Study Session - 1/23/2024 5:00:00 PM

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good evening welcome to the town of
Gilbert's study session for January 23rd
2024 I will call this meeting to order
we only have one item on our agenda this
evening discussion and presentation of
the Northwest Gilbert Redevelopment and
revitalization update and I see Amanda
Elliot there waiting to present hi
Amanda hi good afternoon mayor members
of council my name is Amanda Elliot and
I serve as the Redevelopment program
manager for the town of Gilbert and I am
here tonight as mayor suggested to chat
with you about Northwest
Gilbert tonight we are seeking direction
from councelor
aad if I can get
this
no pardon me one
moment that's
okay no
worries okay all
right apologies uh so we are here U to
get your nod to proceed with public
Outreach for a Northwest Gilbert
Redevelopment area boundary and seek any
initial feedback you may have on that
boundary as we move into a public
process Gilbert staff and Town Council
has been carefully monitoring Northwest
Gilbert uh for over 10 years and in
fiscal year 1415 staff brought before
Council data regarding the status of
North West Gilbert the data indicated a
need for revitalization efforts and in
2018 staff sought Council Direction
regarding a path for revitalization
which included seeking direction from
the public from the business community
and organizations like the Urban Land
Institute and in every instance that we
were before Council Council directed
staff to proceed uh but there were some
time sensitive Community initiatives
that caused us to pause but I just
wanted to reiterate that even during
those pauses this initiative has
remained a wildly important goal um so
we've had our eyes set on Northwest for
a considerable amount of time and so
today we're here um once again to give
this Council an opportunity to seek
direction or to provide direction for a
Redevelopment area
Northwest across the United States there
are many examples of the rise and fall
of Great American cities and I'm sure we
can all think of um some off the top of
our head but Gilbert has made a
long-term commitment to ensuring that
areas in Gilbert break the cycle of
Decline and there are many terms that
can be used uh for breaking the cycle
revitalization reinvestment and
Redevelopment so what does that actually
mean revitalization or Redevelopment and
reinvestment is an opportunity for the
community to utilize a unified vision
from the voter approved General plan and
build upon it through through a
Redevelopment plan that develops
specific goals and tactics and stem
decline in mature areas like Northwest
gilber these tools and tactics ICS
accomplish a number of things including
improve improving infrastructure
enhancing quality of life attracting
development encouraging reinvestment and
retaining or increasing property
values historically Northwest Gilbert
has been an employment area and as
recent as 2020 is a growth area so
what's a growth area every 10 to 20
years Gilbert voters decide whether or
not to adopt a new general plan uh the
voter approved uh 2020 plan identified
Northwest as a growth area or an area
that has adequate infrastructure
constructed and multimodal
transportation plan to support a variety
of uses it's concentrated in employment
and commerce and is focused on economic
sustainability in this map the gold
thatched portion is the Northwest growth
area that was approved in the general
plan its shape is unique because it's a
contiguous area of employment from
Baseline Road to just north of Warner
and Arizona Avenue to justest west of
Gilbert
Road the Northwest growth area has a mix
of Industries and the largest
concentration of jobs for all of Gilbert
while the area has only 2.3% of the
town's population it has over 20% of the
town's employment so that is quite
considerable when you measure that um in
comparison to the other employment areas
this geographic area has um certainly
attracted major employers within science
technology engineering and math related
occupations it has a low vacancy rate of
4.5% it has a significant amount of
Gilbert's industrial product and as we
know the market is certainly very hot
and Industrial right now and has a
number of unique attractions for
Gilbert but while the Northwest growth
area has many positive traits there's
also factors that are making it harder
for it to compete with other areas this
includes aging infrastructure properties
and Parcels with absentee owners vacant
infill sites with no particular devel
velopment plan and we've heard from the
community that they felt like there was
no real defined area between Mesa to the
north and Chandler to the West both of
whom have Redevelopment areas in place
surrounding
Northwest in
2019 at the direction of council staff
commissioned the Urban Land Institute
who brought together a panel of Industry
experts across multiple disciplines and
they discussed Market potential planning
and design development strategies and
implementation strategies for nor
Northwest the tap also through its
program identified that Gilbert should
via the use of data examine a buffer
radius around the Northwest growth area
to ensure that deterioration and aging
hadn't proliferated outside of that
growth
area but of course there was more to the
story than just the growth area so as
staff continued to compile data about
Northwest growth area or the area
thatched in Gold it became clear that
the signs of maturity weren't limited to
the growth area alone so here we've
drawn a circle in blue that generally
identifies Northwest Gilbert at large
and you'll note that the Heritage
district is not included because it is
its own Council adopted Redevelopment
area with its own
plan so what data did we use as we
looked at opportunities for
revitalization we started with the
Arizona revised statutes which
identifies nine findings of fact these
include dominance of defective or
inadequate Street layout deterioration
of site or other improvements conditions
that endanger life or property faulty
lot layout diversity of ownership tax or
special assess assessment pardon me
delinquency unsanitary or unsafe
conditions obsolete subdivision plotting
and defective or unusual conditions of
title in utilizing um teams across the
town we were able to examine this area
with these uh findings of necessity and
I'm just going to highlight a couple of
them um for the purpose of time today
but the first what we're going to talk
about is dominance of defective or
inadequate Street layout I think this
one is um really clear in the Northwest
uh growth area and Beyond as the uses in
this area have changed it was
predominantly um industrial use that
we've seen transition at one point's
office and now we're seeing transition
again as we have seen more work from
home options but the dominance of
defective or inadequate Street layout is
really related to the idea that we have
uh a need for on street parking on both
sides of the street that is also um
essentially uh we have the we have the
on street parking needs but we also have
manufacturing distribution and Warehouse
in the area that has semi trucks that
need to get through these streets and so
there's a conflict Point ultimately
between these two uses this is not um is
not uh unique to Gilbert to have these
kind of in instances this is just part
of a natural aging process that happens
in a
community as we look at um as we look at
conditions that endanger life or
property we are looking at things that
cause fire hazards potential crime um
and so those type of um things are um
abandoned structures vacant
properties um outdoor storage that could
be potential fire
hazard uh we also looked at special
pardon me we also looked at the
um the tax or special assessment rate
and I wanted to pull up the exact number
for you so um according to Maricopa
County Assessor this area did have a
slightly higher rate of parcels with a
foreclosure history at 13.6% compared to
the entire town at
12.46 but what was really interesting is
when we compared the tax Lans northw
Gilbert had 82% of its tax Lans um
compared with with its other employment
corridors we also look at F faulty lot
layout so there's examples across
Northwest Gilbert in which small infill
Parcels cannot develop to the standards
uh because of their factors like their
size or access and so this really
presents an opportunity for Gilbert
staff to work with property owners to
Vision opportunities for these sites and
as we examine the factor deterioration
of site um staff looked at a number of
neglect Factor
I'm listed
here listed there there we go a number
of neglect factors these um apply to
both residential and business
areas and as we look at this map this is
not a map of the entire town this is a
map of that kind of extended Northwest
area um and as we looked at this um this
area Northwest had nearly double the
rate of code cases as the town at 19 .5
cases per 10,000 residents so we can see
that those code compliance issues are um
proliferating beyond the Northwest
growth
area but we also look at business cases
for revitalization and so we looked at
you know uh two cases in particular one
infusion soft who was a CRM a client
relations management software company
they had their headquarters in Northwest
Gilbert and had been subletting a
building and as they grew there were no
other buildings that really met their
needs and they ultimately moved 100,000
ft to Chandler we saw a similar scenario
with silent air who's a manufacturer of
HVAC systems um and they were also
prevented from expanding in the area but
in this case we were able to work to
retrain them to find a property that met
their needs south of the 202 in
Gilbert and we've also seen
opportunities to work with businesses on
an entire block scale so take for
example this block off of Arizona Avenue
and Obispo uh this is where office
retail and hotel uses are adjacent to
manufacturing and distribution we know
that um when GoDaddy was uh leasing in
this area that parking became
challenging and again it's a uh
inefficiency in the mix of uses and so
staff has been working with the property
area owners in the area to solve for
some of the challenges so we can
continue to retain our gr employers and
destinations and so what else have we
heard from the public to date we shopped
with them an idea of a potential tool
lending program where yard and
maintenance tools could be borrowed from
the town to help fight neighborhood
neglect we discussed our paint reuse PL
program and block wall program an
emergency and minor home repair program
and they noted that they would love to
see more um opportunities in which we
can promote those so that everyone knows
about those opportunities and programs
we heard from HOAs that they would like
assistance in examining opportunities to
reduce their maintenance cost so for
example allowing them to transition
grass retention Bas basins to zeroscape
um ultimately helping them save on water
and Landscaping costs um and we've even
heard things like streets parks and
Commercial centers are just simply
beginning to show their age and could
benefit from revitalization and
reinvestment like other Redevelopment
efforts the town has undergone an
extensive public Outreach effort
including a development of a website
landing page multiple townwide surveys
focused on Northwest Gilbert two
Northwest employment business walks with
the chamber in which we met with hundred
hundreds of businesses and surveyed them
we had a Northwest gilber Roundtable
with the chamber we've held virtual
public open houses open Office hours um
but we really live by this philosophy
that when we think we've done enough to
engage we need to engage more and that's
what we intend to do through this
process to highlight our most recent
public engagement we held a virtual open
house with 173 participants we asked
them a number of questions but one of
the questions we asked was what word
comes to mind when you think of North
West revitalization and this is the word
cloud that was generated from their
feedback as you can see it is um
overwhelmingly uh exciting uh people are
excited about it and there's a lot of
positive energy around revitalization
opportunities we also Drew um that
radius again around that Northwest
growth area and asked the public to
contribute pins to an online interactive
map of specific revitalization
opportunities they'd like to report the
uh interactive map it was located on
Northwest Gilbert's landing page and if
we are able to move forward with um
discussing a a boundary with the public
we would re-engage this page and
continue to accept pins and uh respond
to the
public we also asked the public about
their priorities for Northwest
revitalization and so of the
174 uh residents who showed up these
were the top five responses increase
visual appeal solve for traffic and
congestion maintenance and upkeep of
area increase safety and attract
business but none of this has been done
in a bubble uh two committees were
formed as a mean to brainstorm review
best practices vet ideas and provide
Direction regarding the Northwest growth
area the first was a technical committee
comprised of each department across the
town and the second is a steering
committee which was comprised of
business owners residents developers
Architects and contractors land use
attorneys educ ational Partners
Community leaders and town
staff through these committees both
internal and external we were able to
draft a vision plan for the growth area
that could help provide some guidance
for revitalization opportunities and as
we look through that Vision plan we're
already seeing some of those
opportunities come to
fruition so ultimately what does this
really mean revitalization reinvestment
and Redevelopment are used
interchangeably however in Arizona the
the state revised statutes provides a
mechanism through law in which a
community can designate an area Focus
for revitalization these are known as
Redevelopment areas and this designation
demonstrates that the town is committed
to reinvestment within that specified
boundary it provides a focus on an area
for a designated period of 10 years in
which the community imparts goals and
tactics to reverse or stem deteriorating
Trends and improve the image of an
employment area or residential
neighborhood
but the legal requirements terminologies
the data all the technical jargon uh
related to the revised statutes quite
frankly can be really cumbersome and so
as such staff has a website landing page
to answer a myriad of questions in the
FAQ section and these questions have not
only answered um questions that we've
received in public from the public but
ones that we've received in public
settings like our Council study sessions
or Retreats and as additional questions
are received we add them to the FAQ so
we'll just keep a running list of those
um
um and so before we can begin working
with the residents businesses property
owners and departments to identify the
how you know the goals and the tactics
be behind Redevelopment that would be
compiled into a 10-year Redevelopment
plan the Arizona revised statutes
requires a determination of the
boundaries so where are we going to
focus those efforts and as previously
stated the data suggests that
deterioration has proliferated beyond
that Northwest growth area that gold
thatched portion um in this
map so if Council agrees the intent
would be for staff to bring forth the
growth area and that larger Brown
boundary circumference to discuss with
uh the public internal and external
steering committees Gilbert commissions
and Gilbert chamber to really seek input
on where that boundary should lie and
once feedback has been received staff
will return to counil and study session
with the data feedback and
recommendations for a boundary and
ultimately come to council with a
boundary decision um our intent would be
to bring that before the end of the
fiscal year so we're hoping to get that
back to you in May or June and that will
be dependent on how much public input we
we need as we kind of go through some
iterations so with that um we're seeking
again today um a nod to proceed with
discussing a potential boundary with the
public looking at what tools could be
applicable and that the public wants us
to bring forward um and certainly any
initial feedback you may have on the
boundary thank you Amanda you can
breathe
now thank you I was I'm I'm trying to
meet the time frame so I know I know I
know and I appreciate that but I
realized that you it didn't sound like
you were breathing in there so um does
anyone have any comments or questions
for Amanda council member tilki thank
you mayor um thank you Amanda for that
great presentation um could you go back
to the boundary
map
thanks um so just a couple of comments
one um I'm very excited that we're
bringing this forward um I know I've had
many conversations with your team over
the years um and I think we're talking
12 to 15 years we've been having these
conversations and we knew that um this
was going to be important to look at our
aging portion of our community as we're
continuing to grow in other portions of
the community and so um if I had my
brothers we would have started this 10
years ago but I know we weren't able to
so I'm very happy we're we're going to
move forward now so first and foremost I
want to say let's get moving and start
that Community um Outreach again I know
some of the um trends of uh in the
workplace and businesses all of those
things have changed a bit over the last
couple years so an update from that
perspective will be very important um
the the risk that we have by not doing
anything
um puts us in a position where we have
an aging and deteriorating portion of
our community where there's many
beautiful homes there don't get me wrong
but there are some areas because we kind
of hopscotched when we developed and so
we don't want to ignore that area at all
so I guess my bottom line is let's get
moving um let's you know try to be back
in three months if we think that's
acceptable if um you feel like you need
more time come back and ask for some
more time on the boundaries I am I'm
very happy that we're going to extend
them a little bit further um I think
when we had our conversation I would
prefer instead of a circle that we
actually go along the main
arterials um otherwise you're cutting
Community you know actual communities in
half and that would be very difficult to
manage so
um I'm excited that we're moving forward
I'd love to be part of this um project
as um some type of council a on whatever
the council decides but I'd be happy to
be part of that thank
you thank you any other
comments council member
kovski thank you um I just have a
comment on the boundaries in terms of
I think this is good timing probably
overdue it's a great area to invest in
um in terms of the boundaries I know
that council member T tilki just
mentioned following arterial roadways
and I I agree with not trying to
separate different neighborhoods but I
also feel that um there are some areas
where you would want to make sure that
you include both sides of a major
roadway such as Gilbert Road
and now that I'm looking at this map a
little bit closer it may not even be a
roadway boundary we actually have the
Consolidated Canal that follows really
closely to your blue line and that may
be a natural boundary that would not
disconnect neighborhoods um but include
the areas of Gilbert Road outside of the
Heritage District um to the north and a
little bit farther east and so that's my
initial suggestion and then to follow
the Chandler boundary to the South um I
think my biggest comment is to make sure
that we include Gilbert Road but also
east of Gilbert Road probably to Burke
and then um potentially using the
Consolidated Canal as that Geographic
boundary I saw a thumbs up from vice
mayor Anderson did you see that okay any
other comments or questions council
member
Buckley um I don't have a question I
just want to say I'm very excited to see
this and it I think the timing is is
good just like the other council members
mentioned I lived in this area kind of
right in the middle of that area for
like 18 years and I did even though you
know I was raising my family and and not
into the surroundings I did notice
though toward the end of my my tenure
living there that things were going down
and especially on that McQueen going
toward Baseline area so I'm I'm excited
and I'm with Kathy I would love to be a
part of this and uh you know see see it
all grow I and and I think I've chatted
a little bit with Dan about that but I
would like to see this boundary maybe
extended out to Val Vista because Val
Vista is I think that area and Valvista
Lakes were built around the same time
and they're becoming aging I know that
makes it a huge area but I think it
would be beneficial to maybe tag that in
with the rest in the phasing but I'm I'm
excited about this
project council member tilki came up
next thanks mayor um I know you're just
looking for feedback from us so you're
getting out but I it's my understanding
that we're not making the final today on
the on that that you'll be receiving um
feedback from the community and then
bringing back all of that so we can make
those decisions as well but I I
appreciate that we're all looking at
expanding that um out a little further
than what maybe what we originally
thought thank you council member Bon
gvani thank you mayor um thumbs up for
me I do like the ideas of having a more
defined boundary than just a semicircle
there mayor council member Bon Giovani
thank you so much and and the radius was
just our opportunity to look at the data
so thank you yes we will definitely work
with uh the public and our property
owners and business owners to better
Define that boundary Amanda I think you
know my my thoughts but I'll just share
them so the rest of the council knows I
think this is long overdue I have been
part of this project since you've been
working on the northwest Corridor sat
through the Uli study when it was done
here in the council Das um been hoping
and wishing that we were moving this
forward faster than we were council
member tilki even commented on that that
it's it is definitely overdue I do
definitely believe we need to expand the
boundaries looking forward to the
community's feedback on that um I've
always found it so difficult to look at
the boundary of the Northwest Corridor
because it just doesn't make sense right
you need it to have some sort of a
semblance of organization and the way it
is right now it doesn't it doesn't have
that and I know it happened because of
how the growth happened and the timing
and all of that but definitely need some
definition love the comment that council
member kosi made about like a natural
boundary um that's a really great that's
some really great feedback so very
excited that we're moving forward um i'
had already told uh Dan that I would
love to continue to be involved in this
since I was from the very beginning and
I think council member torguson has a
comment yeah I just want to say first I
appreciate all of this because I've had
the opportunity to work with yourself
and Dan for a long time and council
member cow's not that the uh the canals
there is something that that's very
natural and going back to a discussion
we had maybe six or eight years ago uh
this even gives an opportunity in a in a
different kind of way of taking the
Heritage District in because it's in the
center of this and bringing it a little
bit more
forward which it's great to have
something that can that vibrancy expand
out of there in the center so I just
want to say thank you and I look forward
to seeing what's happening and thank you
for the time
there thank you anything else seeing
none thank you Amanda appreciate your
time thank you mayor and Council you did
a great job try to keep you right on
time 5:30 did thank you all I appreciate
your feedback and we appreciate you and
and and take it Forward we're excited um
I will go ahead and adjourn this study
session and we have an executive session
upstairs
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