THE BIG DIG at The Downtown Mesa LDS Temple Continues + The City Wants To Seize Using Eminent Domain More Properties

Sorry, folks, but your MesaZona has more than just a few concerns about all the plans that for-profit investment affiliates of The Church of Jesus Christ of The Latter-Day Saints have for a Massive Mormon Makeover for the LDS Temple Area Transformation.
It's been controversial from the get-go when plans were 'revealed' back in May and June after we learned they had been working behind-the-scenes with city officials for years.
It got fast-tracked approvals zinging through normal process.

If demolitions of homes in the Temple Historic District weren't already enough to raise our eye-brows six months ago creating a series of public controversies going on for months in front of the Planning & Zoning Board and in front of the Mesa City Council,, we have even more reasons now to raise a little more ruckus about an item on the Tentative Agenda for next Monday, November 19th at 5:45 pm.

City of Mesa File #18-1312 . . . even more actions in behind-the-scenes negotiations with city staff:
Staff has successfully negotiated purchases on 90 parcels (67 property owners) and continues to negotiate with the remaining 38 parcels (25 property owners) but have not yet been able to acquire the property. 
In order to avoid construction delays, authorizing and directing staff that fee title, easements or other interests in and possession of certain property be acquired by the City of Mesa through eminent domain as a matter of public necessity. (District 4)
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File #:

18-1312

Type:

Resolution

Status:

Agenda Ready

In control:

City Council

On agenda:

11/19/2018

Title:

Staff is requesting approval to continue negotiations to acquire certain property pertaining to a necessary street improvement project located along Mesa Drive, from 8th Avenue to Main Street, and along Broadway Road, from Wilbur to Lesueur.  Staff has successfully negotiated purchases on 90 parcels (67 property owners) and continues to negotiate with the remaining 38 parcels (25 property owners) but have not yet been able to acquire the property.  In order to avoid construction delays, authorizing and directing staff that fee title, easements or other interests in and possession of certain property be acquired by the City of Mesa through eminent domain as a matter of public necessity. (District 4)

Attachments:

1. Council Report, 2. Resolution, 3. Exhibit A - Parcel Map, 4. Parcel Spreadsheet

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THE NEXT REVEAL IN THE INTERSECTION OF FOR-PROFIT RELIGION AND POLITICS HERE IN MESA
Now that some of the crew has been working behind-the-scenes and some of the props are ready, it's time once again  to lift the curtain TO REVEAL SOMETHING.
The suspense has been building for the next act about to appear before your very eyes. And once again, whoever said that "Mesa is boring" was trying to take our eyes off just how exciting and thrilling the powers-that-be inside City Hall and the salaried talent working in city government can be if you really take a good look.

Today's drama is a just a Sneak-Peek Preview of actions scheduled on the 34-Item agenda for The Mesa City Council on November 19, 2018.
No financial details were ever made in May/June 2018 
Time is of the essence

Here's a mapping of the area that encompasses about 20 acres where for-profit investment affiliates of the Mesa Mormon LDS have stakes.
Indeed this was one of the first areas outside the original one-square mile boundaries of downtown where an increase in population of Latter-Day Saints in organized geographic areas they call stakes and wards demands expansion into another area.
These planned expansions then require extensive support and water/sewer/energy infrastructure, access roads and transportation connections. Fire/Medical and Police follow.
There was first a Kimball Addition and a Stapley Addition.
The area additionally benefited from water/sewer lines installed on First Avenue in a post-Depression era WPA project in 1938-1939 that created jobs here in Mesa.
Southside Hospital here in downtown was also another WPA project
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It's all about city officials using that shameless tool in the old Urban Planning-Tool-Box called EMINENT DOMAIN to seize and acquire title to private property rights.
It's what city officials and city staff want to use again - what they say ingenuously  "is a matter of public necessity".
Hard to believe city officials are trying to pull off this stunt again after the debacle and fiasco 10 years ago trying to seize Bailey's Brake Service by using Eminent Domain. That blew up big time when Mike Wallace exposed it nationwide on the Sunday Night Prime Time investigative reporting show Sixty Minutes.

Blogger Note:
There appears to be a kink in the plans of the For-Profit investment affiliates of The LDS Church to capitalize on a Massive Mormon Make-Over around The Temple Area Transformation in Downtown Mesa.  
You can use the Searchbox in the upper left-hand top corner of this site to see a number of posts during the last six months for more background and details for what was about four acres than has more than doubled in size at the same time that the temple structure is closed for renovations.