City of Mesa Planning & Zoning Board Meeting 11 June /2025...DATA CENTER ALLEY REDUX

SO, WHO WENT MISSING - THOSE OTHER NO-SHOW BOARD MEMBERS. 

Convenient, Huh?

 

Board Responsibilities

The seven members conduct hearings and make recommendations to the City Council on requests for changes in zoning and on required site plans. They also consider and recommend changes in the City's long-range plans and in the Municipal Code concerning planning and zoning matters. Members are appointed for staggered terms of three years. Meetings are broadcast live on Mesa Channel 11.

For a full explanation of the duties and responsibilities of the Planning and Zoning Board, please see: Title 2- Zoning Ordinance, Chapter 1 of the Mesa City Code of Ordinances.

Board Members

Board Member	Date Appointed	Term Expires
Benjamin Ayers, Chair	7/1/2023	6/30/2026
Jeff Pitcher, Vice Chair	7/1/2022	6/30/2025
Troy Peterson, Boardmember	7/1/2021	6/30/2027
Genessee Montes, Boardmember	8/25/2022	6/30/2025
Jamie Blakeman, Boardmember	7/1/2023	6/30/2026
Jayson Carpenter, Boardmember	7/1/2023	6/30/2026
Chase Farnsworth, Boardmember	7/1/2024	6/30/2027

Contact

Staff Contact
Evan Balmer
480-644-6713
evan.balmer@mesaaz.gov

City of Mesa Planning Division
55 N. Center Street
PO Box 1466
Mesa, AZ 85211-1466

 

RELATED CONTENT ON THIS BLOG

 

1 2019 Bill Jabjiniak, Mesa’s economic development director, said the boom is no coincidence and represents eight years of planning to lure the high-tech companies and their high-paying jobs to Mesa.

“I would tell you this is a vision that started eight years ago,’’ Jabjiniak said, saying it was back then that he and his colleagues started assembling the infrastructure vital to data centers. . .OK What about the water??

. . .that's the most precious commodity here in the desert and The East Valley - it's not mentioned, left out!

 

 01 June 2021

It's about time Rogue Columnist Jon Talton warmed-up his pen and hit on this subject:

May 31, 2021

The data center hustle

 

"Data centers becoming dominant force in Mesa," reads the headline on a recent East Valley Tribune story. The lede: "It may never rival Silicon Valley, but Mesa is fast becoming Data Center Alley." 

 

This "Alley" isn't transforming struggling west Mesa and it's nowhere near the light-rail line. Instead, it's centered on the "Elliott Avenue Technology Corridor" in far southeast Mesa, the location of agriculture, desert, and the former Williams Air Force Base. Now, with abundant concrete, gravel, and asphalt, it will expand the increasingly dangerous Phoenix urban heat island. The "Corridor" is entirely car dependent.

Data centers are lowest on the ladder of the tech economy: necessary, but bringing few jobs — much less high-end jobs — and several headaches. This is why they are usually found in rural areas desperate to replace their lost millwork, manufacturing, or railroad jobs. States and localities shell out huge incentives and disappointment follows. . .

Another problem with Data Center Alley: These massive server farms are water hogs. Elsewhere, they contribute to climate change because of their enormous appetite for electricity. Maybe Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station helps Mesa here. It's only built upwind of the nation's fifth most populous city.

And no evidence has emerged that data centers are a gateway to more advanced tech work. Metro Phoenix got nowhere in its bid for Amazon HQ2.

Read more closely and it's clear that Mesa's "technology corridor" is yet another Arizona real-estate hustle, dependent on cheap farmland and tilt-up buildings, plus a heapin' helping of tax breaks — in a state that ranks second from last in per-student funding. . .

After All These Years The Time Is (Almost) Right To Hit Pay-Dirt: City Planner Tom Ellsworth + The 4-in-One Zoning Case

< Here's one picture that's worth more than just a few thousandwords, two hours of your time watching a video-on-demand, and history going back to a bygone era in the 1880's. It's the next step in the development process after passing through the Mesa Planning & Zoning Board. It's been years in the making

 

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