At tonight's Mesa City Council Study Session for Monday, Nov 21, 2016,one item stands out on the Final Agenda, but first some background to put things into perspective . . . 16 years later fast-forward to this Monday, November 21, 2016 where Director of Downtown Transformation, Jeff McVay, will be making a presentation of the results of months of online surveys and community meetings to a study session of the Mesa City Council. Real estate developers' perspectives are included also.
16 years ago demolition bulldozed the site, with reporter Gary Nelson calling the 30 acres " a vast scar of empty real estate" in an article from 3 years ago. With the recent rejection by voters saying NO to a sales tax hike for another bogus downtown redevelopment plan, who knows if and when another Pie-In-The-Sky plan will fly?
Jeff McVay, seen in the image to the left, on Monday at 5:00 p.m. will present an opportunity for more discussion and a question about the direction of downtown development [see outline provided fatter along in this post] It goes without saying that City officials are still debating what to do with 30 acres of land that sit vacant thanks to a failed redevelopment project that began in 1992.After the City had already seized the homes, financing for the project fell through.[2] Now, 16 years later, the City is still considering possible redevelopment plans for the area.[3] . . . what's the current thinking and planning that's been put into an attempt to gather data from online surveys and two community meetings involving 1,873 people?
Results are available in a link to a .pdf download to another Power Point presentation that you, dear readers, can access to view, show up in-person on Monday evening, for at the appointed time live-streaming on Mesa Channel 11.
[1] Hunter Interests Reports, “Analysis and Recommendations for Development of Sites Pursuant to the Town Center Action Plan,” Hunter Interests Inc., Sept. 12, 2002.
[2] Paul Green, “Eminent Domain: Mesa Flexes a Tyrannous Muscle,” East Valley Tribune, Sept. 2, 2001; Robert Robb, “Count on City-Driven Project to Fail,” The Arizona Republic, Sept. 21, 2001.
[3] Patrick Murphy (Town Center Development Specialist, City of Mesa, Town Center Development Office), Telephone Interview with Justin Gelfand, Institute for Justice, May 22, 2006.Source: Castle Coalition.org
Arizona Republic reporter Gary Nelson had this to write about it three years ago when Scott Smith was mayor - you can see how the ideas and thinking might or might not "evolved" from that time 3 years ago ....
Site 17 in Mesa won’t see action very soonThe Republic | azcentral.com Sun Oct 13, 2013 9:02 PM
The vast scar of empty real estate on the northeast corner of Mesa’s downtown won’t be going away anytime soon.
Mayor Scott Smith said last week that the tract, known as Site 17, probably will stay vacant until Mesa’s downtown-development efforts have borne more fruit.
That Site 17, at Mesa and University drives, looks like a bulldozed footprint is not for lack of effort on the city’s part.
There were a few houses there until about 15 years ago, when Mesa cleared the land for a Canadian developer who promised to build a 12-story hotel, water park and other amenities. Mesa spent $7.1 million to assemble the land.
After the resort proposal died for lack of money, other ideas came and went. Mesa was on the verge of selling the land to a development group five years ago, but the recession obliterated their plans for a mixed-use project.
Smith told reporters during a news briefing last week that Mesa is in no hurry to fill the 25 acres.
“We’re going to let things happen organically,” Smith said.
“That’s a special piece of property and when light rail gets in we don’t know exactly how the dynamics will play out. I think Site 17 will really come into play after light rail gets in.”
The three-mile rail extension is scheduled to begin carrying passengers through downtown Mesa by late 2015. Construction in the downtown core has wrapped up for the year, leaving the business district without barricades during tourist season.
Smith said Site 17 eventually could be home to one or more of Mesa’s downtown colleges. ??????
Benedictine University, Wilkes University and Westminster College began offering classes this fall in renovated city-owned buildings.
If they grow as expected, Smith said, “a lot of this vacant land in downtown will be needed to meet some of their needs.”
Site 17 is hardly the only downtown issue Mesa will be juggling in the next few years. Another is the tract immediately north of the eight-story city office building at Main and Center streets.
Voters last fall approved bond money to design the roughly one-block area as an urban events plaza. Future construction funds would have to come from additional bonds or other sources.
Smith said master’s degree students at Arizona State University have been working on design concepts and will be aided by a professional architect hired by the city.
He’s thinking big ?? when it comes to the plaza. He likens it to Millennium Park in Chicago, which provides not just a public gathering place but also has sparked massive redevelopment.
Here's a link to the Presentation - it's 29 pages
: http://mesa.legistar.com/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=2884066&GUID=43ABE4CD-209F-444D-A994-DEEBB3FFA60C
Jeffrey McVay, AICP Manager of Downtown Transformation
Jeffrey Robbins, CPM Management Asst. II
Lucia Lopez Marketing and Comm. Specialist II
Jeffrey Robbins, CPM Management Asst. II
Lucia Lopez Marketing and Comm. Specialist II
How the public contributed? - 1873 Survey Responses
[Blogger's note: that's in a city of over 465,000 people]
1. Online Survey
2. Online Survey Kiosk [notebook on tabletop in Mesa Main Public Library]
Totals for surveys included in the presentation: Survey respondents were only 10% from directly adjacent neighborhoods on either side of the 30-acre empty land parcel.
- 10% from adjacent neighborhoods Washington/Escobedo
- 10% prefer not to say
- 11% outside of Mesa
- 18% Mesa business community
- 51% other Mesa resident
3. Community Meetings [2]
Online Survey & Community Meeting Results [11-13]
Residential Use
Non-Residential
Public Amenities
Streetscape & Pedestrian Connections
Transition to Wilbur Historic District
SUMMARY OF THE COMMUNITY VISION
Future development of University and Mesa Drives:
- Provides a significant market-rate residential component, with an emphasis on for-sale product such as attached and detached singlefamily and condominiums
- Low-scale residential development provides a transition between the Wilbur Historic District and future development
- Future residents have access to public open space connected with tree lined streets
- Future residents have safe and convenient access to an active restaurant and retail district in the downtown core, with commercial development limited within the neighborhood
DEVELOPER’S PERSPECTIVE: RESIDENTIAL
Residents See: An aesthetically pleasing, primarily residential neighborhood of owner occupied units, such as attached and detached single-family and townhomes
Developers See: An aesthetically pleasing, primarily residential neighborhood that could include single family, condo, or apartment uses depending on market demand
DEVELOPER’S PERSPECTIVE: NON-RESIDENTIAL
Residents See: Opportunity for some mixed-use development with retail that supports the neighborhood with access to restaurants and retail within the downtown core
Developers See: Potential for some office development and limited neighborhood serving commercial, such as live/work units, rather than a mixed-use development
DEVELOPER’S PERSPECTIVE: PUBLIC AMENITIES
Residents See: Neighborhood system of pocket parks and open space that can be programmed with elements, such as a farmer’s market, and connected to a larger open space network
Developers See: Public amenities as an important part of any successful development
DEVELOPER’S PERSPECTIVE: STREETSCAPE AND PEDESTRIAN CONNECTIONS
Residents See: Attractive, shade tree-lined streets with room for pedestrian amenities
Developers See: Attractive, shade tree-lined streets with room for pedestrian amenities
DEVELOPER’S PERSPECTIVE: TRANSITION TO WILBUR HISTORIC DISTRICT
Residents See: Attached and detached single-family housing with a walkable, green buffer along 2nd Street
Developers See: Low-intensity residential “feathering” to higher intensity use further away from Wilbur Historic District
DISCUSSION AND DIRECTION ON FUTURE DEVELOPMENT ... ????????????????????
Additional related content from April of this year from ASU Now
Reinventing downtown Mesa: ASU students develop visions for the city core
On April 27, the students presented their ideas to City of Mesa officials and personnel — a group that included the mayor, vice mayor, several council members, and key players in economic development as well as the city’s planning offices. . .
Mayor Giles responded with enthusiasm, too. “The presentations touched on several ideas that staff is currently exploring, and to me that was validation that we are on the right track to recapturing the true potential of downtown,” he said. “The students’ emphasis on bringing more people downtown and keeping them here longer was key.“It was great to get the students’ perspectives on how we can move downtown Mesa to the next level.”
“Reinvent Downtown Mesa” was a project of PUP 494/561, Urban Design Workshop, a course taught by affiliate faculty member Lauren Allsopp. Students enrolled in the course were Lauren Black and Andrew Rogge (BS in Urban Planning) and Dian Chen, Bailey DuBois, Siyuan Han, Adenike Opejin, Samantha Rhea, Melissa Spriegel and Kezhen Wang (Master of Urban and Environmental Planning).
The complete report - all 85bpages of it - is available here. The course is an offering of ASU’s School of Geographical Sciences and Urban Planning, an academic unit of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.
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