First of all let's look at what a Charrette is generally agreed on to be - and then take a look if the Mesa Downtown Planning Charrette staged yesterday at 08:00 in The Mesa Chamber of Commerce offices yesterday 14 November 2017 met the general criteria.
The image to the right above shows David Crummey (with a beard and glasses and both arms and hands raised, sitting against the wall). He's the real estate development specialist in NGO NEDCO and one of the organizers of RAIL, a downtown community group, making some points during the interplay of expressed opinions - he mentioned concerns about affordable and attainable housing, displacement and gentrification as well as stating that his vision for downtown Mesa planning was "an authentic historical traditional All-American city". . . does his vision in any way connect with what the so-called "Pioneers" sent here by Brigham Young found here and incorporated in 1878 in the original land and water claims to establish the historic One-Square Mile that is now downtown Mesa or in any way conform to what is "All-American"???
To the left is another "Word Cloud" provided by Mark Morris/VODA that shows the relative strengths of replies to the question from the 35-40 selected few respondents at the beginning of the Summer.
What is Mesa's strength over other communities in the Phoenix region?
Readers will notice that Lightrail is a major response in two aspects: in a perfect world the expansion of public transportation options drives and accelerates "smart growth". At the same time it's usually found that real estate land values in close proximity are increased.
Perhaps that helps to propel all these recent proposals piling-on and atop city-owned parking lots/land-banks to lure and entice investment million$ with the recent and long-standing consolidation of real estate holding companies, as well as the small group of privately-owned property owners who already have stakes in the downtown real estate market. . . will this time around two years after the expansion of Valley Metro Light Rail into the Mesa Central Business District change a 30-year history of The Urban 'Donut-Hole' here in downtown Mesa?
Mebbe these plans will do the trick to convince investors and developers to pour their 'dough' into the real estate-risk pool here?
But let's get back to the Mesa Chamber of Commerce Charrette on Tue November 14th. For your MesaZona blogger it was hard to decide if this was a last-minute-with-a deadline Charrette or a charade where you have to guess what's going on
Or for that matter why did the Mesa Chamber of Commerce decide to hire and pay VODA, a team of landscape architects and community planners based in Salt Lake City, Utah partnering with SOJ, a company from Ogden, Utah, to plan a vision for development here in Mesa, Arizona?????
Are there no other states or no other cities - or urban planners - that could have been places-to-go as resources for setting goals?
Mark Morris, who was in charge of yesterday's charrette shown in the image above left, is here for two days with some other staff to hear from all stakeholders and interested persons.
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| Kent Lyons |
Price tag is $60,000,000
There's also an enticement in the $3M-dollar package for the developer - whoever it might be - to buy the three-acre property using controversial GPLETs in the usual eight year time span.
That's all in exchange for improvements in public infrastructure, according to an MOU in the agreement.
The image below shows a conceptual rendering of a grand proposal including a 15-story hotel/75 above market-rent apartment tower + commercial/mixed-use development [way out-out-scale and proportion to the two-story historic Drew Building fronting on Main Street at bottom center] that is to be sited over a less-than-one-acre parking lot on Drew Street with 103 parking spaces. Its main selling point for developer investment and potential funding in an MOU agreed to by the City of Mesa and MACDev LLC is close proximity to the Mesa Arts Center at Main/Center.
_________________________________________________________________________Blogger Note: See >
AZCentral.com-Jul 14, 2017
It would be the tallest building in downtown Mesa — at least for now, according to the ... Bob Worsley and Kent Lyons are partners in the development. ... Arizona State University's downtown Phoenix campus is often cited as a ...
Also see >
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That's if the ideas and thoughts that were discussed do get incorporated into the final plans, whatever it might be.
Readers of this blog might notice that are two structures sticking out way above the usual two, three, four or five-story buildings in the downtown cityscape.
Except for a few trees dotting the streetscape there is no central open green [and programmable]public space - instead we have huge tracts of asphalt-topped parking lots that are, as you can see in the scale-model from VODA, largely empty most of the time.
Charrette = a meeting in which all stakeholders in a project attempt to resolve conflicts and map solutions before a deadline.
Charrette = an intensive planning session where citizens, designers and others collaborate on a vision for development.
Through brainstorming and design activity, many goals are accomplished during the charrette:
> First, everyone who has a stake in the project develops a vested interest in the ultimate vision.
> Second, the design team works together to produce a set of finished documents that address all aspects of design.
> Third, since the input of all the players is gathered at one event, it is possible to avoid the prolonged discussions that typically delay conventional planning projects.
> Finally, the finished result is produced more efficiently and cost-effectively because the process is collaborative.
Charrettes are organized to encourage the participation of all.
Although the structure of charrettes may vary, the general idea of a charrette is to create an innovative atmosphere in which a diverse group of stakeholders can collaborate to "generate visions for the future".
> First, everyone who has a stake in the project develops a vested interest in the ultimate vision.
> Second, the design team works together to produce a set of finished documents that address all aspects of design.
> Third, since the input of all the players is gathered at one event, it is possible to avoid the prolonged discussions that typically delay conventional planning projects.
> Finally, the finished result is produced more efficiently and cost-effectively because the process is collaborative.
Charrettes are organized to encourage the participation of all.
That includes everyone who is interested in the making of a development: the developer, business interests, government officials, interested residents, and activists.
Ultimately, the purpose of the charrette is to give all the participants enough information to make good decisions during the planning process...Although the structure of charrettes may vary, the general idea of a charrette is to create an innovative atmosphere in which a diverse group of stakeholders can collaborate to "generate visions for the future". 
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