and lifeblood of our community these reverse lanes are not the solution for Phoenix's future they directly contradict the city's Forward Thinking initiatives of complete Street policy Vision zero climate action plan and um which they aimed for safer more sustainable streets instead the reverse Lanes create a divided city with a struggling economy in some of our areas of the urban core but there is a clear path forward we can reconnect our communities re Revitalize strengthen our businesses and reimagine our streets by removing these outdated Lanes Envision a Phenix where vibrant neighborhoods flow seamlessly into one another picture bustling streets teaming with thriving businesses accessible to everyone and this is the future that I want to imagine imagine a city where getting around doesn't involve confusing Maze of detours this is the Phoenix we can build and it sounds like this is the year for it the 100 year mark for sustainability as well um so this is more than just a traffic issue as we've heard from the two Traffic Engineers it's about the future of our city we deserve way better and we deserve a phoenix that prioritizes safety Fosters connection and cultivates a thriving local economy so we hope that we could join forces and raise um more uh you know human capital on this issue and I do want to thank our streets director who has been very attentive on this and diplomatic um not all leadership has been as willing to work and some Fame that they even remember ever meeting with us which is entirely frustrating especially because I don't actually enjoy doing this it actually is um almost like a part-time job and um a lot of us have very busy lives these folks that spoke to you today and some that haven't been able to speak yet um it's a burden for us to come down here and once again we don't enjoy doing it I don't enjoy doing it at least but um we're hoping that we can work together and we're hoping that City leadership um and I've had good working relationships with various council members up here before and I'm really excited about our streets director but I just want to leave it with that so and thank you again for your time thank you so much Teresa will be our final speaker hello my name is Teresa Dickinson I'm the owner of Melrose Pharmacy so a business that's in the 7th Avenue Melrose District area I'm also a new resident of District 3 for Deborah so welcome to me um so I am now in the Royal Palm neighborhood I now am driving down 7th Avenue every day and up it every evening when I'm driving home from work um so now I'm starting to see the commute side of it um I'm also the vice president of the sth Avenue Merchants Association the association is adamantly opposed to the reverse Lanes I would like to see that the reverse Lanes go away um it h i have had people tell me that they won't come to my business just because of the reverse Lanes I think that's a very poor reason to not come to our businesses um in my drive up and down now I am seeing no reason for the reverse Lanes there's plenty of areas for the people who are speeding in the reverse Lane to actually move into the regular traffic Lanes I do see road rage from people who get upset about what's going on there um we don't need new studies you can do a driveby yourself and see that how confusing it is every time um I drove four at 4:15 the other day and saw probably like seven to eight people going the wrong way um at and it you know lots of horns honking um many people don't understand it and people are y that all the time um let's see uh if there's uh people are resistant to getting rid of them then I suggest to do a trial to get rid of it on 7th Avenue trial and you will see that it's not going to cause more traffic into the neighborhoods the neighborhoods already have signs for people not to come into them um just as is um I also even have a picture of a police officer who was in the wrong lane at the wrong time so that was very interesting um and then I did put a Facebook post out for the Royal Palm neighborhood to kind of get a take of how do they feel about it and it was pretty much 5050 some people liked it and then there was a lot of people who didn't like it and then I asked them how would they feel if another neighborhood outside their area made decisions on their neighborhood on how they should live and um to me that's just how how can we force another neighborhood for our um for for us to have speed to get somewhere um so I just want to make it vocal that I think it's time to get rid of the reverse Lanes with all the home people working from home now it's just not needed anymore and let's let's let everybody have a community and and be vibrant thank you thank you so much we are adjourned 99 as an internal auditor in the city's audit Department then quickly promoted through the department before becoming