thank you and welcome again to the Mesa city council meeting for July the 8th of 2024 I will note for the record that all of our council is present with council member go forth participating virtually are you with us Alicia I am thank you great thank you very much we will begin our meeting with an invocation offered by Reverend Derek Elliot with desert Heritage Church followed by the Pledge of Allegiance we're pleased today to have a a large contingent of Boy Scouts with us and this is from uh troop 10 is that right and we're going to invite the senior patrol leader from Troop 10 to come up and and lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance following uh Dr Elliott's prayer so please stand for the invocation and remain standing for the Pledge of [Music] Allegiance my friends let us take a moment to Center ourself in gratitude and reflection as I pray in my tradition Almighty and gracious God we come before you with Thanksgiving in our hearts grateful for the opportunity to gather as a community dedicated to the well-being of the city we acknowledge your being and your present Among Us and seek your guidance as we commence this meeting we we ask for your wisdom to fill our minds that our decisions May reflect Justice compassion and integrity grant us with the clarity to see beyond our differences and work together for the common good for all residents of Mesa in this Gathering oh God we honor and respect the m M itude of beliefs represented here in our great City and as we work together may we always remember the inherent dignity and worth of every person in our great City oh God let us strive to Foster in an environment of diversity equity and inclusion ensuring that all voices are heard and valued bless those who serve our city the elected officials the staff and all who contribute to make Mesa a better place we ask for your blessing upon our city its leaders its families and its future may we strive to build a community where justice peace and love Prevail in your holy name we pray amen amen thank you please join me in the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for all thank you uh for getting us off to a great start uh first item on our agenda for this meeting is to consider the consent agenda and we'll invite uh Lily King to come forward to read the consent agenda Lily mayor and council members these are the items on the consent agenda all items listed with an asri will be considered as a group by the city council and will be enacted on with one motion there will be no separate discussion unless a council member citizen requests in which event the item will be removed from the consent agenda and considered as a separate item item two approval of minutes of previous meetings as written item 3A act act on liquor license application for Baja Joe's 1927 North Gilbert Road item 3B act on liquor license application for Skyline liquor and Foods 415 South Higley Road item 3C act on liquor license application for nail 21 Lounge 1702 South alvista Drive item 3D act on liquor license application for R Redux 152 6 East Main Street item three item 3E act on liquor license application for Mr bruis tap's House Red Mountain 1157 North Ellsworth Road item 3F act on liquor license application for Arizona Rebel Republic 4425 South Mountain Road item 3G act on act on liquor license application for a be Suburban 2235 South Power Road item 3 H act on liquor license application for Russo's New York Pizzeria 4537 South Power Road item 3i act un liquor license application for Speedway 7226 South Ellsworth Road item 4A approving contract for Central Mesa reuse pipeline plans construction manager at risk guarantee price number three of three item 4B approving contract for Westwood Street improvements construction manager at risk guarantee maximum price number one of one item 4 C approving contract for purchase of one electric forklift for the Mesa Police Department this purchase is funded by the public safety sales tax item 4D approving three-year term contract with 2 years of renewal options for polymers for water treatment plants for the Water Resources Department item 4E approving three-year term contract with 8 years of renewal options for the purchase and maintenance of two ion chromatographs for the Water Resources Department item 4f approving threee term contract with two years of renewal options for the traffic signals maintenance services for the transportation department M item 4G approving use of Cooperative contracts for the term contracts for PC cycle replacement and supplemental computers rized laptops and tablets for Citywide departments item 5A was removed from the agenda item 5B approving resolution to enter into amended and restated intergovernmental agreements between the Arizona border regions Arizona State University and the City of Mesa for development of educational facilities in downtown Mesa with terms that allow for sale transfer release and license of City property and Improvement item 6A approving ordinance for proposal of amendments to section title 8 and adopting a new replacement title 8 chapter 10 entitled Municipal Water Systems pertaining to large water consumer users item 6D approving ordinance for zoning case 23- 465 for property located west of Gilbert Road and North of Brown Road reone and sight plan review to allow for a day care center item 7A approving a new off-track betting license for Turf Paradise to telecast at JJ Madison's 430 North Power Road item 7B approving new off trck Betty license for Turf Paradise to telecast at O Kelly's Sports Bar and Grill 2120 West Squad alupe Road mayor and council members these are items on the cassin agenda thank you uh Miss King uh have we received any blue cards regarding an item on the consent agenda no request mayor May mayor and Council can I just correct one uh for 6B it's a proposed amendments to chapter 24 and 87 of tial 11 I just want to make sure the record I think we just had one number off in that all right ly thank you very much uh with that noted we have a a motion made by council member Freeman seconded by vice mayor Heria uh please vote Miss go forth how do you vote yes thank you the consent agenda passes unanimously first item uh off the consent agenda is item 5A this is approving and authorizing the city manager to enter into a memorandum of understanding between the city and habitat Phoenix LLC establishing the framework and key concepts for negotiation of future agreements for the Redevelopment of the southeast corner of pepper place at McDonald uh I have received two blue cards do we have any additional cards those are the only cards mayor all right so I'm going to invite these two speakers to come up and and uh share whatever they'd like to about this item and then I'm going to ask the city staff to uh give a presentation that hopefully responds to some of those issues and then we'll have Council discussion following that do you want to have the presentation first it might answer a lot of questions or well I I'm I'm thinking maybe Mr McBay can kind of tailor his presentation to maybe issues that are raised in the by the speakers okay thank you uh yeah okay thank you so let let's begin with uh Mr Charles Linton welcome Mr Linton thank you this is like some kind of bad dream sorry about this um so my name is Chuck Linton I own and operate Linton Milano Music um which operates at 38 West Main Street upstairs as well as 45 West Main Street which is on the south side of the street um we specialize in music lessons books and pianos um I run a successful business we have 850 students that come on a weekly basis that take lessons both upstairs at Milano's and across the street at the piano shop um I've come sorry I have to write everything down or else I lose it but I've come tonight to oppose the project presented um which will block our parking lot for the next two years um because it'll have an negative effect on our business um in the evening the only entrance for the students that take lessons upstairs at 38 West Main Street is through the back alley um the front entrance is closed at 6 so at that point our students would have to park in the Pepper Place garage and navigate the empty dark alleys behind the store to come in through that back door um often times there are homeless people back there um it's a tough cell for the elderly or children with families to convince them that that's you know worth doing um overall a major inconvenience for us not only in the lessons department but actually in probably all the other Departments of our business as far as the books um a lot of our clients are you know elderly that um come in and purchase those books um another concern I'd like to address is the lack of communication um I'm disappointed in Jen Duff for not informing the businesses of this proposal um I'm disappointed that I didn't have sufficient time to speak with the other businesses about this proposal I'm disappointed that I didn't get to speak to the residents of Ecom Mesa West and I'm disappointed that I didn't get more time to fight for my livelihood um the real question is would it have made a difference um if every business stood up against this proposal residents would it have made a difference no no it wouldn't have the deal has already been made all the emails I've sent out reflect a decision that has already been made truth be told you you've been in the talk been in a talk for years about this I found out about this three days ago um you're public servants yet you make your decisions without hearing the voice of the public I question your motives in pushing this deal through in such a clandestine manner another in a long line of good old boy deals that pepper our city but only time will tell anyway tonight's my daughter's birthday so I need to leave and people kept asking me I come from three generations of downtown Mesa business owners and I asked them I said you guys going to come to the meeting and they said no the decision's been done they know what they're going to do um so I asked myself why why am I doing this and I have I have no idea I don't know I guess I just needed to say something but but um I probably won't come back and speak anymore on this topic I got to get back to work and figure out how to navigate the next couple years but thanks for thanks for hearing me out and I appreciate you guys' time thank you Mr Lon thank you hopefully you can stick around for a little bit or you can watch the the rebroadcast because we will uh absolutely address the things that you said okay thank you uh next David crummy good evening um mayor and Council my name is David crummy 658 West First Street um downtown Mesa resident neighbor um um I just I come to support this um proposal in general because it supports the plans that we've been working on at the city level and across um through our downtown um work groups through our zoning um ordinances and through the work that we've been doing at the general plan for the last I think 15 years now um being able to add parking downtown um removing the city parking and moving that over to another spot is going to increase a lot of opportunities for our business I do understand it's going to be two years of construction we experien that just down the street um but as someone who comes downtown with my family my my wife I bring clients and entertain them downtown um during the day um didn't really see a lot of disruption with the first project especially for the businesses that I was visiting that were immediately there I'm also a member of heat sink labs and so we access the lab at night through the through the um the alley um which was closer to the first Ecom Mesa which was less of a um concern than a lot of us had um especially because that was at the same time as the construction of the post so we had two construction projects happening and it didn't affect um my experience visiting the lab um in general I just want to support this type of like traditional old school American downtowns where we have a walkable place we don't have these giant islands of isolated hot parking lots that when we are bringing our students and our friends to the the um Arizona Museum of Natural History and other places we have a nice convenient safe place to walk that is cool and has some shading and provides that I also sit um I support a uh school board that visits the museum pretty frequently and it would be great not to have a giant hot parking lot for our students to walk by um in general this is the right place for a modest low density um apartment complex at J to um Transit and um so far I the other thing that I want to mention is it also reduces the cost burden on the city and on our community by offsetting that and having a developer and those residents support that and then it also brings additional business to downtown through um sales tax and through um more clients thank you very much thank you Mr crummy uh let's hear from City staff and and um Mr McBay um if you could maybe address some of the questions that Mr Linton raised and if you don't mind I made a couple of notes the first is is to what extent there was notification and and engagement with the uh the downtown business people about this and second let me let's just let's remind us all our all let's all remind ourselves what we're voting on tonight we are not voting on whether or not we're going to enter into an agreement to redevelop this parking lot we are voting tonight on be on whether or not we ought to engage in negotiations with the developer to talk about that okay and so as we have those negotiations M Mr MCB to what extent will uh will we talk about what the requirements are for mitigating the impacts of construction on the surrounding businesses and then finally can you spell out for us the number of parking spaces before during and after this project and um and getting access from the pepper Street Garage to specifically Mr linton's business I'm sorry that's all those those are the things that I think Mr Linton was was curious about uh mayor I I'll try to be able to cover all those again mayor councel Jeff McVey manager of downtown transformation um thank you for the time today um directly related to Mr linton's questions about engagement um there has been engagement with the existing businesses the developer has reached out to all the businesses on that block it was in over the course of the last week um so that was so it was less notice than um would normally be provided If This Were a zoning case that required some type of of legal public notification requirements um I will be the first to admit even though I am a student of Linton Milano's um uh I've only had lessons on the south side of Main Street I didn't realize there was lessons on the north side of Main Street so the engagement happened with the Milano the Milano's business versus the lint Milano so that was an oversight on our part that we will we will be able to correct as we move forward through as you said mayor this is a memorandum of understanding this is a an agreement to to potentially agree later there is a lot of of negotiations to happen between now and when Council will actually make a vote as to whether this project goes forward through that entire time much of the negotiations that we will be talking about is construction mitigation and how is the developer going to address the concerns that we have going forward with the impact to the downtown broadly and businesses specifically L we learned a number of lessons with Ecom Mesa uh the the existing Ecom Mesa project um on how to address concerns uh one of the reasons that that that staff is supportive of this proposal and and want and suggest me moving forward is that the developer is the same developer as ecoma the developer is very responsive and very engaging with all the businesses prior to construction through construction and since construction um that included ensuring that that the alleyway was maintained open throughout construction now there's of course always those limited amounts of time during construction where there has to be some closure of the alley but those were those were minimized to the greatest extent possible there was uh additional Security Fence fencing added there was additional lighting added to address some of the same concerns that we had on the west block for safety of people in the alleyway um Mr sprag is here today and is is happy to come up and and and express his um perspective on this as well but I can assure you from our conversations that all efforts will be taken to mitigate any of the negative impacts of having a construction site immediately adjacent to your back door particularly when the back door is is the entrance to many of the businesses um that's not to say that there won't be wouldn't be inconveniences of course um but the uh the intent would be to maintain that alley open throughout um Construction as it relates to parking today the green lot has 75 generally available public parking spaces those parking spaces would be displaced during the construction period the intention is to replace move those parking spaces into the pepper parking garage today the pepper parking garage has 513 spaces of those 513 spaces 130 a minimum of 130 would be made available during construction for generally available public parking and that's being accomplished through by the relocation of existing City employee parking spaces to the the newly hopefully well by the end of this year newly opened Hibert parking garage it frees up those spaces to be make them available to offset the parking that we are um um displacing during construction but it will also give us a net increase in generally available public parking during the construction period um we will also have to work during construction on how we are we going to to do wayfinding for the public not only just pedestrian wayfinding so if you are leaving the pepper garage what is your best route to get to which business and have the appropriate signage to to help direct folks same thing with cars to help direct people to the public parking I think one of the challenges that we have faced uh and one of the lessons we learned in the first Eco project is that we needed to do a better job of making it obvious that that is public park and that is something that we have thought of and included into this um into this agreement structure is a developer would be obligated to help and improve the wayf finding for the new green parking garage if it were approved um mayor I'm trying to remember all the questions uh the experience during construction is another thing that I wanted to talk about um I mentioned earlier the developer has constant Communications throughout um the the past project I I did some informal polling over the weekend at the businesses um downtown that were impacted by that construction effort to to gauge their their level of of um input they had noted that there was some days where well construction is construction and it and it caused some some challenges but overall their experience was was positive and that since since completion of construction they've been very pleased to have that newly um replaced purple parking lot as a public parking garage with covered Park working in shade um the the project itself is successful and has currently has 99 of its 102 units our leas um and those are new customers and one of the one of our goals with all of these projects is to increase the the customer base of downtown through residential development versus through the need to um Drive traffic through events and activities we would like our our downtown to be a place where um the existing businesses are are experiencing um increased activity due to the increased number of residents um we have we have as staff received written support from the downtown Mesa Association 12 west level one arcade bar Alchemy 48 and Outcast Donuts to this proposed project we have also had verbal support voiced from mangoes Dixon's Jewelers and the ownership of the one McDonald office building and and I think it's important to note that in in their statement one of the businesses Outcast Donuts in their statement um in support noted that adding these residential um these residents downtown is an improve is in is an improvement to their business opportunities they currently experience highs and lows highs when we have events and lows when when we don't and one of the one of their reasons for supporting this is that that will help level out the highs and lows so that there is more of a customer base built in um I'm trying to have some notes Here I want to make sure I'm covering everything following construction so I've cover following construction I think it's important to note that the 7 the existing 74 generally available public parking spaces will be moved back to the green lot where they exist today they will the development will be um built in such a way that you will be able to pass through the development underneath from pepper through the development to the back door the businesses along the alleyway um the benefit of adding that covered parking has is is twofold for us as customers when we come downtown we get shaded parking but also from um the perspective of freeing up spaces in Pepper garage to be able to generate additional revenues for the city because we will be freeing up uh an additional 130 spaces that can be used to support the increased business activity as well as uh hopefully the increased activity that's coming with uh improvements to our idea Museum and Natural History Museum down the road I I I think I covered all the points that uh that were asked but I'm happy if there's specific questions I'm happy to to answer you did address the questions that I asked you to address Mr McBay thank you Council any additional questions from Mr MC m tillbury yeah just so that we're super super clear on the parking because that is my biggest concern um I want to make sure that I I get the concept of um making sure that we have the residents down here to provide the customers and and that that's a different way of looking at it than just bringing people downtown for an event um but I do want to make sure that when we do bring people down to the museums Mesa Art Center the convention center you know all all the things that we have enough parking and I think at our discussion last week it kind of sounded like we had like a net zero and so you're explaining that we actually are going to have an increased number of parking so the 130 extra parking in the pepper garage during the two years of construction is almost double that what the public parking is currently corre just that you might have to walk a little bit further that is correct um once the construction's done the 74 parking spots will go back to the bottom floor of the eom Mesa East and will be in the same spot that they already were and we will still have 130 spots that will be open to public parking for museums and all businesses that there will be 130 spots that will no longer have permit spaces attached to them it will be at the council's discretion whether or not we maintain those as generally available public parking or whether or not there's other projects that you would want to or other opportunities for permit parking that you'd like to consider okay I I met with you earlier I just want to publicly say that so that um I can acknowledge that I had a lot of questions and a lot of things that I don't think we talked about um last week and I appreciate all the answers and helping to understand where we're coming from it does make me feel better also that we're not voting on something tonight that's like a done deal we still have opportunities to make sure that things are being done the way that that we need them to be done um I'm trying to I I think that's it I'm I had a lot of questions and and thoughts but I'll let some other people go thank you thank you Mr Summers thank you mayor yeah I was a little surprised that we had uh some push back here and I think there was a a Miss in communicating uh with your guitar teacher that you know that this this was going on because this is simp this is the start of the process not the end of the process as been stated nothing has been decided this is just the beginning of the discussion that we will have I I think what some of the stress is cuz I'm you know looking up Milano music and according to their own website they have been a part of downtown Mesa for over 70 years I mean the the first thing here is 1946 I I can understand when they get a little Shell Shocked by projects this business has I don't even know if Mesa had a paved Street in downtown in 194 six maybe just the one but they have undergone so many projects the Main Street Redevelopment the light rail coming through you have uh we replaced all of the water mains behind because those water mains were over 100 years old so I could see where people get a little tired of the construction process but you know growth can be painful I I think they're going to do with our support very well in the future and they will they will get through this answer me one thing where exactly is the pepper Street Garage in comparison to this existing parking lot I'm I'm looking through these slides council member Summers to see whether um the best I can so this as you can see on this slide and I don't really have a great pointer but the you see the blue spaces that are along pepper street right pepper Street Garage is the building immediately on the north side of that okay so it's across the street and I think it's important for people to understand that that's a distance now I it's a pain to walk across a hot street now my parking spot for this meeting is actually across the street it's not so bad I cheated today I parked a little closer because I didn't want to walk the heat so I I understand where that's going to be a little bit inconvenient for some folks but as part of this process to stress that these are public spaces and covered for that matter because it's in a garage you got to walk a little farther but it's going to be in a garage so your car gets to stay a little bit cooler I think that's going to be important for this process to make sure that everybody knows that there is parking available and that that is free to the public to use there were some concerns about the back alley also I think we can address those very simply we have downtown engagement teams now former police officers that Patrol those areas this is a good opportunity perhaps to put up a few cameras that are monitored by the realtime crime Center looking at some of the police officers to improve the safety uh not just during construction but perhaps permanently for the folks who are walking that alley and to look at upgrades to that alley in addition obviously as we move through this making sure that at the end of the day when all said and done that we are Net Zero I think is how you put it with the parking that there's still ample parking for businesses downtown is going to be crucial to the success of this project and the businesses downtown I think everything all the concerns that we heard and there legitimate concerns from this successful business owner uh can be addressed uh during this mlu so I'm in favor of moving it forward and having these discussions thank you Mr Summers uh vice mayor Jeff uh What's the total amount of parking spots uh in the in the garage the pepper garage has 513 spaces 513 okay so currently we have 130 that are permitted and the rest are oh there are let me get this get the number right there are only 21 spaces in that garage that are not permit spaces today so this will this will add to the total of generally available parking spaces by 130 to get that total to 151 spaces that are generally available to the public happens moving right because we are moving out we're moving spaces that are currently spes yes okay all right thank you uh Miss Duff yes thank you um and and on that 21 spaces that we have currently half of them are um Ada correct so really going from that amount into 130 and I'm talking about after construction and during construction those parking Spates right now we're going from 21 spaces half of them are Ada to 150 total I guess about 140 open to the public and that'll be during construction and after construction the beauty is after construction we have the 74 spaces currently in the green lot will be covered and the beauty of it is is we will have an apartment building that has maybe 150 people living there and they will be at the doorstep of so many businesses they could go down in their slippers and those 150 customers are not even taking a parking space to be a customer in downtown so it it really works out nicely just going back to I moved to downtown in 2009 and I've lived here on my life in 20 9 this is a ghost town and it had been for so long about 40 years since the US 60 moved South to where it is right now the downtown has suffered greatly and it was my goal when to come on Council is we've got to bring our downtown back and many others have that desire your office was created the there was the Mesa Central plan as well your office was was created and we discovered like this square mile of downtown was the least dense of our entire city unless it was vacant land we had the least amount of residents living in one square mile no wonder the businesses are struggling since then we've added a lot of residential and we've added a lot of businesses but those businesses still struggle and they're asking day in and day out I need people here living here and frequenting the businesses I can't depend on only when the city is working or only when we have events in downtown Mesa we need more people and this is a downtown model if you think about any favorite City you know of across the United States you've visited it's dense it's vertical parking is centralized which is means you usually have parking garages and you navigate from there this is not a strip mall environment in a downtown it's not like everybody Parks outside the door of it it is centralized parking and it becomes a social interaction as you shop as you eat as you visit the art center you are seeing people seeing businesses the streetscape should be beautiful walkable inviting it is a living room for a city and that's I think what we're trying to achieve we're not trying to get rid of parking but we're trying to make just empty lots that are not producing anything but just pure heat and into viable economic means for our city and this the beauty of this project is we're not getting we're not um losing any parking we're building over it and it's a fabulous model the West um Ecom Mesa the one that's already built has been fabulously successful I know a number of people who live there and and love it I've talked to the businesses surrounding that and they said it's just been business has been much better and since they've had it is more activated it's safer those alleys are have people walking along those alleys as much as they do on Main Street this is a downtown that we are working towards and it is to help everybody we don't want any business especially our Legacy business I do appreciate that they've been here for all these years and struggled for such a long time but staying depressed staying a ghost town is not a good strategy to building a great downtown so um we've worked with Tim on the previous project he's phenomenal and we if we had issues that we didn't think were appropriate or we couldn't bear this project wouldn't even be presented he's been wonderful he's got part of the downtown he knows the owners um he engages every little question problem he and his team are there I've never seen such attention to a project so I'm confident with the West project that's already built was 10 times more complex and I could go all over that and I don't want to spend the time this one is much more streamlined and much um easier and having double the parking during construction it and I know it's a little bit more of a walk but to be a successful downtown we have to rethink about these temporary measures we have to take in order to accomplish the greater good um down the road um so I'm trying to think if there is anything else um also just to let people know we have a lot here at City Hall and it is open after 5:00 p.m. the arms come up and that's another option to be very close to that green lot it's a very short walk um I'm confident that uh Mr sprig will work with the city the downtown transformation office has had the experience in working with them I've had the experience I apologize to anybody who would didn't receive the Outreach had of time um maybe we were a little bit too LAX I I I can't really say that and given um I think some assumptions that we made based on the last project that this project would be easier going forward it was kind of an understanding of of what it was so um I tried I've answered every email that's coming way way and I'm glad to meet with anybody and I'm and I'm totally available today and through the process um ahead of us this is the um memo of understanding about what the project would entail is like a letter and of intent kind of an appraisal will be done on for the property there will be a development agreement the development agreement there will be a purchase agreement and a development agreement that have to be approved by Council and we'll have public notice um and within the development agreement there's a good neighbor Clause of any measures that need to be taken in which uh everybody is taken care of and this project is adding to the health and amenity of uh uh and of downtown so I'm fully in support and I'm glad to work with anybody and working through any questions that we haven't covered or need to cover or just sit down at any point Thank you thank you council member Duff other comments Mr Freeman thank you Jeff for your our discussion here you know I learned from this that we need some better communication I I know you're doing your your best and I know Mr sprag has and I I think as council members we we have the opportunity to meet one-on-one with you as staff and then as as well as a developer but I think that as you walk businesses and you talk to them directly I don't know if they fully comprehend the whole project and and that's where the opportunity is you can go look at Ecom Mesa we'll call it West and talk to those business owners and say how did how how did it work for you was it okay I know that there were some bumps in the road because we had the two projects going going on there so I think we've learned that we need to do better messaging for these type of downtown projects um the other part is I'd like Mr Smith maybe to talk us through the mou process I know you did a little bit about that but kind of the nuts and bolts of that Mr Smith about theou process and and what that entails so mayor council council member Freeman uh we've done this and and I know council's familiar with this um and I know you are council member Freeman is on a number of deals is that we enter into an anou um and as many people have said it's not a binding agreement but it lays out the structure of the nature of the deal because these deals are so complex as council member Duff indicated a number of the documents it be actually a number more than even she indicated and so it lays out the the basic structure of the deal so that we can move forward and so the developer has a sense from Council that council is interested in moving forward with the possibility of negotiating these documents ments that frequently take several more months and then we'll come back to council um with a development agreement with a lease uh with a purchase contract um it will also include an easement um probably some licenses and I'm probably forgetting a few other documents too that will be part of a process documents that Council will have to approve okay and is there time for public input during that time absolutely and there'll be there'll be opportunity for uh the public to also you know meet with Jeff and council members indiv ually and so and we can obviously sometimes uh we bring these back to council as we as we're working on them so depending on the nature of the the transaction okay thank you and I just want to stress that the fact this is just the beginning like has been said by my colleagues and and and right now I'm supporting that and I think we learned our lesson at Ecom Mesa that even today with it build out there's still parking issues there even with Ecom Mesa West I know some of the Le's they have two vehicles and they can only Park one there so and we've talked about that there's some bleed over there so I appreciate the parking opportunities that we'll have about I think 240 public parking spaces once everything is done 204 is that right somewhere in there the 130 plus 74 yes thank you yes so I I guess still Mr Brady we do need more parking downtown you know in the future I think we need to look towards that that and how how we can strategize that and I'm I'm not putting you on the spot now I'm just saying this a work in progress and and and I think that it'd be good to have a a meeting Mr sprag and as a developer with all the downtown businesses and maybe at the post or the studios and and let's get this aired out and have everybody come together and as the developer as this development moves forward because I think we've learned from the prior project as I said so I think that would be very uh good and and if appropriate mayor maybe we could hear from Mr sprag if he'd like to make some comments later on mayor while is moving up here if I can Jeff why don't you did you have anything to wrap up just a couple thoughts uh um another element M counc Freeman related to theou um one of the reasons why we have anou in front of you today is that Mr sprag is potentially U about to start spending somewhere near you know seven figures on preliminary design work construction drawings and architecture without the without the certain level of confidence that anou that and the and the framework that that provides that's a a very risky venture to take otherwise um and yes mayor or cons Freeman my team we will host as many meetings as necessary for all the businesses that want to engage I can tell you from our past experience we actually I actually had to draft a memor my own memorandum of an understanding between me and the businesses that were being affected by Ecom Mesa West to make sure that they understood what Provisions were being included into the the the development agreement to address their concerns related to access and parking and we will go through that same process we will not be able to bring something to you that we don't feel confident that addresses those concerns um so that you are able to to uh make a decision based on that feedback and just real quickly I want to assure the residents though Jeff despite the fact this is anou and I know Mr spr has been to this many times he a lot of public projects there is no guarantee that this project gets approved by Future councils cor okay there's no big deal here this the way I look at it is this is the framework so instead of spending a lot of expensive attorneys and a lot of Staff time negotiating an agreement that we'd bring back to council and the council goes how did you come up with that idea this is beginning to create bring those ideas forward put them down in Concepts and work on the details we should probably come back to council and to the community multiple times and not wait until six months later or whatever it's going to be uh to final a final agreement so we'll commit to let's work through some more of these details let Mr spr spend some more time talking to the businesses getting more details on the footprint and the sequencing of timing I think that's going to be important um but I want to make sure nobody believes that just because we Pro approve anou we are destined and obligated to sign an agreement we're not uh this is just gives uh it makes it facilitates the the discussion and now the details of the negotiations with the attorneys because now we have the framework which to use on kind of the outline of the business points and we'll proceed with that and really what we're asking council is do you like the direction this is going in we're not asking you to approve the project project do you like the direction we're moving in we've covered some of the main topics we've talked about things that may have to be addressed in more detail but a lot of that may not be in the the agreement it just may be in the discussion with the community and maybe it's the Good Neighbor plan and so I just want to assure this idea this is not a baked deal there's no you know final deals that have been made at this point Thank you thank you mayor I'll if I could just add because I'll read one sentence out of theou that really kind of emphasizes it says this memorandum is not binding upon either party nor legally enforcable imposes no enforceable obligations upon either party and does not Grant any rights privileges or obligations to or in favor of either party or against the other it just further emphasizes what the uh Chris just said Thank you Mr Smith Jeff Mr sprig welcome uh we're anxious to hear anything you'd like to add to this conversation thank you Mr Mayor members of council um I appreciate the opportunity to speak with you tonight and I want to speak sincerely I think the questions that were asked are extremely relevant um I grew up in a small town lot in Oklahoma with a Main Street almost exactly like the one we have here and it's a big part of my heart um is in trying to preserve that and trying to reserve what a community can be like in in the future and what we've learned in the future is is that uh transportation is important Arts is important and education is important for us in terms of where we like to do development and Mesa has all three of those big rocks to put in the jar and one of the things we've tried to do is to create a living environment that works uh and that is in concert with what's going on around in the ultimate Community during the course of construction of of Eco Mesa we created a website just for construction and on that you had a chronological order of what was going to happen any potential inconvenience was mapped not only by our construction team but also by the city itself and it worked and we sent out an email if anything was coming up during the during the course of construction again that may have been an inconvenience and it worked and one thing that I pledged to do and that I have already and I will do in the future is that I meet with anybody anytime I walk around and meet the people face on I give them my card and my cell number I say call me anytime I did that quickly because of here you are going through the break for the for for the summer and I met with the Milanos folks I didn't realize that Mr Linton had that many classes on the north side of Main Street I reached out to him for this weekend and unfortunately we were not able to to to connect you didn't call back but I will tell you the most important thing for me during the course of construction is make make sure people know where they're going way finding is extremely important signage in terms of how you get to from point A to point B makes all the sense in the world to me I grew up in a family of merchants and I know what it's like to be able to have that Main Street work I know what is like to have people know where you are you have my pledge to do that as much as possible of what's necessary and yeah there is a risk that we're taking right now just just Mr Brady said but that risk for us is something we want to pursue because we like Mesa and we think it's the place to be and we want to make it better any questions any questions for Mr spr okay thank you thank you all uh Miss go for uh do you want to add anything to this uh any questions or comments from you sure thank you I you know I everything I'd like to say has pretty much been said other than I would like to say that I am in support of going forward with theou uh for a lot of reasons like I said that that have been mentioned but um first of all because it is anou this is not a sale of of of the parcel or a contract for sale or or a development agreement there there'll be time for input it's the beginning of the process as we've said grow growth is frustrating that's something we certainly have to be sensitive to but it's uh our it's part of certainly part of our council's vision for our downtown and previous council's um Vision as well to have a vibrant and active downtown and I think this uh just as Eco meso West if you will um uh contributed to that hopefully this a project like this I think will as well um and and most importantly we're not losing any spaces so I think um that's been said and that's certainly uh important and and this be an activated space uh once it's finished with uh those those parking spaces preserved um I would like to kind of you know there's been a couple of comments we need more parking we don't have enough parking I think that maybe a review of the parking you know because my perception and I think that's based on perceptions my perception is every time I'm downtown I see many many many open parking spots so maybe if we have maybe at some point and maybe we don't have to do at a council meeting but we can have Jeff come back to us with how many how many public spk parking spots are available in downtown what's the assessment right now um and with some of the new developments that have gone in how has it changed because um it seems that we maybe have some different perspectives on on the parking available downtown currently all right thank you thank you council member go for Council any additional discussion uh I'll weigh in as well I I I am I love our downtown I'm very proud of our downtown uh I I get complimented on it frequently and I love walking downtown and and uh enjoying the great businesses that are there and the great environments that that is there uh but whenever I do that I also am struck by the fact that we are not done with our downtown there there still are plenty of dark spots in between you know the the level the the bright spots uh and I think in my mind one of the the things that we need to focus on in our downtown is we need people downtown we need uh to not have this perception that the streets roll up you know at the end of the business day uh and so it's been uh it's been great to see there's a real appetite for people to move downtown and live downtown and we've got some great examples with Melody on Maine and the first Ecom Mesa project in the Grove and and what cplc is doing at Country Club club and and and many others that are starting to line up uh recognizing this uh this attraction that people have to the amenities that are downtown and and I'm excited to see that that downtown is is on the cusp of becoming a neighborhood uh not just a place that people come you know to for entertainment but a place that people live and that is going to to Really create a a culture and an environment downtown that's going to make it even more inviting than it is now um one of the great things about this particular project and this question is that we've done this right we just you know we just came out of of going through working with this exact developer this exact pretty much floor plan a very similar location literally just probably less than a quarter mile away and so for the folks that are skeptical about this uh Mr spra is the real deal he'll he'll he'll buy you a taco at tacos shei was and he'll talk to you about what it is about this project that you find scary and uh he'll add that to the list of things in our mou to to help you feel less scared about the progress that is happening downtown so please tour the the project that's been built please walk through that parking garage it's amazing it's it's a wonderful amenity for those businesses that are on Main Street now but a lot of you know all of the public parking that was there before is there after uh and so a lot of the the questions that we had about doing this project were answered over the last couple of years as we did this project just down the street uh and uh and my compliments to Mr sprig for his uh the way he was so responsive to the businesses and to the neighborhoods and uh that's why I'm excited to see us entertain doing it again uh so I I am in in support of this project and I'm look forward to the way it's going to contribute to the amazing character that's being developed in our downtown right now all right Council any other discussion I see that we have a a motion made by council member Summers seconded by vice mayor Heredia please vote Miss go forth how do you vote yes thank you motion passes unanimously thank you for everyone who uh who was here and hopefully we'll get um Mr spra I know that you will reach out to Mr Linton I I talked with Mr Linton today and frankly he told me that you had sent him a couple of emails so I I don't want people to think that you haven't already extended that offer but I think it's important that we continue to work with him thank you next item on our agenda is item eight items from citizens present Miss Mosley do we have any requests to speak on this agenda item no further requests mayor all right thank you that concludes our agenda for this meeting is there a motion to adjourn thank you Mr Summers and Miss Pillsbury all in favor please say I I I thank you we are adjourned [Music]