[Music] good morning we'd like to welcome everybody out to our Mesa city council study session for the morning of Thursday November the 21st all of our council is present prior to beginning our study session we do have on our agenda a special council meeting uh to Canvas the election so uh I call the special council meeting to order and again all of all of our Council are present item onea is a resolution canvasing declaring and adopting the results of the general election held on November the 5th 2024 congratul mayor mayor elect Freeman and council member elect Adams uh would like to thank the citizens for approving our uh Public Safety parks recreation and culture bonds all with a record you know I don't remember the last time something passed was 70% so thank you very much uh and our general plan and permanent base adjustment let's say permanent base adjustment that was like number one yeah and the bonds and the general it was amazing there to get almost 70% on all four is just a landslide very very impressive that's good well we're very grateful to the to the voters for uh for their support of those questions uh do any council members wish to speak on this item Miss Mosley do we have any requests to speak on this item no we do not mayor thank you is there a motion to approve the resolution uh canvasing the election thank you Mr Summers and Miss spillsbury uh all in favor please say I I are there any opposed thank you that passes unanimously next are items from citizens present Miss mosy do we have any requests to speak on this agenda item no requests thank you that's uh everything we have on the agenda for this special council meeting is there a motion to adjourn uh thank you Miss gfor and Mr vice mayor all in favor please say I I thank you we are adjourned we will now convene our city council study session for uh November the 21st again all of our Council are present item one on our agenda for this meeting is to review our Monday December 2nd council meeting agenda uh Council any questions off the bat regarding that agenda mayor we do have a few presentations great so um M you want to go first so this is item 6 C is that correct yeah 6C Fiesta redefined this as a significant uh opportunity development opportunity Mesa we've been working for a couple of years with the property owner at um at Fiesta we continue to have discussion but um this was a um significant um planning process between the staff and the applicant and we just want to give Council um kind of a summary of what's being proposed Mary uh thank thank you um city manager um mayor council we're really excited today to bring Fiesta uh redefined to city council to go through a process that we've been working on for a year or so to develop an uh a new zoning code for this piece of property Evan's going to walk you through the process and uh we're here to answer any questions that you might have about it this is on the agenda for the second thank you Mary good morning mayor council this is case Z1 23859 uh which is Fiesta redefined the specific request is to rezone the Fiesta Mall property from limited commercial to the infill development District 2 id2 the purpose is to allow for a mixed use development I'm sure we're all familiar with the location of of the subject site uh but this is located between Alma School and Longmore north of the us60 and it does have access to Southern Avenue on the North the general plan character area for this uh property is mixed use activity with a regional scale subtype the purpose of the regional scale uh mixed use activity district there generally larger properties over 60 Acres that have significant areas devoted to commercial uh with support Ed integrated residential uses it's also kind of the anchor of the fiesta sub area that really focuses on pedestrian friendly environments with an integrated mix of land uses uh the current zoning on the property is LC as I mentioned and the request is to rezone to id2 uh the ID Districts The infill Districts uh facilitate the development or in this case the Redevelopment of bypassed underutilized or abandoned properties this isn't a zoning District that we use a lot lot if this were to be approved this would be the fourth uh infill District in the city the reason for that is there's some really specific applicability requirements to be able to rezone to an ID District the first is that it has to meet the definition of a bypass parcel then there's some additional requirements too for the infield District so the definition of a bypass parcel is a parcel or or Parcels um in this case where the total developable developable land area within 12200 ft of that property is not more than 25% vacant and greater than 50% of the number of the Lots or Parcels within 1200 ft have been developed 15 or more years ago so when we take a look at that the image on the right is the the area within 12200 ft from 2009 in 2009 it was only 1.6% vacant the image on the left is what it is today when we look at that it's only 1.2% vacant so it meets that definition of a bypass parcel I think we have a question question for you oh oh infi District I was going to just ask what does ID stand for is infi infi development District yes sorry no that's okay I just I hav run across that it's a it's a unique one the zoning ordinance also lays out six criteria that a property needs to meet to be considered for an infill District of those six uh they we need to find that it meets three of those when we look at those um the first is there's a higher percentage of vacant old older dilapidated buildings or structures there's a high percentage of vacant or underutilized Parcels of property or obsolete or inappropriate lot sizes or buildings designed for obsolete uses uh there's a high percentage of buildings or other places where nuisances exist um the absence of development and investment in activity compared to other areas of the city uh also that there's a high occurrence of crime or there's a continuing decline in population within that specific infill District so when you we look at this I think we all remember Fiesta Mall was was really an economic engine for decades in in Mesa but as other malls opened and and kind of the landscape of commercial changed U it it began to lose tenants and deteriorate uh by 2019 it was completely vacant it was demolished last year and in those intervening years there's a lot of calls for police service for vandalism um trespassing those sorts of things so when we look at these staff actually found that it meets five these criteria the only one it didn't meet was the last one which is a continuing decline in population because there were no residential units um within Fiesta Mall uh one of the really unique aspects of the ID uh the infill incentive districts is that you need to develop an infill incentive plan for id2 districts and that's really the regulatory document it's essentially the zoning ordinance for this specific property um this one is is really design based and to help facilitate that City staff hired a consultant Angela Wu who's here from Cohen peton Fox to really work with the applicants U designer to really make sure that we get the the best design guidelines and design standards that we can to make sure that this develops as as the city anticipates it so within the id2 district as I mentioned you have to do the infill incentive plan and it allows for specific modifications one is to development regulations which are land uses development standard setbacks Heights that sort of thing and also the review and development uh procedure so that's your processes time frames and it also includes design guidelines so to make sure that this really develops as a a mixed use walkable pedestrian friendly development there's some a few unique things about this infill incentive plan the first concept is development blocks and it sets the framework for future development while also allowing for flexibility for um the the project to react to market conditions and ensures a pedestrian friendly environment through a mixture of uses so when you look at at the image on the right you'll see most of it is that teal color which is multifamily commercial office the plan is less focused on saying commercial goes here and residential goes there and this we're we we're really prescriptive instead we we work on the design and the development blocks uh the other part I wanted to point out is the there's a dark green section with blue on the ends that's the village screen right up off of the Ring Road on Alma School Road I'll come back to that in just a minute but that's also a very important part when we look at the development blocks a little bit closer the blocks themselves are not set so there's a chance that the end development looks like the image on the left but the the blocks might change a little bit there are some parameters for pedestrian connections if blocks get too long and things like that but there's also some unique features and if we start at the North and we work our way South down that Main North South Drive the blue dashes that you see on either side of that that main drive and around the Village Green um is is the primary building wall area so there is no maximum height in in the id2 district and the idea is that hopefully in the future we we can get some height and some some additional density there but there are minimum Heights in this specific area if we follow that North South Street um South those Dash lines indicate an area where the minimum height is 30 ft and that you also need to have 85% uh block Frontage and that means we need uh buildings or active open space or uh residential development that opens onto that that encompasses 85% of that block the idea being the other 15% are Drive aisles to access the parking which should be located behind behind the buildings uh the light green areas around the Village Green uh are your primary ground floor commercial areas those are the areas where we primarily anticipate anticipate ground floor commercial commercial the area in light blue along Longmore is the secondary area that it will likely reflect the development patterns on the other side of of Longmore so again parking in the back but that might be a grocer or a larger retailer that kind of needs their own footprint the darker blue areas on the corners that you see there are pedestrian enhancement areas those could be um art installations it could be um benches and seating it could be unique signage it its areas to kind of uh make those more pedestrian friendly to add some amenities on the right you can see two diagrams of what that building Frontage would look like so on the top you can see that pink line being that building outline we want that building or active uses um covering as much of that block as possible so there's two examples of what that might look like in in function the iip is based on the limited commercial zoning District so the applicant kind of used that is a base and modified from that point to for this development there are a number of uses that are permitted in the LC zoning District but are restricted in the iip I won't get into all of them but some of the I think notable ones is are all of the automobile related uses so sales washing Auto Repair uh Mini Storage is prohibited warehousing and storage um there's another category of uses that are permitted in the LC District but are limited in the iip so Assisted Living um centers nursing convalescent homes would require a council use permit once a certificate of occupancy has been issued for 2,000 residential units so this could be a great complimentary use we we don't necessarily want it to be the the first thing in but it could be a great use to for a holistic development drive-throughs we did not restrict the number of drive-throughs but we restricted their location so on the right you can see those dark blue areas on the long mow Frontage and the southern front edge I would know if there are currently three drive-throughs on the Alma School front edge those are the areas where drive-throughs would be permitted service stations would be limited to two and would also be restricted to those same areas that that the drive-throughs were so we don't want them on the interior of the site but they might work along the front edges the land use budget is another unique Concept in the iip it allows for a maximum of 4,000 dwelling units and a minimum of 500,000 ft of non-residential uses so to ensure that we're getting that mixture of uses the land use budget you'll notice is kind of broken into tiers so the first tier is you can build up to 700 units with no additional commercial requirements because there is there are a few restaurants along Alma School Road when we get into tier 2 that's 701 units to 12200 units there should be a minimum of 25,000 Square ft of non-residential uses constructed um in addition you'll notice a table at the bottom that says a qualifying list of publicly accessible non-residential amenities and it has a point system you need to pick three thing three points from that that chart so it could be a Park which is three points it could be uh public seating which is two points and something from the one point category however that works just so that we get three points and the idea there is that we have publicly accessible amenities that are open to pedestrians that really makes it a more of a pedestrian friendly environment kind of moving down the list when we get to 2,000 units um that is again where Assisted Living would be permissible with a cup but then also when the Village Green needs to be constructed and I'll talk about the Village Green in just a second but that's a real focal point of the development by the time we get to the 4,000 units there would be a minimum of 500,000 Square ft of non-residential uses and 10 points from the table uh below so that's the parks it's water features it shade structures any combination that gets to a total of 10 I should mention by 2,000 units Again The Village Green would need to be constructed if it had not already been constructed development standards again I mentioned there is no maximum height um in the iip but there is a minimum height in that area that North South area in the area along the Village Green the setbacks vary from a minimum of 20 feet to a maximum of 30 feet which allows for um outdoor dining it allows for outdoor amenity areas while we want buildings all the way up to the street we don't necessarily really want a solid wall of building all at the same plane so this allows for some movement in the buildings and some additional uses in the uh the public areas um so the Village Green open space um again is in the Northwest northeast corner of the site it's the green area bordered by the two dark blue squares that area would have 100% of building Frontage adjacent to the Village Green so that area around the Village Green would need to be 100% of those blocks would have buildings up on the street the idea behind the Village Green is it could be a gathering space um they could do farmers markets it would be a essentially a park with commercial activating either end of that to really generate uses there are also common open space and amenities required as well as private open space for residential developments the design standards and guidelines for the project are really kind of broken up into four main categories site design and Architectural features for both residential and Commercial development I won't spend a ton of time on this but I think some of the highlights of of this are when we look at residential site design we want walkways that connect with surrounding amenities there should be specialty Landscaping hardscaping architectural Fe features used to highlight building and side elements to create a strong sense of place uh P porches and balconies kind of create that building articulation and maximum and minimum setbacks to better Define the public and private spaces um architectural standards allow for a variety of architectural style styles that incorporate local materials um large buildings change materials are massing every 240 ft to again we want we want density and we want buildings we don't necessarily want them all to look the same so that allows for some variation in building design and building facad should be composed of a variety of materials colors textures artwork um and Etc to to Really create that interest same thing for commercial is broken into site design and Architectural design the focus on uh commercial site design are buildings on the interior of a lot to provide pedestrian friendly facade designs along the street Frontage the streets are really important we really want to engage those architectural elements that anchor the building and create attractive paths to entries uh Street adjacent facades that provide pedestrian scaled elements such as entries windows and building openings and looking architectural designs it's it's the same the same concept we're focus on massing and scale articulation material selection we want unique entrances that are really framed by architectural features to create that that kind of sense of of place and that again that pedestrian engagement um the last unique feature of the infill incentive plan is the ability to modify uh processes and procedures the processes and time frames proposed in the iip are largely consistent with with with our standard practices as far as time frames and processes um the the difference is that administrative review and approval for all site plan and design review requests is part of this so once the iip is approved and site plans come in as long as they're meeting all the standards and everything in the iip it can be an administrative approval again that allows for uh flexibility and adapting to market conditions as they change the applicant is is required to mail notices and post the site for all site plan so we we want uh citizen engagement for the people who live within that area so even though these are administrative approvals there are still notification processes to let residents know what is coming um there are also referral Provisions that allow the planning director to refer cases to Planning and Zoning Board under specific circumstances a citizen participation report is part of your your packet and this was a very extensive Outreach um they they did the standard mailed notification Pro to Property Owners within 1,000 ft of the site HOAs and registered neighborhoods and they held a neighborhood meeting they also held many smaller um small group meetings with various Community organizations they had one-on-one meetings with various stakeholders there was a project website uh multiple small group one-on-one meetings as I mentioned um as of the writing of this surprisingly I have not gotten any phone calls from residents in the neighborhood I think the applicant did a really good job of getting out there and engaging the public and and really um selling the project to Residents uh with that staff is is recommending approval we do find that it complies with the Mesa General plan um in the the infield development districts this went to the planning zoning Board in October and they did recommend approval with conditions by a vote of five to zero and I'm happy to answer any questions that the council might have thank you Evan mayor council just quickly um you know it's kind of moments like this that kind of feels like oh you know that doesn't sound so bad that that was pretty quick um we've been working on this since I got here right the whole I remember Dennis kavana first time when I first got here the discussion about you know recognizing that Fiesta Mall was kind of on its way out and what what the city was going to do and and as much as we've tried to kind of work on the perimeter and the streetscaping and we've done some unique things around um the Fiesta Mall area um you know it's time had had passed and so uh working what's unique about this property I think what helped us and staff and kind of what helps us get um very interested in this project is this is all under one ownership you know typically to do something like this you would have to have multiple owners try to assemble all the property and so once that happened and that took a while for that assembly of all this property took place so we're at 70 Acres or more or less 7 80 acres I mean that's a large especially in a very Urban setting to have 80 acres of opportunity to Redevelopment and so um I think both sides wanted to take this very seriously and recognizing we needed to look at this even still with 80 acres to develop out 80 acres that's going to take a long time but we wanted to set a framework that we could work with for a long time we we have tried this is the one of the first times I know the first time but for a size project like this where we made the decision to bring on outside Consultants to assist us to make sure that we could get the details and get Best Practices from across the country so we were looking for National firm a national firm that could provide us that insight and really bring to us the latest kind of thinking about um mixed use development and infield development um and I think that was very helpful because um the applicant also hired a very well-known planning um Consulting Group and so really we had two high level professionals who have worked on this project both for the city and the applicant um and that took quite a while that was an ongoing process for several months how about six months six months uh two um significant planning Consultants professionals uh well respected in the field across the country working on this and then bringing back to the applicant and staff and then we kind of working through some of the details and getting direction so um I just want to thank the staff for their diligence and bringing this together councilman herti has always been kicking us and saying when are we going to do something about fiesta um we finally convinced that once we had the property assembled we were able to convince the property owner that probably the best way to sell this was to demolish and and and get the old buildings out of the way so here we are um we're excited for the future of uh Fiesta um going forward and we are still in conversations with a property owner again it's very unique that we have one property owner representing all of this area so we um were excited to keep moving forward but I just want to thank staff and our consultants for their work on this and and frankly the applicant is these are not easy conversations but everybody was working towards the same goal so thank you thank you this has been quite a journey to get to this point and uh we appreciate the patience of everyone involved and and as Mr Brady indicated I think the fact that we have common ownership and we brought in a world class Consultants I think it was it took time but it was very deliberate and intentional and it was the right way to do this and and it's it's that important uh it can't be uh brushed or done in in anything less than the most professional way so thank you I I I I very much enjoyed the the presentation and uh obviously a lot of good work has got into this Council questions on this topic Mr Freeman so thank you for the presentation you know having gone to Fiesta Mall for decades and then seeing its demise is you know was really you know heartfelt but seeing its Resurrection coming back I think that's really important what What's um interesting to me that there was no or very little neighborhood input into some of the uh building of this or the way it's going to be structured is that right Evan or was there a little bit uh thank you mayor council member Freeman so it was more that I staff didn't get a lot of direct input from Neighbors but the applicant did a ton of Outreach so the applicant has been working on this with neighbors and and neighboring property owners and stakeholders in the area for a number of months so there has been a lot of Outreach there been a lot of input into the plan the applicant developed a very robust citizen participation report that kind of outlines all that so there has been a tremendous amount of Outreach okay I I just like to see neighborhoods way in to what's going to be built around them uh on the infield development-2 is there different categories of that on between one two three or four that's a great question U and again this is a district that we don't use a lot there's an id1 District which is designed for really small properties there's actually only one id1 property and it's way out in East Mesa on East Main Street and it was an auto dealership so that is designed for very small developments um they generally use the base a base zoning district and kind of go from there id2 two is for larger properties and it requires the infill plan to really kind of nail down all of those details so we don't use it a lot but there are two infield districts but we hope to use the first one a lot more with Mr Robins work yes and we are the we are looking at another id2 right now we commencing work on that so we find it it's becoming a good tool for us okay that's the two questions I had thank you thank you Miss Duff yeah a few questions um thank you for all your work on this and and having a consultant come in this is a huge project and I think it'll definitely make be the Fiesta Mall lack of a better name what are we calling it I don't know I should create a new term for identifying the property um but it will be that Mecca again that will draw um well beyond Mesa so thank you for putting the time and attention to uh this piece of property um so one of the things I realize that you're making it very pedestrian friendly within the property but I'd like to also suggest looking for those opportunities on the perimeter properties that are not part part of the project along lmow um there's residential to the north there's residential to the east on a new development there right and um the northeast corner that shopping center is primed for possible Redevelopment as we go forward so this this could be what we're you know we're talking those Village yeah centers uh attracting the retail that we want very being very engaged in the surrounding area and being a place um so if we just make sure that we have those opportunities to for people to engage the residents of the commercial so that if you're at one place you can easily engage with the other especially thinking about a grosser in that property which would be welcomed I'm sure but you'll probably see a lot more pedestrian activity of people just running over and grabbing a few things and and not taking car we want them to do that um so more of a a place by engaging the surrounding properties um and is there anything that now you said the limit is 4,000 residential units living units right dwelling units okay what are our parameters to make sure like we seen some other projects where it ends up going primarily residential and the corner might have a commercial and we call it mixed juice or or something like that where it's really more Dynamic and integrated how can we ensure yeah that um we're not leaning it ends up being really truly mixed juice thank you mayor council member duve that that's a great question so when you look at the land use budget there are tiers of as I mentioned each tier has residential units as part of that but then there's also non-residential that has to be constructed so the idea is and that was one of to be frank one of staff's um concerns going in is as we've seen that in the past right where we get a mixed use development where it's mostly residential with commercial but I think this tiered approach um ensures that we get non-residential square footage as this progresses and that it's not the last thing that we you know we've developed 75 acres and I need to put in commercial this ensures that it it kind of keeps Pace with the residential devel hav explained that because this is important because you're right this has been a to topic with some other developments right we're and it's a great point but explain that tearing so it means you can only build so many units and then it's a stop until you build out so kind of explain that part yes thank you so when we look at the land use budget the the first tier up to 700 units I think is pretty straightforward because there is some existing commercial so if we start at the second tier so when we get to 7001 to 1,00 units by the time we get to 1,200 units the requirement is that there's 25,000 Square ft of non-residential development that has been constructed so if we get uh let's say there's a scenario where we get 1,200 units but there's only 15,000 square fet of of commercial development that has been constructed they can't build unit 12001 until we get that's how we're trying to manage that we wish this would have been a nice tool excellent um I have just one more comment and did I know you you're like and I could also add the the the public open space was also a really important part of that and that's why you'll see there's a certain number of points in each of those tiers because we don't want 700 people living on the site without any or or 701 that 71 unit coming in without any public amenities so that was also really part of this whole mixed juice concept that it's not just buildings it's also that those public amenities that public open space right and um I'm cons there are some drive-throughs again on the eite and such and you know they grandfathered in but I would like to if we really want to make this a place that we minimize drive-throughs any um service stations anything that's going to create that's not a sense of community that's more of a convenience and I think it'd be better located outside of the property I understand the you know that they're there but I I would not want to see any increases in any of that um just so that we have that opportunity to create place thanks I just had a follow-up question to that those land use bud what do you call land use budget requirements so after the 700 and you have to do 25,000 ft how are we required iring those to be connected I mean can you can you build your 25,000 Square fet on one of a different block but it's there I mean how are we and I guess I posed the question to you is that something to think about and to ensure that it's not just on a different block but it's actually integrated and you know and and and continues with that um that pedestrian theme or requirement that it's connected or really close right yeah so so I think um sorry mayor council member go forth I think one of the things that we wanted to do was provide some flexibility so there may be 25,000 square feet a Trader Joe's or something grocery store that goes in that may not be specifically adjacent to where the residential is going um but what we've done is through the design guidelines and standards that connectivity is required so the the roads the the sidewalks the the Gathering areas the open space all of those things are required to be able to connect those things so making it be a mixed juuse building or mixed juuse on the same block they may be a little bit further apart but ultimately what'll happen is this is going to be an incremental development this is going to be something that develops over probably two decades and so as that that those things start to develop in the the property values start to rise you're going to see those things all coming together and integrating yeah I I think you're probably right and we don't want to overly regulate it for sure we want to allow some flexibility but I don't see how you're going to ensure this is any different than what we've mostly seen in the past in meso where it's adjacent it's land use adjacent right and it's not truly activated together um so I I can see how your your residential is going to grow your commercial is going to grow and then but they're not necessarily in ful you know truly authentically integrated I think again I think it's difficult right and and you know you market conditions and and things like that that developers have to think about for sure but I I guess I would I'm curious how do you how do you and I know you say there's connections but there's connections when in a traditional you know residential commercial sense that that exists today right there's still connections I'm talking true integration right mayor uh council member go forth and I think that that's a great question and I think Evan has the proper diagram up and it is these development blocks that require that a certain amount of any Street and and if if we want we can bring Angela up from kpf to answer any additional questions but we've got we've got these development blocks that require that we're having a street Frontage and facade so it's not a more Suburban style of development that we see in other places so that we can't we won't just have Landscaping with all these braks in that in that block that block that Urban that that building Frontage on those blocks is so important and it is a requirement those block lengths those the block per AG those are all defined as one of those development standard or design standards we've also got the open space which is going to be probably one of the best features of the site on once it gets developed and with the commercial surrounding it they're going to want to be around that that that open space and then the residential will want to be near that open space and all of that commercial so I think that open space is kind of a magnet for that integrated development that you're talking about I think the development blocks these block lengths the building Frontage requirements all of those things are built together to help us to get to that type of development that you're talking about yet still provide the flexibility as we know this is going to be a slow process I think that I I think that's a good point Mary I think having those smaller blocks and that Frontage requirement hopefully hopefully that'll work that'll do it so thank you Mr Summers is the applicant here when's here yeah yes I'd actually like to hear from the applicant about what the vision is for this area what kind of experience do you have building that kind of vertically integrated walkable mixed use project all I see are two dimensional photos that I got two days ago when this was uploaded I haven't had a single meeting have so I I don't know what's in this I I would like to hear from the applicant about what's the vision what does this really look like at the as a builds up thank you Mr Mayor uh councilman Summers Wendy Ral with a la from Barry Ral 6750 East Camel Back my pleasure to be here on behalf of birie investment U Mr Garcia the goal here U Mr Brady was correct was to assemble this property so it could be part of a comprehensive Vision create a very um walkable pedestrian benley mixed use vibrant type of development um councilwoman go forth you raised how do we make sure this isn't just more of the same the answer to that is we very patiently made sure it was all assembled together it's under one set of unique design guidelines to develop in a way that the pieces do work together that the infrastructure is all dictating that it is development that occurs together you have the mix of uses you have commercial you have multif family um to create that vibrant Mesa development and just quick Wy quick point and Council M Summers mayor council M Summers is um what you'll notice with this zoning case there's no development agreement that's going to come so we're talking the applicant is the property owner we foresee at some point once this is approved the opportunity to have the well the applicant could be the developer but there's also a belief a property this large right is going to require I don't know if it's going to be one developer it's going to be multiple developers and with the development agreement we'll begin to address some very more specifics about you know the actual look and the types of development they'll come in because the development agreement will consider the quality the types of uses that are going to come in and how we will use the city's leverage to make that happen in the development agreement so there's no development agreement in front of council there won't be by the time you approve this but the developer will want to come back when we get to the point of actually contemplating these specific develop you know actually verticality of coming out of here and we'll be able to do it this is the framework which is important we think to attract a very high quality development to go forward this is a zoning case right that's correct so we're going to but usually a development agreement is attached to the zoning because once we Zone it we don't have a whole lot of Leverage after that so why are we zoning it without da thank you so mayor and council member sumers we we did that intentionally in this case we wanted to hold off on the development agreement until we had greater detail the kind of detail that you were talking about on a site specific project a site plan so we could see the quality and hopefully also even know maybe some of the end users and so before we provide any development agreement that has incentives in it we want to see that we have the integration that Council wants to see within within the larger development that we see the type of quality and that we see the actual development that's actually going to occur we didn't want to have a development agreement with incentives um this early on and so we want to hold that back until we see um what what the council really wants what would be the need of zoning this now then without a DA or putting all that together why aren't we putting this whole package together all at once councilman sub it's to attract the type of users you guys want here I mean my client is not necessarily the developer of this site but they very patiently assembled it worked very hard with your staff through nine submitt to make sure we've got a framework for this type of mixed use integrated development that you want but we are not necessarily the developer we want to bring these type of users and attract them to the site so we would then you know be coming back for and then the developer will be at the table with us the specific you know who's going to implement a specific Vision then we'll be able to have site plans we'll be able to have a lot more details then the city can decide is it meet our criteria of some kind of incen M for it the applicants made it clear that they they expect to hope to get some incentives from the city to attract the right kind of developer and we've made it clear that we're looking for a certain quality and mix of uses going forward and so that would give Council another opportunity to have to weigh in on those specifics also but what's the leverage that the city have I mean so if they don't ask for incentives there's no d right yeah but without is there a stipulation in the zoning that says this is subject to Future development agreements no Mr Mayor there's not but ultimately to develop a site like this I mean we've been very clear from the beginning we hope to obtain some incentives um that's part of why my client I think in good faith went forward and demolished the site to attract that type of user so we have every intention of coming back with the development the applicant asked for da yes on the front end frankly one is is drafted and we declined because we didn't have enough specifics we could this is all we would be presenting to you for a DA and say oh this looks great let's do a jet we weren't ready to do that we and they're not ready to do that right this positions as property to go out and National you know marketing to say listen we have this amazing piece of property in Mesa Arizona that's been entitled that creates a huge value and then come you know come the city will be willing and we'll then we'll talk with the developer the actual implementation here's that you know if you want reimbursement of uh construction sales tax you want a gyplet you something like that there's you're going to have to earn it you're going to have to prove it up right you're going to have to perform to that and here's what we're going to expect um this property is also and you're going to have this conversation right after this one uh is eligible for two Billboards right well we're not getting the Billboards require a da da is going to require that we see some kind of something the city wants right highly amenitized streetscapes or quality of of um development um on the architecture so there's a lot of opportunities we want to give ourselves the flexibility not to have just a blanket incentive and not really have this kind of detail we wanted to position ourselves so we could be in a point to leverage that when the developer um is on board so the book the Billboards are not entitled no okay it's a whole separate just like it's yeah yeah and we have a presentation on yeah the District Two later but they're non-title so that that's a potential what's what's this what's the basement on this one because I've I've heard this story before and it's like well if you give us the entitlement now we can go out kind of a is the horse pushing the cart or pulling the cart so you know we we've heard it where we say if we can just get the entitlements when you put the entitlements down we can go out and do something really special and it's just falls down to the B Baseline of what this is and it looks like what was it 4,000 residential units I'm assuming those are all apartments or are they is there going to be ownership in there do we do we know what that mix is are we requiring a mix in the 500,000 square foot thank you 500,000 ft of non-residential uses what's a nonresidential use it's a broad definition so what's can you add some specificity to that sure mayor uh council member Summers I think what we've really tried to do is learn from some of the other projects that we've had in the past and that is by requiring these minimum amounts of non-residential as the residential is happening so it doesn't turn into a residential project with some commercial that kind of Judge through the site and I think that's why when we put the land use budget together the way we did it we did it with these tiers the non non-residential would be anything obviously that's not a place where someone would live which could be single family it could be multif family we haven't put a specificity on that because I think what will happen is the character of what's being developed on that site will start to drive some of those that's what we hope but at the end of the day without that this could be 4,000 apartment units no council M it cannot be 4,000 apartment units that is required in the tiered system that it be a mix there's a ratio that's ultimately required you can have seven confused to I think he means at as at the total when 4,000 are built they could all be apartment yeah but you're going to have how much commercial commercial right and that's the idea is it is is 4,000 apartments with a half a million square fet of commercial you can't one without the other you you would want to live and you would want to interact the most you could have is 700 residential without anything else anything else correct at 700,000 could at the end with the 500,000 could be a part I'm just yeah I'm just saying they all could be a part the ratio to come together right yeah it's I think that's the beauty though of the id4 is that the focus is on the Urban Design and the form and if you get that right you'll get the kind of community and the kind of end users we're looking for I that's my correct me if I'm wrong but that I mean it's really focused on the design short blocks open space Frontage on the street if you get all that right it'll be a place that people want to be at and endusers certainly want to be at because people are going to want to go there I mayor council go you're absolutely right because you need that density in order to attract some of the retail some of the restaurants some of the other non-commercial uses that we want to see which is why we built that tier system so that as the residential is built it can't just be 4,000 units of residential without the commercial it has to be there to support the the resident I appreciate the the organic growth and and where you're going cuz we've had had this kind of conversation before and I'd like to see it succeed but I've seen I guess I just been batted over the head with so many visions that never fully turned out to reality I don't have my Wrigleyville West um I'm having problems in my own District because the developer is a home builder that does not have a commercial Builder attached to it which is creating some problems your client is a is an amazing business person you know but this is has not been necessarily their area they're not a builder or commercial developer or am I wrong no mayor councilman Somers you're correct but nor are we holding ourselves out as the ultimate developer necessarily of this piece what we were able to do was assemble it and what we have done here is establish this very unique zoning District that has extensive design guidelines that accomplish the goal that I think council member go for set forth very clearly of having that focus on the public realm focus on the design that frankly I don't think you have anywhere else in Mesa this is very unique yeah and then on the other hand we also have some commercial areas that we got too involved with and turned out to be a flop I won't name it but I think we know what it is um mayor councilman some as what makes this different is two things we have been working with economic development right from the start so this has been a strong collaborative effort between economic development transportation to really make it materialized but this is also why we brought in the urban design consultant to ask them in a project of this size what are the experiences how can it be materialized how what do we do from the start to activate and this were some of the recommendation from the consultant so they've seen it happening in other parts of the world and recommend that this is a tier that will really help and mayor counc just to add to what is saying I think this is a design based zoning code and we don't have anything similar in the city at this point the the Zoning for this site which is what the zoning case is about is the Zoning for the site is all about the design of of the the site it's the blocks it's the the the building frontages it's the amount of public open space that's required it's the land use tiers so that we're looking at this from a design perspective as opposed to just a land use so what's the difference between design based zoning and form based zoning so I'm I'll introduce this is Angela woo from con peton Fox she was the consultant who worked with us con peton Fox if you're not familiar with the name is a highly respected International Urban Design and planning firm um they've worked all around the world and so we've been working with Angela and then two of her colleagues out of the New York City office Angela is out of the San Francisco office so Angela do you want to maybe talk to that a little um yeah actually uh before I talk about what is the difference between the different forms of um Planning and Zoning I want to just quickly say that the unique thing about this property is that there is a central open space so there's something that people are looking forward to that centers around that has already a builtin kind of activity and activation to it um alongside the two um the the I'll call it the Central Park if for ease of um calling it um kind of the central Green Space has commercial on the two sides and again it's like maybe imagine this little Pavilions or popups or whatever that kind of allows for lots of activities that helps with the surrounding um blocks that that are around it so that's really the activation and the ability for Activation is really kind of central to what this plan is about and and then uh I'll start with the difference between a form based code versus and I I don't want to use form based it's really a designb based code so a traditional zoning code separates land uses separates and yeah it identifies specific it identifies specific zones where different uses can go talks about you know integrating them and and there's a lot of value in a traditional zoning code what this does is it says we're not going to tell you where to put the commercial uses we'll let the the market do that but if the commercial use goes in a specific Place here's the form it needs to take here's how it needs to be set back from the street here's what the site needs to be here's what the building wall around it needs to be here's where your parking needs to be located so it's not saying specifically a gas station on this corner it's saying sorry that was a bad one it's not saying a restaurant on this corner it's saying a restaurant can go on any of those those streets that you see highlighted in this form and I would tell you even goes beyond that cuz it says in this form and if it's here it has to be this tall and it has to have these type of materials on the outside that have to be integrated so it goes even beyond the typical form with right and that's all part of the form that the business needs to take and that's really the difference between a more traditional zoning code which is what we we mostly deal with and a and a design based code can I ask the land use regulations that that are restricted are they prohibited or what do you mean how restricted to certain areas to they are prohibited these are not allowed uses sorry so you still have that not a list that you would typically put in a DA you have here in your in your zoning District right great Point yeah I don't want to get into the weeds but some of these I wonder if we can actually restrict out but I'm going to I'll have a conversation with Jim later put them back in no no I don't want to put them back in I'm just wondering if the state law supersedes our ability to yeah to for a couple of these and I don't want to get into that CU we're getting that's way too low but no these are these are fine CU obviously well let's just say um kennels I don't want 500,000 square feet of kennels I don't think the Market's going to support that anyway but that's not our plan yeah you know I I I truly want to see look at I say this all the time agritopia there's some similarities here right there's a single owner who has a passion for a project uh that wants to move forward that's the person I want because they've they've created such a one on a much smaller scale but they've created such a wonderful mix of housing units there's tow houses regular homes I think there's even a little Senior Living Center in there now but they added that after they did vertically integrated mixed use it has bars and restaurants it's it's a place a lot of folks in the Southeast Valley go to see that expanded to an 80 acre and the potential for that and maybe even to bring in some larger scale entertainment venue to tie into this to add a flexibility to do that is really exciting what worries me is again a suc a very successful business person who did a lot of work to acquire this property because I'm very familiar with that but they they're not a developer so that makes me a little nervous um not having a DA at this point I mean usually the thing that gets that affords the council and the community itself the the the most leverage to get something higher quality is a zoning because once it's zoned that's it unless unless your client comes back and says I I want a DA I want a change in the zoning I wanted some kind of an a a an overlay District added to this that's basically a zoning change but we're going to en entitle this uh for essentially 4,000 up to 4,000 residential units that's a pretty big trust mayor council if I can I think one of the unique things about the id2 district is it gives us a lot more flexibility than a a more normal site plan that you're reviewing and approving with a DA in the ID District we were allowed to modify processes we were allowed to modify um and and require design guidelines and standards exes exclude uses which typically we have to do through a DA so a lot of the things that we would do through a typical da from a land use perspective have been addressed in the id2 district because it gives us more flexibility so those are all the things that we've we've looked to to modify as part of this zoning District yeah and and I of all the zoning projects we've done uh over the years and I've been here U this is the one I don't think I've ever touched and this because it's so rare and so that also gives me some pause too something else I'm very concerned about and I know your client did a lot of Outreach efforts because I I'm reading on the numbers it's I'm really disappointed on the apathy of the public input there were there's a meeting here it has um five people uh Mr Jes council member Su can I actually address that yeah were there was there some other input that was received I mean over two years we worked with Tom billstein billstein Consulting we had our own website we did ex we walked door too to these neighborhoods we attended their neighborhood meetings we had our own neighborhood meetings I mean I would not describe anyone here as apathetic I would describe it I'm not referring to you community I would not describe the community is apathetic they were very interested in what we were doing here and ultimately very supportive of what we were showing them I mean much to our surprise we had them saying we want density here we want these commercial uses yeah and I hope that's the case because yeah there's five people on a on a public meeting list and this the the the submitt document you have for that is only about 24 25 Pages total so it didn't give me a sense that there was that much input outside of some questions that were asked here we also have some additional letters of support that we can turn in but yeah that'd be great um we did extensive Outreach here okay and but I do see that I mean you met with some Frank Meisner you met with and and he has a lot of experience and with the city uh former council member Denis Kavanaugh you met with him on the sixth of November about a year ago uh some former mayors are mentioned in here as well so ranch doson ranch hat yeah did you go to the HOA meeting did okay again I haven't had chance to digest this entire document cuz I got it two days ago and and and that kind of you're probably hearing some of that coming out of me yeah remember council members this is for the December 2nd meeting we actually this is an introduction to yeah remember we're we wouldn't normally be having this but I didn't want to bring you on Thanksgiving morning to have this discussion so we're doing this a week ahead of when we would normally have this discussion so that's yeah some of these things are I don't I don't want to call them late but in the sequence they're early everything is very early in this process Evan the underlying zoning today if the applicant didn't go through this rezoning what could they do today I'll see yeah thank you mayor Mr BR but how much residentials have out at that so the property is currently zoned LC you can do a certain amount of residential in the LC District but there's some parameters on the amount of of ground floor commercial that needs to be a component of that as well as an overall um commercial component for the project overall I believe LC allows up to 25 dwelling units per acre provided all the commercial requirements for the ground floor and the overall 60% of the site is commercial as long as that is met there is a component of residential that would be allowed by right in the LC District so we would we would be doubling the the number of residential units with this so the incentive then is we we'll double that residential unit but you have to add the commercial comp and mayor council that that's correct council member Summers and all of these uses on this list would also be allowed yep Al everyone and there would be no standards for open space and amenity no design guidelines beyond the city's to that's correct pressure started with that made the meeting shorter should have started with that Evan all right I I I'm going to have some more questions for staff going through and I know we're going to have a holiday and I might be giving you a call too just to get more comfortable but I'm fine with the introduction on the second great great quick Mr vice mayor I think uh I I've said this before you know when I came to council almost eight years ago this was one of my first meetings uh back then was like five owners you know seers Own It own their property deards uh Mr Garcia uh there's another local owner here um and so it was definitely struggled to get anywhere um and then luckily you know Mr Garcia and ver M was able to consolidate all this and then from then from from the beginning I think it's all it's been a conversation with toson ranch HOA and the stakeholders around it the businesses uh the grace property up up uh on the on the on the North side right um and multiple multiple stakeholders there um I think it's it's been uh definitely a a heavy topic of conversation within the the the area here and I think there as we see some Resurgence in that area I think just this property itself is it's the Catalyst right to see even further growth you know you have kind of a a distress uh you know shopping strip mall on Longmore you got a Target on on Longmore and Southern uh that people go to but um there's there's areas there you got uh the other side of Alma School you know it's it's been vacant pretty much where Feed My Starving children's at now they left um so that's almost 30 Acres of vacant uh office space um and then you got other kind of drive-throughs around it so I think this is I think the foundation of building something great um you know I agree with counc M summers's kind of interpration on like what's going to happen right that's that's all of our concerns and uh you know I'll be be honest that's all everybody around here like What's Happening Here Right like what's going to happen and I think that's this this structure I think gives us the opportunity to lay that foundation and then you know make sure we hold people to the fire right as far as the the type of development and I think this gives us a great start uh but definitely more to come as far as what what we can build in this 80 Acre Site that's so important for the West West Mesa Community I think that's and I think the the the uh applicant knows how important this site means for the surrounding Community here and uh that's been expressed multiple times and and we'll keep on uh you know making sure that's uh a concern that we cannot have just you know residential uh or just the normal uh you know developments that we've seen in the past but it it's got to be a great feature for West Mesa but the region right because of the significance that Fiesta Mall played in the past here I think we got to see that uh in the name itself you know Fiesta redefine right like how that brings to life how what can be envisioned there so I I think I I'll just leave it there and I think that's you know this is a starting point but I agree with my colleagues that this this has to be uh a site that we can all point to in the region as a as a center of of uh of opportunities that in plac making and and really uh be a topnotch for our city right so and mayor council member Heredia um I think one of the things we learn one of the things that is important for us is we have a local ownership he's not coming from somewhere else he owns this property he assembled it he spent the money ahead of time to demolish this without knowing what was going to happen and the most important thing is he really does have ties this property because I think he told us he met his wife at Dillard here so I think he wants to do so it's a family story here so thank you that's great I'm sorry I have one question that's it I know we're all done with this but how does it work because I know he's not a developer so he's going to sell this off in pieces right and how does how does that work with the ID too so uh mayor councilman go forth he is actually a developer we do have other projects that we have done for him such as the carbana campus he just may or may not be the one that ultimately develops his site um I think the goal U not only does he have ties to it he's also fairly patient so I think the goal is to find someone who's going to come in and redevelop all of it take it as a whole not or partner with him or something like that involv he wants he wants to be involved there is certainly the possibility that someone could come in and take down phases but they would be obligated to meet all the requirements under the zoning District design guidelines continuity connections pedestrian connections vehicular there is everything sort of ties this together in a way that you don't have again anywhere else in Mesa today I know yeah even if it gets subdivided those Parcels still are are um yes connected in a way that your normal zoning districts are not you can do it in a vacuum almost AC I think that's what we that's what we probably should have started with and maybe didn't articulate clearly enough I mean that's what's so unique about this thank you uh great discussion this this is uh we've got a lot more on our agenda so we'll continue this but I I'll just make the observation as I leave at the end of 10 years that U i' this has been on you know one of the most frequently asked questions I've received over the last 10 years and and the the qu the problem before this always was the mixed ownership yes and now the we're at at a very uh desirable location because now the ownership is the big Advantage here the fact that we've got someone who has the the ability to be patient and does not have extreme Financial pressures to do something quick quickly that's what's going to allow this to become something very special and so the lack of the development agreement I I understand that's a little different but again that's at that's at our request that the applicant would love to have a fully baked development yes I would but but that that's what gives us this ongoing you know uh finger in in in the in the in the mix here uh and there's no question that GPL and billboards and all these other things are this is not going to happen without that and so we're we're along for the ride which I think is great uh but uh obviously a lot of significant work has gone into this to this point and I'm very grateful for that and looking forward to moving this forward so we can continue uh the great work that's been done on this thank you very much thank you Mr May don't mind slide to the west of property and yeah so if you don't mind we do have and I appreciate Dr Daniel for being here for Mesa Community College one one of our agenda items is to talk about the Mesa College promise program thank you for your patience and staying with us Dr Daniel why don't if you don't mind let's skip to agenda item 2B well it's 2B and it's also 6D on your regular agenda so yes let's do we can do both them at the same time yeah yeah so on our on our Monday agenda is the uh the approval of this item and we it's also agendized as a presentation for our study session so welcome uh ladies good morning good morning mayor and Council um my name is Sarah toer I am the administrator for the education and Workforce Office and I am joined here by Mary kosy Brown um we are going to this morning provide an update on the Mesa College promise program and then um Mary is going to present on the district's application for the billboard overlay District um I also want to acknowledge our partners before we get started here from Mesa Community College from marova County Community College District as well as the foundation Dr Richard Danielle president of MCCC who has been instrumental in moving this project forward um as well as Brian spicker the president and CEO of the foundation and lean Bond the Chief Operating Officer for U marope County Community College District so thank you for your partnership in this project and understanding and walking along with us on such an impactful program all right so I wanted to start this morning by providing just a brief background on the development of the Mesa College promise program um and why as a city we're so invested in this um in 2016 the city of Mesa joined the State of Arizona in a commitment to support the achieved 60 a initiative which is a goal that was developed um to have 60% of the adults in Arizona earn a post-secondary degree certificate or professional license um and so as part of that commitment the city has worked to develop strategies to help move the needle in the city of Mesa in 2022 the mayor or I'm sorry in 2021 the mayor formed the Mesa achieves higher education task force um to bring together council members representatives from higher education and our community to really understand the landscape of higher education and to develop specific strategies and initiatives um that from a city perspective you know we can do to help support the achieved 60az goal and so from that task force the recommendation was made to develop the Mesa College promise program in 2021 um the mayor the mayor also implemented the Mesa education Workforce Development Roundtable and the purpose of this advisory council is really to institutionalize the work um that was started by that task force but to bring all of the representatives um involved D in education and Workforce Development and Community leadership around the same table um to understand education and our needs in the city of Mesa and really work together to align goals and resources and and support that recommendation of the development of the Mesa College promise program and all of this work is being done to support the city council's strategic priority of a skilled and talented Workforce and so that is that commitment to our residents um that they have access access to higher education training reskilling upskilling opportunities as well as our commitment to our current businesses and our future businesses that we as a city will be able to supply an educated um and qualified Workforce and so as I mentioned um the Mesa College promise program was established and launched in 2021 um it is a partnership between as I mentioned the city of Mesa um Maricopa Community College District as well as Maricopa Community College District foundation and a commitment to our residents that they have eligible residents have access to attend MCC tuition free for two years um when the program was first established in 2021 the focus was on those recent high school graduates so students who had just graduated within the first three years of high school um going straight to MCC as you remember earlier this year we were able to expand the program to include adult Learners so now the program is open to city of Mesa residents who have not yet earned a degree can apply and those eligible um will be able to attend MCC I just wanted to touch on the funding structure of this program um the Mesa College promise program is a last dollar program which means that um applicants have to complete the FAFSA and then any federal funding scholarships grants that they receive from the FAFSA um completion will first be applied and then the funding from Mesa College promise will then um make up the difference and right now the program is funded um from two different funding sources one of them is the city's annual $100,000 contribution and the other is private donations from businesses um and those Fund raing Raising efforts are led by mayor Giles in partnership with the um philanthropy office at MCC and the foundation I'm I have a question maybe I'm getting ahead of myself but we're here for the billboard so I assume isn't where is that in the funding thank you um mayor council members uh go forth um I am just updating on the Mesa College promise program and then Mary will go into the Billboards yes um just to review the eligibility requirements for the program the students have to be a city of Mesa resident um have graduated from high school or earned a GED um not previously earned a degree from accredited college or university and then completed the FAFSA um eligible or um participants that are enrolled in the program will then receive two years of free tuition at MCC as well as a stapen each semester a $250 stapen to apply to any expenses that the additional expenses that they have and what really sets the program apart from just a scholarship program is the additional academic and Social Service benefits that that students are provided with this program so they are assigned an academic adviser they have access to tutoring and counseling um they participate in volunteer um opportunities like the Mason Marathon the point in time count um and then they're enrolled in the I belong iPad program um just wanted to give you a high level overview of the the current makeup of the program um so you can see what the enrollment trajectory looks like from when the program was established in 2021 to where it is now um has over tripled and that um blue circle represents the adult Learners who had the opportunity to apply this most recent cohort and we had we currently have 54 adult Learners um there are over 300 Mesa College promised scholars in this most recent cohort and about 415 total um students in the program who are finishing up from previous years and then this just gives you an idea of who is being served in this program you can see that almost 70% of the students are first generation which means that they are the first in their family um to enroll in higher ed um over 60% of the students in the program are Hispanic and over 60% female this map gives you an idea of where in the city of Mesa they are coming from so you can see that um the most concentrated zip code um is 85204 which I think really aligns with the need but you can see that you know there is equitable distribution across the city that there are um Mesa promised Scholars from all parts of the city um there are uh students from all six of our Mesa Public Schools high schools who are enrolled in the program the highest enrollment comes from Mesa High School and then after that Skyline but Desert Ridge East Mark and Higley all have students who are enrolled in the program as well um while enrollment is obviously really important and the first step um what is really going to move the needle for our city is completion and degrees and certificates and so you can see um the some of the outcomes um the average cohort GPA is really a reflection of those wraparound academic supports and services that students are provided um as well as um below that you can see the degree and certificates to date that students in this program have received and you can see that there are multiple students who have earned um multiple certificates kids or degrees in their time in the program um and clearly this program has made an impact in our community but I I also wanted to highlight the Statewide and National impact that the program has made um it has garnered national attention um both from the US Department of Education and the White House um Dr Biden has come to visit the program twice um to the first time to you know just highlight the importance of Community College and how our unique program from the municipal perspective is working to find Solutions and financially fund a program like this um from that first visit um it garnered National media attention and um there this is an article from Team Vogue that highlighted one of our Mesa College promised Scholars and her journey and how it inspired her father to also enroll in the program um Dr Biden came back to speak at the MCC Graduation Ceremony this um most recent year um and just last week uh mayor Giles was asked to speak um at the US Department of Education on a panel highlighting College promise programs um and speak from the city perspective because what we're doing is so unique and then from the state and Regional perspective um there are multiple cities Phoenix and Tempe have either developed or are currently developing promis programs um using the model that we have created and the Maricopa County Community College District is currently working on developing a districtwide promise model to benefit all 10 colleges so um clearly we can see that this this program has proven success um but we are still faced with challenges which is what brings us here today that um we really need to work towards finding a long-term solution um for some of these challenges and and just wanted to touch on a few of them um maintaining a pipeline of sustainable funding it's important you know we are right now reliant on the um City's contribution as well as fundraising and this year with enrollment we reached kind of the threshold for number of students that we could support with the current funding so it's really important to have that long-term solution for sustainable funding so that we can talk about expansion opportunities so we can talk about what that looks like to bring in as many city of Mesa residents as possible expanding opportunities for them to um you know potentially seek out other programs at other community colleges within the district um with this type of funding we also want to ensure that we can be an active partner in Workforce development and um you know strengthening and sustaining those Partnerships as well as being able to act on further collaboration opportunities with both MCC and the district and so with that I am going to turn it over to Mary to address the um zoning considerations thank you Sarah uh mayor council members as Sarah had indicated um what the Billboards are looking to do is to provide that kind of long-term funding stream for the Mesa College promise and so we have received a request for the billboard overlay it is a zoning request um that is on your December 2nd agenda and so I just wanted to summarize what the request was and then how that is working in with the program so what they have requested is to allow two electronic Billboards on site and you can see from the site plan where they're located the first one is just west of the MCC performing arts building and then the second one is is a th000 ft west of that and you'll remember about a month ago we came in with a couple of modifications to the billboard ordinance um where we had found some some things that we could do to maybe make this a little bit more Equitable ac across the city in that because of that that exit ramp right by MCC the 12200 ft would have made that billboard challenging to put in there if they didn't go higher so we worked with with um with with the city with the the applicant to kind of look at what those impacts would be next slide um so this is the proposed billboard elevation that they're proposing you can see they've got the Mesa Community College on the the pole of that billboard it is a 60ft tall billboard which meets the zoning requirements it is a double face VF frame billboard that is 48 square feet on each sign face again it meets all of the requirements of the zoning code one of the biggest concerns about billboard is the light the distraction and the potential impacts on drivers so what they've done is what we've done is in our code we have identified specific um details as it relates to the messaging and how light the billboard can be and how often billboard messaging can change so the messages can be displayed but they can't exceed 300 nits from sun sunset to 11:00 p.m. so at at Sunset they have to start to dim and at 11:00 p.m. they're turned off so there'll be no light we want to make sure we're protecting the night sky here in Mesa the applicant also did conduct a lighting study and you'll see there's these concentric circles in the gra in the the graphic to the to the right um you'll see that none of the yellow pieces of those concentric circles are impacting the the residents to the south of 60 the residents to the south of 60 those properties actually sit lower than 60 and then there's a large retaining wall that that is um adjacent to 60 and then 60 and then and then the MCC site so that graphic shows that none of that light from those Billboards would spill into that residential neighborhood excuse me Mary Julie I have a question on that um I I understand how line of site ones are done I guess I've never actually seen how a lighting one is done do they use actual lights and this is the measuring of the actual lights or this is like a computer generated this is how much light would come from it I might ask the I'm not familiar with how lighting impact is done AI well that's what I was wondering if it's I'm sure it's modeled council member come on come on yeah come here ree good morning everyone Happ ree Anderson with Pew and Lake 1744 South alista so these this is a computer generated model based off of a lot computer generated model based off of a lot of experience with this exact technology where they put in louvers just like your privacy screen on your cell phone where you can't see from the side that's how this technology works and that's why as you see as you go out in those graphs that become lighter yellow because it's it's measuring knits which is a a new term that I learned right the three definition of nits it's the eggs of lice I know I'm like that's not a good word and not yeah a not a it's slang English slang for a not very smart person and now I've learned that it's a measurement of one candle of light in a square meter so when you look at if you it's a yeah you could the foot candle right is what Us in America would call B internationally a knit it's a square meter okay and so when you look at the chart and and we have that in the file now so we can throw it up you're at less than one foot candle at the closest to the neighbors so it's a very low I mean it's much less than the existing lights that exist on the freeway there so I so but it's but it's a it's a computer generated model based off of their vast experience my my only concern with this the whole time has been the impact of the neighbors and so I know we're doing everything to make sure so if for some reason there was a problem with the the computer generated model of this and there was some extra light in backyards that became a problem like is there something we could do at that point I think you could dim it um because I think that technology exists but I just um so yes I think it could be done the good news is here that with that Mary described the screen wall and and I know Mary staff has the photos we have to if you're standing in those backyards yeah I'm not worried about the line of sight because I get that so light though like can over obviously come over a line of sight so that's why the distance and the height of those walls in their backyard are you about to show us picture of we have some images Sarah's just got to find them I think it's hidden in the presentation at the last I just um I know like the lights at like some of the high school football fills or the pools cause a lot of issues with Neighbors in their backyards and in their windows at night when they're trying to sleep so like I just want to be very very careful and cautious that we're not doing anything and I've seen all these pictures like again I get the line of sight but because we didn't try it with an actual light and it's we're just going off of a computer gener model but which I get but I just want to make sure that if for some reason these studies aren't exactly correct that we're not going to do any harm to our neighbors so mayor council member go forth what we did require and this was also put into the amendment that we just did was that they had to do that line of sight study to show that the billboard itself could not be seen from 500 ft away so they went out and they modeled and showed through the line of sight from 500 ft away that even the top of the billboard could not be seen and the reason why we can't see anything in these pictures is because we can't see anything in these pictures because of the walls that's correct this is proving that you cannot see anything so I totally get that but you can see it's the middle of the day when these pictures were taken so again having a really bright billboard at night that's coming in your back window or something is incredibly problematic so I I just want make sure and mayor council M there are some examples of this technology in the valley and um we can forward those to you through the planning staff if you'd like to be able to see it the one that's backer Billboards is told me about is in Gilbert so it's not far from us okay if you like to see but you feel confident that if for some reason something was still too bright that we could probably hopefully absolutely most likely do something about it okay yes all right oh Mr Freeman ree before you you know time of day is everything so in the winter time we get dark earlier and the lights you know this has turned off at 11:00 p.m. and most people you know if they choose to go bed early because because of time and season uh is there a chance to change that from 11:00 p.m. to lower it down to a lower number I don't know I'm just asking the question because people don't want to be disrupted in their sleep because of Lights yeah and that's a very sensitive subject so so may mayor council member frean there's actually two pieces of it it has to dim at Sunset so if it's 6:00 and it's dark the billboard has to dim and then it does still go off at 11: but at Sunset no matter what time of year if it's 6 o'clock or if it's 8:00 that it has to dim down to that 300 minutes okay so I guess I'll have to go to Gilbert to see that well I'm happy to forward it on to you see but but Mr Freeman there's always an opport Unity to come back and revisit right we know that and what you have here with the district is a willing Cooperative partner and we're engaging this together right I always say everyone has a rookie season and we're in our rookie season here why was 11:00 chosen that's part of the standard that Mesa has it's kind of a universally nationally standard that everyone's adopted and so mesa's ordinance complies with those national standards we're complying with the national standards but if we're finding that doesn't work I think with the partners sitting right behind you would just open the conversation up again and have that conversation with them but for now we're starting with those nationally accepted standards moving forward yes is that a Mesa standard that we have council member Freeman we actually did a lot of research on this both locally and nationally and these are really national standards that that are being used for Billboards okay we really are fortunate that the closest residential is across from the 60 and they have those sound walls and you stand on the sidewalker in the street the angle above it well the they're on BMS too I'm just saying when it looks a lot taller in the backyard than it does from when you're driving on the freeway it's significantly tall for those of us that are walked it and I've walked down that alley and took photos of myself just to give you perspective the Tower with the lattice is 2 ft tall to the top of the lattice and 212 to the top of the anten and when you're standing there in the back backyards of folks that live across the 60 you cannot see that at all and the billboard and just to clarify the Billboards are 60 60 yes no one anyone watching at home to think that the Billboard's L than half this the height of that what tower I'm sorry what tower there's a there's a radio tower that's part of the campus there and and if you if you were to go over there we pulled the approved plans for that and 200 to the lattice 212 to the top of the tip and you can't see that oh no you can't see and if you want to plug in my thumb drive and show you the pictures but yes I would like you to do that I'd be happy I'd be happy yeah and and the Performing Art Center just for your context is 559 so it's a very similar height to what the Billboards are so yes just just like anything as I step further away and go further south it becomes visible but I'm so far away it's not an impact but again what using those standards of the planning staff Etc when I'm close there's no impact the you're going to get more light bleed from the existing lights in the center of the freeway than you are from this side Mr Summers yeah I did a little Google search on this and I see what you're you're coming up with so what you saying the the the height of the Billboards are 60 compar and then the tower is 200 200 just pick 200 200 so a little Toller and then what are the lights in the middle of the freeway so I've tried to track that down and I don't have a direct answer for you what I can tell you is from my personal experience of walking in the neighborhood etc those are going to be more visible than the Billboards on the other side but I tried to track it down they're they're pretty tall I'm going to guess 80 to 90 but they're in the middle of the freeway so this is on Isleta is where I'm at just looking looking to to to the north and I believe you said roughly that the background ambient L currently is like one to one and a half nits no what I referred to was the light so the in the light chart that we that our Consultants provided from Becker Billboards I'm saying that that is less than one knit as you get closest to the neighbors the ambient light I have not measured that'd be the only thing if if this isn't going to add any more light beyond the ambient it's not because the the study that we provided was what this billboard provides it's not what's above ambient okay yeah I because I can I can see those just looking in front of this um address on the street I could see the the lights of the freeway sticking up fairly considerably so they're they're getting that light too all right thank you thank you Mary uh do you have is there more to your presentation that uh mayor that's th those are the ends of my slides but I think Sarah has a couple of more slides to go through thank you um and I am just going to conclude by um touching on the IGA and development agreement um that is part of the resoning rezoning application and so again want to thank the district and the foundation for their partnership in um creating this you know very unique project to benefit the B of college promise program and so um I wanted to just highlight the main points that create the structure of this agreement so it establishes a formal partnership between the city the district and the foundation um it establishes that the gross revenue to support operational and District student costs specific to the Mesa College promise program so the revenue from the Billboards will be directed to costs specific to the mes College promise program in perpetuity and in conversations with the district and the foundation and the vendor um the estimated revenue is between $350 and $400,000 annually for the first 10 years years and hopefully to grow after that um another way to think about it is that it was brought up that it's equivalent to the district receiving a $10 million endowment and being able to use those um funds to support the program um so it is you know a really substantial additional funding source for the Mesa College promise program um this development agreement will be paired with a programmatic agreement um which will outline program operation prioritization of funding distribution and revenue streams so there is currently a programmatic agreement in place for the Mesa College promise program and so it will be updated to include you know this additional Revenue Source um that program agreement has a 5-year term and it's meant to be updated every 5 years to be able to evolve with the program um it also outlines the city billboard use which is defined as um having access to an 8-second spot every 64 seconds which can advertise city services businesses programs events facilities Etc as well as access for public service announcement space um and emergency announcement space um and this agreement has a term of 99 years or the life of the billboard whichever is longer um and I also wanted to mention another benefit um in conversation with the vendor which is Becker boards um the foundation is currently working on finalizing an additional contribution that Becker is committed to which is a separate endowment gift to support um Native American students at Mesa college or at at Mesa Community College so this will be separate from the Mesa College promise program but as a native owned business um Becker was committed to contributing so this is just an additional benefit to MCC through this program and with that um I will take any additional questions I did want to mention that um we included in your Council packet um a supplemental document that includes thank you notes from students um and you can kind of see the impact of this program but I hope that you have an opportunity to read through them because their voice and their experience really is what communicates why we are doing this um because it's an impactful program and it changes lives thankk you thank you mayor uh Council thank you Sarah and Mary this has been um a long haul uh project but we think it's one of a um a milestone project for Mesa we appreciate the partnership um with MCC um we really appreciate the in the enthusiasm by the um the staff and especially Dr Daniel coming on is really kind of made us feel like we could actually get this done um we've always talked about having a qualified Workforce that is the greatest economic tool incentive we can have with any major developer they don't ask about utilities they don't ask about land availability first they ask about and it's the number one topic for uh businesses today to relocate is you know do you have the available Workforce do you have the skill to Workforce that can meet our demands and when the mayor and I have lunches or breakfasts with CEOs that's their number one issue is filling positions um we think this is an important pipeline frankly my goal uh would be to not only fill in all those who are eligible but I would hope that every Mesa High any how can I say this every student who graduates from high school in Mesa would have an opportunity to receive an education regardless of income right to make make it so easy right for them to come and get an education um and so we we're really appreciate that we have MCC to be a partner in doing that and I think this creating this unique opportunity I know it's Billboards none of us are big fans of billboards but I think we've done it in a way to be very um respectful of the ne surrounding neighborhoods but is a significant Source I've was amazed by the significant source of income it is and to take that and put it back into the community and to Prov provide these unique opportunities to help um our community grow and provide opportunities and I'm hoping that over time as this grows and we find ways um that we can be not only successful in getting them into the college prise but successfully employed in Mesa and I would hope that that would be something we could do for every Mesa students that graduates uh in Mesa thank you thank you Julie I feel like I'm going to cry because everything makes me cry but of course educ ation this is I just I'm really grateful that we have a community that values this I'm sorry um I um my son-in-law is currently enrolled in this as I've been saying and um it's a huge blessing to him and my daughter so um I and I because I've been a part of this um so closely for the last three years it's just been incredible to meet the kids that are part of it and the and the mentors and staff that are supporting it and um it's incredible and and to think that we could expand it to to um every student is really incredible um I our Mesa Public Schools as well as Gilbert um Higley and Queen Creek are all doing they're really beefing up their Workforce Development um type of programs and Partnerships with our local um community and so to see the way that that is being beefed up that then continues into so many incredible opportunities that M Community College already has partnering with um businesses so that these kids just seem l ly slip into their careers um and and their whole their whole world changes when they have these opportunities and then it's affecting Generations so I just I think it's incredible um I am so glad that that we've that the mayor especially gosh has made this a priority of his I think we owe him a lot that these programs are even even exist so anyways my question is just so the current funding structure is that continuing like if if we approve this we still are doing the $100,000 commitment from the city and 100,000 supplemental to everything we want to go bigger and better yeah absolutely so your 350 to 400,000 is expected for per year is what you said is the estimated projection at this point yes okay so we could expand that quite a bit so I'm curious um with the Maricopa County promise being developed how does that if I think do some of the other community colleges have a promise program I'm just curious how how then will that like MCC obviously yeah I don't know who wants to speak to that I'm just curious what that looks like if um if M Community College and I think some others already have current promise programs then what will that look like good morning uh Brian sper president CEO of the Maricopa community colleges Foundation where we make dreams come true through making post secondary education accessible and affordable as well as certifications so uh thank you mayor and uh council member uh spillsbury um the Maricopa promise the promise idea has been very front and center to Maricopa Community College District and the 10 colleges it was the mayor's leadership to actually attempt this that really has led to a model that we're looking at rolling out District in fact Phoenix the City of Phoenix uh pretty much adopted the similar model and expanded it with uh uh using some federal funds uh to the extent of $5 million where thousands of students have moved through being Phoenix residents into any one of the 10 colleges of which Mesa was uh uh uh participating the Mesa Community College participated so the we really want to see a sustainable approach those federal funds are are have are ending and we want to make sure students continue uh because the persistence and completion rate is significant as compared to other students going in because of that last dollar in that sttip and and the student support effort uh so Maricopa is uh it's part of our strategic plan to have a a college promise Maricopa Mesa would be a part of that and we would like to see all students students that need financial support to have access to a high quality education or access to Workforce and Industry certification so in each of those different Community College um Community College I don't know what do you call them areas or whatever do do the cities I mean is that the goal to have like each City then support it the way Mesa is doing it thank you for that council member spillsbury we're building a funders collaborative okay and so it would be Regional it'll be Maricopa uh County uh focused where we would have cities philanthropic Partners foundations and Industry Partners who are actually contributing and governing so to speak the outputs and the outcomes that come from such a promised program and I guess maybe why I'm asking is I like so this the the billboard potential money from the Billboards is going to stick with Mesa Community College and stay with Mesa Community College correct right correct yeah okay we this is not I don't care about all the kids in the whole valley it's such a novel idea a I mean our hope is that we could look at this model with some other cities uh in terms of moving their promise efforts forward because it's Unique to a city that doesn't mean other Industries like uh uh the mayor and uh Mesa community colleges have funded your current effort it'll be in addition to so great thank you so much just a follow to that so when it'll stay and I I agree it's not that I don't care about other um students around the valley but those dollars will continue to support Mesa residents at Mesa Community College okay absolutely and then the gross revenue to to support operational and what percentage of the total gross revenue is the will it be yeah the the um it'll be a a 70% 30 that that's the those are the thresholds if if the operational is less it'll be a higher uh uh uh going to the student supports and students stiens we don't know that we've got some work to do in terms of understanding but that is you know the the programmatic supports are the operational costs so as you've seen the Mesa community colleges provides a uh uh support to those students so they get across the finish line so that's what the operational costs are in addition to what they pay for tuition in addition to what the foundation pays for for tuition you're saying so isn't that what the point of your tuition is right to cover those programmatic and operational cost this is no this is a much more this program The Promise program provides a higher level of student supports than what you would see with any student just enrolling and paying tuition because this is a a higher need Student and if if Dr Daniels wants to add to that but it's it's a critical piece I guess what it comes I just want to understand what is the percentage that goes to the foundation that is used for the students to pay to cover the tuition what is the gross amount okay right there's a gross amount there's a portion that goes back to the MCC for the overhead Administration yes it's it's a 2% and then uh uh 2% we have a 2% new gift fee and a 2% and that helps us operate as a foundation goad and SAR talk I'll add that that is part of the 30% that is not on top of the the 30% um operational but Sarah the money that's coming to the city or going for the benefit of the promise program what what's where I mean is tuition it can be the stien students receive a stipend each semester um is there any administrative other administrative counselors or anything else that's counselors and and academic advisor and Dr Danielle you can also speak to that so good morning mayor council members um Richard Danel the president of B Community College it's really an opportunity to look at how do we broaden this holistic support for students as um Sarah was talking about and and and Brian is that it's beyond just the regular service so when a student pays tuition and fees they have access to services this is beyond this is an assigned person someone who's tracking them people that actually help recruit them in the high schools people who help out in the workforce because we've added the additional piece on the adult learner now coming back so we have more investments in trying to make sure that the mes of Promise program is successful and if we are able to do what city manager Brady talks about is giving every person in Meson opportunity that's going to be a game Cher in terms of the opportunity when we talked last week when we were in DC mayor Giles talked about the percentage of those people who did not have a college credential in Mesa and what he would like it to be where the city has set goals to do that we have to work very very collectively and collaboratively to get there I was with education forward Arizona for many years and when they started the achieved 60az goals so I know the importance of an educated populace as we bring people to Arizona people to city of Mesa so this just helps us get there with Support Services to Ure that students don't fall through the cracks that students are completing one of the biggest challenges we have have in community colleges is that students have an intent to complete but they don't always complete so we want to make sure we have those services so they can complete and that's one of the things that's important as part of the other services that we've attached some additional resources to do that and I'll just add that um thank you for mentioning this that through the MCE College promise program there is an oncampus adviser at all six of the Mesa public high schools so there is an MCC person who works on that campus and works with students on what that process is to transition them to MCC okay and I understand that and that's that's great but I I the breakdown was you know important and you're saying it's about 730 30 going to the operational and direct cost 70 going to I don't know if it does it go to the foundation does it not necessarily have to it does it goes directly to the foundation yeah and and then the foundation uh re reimburses Mesa Community College for those costs yeah yeah okay okay thank you thank you and other questions Council so again M Mr BR this is item 60 on our on our for introduction yes okay we it was posted both so we could give the background of Mesa College in your study session but it also is the item on your agenda for December 2nd great 6D all right well thank you I I I can't not say something about this obviously uh I think we in this room have two jobs one is to talk about uh the success of our community and we we're very good at that and we attract you know Apple and Google and meta and everyone comes to Mesa because we're great at at uh talking uh giving the the Chamber of Commerce a story uh the other job we have is to fix things that are less than perfect or to get better at things uh and one of the things uh I'm I'm very proud of Mesa but one of the things that we have to get better at is post High School Educational attainment we do not compare favorably to our neighbors or nationally and that is a weakness that we have so I think we need to own that and and try to figure out how to get better at that as as I've looked at that to me the best tool that we have to fix that weakness that we have is Mesa Community College uh and so I uh I that's where was kind of the the motivation behind figuring out how to get uh more of our uh kids that just aren't going post High School uh enrolled so I I'm pleased that over the last three or four years we've proven this concept up it it has been successful but we continue to uh we need to increase utilization we don't want this to be a program that is impacting the lives of hundreds of students we want it to impact the lives of thousands of students and as I have visited the MCC campus and I look around at the student body I can tell nearly all of them could and and should qualify for the m College promise so but but we don't have the resources now to expand the program so we need to figure out how to do that and I I think this is a very Innovative way uh potentially it could be the the game changer that that creates the environment that Mr Brady uh said that we aspire to which is if you're a a Mesa High School graduate the assumption is that uh Mesa Community College is going to enroll you and you're going to be covered by the Mesa College promise uh it is a needs-based program so it's not going to it doesn't impact kids who don't need it uh but it's it has the potential to have a dramatic impact uh on addressing one of the real things that as a community we need to uh to get better at so I'm I'm fully in support of it and appreciate the hard work that's gone into to getting this onto our agenda Miss Duff I'll just um build off that one of the things that is wonderful about this is the biggest problem in our society right now is the cost of living right rents and groceries and things like that and it is breaking people and families and it's it is the number one stressor this is what we can do we can't control the cost and the inflation we cannot do that but if we give this opportunity for people to have careers instead of just jobs but careers that they can you know build upon this is what we can do to really help people in a real way is giving them a better options and a better quality of life instead of just hanging on for dear life and with these expenses by and and a more fulfilling life to have a career instead of just doing a job because it's making x amount um and I think our partnership with MCC MCC has been a wonderful partner not only with the city but also with the employers there's so many employers that I know that have worked with MCC to design programs to for the students coming on there have the credentials the training so they go into the job immediately at good very good pay and I think that in itself is an economic development tool when we talk to employers and saying what kind of skills do you need what kind of training what kind of education do you need um that we have a community college that can partner with you to design a program to make sure those students are coming out are exactly qualified for this industry and I think that's a tremendous benefit that we can tout in Mesa so thank you for all your work on that Sarah and your team I know um a few of our council members are on the on the workforce um ucation yeah and and the mayor for his leadership started all this thank you thank you very much anything else on this thank you Dr Daniel I know you you you probably missed a few appointments this morning we appreciate you no worries this is important to us we really appreciate the partnership thank you thank you for your I don't know that we've ever uh uh publicly welcomed you to our community we're we're excited that you are the the is it how long you've been the president four months four months thank you well we're we're we're fortunate to have you and look I hope you know that I've shared this with you you you play a very critical role in our community and I want you to know you've got a lot of friends and a lot of support well thank you I really appreciate the welcome you've provided me thank you so much you bet thank you all right thank you uh Kimber thank you for your patience we'd like now to move on to agenda item 2A item 2A is a presentation on small businesses and their role in building thriving economies and a unique sense of place uh thank you ladies for your patience with us this morning Council are you okay uh moving forward without a break I think they're taking breaks regardless all right you're welcome very okay I'm sorry you know what let's take a five minute break now that we have it while you set up your computer we'll take a five minute break we'll be back at 9:30 okay okay thank you all right thank you again for your patience this morning we did have a lot to discuss but not none is more important than item 2B which is a presentation oh I'm sorry 2C 2A is a presentation on small business and their role in building lives building through building thriving economies and a unique sense of place I love whoever wrote the agenda item thank you very much okay thank you welcome um mayor members of the council thank you so much for your time today um this is informational only uh based on 25 years of working in uh developing communities um many of you may not know my name is Kimber Lanning uh I'm the founder and CEO at local first Arizona which is the largest local business Coalition in the country but I got my start in small business uh opening uh stink weeds record store uh in Dobson Ranch in 1987 and the students at MCC and Dobson High pretty much uh kept me going so I've been a huge fan of Mesa for a long time I bought my first home here uh right near the downtown Corridor um founding local first Arizona led me to serve on the development Advisory board for the City of Phoenix uh I served in the development Advisory board for eight years and I completely overhauled the Adaptive reuse program there to make it easier for small local businesses to open up in their older building Stock A lot of times building code can be very prohibitive and cost ineffective for uh small local businesses to open um did you want to say anything Mar I was going to introduce Kimber I did want to say um that uh mayor and council members good morning uh just two weeks ago Economic Development was here to uh introduce you to our quality retail attraction strategy and that we are delighted to be here today with Kimber to talk about local first Arizona and how um smaller businesses play such an important and key role to in our local economies and it's a huge complement to everything that we're doing as part of the quality retail attraction strategy um we know that small businesses uh especially retail are essential to Growing our eony making sure it continues to thrive as well as fostering that unique sense of space and I or place and I know that um the presentation that that Kimber is going to be giving you right now is going to talk more about uh how we can further leverage Uh current assets that the city has our existing building stock um the the public Investments that the city has made uh so that we can continue uh the revitalization effort in downtown Mesa as well as uh development under consideration throughout the rest of the city whether it's uh development new development Redevelopment or just placemaking um local businesses will have a very strong role to play in all of that so thank you Kimber go ahead Maria thank you so much and thank you to all of you uh for your time today so I'd like to just open by saying you know our organization is called local first Arizona not local only Arizona not local always alwayss Arizona so the goal of my talk today is really to talk about the e economic impact of the choices that you make in the way you're shaping your city and I as I was saying I I really believe that Mesa has unlimited potential because of the diverse array uh of the landscape that you have here all of your districts have such unique character and flavor um that I think just being mindful of what you put where is going to be critically important so you've got existing vintage buildings uh they create an uh essential incubator space for uh for your entrepreneurs in the community um you've got these in in various parts uh throughout but especially in your downtown Corridor and also you know you you have incredible goals in terms of uh resiliency your sustainability goals and really the greenest building of all is an existing building one of our Co core tenants at local first Arizona is if we can keep a building standing and get it occupied that's always better than tearing it down uh not always I shouldn't say that but generally uh it's more affordable and you get a more diverse user base so again with the opportunities that you have you've got incredible building stock you've got walkable streets I realize I'm showing pictures of just downtown right at this minute understanding that many of you don't have corridors like this in your District but you got shade cover you got diversity of building size uh socio economic status architecture activities business arts and culture every one of your districts has unique opportunities in it and I'm here today to just talk about the impact of using locally owned businesses often times when when I say locally owned business you might think of the one off Mom and Pop um which is included in locally owned business but you've also got Postino you know you've got Wilderness you know you've got a wide variety of companies that maybe you don't even think of as local salad and go right these are companies that are based here Wildflower Bread Company um good excellent operators that have multiple locations and the reason it's important is because those local operators tend to then turn and hire local graphic design firms Local website developing companies local payroll providers that keeps more dollars and jobs recirculating right in our local economy if you have a publicly traded company they're not going to do business with other companies in your community and so you know I I often talk um around the valley but if you look at a community like in West Phoenix like in Maryvale for example Mary Veil over 30 years they brought in um nothing but publicly traded companies into that region and so the kids growing up there had very little opportunity to start a company or to really uh build a career in that Community they could get a job at one of those fast food restaurants or they could move away and um I would just like to to uh to ask you to think about the what I would call the secondary and tertiary impacts of dollars recirculating through the local economy when you have that blend it's definitely not a one or the other choice it's just let's not lose sight of the importance of creating a sense of place that those local businesses do provide with your Transit you've also uh introduced a type of vibrancy here of people being able to come uh from further distances away um we've done study after study to talk about what is the next Generation looking for how do we compete for talent um the types of things that you know years and years and years ago they used to list very different things than they list now uh safety um used to be at the top of the list now it's quality public transportation walkable neighborhood character diverse culture unique experiences those are things that are really driven or can be framed by local ownership so this is a study from uh the Harvard Business review about 10 years ago where it really talked about um job growth in America is largely coming from small and midsize companies either uh business uh expansion or business retention that's where we're starting to see uh job growth emerging and so less so with business attraction simply because you're moving jobs around instead of creating new jobs so I wanted to give you an example we brought in uh the woman that did economic development for uh the City of Pasadena for many many years and she was able to compare and contrast Old Pasadena versus new Pasadena Old Pasadena was privately funded it grew organically um you know very limited parking opportunities and located in primarily older buildings um and Old Pasadena still outperformed new Pasadena which was completely publicly funed planned 100% National Brands I I bring this to your attention that is to say when you have a district where people are willing to travel to that District um and to put in the time and effort to go to an area um they're largely looking for a unique experience whatever that might be it might be the experience that you get at a Postino um versus uh a big National brand um so I you know we brought this here because there's often a thought that those the big Nationals are sometimes the only way to drive revenue and and they really aren't it's about creating a destination I'm going to talk a little bit more uh in a moment about Mill Avenue and Lessons Learned uh there as well I also want to highlight that the unique businesses that create that 247 Vibrant Community also attract and retain knowledge economy companies and Workforce they want to live in places that have unique um coffee shops unique walkable brands that are um one of the kind that makes them proud of their Hometown we know that um local business drives the type of commitment in a community that makes feel makes people feel connected to their place so this is a study that came out from The National Trust for historic preservation and their findings were straight economics that communities that Protected Their older buildings and really fostered um a combination of large and local performed better uh by a wide variety of measurables so um we can talk about those measurables in just a moment but where they found that they had older smaller buildings with mixed vintage blocks they found not only greater walkability and local ownership but also younger residents that wanted to live in those areas a greater mix of people at different stages of Life uh more night life and cultural vitality they found more jobs more creative jobs and businesses per square foot as well as more women and minority-owned businesses so there really is a direct correlation and I think that Mesa is truly positioned uh to be just a an epicenter in in every District of a nice blend of local creative type businesses uh with with the big Nationals so when we think about um you know the policy guidance that that really shapes these types of communities um we know that preservation and the ReUse of older buildings plays a key role um when possible the city fabric with high a High character score should be retained where it exists so and Maria and I were talking about this I think one of the critical things in working with retail coach is that you be very very careful not to use the same color across all of your districts and across all of your communities um and I am going to point this out in Tempe it's it's about knowing your customer and what they're going to be looking for and you're going to want to have more in one area and less in one area you have an opportunity where you have older building stock to really let that be a focus area for your local business districts just um you know be mindful of of not um just coming in and trying to do the same thing across the entire city um the urban design lessons from older small from this report older smaller better can also be applied to Foster newer smaller better uh fabric that is dense economically high- performing livable and compatible with the older fabric as well um and just so you know I'm actually not sick I just had a big asthma attack at about 2:30 this morning so I'm just short of breath but I'm not sick so that's how much I wanted to come and talk to you today um so uh reurbanisation is is the Talk of the Town people are really talking about opportunities to move back into urban cores um they're gaining population across the US um there's an attraction of older mixed use and walkable neighborhoods including many historic districts and the move of tech and creative office Market into older buildings so it was interesting I um I sometimes speak around the country in different areas to talk about adaptive reuse and invariably I'll I'll send to a friend that lives in that Community send me your your 10 favorite restaurants and they'll just send me a list of those 10 restaurants and I'll go sleuthing online and they are always in older buildings their favorite restaurants are always in older buildings which is really very very interesting um when you start to think about you know what younger people are looking for so measuring what makes sense for Mesa in the older smaller B better study they looked at intensity of human activity where were people they did little heat maps of cell phone usage uh on a Saturday night which I thought was a really Innovative way to tell where people were um economic and cultural Vitality uh diversity and inclusion um re real estate performance a lot of people tend to not think that older building stock can really Drive economic value but even in real estate performance they found that to be true true um uh alternative transportation options uh just simply the amount of sales tax revenue generated so there's some different ways of looking at these uh mixed character districts and I'm going to talk to you just for a moment about Tempe I was very active between about I'd say the late 80s into the late 90s and um spent a lot of time in conversation uh with mayor and counsel at that time and they made some errors and I I consider them to be friends today but I will tell you that Rod keing was the the their downtown uh District's Economic Development driver there and he runs keing Schaefer Vineyards out in rural Arizona today and he would say that M Avenue was the biggest mistake that he made in his lifetime and what he means by that is you know they incentivized uh chains to move in onto onto Mill uh for example the borders that they brought in uh received significant incentives to land there uh in their downtown that borders was not just the lowest performing B borders uh store in Arizona but in the country and why you can go five or six miles in any direction and find another borders where you don't have to pay to park and walk in the heat to get there right so that it's when I say know your customer that's what I'm talking about putting something in like that in a in a walkable metered area is not a smart choice for the city or for the borders um and so and Changing Hands by the way was on M Avenue and again they didn't really know the customer there and I remember so well at that time a member of the council saying finally Changing Hands had been there since the 70s finally we have a bookstore on M Avenue they said right and so you can imagine um from an owner perspect perspective Changing Hands paying all of their taxes contributing to their city and then those incentives were then in turn handed over uh uh to borders um so by leveling a lot of the buildings that were there and putting up the monoliths uh that were there looking at Centerpoint which went in in 1985 which was by any account never a thriving um many many years it went by with less than 25% occupancy um so looking at uh the recruitment that occurred there was again painting every area with the same uh broad stroke really uh would encourage you to think differently about your different districts you've got you've got great opportunities to highlight your downtown core uh your Asian District obviously needs special attention I'm excited about what you have going on in Fiesta there's some real opportunity in in every single one of the districts um and then the last thing I will say say is that um Tempe Marketplace um is is is truly the best of the best in terms of having a unique destination so what temp did was try to put those chains on their walkable Mill Avenue but then they came in with Centerpoint and so that customer looking for that experience is going to be over at Centerpoint I'm sorry not centerp Point um Marketplace Marketplace thank you Tempe Marketplace um and and and so when I say know your customer I just mean understand the person that's willing to go and pay to park or hit a parking garage and spend an afternoon walking around a corridor is likely going to be looking for a more unique experience and a person that wants more of a shopping mall experience is going to be uh you know over at the marketplace so it's really about knowing one or the other and being very careful I have a lot of confidence in uh in your economic development team but just would mention to you how important it will be uh to know your districts well and to be willing to bring in a variety of things focusing on uh local Brands where it's appropriate and again when I talk about small locally owned businesses I just want to leave you with the fact that some of these are excellent pretty large companies they're just Arizona based and therefore they're more committed they're more committed to Arizona they're not just going to pull out of the community and disappear on us I mean they live here they they've been here forever so um so I will leave you with that um there's a few other things just to mention um jobs per uh 1,000 square fet there were 36.8% more jobs in communities are in districts where they had uh Protected Their older building stock and then two times more uh women or minority-owned businesses so um do I have one more second yes okay the last thing I will say is as you look at your different areas um a city like Denver for example they've created seven different neighborhood contexts which is a lot it's more than most communities do but specifically for the reasons that I'm mentioning to you you have such a variety of uh of opportunities here they've actually come up with Suburban Urban Edge Urban General urban urban center downtown contexts and districts and all of those they're thinking differently about what kind of Attraction they're trying to do in those different districts so you have uh a a wide variety of places lending to all of these different types of districts so as you work with an entity like retail coach please be sure that they understand uh the diverse character and flavor uh that Mesa has so thank you for your time I appreciate and I welcome any questions you may have thank you Kimber I know we have questions for you uh Miss bilsbury mine just out of curiosity so when you talk about this success of tempy marketplace I've just always been intrigued by the fact that tempy Marketplace like often it's hard to get in out of the parking lot it's so crowded it's just booming at all the times and then Riverview is two miles away and it has struggled so you'd think that if Tempe Marketplace know your customer why is that working there and not too mil away mhm Mesa Riverview is a little bit of an anomaly um in in the sense that um I think temping Marketplace does an amazing job of marketing themselves on that freeway you cannot drive by without seeing all those different brands there it's harder to tell what's in Riverview um I also think that um putting the Bass Pro in there as the lead was not a good driver as well um I still think that there's po potential there um but again that would not be potential for local business ownership I think it has potential for uh big Nationals to go in there and um I the honest truth is I can't point to any one specific thing though but those are the two things that come to my mind it's it's more accessible off the freeway than Marketplace it's I mean Marketplace is closer to ASU with the students anyways I've just always tried to figure out why that is the way it is because you know they they did some really interesting programming there too I don't know if you know this or not but um you know they've had live music inside there for many many years Market oh yeah yeah yeah so they brought people there for a good number of reasons um that might have something to do with it as well because I don't know if it's like the stores or the restaurants that make a difference versus one over the other I I I'm curious just because thinking across our city and trying to figure out what works where and how do you figure that out I I don't know I it seems like the same EX strategy went into play on those two things and maybe they're not but that one worked and one didn't so I don't know there's a lot I I guess there's maybe some luck involved too I don't know no I hope it's not just luck vestar is Tempe Marketplace right yeah they're they're a successor very successful developer for retail of that type and they've done a lot of and they put a lot of effort into it that's that's a great partner to have great uh Jen I'm guessing you have something to say thank you very much of course for being here um been a big follower of local first for a very long time and believe wholeheartedly in your mission and and all the benefit that you bring uh to our community and our businesses um one of the reasons I love this is when we're talking about that combination of our retail study and we're talking about the placemaking right that these really can come together and creating place and creating I brought up like neighborhood Villages identifying these places in the context of what we need to do but creating the experience also sure because just bringing in a retail partner does not necessarily bring in experience so it's the mix that we bring in local businesses and the chain what is that environment is it walkable is it connected it does have that design you know and where is that within each of our districts you know downtown is obvious of course that it would be make sense to start building upon the concept of this mixed juuse and the experience and attracting A Center Point a place of making Community within Mesa because I think there's a lack of identity sometimes of parts of our city people will identify by the neighborhood they live in but not the place that they collect not the place that they gather in restaurants and stuff they complain you don't have the places that I want to shop or eat or entertainment therefore I go to surrounding communities so in these areas where is that place that we can start building some ideas and making it walkable and attractive and having that mix but there isn't going to be one saving salvation by getting you know a Cheesecake Factory or whatever you know not one brand is going to do that but in experience we know that local businesses bring that and so we have to consider that in the mix and not get carried away with the one thing you know I think we learned that in River viiew Bass Pro Shops being the one thing that's going to activate it in my opinion Riverview has some design things it doesn't really feel you know it's a side conversation but doesn't really feel inviting when I go Tempe Marketplace they have narrow corridors with places to S sit and waterfalls and plants and is activated with music and there's a lot of activity and people want to be around activity and I feel like river viiew is just shops and there's no activity in the center it's just you go in Home Depot or you go in Bass Pro or you go wherever but that's a side conversation um but the plac making the sense of community identity is a mix and a retell and I want to make sure that we think very very deeply when we're talking about incentives for retail what that looks like so we don't have the the one things that's going to um save us also we know in having that mix of local businesses economically is more robust those dollars are recirculating within our community um and not going to a central um headquarters out of state where everything is done all their accounting all their marketing all their every is is there so place like Kimber mentioned matters um but creating our Villages our centers they have to be dynamic and a mix um why would someone be there versus another place which is the next city over we have to think about that and so I appreciate your time and attention to this so that we can um design a strategy that works to attract the retail that our our um citizens are demanding thank you absolutely and I think um one of the things you said I'd like to highlight is the the importance of beginning to name those districts um you know when when I was growing up here Arcadia didn't exist right you go to other cities and they always have different districts and I think it's important that you begin to name those districts and um and really call that out and the people who live in those places will be additionally proud that they're from that particular area you know that's a great point and as a member of the soon to be member of the community uh you might want to I mean District Two wow you know maybe we uh maybe we name our district that's funny you say that I have had this conversation or with just a small group of people and and have brainstormed on ways to brand and call certain areas of my district not necessarily District 5 the whole thing but I I have a few that I've been tossing around actually I'll have to run by you but because you're right it absolutely creates an identity for residents and then which translates into pride and that's what we really I think that's a little piece that we're kind of missing right because Mesa is is big and um we're we don't celebrate or identify and emphasize our our little pockets enough we're we're kind of all just one and I think we really need to drill down into these areas and um and and start to uh um make sure that we invest in their unique characters so and along that lines I was in Denver about a month ago I didn't know was set up with these neighborhood contacts but you can absolutely see it I I went to in a span of one weekend to to three different types of areas within three or four miles I was in an urban setting I was in a um a small adaptive reuse setting of a of a small community that would old buildings houses turned into businesses and then a Suburban setting all and I and I I came back and I mentioned that specifically within a few miles you get all of these so along that line how so I think we all believe in this it seems um as a council and and probably a city I think our our city management is on board with this how do we convince the people that want to come build her because we have I have a lot of um more than adaptive reuse it's still Greenfield and it's building how do I convince a developer that to build in this way right to build in the way that small businesses can afford that new building um and that a mix of small and National tenant is the way to go I'm having a hard time convincing anybody of that very small true true yeah um there really is no Silver Bullet for that I've been through a lot of conversations with a lot of developers um and I think talking to them about the importance of place and uh offering that variety one thing you can do council member is call me um and I mean that I'm more than willing to sit down I've sat down with so many developers in my day um to have a conversation about why it's important that they um respond to the needs of the community where they're building and the work that we've done together in partnership with Mesa even looking at what we're doing at El Rancho I've used it as a model again and again um to talk about why you know in in 2,000 square feet we are able to incubate food entrepreneurs provide kids cooking classes meal planning food pantry I mean it just goes on and on and on and um and developers need to be responsive to that and when you have a partner like local first Arizona I'd be more than willing to make sure they land on the front page of the paper to celebrate their willingness to contribute meaningfully to your District so um those are the kinds of things that I've learned over time that can move the needle most of them are not willing to lose money but if we can show them that it won't lose them money then you can usually well Mar and I are working on an area right now and so I will take you up on that we're going to get you involved in that you bet you bet so thank you Kimber I appreciate you coming today and um absolutely your I I'm 100% in on your philosophy of local birs not local only but local thank you thanks anyone else thank you Council any additional questions or discussions on this item Kimber thank you for being a good Mesa girl and uh sticking with us we appreciate you and we look forward to continuing to what we're very excited about the uh the incubator project I'm counting the the days till I can um take people to lunch there so thank you for your Partnerships thank you very much take care uh Council moving on item 2C is a presentation and Direction on Ma's opioid settlement fund are you good mayor to keep going uh I think so so make sure Council it's 10 o' we can do it do you have the time come on Chase what don't have enough meetings left to get everything right well that's we are squeezing things so okay good morning mayor and Council my name is Chase Carlile I'm an executive manager in the city manager's office and with me I have Lindsay valink who is our deputy director of community services Deanna Lopez who is one of our Human Services coordinators and Amanda Freeman who is a special project uh administrator and what we'd like to do today is have a a discussion with you about the opio opioid settlement funds that the city has received thus far and some proposals on how we might be able to allocate the uh the funding that we've received to meet the needs uh that exist in our community today so I'd like to start with a little bit of background I'm sure you are all aware that over the past few years there have been a number of different lawsuits uh filed against opioid producers and Distributors those lawsuits have resulted in settlements uh that total about $50 billion uh according to the settlements those funds are going to be distributed to States over the next 18 years the distribution actually started a couple years ago and Arizona is a party of those settlements and is set to receive a total of 1.12 billion dollar uh the State of Arizona entered into an agreement with counties and cities towns across the state called the one Arizona agreement this agreement uh outlines how we can use the opioid settlement funding so that we make sure that the funds actually go towards uh efforts that will mitigate and respond to opioid overdoses and opioid opioid poisoning and the way the agreement works is that the state receives the funds from these settlements and then a portion of those funds are allocated to the counties and then from there the counties distribute the funds to the cities and towns so of the 1.2 billion 1 1.12 billion that the state gets the state is uh holding on to 44% of those funds to use for programs and 56% of those funds are being distributed to counties of the amount of money that Maricopa County is going to receive Mesa will receive 6.06% of the those funds to date over the last couple of years we have received $4.5 million and over the next 16 years we are anticipating that we will receive 17 to $22 million the reason that there is a range is because the settlements are of different amounts and there are different there's different timing as to when we receive the money and so uh we anticipate this is the amount but as things change it might uh it might change in the future before you leave this slide yes I I would guess mes is more than 6% of the population of Maricopa County how how did we arrive at that number thank you mayor uh the formula that was set out uh that determines how the funding is distributed is based on the amount of opioids that are shipped to a particular area as well as the number of incidents and there are a couple other items in that formula but but that is the basis it's based off of not a bad thing be made I get that yeah okay so we're not as impacted as other but it's still it's still an impact but probably not to the degree it might be in other communities in Maricopa County yep okay yeah and I and I will say that Maricopa County also holds on to a share as well so the county also has money that they use for programs so thank you um so in the one Arizona agreement I said there are multiple different uh categories and and uses that are outlined for the funding that fall into four uh core strategies and they are prevention and education early intervention and treatment harm reduction and rescue and recovery and resiliency and we're going to talk a little bit more about what each of those strategies are and some of the things that are that we can use the funding for and some proposals on how we would like to allocate that funding but before we go there I just want to show a few pieces of data uh that put some of the the Contex around this issue for our city this map right here uh shows the the number of incidents that our Mesa fire and medical uh First Responders responded to that were op opioid overdose incidents over the last six years uh the reason why I want to show this is to out to to point out that this is an issue that affects every single neighborhood in Mesa the darker the the dot is the more incidents that have been responded to but this is really a CommunityWide issue uh that affects all of us the second graph uh takes that same data and breaks the opioid overdose incidents out by age categories and what you can see is that uh we Peak the the number of incidents peaks with u people who are between 30 and 34 years old but the majority of cases are really between 30 and 44 years old and what we want to do and some of the proposals that we'll present today is to address address those in those uh the population that's more of the teenage young adult youth categories because we'd really like to see that dramatic increase that we see at 14 years old decrease and hopefully we'll then be able to flatten out that Peak that we see there so the first strategy that we uh are going to talk about is prevention and education a prevention education plays a a vital role in deterring the early onset of substance abuse by promoting life skills and awareness about the risks associated with substance abuse uh there was a survey conducted by the Arizona uh Justice Commission it's called the Arizona Youth survey where they surveyed uh eight e8th graders 10th graders and 12th graders they do it every two years and the 24 uh the 2024 survey uh indicates that only 50 or yeah 54% of Youth across the state remember seeing any sort of advertisement or education that warns of the dangers of substance abuse uh and so some of examples of activities in the Arizona 1 agreement that this funding could be allocated towards are things like youth education programs public education campaigns and then removing drugs off the street so drug takeback programs what we are proposing uh is to to allocate some of the funding that we've received thus far uh so some of that $4.5 million uh to the Mesa prevention Alliance uh which conducts school-based programs in Mesa uh Mesa schools and they provide a prevention-based education that focuses on focuses on res resiliency and positive coping skills the second oh if I could since it's about schools um are school districts receiving any funding are only cities and counties uh this funding is going to cities and counties are there County and state programs that you're aware of that are going to be working on youth education uh mayor council member spillsbury I am not aware of any uh I'd have to do a little bit more research on that okay and then obviously we have Gilbert Queen Creek Higley schools in our school in our city boundaries as well so this is very mes of public schools focus it looks like so wondering how that affected so um mayor council M member SP spillsbury let me correct one thing just came to mind the state did just recently uh announced that they would be Distributing nxone uh kids uh to school districts uh across the state so that is one program that will be happening I think rsro already have kits on each campus that I'm aware of does anyone know so yeah um it's my understanding anyways and the Mesa prevention s will actually uh serve any Mesa School with a Mesa uh ZIP code so if it's you know out in East Mark and it's Queen Creek but it's so you mean city of Mesa city of Mesa schools not just okay yes okay that's not super clear so the Mesa prevention Alliance is that a city Alliance that's a school district Alliance you want to talk about that I'm getting confused of's coming in on this um so the prevention Alliance is actually run by Community Bridges it's it's it's a Community Coalition um so they are part of that they also include Mesa Police and Fire and that Coalition and other local organizations parent groups and things like that so it's a collaboration where they come together and really focus on education programs and prevention for youth okay um Community Bridges does have a current program that is in Mesa Public Schools as well as in East Mark um and they've also worked in Desert Ridge before you're those high schools East M school and middle school um right now in the East Mark Middle School specifically so I know U Moke schools has like a task force on this so I don't know what what partnering we're doing on that and if they're getting any money to help support their programming or if this is just the programming we're doing that's what I'm trying to figure out I think most of you are aware my niece died of a um of a fentanyl overdose from oxycodone in 2017 um um and so to me this is like personal but also I just oh here we go anyways the education piece is just so important because most kids aren't going to take the hard drug or they're not going to take fentanyl or whatever if they like you know aren't doing drugs but they would take an oxycodone because that's in their parents' medicine cabinet and they think it's harmless not realizing what's happening on the streets and that everything's laced with it and that it could kill you right so I the education piece to me is where we really really need to be focusing to prevent and I just don't feel like we're doing quite enough and I'm and I'm not clear on what this looks like where if they're not getting money I feel like we should be providing money to help their programming if it's not the same as our programming when I I had a you know I've had several conversations with Chief cost like what can we as a city do what can we as a as a council do with this opioid epidemic and his main thing that he told me was prevention and and so I just feel really strongly we need to be doing much much more on the education P piece which is our Junior High and our high schools and this doesn't feel like enough to me I guess so so mayor and council member spillsbury um thank you for sharing You' you've heard all this I've talked to you about it all um we so this is recommendations for moving forward and just starting to have some of those conversations this is not a um this is opening that conversation and permission to move forward so we know that um there are existing programs within Mesa Public Schools that we've talked to Mesa prevention Alliance about um and they've expressed that they work closely with with um Mesa Public Schools specifically and these programs exist but they don't meet all the they don't um are not provided to all the kids in the Middle Schools they're currently in six schools in Mesa there are six more that are kind of waiting in line um many that have expressed interest and they just don't have the funding to do that um they've there are at least 2,000 kids that aren't being met with this program right now and then there is also a diversion program that they have that is um children that are in the juvenile justice system and it's um meant to provide education and divert them away from those um some of the behaviors that they've been experiencing and be a positive resilience-based program but we can certainly meet uh more directly with Mesa Public Schools and explore make sure that we're exploring all avenues and I think mayor and Council Council spils today we're just kind of introducing the subject there are some very specific recommendations from our Public Safety folks just some equipment and some things like that but overall we're really just trying to create the F framework make sure we're kind of moving in the right direction we will return back to count and this is the kind of feedback we need right and then we'll come back to you with very specific the program and the specific dollar allocations but we didn't want to assume that before we had this kind of conversation you will see see some very specific um incinerators and body scanners and things like that that we're going to recommend that these larger Community engagement we know we have to go back and have come back here but we want to make sure we're heading in the right direction okay yeah so I guess you know I think you heard what I have to say especially because I've had conversations with all of you about this but um but yeah just to also make sure that all of District six kids because that's a lot of kids live in Mesa that are all yeah part of it perfect thank you just to follow up on this as I flipping through I I didn't get a chance to read this before so you have some dollar amounts in the the next few slides on Intervention and Trea and but we don't we didn't have any on this other than a police incinerator right we like I said there's some specific projects we know there's a dollar mount for and some these others we need to come back with more details like we know how much incinerator is going to cost like that's an estimate like because it says a million for this and a million so I'm assuming it where is that at that's on slide nine I we're way ahead but like um oh no that's the community Grant one oh there it is slide 10 anyways like you said a million a million and a million and those are just estimates you're saying then we have to figure out how to allocate what we have and what's coming but we'll come back to you with the specific programs and ultimately when we re make the awards to these um a lot of these can to be nonprofits these programs again we'll come back to council and validate you know whether the the amount of money it's just kind of a high level budget right now as we trying to figure this out um but we just wanted to start a conversation as we started this conversation with our outside Partners as well as internal the internal is obviously we had some more specific like hey I need an incinerator we need more Navigators so we could put a dollar on those some of these projects we need to we wanted to make sure the public Outreach education then we we'll sit down and we're just trying to be I guess trying to figure out how to fill these different buckets or set aside some dollars so we're having that con conversation with the stakeholders we can kind of put it into a you know context if it's about this much dollars we might be looking forward to we still have to come back to council because like the prop again we're way ahead in the presentation now but since we're talking about it like the proposed funding is around 3 million and we've received 4.5 but we think we would maybe receive a million-ish a year but like right like but we don't really know what that looks like so we don't want to do a bunch of programs that we can't back up with M we almost have to wait until we have the money then each year we'll come to you and say okay we have this here's what we're proposing to right so I understand being cautious so that we're not like putting forward something that we're going to not have the money to be we don't want to obligate beyond what we actually have in in our pockets right but you're right I was also confused because there's not really dollar amounts but then we have proposed funding allocations yeah but I would agree with you Julie and that I'd like to see I mean especially since we when we look at the chart and you kind you had kind of said um um Chase sorry to go back to the first slide um that you know that that Target is the youth right so that we don't get into all the cost uh once the addiction already starts and that so so I would I would like jul I would like to see more emphasis on that I understand we don't have hard numbers like we know how much an incinerator is but it doesn't seem like even though we said that that's the the target age group we haven't put as much effort into you want to see a dollar Mount kind of okay and I want the primary effort to be in that and I want to see what you know I mean where do we put drugs now I mean why do we need an incen inator we don't have yeah mayor mayor council we go forth right now the the drugs that are taken off the streets we actually have to drive to Globe to dispose of the incinerator would just improve efficiency and allow us to uh not have to make that drive and I I frankly like um I've done a lot of uh research looking at like what other cities and communities are doing in in this youth space or education or whatever like a big huge awareness campaign right like that like we're putting everywhere you know whatever Billboards ads Tik toks like whatever um I just think there's a lot more the city could do than just saying to a nonprofit We we'll we'll do your school-based program like like let's let's make make it bigger Beef It Up I mean I don't know what they're doing so I I would like to explore what this prevention Alliance school-based program is I just would like to do it um more more widespread and broadly across our entire Community where we really really could get the word out to everyone that's in a charter school or that's in a private school or you know anything like that so and while we stop for a second do we have any constraints or from the county or or whatever entity telling us this is how you shall spend the money or these are the categories that we will approve the spending so mayor council member Duff the constraint we are constrained by the different U settlements and the one Arizona agreement but the one Arizona agreement uh contains so many different recommend or um program areas that we really we we feel like we can be able to as we identify the needs of the community fit the programming into those excuse me into those categories that are in that agreement we can come back with I think what you're wanting to see is really that commitment of the allocation of those dollars we can do that like how much would something like that cost can we and I would think if there's money left over you buy an incinerator and a and a body scanner right the purpose is um is is that educ ation piece is that really getting out getting into the community right and maybe and maybe um making a difference in in the ultimate outcomes right and then if there's money left over great let's do I mean that's how that's how I would approach it that's just my two cents on you know I don't know why we would start with that doesn't directly affect does it preventing It just fits it fits in this category that's what we're trying to do right it's not priority it's just a fits in that category okay so you have all these different pages that we're going to go through real quick and they just have here's the category here's what we're proposing we're not prioritizing at this point so I we hear you and so let us uh so obviously commun to be fair you heard from two of us so I mean we we should probably make sure that we should just get through and highlight categories because you know that is everything is true but there is a reality on the street today dealing with people who are addicted and are homeless and are committing crimes and so we're trying to you're absolutely right prevention is important but at the end of the day we are we are confronting that on a daily basis and so that's where the Navigators come in this idea and we are trying to prevent drugs from coming into our detention facilities and the mounts that we're proposing those are not significant compared to and remember we got 16 years to keep this going is is not a one-time shot this is an annual conversation with Council those um the scanner and the um the incinerator are are onetime costs yes right yes yes well I I just like to add I I think as we we look at the data the op overdose incidents by police and fire at Le fire medical we have a street issue as well as drugs out on the street so tactically they have to look at you know we can do prevention over here but then how do we attack the street levels where I'm at and helping our law enforcement have the the correct uh funding for that do we have to increase our gang or Street crimes units as well you know funding there because if you look at the heat map it's prevalent all throughout our city and kind of you know mostly in West Mesa so uh I think funding needs to be there is prevention because you have Pharmaceuticals in the homes as well and and people are getting those drugs there and overdosing so uh there's a lot of uh things that can be done for this and and I don't have all the words for it but we have to massage this and come up with a a way to fund this appropriately over the next 16 18 years I appreciate the direction it's going but I think we need to do two approaches in our policing and then allowing our forign Medical Department to have have the right resources to respond as well yeah I think part of that response why we're suggesting in having Navigators being able to respond to a lot of those calls or we don't having to put our public safety personnel in that position that's been our success to date um so yes that's exactly how we're trying to address the first responder situation yeah thank you so the second uh strategy uh that's outlined in the one Ariz an agreement is early intervention and treatment which allows providers to identify and address substance abuse misuse as early as possible and facilitate the access to appropriate treatment options so again some of the specific examples that are outlined in the one Arizona agreement include Community Navigators uh care uh pregnancy and postpartum care for women this includes uh care and treatment uh for babies who are exposed to substances uh while they were in the womb as well as mobile intervention treatment and Recovery Services and so as we had our internal discussions uh one of the proposed uh ways that we would like to allocate this funding is to expand our community outreach Navigator program uh and lindia you can speak a little bit more to that D yeah um mayor and Council so we currently do have navigation services for he Rel leave um through Phoenix Rescue Mission uh this will allow us to support that and actually fill some current gaps Services aren't really throughout 7 days so having uh allowing us to add six new Navigators will allow us to fill those scaps to a 7-Day service they will be focusing on education and prevention and uh supporting with treatment as well as they're making you know connections with individuals out in the streets they will have uh Transportation available to as individuals are um accepting of services they can connect them uh to those agencies and also offer other wraparound services question Julie so are these six more CBI Navigators this or this is six Navigators through the city of Mesa uh that's a Phoenix Rescue Mission oh Phoenix Rescue Mission so sorry if you said that so six new Navigators that we're just giving the money we're adding the money we're giving to Phoenix Rescue Mission for six more Navigators and they have plenty of Staff employ also many that were not we want to have the funding for correct yes so mayor and council member spillsbury um it's expansion of the team that we have so it is continued Street Outreach to help people that are unhoused um but really creating a focus on education and prevention measures around opioid use um we are hearing a lot of stories about people that are on the street that are ready to go into treatment but they don't know where to go or they're having trouble connecting to a specific service and they don't know how to get there so this peer support team is really good at doing those um and making those connections and then transporting there and being um really a a help in in making sure they get to where they need to go and as di mentioned um we just we we have a great team right now they are not fully focused on this although they do touch on this this topic frequently um this would really allow us to expand services and um make our our whole street outreach program whole and where um where are they like logistically located like where is their physical location yes so Council mayor and council member spillsbury um many of them they just have vehicles so they can come into our office and we are game planning with them regularly with office of Homeless Solutions um but they actually start and end their day on the street so they're in their vehicle all day going out to different sites we're programming them um on where to go or working with Park Rangers orce officers yeah my next question was like if a park ranger or a police officer runs across they would then call and get that Navigator out there to then continue with them it's intended to be a resource so we don't have to respond with sworn personel that's the key yes and we're they're already very connected to those teams and then this would just allow us to go later into the night in parks for example and just have a a more of a present there presence there and take the vad off specifically like opioid um focused or I think when we've looked at the data of our homeless population and those who have an addiction and related opioids it's it's fairly significant right not every one of them but um I can't remember I'm trying I've seen the the chart where we track that it's significant right and so the idea of being on the streets um and it may be someone who's not creating any problem but they can walk up and and this is our way to engage and try to provide education and assistance and education to um people that are not users but just always providing that education and resources um to everyone that they Outreach to okay I think we're starting to bump up to some time constraints so Chase can you kind of give us the reader digest version on the way out here in other words we need to be [Laughter] quiet let's just we'll just be as efficient as we can be here um okay so uh just just really quickly our proposed activities for harm reduction and rescue we wanted to highlight that currently the fire and medical department has an Al lockone uh Leaf behind program where when they respond to incidences they are if they feel like a a leaf behind kit would would be helpful they can leave a kit with the person or a family member or friend but we are also proposing to use some of allocating some of this funding for a body scanner uh for the police department holding facility which we are estimating right now is about $188,000 but all of these uh strategies really lead up to the final strategy which is resiliency and Recovery which is helping individuals with substance abuse disorder um Break Free of all those negative impacts and what we are proposing is to address uh this area is to uh create a community grant program where our Community Partners can apply for funding for any one of these categories so if they have a program in prevention and education they can apply for funding if it's in treatment they can apply for funding and we'd like to allocate $1 million uh uh for this grant program in 2025 uh what we would be seeking are projects that identify the gaps and services and some of those things that we've talked about today uh and address the essential needs in Mesa and we want this initial round of funding this $1 million to priori programs that serve Youth and children that is our Focus area for this initial round of funding um and again the funding would be used to uh towards the serving the residents of Mesa uh it organizations would be allowed uh would be awarded a minimum amount of $50,000 but then we are also requesting or proposing $100,000 to pay for program administration of the grant they're uh just managing that program is has a cost associated with it so in summary uh for the 2025 what we are proposing is that we allocate $1 million for Community Education and Outreach which would include The Navigators and Mesa uh prevention Alliance uh and then $1 million towards Public Safety we know the specific items that we mentioned today don't add up to a million dollars but we are continuing to have conversations with both departments and identifying needs uh that they have and then the $1.1 million for the community grant program and mayor council I would say this too as we go through this evolving if we find that there's a a great outreach program or Community Education we need to bump this up we can always do that right and so as well as the public safety programs but we kind of we needed to get started we wanted to kind of at least give you all framework we'll come back with more details on all these your feedback has been very important for us um and we're just trying to figure out what's the right I don't know balance is the right word just kind of figuring out here's how we're trying to address the needs and that are available to us so um sorry please I'm sorry trying to hurry um first of all the community grant program do we have a timeline like how soon could this money get out like I know these it takes forever to get the applications and the process so so if uh we see receive direction from the council today to go in this direction we'll go back and we'll develop a timeline we need to to um develop the application and the scoring criteria but we anticipate that we'll be able to have all of that ready uh in February um so we'll come back to council with all that inform so is there a possibility that if I don't know four great organizations all put in an application and they all wanted 50,000 that we or you know I mean sorry you know whatever I didn't do my math right but if they all wanted um if we didn't have enough money to fund like that we could if they were a great Council that's what's nice it's not the federal government you know we do only have so much right in the bank today and so we can have that conversation for sure but so hopefully within like the next six months the money could get out there something like that oh absolutely yes okay and then um Public Safety so those two things are like $240,000 right so in one time but we have a million up there because we're just thinking they're going to get back to us with some other ideas and we'll bring those back yeah have that okay I just don't want to like sit on this money for so long that we not getting out that's fair that's fair I'll be done I'll be great Mr R um just on the Outreach uh piece uh it seems like we we're not sure what other entities are doing uh you know in the past I think you know I was engaged in the late 2000s on that big meth uh outreach program for youth uh from the Montana project uh that really like hit hard on meth use and those kinds of things so maybe having like similar discussions on the county side and the state side piggybacking what what we can do on Mesa just some thought and mapping out what other larger like County and state governments are are doing to uh Outreach a program like this with this these types of funds uh is would be something important to just have right and see so we don't duplicate we'll we'll stay in contact with them I think everybody's kind of the same position we are they're all we're all figure out what we're going to do but we right there's a way you have those conversations yeah we can Perfect all right thank you the only thing I'll all at is uh I was interested in reading the um County Health Department's uh stats on heat related illness and as much or more than you know the common denominator being that's where I saw yeah uh lack of shelter it was I was opioid use because the the physical impact of opioid use makes you very susceptible to heat related illness so uh I'll just point remind you of what you already know in that regard and so if somewhere under these Community Education and outre Community Grant support I mean I I suspect or hope that we'll get some proposals to address that need and hopefully that's where Navigators can play a role because they can be out on the street having those conversations all right thank you thank you very much did that give you the direction that you need we'll come back we'll be coming back thank you very much next item item three is to acknowledge various receipt of minute meeting minutes minutes thank you Mr Freeman for making that motion is there a second thank you Miss bilsbury for raising your hand on that all in favor please say I I any opposed thank you next is current events and conferences attended council members anything you'd like to share Miss bilsbury I'll go really quick um Tuesday and Wednesday T Tuesday was Turkey Tuesday so we had um just under 15500 turkeys donated partnering with our engineering department City Mesa and um United food bank and then um I helped yesterday at the Thanksgiving distribution um over at the convention center um they served over um almost 2400 meals and the goal was 1,800 so 2400 different meals were given out yesterday oh well I mean some of them would pick up two or three or four but I mean typically each vehicle it was crazy in downtown yester hours and hours of long life yeah well there was a delay on their part when they said they were going to have food available and it wasn't and you had traffic backed up all the way down to yeah Maine and everywhere so well it was ready by 9: it was I mean yeah I don't know something happened something happened that they couldn't when they said they were going to open they didn't open so I think just people got there way way early anyways it's just interesting to see like I think you know this was a huge uh blessing for a lot of people in our community so we want want to thank United Food Bank for that that was why I brought it up thanks great anything else Council uh I'll briefly say that I want to thank the Mesa Hispanic network uh for inviting me to speak to them a couple of days uh maybe one day ago um the also we had a great ribbon cutting for JX met Metals uh yesterday a wonderful uh semiconductor supply chain company that's going to sputtering targets apparently Google that if you can that's an essential part of manufacturing uh semiconductor chips so that's a it's a really big deal that we have JX medals out in district 6 and then I appreciated the invitation last night to talk to Leisure World about the history of Mesa so that was fun uh Mr Brady what does our schedule and future meetings look like yes thank you mayor uh Council so our next Mee of council will be December 2nd that's a Monday uh will be meeting here on the in the the council chambers here um look for we do have a few more presentations we need to make um because of some items that we weren't able to cover today that are on the December 2nd and coming up so we'll probably have an earlier start time maybe around uh 4:45 or 5 o'clock but we'll put that in the notice but we'll be meeting here on December 2nd all right thank you very much that concludes our agenda is there a motion to adjourn this meeting thank you Mr Summers and Mr Freeman and Miss Duff excuse me want to mention a couple things I wanted to thank Mesa PD for holding their Sentinel review open house is tremendous well attended and looked at at the investigative process of Officer involved shootings and what they're doing and and the transparency and and how they're going for well attended so thank you from Mesa Police Department for all you do and last night I did attend um East Valley Hispanic chamber of commerce uh the council member Freeman was there I late oh you were there I'm sorry I'm welcoming U president um Richard Dr Richard Daniel of MCC to the community I'm so happy that they did that and made that a special event thank you thank you Council anything else we need to share all right is there Thanksgiving Happy Thanksgiving is there a motion to adjourn thank you all in favor please say I I thank you we are adjourned [Music]