Regular Meeting - 5/7/2024 6:30:00 PM

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he good evening everybody if you would
like to take your seats we will go ahead
and get
started I will call to order the May 7th
2024 Gilbert Town council meeting the
first item on our agenda this evening is
an invocation by Pastor Richard Naser
from the bread of life International I
need to have that corrected for the
minutes please because it says bread of
live but it's Bread of Life please
Richard if you could please come down to
the podium right in front of me um I I
just want to say something special about
Richard because we met just over a year
ago in February March of last year and
then Richard asked um myself and former
council member Scott September to visit
Poland because he does predominantly
does a lot a lot of his work Outreach in
Poland and but his organization bread of
life International started right here in
Gilbert and so it has a special place
here in our town and but what he does is
all over the world they're helping
people in eight countries eight
countries and so many different cities
in Poland and it was the trip of a
lifetime to be able to go there and
represent the town of Gilbert and the
State of Arizona and the United States
of America
at an event in kalish Poland and thank
you for that and thank you for being
added to our rotation of pastors that
come out and offer an invocation for us
I really appreciate it deep down in my
heart the couple of times that you have
prayed over me I've cried so I will try
not to tonight Richard but no promises
if you would push I think it's the right
button on there the there we go that
will light up and you might need to pull
it up a little closer to you since
you're so tall but thank you for joining
us Richard thank you mayor Peterson and
thank you guys for the honored to be
here with you tonight um I read a Bible
verse today and it brought me great
encouragement and hope and I hope it
brings you the same uh as we pray to
tonight it's from 1 Corinthians 13 and
we know this a lot from Weddings But I
think it's very encouraging for us says
if I speak in the tongues of men and of
angels but have not love I am a noisy
gong or a clinging symbol and if I have
prophetic powers and understanding all
Mysteries and all knowledge and if I
have all Faith so as move mountains but
not have not love I am nothing if I give
away all I have and if I deliver up my
body to be burned but have not love I
gain nothing love is patient and kind
love does not envy or boast it is not
arrogant or rude it does not insist on
its own way it is not irritable or
resentful it does not rejoice at the
wrongdoings but rejoices with truth love
never ends as for prophecies they will
pass away as for tongues they will cease
as for knowledge it will pass away but
when the perfect comes the partial will
pass away when I was a child I spoke
like a child I thought like a child and
I reasoned like a child when I became a
man I gave up childish ways for now we
see in a mirror dimly but then face to
face now I know in part then I shall
know fully even as I have been fully
known so now faith hope and love abide
these three but but the greatest of
these is love let's pray Our Father we
honor you and we thank you for life
thank you that we can be gathered here
together this evening we thank you for
the grace that you've bestowed on
everyone here tonight we pray for our
leaders here today and ask for your
wisdom and insight from above to guide
them to protect them as they lead us we
pray for our community and those that
are hurting the sick and those that are
in deep pain
we ask that you give them peace and give
them
strength God help love to abound here
tonight in our meeting and in each of
our hearts we thank you for this town
and we thank you for our nation
amen thank you Richard thank you again
for joining our lineup of invocations we
appreciate you next we'll have the
Pledge of Allegiance and I missing my
who's going to present that would be
council member Buckley too many pieces
of paper
okay I pledge allegiance to the flag of
the United States of America and to the
Republic for which it stands one nation
under God indivisible with liberty and
justice for
all excuse me next I would like to ask
our town clerk to please offer the roll
call Mayor Bridget Peterson here vice
mayor Scott Anderson here council member
Chuck bovani I'm here council member
Bobby Buckley here council member young
Kowski here council member Kathy tilky
here and council member Jim Tason here a
quorum is present thank you cheli just
as a reminder to plain turn off our
silence all cell phones and devices for
our meeting as we get started this
evening our first item on our agenda is
a proclamation and that would be a
proclamation declaring the week of May 6
through 10th 2024 is economic
development week it will be presented by
council member torguson to Dan Henderson
and the office of Economic Development
Dan is the director of off of um
Economic Development and I see a few
team members joining him if they'd come
down to the front of the chamber please
CLE can I just hand that to him
right whereas Gilbert serves on the
international Economic Development
Council the largest professional
Economic Development organization
dedicated to serving economic developers
and whereas Gilbert was the first
Economic Development organization
accredited recipient recognized by the
iedc of all economic development
organizations within Arizona and whereas
the Gilbert office of Economic
Development promotes economic well-being
and the quality of life for the
community through their efforts focused
on creating retaining and expanding jobs
to facilitate growth which enhances
wealth and provides a stable tax base
and whereas the go Gilbert office of
Economic Development has initiated a
three-year strategic plan to encourage
investment business retention expansion
and growth while cultivating economic
Prosperity prosperity for all and now
therefore I Jim torguson on behalf of
Mayor Bridget Peterson from the town of
Gilbert to hereby Proclaim May 6 through
10th 2024 as economic development week
and thank the office of economic
development for their due diligence and
efforts in fostering and supporting a
successful Community sir thank
you and please
introduce absolutely thank you
appreciate the the recognition and
certainly the support of you mayor and
all the members of council um certainly
the executive team and uh and Patrick
bandrew as well um I'd like to introduce
this amazing team and have them briefly
introduce themselves and the role that
they
serve hi uh Jennifer Graves I serve as
the deputy director for the office of
Economic
Development hi Sydney bethl price
Redevelopment project manager Amanda
Elliott Redevelopment program manager
Michelle streer marketing and
communications project
manager thank you my name is Dan
Henderson and I serve as the economic
development director um and have the uh
pleasure and Fortune of working for this
wonderful team and serving this
community thank you just tell us more
about take a moment to shine take take a
moment to shine um well as many know um
our role here is obviously to um bring
business and industry into the community
um through that we um we oversee three
lines of service what we call uh
Economic Development or our business
development activities as well as
tourism and Redevelopment so a lot of
the stuff going on in the downtown um
coupled with uh with all the other uh
team members in Gilbert um we're
delighted with how our downtown is
developing um certainly our tourism um
is young in its uh in its line of
service U but nonetheless um with all
the assets and amenities that this
Community has been supporting we've been
able to um develop a a a rather robust
uh tourism effort um that's focused on
bringing visitors into the community and
we couldn't do all of this without the
support of certainly the community
certainly mayor um members of the
council uh our executive team Patrick
and certainly Mary Goodman the assistant
uh um uh Town manager that oversees our
all of our lines of service so with that
thank you appreciate the
recognition thank you sir
[Applause]
ma'am blowing it up so we can see it
great job team thanks for all you do
next we'd like to rep we'd like to
recognize the municipal clerks for the
municipal clerks week would all the
members of the clerk's Department please
come and join me here at the front
whereas the office of the municipal
clerk is a vital part of local
government that exists throughout the
world and Remains the oldest profession
among public servants and whereas the
office of the municipal clerk serves as
the official Legal Information Center
and professional link between the
citizens the local governing bodies and
agencies of government at other levels
and whereas Municipal clerks dutifully
remain neutral and impartial and render
equal service to all and whereas
Gilbert's town clerk staff have
completed autism certification that
ensures successful interactions with
Gilbert's community members and whereas
Municipal clerks continually strive to
improve the administration of the
Affairs of the office of the municipal
clerk through participation in education
programs seminars workshops and the
annual meetings of their state
provincial County International
professional organizations and whereas
it is appropriate that we recognize the
accomplishments of Gilbert's town clerk
office and their time and efforts and
now therefore I Bridget Peterson mayor
of the town of Gilbert do hair Proclaim
May 5th through May 11th 2024 as
Municipal Clerk's week in Gilbert
Arizona and furthermore extend a
wholehearted appreciation to our town
clerk chaveli Herrera Deputy town clerk
Judy Martinez and the rest of the
amazing Gilbert toown clerk team ready
Amy Ashley
Denise June and Patty is that everybody
I got everybody and to all Municipal
clerks for the vital Services they
perform in their continued dedication to
the communities they serve
congratulations and thank you for all
you do thank
you would you ince yourself and say what
your role is hi I'm Judy Martinez I'm
the deputy town
clerk I am chaveli Herrera I am the town
clerk June Wilson I'm a town clerk
specialist Denise stro the
administrative
assistant Ashley doring town clerk
special specialist Amy ban town clerk
specialist pat patty patty focuses on
public records requests right all of our
all of our records requests and Records
Man Records management um what their
titles say does not even start to
describe what these ladies do for us
every single day or for this community
for the big things that they have to
handle every day down to making sure two
cans of Diet Coke were in the freezer
last night so they got chilled because
we were going to be here for a few hours
last evening so it's all the big things
that they accomplish and the little
things that they get done for us every
single day that makes me appreciate them
more and more and I can't say enough
about them and thank you so much this is
just such a little token of what we do
and if you haven't seen the post by a
city cities of um town league of cities
and towns the first photo was of you
guys in um Halloween costumes so so if
you haven't seen that please go take a
look let's get a photo in the middle
Carson's going to yell at me
you haven't seen it yeah you're
superheroes
superheroes thank you thank you Val
thank you thank you so
much our next Proclamation will be
presented by council member Kowski for
National Public Works week
that one that
theind I'd like to welcome our esteemed
Public Works team
down to the front of the
room ER
she's
not so in recognition of National Public
Works week whereas Public Works
professionals focus on infrastructure
facilities and services that are vital
to sustainable and resilient communities
and to the public health high quality of
life and well-being of the residents of
Gilbert Arizona and whereas the
infrastructure facilities and services
could not be provided without the
dedicated efforts of our Public Works
professionals employees within all
levels of government and the private
sector and who are responsible for the
rebuilding Improvement and protection of
our nation's Transportation water supply
water treatment and Solid Waste Systems
public buildings and other structures
and Facilities essential for our
citizens and whereas it is in the
Public's best interest for the residents
Civic leaders and children in our
community to learn about and maintain an
ongoing interest and understanding of
the importance of Public Works and
Public Works programs and whereas the
year year 2024 marks the 64th annual
National Public Works week sponsored by
the American public works Association
and therefore I young Kowski on behalf
of Bridget Peterson mayor of the town of
Gilbert Arizona do hereby designate the
week May 19th through 25th 2024 as
National Public Works week and we
encourage all members of our
organization and Community to engage in
activities events and ceremonies
designed to pay tribute to our Public
Works professionals and Engineers
managers and employees and to recognize
the substantial contributions they make
to protecting our national health safety
and advancing quality of life for
all I have our Deputy Public Works
directors here with us and our CIP uh
Town engineer so I'm going to pass it
off to them tell us a little bit about
what you do for the town of Gilbert well
our Public Works team does um something
that touches your lives every single day
you drove here on the streets that our
team built and maintained you used the
water that our team cleaned and purified
and delivered to you and we took it away
when you were finished with it and we
take away your garbage when you were
finished with that as well so our team
um has a large impact on the community's
um way of life and we're very grateful
for all of them I'll just take a second
I'm Eric Brown I'm one of the assistant
Public Works
directors Susanna stro Town engineer
coordinat
Casey Ambrose um one of the CIP
supervisors Rick hooker construction
project manager
CIP uh Jason snd CIP project
manager Steve Notch uh senior project
manager for Capital Improvement
projects Abby Taylor CIP communication
specialist Jerry Atwood senior project
manager
CIP Jack gak one of the project
supervisor
ERS my name is y I'm one of the other
assistant Public Works
director I'm Clint IM I'm in traffic
engineering Ryan Blair capap
manager well thank you all for your hard
work and dedication to the town of
Gilbert and its residents um this is
exactly what a m a municipality does um
for its residents so thank you and happy
National Public Works week thank you
[Applause]
thank you and um congratulations to
everyone that was recog ni this evening
we appreciate all you do for the town of
Gilbert there's so much that goes on
behind the scenes that our residents
just don't see every single day now this
evening is the first evening that we're
running our agenda in a little bit
different order so the next item on our
agenda is public hearing items will be
heard at one public hearing at which
time anyone wishing to comment on public
hearings may do so I'm going to open the
public hearing Council I'm assuming that
you want to hear item number six and we
have public comment for that and
number 11 or are we good on the rest of
them I haven't had anyone pull anything
I'm just pulling six because I know we
have comment on that one is everything
else good to go with one
motion okay then I'll go ahead and close
the public hearing looking for a motion
on items 4 5 7 8 9 10 and
11 mayor I'll make a motion to approve
items four
5 7 8 9 10 and 11 thank you I have a
motion oh I second that I'm sorry second
that okay I have a motion from council
member Tikki seconded by council member
Buckley please
vote motion passes 70 moving to item six
on our agenda that would be General plan
GP 22-16 zoning z22
D16 and we will have a staff
presentation on this item oh did I say
open the public hearing open the public
hearing on that item I forget if I did
or not and um asking staff to come down
to the staff Podium please and please
introduce yourself for the record thank
you hi good evening Council Kristen
Divine senior planner with the town
uh the case I have before you tonight is
going to be a request for a rezoning and
a minor General plan Amendment for the
Lumberyard
project right the site is located west
of the Heritage District Northeast of
neie and cullumber and is bordered by
industrial multif family and public
facility and institution zoning the
applicant is proposing to rezone the
property to develop a multif family
community the request before you tonight
includes a minor General plan Amendment
from industrial to residential 25 to 50
dwelling units per acre and a rezoning
from General industrial to multif family
high with a planned area development for
a reduction in open
space the site is approximately 9.5
acres and is currently zoned I'm sorry
is currently classified as industrial
the applicant is proposing a minor
General plan amendment to change the
site from industrial to residential 25
to 50 dwelling units per acre and then
with that the applicant is also
requesting that rezoning of the 9.5
Acres from General industrial to multif
family
High the site as currently zoned is
General industrial for a bit of context
I've included included our development
standards for both General industrial
and multifam high on your screens if the
site were to remain General industrial
there are no restrictions on Building
height versus multif family High which
has a maximum Building height of 55 ft
another notable difference between the
two districts is that General industrial
there is no minimum Landscaping
percentage that needs to be met whereas
with multif family High the site is
required to have a minimum of 40% common
open
space along with one tree to be
installed per four units meaning a total
of approximately 70 trees will be
required to be installed with the
proposed multif family
development on the left side of the
slide I've also included a handful of
uses that are permitted by right in the
general industrial zoning District
including but not limited to parking
structures Industrial Hemp facilities
animal shelters or
crematoriums the site is located within
the longrange planning area within the
Heritage District Redevelopment plan in
that plan the preferred land use at the
lumber yard site is multif family Parks
retention and Transit the proposed
lumber yard development Falls in line
with this land use and will be
beneficial to the Heritage District by
providing a variety and density of
housing within and around the downtown
area although the site is just outside
of the Heritage District the existing
pedestrian bridge does provide a
pedestrian friendly entry point into the
downtown
area the proposal has gone through a
variety of stages before reaching this
point with the when the submission first
came in it was 27 Acres with 668 multif
family units proposed at a density of 50
dwelling units per acre the development
plan has since evolved and is currently
proposing 285 units with a total of 30.8
dwelling units per acre the units will
be located within three buildings one
building will face NE Street and will be
three stories tall another building will
be placed at the rear of the site
adjacent to the district Lofts community
and will be 4 stories tall the final and
largest building will be placed Central
to the site and will also be four
stories tall that building will also
surround a pool and a minity areas for
the community the development will be
accessed from neie and parking will be
located throughout the site with garages
being located along the northern and
southern property lights providing an
additional buffer from the adjacent
industrial uses to the South
the applicant is proposing 444 parking
spaces which is the exact number
required for the site there will be
approximately 71 parking garages 214
covered parking spaces and 159 uncovered
parking
spaces right seen here are just some
conceptual renderings of the project the
applicant has shared with us these
renderings are not part of the review
this evening and are only supplemental
with the rezoning the applicant is
proposing a a um planned area
development with one deviation as
previously mentioned the required open
space landcaping on site is 40% the
requested deviation is for a reduction
in that open space from 40% to
35% uh staff is generally supportive of
the deviation request as was Planning
Commission and since this project is
located within 1,000 ft of the Heritage
District I brought it to both uh
Redevelopment commission and Planning
Commission study sessions the
Redevelopment commission study session
was held on December 20th
2023 some of the feedback provided by
the commission was that they appreciated
the three-story building being Street
side instead of the four uh four-story
building at the time of the study
sessions the site was underp parked the
Redevelopment commission had significant
concerns with that and stated that the
parking needed to be met on site the
commission had also suggested that the
applicant look into possibly utilizing
rooftop amenities to make up some of the
open space
deficit the study session for Planning
Commission was held on January 3rd 2024
feedback from that session was similar
to that of the Redevelopment commission
there were significant concerns with the
site being underp parked and it was
stated that parking must be met on site
the commission was also open to the idea
of the rooftop amenities for open space
but was overall supportive of the
reduction in open space as long as the
parking could be met on
site at the April 3rd Planning
Commission public hearing the commission
was generally supportive of the project
feeling it was in line with the
long-term vision of the Heritage
District area area they recommended
approval of the project with a 6 to1
vote five neighborhood meetings have
been held on this project questions and
concerns from the public regarding the
project have included density proximity
to the adjacent industrial Lots parking
and traffic concerns staff has received
two opposition emails from the public at
the start of the project when the
proposal was 27 acres and we have also
had multiple conversations with the
applicant who brought concerns forward
on behalf of the neighboring community
of Neely Ranch to the Southwest of the
proposed site the concerns from that
Community include traffic impacts
parking and the use of Avary way by
non-residents the community brought
forward some suggestions to the
applicant regarding the possibility of
closing off aary way the applicant then
brought these concerns to us and we
discussed the options of a dead end a
culdesac a pork chop or even G um gating
Avary
way on February 15th 2024 a meeting was
held between the applicant Town staff
and representatives of the NE Ranch
HOA during the meeting we discussed the
opportunity to close off Avary way but
ultimately Town staff had determined
that the D Ed CAC pork chop and gate
options were not feasible the primary
reason for this decision is that there's
not enough space to accommodate a c AAC
on Avary way while meeting current
standards additionally options would
significantly impact emergency response
times to that area which is a concern
for the town slowing mechanisms were
also discussed but with speed H humps
currently already existing along Avary
way the addition of further slowing isms
would have a negative impact on
Emergency Response times and staff is
not generally supportive of them due to
public safety
concerns Neely Street connecting over
the railroad tracks has also been
brought up to staff several times the
railroad has a policy not to allow
additional atg grade Crossings without
the removal of three existing atg grade
Crossings it is within the town's
long-term plan to connect Neely across
the tracks with the Von ventilator but
it will not happen anytime
soon I would also like to note that at
the Planning Commission continuance
hearing on March 12th um I'm sorry in
March 12 comment cards were received in
opposition to the project with many of
those um community members also choosing
to speak out in opposition at the
hearing at the April 3rd public hearing
we received three comment cards in
opposition to the project since that
April 3rd public hearing we've had
additional conversations with
representatives of the nearly Ranch HOA
to try to come up with a solution to the
concerns right and with that staff does
recommend approval of the general plan
Amendment and resoning subject to the
conditions found in the staff report and
I am available for any questions that
you may have thank you does anybody have
any questions for Kristen at this time
council member tilki thank you mayor um
I believe there was another stipulation
that's coming forward tonight will that
be coming from the applicant or how are
we going to address it I actually have
the stipulation here do you have a copy
of it too Kristen I do okay um would you
mind sharing that and then we'll hear
from the applicant as well thank you
absolutely uh so the additional
stipulation that staff has um come up
with with the developer was that one
year after the final certificate of
occupancy is issued the developer shall
conduct a three consecutive business day
traffic count along AV way to determine
actual daily trips if the average daily
trips for the 3-day period exceeds 540
daily trips the developer shall work
with the town of Gilbert to identify and
Implement additional traffic cing
measures or other staff approved
mitigation efforts the developer shall
be financially responsible for a maximum
Financial contribution not to exceed
$50,000 thank you council member Bon
Giovani thank you mayor um can you go
back to your first slide where you
showed
Heights uh council member bonani the
comparison
yeah okay so there's no height
restriction whatsoever if someone came
in bought the property and kept it
zoning the same way correct that is
correct and if they kept it Zone the
same way with no height restriction
chances of them coming in front of us is
pretty nil correct
correct so mayor council member bonani
it would depend on the the modifications
they make to the site if they are adding
additional buildings and such it would
come to Planning Commission but it would
not come to you that's correct right
okay thank
you council member
kosi I just had a comment on the
stipulation that you mentioned um I
think you mentioned three consecutive
business days along Avary way and I
would just suggest modification to three
consecutive week days while school is in
session
okay any other comments or questions at
this time for staff you'll have another
opportunity VI mayor Kristen isn't a
cannabis dispensary also allowed in
industrial mayor vice mayor Anderson you
are asking me questions that I don't
know off the top of my head well the one
that we have in town is in an industrial
Zone the
the marijuana facility that we have
located in town at quei is in light
Industrial in light industrial if it's
allowed in light
industrial likely allowed in general
industrial but I would have to look it
up thank
you any other questions at this time
thank you so much for your presentation
I'll now ask the um applicant to please
give their presentation Mr ball
clicker or something Adam
oh and I think it's the button on the I
don't know if it's the button on the
left or the right to turn your
microphone on Adam I'm sorry it's the
right yeah thank you which is always
weird because red means stop I know but
here it's go not here it's go um thank
you mayor and counsil Adam B on behalf
of the applicant um key the properties
we we're grateful to be here it's I
think the timeline showed first neighbor
meeting and start in December of 2022 so
it it does take a long time to get to
this point unusually long for this one
but um I think intentionally at a pace
that recognized the concerns that we
were hearing and trying to adjust things
as needed so I I think my presentation
will be brief but I I I do want to
address a few things that are are
important we're sharing um it's 9.5
Acres today but when we started this
project uh it looked more like this and
the reason why it's called a lumber yard
is because it's
has been operating historically as a
lumber yard property and you know when
you think through like the history of
William Bobby Gilbert you know giving
this land the Eastern Railway to create
this Railway track that comes to the
area which brought in a lumber yard
because of its proximity to the rail um
rail line you can understand why at one
point General industrial made a lot of
sense here you didn't really have the
type of downtown that you have today you
didn't have the neighborhoods around it
and so being its proximity to the rail
line it made sense that have a lumber
yard property where you could ship your
product in and out but as residential
has encroached here H as the towntown
environment has thrived and become um a
hub really of Gilbert in the gym of this
area the town had to go back and look at
their plans and recognize that maybe
General industrial really isn't the best
long-term use of the site even though it
was probably the best use when it first
came in and so as developers come and
look at the town they look at a few
things they but more particularly they
look at the policy documents like the
general plan and area plans and in this
case um The Heritage District
Redevelopment plan sets forth an
expectation that if it weren't us
somebody else would come here and look
at this as a guide for them on what they
should propose for this property whereas
we originally started with more than 800
units across the entirey of the site and
then understanding um this plan better
we came up with a proposal that's been
modified from where we started to where
we are today that that reflects
precisely what this plan calls for um
multif Family on the bottom part and an
opportunity for the town to satisfy its
needs with the public retention open
space area on the North part and so when
you look at this building today you can
appreciate why it looks like this
because it predated much of the
development that are around there but
soon can have an opportunity to look a
little bit more appropriate for this
area so as we come back to this plan as
we scaled it down from what used to be
800 units to 285 units and making sure
that we heard that feedback um we
continue to do a lot of things I think
one of the most important things was the
number of trips in this area number two
the number of units we're proposing
number three the heights that were being
considered and number four the parking
and so to address those things we
redesigned our plan and scaled down
significantly to 285 units we scaled
down the heights along Neely Street to
three stories and put the taller Heights
behind
it we shed and lost more units as we
realized every unit you have you only
you have to provide the parking for the
unit and the guest parking for that unit
and recognizing that the greater
priority was to make sure that we
provided the parking on site and didn't
have to park off site to meet our needs
is why we ended up losing more units and
working through the types of landscaping
deviations that we have today the pad
deviation from 40 to 35% really makes
sense when you consider that we're
locating next to a huge retention area
park space in the future so while we
might have a 5% deviation you can
consider the variety of open space that
would be the north us but as we start to
really design this plan recognizing that
Neely Street today while um we wish
there could be a more rapid solution to
the um railroad crossing we recognize
that there will be a solution in the
future it will probably take a little
bit of feet of engineering we've seen it
one time in the town with Greenfield
Road going under the train tracks and
maybe that might be an opportunity here
to exist but I know for certain that
there will be a solution here in play
and so the town has to plan for the long
term and they recognize in the long term
this type of use
which is why you have it here on this
plan is a complement to your heritage
district and it's will work very well
with the future connection of NE Road as
it um will extend further to the north
but as we go forward with this version
of the plan today what we've done is
make sure that our proposal is a
reduction in size reduction in units
reduction in Heights and a significant
reduction in trips and so when I think
through all the different uh industrial
uses that can happen on this property I
think I was going too far Ahad
myself this clearly has a significantly
less impact than the intensity of uses
that can come with a general industrial
just uh last month I got approval for
120 foot tall General heavy industrial
building in the town of Queen Creek why
would you need 120 ft because Advanced
manufacturing has silos um and materials
and you don't know precisely where they
go so you Zone the entire property for
the one building that will have it and
so when I think through unlim mited
Heights that can otherwise occur in the
g j district and versus what we can
propose here can create greater
compatibility with this plan now I think
the greatest concern I've heard from the
community from the HOA which by the way
have been very pleasant
um you know I couldn't address all
concerns and I couldn't change the the
nature of the use that I was proposing
but I have respected the way that
they've um communicated and and I guess
in some degree worked with us I I wasn't
able to deliver what they wanted which
was cutting off Avary way but one of the
reasons why I couldn't do that is
because we had to make sure we
understood what is the volume of traffic
there's two streets Neely street is is a
collector street it's designed to carry
8400 trips aary way is a local
residential street it's designed to
carry a different number of trips so
when we counted the trips on NE Street
we are significantly less than the way
it's designed for and the reason why
it's designed so big is cu knows at some
point it will go over the train tracks
or under the train tracks but Neely
Street has enough capacity to serve our
project on Avary way we had end up doing
a traffic study excuse me not a traffic
study traffic counts so we count the tra
the trips for a 24-hour period when you
put down the strip and it counts them it
tells you which way they're going
directionally east or west what time of
day they're coming and what the speed
and velocity of those trips are and that
counter for a 24-hour period only picked
up 240 trips which is about less than
10% of the volume that that road is
designed for and so when we started to
explore what is the real impact
happening on Avary way versus the
perception we wanted to make sure we
could provide some solutions so we
propos things like um the speed humps uh
pork chops limitin Access One Way only
but I think at the end of the day it was
hard for I believe the town's
transportation department to justify
making changes to a roadway when when it
had less than 10% of the volume that it
was designed for so unfortunately I
don't get to call the shots or make the
decisions regarding those types of
improvements but we did examine it and I
think at the request and and um desire
of the neighbors because we certainly
wanted to try to find a solution too and
I think to their credit they stepped up
they proposed an idea that maybe their
HOA could dedicate some land to to
fulfill uh the radius bulb of a cold
attack but at the end day there wasn't
sufficient room really to satisfy what
the town's engineering standards
required
so what we know is this the roadway
traffic that's curring out way is 9% of
what that roadway is designed for so I
don't know if we're designing for a
perception but I know we're not
designing for what the reality is
occurring there today what I do know is
this when the town adopts these plans
and policies they are setting forth an
expectation of what they want the
community and development to bring and
we comply precisely with that component
of the multif family and the tal for the
open space to the north but through this
process our plans have been revised our
density's come down we've matched the
Heritage District we've brought in lower
Heights along the streetscape and I
think with the stipulation that I just
saw today goes a long way and I think
the reason why that number is measured
at
540 because if we have about 9% now 20%
of that roadway would equal about 540
trips and so for some reason the trips
along a way were to reach up to 20% of
the capacity of that road then the
developer will have an obligation to
kick in um to help uh address that
matter I don't know if we'll be able to
actually measure if the 540 trips or 20%
are attributed to us at some point if
you develop that park or retention area
you may find that your facilities could
create some of those
trips but I don't want to assign who's
responsible for what I think our
commitment is if it rises to that level
we'll help provide that solution and so
for that reason I appreciate what
Kristen said I think I'll probably wrap
up my presentation but that's how we
came to the language that's there today
to perhaps address if that potential
concern does arise in the future thank
you thank you Mr B would you be open to
the modification that council member
Kowski made a few minutes ago yes it it
makes perfect sense okay thank you um
council member Buckley did you have
questions for Mr B I
do uh thank you for the presentation I I
appreciate that
I my guess my first question is
and it's probably pretty obvious is why
would you not have built single family
homes there because that fits with the
neighborhood yeah that's an excellent
question in fact our very first proposal
had some single family homes some town
homes and two different apartment
projects when we had 28 acres to work
with I think we could pencil the cost of
the yield of what single family would be
because we were having two multif family
projects to kind of Leverage those costs
out but now that we're down just N9
Acres um we where for the project to
pencil it's going to have to be through
this manner well I I knew the pencil had
something to do with it in there but um
I I have another question on and and I
don't she went pretty fast the other you
know for the other presentation so I
didn't quite catch if she mentioned so
the rooftop uh open space that that you
were talking about is that in the plan
or was that just talking it was just
talking I think there was a concern that
maybe um we should be providing some
type of amenity to offset it but it was
in a vacuum without considering that
there's a large open space retention
area potential park space the north
because I I would have a big problem
with that thing simply because you know
there's a lot of residential homes there
looking out and privacy wise yeah and
have people on a rooftop looking in
excuse me in their backyard I'm trying
to appease the neighbor I'm the the
mayor and talking to the mic um so uh I
I kind
of definitely would have had a big issue
with that um I do still have some issues
I think I'm out very outnumbered here
but I think because I lived in that area
I lived on the other side of Cooper for
18 years and you know there's
multi-million dollar homes there and a
project like this is not going to in my
opinion is not going to help the
property values and especially being
able to to see what's there so I you
know I have an an issue with that it's a
very very congested area yeah and we all
know that and and it's extremely
congested now so if we add 280 to
apartments with probably I think the
average is
2.8 or is at 1.8 per apartment for per
for people so if we have
20 was that 82 that you mentioned we can
at least minimum double that because
most people a lot of people are living
you know together and two or three
people in an apartment so people wise
and vehicle wise it's going to be a lot
but for for that reason and uh you know
the the additional drain on services and
everything I'm having an issue
supporting I understand yeah but thank
you very
much council member Bon Giovani thank
you mayor um thanks for the presentation
Adam you missed my slide but that's okay
um was there oh there you are okay okay
I was ready for this one okay good I got
it I got it um any concerns
about the apart the apartments that may
be looking out and over the industrial
across the street
to the South yeah I mean would those be
difficult to rent do you think uh I I
think maybe a question is is will there
be some type of rent offset for the
units that are on the south end there
yeah I mean I all apartment projects
have different units of different types
because one might be ground level next
to the multi next to the open space and
pool area you're going to charge a
premium rent and the other one might be
on the fourth floor where you might
charge a lesser rent but I think
developer and his own um marketing plan
will determine how or if they need to
adjust pricing per different units where
it may be is there any um any thought of
pricing at this point no there's not I
mean you penciled it out there has to be
something involved in that correct I
mean I can we it's probably going to
take us two years to build I don't know
what the rents are going to look like in
two years but I guess Mark I'm certain
you have an idea of what it'll be I mean
do you care on average about 250 of so
these are this is a luxury product okay
thank you
anyone else have any questions for Mr B
at this time questions or comments for
Mr B council member tilki yes thank you
Mr B um do you have a a site plan can
you just to show what's surrounding it
because I don't think this property's as
close to the residential as maybe some
were thinking you have to go down the
street just a ways but um that doesn't
mean that those residents aren't
important I just wanted to point out
that it's not right next door to the um
residential um when I when I met with
representatives of the HOA it was my
understanding that the
apartments
were more palatable than a General
commercial or general industrial project
there and that really wasn't the concern
the concern really was the traffic and
what could happen to their neighborhood
more so than than um having Apartments
there and I and I if I remember
correctly they were very pleased that we
went reduced that number
significantly um I appreciate that when
we reached out to you as representing
the developer with the um hoa's concerns
and understanding that we we couldn't do
anything today
as part of this project but
understanding that you know we like to
make decisions based on data and the
data we have today didn't really
justify um making those major
changes because it might happen instead
um you were able to step up and say
let's take a look at this a year from
now and if we need to make some changes
we'll do that with up to 50,000 and I
really appreciated that this is an
unusual request I think this is an
unusual property as far as how they get
in and out a little different than what
we've seen in other communities but it
definitely wasn't something you had to
agree to and and I just want you to know
that I appreciate that because you you
heard the neighbors you've made so many
accommodations for both the both the
town and the neighbors for this project
um so I just wanted to mention thank you
for that um I'm hoping that once we hear
from the neighbors that they will feel
that they were heard and that we have
done what we can to uh accommodate their
um concerns thank you and council member
tilki for what it's worth one of the
reasons why we put the Benchmark at a
year after coo was to make sure it's
fully leased so we can understand its
full impact and measure at that point
because at at that point of VI it's Max
Capacity and we could have more reliable
data and so that that fund could
hopefully address things where it be
speed bumps chicanes um speed tables
signage One Way only there's a lot of
tools that the town has and they can
elect what's the right method to address
it with that fund that we set aside
thank
you any other questions or comments for
Adam at this
time Adam I want to say thank you um
this has been a long discussion and
especially because the town of Gilbert
needed land in that area so we were able
to work with you you to really reduce
your project and be able to take on the
land that's necessary for water
retention down there in the Heritage
district for the town of Gilbert what
with the the changes that Kristen
mentioned with Von a connecting out to
Neely it's going to take up some of the
water retention space that we already
have in the Heritage District so we were
looking for other space so this really
has has been an advantage to the
community and to the town of Gilbert to
be able to work with you on that we
appreciate that and the red at the same
time it did exactly what the neighbors
were asking for which was reduce the
number of multif family that will be
built there it creates a huge open space
area that will be able to be used by the
tenants in that area and and including
the residents of Neely Ranch they'll be
able to go over and run their dogs in
that space if they want to as far as I
can see because I remember the days when
friends for life was over on Von a and I
brought my dog over and we ran them in
the current water retention area that's
there west of the univ building so I can
see all those things in the future we
appreciate that and you have um you're
very much more optimistic with getting
Neely to connect at some point in time
either under the road or over because we
know the railroad is can be very
difficult to deal with and so um having
The Pedestrian connection there is a
great advantage to those residents in
the future and I really I don't know
that I've seen a stipulation like this
that you have offered with waiting for a
year after c ofo to come back in and
perform a a trip count a daily trip
count and with the developer setting
aside a financial obligation of $50,000
in all my years I can't remember a
stipulation like this I've seen hundreds
of cases but um this is this is an
amazing um offer from the developer in
my opinion so I appreciate that and
thanks for all the work that you've done
on this I know it has been a long time
coming but I think it's going to be a
much better project because of that um
thank you for all that and I don't know
if you want comment back it's really
that was all my general comment so
appreciate it thanks Adam we'll go ahead
and bring up the public that wishes to
speak each person will get three minutes
I'll call you up to this middle Podium
we'll have um I'll do my best to
pronounce everyone's last name some I
might spell just so that I don't
honestly just butcher them Rachel zurell
will be first next will be Michael
France if you'd like to be on deck
please you got three minutes at the
podium thank you do I push any buttons
oh no I don't hi my name is Rachel I'm a
resident of neie ranch um Homestead I'm
also on the board um thank you guys for
allowing us here and I wanted to thank
the developer for for coming and giving
us an updated information um I there's a
lot of new information presented tonight
which was great I'm thankful for that um
and uh we I guess my um my what I wanted
to say is I wanted to ask the council to
consider the zoning of um multif family
lower density perhaps mid density
instead of the high density um because
although these plans look great and they
have a lower number if you're zoning it
at high density they could change and
who knows maybe they'll have it um
doubled tripled so we wanted to make
sure that we could try to keep the
density as low as possible so we just
ask you to consider that um and I also
would just like to say I appreciate that
stipulation I um maybe we could um add
some more details to that stipulation to
make it more concrete it looks great as
a starting point but I would love to see
more um more planning around it and um
an an analysis around it to make sure
that we truly do get to do that analysis
after the fact and have that chance to
stop the traffic um we I live on Avary
way in the center part and um we do have
a lot of cross traffic already from
commercial vehicles and we have a lot
over the years it's dwindled because
we've been calling the commercial
companies and asking them not to drive
down our street which has been very
helpful but we cannot do that with an
apartment complex so that's it thank you
thanks Rachel Michael France and next
will be Brian
hookham um hi my name is Michael France
um I also live in uh Neely Ranch
Homestead um I am opposed to the
apartments uh regarding the uh culdesac
uh that um was rejected by the city at a
meeting hosted by councilwoman tilki um
a proposal was made uh in that meeting
that didn't violate any space
requirements uh with the addition with
the modification of aarian Cooper uh to
be a culdesac uh it eliminated the the
concern about emergency access uh
emergency vehicles could access
Springfield Summerfield to Avary um it
resolves the issue of uh the primary
concern of our neighborhood which is the
amount of traffic uh moving through our
community um and uh it was rejected from
from the traffic department uh because
it will uh modify the flow of the
community they were concerned about the
additional load on the Cooper and Elliot
intersection um it is clearly the city's
anticipation that Avary is used as a
through Street to access Cooper Road um
again we we've laid out a proposal the
original one was to put it on Neely and
Avary we we've come up with one to put
it on Cooper and and Avary to accomplish
the same goal it doesn't restrict any of
the every any of the emergency service
vehicles but the city absolutely
rejected it because it's going to impact
the flow the city already knows where
the flow is going to be uh you saw the
map up there that was all highlighted
it's a concern to everybody it's the
number one concern everybody's talking
about it we can't get the city to move
to enable the developer to make that
happen please work with your team let's
figure out how to close off the either
the East end or the West End of Avary so
that there is not a desirable flow of
traffic and keep the traffic on neie
that's designed to handle that flow
thank you for your
time thank you mik obrien hookham next
and then will
Rell hello mayor and council members my
name is Brian hulum and I reside Neely
Ranch first off many of us local
residents are wondering how the planning
for this development got this far the
town is providing concessions when it
should be the developers that should be
adhering to all Town zoning codes
guidelines and concerns of the existing
community in order to build in Gilbert
uh I here here to urge you to vote no on
this development there are numerous
reasons to reduce the density or find
another use for this location is my
understanding that when the general plan
was issued the intent was to have full
access across the railroad tracks
allowing traffic to flow north to an
arterial since that will no longer be an
option for many years or possibly ever
it will leave this development with a
single point of access for emergency
vehicles I do not recall ever seeing a
multif family complex without a minimum
of two points of access to collector or
materials for emergency services also
with a single point of access traffic
need to go north possibly half the
traffic will cut through the subdivision
to gain access to Cooper Road this could
be hundreds if not thousands of cars
skipping the lights at nean Elliott and
Cooper Elliot and going through their
neighborhood this is already the case on
a smaller scale for the lumber yard
where the HOA has tried to mitigate this
issue with speed bumps uh enclosing I
don't field this is a fitting location
and hope the council will reduce or
change the propos proposed development
density or use There Are Places better
suited in Gilbert for their proposed
high density complex
thank you thank you will RL and then
Keith Crandle
please good evening thank you for
hearing uh hearing my voices or my voice
uh my wife and I actually live in
aramina about a mile from this proposed
development but there are a lot of
concerns that that I think people have
have expressed that need to be listened
to a little bit more closely um in terms
of current uses for industrial um
my my my sarcastic uh first thought is
that maybe the the town needs to think a
little bit more outside the box and
combin a few different uses like a pot
form animal shelter crematorium mix but
uh that's not really a serious
suggestion um I hear a lot of numbers uh
I hear 800 units originally then 200 uh
440 parking spaces uh Mr bomb speaks
very eloquently he was kind enough to uh
take some time to explain his vision or
his client's vision for this site um I
think with regards to all of these
numbers and and I'm not going to beat a
dead horse when it comes to why multif
family housing why more high density
rental housing isn't what people are
looking for in Gilbert I think as a long
nearly 20-year resident we moved to to
this town um not this city but this town
because the low density the uh owner
involvement I guess the owner investment
in properties when that that they live
in is a leads to a good Community
um I I guess what with all these numbers
and again I'm not an eloquent speaker
but I the number that I'd really like to
look at is not these 800 or 200 units
not this $50,000 proposal which
is almost nothing I mean that's almost
insulting uh such a small amount of
money um for to a developer that is I
think the number that I think is
important is maybe 1 2 3 4 or five
that's potentially the the size of a
typical family in Gilbert that's how
many people might be hit by a car or a
truck or something something else coming
down that road I I think that it's very
easy for people who don't live in this
neighborhood like I I believe everybody
up here on the stage like myself to
think well it's just it's just a
development it's good Commerce it's this
or that but um if you're somebody who's
used to walking your dog or taking your
kids for a walk and a vehicle comes by I
mean do you just chalk that up as as the
cost of development is that the cost of
proc progress in this town and um I
don't think that's a good thing um and I
hope that uh uh good good sense will
prevail and that this land will not be
rezoned additionally councilman capral
I'd like to apologize for my incivility
last time we met um that was uncalled
for on my part and uh I I could have
been more courteous so thank you very
much good night thank you folks folks we
don't we don't accept Applause during
the public hearing portion of the
meeting please we want everyone to feel
free to speak their mind and to feel
free to speak one way or the other and
Applause can make people feel
uncomfortable so I'm asking you please
not to applaud Mr crle Keith Crandle
next and then Greg Jones
uh my name is Keith
Crandle uh one correction on the
neighborhood meetings um I was there at
the September 26th meeting but I
couldn't stay for the
whole meeting but I told everybody there
that this is a really really bad idea U
my wife had just been put on hospice and
I had to and I couldn't stay for the
whole
meeting um anyway um so I own the
industrial lot right on the corner of
Neely and
culber um my suggestion is this whole
this whole apartment complex is a really
really bad
idea Gilbert is in desperate need of
industrial
land um I get calls all the time people
wanting to buy my industrial lot or if I
I know of anybody who has a similar
lot um to put apartment building
apartments on that makes absolutely no
sense
whatsoever um it needs to be we Gilbert
needs outdoor storage they need RV
storage they need in uh
small uh storage lots for contractors
the last thing Gilbert needs is
another apartment complex uh
people in Gilbert need a place to work
the contractors the little the small
businesses need a place to
work
um really I think the town of Gilbert
would make more money off of a developer
coming in and putting in small
industrial Lots or or um industrial
spaces um then they then Gilbert would
make off of uh the apartment building
um the biggest problem I see with um
like this morning I even had a broker
call me wanted to buy my land because
there's such a
shortage uh the problem I have is if you
put apartment buildings next to my land
U my property value is going
to going to just decrease and and I
can't imagine all the homeowner
associations in the area their property
values going up it's going to go
down um and can you imagine all of the
apartment buildings next to an
industrial area where the uh where
there's so much noise and and uh early
morning trucks starting up and stuff
like that so I think this was a really
really bad idea to put a apartments
right next to an industrial area if if
the things was reversed and you're
putting Industrial Area next to an
apartment building I don't think that
would work at
all anyway thank you for your time thank
you so much Greg Jones and then Nick
Thomas
please good evening my wife and I uh
bought a home and watched to be built in
the Neely Ranch subdivision in two or
1999 and uh we've lived on Avary way the
entire
time and uh I just want you to realize
that there are residencies on both sides
of the of NE or of uh Avary way and uh
the traffic that will come off of Cooper
how that's going to cause a a traffic
jam at work time uh Rush Hour backing up
Cooper to get on to
Avary uh our our
uh developer quoted some statistics like
only 9% of Avary whe is used a capacity
capacity for what it's a
residential street it's not designed to
be a freeway or a third thare up to an
an apartment
complex uh 9% he said of
capacity that uh that must have been
taken at 2:00 in the morning that survey
because uh we have people go through
there at rush hour time going to work
coming home from work that just stream
up and down the street and adding this
other uh would just be a terrible thing
one of the things when we purchased our
our home calman and bro uh was the
developer of the homes and on the plan
it had
a uh cuaac at the end of Avary way but
that didn't come to fruition and so they
thought they could plade Us by putting
in two speed bumps but they're not very
high and people just ignore them now
going up and down the
street I worry all also about the park
now you uh the mayor mentioned that
people from our community Neely Ranch
can go over and walk our dogs over there
I think it'll be just the reverse they
there are no parks around they will come
and uh the residents there and they will
utilize the park at uh in the Neely
Ranch subdivision now we don't mind
sharing but but just so you know we as
residents pay a pretty hefty HOA fee and
we pay for the maintenance on that Park
and uh that that would be a concern to
mine as well thank you very much thank
you sir Nick Thomas and then Carrie
Lewis
please hello my name is Nick Thomas and
I live on Avary way I moved to Gilbert
almost 9 years ago with my family we
drove through the Heritage district and
were taken back with how much it
reminded us of our small town in Ohio um
and the life and immediately knew that
this is where we wanted to settle down
in the town of Gilbert we first moved to
the tow houses just north of the
Heritage district and we enjoyed
visiting the area multiple times a week
as more new unsuitable businesses were
added it began getting louder and more
crowded in the area Vehicles racing
through the parking structure live music
at some of the restaurants until our
early hours of the morning we moved to
where we are now in Avary way because
the neighborhood still provided the
quietness we were looking for but still
close proximity to the district if we
chose to visit in those 9 years we've
watched so many Open Spaces of land
eaten up by the town of Gilbert and
developers to add more and more people
businesses bars restaurants and
apartments which has completely changed
the small town familyfriendly appeal of
the area our frequency of visiting the
Heritage district has slimmed down to
perhaps once a month now uh now if you
are looking to encroach on us again by
adding high density Apartments to our
quiet Corner not only will that bring
more people vehicles and noise but will
change yet again the atmosphere that we
moved to this community for we enjoy
taking walks through our neighborhood
and the surrounding areas seeing the
wildlife from The Preserve waddle its
way into our yards and listening to the
coyotes when they feel they need to get
a bit chipper in the mornings and the
evenings adding the highdensity
apartments will not only be an ice or to
our beautiful view of the mountains that
we have from our area and Arizona's
landscape but will add all the things
we've been trying to get away from we
already have more than enough people
speeding through our community to get
from point A to point B the speed humps
on Aviary way do not deter drivers uh
you can count on multiple cars speeding
over those homes without slowing down
every single day
um what will it take will it take
someone being seriously injured or
killed um for the developers in the
county to comprehend our concerns about
the traffic that will go through our
neighborhood it's only a matter of time
before this is going to happen it is a
neighborhood Road designed for
neighborhood traffic and travel and it
is not a road that has designed and it's
not an area designed to be a through
Road uh for traffic to travel
through I wonder if this is something
that you would support directly adjacent
to where you live or in your
neighborhood um and would you not have
any concerns about your quality of life
or safety for you or your family if this
happened I'm sure you've heard this from
my neighbors in previous meetings uh but
it seems like the concerns are falling
on years because the Town Council seems
more concerned with making money and
letting development happen than the
actual citizens happiness of those who
are already there thank
you thank you sir Carrie Lewis and then
Jacqueline
herd my name is Carrie Lewis I live on
the Southeast corner of NE and Elliott
for almost 30 years now when we first
moved in there were numerous accidents
at Neely and Elliott they put in a
street light it's reduced that greatly
but it has not stopped it Neely is two
lanes one North One
South how do you expect that one road to
handle all the new traffic I am very
disappointed with the traffic
engineering for not putting their foot
down on this I am disappointed in the
economic development who could not find
an industrial user who needs that
railroad spur to come in and do
something with that property that isn't
80 stories tall you guys seem to think
that just because there is no height
limitation on it that somebody's going
to come in and do something it wouldn't
be more than four stories I'm sure there
are incentives
for bringing in businesses that are
green that either Supply green
businesses solar
industry I I just don't understand why
apartment complexes have to go in there
it's industrial now it should remain
industrial but I don't think you're
going to do that so what are you going
to do with Neely Road it's not enough
one road is not enough Avary way you
cannot have two cars driving past each
other on Aviary way as it is now because
the residents have to park on the street
they have more cars than their garages
and driveways can handle there's cars
parked on both sides of Avary way you
cannot have two vehicles driving past
each other on Aviary way it's not safe
it's not the town of Gilbert thank
you Jacqueline herd and then Steven herd
please hi my name is Jaclyn herd and um
I have lived in Neely Ranch for 14 years
now um I started my family there and
what Drew me there was the treelined
streets and the quietness of the
neighborhood and I am um on the farthest
Avary that's closest to where the
apartments would be if I walked out of
my front door it would take me less than
2 minutes to get to where the apartments
is I'm probably six or seven houses down
um and I have three young boys who love
playing out in the front yard um and we
already can tell um at rush hour uh they
we have to constantly keep calling them
in um and have them extra careful and I
know if we add Apartments numbers are
going to double like what you've already
heard and our neighbors also have young
kids and they absolutely love playing up
front and I love that we get to have
that family community neighborhood
community of kids playing together out
front I want to promote that and I don't
want them to be afraid of being out in
the streets um and my neighbor um
actually wrote a letter um she's 7 years
old uh she's in first grade she's here
tonight um she didn't get here in time
to sign the um thing to speak so I'm
going to read it for you she wrote it
about a month ago and she heard that
they would be building apartments and
she said I think that building
apartments is not a good idea because me
and my brother and Friends won't be able
to play and my family and me won't be
able to do fires outside in case all the
traffic and noise and honking and I
won't be able to sleep because of the
honking from her thank you for your time
what's her name Jacqueline sa is that
her right there uhhuh Hi
thank you for your
letter Stephen herd and then Sally
Brier hi mayor Peterson council members
thank you for having us I can't really
follow up with that letter unfortunately
but um yeah I just two additional things
I wanted to call out the
stipulation um as someone already
mentioned it would be great to have a
few more details
um on what that actually means um we've
already had meetings with the traffic
engineering uh organization and they've
uh not really found any solution
acceptable um so it's hard to imagine
even when the numbers are higher what
exactly is going to be accomplished so
it would really really be nice from a
neighborhood perspective to know that um
yeah right now that traffic count was
done at the end of aary and there is
basically no destination at the end of
Avary right now it goes to the lumber
yard and then if you go up uh Neely you
can get to another neighborhood an
adjoining neighborhood um so it's really
not very surprising to think that uh the
amount would double in after the
apartments are there that is like very
realistic
um
and uh like I just wanted to put into
cont text the uh number the traffic
numbers generated on that was about
1,400 trips for the apartment complex um
that's about one car a minute going by
your house every minute of the day for
24 hours I just wanted everybody to kind
of have that in their mind for the
number of cars um and realistically most
of those are going to go down aary
because to go north as everyone has
already mentioned you go out Avary and
go up Cooper that's how everybody in the
neighborhood goes out to Cooper as well
and people in the adjoining neighborhood
sometimes come through too so like it's
just realistic that the that people
living in apartment complex would come
out that area so um I just yeah wanted
to um voice those concerned thank you
thanks step Sally Brier
please hello um Sally Brier I had
everything written down my phone and I
accidentally deleted it and deleted it
again so um I just go with little notes
that I wrote um I've lived in Gilbert
for 32 years raised our family here um
we lived in we've lived in Neely Ranch
for the last 17 years we chose that
neighborhood for the Treeline streets
for for the quiet for the Gilbert
friendly atmosphere which is quickly
disappearing we also Liv in Gilbert
because of the great school districts
which again most of my friends are now
home schooling that's how great it's
been I do not see anything good about
the apartments except for maybe the the
money that's going to be made by the
developer and maybe by the the revenues
that are coming coming into the city but
it's not helping our development our our
community at all it's not keeping our
um I'm can't think of the words quality
of life the way that it's been it's only
going to reduce it it's only going to
add more noise it's going to add more
traffic and it's going to add more CME
crime the more people you have the more
trouble you have with crime um also I
don't know if any of you have been to
the bridge the walking bridge in a while
that goes over the railroad track take a
look at it it looks like we are already
in a slum it's all rusting coming down
onto the sides of the the bridge
um the parking that that the apartments
are saying that they're going to do
they've got the minimum they've got
they're fulfilling that they're never
enough ALS Al Apartments have you ever
known an apartment complex that goes up
in value as far as what it brings to the
neighborhood and have you ever seen an
apartment complex go up that they don't
call a luxury apartment complex give me
a break they're not going to be luxury
apartments where they're
located
um again one of the other people that
have come up and talked about the
animals people are out in our
neighborhood every night walking their
dogs walking just as families if we're
going to be having this traffic coming
through I know that the that you've done
your your surveys with the road but I'm
sorry it's a neighborhood we want to
keep our neighborhood safe and it's not
going to be safe with cars coming
through that have a whole different
agenda they don't live in our
neighborhood they're going to be coming
through
quickly oh and one more thing our park
is private so I guess we're going to
have to do something to keep the people
that don't live in our neighborhood out
but it's you know nice to offer us to
use your Park but our park is
private and that's that's pretty much
all I have to say thank you thank you so
much um thanks for all the public that's
been here tonight and I just want to
reiterate something that council member
Tikki said was um as neighbors you've
been very friendly and um nice and kind
in your emails the way that you spoke
this evening and I can't begin to tell
you how much I appreciate that um for
the the past few years it's not
something that we've seen as the norm so
thank you all for that I appreciate it
very much next I'll invite Mr ba up um
to comment um if you want to comment on
anything that was brought up this
evening Mr Ball please yes I think
there's a couple things that I probably
should address and then also provide a
suggestion um first of all our density
is at 30 units an acre our the zoning
category can allow up to 50 units an
acre so we're on the very very lowest
end of what we can do and L somebody
think that we're going to come back
later and uh you know come up with more
we have a pad that commits us to that so
we can't go higher short of goinging
through this entire process all over
again
um Council M Buck I I don't think I'm
going to change your mind but I did want
to kind of rest your mind at ease a
little bit on one thing um 62% of our
units are Studios or one-bedrooms we
have no three bedrooms and so when you
think through like the the number of
people who will you know be living here
um so much are Studios and single
bedrooms that you don't see the same
type of familial situation that you
might see in a larger three bedroom type
of Apartment project I don't think that
changes your mind but at least wanted to
help you understand at least that um
information that I didn't share the
first time
um there was a comment about this might
be incompatible next to Industrial
except for right now the district Lofts
are right there next to Industrial and
so they somehow have found a way not
only to thrive uh and exist compatibly
but they've been very successful um they
have um I don't think they've risen to a
level of complaint status of the town
that would discourage other multif
family from coming there within our
project we have um open space we have
two different Park areas one of which is
a dog park so when you think through um
the way the amenities that we provide we
want to make sure our resents can can
self-contain instead of needing go
somewhere else um as I think
through maybe the most
important comment I heard not to
diminish any of the others but maybe the
most important one seem to Center on
traffic and I'm not saying that we are
ignoring traffic what I'm saying is we
will address the traffic when there's a
true need to address the traffic and I
think it isn't because I don't want to
address something today
I think through what is the professional
engineering's role I believe
Professional Engineers want to make sure
traffic works like veins and arteries
work in your body that traffic has a
variety of of ways it goes and works
together and not wanting to cut off a
vein or an artery unless you know it
needs to be cut off and so the ability
to measure this properly then gives them
the tools to implement procedures then
there's a lot of things that could be
done um if needed
one striping two signage three chicanes
four speed tables five the um the raised
pavement markers there there's just
there's a lot of opportunities that the
town can consider and I don't think
they're saying we won't do anything I
think they're saying let's let the data
influence our decision- making if it
needed we'll come back when that study
was done in December on a school day and
a business day it was in the middle of
your roadway construction so if cut
through traffic was happening it
probably was happening more at that time
than another time when you weren't doing
the road work along Elliot and Cooper
Road so I think that probably is a very
accurate reflection of what more cut
through might be than in a normal
situation but in any event it is unusual
for a developer to commit himself to a
future
obligation for an unknown
situation at a cost after he's baked it
built and delivered his project and I
think we do that
because their
concern is heard their concern if it
becomes reality should be addressed and
I think any of those options could
exist a stipulation has been offered I'm
agreeable to the idea that we measure it
during school days I might make one more
suggestion and I I I'm embarrassed I
hadn't thought of this before but for
what it's worth there could be a
stipulation
added that that could say that the
applicant shall install no right turn
local traffic only signage on Neely
Street and so does that prevent somebody
I don't know if it can completely
prevent them but I do think it is a
reminder that traffic should go down
Neely Street and discourage it from
going um on Aviary way and uh just one
more additional thing that we could do
today to help make this go forward happy
to answer any questions but as I see
this today we are not ignoring the
traffic concern I think we're addressing
it when the time is manifest
thanks Mr ball any com um vice mayor
Anderson quick question U it was brought
up about the second point of access can
you describe what's going on with that
yeah so the development needs a single
point of access obviously to get in and
get out it needs a second point of
access for emergency purposes and so
there is an opportunity we've designed a
a stub Street on our project to go north
um through the future um uh retention
area on the edge of it to connect with
was the likely Phoenix Avenue alignment
that goes along parallel to the train
tracks um that is a secondary way out of
the property up until the point that my
optimism will manifest and Neely Street
will connect over or under the railway
track manifest itself there um council
member tilki thank you mayor um Mr B you
answered two of the questions I had one
was that um it it's already in writing
on the number of um
and so you're not going to arbitrarily
be able to make that change and the
second councilman I frankly I can't
because a an additional bedroom type
requires more parking than it cannot fit
into the development great um the other
one was the secondary exit
um could you explain or if you prefer
staff could
explain the I know that some of the um
residents had
concerns about how the stipulation would
work I know that we don't have all those
details today but it's my understanding
that if we approve this project today
with that stipulation it is there in um
for the plan going forward and there was
no way that you would be able to say I'm
not going to do that or that the town
would not be part of those conversations
is that correct yeah uh and the reason
why it's not specific specific is
because I don't know if in the future a
speed table is the right option or
chicane is and nobody will know until
they can do the study to determine what
time of the day what's the velocity of
trips and the number of trips and so
depending on what that data shows you
they may decide that um a pinch on a way
or maybe there's an opportunity to
redesign a different type of CAC and I
think giving the town the tools to
select what is the right option is why
there's the flexibility there but the
commitment exists nonetheless yes thank
you um May I perhaps the um addition on
the sign I don't know if that's
something we need to ask staff and do we
need to wait till it's that time or how
would you like to Pro proceed with that
um since Mr B just recommended that I
would ask staff to potentially write up
a and we'll be calling staff in a minute
anyway potentially write up a
stipulation that Mr B mentioned about no
right turn local traffic only to be
posted at Neil at Avary on on neie is
that possible to add as a stipulation is
that something that we can do Chris
Payne I'm looking at
you planning I'm looking at
you and Mar if we can I think engering
you'll want that done immediately yes if
we can have that written up so that
we'll have something at when we're done
with this
discussion that we'll have something to
work with um Mr B I did have another
comment too please thanks Kristen hi
mayor I just wanted to let you know that
um we're we're conferring and we we'll
get back to you on your question in just
a moment thanks Kristen yes and it might
be a requirement that says local traffic
only because as I think through no right
turn residents who go to that Future
Park who want to go back to their
neighborhood in in NE Ranch would
probably want to turn right I think
that's why Yeah you mentioned local
traffic only so and um thank you for
that offer for that stipulation and I I
would imagine it would have to be a
separate stipulation from the one that
you've already added could you explain
because one of the residents mentioned
um
9% of could you explain what the 9% is
of and where that number comes from
please
yeah when your Town's Transportation
Engineers design roadways arterials
major arterials collectors major
collectors and local residential streets
they assign a road type for the type of
volume it's intended to carry
so in this case a local collector Street
typically carries around 2,600 trips so
then we just look at the count the count
showed 240 trips on that day and it
wasn't at 2 a.m. or whatever was
suggested it it's a summary of the
24-hour period And so that number is how
you derive the 9% I think that number
could be less if it weren't in the
middle of construction traffic along
that road and I also suspect that you
might have a different account if the
counting occurred Cooper closer to
Cooper Road Navy way but I think the
point is if it's cut through it should
be going all the way through to the East
End where our residents would likely be
using it and so what you're saying is
you did the count closer to Neely
because that's where these cars would be
coming from anyhow if they were truly
being generated by the lumber yard the
businesses there they would be coming on
the east in and out of that East End
entrance we can measure it anywhere
doesn't really matter to us I mean I
think our commitment is just Remains the
Same right and yeah thank you for that
um so I think that I think that Mr B did
a great job explaining that every type
of street has account of what is
projected to be seen on that type of
street and because this is a NE local
collector is that what you said Adam
local collector it is expected to have
up to 2600 trips a day on that street I
think it's a local collector called
local local collector right no not
collector just local Road oh sorry local
resid okay I local and residential sorry
local residential would have up to 2600
trips a day and what they saw was 240
trips a day so it's only 9% of what you
would typically see on a local
residential street I live on a local
residential street but I live across the
street from Gilbert High School and we
happen to get a lot of cut through
traffic and even though I live in the
middle of the neighborhood the traffic
for some reason instead of going on the
outside circle of my neighborhood comes
right through the middle of my
neighborhood which to me doesn't make
any sense but it happens every single
day and it has for as long as I've lived
there since
1996 um so I completely understand where
you're coming from um I think Mr B
answered all of the other questions I'm
gonna ask Chris does anybody have have
any other questions for Mr ba at this
time because that would be
no yes I do have one more question um
you answered most my other questions
through the other conversation and
dialogue but there was one comment about
Neely Street specifically there's a
signal at
Elliott and it's a collector three lane
cross-section up to
Avary what are the improvements that
this development will make to neie
Street um and and what are the extents
of those
improvements uh we might need to ask
staff that question I know NE street is
designed for 8,400 trips I think between
what's existing and what we're bringing
will probably be
around 2700 trips so still below what
the volume is but as far as the
improvements I think staff has an idea
on what will be occurring at the
intersection
of Elliot and M Street but at the lumber
yard property you'll be building the
sidewalk and turb and gutter sorry I
misunderstood your question yes our full
half Street improvements will occur
along that that stretch and that's not
currently built right now no thank
you and up to the entrance of your
neighborhood because your entrance is
actually at the north side of your
neighborhood thank you Susanna did you
have something to
add yes thank you mayor and uh council
members as well as thank you um Adam for
for bringing forward a
suggestion one of the reasons we put the
stipulation in there for that 50 Grand
and for to do it after the development
was in was so we could accommodate
things like signing you know maybe that
no right turn lane or right turn signing
would be appropriate that would be a
part of that stipulation that's already
in there so I just want to make sure
that we wanted to have as much
flexibility as we could to Sol if we
have to solve the problem we solve it
you know at the time that we're really
seeing where those issues are and being
able to accommodate that appropriately
from that perspective so I just wanted
to bring that to the Forefront that the
stipulation that's written was really
written to to try to be as flexible as
we could as we recognize what's
happening once that that facility would
go in so so I from what I'm hearing
staff would recommend no separate
stipulation but to leave the stipulation
that we have maybe with the
modifications made by council member
kosi about school days and um to leave
it flexible so that traffic engineering
can look at all possibilities based on
what they find absolutely thank because
there were lots of suggestions going on
here and it would be nice to be able to
do that based off of of you know where
we're at when the when the time comes
and the traffic is there so thank you
council member Koski Susanna um some of
the comments that were made seem like
they may be slightly disconnected from
this particular project such as existing
issues in the neighborhood does the town
have a current um procedure that the
residents can work with Town staff to
evaluate valate the current
Effectiveness or
um for example the comments about like
the the current speed humps and their
design um certainly we uh excuse me
mayor and council member Kowski I think
that's a great question um you know that
would be something as we're we're
looking at that and I did go drive
through that neighborhood this weekend
to just kind of say what does that look
like and um you know I think there has
been a definite attempt at this point in
time to provide um traffic calming that
was probably put in at a time in the
past um and there are some ways of doing
traffic calming today that are different
than they were in other ways one of the
suggestions I felt is probably
unnecessary is for us to maybe go ahead
and do some of those traffic counts as
it exists today under our own guidance
um and and obviously do that after the
improvements that are being made on
Elliot that Elliott intersection right
now and just kind of be able to say
what's the before versus the after so um
that was one thing that I was going to
ask staff to do anyway so thank you
thank you and since you're up there one
of my questions for you or staff are
what are the current improvements at
Cooper and Elliott what's the final
condition going to look like
there great question and and I might
have to call a friend for this one but I
do know that we're we are improving that
um there were some choices as we went
through that design that we did not
absolutely widen it as much as possible
we had some things that were influencing
us being able to do that effectively and
appropriately uh but we are widening
that intersection in order to basically
um you know move that traffic through
there a whole lot better than what it
had in the past and as far as the
absolute improvements that are going on
there I might have to call a friend so
thank
you um and I don't know whether it would
be you Susanna or maybe someone from a
different department but I know that
there actually are not a lot of speed
humps in the town of Gilbert or in a lot
of other communities in the valley
because of the emergency response times
um so this is actually pretty rare that
this neighborhood has that
mitigation um
there so I I know there there there's a
lot of comments that were specifically
kind of pointed at traffic engineering
ing but I think that it's the
combination of making sure that our
residents have the mobility and access
but also that our emergency responders
have that access in a timely manner as
well yes councilman kousi you are
exactly right with that is that that is
one of the real items that happen with
this traffic calming is to make sure
that we are um being able to get that
emergency vehicles in and out um the
fact that we um cannot really close off
that to the cuac suggestion was in there
was primarily there's very little access
in and out of those neighborhoods in
that area and that would just restrict
us either fur even further for us to get
um and provide that that emergency
access appropriately and definitely any
traffic cing measures have to be able to
accomodate those those emergency um
vehicles thank you typically Susanna a
culdesac also has to accommodate the
turn radius for a fire engine correct
absolutely and so that's always an issue
because they are quite large vehicles um
any other questions or comments for
Susanna since we have her up here seeing
none then I'll bring Kristen back up for
any comments that anyone might have for
staff I'm following my order of
proceedings here specifically any
comments or questions for Kristen at
this
time I'm just hoping she has the
stipulation actually we just heard from
Susanna that staff would prefer no
second stipulation
did you want a second I just wanted to
make sure she had the changes that were
recommend recommended okay thank you
Kristen do you have those the changes
for the original stipulation that was
given to us this evening I do mayor uh
and council member Tiki so um I updated
it to say one year after the final
certificate of occupancy is issued the
developer shall conduct a three
consecutive week day while school is in
session traffic count along Avary way to
determine actual daily trips if average
daily trips for the 3-day period exceeds
540 daily trips the developer shall work
with the town of Gilbert to identify and
Implement additional traffic calming
measures or other staff approved
mitigation efforts the developer shall
be financially responsible for maximum
Financial contribution not to exceed
$50,000 thank you Kristen any other
questions or comments for Kristen at
this time SE um Kristen there was a
comment made about our pedestrian bridge
and the look of our pedestrian bridge
and if I'm think think I'm correct it
was it's a copper finish so it's
supposed to look like it's rusted I
think was the term that was used and can
I get confirmation from staff on that I
see Ava shaking her head yes hey mayor I
see Ava nodding so I'm goingon to go
with her my phone a friend here yes
thank you didn't mean to put you on the
spot with that Kristen I just I just
thought since I had staff up there thank
you very much absolutely I will go ahead
and bring the item back to the dis for
discussion I will close the public
hearing anyone wishing to discuss this
item further or make any comments before
we make a
motion counil May roban Giovani thank
you mayor
um sometimes I wish that I was a
required to vote
um sometimes because sometimes um you
know wish had a choice to vote or not
vote this is one of those times
but when we don't vote um and when we
don't get a choice to vote problems can
happen one specifically right down on
the street uh recently Berg's coffee
shop was
sold uh and Bottled Blonde a pizza place
by day and Nightclub by night uh will be
opening 5,000 people signed a petition
and asked us to stop it that's put it in
perspective that was too times the
amount of people that gave us a or
signed a petition for us to stop teenage
brass
knuckles and we can't we can't stop it
because they they're staying within code
and there's no reason for them to come
to the council my concern is that that
could happen again and it could happen
in that in that property
itself
um someone could as was mentioned
earlier that it could be a a good
property someone could come and and want
to build industrial a huge building a
tall building um which could bring
problems on their on their own and um I
hate to see us in a situation like that
again where no matter how many citizens
came to us and and told and and you know
asked us to not approve it for us not to
be in a situation to even vote to
approve it uh or not um you know I the
way I look at it
is you know we we've come to terms with
the developer to look at traffic a year
from now if there's problems we're just
going to have to fix
it and um I just don't want to be in
that same situation
again I'm just going to clarify a year
after C ofo is um is given on the
property not a year from now I just want
to make sure any other comments
discussion vice
mayor I'm I'm very sympathetic with the
concerns that have been expressed
tonight um we' we've heard it a
lot uh as Gilbert has continued to
grow um there was a comment made tonight
that people need a place to work that's
why we should keep it as industrial well
people that are working in the
industrial need a place to live
and the average person moving to Gilbert
now is looking at a
median home value of
$500,000 that's a little bit difficult
to swallow for somebody just wanting to
get started here in Gilbert and we
certainly want new residents moving to
Gilbert and so that's why we're seeing
um apartment projects around town but I
want you to know that Gilbert is still a
single family residential community
uh only about 12% of our housing stock
in Gilbert is actually in multifam just
to give you perspective on that our
joining communities Mesa Tempe Phoenix
are probably about 40 maybe 50% multi
family and 50% single family we're at
about 80 or 88 or 90% single
family and I know that doesn't solve any
of the issues I think the stipulation
that we've talked about tonight will go
a long ways to to solve that um and it's
unusual very unusual in a in a a multif
family project to come up with a
stipulation like we've come up with
tonight very unusual and I think it'll
work for the benefit overall for the
entire Community as well as for um Neely
Ranch and I appreciate you all being
here tonight expressing your concerns
thank
you thanks vice mayor any other comments
I'll just add that um vice mayor did a
great job to point out that we are about
88 89% single family with 11 or 12% of
multif family in our community and every
single day our state legislature is
trying to find ways to force multifam
into every community in the state of
Arizona to the point of they're trying
to pass legislation that would say just
about any land zoned in any way would be
able to be built with multif family and
when council member roban Giovani
comments on us not having a vote we
wouldn't have a vote we wouldn't have a
choice we wouldn't have an option we
most likely wouldn't be able to even
look at the design of those buildings
and they'd be able to build anything
that they wanted any place that they
wanted to so as we're hearing from the
residents that you don't want multifam
we completely hear what you're saying
why you're saying it and how you're
saying it we are trying to balance being
a community
that has enough of both at a Gilbert way
in a Gilbert way and that's why we have
chosen to keep it at such a low
percentage while looking at different
opportunities that come forward we have
a case here where a developer has come
forward with a project and asked us to
change something in order to accommodate
their use that they want to have when a
developer comes forward with a project
we really have to entertain those
projects by state law we have to look at
what they're asking for and we do our
best to make those projects the best
possible projects we could we could make
them almost two years ago we had a
presentation by Elliot Pollock who looks
at um the cost of doing business in the
state and he came to us and told us that
in the town of Gilbert you would have to
make almost two years ago you would have
to make at least $45,000 to afford an
apartment in the town of Gilbert I can
guarantee you today it is higher than
that it's probably up to
$50,000 my salary as mayor I would not
be able to afford an apartment in
Gilbert when we say luxury apartments
what you're getting in Gilbert is luxury
apartments because they meet the market
demand of the community and this
community demands something Higher by
design by what the amenities are for the
properties and that's why it takes time
to go through the process and in this
case we were able to work out a
situation that we are able to purchase
land that we desperately need in the
Heritage District to account for um
water retention that we're going to have
in the future that we need to be able to
provide for this community so this has
been um a great way for us to be able to
meet the need of our community in a
couple of different ways and I
definitely sympathize with you as to the
multif family and understand your
concerns and I just wanted you to know
what we're trying to balance at the same
time when we're looking at every single
one of these projects individually and
Mr bom mentioned that we started this
conversation well over a year and a half
ago um in 2022 and projects like this
take that time because we're looking at
them so closely so I would entertain a
motion it needs to be done in two
separate motions please for the general
plan and one for the zoning if anybody
would like to tackle them and please
remember to include the
stipulation mayor I I'm looking did you
oh I thought council member bonab Bon
wanted to do this so which one has the
stipulation I have it I have it listed
as both GP and Z so but you said I had
to do it in two separate so that's why
well you have to make a general plan um
motion and a separate zoning motion
because they're two separate items and
they'll both have the stipulation is
that's what I'm asking is that right
Kristen uh mayor council member tokki it
should just be the zoning okay because
it's both on here okay sorry okay I
apologize I will try this thank you
um I'd like to make a motion to approve
General plan gp2
22-16 I have a motion can I have a
second second I have a motion by council
member tilki seconded by council member
Koski please
vote did you fat finger that motion
passes
52 and would you like to tackle the next
one thank Youk you mayor um I'd like to
approve zoning case z
22-16 with the addition of the
stipulation do I need to read it in full
I would say as read by Kristen oh as
read by Kristen um that I have a motion
by council member tilki can I have a
second second second by council member
Capri please vote
motion passes 52 thank you everyone um
thank you for your patience that was a
long hearing to get through we
appreciate everybody coming out and
again to the residents thank you for
being um so friendly and kind on this
topic we are going to recess for about
five minutes thank you mayor could I um
I just need to excuse myself at this
time so I apologize but um I won't be
able to stay for the rest thank you
thank you very much
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give a 20
second just to get everybody back in
their seats and Scott September can make
his way
out he's visiting with
everybody all right I'll bring this
meeting back to order and um back to
vice mayor for the consent calendar vice
mayor thank you
mayor looks
like we are going to pull item
17 item 22 has been at that's taken off
the
agenda and i' like to also pull items 24
and
25 and add 31 and 32 is that correct 31
and 32
yes we will be adding 31 and 32 to the
consent agenda 31 would be the
appointment of the Parks and Recreation
board council member Bon Giovani do you
have that information with
you yes I do if you would like to um if
you'd like to read that now and then
I'll do the judicial board yeah sure
thank you mayor uh consideration
appointment to the parks and board um
parks Recreation board Holly
Puli Florence D Florence Daniels Desiree
Hoffman with terms beginning May 13 2014
and ending May 12th
2027 and John Dale uh with a partial
term beginning May 13 2024 and ending
May 12 2025 and a full term beginning
May 13 2025 and ending May 12th 2028
congratulations
and then I have for the judicial
selection and Advisory Board I have four
nonstate bar
members one with a term of May 7th 2024
to February 15 2027 that would be Juan
Marcos
Romero and then the other three with
terms may7th 2024 to February 15
2026 that would be John torbit Benjamin
dret and Christine
kisela and then I have two State Bar of
Arizona members with terms beginning May
7th 2024 and ending February 15th 2027
that would be Clint Dunaway and
Stephanie low
novotney I also have the prior presiding
magistrate John tats as the court
magistrate member with a term beginning
May 7th 2024 and ending February 15th
2027 also have Adam walterson as a
member from Gilbert Municipal Court
Administration with a term beginning May
7th 2024 and ending February 15
2027 and I have tamaa Hartman as the
Personnel professional from the town of
Gilbert with a term beginning May 7th
2024 and ending February 15th
2027 someone like to make a motion on
the consent agenda including those two
board and
commissions I'll make a motion I have a
motion by the vice mayor can I have a
second I'll second it I have a second by
con May ran Giovani please
vote motion passes 60 council member
tilki had to leave us this evening um
vice mayor item 17 council member
torgenson item 17
I would like a a a explanation of
exactly how
$140,000 of LED screens own lease the
actual the value of it do we have
anybody that can tell me
anything oh Rocky Brown see Rocky Brown
approaching the podium from Parks and re
can good evening mayor members of
council uh sorry I didn't quite hear
that entire question I I just wanted to
have an understanding we're looking at
two screens for
$140,000 I want to know whether it's
owned leased operated uh it's saying
it's for movies messages and displays
during special events uh is there any
other use for
this full scope of the explanation C
listen these would be to purchase two
screens that we would own and all be
able to self- operate they're
self-contained um these screens would be
able to be used out at Gilbert Regional
Park also in the downtown for special
events um as Gil Regional Park continues
to grow and attract larger events uh one
of the things we're we're finding is
that it's such a great huge lawn that
it's tough to sell High ticketed events
if there's not a better viewing angle of
just our stage there so we believe that
adding these screens into the inventory
will'll be able to continue to track uh
attract backyard events that we're
getting requests from promoters for how
big are these
screens um they they come into enclosed
trailers they're about 16 by 14 um LED
screens all self enclosed um and they
they're they're elevated so they get
stored within a trailer and they elevate
from the trailer so that way when
they're not in use they're uh out of the
elements and can be you know safely
stored
would you like to make a motion on those
council
member uh I'd like to make a motion to
approve uh uh item number 17 as written
thank you can I have a
second I'll second it I a motion by
council member tus and seconded by
council member Von Giovani please
vote motion passes 60 thank you vice
mayor item 24 council member
torguson uh this is the budget for uh
the contingency fund for the police
department and I wanted to hear a little
bit about what we're using these funds
for and why we are approaching again as
the last few years it's been short and
we've gone to contingency how we could
possibly get this budgeted so we're not
having to go to a contingency fund late
cuz it's been Contin last year was 2.9
Million whatever it was before that was
two something so just to see if there's
a better way to budget so we don't
actually have to ask for
it uh mayor Peterson council member
torguson uh Mike sber with the police
department uh as you mentioned last year
we did a contingency request of 2.98 uh
the year before we did just under 2
million similar to uh what we have this
year which is 2. uh3 uh for this year um
part part of your question comes into
the process of how we do our budget we
budget conservatively not just the
police department the entire town budget
budgets conservatively based on past uh
year
expenses uh routinely as you indicated
we have exceeded our uh overtime that
has been budgeted um we have not
increased the cap of that overtime
obviously our uh intent is to reduce and
minimize that over time but we've kept
it somewhat consistent in the amount of
overtime that's budgeted knowing that we
do have the contingency so as the year
goes uh with uh Market adjustments uh
inflationary increases contract
increases that that has the ability and
so normally we wait till the end of the
fiscal year uh we were going to come
about four months ago because we knew we
were going to be over but we decided to
hold off until the end of the closer to
the end of the fiscal year so we had a
better accounting of the year-to-date
spend expenditures and minimizing that
unknown for the next 6 to8 weeks um that
we foresee for the rest of the fiscal
year the breakdown um of that 2.3
million uh 1.9 is Personnel cost that is
our highest expense obviously with all
our departments the Personnel costs are
the most expensive some of those causes
um we provide you a very high level
summary of what the driving forces of
those are and most of those are staffing
issues vacancy shortages we are doing
much better than most agencies in the
valley and we're roughly around a 4%
vacancy rate between professional staff
and sworn but those are still critical
positions we also run uh a lean
organization to where we when we do have
vacancies we a lot of those positions we
do have to backfill for those depending
on where those are at so out of that 1.9
a lot of it is due to Staffing shortages
part of it is uh increased workload and
then uh our basic training and Advanced
Training so we have and that's one
adjustment we did do with this next year
for fiscal year 25 of increasing that
training budget it still it does not
cover the the three-year average but it
does cover um some of what we've been
experienced over the last three years a
lot of that training overtime comes from
when we hire a new police officer um the
six months in the academy and then
roughly three to four months out in the
field of that officer and training
there's usually uh extra hours spent in
that training process going over cases
report right
and also for uh part of that time for
the field training officer to be there
with them and guide them through as they
learn that process and so that has a
tendency to increase and we see that
fluctuation as we graduate from the
academy every six months we'll see uh an
increase in the overtime for training
because that's categorized as training
when we track our overtime which we look
at it monthly we look at it monthly
there are comat reports we have budget
reports and then a corly report and
we've now built up through the
performance management a dashboard that
we can look at
internally and with the overtime it's
divided up it's not as granular as you
may like um but it is divided up by
division and then by uh the cause so we
have roughly 20 plus categories uh Court
overtime call out overtime uh uh we have
standby we have uh held over due to
workload so if you have a busy shift
you're held over on Investigation we
have report writing uh
uh categories for overtime we have
critical Staffing so we have a minimum
number of officers that we have to have
on the street and so if we're short we
bring somebody in we do everything we
can to minimize that overtime that
overtime uh is a a big impact on this
1.9 million in addition to that we also
had the vehicle uh which was 360,000 uh
500 360 550 which most of that's due to
price increases for gas um and utilities
if you will on on vehicles and then the
56,000 was due to an error that when we
upgraded to AT&T uh network uh the old
systems were not turned off that was an
error and the we incurred some
additional cost because of
that any additional questions no I just
appreciate you delineating it for me
thank you Chief you mentioned that um
we're doing better than other
communities is this typically how other
communities handle when they have
shortages like this contingency I know
for us here with Public Safety it's it's
a contingency every single year because
we do budget very lean and so we have to
make up the difference at this time of
the year yes um for my experience here
we've uh usually each year we have some
contingency requests and in my prior
experience yes each agency each uh
Valley city is slightly different and
depending on how the economic Times and
the budget um that has an impact um but
it is normal to have a contingency
request especially from Public Safety
when a lot of the factors that push our
budget are out of our
control thanks Chief um any other
questions council member Koski hi Chief
thank you for being transparent on the
reasons for the contingency request I
think that's really important I have a
question about um might be more for
Kelly but in the zerob based budgeting
process um would
would the like do the contingency
requests over those three years prior to
that zerob base evaluation do those go
into the re-evaluation of what the
budget for your department would
be thank you mayor council member
kabowski uh on the Zero base we look at
all the contractual lines um but the
overtime line the Departments have to do
a budget package and request if they
want additional funds and then it would
have to be funded in in the budget
process so that one a little bit
different items like if there's a a
special investigation or something if
it's an average of three per year we'll
only put in three even though there
might be a year when they have four or
five um and then they would need
contingency because we budget and do
zero base based off of what's the most
likely scenario not what's the worst
case scenario thank
you Council mayor Bon Giovani thank you
mayor hey chief um can you state the
number again the contingency last year
compared to this year uh
2.98 and so 2.98 million uh last year
and when you look at our three sorry
mayor council member Bon Giovani uh when
you look at our last three years um we
we see Trends and when you look at the
graph of our overtime expenditures we
see that cycle where in the summer it
spikes in the around the holidays it
spikes and so it we're right in line
we're um lower than what we were for
fiscal year 20 three but uh above where
we were in fiscal year 22 but the same
pattern is very obvious as as we've gone
through that depending on the season and
the overtime um that that impacts it's
it's on in line with what we normally
see okay thank you
sir any other questions or comments for
chief or Kelly since the budget no would
somebody like to make a motion on this
item I'll make a motion to adopt item
number 2 four of the consent agenda as
written I second I have a motion by
council member tus and seconded by
council member Buckley please
vote motion passes 60 next item vice
mayor item 25 councilman
Torgerson I wanted to hear a little bit
about the uh the grant money coming in
and to note that in section A it's
missing the dollar sign in front of of
the number so if we could alter that and
put the dollar sign in it'd be kind of
nifty oh it's in in a it's missing but
in B it's there
yeah good evening mayor and Council
thank you for the question uh regarding
this grant opportunity this is a
formulaic grant that is um provided by
the federal government um the department
of energy so every city state um entity
has a formulaic amount and um Gilbert's
number is listed in there without a
dollar sign as you as you mentioned um
the
$266,000 um and
$640 uh for specific Energy Efficiency
programs and the federal government has
um laid out uh a lot of lists of
potential projects or programs that
could be funded um by this Grant and our
proposal is to um look at uh electric
vehicle charging stations either at the
the Heritage District to garage or the
town hall for the
public and what are the that's one of
the things we can do with it what are
the reporting responsibilities of that
what have we engaged in beyond that the
the this is actually very streamlined
especially for a Federal grant so um
there will be the typical um uh
reporting requirements where we use the
funding um but they've actually done it
very very streamlined so it should be
minimal regarding a Federal grant of
course we'll have our accounting team be
involved in that as well and then um the
projects that we've already uh looked at
or that will look at already have um
these electric vehicle charging stations
planned for them so it's not like we're
adding something additional onto a
capital project that we already have
planned it's already Incorporated there
so it' be um actually reducing the cost
of those capital
projects the grant money is not it's
going to replace money that would have
come out of a fund a CIP fund of some
sort yes and just because it's a pet
peeve of mine with Department of
Transportation and other Federal things
I don't suppose that we're getting
locked into a safe streets for all
campaign or any other sort of reporting
campaign right correct as I've seen
before no we're not all right thank
you thank staff has heard us loud and
clear when it comes to federal grants
that there should be no strings attached
I think is probably what council member
tarason is getting to so no strings
attached thank you Eric and thank you
for clarifying that it would replace
funding that we would have to find in
another way to do a project that we were
looking to do otherwise any other
comments or
questions would somebody like to make a
motion I'll make a motion to adopt uh
consent agenda number 25 as written
except for the missing dollars Sign A
and B it will be added in number
a thank you I have a motion can I have a
second I'll second that one I have a
motion by council member torus and
seconded by council member ban Giovani
please
vote motion passes
60 that concludes the consent calendar
mayor excellent vice mayor excuse me we
will move on
to item number 30 which means I need to
recess our regular meeting and
convenient a special meeting to discuss
item number 30
budget for the fy2 property tax
levy Kelly I assumed you'd have some
sort of a small presentation
I could do a quick slide or it is the
same information that we discussed in
the uh study session earlier today this
is a public hearing for the property tax
so uh the proposed rate is 33 million or
Levy 3 33 milon
275,000 and it would maintain the rate
of 98 cents per $100 of assessed value
same rate that we had last year um and
we can receive input from the public and
from Council if you want anything
different on the documents that come for
final adoption on May 4th this is the
time to provide that feedback any
comments for Kelly at this time on this
item council member torguson June 4th
but uh May 4th is in the past the
U you know I'm honory it's late and I've
been here since 3 um I I heard you say
something earlier that we were going to
have to go into our
contingency regarding this yes we will
have to go into our reserves this next
year um when we set the proposed Levy um
we looked at The Debt Service principal
and interest that would need to be paid
and we knew that the county was in the
middle of a lawsuit and would likely
have to do refunds we guesstimated what
those refunds would be and put in an
amount of about
$625,000 built into that rate uh we
later received information from the
county that the refunds for Gilbert will
be about $1.5 million so they will take
that money out before it ever comes to
us and then the amount that comes to us
will will not be enough for us to make
our principal and interest payments so
we will have to dip into the reserves in
that fund to finish making those
payments so I don't get to try and pinch
$264,600 off of that do I we are well
pinched this year okay all right I
appreciate it because I was going to go
do that again but it doesn't sound like
it's a good year to do that thank
you and unfortunately some something
that's completely out of our control and
thank you for GU estimating over
$600,000 and then for it to come out
being 1.5 million is a huge difference
for us and to have to come up with that
funding and especially in a year that we
know we're losing funding with
residential rental tax and the other
things that we see coming down so um
this is I I don't have any slips from
anybody wishing to speak and it is not
an item for a vote so I think does
anyone have any other questions or
comments for Kelly she can move forward
with June 4th June 4th to bring this
back to us thank you thanks Kelly then I
will go ahead and adjourn the special
meeting and reconvene our regular
meeting and bring it to Mayor Peterson
if I could just before you move on no
you did not okay but before you move on
I think you've done all the
administrative items we have not we
haven't gotten to the community
engagement task force before we move on
to community engagement um you did have
some appointments of the judicial
Advisory Board did that and the question
is there's no councila on currently the
prior one was council member Hendrick
who's obviously hasn't been on the
council for a while cu the board hasn't
not had a need to meet so question is if
you want to point a liaison you can do
so or you can do so at a different time
um you know what
that that board will probably have to
meet a couple of times over the rest of
this year correct um I would love to
take that one if I can unless somebody
else is interested in it but in January
it will be up for grabs because there'll
be a change in all the Le on positions
so I would love to take that one
Chris that's no votes needed it's just
something that you can just do yourself
so okay we will mayor we'll make sure
you get noticed when those meetings uh
convene thank you Kiron assignment
number 19 I think that is for
me add it to the list but I I would love
to work with them um especially the
people that we just appointed I think
it'll be great um meeting them Monday
night was fabulous and I think it' be um
a great opportunity for the next seven
or eight months thank you thanks Chris
thank you for that moving on to
administrative
items sorry trying to get through this
without coughing we have one item for
boards and commissions consider approval
of the following amendments to the
community engagement task force
unfortunately council member tilki had
to leave
um does any staff have information on
this that you might want to share and
what these updates are
for because I don't even know I haven't
discussed them do you council member K I
believe this is formalization of what
the council discussed at our last
meeting thank you um I know council
member Toki and I passed in the hall
today and discussed it for like a split
second before we came down for study
session add the focus area of teen
violence and assign the tasks of review
and existing resources and programs
discovering where there may be gaps and
improvements and present recommendations
to the Gilbert Town Council in areas of
resources education and promotion set
the members to two to 11 regular members
total to include no less than four teens
who attend schools within the Gilbert
boundary and who are not seniors in the
current 2023 2024 school year with all
members being residents of Gilbert now I
know based on the amount of um
applicants that we
had I had suggested at the last meeting
it say up to four and I would recommend
not locking us into four but saying up
to four just based on how many I know
have
applied I'm good with that are you okay
with that yes I'm seeing heads Shake
okay so we would change that to be up to
four
teens that gives us a little more leeway
mayor do you have um I mean if we make
this change we will have to notify all
the applicants because this was
published in the um the board
application it was published but it
wasn't solidified till we vote on it
tonight till tonight so so we can just
have um Judy let them know that that
Chang yes we can have we can have the
clerk's office let them know Judy are
you hearing that thank you um include
two adult alternates and one teen
alternate direct staff to seek
additional non-voting representatives
from Gilbert Higley and Chandler School
Districts American Leadership Academy
Santan Charter School Gilbert Christian
School maror youth advisory committee
and a representative from the Gilbert
Police Department as recommended by the
police chief um council member Tikki had
said something to me
about schools did you discuss this with
her council member Kowski and a concern
with which schools cuz she who attends
schools within the Gilbert boundary I
don't I think it's I think it's open
enough that it it won't be an issue for
us but I haven't looked at the detail of
the people that applied so I think with
the up to four we should be okay with
the teens
how many teams did apply I didn't I saw
the list today but I didn't okay four
okay and that's why I'm saying we don't
want to say yeah that's fine and so I
think as long as we stay within the
Gilbert
boundary I think we're okay if we need
to modify we can come back but I think
we're okay um would anybody like to make
a motion oh I'll just do it I move to
approve item 33 with the amendment to be
to be up to
14s who attends schools within the
Gilbert boundary the rest of it okay for
a c and d can I have a second I'll
second that I have a second by council
member ban Giovani please
vote motion passes 6 Z and Judy if you
could send out a communication to
everybody that applied just so that they
have an update on what was approved this
evening that would be wonderful thank
you now moving on to Communications from
citizens vice mayor
thank you mayor uh the Gilbert Town
Council values citizen comments and
input anyone wishing to speak before the
council must fill out a request to speak
card for each item they wish to speak on
and submit it to the town clerk or place
it in the bin provided prior to the
start of the meeting the communications
from citizens portion on the agenda
provide citizens an opportunity to
identify for the Town Council matters of
Interest or concern related to town
government under the provisions of the
Arizona open meeting law the Town
Council is prohibited from responding to
issues that have not been properly
noticed therefore the Town Council may
only listen to citizens who wish to
address them and at the conclusion of
the open call to public response is
limited to individual members of the
council responding to criticism made by
those who have addressed the public body
asking staff to review a matter or
asking that a matter be put on a future
agenda while we understand and
appreciate appreciate the passion our
community members bring to these
sessions we must remind everyone that
clapping during the meeting is not
acceptable this practice can disrupt the
flow of discussion potentially
intimidate others and detract from the
respectful atmosphere we strive to
maintain the town asks that when your
name is called you come forward to the
podium state your name and place of
residence and then begin speaking you'll
have three minutes to
speak first up tonight is Kristen Howard
is Kristen here Kristen will be followed
by Mindy brocker excuse me
sorry hello good evening I didn't plan
on really speaking however I didn't even
know the construction was going on with
the apartments going on Neely and Cooper
as well but coming to my attention it's
already approved so there's not much
really I can say but it's going to cause
major traffic issues as
the development of the construction on
the road at this point is also causing
construction issues for foundations
homes um my pool is being destroyed
right now by the construction actually
I've been in contact with Rocky Brown
about it but my concern is who's going
to take care of this considering we do
not have AA in Madera Park so um I am
going to be filing claim with the town
but um yeah I'm just really disappointed
that $9 million project has destroyed my
home that I've lived in for almost 6
years and I can't imagine what the
apartments are going to do to the
residents in the in the area coming up
so wish we could keep the quality of
Gilbert going thank
you thank you Mindy brocker to be
followed by Karissa
Arnold I don't see anybody coming up
nobody coming up Carissa
hello I um wanted to just touch Bas a
little bit we've had some opportunity to
um go down a group of us have and visit
the parking garage and just kind of get
a feel for what is going on down there
and just to kind of get some better
understanding of of situations and stuff
and had opportunity to watch um the um
individuals that are there going back
and forth in between the parking garage
um pouring liquid off the garage hanging
out they have a lookout person that has
been sitting in the stairwell and
everything um I know that there's been
an increased police presence down there
which has been great we've um had the
opportunity to talk with officer War
Janowski officer Burke um Castillo and
Lopez and they were all great and they
were out there doing their jobs and we
really appreciate that and just wanted
to say thank you spe specifically to
those individuals who were up there
trying to detour issues going on
unfortunately in that as well we also
and down there were observing and I want
I want to preceed this and say that we
are for our officers and for the
community and everything like that but
it was really disheartening when we
watched over two different nights
officers sitting at Whiskey Row for over
an hour having conversations and not
working and they were on their cell
phones and doing other things and so and
one of those nights happened to be the
same night that um the the gun went off
at the porch so this was just on Friday
nights and so just a few hours before
there were up to 10 officers in that
corner area between wisy row and Oso and
so my my concern is that we have an
issue up at the parking garage and so
rather than the officers being staggered
so much in that corner to have them
moving around and re and policing the
community just so that we can make sure
that there's this these issues are
getting addressed as well it seems to be
would me to me would be a danger to the
officers to have their back spacing the
street and not really knowing what is
going on around them it just it seems
like it would make them a Target as well
for any citizen to come up behind them
and cause an issue especially now that
we know that there's been a gun violence
issue or gun issue at the porch right so
here's our proposal for the parking
garage we are asking that we know that
there's going to be a deficit coming in
budget wise with the Arizona rents um
tax being removed so the proposal that
we would ask for you guys as a city
council is that you start putting a fee
on the parking garage so that your
officers are not having to swing back
and forth and use their time on staff to
specifically sit up there and monitor
the top of those parking garages that
you put a um the bars up there and
charge a fee for entry and that will
help eliminate some of the kids that are
up there because we do know that they
have Lookouts we've seen it um officers
feel like they've confirmed it as well
as we've had conversations with them um
the individuals that are up there are
actually notifying
groups when officers are coming up to
the parking garage so that they can
leave um they're taking pictures of the
officers up there and everything we've
witnessed all of this and so um so yes
so the proposal would be that you guys
as a city council look into putting that
fee up there for the garage thank you
thank you
Carissa Scott um is it
Meyers Scott will be followed by Mark
noise
uh soon to be gone mayor thank you for
not rerunning Council my name is Scott
I'm a East Valley Citizen and a
community advocate uh tonight I would
like to address the chief of
police
chief uh my first order would be asked
that you resign we've asked you before
to resign for many reasons if you don't
resign we're
asking Town manager Banger and assistant
Town manager Goodman to remove you from
office for many reasons uh un your
department have done a bad job on team
violence and let's be honest it's not
the it's not like the attackers leave a
business card after the
beatings and you say they're not
identifi identifiable as the
goons uh if you your department would
have made arrest sooner like in the Rick
Keener
case uh these thugs would have been
scared to continue their actions of
meetings 5 to 10 on One
Preston Lord would probably be here
today as it would have deterred them to
continue their thuggish actions at ran
rapid in Gilbert someon the other East
Valley Cities if you don't resign we
would or get removed I'd like to
personally invite you to our citizens
Patrol we have been doing weekends
downtown gber garages last 3 or 4 weeks
so you can see what your officers are
and are not
doing uh We've
called the non-emergency for underage
drinking and vaping and the 30 East vau
Garage only to have three bike Patrol
officers let the kids go drive away
after we told them they have open
containers in their car since the
officers let him go we again had to call
n non-emergency and give dispatch the
license plat so these kids are underage
drinking vaping and had open containers
in their
car uh again like Chris said we found
eight to 10 officers standing around
Whiskey
Row uh are they posted there or is it
just flirting with the bar patrons which
we've observed for those few
hours uh Saturday night we went back a
day after the shooting and there was
absolutely no officers near Whiskey Row
or the
bars that night after the shooting why
is that is it
protocol uh I'd be more than happy to
talk to you about our citizens Patrol
we've been doing and you're more than
welcome to join us thank you thank you
Mark
Mark will be followed by Steve
lvll hello my name is Mark noise I'm a
resident of
Gilbert and first I'd like to thank you
for giving me the opportunity of voicing
my
opinion my dispute is with the City of
Gilbert in regards to tilson's method of
installing fiber optics in our
neighborhood Tilson is tunneling through
our front yards and in my case they
destroyed our driveway in the process
they have cut a 9-in hole in my driveway
they have admitted to me that the patch
job that they will perform at a later
date will not match our 25y old driveway
our driveway was near perfect before
Tyson destroyed it t Tilson excuse me
the curb appeal to our home has since
diminished and will affect the value of
our home along with this the pain and
suffering Tilson has put on my wife and
I through
during this Fiasco has been overwhelming
to say the least I have reached out to
several Tilson Representatives Jeff the
Field construction
manager came out in person for my
request to discuss the matter Jeff
explained to me he would avoid cutting a
hole in my driveway by measuring the
depth of the sewer lines from
neighboring homes in addition to that he
further explained he would install a
camera down our sewer cleanout and
monitor the sewer line while tunneling
under our driveway he also added that
the equipment was down for repair and
wouldn't be available for two weeks Jeff
sounded quite convincing I put my trust
in him 4 days later I turned from work
to our home only to discover a hole in
our
driveway now my conclusion in order to
restore our driveway the only acceptable
solution is to demo our entire existing
driveway and replace
it in my opinion the City of Gilbert
along with kilson are the responsible
parties for correcting this
issue and again I have pictures I have
contact information estimate for the
driveway but just want to thank
you thank you mayor vice mayor sir if
you could leave your contact information
with our clerks we'll have someone get
in touch with
you and thank you Steve level Steve will
be followed by Don
Edwards good evening uh not sure if you
guys have been aware of what's going on
in the college campuses across the
United States of America but uh
anti-semitic racism all driven by of
course de and the Beautiful diversity
equity and inclusion which you guys
still allow to have and take place in
this town so let's talk some more about
this dni does nothing but cause division
it puts people into
tribes that's what it does that's the
purpose it's
Marxism and you're allowing it in our
community Patrick tripled down when
talking about the odg team that pushed
that so we'll get back into the racial
hiring the gender hiring that took place
that was addressed right here in this
Pierce Coleman report and I'll offer
Patrick a public debate over this
16-page report if he'd like to do it
with me in this
report says the investigation team found
that while the town has goals to
increase diversity in applicant of
applicant and hiring pools there are no
quotas qualifications Remain the key
focus in the town's hiring practice if
you have goals to increase something
then you are telling us that you are
hiring based on diversity and gender cuz
if you don't hit your goals you get
fired that's the way business
Works continues on that there are there
also says there were no indications of
unfair hiring practices based on race
gender disability or any other distinct
category now I sent all you guys this
information you have it now you can't
deny it you can't say that it's just my
perception anymore I sent you the
documents you saw the 28 people you saw
the original list and you saw the emails
I sent
you the proof is right
there nothing in the evidence reviewed
by this investigation team Piers Coleman
indicates that the town changed
traditional process or lowered its
standards in the process nothing it says
I sent that stuff to you guys you saw it
so I'm going to continue with this the
town offered interviews to two separate
consecutive time frames that right there
is a change never done
before the first set of interviews
requested uh were extended two to 231
applicants which resulted in a cutoff
score of
87 the town contemplated expanding the
initial set of interviews to include an
additional 28 application applicants
excuse me to ensure an interview pool
that depicted the diversity makeup of
the town they just told us right there
they just told us in their own report
that they were that they actually did do
some un unfair hiring practices on the
very next page of the same report he
keeps referring to they say
it says however ultimately the town
decided to expand the applicant pool I'm
going to tell you why they did that the
local vice president of local 2260
Gilbert chapter went to Bob badget the
same guy that told me I'll be done real
quick the same guy that told me no am
asked me the question am I following all
statutes ordinances policies procedures
guidelines he went to him and he said
there's nothing he can do he went to Jim
jush who led from the rear nothing he
can do went to Leah reinheimer said
nothing we can do went to Patrick oh now
we got to interview 600 people because
he had no longer had plausible
deniability I sent this information to
you guys I not lying I'm bringing the
truth and something has to get done this
leadership needs to go it it needs to go
thank you for your time thank you Don
and um Crystal are you sitting next to
Dawn yes ma'am yes sir she has donated
her time she's she's kind like
that uh good evening Madame mayor Mr
vice mayor and esteem council members my
name is Don Edwards and I retired from
your fire department as a captain after
I was retaliated against for filing a
complaint against my supervisor Aon
Barton couple things to keep in mind
Aaron Barton when he was a captain was
being investigated for time card fraud
allegedly he lied during that
investigation might be something you
might want to revisit especially ask him
who performed his wedding
ceremony but tonight I'm going to tell
you about the incident that I believe
was the start to the treatment that led
me to file my complaint on April 27th
2021 I walked into fire station 253 to
work some overtime on the ladder that
was going to be some of
the over 800 hours of overtime I would
work that year to keep our trucks on the
road it's important to understand that
that day I was in a firefighter spot I
was not acting as a captain I was
sitting backwards As A
Firefighter I worked over 400 hours of
firefighter overtime that Year again to
keep fire trucks on the road as I walked
into that fire station and sat down at
that kitchen table I was immediately set
upon and verbally attacked
by the captain on duty and his
firefighter that Captain is allegedly at
least according to the giant sticker on
the back of his truck and the things
that he was screaming at me that day is
a member of the three centers I don't
know if you guys know who those guys are
but they're classified as an
anti-government extreme right-wing white
nationalist militia I was attacked by
this guy after that incident beat C
Barton came by on my normal shift to
talk talk about what happened he
proceeded to tell me that even those
those even those two guys corroborated
everything I said he quote needed to
talk to me about my role in what
occurred he told me that I should quote
expect for those things to happen
because I am the department liberal now
I don't know if BC Barton has the same
beliefs as that captain or if it was
just because BC Barton happens to employ
that Captain's wife at his off-duty
private business but that's the kind of
stuff that goes on in the fire
department as I continue to shed light
on the type of people that are in
positions of power in the fire
department you'll begin to see a pattern
emerge if you are part of the Cadre yeah
they were cool enough to give themselves
a nickname you could say and do what you
like with imp impunity the Cadre is the
click of men and women who believe as BC
Barton told me quote training is the
mission of the fire
department both BC Barton and that
Captain who attacked me are members of
the
Cadre you should know that when our
regional Partners heard about what this
training Cadre was pushing Visa
firefighter safety and how we conduct
searches
that that group known as the East Valley
Rock the Regional Occupation
uh training Consortium told us either
you guys stop that or you're not going
to be part of this Consortium anymore
you guys are doing things that go
against the grain of what we're supposed
to be doing in the fire
service this is just one example I'll be
it a pretty glaring one of how there are
certain sets of rules or lack thereof
for certain people in this fire
department and there's rules for the
rest of
us these are the types of things that
led me to file my complaint and since I
was never contacted by HR to expand on
the issue I'm forced to put it out here
in public I actually tried to talk to
the fire chief the town manager and the
assisted Town manager but I got blown
off by all three at the next meeting I
plan to talk some more about the Cadre
just a Hint it involve some more
unethical if not outright illegal
conduct has to do with our L's hose
purchases thank you for your time I'll
see you in two weeks thank you Don mayor
that concludes Communications from
citizens thank you vice mayor we
will move on
to Future
meetings anything that anyone would like
to place on a future agenda oh excuse me
I'm sorry almost forgot forgot I made it
through the whole agenda with all the
changes Chief soberg would like to make
a statement
thank you
mayor I know new set of rules tonight so
appreciate that uh mayor and councel
Mike sber chief of police uh with gber
Police Department I'd like to start out
by thanking our Council and our
community for their Comm uh continued
engagement in addressing teen violence
in the East Valley as we have stated in
the past meaningful and long-term
Solutions can only occur if we all
continue to work together last Thursday
Representatives of DPS Chandler PD Mesa
PD Queen Creek PD and panal County
Sheriff's Office convened here in
Gilbert for a joint press conference
announcing the results of our extensive
investigation into whether or not the
gilber goons are officially classified
as a gang as you already know this
collaborative investigation did yield
information confirming the Gilbert goons
are officially designated as a gang and
further clarified that within the
overall gang destination the G gang
destination designation sorry uh they
are considered a hybrid gang specifying
them as a hybrid gang merely further
describes the way the gang was formed
and operates as a compared to a
traditional gang let me reassure you
that in the state of Arizona if gang
charges are presented there is no
distinction between a hybrid gang and a
traditional
gang now that this gang Des designation
has been made the county Attorneys
Office uh County attorneys have the
ability to use this information in
prosecution and or sentenc ing phase of
upcoming group teen violence cases what
is important for the council and for our
community to know tonight is this
although the investigation into the
gilber goons which qualified them as a
gang has concluded we remain unwavering
in our commitment uh to investigating
any acts of violence within Gilbert
including any acts of group teen
violence one more equally important
takeaway we will not let up on our
efforts to partner with our Council and
our community members to collaborate on
way we can better serve our youth thank
you again to everyone who is here
tonight and who have remained engaged in
this process and provided valuable
contributions to ensuring Gilbert
Remains the community that we all know
and love thank you thank you Chief
appreciate it um I moving on to Future
meetings anything anyone would like to
add seeing none moving on to
Communications report from the town
manager
slides again he's Fancy with his slides
now thank you mayor members of the
council just two things to report for
you tonight go to the first slide
Gilbert was just recognized
as
suspense is
building as the fourth healthiest
employer in in the Phoenix region and of
particular note we moved up into the
largest employer category this year
which is a much more competitive
category so very proud of Erica Brown in
our uh HR team that heads up our
Wellness efforts as well as the entire
Wellness team it was great work next
Jeff Lee who's a member of our Water
Resources Department won the 2024
outstanding sustainability Award
presented by the Arizona Water
Association I think Jeff is familiar to
most of us and probably a lot of people
in our community who does great work for
us and we appreciate all their efforts
to help us conserve water especially in
these times of drought that's all I have
tonight mayor thank you thank you
Patrick two great Awards thanks for
sharing those report from the Council on
C
events council member torguson all right
as required by Dan Henderson U at the
April 16th Town Council study session
staff presented an update to Council on
the northwest revitalization effort and
requested Direction on the boundary for
the Northwest Redevelopment area based
off public feedback and research
completed to date Town Council provided
the direction to pursue the Lindsay
boundary which is generally Arizona
Arizona Avenue to the West Baseline Road
to the north Lindsay to the East and Ray
Road to the South the boundary adoption
for the Northwest Redevelopment area is
planned to go to Council in June and
additional information for the Northwest
red that's becoming a lot to say on that
Northwest revitalization effort as well
as a recording of the study session and
feedback form can be found on the web
page at gilbertaz.gov
NW Gilbert uh also two two new public
art pieces were unveiled in the Heritage
District the artworks are part of an
ongoing effort to enhance and beautify
downtown Gilbert's corridors and
Pathways where there is heavy pedestrian
traffic and visitation the first
installation is located at the Ash
Street Parking Garage and features a
vinyl wrap on The North Door facing the
power line Trail the 84 tall art piece
titled Gilbert deconstructed is from
nationally recognized artist Liz Taylor
not the same Liz Taylor that my dad had
a crush on the uh the second
installation is located at Hearn Park uh
heway parking garage also on the North
Door facing the the power line Trail
Untitled titled Illuminating the past of
our Native American first settlers this
final rap was created by artist Rosa
Cruz and is sized at 9 94 in of height
and that is what I
have um council member Bon Giovani thank
you mayor here are a few Parks or
Recreation happenings movie in the Parks
movies in the park join us on on Friday
May 10th at 6:30 at Gilbert Regional
Park to watch Super Mario Brothers space
will be available on a first come first
serve basis so you better get there
early for this fun family event and it's
free to attend major league baseball
pitch hit and run join us on on Thursday
May 16th at Cactus yards from 6:30 5:30
to 7:30 p.m. to join the MLB Pitch hit
and run it is for youth aged 7 to 14
years old and it's free to participate
the event gives boys and girls an
opportunity to showcase their baseball
and softball skills with the possibility
of earning a chance to attend and
compete for the championship during the
2024 MLB World Series register online
today and on a personal note I did this
45 years ago I could pitch I could hit
but I couldn't run for the life of me
and that's your happenings for parks and
rack and council member
kosi I wanted to give an update on the
Gilbert symphony orchestra concert that
was held uh last Saturday uh we had over
200 people attend and they had a
wonderful performance that was centered
around the theme of the Olympics which
are in Paris coming up we um coming up
in our schedule on May 18th Saturday
morning May 18th we are going to have
our first annual Gilbert Community bike
ride and that will start at um Hearn way
in downtown Gilbert and we'll bike about
two miles to Freestone Rec Center I I I
hear we're going to have some smoothies
there available for everyone that
participates and then we're going to
ride back um to the Heritage district
and the people can go to lunch or
whatnot um so I'm excited about that
event we are going to be capping the
registration but I think we have good
response so far um and yeah that's it
amazing anything else coun M torus you
still have your mic on or you have
something to add other than that cute
little kid wearing the Mario Brothers
costume earlier ton tied that in other
than that no sorry that was cute
anything else Council council member
Buckley no I do not have anything
tonight I just thought I'd let you know
that I'm the only one that has nothing
but tonight I have no tourism talks
thank you anything vice mayor I'll just
add that um we had a competition a few
weeks ago that I happened to be a judge
for which was the Civics B that the
Gilbert Chamber of Commerce um held over
in Mesa and they went our our Gilbert
chamber students went to the state
competition and won of the Gilbert
students won the state competition and
will be H headed to the national
competition so very big um
congratulations on that and um otherwise
I will say thank you for a very long
night I know we've all been here since
3:00 sitting in these seats I will cut
it short and ask for um I need to move
to um I need a motion to adjourn I make
a motion tojn I have a motion in a
second all in favor I
motion um meeting adjourned thank
you for