PLANNING & ZONING BOARD VIRTUAL PLATFORM MEETINGS (2) Wed 07.29.2020

Final agendas were printed on 07.23.2020 as required. As you can see by the opening visual graphic to the left, the next stage is REACTIVE...
So scroll farther down and read the agendas and meeting details for information: for example,
A new chair and vice chair will be elected
There's a new member, an architect
Staff Planner Ryan McCann presents 3 cases in District 6
There's a Planning Director's Update
At 4:00 pm there's a Public Hearing

>>> A NOTE ABOUT CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
Whether it is deliberate (or not) all too frequently citizens and members of the public are simply not active nor engaged in their own democratic government, or for that matter know what actions/decisions board and committee appointees make. . . There's at least one item on Wednesday's agenda
for a broad request that will establish commercial zoning for future development. At the same time it is unusual to combine that issue with an annexation case in the same request.


Planning and Zoning Board - Study Session
City of Mesa
Meeting Agenda - Final
3:00 Virtual PlatformWednesday, July 29, 2020
Mesa Council Chambers 57 East First Street
Vice Chair Dane Astle
Boardmember Jessica Sarkissian
Boardmember Tim Boyle
Boardmember Shelly Allen
Boardmember Jeffrey Crockett
Boardmember Deanna Villanueva-Saucedo
Boardmember Benjamin Ayers

1 Call meeting to order
2 Election of Planning and Zoning Board Officers:
                a. Chair
                b. Vice Chair
3 Review items on the agenda for the July 29, 2020 regular Planning and Zoning Board Hearing
4 Planning Director's Updates
                a. Status of staff on-going work on text amendments to the Mesa Zoning Ordinance and   General Plan          
5 Adjournment.
_________________________________________________________________________________

Planning and Zoning Board - Public Hearing
City of Mesa
Meeting Agenda - Final
4:00 Virtual PlatformWednesday, July 29, 2020
Council Chambers 57 E. First Street
Consent Agenda -
All items listed with an asterisk (*) will be considered as a group by the Board and will be enacted with one motion. 
There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a Board member or citizen requests, in which the item will be removed from the consent agenda, prior to the vote, and considered as a separate item.     
Items on this agenda that must be adopted by ordinance and/or resolution will be on a future City Council agenda. 
Anyone interested in attending the City Council public hearing should call the Planning Division at (480) 644-2385 or review the City Council agendas on the City's website at www.mesaaz.gov to find the agenda on which the item(s) will be placed.

Call meeting to order
1 Take action on all consent agenda items
   Items on the Consent Agenda
2 Approval of minutes from previous meetings
PZ 20098 Minutes from the July 15, 2020 study session and regular hearing
*2-a

Page 1 City of Mesa Printed on 7/23/2020
July 29, 2020Planning and Zoning Board - Public Hearing Meeting Agenda - Final

3 Take action on the following zoning cases:
PZ 20099 ZON20-00049 District 6.
Within the 5200 block of South Ellsworth Road (east side). Located south of Ray Road on the east side of Ellsworth Road. (1.97± acres).
Site Plan Review; and Special Use Permit.
This request will allow for the development of a convenience market and associated service station.     
Jon Naut, QuikTrip, applicant
PPGN-Ellsworth, LLLP, owner.
Planner: Ryan McCann
Staff Recommendation: Approval with conditions
*3-a

PZ 20100 ZON20-00237  District 6. Within the 2800 block of South Signal Butte Road (west side) and within the 10700 block of East Guadalupe Road (south side). Located west of Signal Butte Road and south of Guadalupe Road.
(1.3± acres).
Site Plan Review.
This request will allow for the development of a restaurant with a drive-thru.
Neil Feaser, RKAA Architects, Inc., applicant
GB-SB LLC, owner.
Planner: Ryan McCann
Staff Recommendation: Approval with conditions
*3-b

PZ 20096 ZON20-00250 District 6.
Within the 4900 to 5200 blocks of South Ellsworth Road (east side) and within the 9300 to 9500 blocks of East Ray Road (north side). Located east of Ellsworth Road and north of Ray Road.
(14± acres). 
Site Plan Review.
This request will allow for a multi-residential development within the Eastmark Community.
Drew Olson, PCS Development, applicant
DMB Mesa Proving Grounds, LLC, owner.
Continued from the July 29, 2020 meeting.
Planner: Ryan McCann
Staff Recommendation: Approval with conditions
*3-c

4 Discuss and make a recommendation to the City Council on the following zoning case:
PZ 20091 ZON20-00207 District 6.
Within the 11200 block of East Ray Road (south side) and within the 5200 block of South Mountain Road (east side). Located west of Meridian Road on the south side of Ray Road.
(3.9± acres).
Rezone from RS-43 to NC.
This request will establish commercial zoning for future development.  
Rod Jarbo, applicant
SRF Holding, LLC, owner.
Continued from the July 15, 2020 meeting. 
Planner: Evan Balmer
Staff Recommendation: Approval with conditions
*4-a

File #:

PZ 20091

Type:

PZ Zoning - Discuss and Recommend

Status:

Agenda Ready

In control:

Planning and Zoning Board - Public Hearing

On agenda:

7/29/2020

Title:

ZON20-00207 District 6. Within the 11200 block of East Ray Road (south side) and within the 5200 block of South Mountain Road (east side). Located west of Meridian Road on the south side of Ray Road. (3.9± acres). Rezone from RS-43 to NC. This request will establish commercial zoning for future development.   Rod Jarbo, applicant; SRF Holding, LLC, owner. Continued from the July 15, 2020 meeting.  Planner: Evan Balmer   Staff Recommendation: Approval with conditions

Attachments:

1. Vicinity Map, 2. Staff Report, 3. Narrative, 4. Citizen Participation Plan, 5. Citizen Participation Report, 6. Avigation Easement, 7. Presentation

______________________________________________________________________________
INSERT of selected MEETING DETAILS
Hearing Date(s): July 29, 2020 / 4:00 p.m.
Staff Planner: Evan Balmer
Staff Recommendation: Approval with Conditions
Planning and Zoning Board Recommendation: 
Proposition 207 Waiver Signed: Yes  
HISTORY
> The subject site is currently located outside the City of Mesa city limits and under the land use jurisdiction of Maricopa County. 
> However, the applicant has applied to annex the property into the City of Mesa (Case# ANX20-00206). 
The planned annexation, if approved, will assign a zoning designation of Single Residence 43 (RS-43) on the property, which is comparable with the existing Rural 43 zoning designation within Maricopa County.
The application for the annexation review is planned to be considered on the same City Council date and agenda.    
PROJECT NARRATIVE
SRF Holdings, LLC
APN 304-94-008
Mesa, Arizona Maricopa County
City of Mesa Record ID ANX20-00206/ZON20-00207
3 Relationship to Surrounding Properties 
The subject property is bounded on the north by Ray Road which separates the property from a residential subdivision named Keighley Place with City of Mesa zoning RS-6.
It is bounded on the east and south by Maricopa County residential district RU-43.
The property is bounded on the west by S. Mountain Road which separates it from a residential subdivision named Bella Via Parcel 13 with City of Mesa zoning RS-6.  

Page 2 City of Mesa Printed on 7/23/2020
July 29, 2020Planning and Zoning Board - Public Hearing Meeting Agenda - Final

Items not on the Consent Agenda

Virtual Non-Profit Vitality Council Meeting- July, 7th

China's first mission to the Red Planet

It was one of three in just one week from three different countries

5,900 views

•Jul 23, 2020

Courtesy Post: CO+HOOTS' HUUB network to launch the Mesa CARE Technical Assistance Program and Resource Center.

City of Mesa and CO+HOOTS partner to launch new digital platform to help small businesses affected by pandemic
July 20, 2020 at 2:47 pm

MesaNow City of Mesa NewsroomCO+HOOTS, a globally-recognized entrepreneur support organization, today announced the launch of HUUB, a robust digital platform to support local governments in revitalizing small businesses during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. 

The City of Mesa will be the first to apply this technology driven-approach to business recovery, utilizing CO+HOOTS' HUUB network to launch the Mesa CARE Technical Assistance Program and Resource Center.

The launch of this digital platform will bring community partner organizations and leaders together to specifically help small businesses in Mesa. In one central place, business owners will have access to engaging and relevant webinars that will provide tactical on-demand solutions, invaluable peer-to-peer groups, funding opportunities and the ability to book on-the-fly sessions with top advisors and consultants. Qualifying Mesa businesses that qualify will receive training, education, and services valued at $15,000 to help them emerge from the pandemic. There are already more than 100 businesses that have applied and been accepted into the Mesa CARES Technical Assistance Program.
"Given the strong demand for recovery support due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we're excited to see Mesa take an active approach in responding to the needs of their business community" said Jenny Poon, founder and CEO of CO+HOOTS. 

"By partnering with the City of Mesa, we aim to improve the resiliency of the business community that is the backbone of Mesa while creating efficiencies for the City. We are excited and prepared to take our decade of experience in incubating entrepreneur communities and be of service in this critical time. With our digital platform, cities and community partners can now provide a faster response to small business owners in need and help cities do more, no matter where they are."________________________________________________________________
Mesa Cares for Small Businesses resource center is made possible by the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund under the CARES Act. 

Many of Mesa's community partners will be coming together to provide resources to entrepreneurs through this platform including A New Leaf, LISC, Chicanos Por La Causa, Local First Arizona, Mesa Chamber of Commerce, Benedictine University at Mesa, Northern Arizona University and the East Valley Hispanic Chamber.
"More than half of small business owners surveyed by the City of Mesa said they were significantly affected by COVID-19," Mayor John Giles said. 

"The Mesa CARES Small Business Technical Assistance Program serves small business owners by connecting them to the individualized help they need. We are thrilled to partner with CO+HOOTS to offer easy access to quality business support that strengthens Mesa's economic prosperity."
To qualify for free access to the platform and funding resources, Mesa entrepreneurs and small business owners can apply at mesa.joinhuub.com/. 

Applications are open right now and are on a first-come, first-serve basis.
________________________________________________________________
One of HUUB's main objectives is to directly help entrepreneurs launch, grow and scale their businesses. And because the platform combines CO+HOOTS' community-building and incubation framework with technology, it also provides the necessary tools for local governments to measure success, manage consultants for technical assistance and make smarter decisions. 

The detailed reporting and impact tracking gives economic development teams the ability to scale their support through technology and quickly identify the changing needs of their business community, allowing more time to focus on retaining businesses and recruiting new ones.
Interested in supporting as a speaker or advisor? 

Contact CO+HOOTS Community Organizer Chelsea Smith at chelsea@cohoots.com.
ABOUT CO+HOOTS: 

CO+HOOTS, founded in 2010 as central Phoenix's first co-working space, is an entrepreneurship ecosystem accelerator that provides educational resources and collaborative, self-sustaining spaces to grow the entrepreneurial, startup and small business communities. A globally-recognized entrepreneur support organization, CO+HOOTS is a major catalyst and driver of local economic development.

For more information, please contact Odeen Domingo at odeen@cohoots.com or 602.264.6687.

Sun Triggers Earthquakes, Many Recurrent Novae, Hurricanes | S0 News Jul...

Revelations of Racism In Mormon Land

Yep it's time to lift-the-curtain one more time to continue a long list of featured posts all about The Latter-Day Saints and an American Theocracy with roots going back seven generations or more in The Southwest.
The City of Mesa here in Arizona, incorporated in 1878 and built on the original one-square mile Grid Plan planned by Mormon Prophet Joseph Smith to expand their Utopian Kingdom of Desert bears witness and testimony to a systemic racism they engaged in for more than 150 years.
It may be never-too-late or too soon to admit racism, bias, and discrimination - facing the consequences is harder . . . but are Mormons ready to investigate themselves?
The true believers are just now starting to ask themselves
“...What if we were willing to speak up and stand up against systemic racism because we engaged in it ourselves and have come to understand its consequences?”_______________________________________________________________________________________
NEW BOOK :: “The King of Confidence:
A Tale of Utopian Dreamers, Frontier Schemers, True Believers, False Prophets, and the Murder of an American Monarch.” 

A Mormon historian argues that the LDS Church could and should be a leading voice against racism, not because it never practiced it but rather because it did.

“Rather than be hobbled by our past racism, what if we owned it and used our shared history to stand in places of empathy?"

W. Paul Reeve, head of Mormon studies at the University of Utah, asks in an

article for the Faith Matters website.

“...What if we were willing to speak up and stand up against systemic racism because we engaged in it ourselves and have come to understand its consequences?”

___________________________________________

‘The King of Confidence’ Review:

Visionary or Opportunist?

How does a man who has offered any number of reasons for people to distrust him acquire a large and loyal group of devotees?               

By Howard Schneider  July 12, 2020 2:29 pm ET

This week in Mormon Land: Reconciling on race, the masked apostle, an outlaw ‘member’

Measuring The Caliber of Opportunistic Investments in Downtown Mesa's Ozone

Sometimes going back-in-time with an illuminated searchlight sheds light on deals

23 March 2020

Driving Through Audit Trails & Downtown Mesa's Ozone Investments

 

Tough Nut-to-Crack when you realize "It’s a pretty tight-knit community of special interests" after any reasonable person who probes deeper into the fog of city finances gets sidelined plowing 'into-the-weeds' at the same time the generations-old political machine pulls all the punches it can and circles-the-wagons to try to defend questionable long-standing loyalties as well as the practices and accounting standards used by city officials to use [they say "leverage'" public funds for their own private wealth-creation while holding public office.
________________________________________________________________________

< Nothing could be more clear than this one image
Former U.S. Congressman Matt Salmon, who resigned to get hired as a high-salaried lobbyist for ASU (sitting in the background) and then-Arizona State Senator Bob Worsley forced to appear in public at a Mesa City Council Study Session back in February 2018.

Worsley and his holding companies had scooped up titles to eight commercial properties on Main Street before the end of 2017 that would only increase and appreciate in value if proposals to finance an ASU campus got taxpayer approval. 

It wasn't until April 2018 - two months later - that federal Opportunity Zones were designated and approved to include 8 census tracts in Downtown Mesa that qualified as long-neglected, distressed and low-income areas.
QUESTION:
Is this acting for self-profit that uses insider information?? 

Then there's this concept of kind of an ongoing mastermind that can build a group and a network of folks that can collectively gain personal benefits.
What are the steps that you take in order to get this off the ground?

Whether that’s a self-directed super Roth where you’re actually gonna be making investments yourself

Whether that’s a community that wants to establish a fund themselves

Whether that’s a college that wants to establish a fund or partner with somebody in order to take advantage of the Opportunity Zones

How can they can go about utilizing and leveraging their resources to create this ecosystem?

Final regulations for this new investment vehicle were only issued by the IRS and the U.S. Treasury Department less than three months at the end of 2019.

5 years ago we should have realized that Hizzoner Mesa Mayor John Giles was not the mastermind of the group and the entrenched network of closely connected
"friends-and-families"
He was just trying to pull off a stage-stunt at his first term in office when Mesa taxpayers REJECTED it.
_________________________________________________________________________

It's now March 2020 -
Almost the End-of-the-Cycle of Deceit
Questions over the city's tricky financing for ASU still persist
"Mesa officials detail ASU campus financing"
By Jim Walsh, Tribune News Staff East Valley Tribune
"Nearly two years after a split Mesa City Council approved the Arizona State University@mesacitycenter project, the innovative building continues to generate controversy

._______________________________________

Councilman Jeremy Whittaker has been consistent in voting against each authorization of funds to pay for the $73. 5 million building, dedicated to movie studios and innovative technology. ASU is contributing $10 million of that price tag.

The building is under construction behind a fence on a site at Center and First Street, between Mesa City Hall and council chambers. ??????????????????????? >

HOLD ON --- The image above ^ is the actual site in real time

"Whittaker again attacked the project last week, based upon its reliance on the Enterprise Fund, which mostly includes profits from city utilities.

“I won’t support any of these projects that continue to drain our utilities,’’ Whittaker said.

“As long as the voters voted against this building, I will vote against this building.’’

 

 

Whittaker’s criticism, though not unexpected, touched off an effort by city officials to explain the project’s financing, which has evolved since Council approves it by a 5-2 vote in June 2018.

Council members Jen Duff, Dave Luna, Vice Mayor Mark Freeman and Mayor John Giles all reiterated their support in one way or another while Councilman Kevin Thompson, who voted against it initially in deference to his constituents, voted for the latest authorization. . . "

MORE TELLING DETAILS FOR CIRCLE-THE-WAGONS

The original project envisioned for ASU was a much larger campus with financing through a sales tax increase that would have also funded hiring more police officers and firefighters.

After Mesa voters rejected that proposal, Giles, a staunch advocate of education and downtown redevelopment, came up with another plan to finance a smaller project through excise bonds backed by the Enterprise Fund.

But City Manager Chris Brady and Budget Director Candace Cannistraro described somewhat different financing as the project moves ahead. 

> Brady adamantly assured Whittaker that no additional funds for the building will come from the Enterprise Fund.

> Brady said revenues from land sales in Pinal County and elsewhere, along with development fees such as construction sales taxes and building permit revenues generated by The Grove and The GRID redevelopment projects, will be applied to paying for the ASU building.

“It’s not just the building itself, it’s the economic activity being leveraged downtown,’’ he said.

“They have indicated that the reason they are here is because of the ASU building.’’

> Cannistraro, who frequently is questioned by Whittaker, said the building’s initial $9 million in revenues came through payments from the Enterprise Fund to the Economic Investment Fund.

She said all additional payments, including the debt service, are coming from the General Fund.

“We are doing many land sales that offset that,’’ Cannistraro said.

> Brady said the land sales and development-related revenues will go toward the principal before the city issues the excise bonds, but for a lower amount than originally planned."

OK. . . Huh?

_________________________________________________________________

 

> Brady noted that the utility revenues associated with ASU, and other development related to the university, is projected at more than $4 million while the overall economic impact is projected at nearly $10 million. . ."

 

> “I think what we are doing is very consistent with the will of the voters,’’ Giles said.

“The money for this is going to come from the economic activity generated many times over.’’

at Monday, March 23, 2020