"Developers, zoning attorneys and others with financial stakes in growth are among the most common contributors to city council campaigns. In the last campaign finance filing period, The Arizona Republic found that at least 44 percent of individual contributions to Mesa City Council candidates are from those involved in development.
Donors include developers chosen by council for a massive office park project on city-owned land, a state senator redeveloping a swath of properties along Mesa's Main Street and dairy farmers looking to rezone and sell their land for development
22 April 2018
Re-Inventing The Beehive: Mesa City Officials + Real Estate Developers
Hardly anyone is blowing-the-whistle on this, but fortunes in real estate have been made - and wealth created -
for generations of mostly LDS families (and latter-day family trusts) send out in the mid 1800's on missions from Utah by the Prophet Joseph Smith to expand their corner of The Kingdom they called Deseret into Mexico and the Valley of The Sun in what was to be the State of Arizona and Maricopa and Pinal Counties.
They first claimed the land and water rights over vast territories along the Rio Salado (Spanish name for The Salt River), expanding the centuries-old canals that supported 80,000 indigenous peoples before the arrival of 'The Pioneers'. . . the region began to thrive.
- In the early 1900's the federal government stepped into the picture by financing to harness hydroelectric energy in the construction of a series of dams from Roosevelt Lake to Mount Stewart here in northeast Mesa.
- At the same time waters in the canal system fed thousands of acres for an agriculture industry including citrus groves through the post-World War II boom creating a suburban housing demand that sprawled and gobbled-up previous agricultural acreage, delivering fortunes.
- Housing far from jobs spurred millions if federal, state and taxpayer monies for the construction of freeway and highway infrastructure from the Superstitions on Route 60 running east-to-west driving a commuter-culture and loops of 202 locking in the boundaries for Maricopa County.
- Real estate holding companies bought up nearly all the land and partnered-up with developers and investors.
Blogger Note: Any number of stories published in mainstream media can be adapted to tell the story
Story #1 Sympathy for a Bygone-Era
... but here's the plan
FROM JULY 2019
Jordan Rose and dairyman Jim Boyle, Jr. talk to Phoenix Business Journal about Hawes Crossing project
Posted by Staff / July 12, 2019
Homebuilder’s eye state land for growth
By Angela Gonzales | Phoenix Business Journal
No group may have a more intimate view of the struggle to develop homes and businesses using Arizona-owned land than dairy farmer Jim Boyle Jr. and his cows.
Boyle is among a group of dairy farmers in Mesa working to transform their property into a 1,200-acre master-planned community — a process that’s taking years to accomplish.
The path isn’t getting easier. Of the 1,200 acres the farmers plan for the development, about half are state land, said Jordan Rose, zoning attorney with Rose Law Group, who is working with Boyle and the other dairy farmers to get their property and the adjacent state land rezoned. . .
By Angela Gonzales | Phoenix Business Journal
No group may have a more intimate view of the struggle to develop homes and businesses using Arizona-owned land than dairy farmer Jim Boyle Jr. and his cows.
Boyle is among a group of dairy farmers in Mesa working to transform their property into a 1,200-acre master-planned community — a process that’s taking years to accomplish.
The path isn’t getting easier. Of the 1,200 acres the farmers plan for the development, about half are state land, said Jordan Rose, zoning attorney with Rose Law Group, who is working with Boyle and the other dairy farmers to get their property and the adjacent state land rezoned. . .
 |
Dairy farm supporters who showed up at PZ Board 10/23/2019 |
East Valley's last dairy farmers look to develop 860 acres, leave area
This is from October 2017 by Lily Altavena
"As he looks out at acre after acre of his dairy farm, Jim Boyle Jr. is not wistful at the idea of leaving the land his family has farmed for 40 years. He's hopeful.
Christened the "inner loop" by those in the planning effort, it's the area near Loop 202 around Elliot and Hawes Road.
History continues: ". . . But that was back when farmland was more prevalent than strip malls. In the intervening years, the landscape changed. . ."
District 6 Mesa City Councilmember Kevin Thompson is quoted as saying that he
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HERE'S IT IS JUST 3 DAYS AGO > on the back of taxpayers
Mesa to sink $10 million into Elliot Road expansion for tech corridor
"I see it a lot like Price Road corridor (in Chandler) or like Silicon Valley, once you build it, the others will come," ???
THE BIG IF :
"As he looks out at acre after acre of his dairy farm, Jim Boyle Jr. is not wistful at the idea of leaving the land his family has farmed for 40 years. He's hopeful.
"The East Valley had a large number of dairies, and they’ve all been replaced by development," he said. "Which, you know, is good in a lot of ways, most of those guys were able to sell their land and build bigger dairies."
Boyle Jr.'s dairy is one of five in the neighborhood near southeast Mesa involved in a massive, 860-acre zoning request. . . " How massive is it?
Their decision hinges on Mesa annexing and zoning the land to increase its value for sale to a developer.
If the dairymen are successful in zoning the primarily-agriculture land to housing, commercial and other uses, it's likely they'll pack up and sell . .
The neighborhood borders Gilbert.
Much of the land falls within Maricopa County and will require annexation into Mesa before development could take off. . .
The group of dairy farmers plan to take their zoning application to Mesa later this year, according to Jordan Rose, the attorney representing the farmers.
The group wants to work with city officials to refine the plan for approval by the City Council next year.
The proposed land-use plan so far includes residential, urban mixed-use, commercial and office space areas. . .
Here's the history-angle to the story: A long history in dairy farming
Boyle Jr.'s family has been dairy farming in Arizona since the 1880s, and in the Phoenix area since the 1920s. His grandfather milked cows. His father milked cows. In the 1970s, the family's dairy landed in the Mesa area.
It was a popular spot for dairies: Dutch dairy farmers, too, settled in the vast expanse of agricultural land around the same time . . .
Blogger Note: remember the word "Dutch" --- it's part an even BIGGER STORY involving over 11,000 acres in Pinal County that started off by the City of Mesa selling off lands.
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Blogger Note: The City of Mesa bought up almost 4,000 acres in what used to the General Motors Proving Grounds to facilitate, among other things two "Community Facilities Districts", Master-Planned gated secluded high-end gated communities named Cadence at Gateway and Eastmark.
". . . Eastmark, one of the nation's top-selling communities, is now right across the freewayfrom the proposed development area.
The changes haven't been contained to just dairy farming. Citrus farming, too, is waning.
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WANING??? Huh?
Blogger Note: The low acreage-assessments for lands growing citrus and other crops are easily converted into a higher-value assets in transactions handled by "friends-and-family" when purchased and sold for housing, auto plexes, strip malls and shopping centers.
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"Ever since World War II, with the rapid urban expansion of the city, all of the Valley cities, agriculture has just kind of disappeared, . . ???
According to the article by Lily Altavena, someone in the area around the dairy farm "is enthusiastic that the dairies may give way to development and so are her neighbors, she said. "At this point, we’re excited for anything," she said.
Trying to sell the land as it's zoned now would yield little, Boyle Jr. said.
"Nobody wants the land, there’s not a demand for (agricultural zoning)."
The plan the dairymen are putting together includes single-family homes, commercial, office, and park space.
"does not want to see hasty planning.
He wants the area to grow strategically, with opportunities for businesses to expand, maybe more office space.
Big companies have moved in right across the freeway in the Elliot Road Technology Corridor near Signal Butte.
Apple has a massive data center.
A Niagara bottling facility is under construction down the street. . .
Let’s work together to figure out what’s the best thing to put there and not just put housing up because that’s the easiest way to sell property and make a buck," Thompson said.
The proposed inner loop development is not in the corridor, but there is talk to extend the area to include the land, a city spokesperson said
The dairymen want a decision by around spring 2018.
Link >
https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/mesa/2017/10/21/east-valleys-last-dairy-farmers-look-develop-860-acres-leave-area/773188001/_______________________________________________
HERE'S IT IS JUST 3 DAYS AGO > on the back of taxpayers
Mesa to sink $10 million into Elliot Road expansion for tech corridor
Data centers aren't necessarily regional employment centers, according to Bart Hobjin, an economics professor at Arizona State University. They are often highly automated and need few people to operate.
But Mesa officials are looking beyond the data centers — to the tech companies that will want to "cluster" around the centers, Jabjiniak said.
"Often data centers attract other high-tech companies," he said.
That's why the city aims to boost its infrastructure around the area, trumpeting special dark fiber connections useful to companies with high-tech operations.
Jabjiniak also said the big companies behind the data centers will generate a substantial amount of tax revenue.
> Mesa isn't offering tax breaks to companies coming to the corridor, instead focusing on boosting infrastructure.
> The state does, however, offer tax breaks for data centers.
> Mesa isn't offering tax breaks to companies coming to the corridor, instead focusing on boosting infrastructure.
> The state does, however, offer tax breaks for data centers.
Hobjin concurs with Mesa's strategy, especially as companies in California relocate to less expensive states, like Arizona.
"We have the skilled local labor supply," he said.
Thompson says the roadway improvements will help neighboring communities such as Eastmark, which need the expanded infrastructure to keep up with the pace of development.
"I’m hopeful that we’ll end up with an employment corridor to go along with that," he said.
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