For-Profit Religion is Fast Transforming Downtown Mesa Into A Satellite of Salt Lake City

Jim Walsh, staff writer for the East Valley Tribune has another spoon-fed story ready-to-tell about the small-scale version  of the 23-acre City Creek Reserve at Temple Square. It's been planned with city officials for years. No financial details were ever disclosed to the public. . . . We were all occupied by the tricky public relations campaign for "a satellite ASU campus" that taxpayers rejected in 2016 - only to get tricked two years later to approve about $75M for ASU @ Mesa City Center.

There's nothing there now above the ground in the city employee parking lot next to City Hall - there's a SITE REVIEW for the Zoning Case scheduled for September 25, 2019 that would allow 'a university campus" and "a public plaza"

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3-pronged temple-area project rolls along

By Jim Walsh, Tribune Staff Writer 11 hrs ago

"Mesa residents will soon get a glimpse into what the Residences at Mesa and Main project will look like, now that crews have completed the core structure of a massive parking garage..."

HUH? Where has Jim Walsh been for the past two months? Trying to get his story straight from the horses' mouth or what?

BLOGGER NOTE: The image at left is the one featured in Walsh's would-be story. It's out of date.
The massive 450-car underground parking garage was topped off months ago.
^The image above is today ^

"The City Creek Reserve redevelopment project ...has been hidden for months behind a construction fence while workers dug a giant hole for the 450-space garage"
That was Prong #1  

Now what about those two other "Prongs" in his 3-pronged project?.

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Prong #2 "Now the garage construction is well underway, crews will start focusing on the rest of the mixed-use community of 240 apartments, 12 townhomes, 1.6 acres of open landscaped space and approximately 12,000 square feet of ground floor retail. "

 

Prong #3 Crews are working on a third element in the overhaul of Mesa’s “temple block’’ – the restoration of First Avenue, which is lined by 1920s vintage bungalows, into the grand entrance of the temple.

A project which was first envisioned when the temple opened in 1927.

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The design for the First Avenue facelift is targeted for completion in October."

So much for that Temple Historic District!

The sign on Udall Street almost got trashed!
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Sorry, folks, but your MesaZona blogger 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.
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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.
(This is all from a post on this blog back in November of last year)

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.
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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.
  

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"City officials said previous bond issues approved by voters for transportation, water and sewer is paying for basic improvements while City Creek Reserve will design and maintain a lusher level of landscaping."

“At the end of the day, I think this will be a great landscape design for the neighbors,’’

Vice Mayor Mark Freeman said in June.

 

Councilmember Jen Duff, who represents the district, said she is pleased there is no exchange of money between the city and City Creek and each party’s responsibilities are clear.

 

 

"Jeff McVay, Mesa’s director of downtown transformation, said the price for the facelift will not be determined until the design is completed.

The project is anticipated to be finished by fall 2020."

 

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WANT MORE >

"Historic preservationists mourned the loss of a piece of Mesa’s past, with the homes along Udall Street considered an early example of suburbanization beyond the city’s original town square.

In the end, however, there was nothing they could do to the stop the houses’ removal after a moratorium period expired.

With that chapter closed, a new one is about to start as workers begin framing the series of three- and four-story buildings that are part of the project. In recent weeks, some concrete block staircases and trash shuts have emerged above ground.

“That’s when you will get the most dramatic. The next couple of months will be fun to watch,’’ Duke said. “The framing is the part I am most excited about.’’

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