again to the Mesa city council meeting for the evening of August 21st 2023 I will note that all of our council is present with the exception of councilmember Duff who is unable to attend tonight and is excused we will begin this meeting with an invocation I believe do we do we have the uh the pastor present I didn't see her oh thank you Pastor please come forward it's Bishop designate deonta Riley I hope I got that right Bishop from Rock City Church International welcome he will lead us in a a prayer following which we will have the Pledge of Allegiance so please stand for the invocation and remain standing for the Pledge of Allegiance thank you mayor father God in the name of Jesus we come before you with gratitude we thank you for being god of love who is with us now even In This Very Room you never leave us nor have you forsaken us your Grace has brought us safe thus far and will continue to lead us on we thank you for making each and every one of us in this room every person we meet every citizen of this city and every citizen in our in your own image thank you for making us in dignity and infinite work Earth we thank you for calling that you have given each and every one of the people in here to be good stewards of the those you're that you have given us charge over and even your creation father I thank you for these servants you're our mayor our city manager our city staff and our city council members I give you thanks for the way that the service uh the way of service they have chosen to take up on behalf of all of us here we all come to this room tonight as complex beings carrying burdens carrying Joy hope and peace trusting that you alone can hold us together oh God in your love and in your peace help us Lord to trust you more more than our fears and our wounds even our accomplishments may we lean on you in our Everlasting Arms on your Everlasting Arms tonight may you be our truth may your truth be revealed may your light shine brighter defend for us to defend those that are under everything that you have called us to be we pray for wisdom tonight we pray for strength for courage to do the right thing for all those that you have given us in the city of Mesa we thank you once again for this Council our mayor our city staff our First Responders our Hospital staff and all those who have made this place that we call home in the city of Mesa a wonderful City we access in the strong name of Jesus we pray thank God amen amen thank you Bishop please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you first item on our agenda for this meeting is to approve the consent agenda we'll invite Mr Kevin Christopher forward to read the agenda mayor and council members these are the items on the consent agenda all items listed with an asterisk will be considered as a group by the city council and will be enacted with one motion there will be no separate discussion unless a council member or citizen request in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered as a separate item item two approval minutes of previous meetings as written item 3A act on liquor license application for the Dobson Association won the event of over 4th 2524 West Campo alagre Circle item 3B act on liquor license application for American Patriots writers Club One Day events September 15 922 South Country Club Drive item 3C act on liquor license application for American Patriots writers Club One Day event October 20th 922 South Country Club Drive item 3D act on liquor license application for ladyboss one day event September 9th 1250 East Southern Avenue item 3E act on liquor license application for the crisis 22 project one day event September 29th 922 South Country Club Drive item 3F act on liquor license application for Suite adeline's International simply acapella chapter one day event November 4th 2233 North 56th Street item 3G acting liquor license application for Taqueria Factory fruitlandia 351 North Country Club Drive item 4A approving contract for Central Mesa reuse pipeline construction manager at risk guaranteed maximum price number four item Item B approving Cooperative contract use for the three-month renewal contracts for PC cycle replacement and supplemental computers ruggedized laptops and tablets for Citywide departments item 4C approving Cooperative contract use for the purchase of folding inserting postage machine for the business services department item 4D approving Cooperative contract use for the 16-month term contract with four years of renewal options for print Management Services for Citywide departments item 4E approving two-year term contract with three years for noodle options for pharmacy benefit manager for Workers Compensation Program for the human resources department item 4f approving dollar limit increase to The Cooperative use term contract for maintenance repair and operations supplies for the materials and Supply Warehouse for Citywide departments item 4G approving additional vendor Awards to the term contract for commercial electrical contractor and electrical testing services for the parks recreation and Community facilities Department item 4A is approving Cooperative contract use for a six-month term contract with four years rental options for flooring products and services for the parks recreation and Community facilities Department item 4i approving three-year term contract with two years renewal options for Indoor Sports Court maintenance repairs and resurfacing for the parks recreation and Community facilities Department item 4J approving dollar limit increase to The Cooperative use term contract for signage in the Asian district for the economic development department item 4K approving Cooperative contract use for the purchase of two caterpillar backhoe loaders one compactor roller and one Asphalt Paver for the transportation department as requested by the Fleet Services Department item 4L approving three-year term contract with two years renewal options for Traffic Control signed materials and sign Imaging for the transportation department item 4 AM approving 15-month term contract for consumables and supplies for DNA analysis for the Mesa Police Department item 4N now proving one-year term contract with four years of renewal options for ultraviolet Wastewater disinfection Parts and Equipment for the Water Resources Department item 4-0 approving dollar limit increase to the term contract for water Wastewater inspection and Assessment Services for the Water Resources Department item 4p approving five-year term contract with up to 15 years for no options for water meter test bench for the Water Resources Department item 5A approving resolution to accept proposition 200 funding The Gila River Indian Community and administer the funds as pass-through grants designated awardees item 5B approving resolution to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with ADOT allowing access to City right-of-way for the construction of the us-60x Apache Trail from sauceman road to Meridian Road item 5c approving resolution to enter into a grant agreement with the U.S Department of Transportation to accept Grant funds under the fiscal year 2022 Safe Streets and roads for all grant for development of a comprehensive Safety Action Plan item 5D approving resolution endorsing creation of the Amberwood Estates irrigation water delivery District generally bounded by East kale Street on the North East McKellips in the south north horn in the West and East Knoll Street on the East final designation of the district is determined by the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors item 5e approving resolution to accept funds from the Arizona State Treasurer and any association agreements for pepper ball equipment supplies and training for the Mesa Police Department item 5f approving resolution to enter into an intergovernmental agreement with Gilbert Unified School District to provide two Mesa police officers to perform school resource officer duties item 5G approving resolution to enter into an inner governmental agreement with Mesa Unified School District to provide Mesa police officers to perform school resource officer duties item 6A has been removed from the consent agenda item 6B introduction of ordinance for zoning case 23-384 for property generally located east of Country Club Drive and south of the Main Street rezone will establish the Nile Historic Landmark overlay items succeed introduction of ordinance Missouri case 23-338 for property generally located west of Ellsworth Road and North of Germain road rezone with plant area development overlay a bonus intensity Zone overlay and site plan review to allow for an industrial development item 6D introduction of ordinance was only case 21-404 for property generally located west of Gilbert Road and South of Broadway Road rezone with new planned area development overlay and major site plan modification to establish unique development standards and allow for a multiple residence development item 6E introduction of ordinance for zoning case 22-1110 for property generally located east of Mesa Drive North of University Drive rezone with planned area development overlay and site plan review to allow for a multiple residence development item 6f introduction of ordinance for zoning case 23-129 for property located north of Broadway Road on the east side of 63rd Street rezone and site plan review to allow for development of a medical office item 7A approving ordinance for zoning case 22-1332 for property located east of Power Road and North of Guadalupe Road site plan modification and amend conditions of approval on zoning case 88-32 to allow for a restaurant or the drive-through facility and a car wash item 7B approving ordinance for zoning case 23-92 for property located south of Warner Road and West of Ellsworth Road site plan modification and demanding conditions of approval of zoning case 21-595 to allow for an accessory minor automobile repair facility and I item 8A approving Subdivision plat for the brickyards in Ellsworth for property generally located north of Germain Road and East of Ellsworth Road mayor and council members these are the items on the consent agenda thank you Mr Christopher uh have we received any additional requests to speak on an item on the consent agenda no matter no other requests all right thank you we have a motion by Mr Freeman seconded by Ms Pillsbury to approve the consent agenda please vote passes unanimously with council member uh Duff absent and excused first item off of our consent agenda is item 6A this is amending the mesa city zoning ordinance pertaining to medical marijuana dispensaries we had a request to remove this from our consent agenda by Mr Connor counselor Connor welcome good afternoon my name is Connor councilman owner of Nova dispensary as a affected party to ordinance 5803 I am here today to express my strong opposition to item 6A on today's agenda the city's presentation and staff report both focus on incentivizing dispensaries to move however there is no incentive anywhere in this amendment you are being misled as to the intent of this ordinance the sole purpose of ordinance 5803 is to cover up mistakes that were made by City staff in fact this ordinance goes directly against an Arizona appellate court and a superior court final judgment issued in November I would like to first point out multiple procedural issues with this text Amendment no notice has been provided to anyone no notice was published no notice was mailed to any of the impacted marijuana businesses or Property Owners regarding these changes how would anyone have been able to provide feedback when Mesa failed to provide proper notice second substantial changes have been made to this amendment since Planning and Zoning reviewed the language on May 24th these changes highlighted in your handout drastically modify the intent of the ordinance and were not approved by planning although not bolded section 6 7 and 8 all contain new language since Planning and Zoning reviewed this ordinance one change Section 8 allows the retroactive application of these changes dating back to 2016 which again was not presented to or approved by planning in conclusion City staff have not even acknowledged that section 6 7 and 8 of this ordinance are all new language these sections were not discussed with planning much less approved by them there is no authority to make such substantial revisions without getting a new recommendation from planning and zoning due to these significant procedural issues I strongly ask that you send item 6A back to Planning and Zoning in order to review the numerous changes that have been made since May 24th and to provide proper notice to impacted businesses such as myself thank you for your time thank you Mr councilman uh Mr Smith any staff response to this presentation yeah why don't a mayor and Council yes thank you Wanda and I I know council's familiar with this the litigation but let me give a sort of background for everyone that's watching approximately five years ago two lawsuits were brought against the city and the core concept of these two suits was sort of three aspects one is is that one dispensary was claiming that another dispensary did not meet three separation requirements uh one separation requirement for a church one for a school and then a separation requirement as to other dispensaries since since that initiative initiation of that litigation in 2017 and 2018 councils already passed two separate ordinances regarding the separation regarding churches and schools for churches churches that are on in industrial sites don't have to have that separation requirement and for schools if there's intervening features that doesn't require the the separation requirement that intervening feature concept just you know is in multiple places in the zoning code and somehow was just simply omitted as to that particular feature so the only last aspect that's involved in this this litigation is a separation as to other dispensaries and while the first lawsuit was regarding the zoning administrator's determination we actually wanted Superior Court and then went to the court of appeals and the court of appeals reversed instead of back down to the trial court so that case is that case is concluded and what it did was it set aside the zoning administrator's interpretation that it was a legal non-conforming use and it set that aside the second lawsuit is a lawsuit for monetary damages in fact they filed a notice of claim for 5.1 million dollars approximately five years ago and that's the lawsuit that's still proceeding we've we've provided we've provided in fact we've not only the notice requirement I'll just touch on the notice requirement for a code change doesn't require notice to go to Every property owner we did provide notice to their lawyer um more than a month ago regarding this before the council break and in fact we got a letter back from their attorney and I'll quote the letter back one sentence from him he says if this passes the other dispensary becomes a quote legal conforming use close quote and so that's that is that is sort of the Crux the concept of what that they're talking about they don't want the other dispensary to become a legal conforming use let me say that also that this this change is similar to the other changes that were previously made by previous Council um that that the litigation has made us look back on the code itself and as far as for example on on churches yes there was the church within the separation requirement but that church had located in in an industrial site in fact on a very large industrial site this current code change the concept is this is that if you have a dispensary on a very large Industrial real site and it's set back off of the road then your separation to other dispensaries can be reduced if we could go back all the way in time when we first adopted the code for marijuana dispensaries I wish we had suggested this to counsel this concept because it's it's a good principle that we should have adopted originally we should have had an overlay Zone and with that overlay Zone if you're on a large on a large industrial site and you set back off off the roadway that's exactly where Council even in the discussions before that's where Council had wanted dispensaries to go and so that's what this is doing it's creating an exception to allow a dispensary to locate it applies to all the dispensaries in Mesa there's one dispensary it is true that applies to right now as far as the exception but the other dispensaries in Mesa can utilize it too there's other locations that they can move to to if they want to go to a large industrial site and get off set back at least 300 feet off that roadway they'll be able to do that so it does encourage dispensaries to to have that potential to relocate and so that's what this this ordinance change will effectuate I'll also just say let me uh point out the changes um to the to the ordinance there's actually I think there's two words that changed and a definition to the actual code language that's being changed the sections he's referring to that were added are uncodified sections in other words they're not part of the code they're they're clarifying the intent of the of the ordinance that's all they're doing the actual code chain changes to the ordinance were two words and adding a definition and we've just you know we've we've retained outside counsel regarding all these issues they're outside counsel raised these issues in correspondence last week we had our Council look at it they have no issues that it has to go back to pnz there is no substantive change to this ordinance from what went to pnz pnz doesn't as you know doesn't adopt an ordinance they don't approve it they make a recommendation it has not substantively changed since pnz and and in its entirety our outside council is is set is legal all right thank you Mr Smith Council any discussion on this is there a motion to move forward on agenda item 6A Mr Freeman Mr Smith on the council report on 21st of this month the last paragraph can you explain how the proposed amendments will encourage existing marijuana facilities of large Industrials will have a less impact on Commercial communities and I'm kind of compressing it but and then facilities located out the corporate boundaries of City from relocating in the city how does that apply so the intent was we don't want to create an exception and then draw more dispensaries into Mesa so the idea was that this exception would only apply and does only apply to dispensaries that are currently located in the city of Mesa in fact we added clarifying one of those uncodified sections we just further clarified that to make sure no one could misinterpret the actual code to make sure that that's clear that you have to be an existing dispensary but the existing dispensaries in the city of Mesa can relocate to a large industrial site and use this exception so it's an exception that they can utilize okay very good thank you Mr Summers just some clarification on the process so this was this ordinance Was Heard by the changes were heard by a planning and zoning so they they heard so since Planning and Zoning we've added I think two we if you look at their highlighted section and I haven't run a comparison we added two words to the code right and a definition in into the code the other sections are what are called uncodified sections they don't become part of the code their language to clarify the intent um and many of them are legal truisms as our outside counsel said they are true as a matter of fact you can add them they'd be true whether you have them or don't have them okay so it was heard by Planning and Zoning some changes were made prior to coming to council correct so Mary I hate to put you on the spot but for for a process question do things change between planning and zoning and coming to council are there changes made that don't then go back to planning and zoning um Bayer Giles Council there are sometimes minor changes that occur between planning and zoning and city council and so working with Jim and his team the changes we actually made to the code were considered minor in this case which is why we brought it forth to council without going forward to PNC and you would think they're a minor as well oh yes okay all right question um what prompted the further clarification that didn't go back to PNC is that the normal course as well to add the the clarifying language um no it was I I would say that we just we we wanted to eliminate any ambiguity the court that's trying to read the code we knew what the intent was and so when when you tried to sort of spell out the intent and application everything you end up lawyers end up we ended up adding those additional language all that but that is the the intent of the the code as it's as it's written so it doesn't change because you couldn't change the code right it's not as if an uncodified section could override the express language of the actual code itself right so it's only adding adding clarifying a language as to how it'll be applied in the future okay and then you said there are existing facilities that can take advantage of the exception uh the spacing exception um okay one you know mayor council one other thing the the letter that was written by outside Council that said that this would become a legal conforming use that was written before the changes and so in other words even the old the in other words the intent of the the original owners that went to pnz their outside Council grasped the concept fully of what it meant sent us a letter in opposition um even without so in other words it hasn't changed some sort of material way Jim my understanding is these changes wouldn't impact the number of dispensaries that we have in the city is that correct that's the intent is that only existing dispensaries will be able to use this exception thank you counsel any additional discussion um I will just note for the record that I I believe that these are good changes that IT addresses maybe some improvements it ought to have been made that were addressed in litigation and that we'll have a a better code as a result of these changes so I intend on voting yes so we have a motion made by Mr Freeman seconded by Mr Heredia please vote passes unanimously with council member Duff absent an excuse next item on our agenda is agenda item 9A this is the Lehigh Heritage neighborhood this request will designate the Lehigh neighborhood as a Heritage neighborhood the Lehigh neighborhood has a Heritage neighborhood Mary tell us what we're up to here good evening mayor council tonight before you we have zoning case 2300611 which is the designation of the Lehigh neighborhood as a Heritage neighborhood for clarification a Heritage neighborhood is not a historic neighborhood which is regulatory this is really a cell ceremonial celebration of the neighborhood and the history of it in the city it's a policy that was adopted by the city council some time ago so it's recognition of the of a neighborhood without the the codification of having additional regulations put on it so the request today is to designate the Lehigh neighborhood as a Heritage neighborhood the neighborhood is generally located by Center Street to the West Thomas Road to the north Gilbert Road to the East and McKellips Road to the South and you can see also on this map inside the boundaries of the neighborhood that's being considered for Heritage neighborhood you'll see the boundaries of the Lehigh sub-area plan located within that boundary the zoning in this area is Agricultural and single residence 43 so large lot residential has a very agricultural character and there are five criteria that we need to look at when we're making a recommendation to city council about the Heritage designation the first is that the majority of the the neighborhood was originally developed at least 50 years ago and Lehigh was indeed settled back in 1877. the second is that the overall character of the neighborhood in terms of the type scale and scale of its buildings Remains the Same as with from the historic period and during the 80s 1990s and 2000s homes continue to be built and they coexist with the historic era homes criteria evaluation three is that document documentation must be submitted indicating that during the historic period the residents and business owners of the areas work together to create a unique and identifying neighborhood and the key characteristics of the Lehigh neighborhood and its agricultural routes has been carried forth and then finally there are unique and identifiable physical characteristics that create the fabric of the neighborhood and this is a clear in the Lehigh neighbor neighborhood in terms of the large lot the rural atmosphere the farming livestock structures amenities for horseback riding and Etc and finally residents are able to document that the people events and or cultural heritage that influence the neighborhood's historic integrity there is documentation and we have a presentation tonight that will go through some of that documentation we've developed a signage plan as part of this and we as a city will help to put up ceremonial and and just kind of the the the I lost my word so ceremonial signage to celebrate the Lehigh neighborhood and we were looking at a cost of about three thousand nine hundred dollars that will come from our historic preservation budget and this plan shows the location of where some of those street signs might be located although the specifics will be determined with our transportation team there was an uh actively engaged public as part of this process the Lehigh group is incredibly forthcoming and and really engaged with the residents the applicant and the city staff presented the concept of the Heritage neighborhood at the annual meeting and we've received 238 additional signatures that have been collected to represent the neighborhood support so staff finds at the Lehigh Neighborhood meets the criteria for the Heritage neighborhood recognition program we recommend approval the historic preservation board did hear this case they're also recommending approval with a 4-0 vote and with that Kim then right Ripper is here and she will make a presentation as the applicant for this project you bet Ms van Ripper before you begin your presentation I think Mr Freeman has something Mary there's a slight change on on slide three it should be McKellips Road to the north it says to the South so generally the Lehigh sub-area Center Street to mckillis McKellips to the north I know you're new to this area gets your GPS coordinates thank you for that correct so it should be changed to that we will do that okay thank you you're welcome can I go to Kim now yeah thank you Kim welcome hello my name is Kimberly Van Riper and I would like to thank you all for hearing this presentation tonight a special thanks to council member Freeman for initiating this Pros pro project two years ago it's been a long and involved project that's been yielded so many wonderful insights into a wonderful neighborhood so I am the co-chair with CK Sato for the Lehigh Community Improvement Association Heritage overlay subcommittee and this will be a brief presentation I'll give you a slight intro a brief history and we'll go over the elements of Lehigh Heritage and the summary of the characteristics followed by any questions you may have so before we begin this was a very Community intensive uh project we got into the community both with boots on the ground we had multiple meetings within the subgroup and a community-wide presentation meeting as well we had the document which ended up being a 65 pages long with two pages of wonderful references we had it reviewed by local historians and we gathered many signatures of support we worked closely with the historical preservations department and we had multiple meetings with City staff planners and council member Freeman this is the Lehigh sub-area up to the upper left you'll see it in boundaries in red to the right you see areas sitting outside the current Siberia boundaries that are considered Fringe areas or areas of influence and the image up front shows the Heritage neighborhood boundaries which includes several properties that lay outside the current sub-area boundaries we identified six additional properties that are currently outside the Lehigh sub area that are included in the application these properties met the criteria we established for relevance to Lehigh Heritage including proximity character and historical relevance we also gained a permission written permission from each one of those property owners brief history of Lehigh and I'll keep this quick but it's to me terribly fascinating so bear with me in 1877 the Utah company journeyed Southward from Utah with a group of Mormon pioneers and settled at what is now Lehigh and Horn intersection they established a community called Fort Utah and later Lehigh with the help of neighboring Native American tribes they dug the Utah ditch bringing irrigation water to their crops now Lehigh Pioneers maintained a very unique relationship with the Native Americans especially for the times they lived and worked beside them side by side and it set a precedent in Lehigh that has carried through today of diversity and inclusion first structures were built of mud and Adobe I'm sorry Adobe and wood and later of brick in the late 1800s brick masons from Lehigh started producing what would become Lehigh red brick and you can still see this brick in structures throughout the Salt River Valley today Lehigh was always a neighborhood of Agriculture and from 1877 onward dairies Orchards both new nut and fruit and uh livestock was just a way of life in Lehigh if you look here in the lower left there's George Haas from Del Rio Farms with the prize-winning rooster Hawes Hatchery produced enormous amount of poultry for the area up above you can see a picture from 1902. this is a a really high residence sorting dates the Salt River Project began in the early 1900s the Salt River users Association formed and the Hoover Dam was being built and according to SRP documents it was when Lehigh joined the Salt River users Association that their area was substantially determined Lehigh has always been a community of inclusion in the early 1900s Japanese families and Hispanic families settled in the town of Lehigh including the Ishikawa the aikida and the Mendoza families they lived and worked in Lehigh without any issues in World War II the Japanese families in Lehigh were not interned and Lee high schools were never segregated here you can see a picture in the upper left 1930 Lehigh track team very diverse group of students agricultural practices continued for Lehigh there were many Lehigh residents active in state level agricultural organizations such as the state apiary inspectors which is beehives the Citrus growers in Lehigh joined the Mesa Citrus growers association and sold their produce to Sunkist throughout the Citrus boom horses poultry Dairy honeybees honey production Citrus Lucerne which is Alfalfa and Orchards were always a way of life in Lehigh many prominent horses were bred in Lehigh and even today Lehigh has 700 horses in the neighborhood which makes it one of the most densely horse populated areas per square mile in the state horses have always been a way of life in Lehigh you can see in the upper right Clevenger Dairy was one of the many dairies that operated in Lehigh and produced milk for distribution throughout the Salt River Valley Lehigh was annexed into Mesa in July of 1970. however not all of Lehigh was annexed and so it shrunk a little bit the 202 Red Mountain freeway installation in 1977 cut Lehigh in half and again the area shrunk a lot of people lost their homes today Lehigh is a diverse neighborhood with a rural feel it is common to see farm equipment driving down the road equine pedestrian Road users are a very common site as well it is truly a community of Family Farms Orchards and an agricultural lifestyle so three elements of Heritage Define heritage and those are intangible tangible and natural and Lehigh has those in spades the intangible elements of Heritage include traditions and lehighs has many Traditions that have been around for 50 plus years including the annual Lehigh Crossing memorial ride every year they take horse-drawn wagons and horses they start at Lehigh Crossing Memorial and they ride all the way down to the church at Lehigh and Horn and it is a testament to the original steps of the pioneers the Lehigh days Rodeo barbecue and dance has happens every spring and the entire Community comes together to celebrate Pioneer Roots other Traditions persist such as the annual turkey roast and citrus sales roadside during Citrus season tangible helmet tangible Heritage elements of Lehigh include buildings and structures and there are many historic not designated officially but old structures in Lehigh you can see as you go through it today Noble 1983 and we go into a little more detail in the application on this uh defined early Mormon settlements recognizable early Mormon settlements as having two types of structures type one which were stone or Dobby and type 2 which are brick and wood type 1 Stone and Adobe are scattered throughout Lehigh they were built in the early to mid 20th century with some built more recently and the newer type one homes and you can see the river rock and Adobe show a continued pattern of development within the neighborhood type 2 is Brick or wood these were built in the late 19th century and the early 20th century primarily of Lehigh red brick and there are many examples Still Standing all of these buildings are still standing throughout Lehigh today in the upper right corner you'll see the Mesa Historical Museum which is also constructed of Lehigh red brick and so and was at one time the Lehigh School Lehigh architectural characteristics as we went through the neighborhood exploring the architecture in Lehigh we realized there are characteristics unique to Lehigh among those are a gabled roof typically side facing outbuildings are very common very few paved driveways though you do see some use of pavers and there's a heavy use of red brick and stone accents throughout the neighborhood even on some of the newer Construction the natural heritage elements of Lehigh include trees Landscapes and Wildlife elements and in Lehigh scattered throughout the neighborhood there are certified wildlife habitats certified Audubon bird habitats and Lehigh itself is a very important Corridor for both migratory and year-round wildlife the natural heritage elements of Lehigh are as much a part of the Heritage as the structures and the Traditions there's a wide range of trees and we've started adding some of them into the the tree accounting you have on the city website very exciting there's open canals sweeping Landscapes and features such as Dead Man's Curve which are unique to the area so there was one tree I have to just say there was one tree that we discovered a written account from the late 1800s a family settled in Lehigh and built a tent under a Mesquite tree until they could build a home and that Mesquite tree still stands today surrounded by like a nice ring of Lehigh red brick it's absolutely amazing so Lehigh Heritage today Lehigh remains an equine agricultural neighborhood with a rural feel and layout Lehigh Heritage is a cumulative with all three elements acting to add to its character there are additional features in Lehigh that add to the Heritage and here's a summary of some of those open spacesh large Lots high density of livestock Dark Skies a rural atmosphere a lack of sidewalks and curbs dirt shoulders open canals septic systems horseback Riders and livestock Road users farm equipment visible historic elements and many of the founding families their descendants still reside in Lehigh such as council member Freeman he's a a legacy family of Lehigh and you cannot speak about Lehigh without speaking about the people of Lehigh there is a good reason many of The Descendants remain today people of Lehigh are caring compassionate and deeply connected to each other in the land itself there is a great pride and a fierce protective sentiment to see Lehigh heritage and way of life carry through these elements may seem like physical characteristics of a neighborhood but in fact they are necessary elements to lehighway of life and to the heritage you cannot ride a horse on a sidewalk nor allow your children to play on the side of a street with really heavy traffic I'm sure you all can recall a Lehigh resident standing in front of you speaking passionately about preserving their way of life and if you haven't yet you will I'm sure Lehigh was mesa's Sister City and now it shares history with Mesa and that's why this Heritage designation is so important we really appreciate your time and your consideration on this and all of the help from all of the people throughout the city and the community at large two years 65 pages and a step in the right direction Lehi truly is a piece of living history thank you thank you Ms van Ripper we do have three requests to speak I'm sorry we don't we don't clap at meetings that it was it's a it's a presentation that's worthy of a pause I agree with you but you just don't do that and again we don't do that thank you we have three requests to speak we will begin with Cynthia wood welcome Cynthia thank you I live in Lehigh and I was on the board well the group with Kim and we helped to put together the presentation and I did do a part of the presentation for the board before this and I just wanted to say that when we did present it to the board and went through the presentation they were really actually very appreciative of it we're not even aware some of them that even Lehigh existed that it was such a you know Heritage area it does have a lot of historical homes in it but they thought that it was something that really should be acknowledged and that the rest of Mesa should know about it because a lot of people do not know about it in Mesa they were unanimous on their voting and the area they were glad to know such an area existed Lehi is important Heritage and needs to be acknowledged and appreciated and represented represented I personally went door to door there's about 350 homes in Lehigh my husband and I went door to door we didn't get we was a short notice we had about two weeks to get signatures to show that the area was actually people that lived there were involved in a you know on board with it and I didn't even get I got through about two-thirds of it and I didn't get one person that really that did not want to be part of it they actually thought we were a Heritage area and they were really excited and they thanked me and I got over 200 there was a 238 signatures that were obtained in that short amount of time but I'm sure we would have gotten all of it anyway I'm proud to live in here in Lehigh it is such a deep Heritage area and worked very intently on getting this on getting this approved and promoted thank you thank you Cynthia Michelle mccroskey hi my name is Michelle mccrosky and I'm at 3021 North Chestnut Circle really I'm just here to say thank you you know for years I've been on the Lehigh board for many many years and one of the constant responses that we hear from residences God we want to try to keep Lehigh Lehigh and this movement this this designation really sets a very important step forward to to try to keep our Heritage keeply High all the good things we love about Lehigh and helps us have a balance as as we move forward it's also been a super fun project I learned so much more about Lehi than I ever thought and it was one of those bridge building activities you do in your community where people just come up to you and say thank you thank you so much so I have to say thank you to all of you for making this happen thank you Michelle Robert Walker Robert Walker 1140 Sorensen I've been there moved there as a young man in 18 and bought my first place and my only place I've been there all my life and my little life I moved there because I was a Roper and I needed a place to stash my horse and um I really appreciate Lehigh and I wanted to stay the way it is the city is growing it's getting modern and we need a place to show our heritage and I think that's a good place to do it thank you Mr Walker so again just so we're all clear the um this is to take action on a zoning case entitled Lehigh Heritage neighborhood this request will designate the Lehigh neighborhood as a Heritage neighborhood this does not rezone any property this is a designation that allows for recognition of Lehigh through street signs so having said that is there a motion to approve this item yes please Mr Freeman so thank you mayor and first of all I want to thank all of you that worked so hard on this designation because I feel it's very important Not only living there myself but as we look at all neighborhoods in the city and there's a lot of historical designations for uh different neighborhoods in our city the high is one of the first ones so I in a way I'm apologetic that it's so late in getting this designation because I know how important it is to all that live there Kim thank you for your great presentation you're awesome I wish you could be like the orator for everything I do but uh I mean you just uh knocked it out of the park and I asked this to be taken off consent agenda specifically for this so we could discuss this and know how important neighborhoods are in in our city and again all the hard work that's been done to identify this and again I'd be honored to make a motion to move forward with that mayor if there's no other comments thank you Mr Freeman we have a motion for approval made by council member Freeman seconded by council member Summers any additional discussion all right thank you please vote that passes unanimously so congratulations to Lehigh next item on our agenda is items from citizens present do we have any requests to speak we have no requests mayor thank you is there a motion to adjourn thank you Mr Summers all in favor please say aye aye thank you we are adjourned [Music]