Yesterday's Mesa City Council Study Session Thu 27 June 2019



Let's get "THE BIG NEWS STORY: out of the way first, from favorite Go-to staff writer for the East Valley Tribune Jim Walsh
Google picks Mesa for giant data center
Jun 27, 2019 Updated 13 hrs ago
Technology giant Google is coming to Mesa, lured by a tax incentive agreement to build a massive data center in the emerging Elliot Road Technology Corridor.
In a major coup for the city, Google will join fellow tech heavyweight Apple, which already operates a large data center in the same area of southeast Mesa.
The Mesa City Council is primed to approve the Google development agreement at its meeting on Monday night. . .
“In terms of a financial deal, this is home run. This is a great day,’’ Mayor John Giles said, after the council discussed the deal Thursday morning during an hour-long executive session.
Giles said there are still elements of the project that need to be worked out – such as Google buying the property, 186 acres located at Elliot and Sossaman roads in southeast Mesa.
Giles said Google’s decision to build the data center in Mesa means that the Elliot Road Tech Corridor will be anchored at each end by one of the world’s largest tech companies, Apple and Google.
“There’s no city that would not be envious of that,’’ Giles said.
He said the project has been known to insiders by a code name, “Project Red Hawk,’’ for more than a year because Mesa signed a confidentiality agreement with Google.
Vice Mayor Mark Freeman said that Google would be buying the property - 186 acres - from the Morrison family, long time East Valley farmers who have been selling off parts of their holdings for different types of developments, including the Morrison Ranch subdivision in southeast Gilbert.
Bill Jabjiniak, Mesa’s economic development director, played a major role in the negotiations. In a slideshow after the executive session, estimated the Google project will produce $156,567,507 in revenues for the city.
The slideshow said the property would produce $3,604 in property tax in 2019 as an agricultural use and $162,007 during a 25-year period if the use remains unchanged.
> . . . The agreement also requires Mesa to make available 1,120-acre feet of water to Google initially, and that the amount can eventually grow to 4,480-acre feet per year if Google reaches certain development milestones.
Jabiniak said data centers use the water for evaporative cooling. He said the availability of electricity from Salt River Project also was vital in Mesa’s efforts to recruit Google.
Google has up to five years to begin construction on data center and up to 10 years to finish building it, under the terms of the agreement, Jabiniak said. . .
WANT TO DIVE INTO IT DEEPER > click or tap here
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Monday has other important Events

• Audit, Finance & Enterprise Committee Meeting
  07/01/2019 4:00 PM - 5:00 PM
• City Council Study Session
  07/01/2019 5:00 PM - 5:45 PM
• City Council Meeting
  07/01/2019 5:45 PM - 7:00 PM

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Readers of this blog can locate and read all the agendas by click or tap here
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 Of all the other items on the agenda, one got a lot of attention yesterday: Lehi Cove
It's an area near and dear to Mormons here in Mesa - even before there was ever a place named "Mesa" 
Lehi was initially known as Jonesville and Fort Utah; it did not receive the name of Lehi until 1883 when LDS Apostle Brigham Young, Jr. recommended renaming the settlement after the prophet Lehi from the Book of Mormon . . .
[There's a Lehi Cove located in Utah]

Lehi is now a distinct community within Mesa, Arizona, although Lehi existed prior to the founding of Mesa. Lehi was annexed into its much larger former neighbor in 1970, and is now the northern limit of central Mesa.
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To the other majority of others - some 500,000+ people who live here now - Lehi might not matter much. However, it is the first item to take up a lot of time at the study in the Lower Chambers, especially when there are so many other important items to be heard and discussed. It's typical of the city council presided over by mayor John Giles to set the stage he wants and schedule time at these public meetings to take away attention and to distract people.
Giles immediately gets cued and prompted by City Manager Chris Brady to go to Item 2-b where there's already a pre-arranged panel of three individuals to discuss Environmental Air Quality.
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Bad air days on the rise: The nation's most polluted city is ...

by Doyle Rice

BLOGGER NOTE: After six cities in California, Phoenix/Mesa is the most polluted area in the entire country

". . . About 141 million Americans live with unhealthful levels of air pollution, the report says, placing them at risk for premature death, lung cancer, asthma attacks, cardiovascular damage and developmental and reproductive harm.

This is a higher number than either of the reports from 2017 and 2018. . . "

Source: USA Today 24 April 2019

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PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU WATCH THIS STREAMING VIDEO UPLOAD TO YOUTUBE
Note: District 6 Councilmember Kevin Thompson leaves right at the beginning . . .
Who you see in this screen-grab is the Director of the ADEQ who's job is to clean up the environment in the State of Arizona and in Maricopa County where federal Clean Air Standards have been consistently violated year-after-year - 2019 is getting worse.
NOTHING ABOUT THOSE SERIOUS LIFE-THREATENING HAZARD AND RISKS TO THE PUBLIC AT THIS HEARING - Please watch the opening minutes of the presentation to see what city employee introduces the panel. It's all about getting approval for one more new real estate development named Lehi Cove that requires an annexation of more land!
Longtime City Planning Director John Wesley has been replaced by the little noticed new planning director Nana Appiah whom we know little about - he first provides background in the presentation although he's not as clear-speaking as the former city planning director.

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