Phoenix City Council Formal Meeting - April 9, 2025

Good
afternoon. Thank you for attending
today's meeting. If you could please
find your seats, we will begin in one
minute. Thank you very much.
Good afternoon and welcome. We will
begin with our invocation and welcome
Chaplain Rabbi Levi Levi Lever.
Jewish families will sit down to the
3,337th annual seder and will follow
your commandments to teach the children
how you took us out of Egypt. You told
us to answer the questions of three
different kinds of children. The clever
and interested, the defiant, and the
younger simple, giving each the sort of
answer they need, and you included a
fourth kind of child who is not curious
enough to ask. To this child, we are to
tell them and teach them unprompted. The
labavature rebi whose birthday is today
and whose legacy Governor Hobbes has
honored by proclaiming today to be
education and sharing day. The rebi
insisted that education is not about the
pursuit of knowledge as a steptool to a
career but rather to prepare a child for
life in its entirety. A life of purpose,
benevolence, justice, and morality. He
pointed out that this teaching of the
four children leaves out a fifth kind of
child. The child who is absent and is
not present to be taught. the children
who have been so alienated that they
drop out or that they are so neglected
that it never occurs to them to be
present in the first place. It can be
easy or difficult to teach those who
know to ask. They are at least present
to learn. It is infinitely more
difficult to teach those who are not
present and don't even know that there
is anything to be learned. The community
can create a conducive atmosphere for
learning. It can provide resources for
teaching. But if a person is not open to
being taught, nothing the community does
will help. The solution to teach those
not present and absent is through
personal encounters. Reaching out to
them and letting them know they matter.
Letting them know that there is such a
wealth of knowledge waiting for them if
they will only open themselves to it.
That is why at the height of his world
influence, the Rebi would devote hours
at a time to meet people of all sorts
face to face. And it is why the seder,
perhaps the most important Jewish
ritual, is held not in synagogues, but
at home around the dinner table. On a
personal note, as this is Councilman
Galindo Alvivera's last formal meeting,
Councilman Galindo Vera has shown and
exemplified this very trait to the
citizens of this great city and
particularly to those who live and work
in District 7. The councilman has gone
out of his way to reach each person
individually, devoting his time to
better our city. On behalf of this great
city, thank you councilman for your
service. May God grant the councilman
much success as he returns to being a
private citizen and affecting change and
betterment of our city from the bottom
up. Almighty God, bless our mayor and
council members with the peace of mind
to fulfill their sacred duties. Help
them in their mission as they reach out
to each person with care, compassion,
and kindness to remind even those who
are not present and have not even the
wherewithal to seek that they really do
matter and allow themselves to be
helped. Bless our mayor and council
members with health, clarity, wisdom,
and compassion to do their important
work. Finally, grant them success and
guide them as they convene to fulfill
your very guidance to establish just
laws. and let us say amen.
Thank you, Rabbi Lover, for that very
special invocation. Today is also the
one-year anniversary of Councilman
Galindo Alvier's appointment to the
Phoenix City Council, and I'll ask him
to lead us in the pledge of allegiance.
Thank you,
Councilman. I'll now call the meeting to
order. Will the clerk please call the
role?
Councilman Galinder Vida, here.
Councilwoman Wardado, here. Councilwoman
Haj Washington here. Councilwoman Pastor
here. Councilman
Robinson, Councilwoman Stark here,
Councilman Wearing, Vice Mayor O'Brien
here, Mayor Ggo here.
Mario Barahas and Elsie Dwarte are with
us to provide interpretation. Mario,
would you please introduce your team?
Yes, mayor. Thank you. Good afternoon.
My name is Mario Vahas, and I'll be
working together with Elsie Dart in
providing interpreting Spanish services
to our residents. Now, we'll take a
moment to introduce ourselves to our
Spanish speaking residents.
Thank you, mayor. Thank you, Mario. And
now I'll turn to our city attorney to
explain public comment. Thank you,
mayor. Members of the public may speak
for up to two minutes to comment on
agenda items. Comments must be related
to the agenda item and the action being
considered by the council. General
comments that go beyond the scope of the
agenda item must be made in the citizen
comment session at the end of the
agenda. The city council and staff
cannot discuss or comment on matters
related to pending investigations,
claims, or litigation. Additionally, any
member of the public who appears before
council in their capacity as a lobbyist
must, as required by Phoenix City Code,
disclose this fact before addressing
council. The city code requires speakers
to present their comments in a
respectful and courteous manner. Profane
language, threats, or personal attacks
on members of the public, council
members, or staff are not allowed. A
person who violates these rules will
lose the opportunity to continue to
speak. Thank you. Thank you so much.
I'll turn to the city clerk to read the
24-hour paragraph. The titles of the
following ordinance and resolution
numbers on the agenda were available to
the public at least 24 hours prior to
this council meeting and therefore may
be read by title or agenda item only.
Ordinances number
G7371-
7380
S51728 and 51778 through 51823 and
resolutions 22287 through
22293. Thank you. We'll begin with the
meeting minutes. Councilman Wearing, do
you have a motion on item one? Uh yes,
mayor. I move approval of the meeting
minutes of December 18th, 2024 be
adopted. Second.
All those in favor, please say I. I. Any
opposed? Nay. Passes unanimously.
Councilwoman Stark, do you have a motion
on item two? Yes, I do. I move to
approve the minutes of the January 15,
2025 meeting. Second.
All those in favor, please say I. I. Any
oppose? Nay. passes unanimously. We have
a very exciting boards and commissions
appointments today. Vice Mayor, do we
have a motion? Yes, mayor. I move to
approve mayor and city council boards
and commissions nominations.
We have a motion and a second. All those
in favor, please say I. I. Any oppose?
Nay. Passes
unanimously. We'll now conduct a
swearing in ceremony. And I'll ask our
newly unanimously appointed
commissioners to come forward.
Please raise your right hand. I state
your name.
Do solemnly swear domly swear that I
will support the Constitution of the
United States. I will support the
Constitution of the United States and
the Constitution laws of the state of
Arizona and the Constitution laws of the
state of Arizona. That I will bear true
faith and allegiance to the same. I will
alian and defend them against all
enemies and defend them against all
enemies, foreign and domestic. foreign
and domestic. And that I will faithfully
and impartially faithfully and
impartially discharge the duties of the
office of discharge the duties to the
office of the Phoenix Design Review
Committee. The City of Phoenix Women's
Commission, Sister Cities Commission,
the City of Phoenix Ethics Commission,
City of Phoenix Women's Commission,
North Mountain Village Planning
Committee. According to the best of my
ability, so help me God.
God, congratulations.
[Applause]
really important roles. Congratulations
to our new
commissioners. The city of Phoenix
serves an advisory role to the state of
Arizona on liquor licenses. And we'll
turn to that portion of our agenda next.
Vice Mayor, do we have a motion? Mayor,
I move to approve items 4 through 23,
except item seven. Second. We have a
motion and a second. All those in favor,
please say I. I. Any oppose? Nay. Passes
unanimously. Item seven is in council
district 2. So I'll turn to Councilman
Wearing. Uh thank you, mayor. I just uh
have I guess a question or comment for
staff. So around midnight last night, we
received an anonymous from a block
number voicemail from a resident uh who
wanted to talk about this issue. They
are opposed and they claim that uh I
guess this proprietor sold alcohol to
minor in the past. Um it's a new liquor
license.
So I know that they have another
location I guess in Tempee. So could you
comment on that? Have you received any
complaints? If you had I hadn't been
notified anything like this and was
there anything in the record to reflect
this? Mayor, members of the council,
thank you for your question, Councilman
Wearing. We did not receive any comments
during uh the comment period and this
particular uh posting was up at this
location from February 18th through
March 11th.
Okay. Thanks. So, they haven't had any
trouble at the other location.
That's correct, Councilman Wearing.
There were no uh violations at the other
location in Tempe. I am aware that this
is by a school. This is actually walking
distance from a house that I lived in
and owned for 12 years. So, I'm I'm very
familiar. Um, I just don't know that
this one thing is going to change the
dynamic of the neighborhood if that's
the issue at hand. Um, and I'm sorry if
you're listening. It's just you didn't
give us a whole lot to work with on this
and we don't have any records to reflect
what's being alleged and it was
anonymous. So, um, I guess I'm going to
move for approval. Mayor, keeping in
mind the state will also have a crack at
this. We are not the deciding body on
this. Second.
Thank you. We have a motion and a
second. Any comments? Roll call.
Galinder Vida, yes. Yes. Hodge
Washington, yes. Pastor, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing, yes. O'Brien, yes. FGO,
yes. Passes 80.
City clerk, are we ready for ordinances,
resolutions, new business planning and
zoning? Yes, mayor. Vice Mayor, do we
have a motion? We do. Mayor, I move to
approve items 24- 101 except the
following. Items 47, 50, 51, 52, 53, 55,
58, 59, 60, 62,
73, 83, and 93 through 101. Noting that
item 34 is continued to May 21st,
2025. Item 83 is as corrected to for to
reflect the correct address of
8130 North Black Canyon Highway. Item 90
is withdrawn. Item 93 has additional
information and a motion to suspend the
rules to take item 93 out of order to be
heard prior to item 59. And can the
clerk confirm if there are any other
items that should be excluded for
in-person public comment? Mayor, vice
mayor. No, no other items. Thank you.
We have a motion from the vice mayor and
a second from Councilwoman Stark. Roll
call.
Galinder, yes. Wardo, yes. Podge
Washington, yes. Pastor, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing, yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO,
yes. Passes 80.
Today, uh, we have 183 units of housing
on the planning and zoning portion of
our agenda, as well as several
affordable housing and shelter projects,
including multiple to help older adults
in our community. So, a big meeting for
housing. We also continued our great
relationship with Bloomberg Consulting,
which has helped us save millions of
dollars and and do innovative
partnerships. And it's a very special
meeting with the multiple milestones for
Councilman Galindo Alvivera. I will turn
to him now for a motion on the form of
the meeting. Thank you, mayor. I move to
suspend the rules to take item 55 as the
last item on the agenda before citizens
comment. Second.
We have a motion and a second. This
motion will allow the councilman to have
that item as his last vote on a formal
meeting during his this period of
service on the Phoenix City Council. All
those in favor, please say I. I. Motion.
Any opposed? Motion passes
unanimously. We next go to item
47, which is to well uh turn to the city
clerk to read the title. Item 47 is for
ordinance
G7377, an ordinance amending Phoenix
City Code, chapter 42, article 11,
section
42-11B, and C entitled authorization for
approval of liability and special risk
claims to increase the payment ordinance
threshold.
Thank you. Thank you. Do we have a
motion, Vice Mayor? Mayor, I move to
approve item 47.
A motion and a second. Any discussion?
Roll call. Belinda, yes.
Yes. Hudge Washington, yes. Pastor, yes.
Stark, yes. Wearing. O'Brien, yes. GGO,
yes. Passes 80.
We next go to item 50 which is a
contract with the Arizona Department of
SEC of economic security for community
action agency funding. Vice Mayor,
I move to approve item 50.
We have a motion and a second. This is
an important contract with D uh Arizona
Department of Economic Security that
administers several critical federal
grants including community service block
grant funding, lowincome home energy
assistance, temporary assistance for
needy families, and neighbors helping
neighbors. As we see major changes to
federal funding, I wanted to highlight
the importance of one program in
particular, the lowincome home energy
assistance program, also known as lie
heap. That program has helped
2,845 of our residents with financial
assurance assistance for energy
bills. It aims to help reduce the
likelihood that someone might be forced
between the impossible decision of
running the air conditioner or
purchasing essentials. We all know the
dangers of extreme heat and giving
families the security to know they'll be
safe and comfortable in their homes is a
very important issue for us in a warm
weather city like the city of Phoenix.
Last week,
the federal department HHS that
eliminates this that that uh manages
this program eliminated all of the staff
that manages this home energy
assistance. I'm very hopeful we will get
a signal from the federal government
about their continued support for this
program. It was a deeply unsettling
change as we are on already a very hot
day of the year and again this program
really does save lives in the city of
Phoenix. Any additional comments coun
vice mayor? You thank you mayor. Um I
have been clear in my belief that the
highest impact we can have on
homelessness is by keeping people
housed. The programs funded by these
various funding sources help us lift
people out of poverty and back onto
their feet. They're programs we utilize
in our community court designed to
provide an alternative to the to the
traditional judicial system for members
of our homeless community. They include
eviction prevention services, which is a
program I Councilwoman Hajj Washington
has worked diligently on. And as I said
in my recent letter that I sent to the
vice president, these federal programs
and grants are not handouts or
entitlements. They are in federal
investments to enhance the daily lives
of federal taxpayers. These programs
that help residents on the municipal
level are exactly what these funds were
intended to be used for and allocated by
Congress for. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you. Roll call.
Vera, yes. Yes. Haj Washington, yes.
Pastor,
yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. O'Brien,
yes. Ggo. Yes. Passes 80. Item 51 is to
amend an ordinance for senior bridge
project. Do we have a motion? I move to
approve item 51. Second. Motion and a
second. This particular item is a minor
correction, but I do want to take the
opportunity to share how excited I am
about this innovative project. It will
provide transitional and permanent
housing to low-income seniors in our
community using converted solarp powered
shipping containers.
Because of this innovative technology,
we will allow the seniors who live there
to avoid a monthly energy bill. Feel
like we needed some good news after the
last agenda
update. This is one of the communities
we want the doors to open as quickly as
possible to help move seniors from
homelessness to long-term successful
permanent housing. uh developer has an
ambitious timeline and I appreciate
staff working to live to deliver this
pro program and project as soon as we
humanly can. We also want to recognize
it as a partnership with Maricopa County
and we appreciate their investment as
well. Any additional comments?
Councilwoman Hod Washington. Thank you,
Mayor. Um, I just wanted to echo the
sentiments that you've raised and I also
think it's it's a continued investment
in our critical housing solutions for
our seniors and I'm proud to say it's
going to be right here in District 8.
It's an innovative model that not only
is meeting our growing demand for our
older residents, but it's also doing it
in a forwardinking approach that it
reflects the kind of solutions that we
care about and our community deserves.
So, I just also wanted to echo those
sentiments and thank staff for
everything they're doing to move this
project forward as quickly as possible.
Well said. Roll call. Kalinder Vera.
Yes. Yes. Hodge Washington. Yes. Pastor,
yes. Stark, yes. Wearing. O'Brien, yes.
GGO, yes. Passes
800. Thank you. Next, we go to item 52,
the planning and production of fireworks
events. Do we have a motion? I move to
approve.
Second. I move to approve item 52.
Second. We have a motion and a second.
This item is about our fireworks
celebrations and we all know how many
happy memories there are of Fourth of
July in
Phoenix. But given the challenges we've
had with air quality, just wanted to um
update that the city continues to look
for new ways to celebrate. And I think
the vice mayor have an may have an
update on one of those innovations. Many
of us remember January 1st of this year
where our mountains were barely visible
because of air quality challenges due to
fireworks. We continue to look for
innovative new technologies, many of
which are being developed in Phoenix,
Arizona, that address challenges with
air pollution as well as fire
prevention. So, we continue and I'll
turn to the vice mayor to Thank you,
mayor. We are um excited that at the
Deer Valley um annual Fourth of July
fireworks, it will be instead a drone um
event. So, we're excited to make that
change there. Additionally, our annual
double t double 10day event will also be
moving to a drone event from fireworks.
So, support your remarks. Thank you.
Thank you for your leadership on
showcasing advanced technology from
Phoenix, Arizona.
Counciloman Gordado hosts one of the
beloved events in her district. I'll
turn to her. Thank you, mayor. As I
agree with the mayor and open to looking
to other options that maintain our air
quality, I like the idea of maybe
thinking about different type of shows
envir that are environmentally
responsible. But still, I want to take a
moment to express my appreciation for
Phoenix's light up the sky event held
annually at the American Family Fields
of Phoenix. This celebration of our
country's Independence Day has truly
become a cherished tradition for both
West Phoenix and all of Phoenix. The
excitement and camaraderie that the
event brings to our community is
invaluable. It's heartwarming to see how
it has become an occasion that our whole
community relies upon each other,
fostering connections and creating
lasting memories. I would like to thank
Deputy City Manager John Chen, director
Cynthia Aguular, and the parks and
recreation department for their
leadership and bringing this important
event back to the city um this year one
more time. But looking forward to seeing
how is it that we do these events better
that we um it's a win-win
situation, one for the community,
another one for the environment. As
someone that has asthma, I definitely
understand the issues and hoping that we
can come up with a lot better solutions.
Thank you, Mayor. Thank you,
Councilwoman Pestor.
Thank you.
Um, I just wanted to say I took it to
heart, Mayor, uh, when you brought it to
my attention regarding the fireworks and
the air quality. Uh, I did have staff
investigate in doing drones versus
fireworks. I did it a little late
because um uh we were doing the
research, but we also had to order the
fireworks in order for it to get here in
July and be able to be here in July um
on time or else the company was going to
go somewhere else. So I triggered to
have the fireworks this year as a as the
research was uh being gathered. What I
have found out is if we do the drone uh
show and I want to take this out to the
community. Uh if we do the drone show,
we'll have to cut it 10 minutes and it
will cost more. And so I need to figure
out spec specifically with the parks
department on how to administer it being
environmentally safe but still
entertaining and adding uh the quality
of a show that is needed uh to represent
the fifth largest city. Um so next year
we are as we as we do fireworks this
year next year we will be looking at
drones and the way we can expand it and
the way we can um also be it cost
effective. So thank you.
Thank you. And for background for folks
on January 1st a air quality monitor in
West Phoenix had the worst air quality
in the country driven by wood burning
fire and consumer fireworks. So, we've
been trying to think what we can do. We
also have a real challenge with very
small particullet PM 2.5 in this region
and we're trying to understand these
issues. With that, roll call. Galinda,
yes.
Yes. Haj Washington, yes. Pastor, yes.
Stark, yes. Wearing O'Brien, yes. VGO,
yes. Passes 8 Z.
Item 53 is next. This is related to 7th
Avenue and Washington Street. It is to
issue some requests for proposals
related to some city land. Do we have a
motion? Mayor, I move to approve item
53. Second.
We have a motion and a second. This is
exciting land again at 7th Avenue and
Washington due to uh a variety of
different changes including the police
headquarters moving. We'll be able to do
some major
redevelopment of city-owned land. To me,
7th Avenue in Washington is really a
gateway into our downtown uh
particularly for people coming from the
south and west. And it's really
exciting. We will have three parcels
going forward.
I'm hopeful that we'll get some really
exciting best-in-class innovation. It's
very unusual to have this type of land
in a downtown move forward. We've been
talking with the community and have had
some incredible ideas about how this
land might be able to be used. Uh, one
concept would be a gateway arch that
might uh come over the street and really
let people welcome into downtown with
some fantastic placemaking art. Uh we
had one architecture firm who proposed
we might be able to do a vertaport for
advanced technology at this location. So
I'm hopeful that people who are
responding to this will give us
incredible architecture that's gorgeous
and befitting a gateway but also be
really open to innovative new concepts.
We are so lucky to have this
opportunity. We have such a creative
community and we're really looking for
some some excitement and innovation in
these proposals and not just being
constrained by the bare minimum, but
what are the ideas out there in our
community? Anyone else want to add
anything on this topic? Councilman
Glendo.
Council, I'll yield to Councilwoman
Pastor. Counciloman Pastor,
I think this is a great opportunity for
those that want to continue to build in
our city and um but my request is more
vibrancy um really architecture,
bringing the architecture to this area
and um bringing it to downtown.
Um, I think we struggle or at least I
will say I struggle sometimes when
development comes in front of me and it
is just a box and telling me that it
this is uh a great affordable livable
but I would like to see a lot of design
and architecture to really start marking
um our downtown on the outsides of the
sevens. And as the mayor stated, it is a
gateway to enter and we can do that and
we have the ability to do that. So,
thank you. Well said, Councilman. Thank
you, mayor. I agree with your comments.
I think it's a real great um opportunity
to really showcase the culture, the art,
and the vibrancy of District 7. Um we
know already that art um can tell a
story. you just have to look at the
South Central Extension and the eight um
art installations and how it's been
representative of the different
communities within District 7. So, I'm
with you on this and and I hope that it
comes to fruition because um it'll be
something so special um for the downtown
area and so I I hope it happens.
Wonderful.
Roll call. Valinda, yes.
Yes. Yes. Hodge Washington. Yes. Pastor,
yes. Stark, yes. Wearing. O'Brien, yes.
GGO, yes. Passes 8 Z. We next go to item
57, which is a development agreement in
district 7. Do we have a motion? Sorry.
Can I get a clarification on which item
number we're on? I think we moved 55.
So, we're on
58. 58, not 57.
Okay. I just Okay. 58. I just want to
verify. Perfect. I move to approve item
58.
Did we do 57?
We did. Okay. Sorry, I had to Councilman
Glendel over. I must have an outdated
version.
Okay. We have a motion and a second on
item 58. Any
comments? Roll call. Elvida, yes.
Yes. Hodge Washington. Yes. Pastor, yes.
Stark, yes. Wearing, no.
O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 71.
All right. Now we go to item
93. We have to do We moved 50. We moved
93. Yeah. Take 93. So these are just for
background for folks. Uh items 93 and 59
are related but we need to take item 93
first which is the public hearing on
69th and Thomas redevelopment area plan
and then after that we will go to 59
which is the development
agreement. We will open the public
hearing. Uh we do have representatives
available to speak if necessary. Does
anyone need to have any questions?
Okay. Uh, do you want to Oh, I'll close
the public hearing and then we'll go to
council member comments.
All right. This is in district 7, so
I'll turn to Councilman Glenda Oira for
the motion. Mayor, I move to
approve the related resolution. Second.
We have a motion and a second on item
93. Council uh Councilman Gordado. Yes.
Thank you so much, mayor. Um, so I'm
going to be supporting this item, but I
just have some questions. If Chris Macki
is here, I would love for her to come
up. Um, it was my understanding that
when we expanded the GIPLE program for a
situation such as this, it would be in
order to solve for the crisis, financial
gap, and the strategically help address
the housing crisis we are dealing with
here in Phoenix. While I intend to
support this project and my colleague,
which is his last meeting, we're going
to miss you. I firmly believe that this
project ha had we pushed for stricter
percentages would have allowed us the
leverage to realize to realize much more
than 51% affordable housing that we are
getting here.
With the rise in homelessness and
evictions, I would like to direct CED to
take a look at raising the percentages
for more affordable housing to ensure
that going forward, we are much more
clear with our expectations when it
comes to giplets and our goal of
bringing more affordable housing to
every part of our city. I think we're
all in agreement on this DAS that we see
the numbers of evictions and everything
that is happening and how our homeless
population continues to grow and we
continue to see more and more families
being unhoused. So hoping um Chris that
we are able to do that that we can start
looking at that again.
Mayor, uh, members of the council,
absolutely. We can go take a look at the
2022 policy that the council provided us
guidance and bring that back to each of
you to look at what those percentage and
we can make some recommendations on
those percentages. Perfect. Thank you.
Well, I would really appreciate that and
I think this is a great project. Um, I I
want to thank um, Council Member Galinda
for his leadership on this and for
everyone that was a part of this. I
think this is what we were looking for
when we decided to expand gipletts
outside of the downtown core and very
very happy um to be able to support the
project and looking forward to the
changes that we'll do in the future.
Thank you. Thank you, mayor.
Thank you. We'll go next to Councilwoman
Pastor. Yes, thank you. Um, I happened
to be the one that was the chair of that
subcommittee on really um drafting uh
along with my committee members of what
that re what area would look like uh
outside of downtown and really wanting
to uh move outside of downtown for the
purpose of developing all our different
districts.
Um, I commend this first one in the
sense of uh this is our first one biting
our teeth in our first redevelopment
area. Um, I do agree with uh
Councilwoman Wardado in the intent was
or some one of the intents, not all of
them, one of the intents was affordable
housing. And my understanding, and you
can correct me wrong and we can uh talk
about it, is my understanding that each
district will have the ability to say in
a redevelopment plan to say, "No, I want
100%." In the redevelopment plan, 90%,
but that it was up to each council
member. That's what I was told. Mayor,
Councilwoman Pastor, it each of the
council districts as we move forward,
they will be working with us on what
they want. And I think we could set kind
of a baseline. Okay. And then work with
each as you you've provided guidance at
your subcommittee to be able to work
with each of the council districts as
each of these applications move forward.
And if not, maybe what we do amongst
oursel is to
agree what percentage
uh a range
of 60% 70% 75% of affordability
um in these projects because it is a
giplet. Mayor, Councilwoman Pastor, we'd
be happy to work with you all on that.
Okay. Thank
you. Any additional comments? And staff
just asked me to clarify the giplet will
be the vote subsequent and this is the
the planning item that enables the next
one.
Thank you.
Galinda, yes.
Yes. Hudge Washington, yes. Pastor, yes.
Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. O'Brien, yes.
There you go. Yes. Passes 80.
Because that passed, we can now go to
item 59. And thank you to my colleagues.
It's really important we keep assessing
our affordable housing goals and and the
tools that we have. So, that will be a
great conversation to have. Thank you,
Councilwoman.
Uh, Councilman Galendo, do you have a
motion on item 59? I do, Mayor. I'd like
to make a few comments prior to the
motion if that's okay. Thank you. Uh,
the the c the Phoenix City Council
continues to lead the way in addressing
the housing needs of Phoenix, the
valley, and Arizona. Today's item
represents the city council's commitment
to find new and innovative ways to
provide more opportunities for
affordable housing. In conjunction with
the redevelopment plan, this development
agreement will transform a blighted lot
in district 7 into a vibrant mixed
income housing development from blight
to beautiful. Mayor, with this, I move
to approve item 59 per staff's
recommendation with the modification to
restrict a minimum of 51% of units as
affordable housing to residents earning
80% of the area median income or below.
Second.
Thank you. We have a motion and a
second. Any additional comments? Roll
call. Garvida, yes. Ward, yes. Haj
Washington, yes. Pastor, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing, no.
O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Passes
71. Item 60 is in district 8. It is
related to own land that the airport
uh has acquired. and I'll maybe sh turn
to Councilwoman Hod Washington for
comments and a motion. Thank you, Mayor.
Um, can I ask uh Chris a few questions
before I move forward on my motion?
Thank you so much, Director Mackey. Um,
as part of the year's long aviation land
reuse strategy, we are now taking the
first of these properties out for
activation and sale. The community has
waited a long time for this process to
start, and I'm excited to see the plan
taking shape. The properties that are
being moved forward today are were all
recommended for industrial and job
generating development in the aviation
land reuse plan that was supported by
the community. I concur with the plan,
but I would like to add some language
into the record about the disposal of
these properties to ensure we have the
kind of projects we want to come into
the area that will bring new and
exciting jobs both north and south of
the I17. I would like to add to the
city-owned properties that have three or
more lots that are contiguous. I would
like these properties to go through a
public offering that will provide
information on what the company or
developer wants to put on the property,
what the timing is, and what their
investments will be in into those
properties. I know a full request for
proposal is a lengthy process, so I'm
not recommending this, but I've used our
public offering process very
successfully to develop some of our more
challenging parcels. Can you explain the
difference for those listening between
an RFP and a public offering? Mayor
Kenswin Hodgej Washington would be my
honor. A p request for proposal is a
procurement process that follows very
strict um reporting guidelines through
the city. Once a request for proposal is
issued on a particular property in the
city. The uh the proposers can only
speak with our procurement officer. They
can only meet during public meetings.
they can't get questions answered as
easily as they can on our more
challenging properties as when we do a
public offering. The request for
proposal also requires uh requires us to
do activity and work with those
developers through the LOI process and
through the development agreement
process. A public offering would be a
combination of a private sale and an
RFP. So instead of just just putting
them the properties out for sale and
selling them to the highest bidder, we
would h go through a similar process to
the request for proposal, the developer
company would need to submit to us what
they want to build. It would talk about
their investment. It would talk about
their financing, the number of jobs they
wanted to create. We'd be able to ensure
that it fits with the aviation land
reuse strategy. Really what the
community had worked all those years to
be able to work on. We then set an
internal panel that reviews those
documents. And when we have a proposer
to move forward, we meet with the with
the council, the district, which in
these instance is you, and um meet with
the rest of the council members,
ensuring that we're seeing what you had
to move forward. We want to make sure we
get it right. And then we would go out
to the community to make sure that it to
them it met the aviation land reuse
strategy and then we'd come to council
for your consideration at a public
meeting. Thank you for that explanation.
I think the RF sorry the public offering
route provides us a little bit more
oversight into ensuring those parcels
conform with what the community
recommended in the land use strategy. So
thank you for that. Will we be taking
these properties out all at once or will
they be staggered? Um more of a
staggered approach. Mayor Councilwoman
Hodgej Washington, we'd recommend taking
them out at a staggered approach. And
the reason being is we'd be looking at
market conditions. we'd be looking at
the evolution of the market and the
innovation of the market and being able
to ensure that we're bringing those best
job opportunities into the the the
aviation land reuse area. So, we would
highly recommend taking them out as
staggered. As an example, if you look at
area F and G on the maps that are are
part of the attachment, we would
recommend taking F out in two parcels,
one the the west parcel and one the east
parcel. But we'd recommend taking G out
all as one. I think the the um the
ability that we have to make contiguous
parcels there brings us to the best
opportunity to bring in jobs in good uh
industrial and flex tech type
development into the area for the
community. Really ensuring we we don't
um in a conversation I had with with
some of you, no, we're not looking for
outdoor storage. Thank you.
And then I just want to clarify um we've
talked a little bit about kind of the
process the distinction between the
public offering yeah public offering and
an RFP and we've talked a little bit
about staggering amount. I just want to
make sure we all have a clear
understanding as to what will be the
what happens when staff determines that
a project is a good fit for development
on one of these parcels. Absolutely.
Mayor, Councilman Hodgej Washington,
just to to put it on the record and for
those watching to know when we in these
groups of three and how we've been able
to look at our maps and see kind of to
us how they would make a logical flow.
We'll probably have 15 to 20 public
offerings. So, we'll be back before you
about 20 times with these particular
sites. And what we would do is we would
post the public offering in our media
channels. We send it out to community
members. We have about,00 individuals
that receive our RFPs. We can send the
same information out. We'll post it in
newspapers so that we get it out as deep
as we can into the development community
to see what we have to look at. They
would then submit their proposals back.
Staff would review them to ensure that
they met the requirements of the
aviation land reuse strategy. We would
then convene an internal uh internal
working group to see is planning seeing
something that CED isn't or is street
seeing something that we're not before
we all feel comfortable with coming
forward to you all with a rec and of
course going to the community hosting a
a public community meeting uh at that
time and then coming back to the council
for their full consideration and we'd
have renderings and and pictures and
timelines to hold accountable. We would
then, it wouldn't just be a pure sale to
the entity. We'd enter into an agreement
that stated contractually what they plan
to build on the site. And I presume that
what it's after all of that has been
completed is when the property would be
transferred to the recommended
applicant. Correct. Uh, Mayor,
Councilman Hodge Washington, you're
correct. Except we recommend going one
more step. What we find sometimes is the
market's very hot and we get everything
lined up and we transfer a property and
then nothing develops on that property.
That's happened to us two times in the
past. Nothing happens on that property.
What we recommend is that we don't
transfer the property to them until they
have their building permits ready to
issue. So someone isn't just sitting on
the city's land waiting for a value to
increase over time. And we've not had
that happen often. It's sometimes the
market conditions shift between one side
and the other and just to protect our
citizens, we'd recommend that change
happening at building permit issuance.
Thank you so much for the clarification.
U thank you for the clarity and that you
brought to this um discussion. Mayor, at
this juncture, I would like to make a
motion to approve item number 60 with
the following stipulation. For city-
owned properties in the aviation land
reuse area, known as areas F, G, H, and
I, that have three or more lots that are
contiguous, these properties will be
offered through a public offering by
aviation and the community and economic
development departments, and that those
project will come back before the city
council for consideration of the
development and sale. Second.
Thank you. We have a motion, a second.
Councilwoman Pastor, I have a question
and I'm glad you um mentioned um because
I've had this experience. Uh with the
aviation land use, we could go through
this whole process. Somebody could say,
"Yes, I'm going to do this and then
choose not to. Will we be able to have
then in that written contract be able
then to pull that land back and be able
then to put it back up for an RF uh a
public use? Mayor, Councilman Pastor,
absolutely. And in fact, we would bring
those terms to the city council for your
consideration as to length of time that
we would give them to pull their
building permits. Typically, we see
somewhere between 12 and 30 months. And
at that point, we would if they didn't
develop, we would default them, give
them a chance to cure, and then bring
the property back into our
ownership or bring our our property back
into our control. And then what if uh
the person that
uh is awarded that decides midway to
change
uh what they've uh first
uh what we agreed to the city agreed to
and then Midway will change what the
idea is or what whatever the concept
because that has happened to me also.
Mayor, Councilwoman Pastor, we've
learned our lesson from years ago, and
we have language now in our contracts
that state that it has to be in
substantial conformance with what came
forward to the city council. So, if
those changes were to happen, it would
have to come before the city council for
your consideration to change those uses.
And if you chose not to do that, we
would we would cancel the public
offering. Well, I'd hope it would have
to go in front of the community. Mayor,
Councilman Pastor, absolutely. We would
we would take it well before we come
forward to the council. We always like
to go to the community. We'd rather have
those conversations and any
modifications that they would like to
see negotiated with the developer before
we enter this chambers and have that
conversation where they can have their
input and influence those changes. Thank
you, Chris. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you. Any additional comments? uh
really appreciate Councilwoman Hunt
Washington's motion which will help us
better meet the needs of the community.
For more than a decade, we have been
working with the communities
around these series of properties to try
to develop a plan. The the city with
partnership with the federal government
has purchased a lot of land that was
impacted by airport noise, but it is in
existing neighborhoods near businesses
and homes, and we want to make sure that
uses for these lands make sense for
that. I shall confess I was one of the
people who talked to the economic
development director about outdoor
storage because you don't want a storage
thing right next outdoor storage next to
your home. And so we're going to try to
use deed restrictions and other tools to
make sure that we honor the community's
input on this plan and Councilman Hud
Washington's motion really helps move
that forward. So look forward to
supporting that. Roll call. Galinda,
yes. Yes. Haj Washington. Yes. Pastor,
yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. O'Brien,
yes. GGO, yes. Passes 80.
Item 62 is a public hearing and
resolution adopted the adopting the
updated downtown redevelopment area
plan. We'll open the public
[Music]
hearing. We'll close the public hearing.
Vice Mayor, do we have a motion? I move
to approve item 62. Second. Any
comments?
Roll call. Elinder Vira. Yes. Yes. Haj
Washington.
Yes. Pastor,
yes. Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. O'Brien,
yes. Ago, yes. Pass is
80. Our next item is 73, the Mary Rose
Wilcox Way ceremonial sign topper. I
will turn to Councilwoman Hud Washington
for a
motion and comments. Thank you, Mayor.
Um, I move to approve item number 73. I
would ask the opportunity to give
comments upon the second.
Yeah, Carlos.
I didn't hear you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Mayor. Uh, first
of all, I wanted to extend my gratitude
to my colleague, Councilman Galinda Ala,
for his support of this effort and for
helping make this tribute possible. It
is my distinct honor to bring forth this
item recognizing a true
trailblazer champion for our community
and lifelong public servant, uh, the
Honorable Mary Rose Wilcox. She was born
in Superior, Arizona, and raised within
the Copper Corridor. Mary Rose has never
forgotten where she's come from and has
always used her voice and leadership to
uplift the people of Phoenix and all of
Arizona. She was the first Latina to
serve on the Phoenix City Council
representing District 7 from 1983 to
1993. She went off went on to become the
first Hispanic women to woman to serve
on the Maropa County Board of
Supervisors representing District 5 for
over two decades. And her leadership was
not without risk. Her support for
transformative projects represent a deep
commitment and personal sacrifice that
comes with a life in public service.
Yet, she never wavered in her dedication
to what she believed was best for
Phoenix. Mary Rose and her husband Earl
made a lasting impact in the Grant Park
neighborhood where when they opened El
Portal Mexican Restaurant in 1999. El
Portal quickly became more than just a
place to eat. It became a community hub
and a place for organizing, advocating,
and addressing the needs of the
community. It is only fitting that we
honor this incredible woman at the
intersection of Second Avenue and Grand
Street right in front of El Portal with
a ceremonial sign topper in her name.
This sign will be a lasting tribute to
her decades of leadership and a
commitment to our city. Thank you. Thank
you, Councilman Glendo. Thank you,
Mayor. And I want to extend my deep
appreciation to Councilwoman Kesha Hajj
Washington for the partnership and her
advocacy um for the naming of the
ceremonial street. Mary Rose Wilcox is a
product of rural Arizona. She's from
Superior, Arizona, a copper mining town
in Penal County. In 1983, Mary Rose
Wilcox was the first Mexican-American
woman elected to the Phoenix City
Council. 10 years later, in 1993, she
was elected to the Maropa County Board
of Supervisors. When Councilwoman Hajj
Washington and I agreed on naming the
street, there could have been no other
better name than the Mary Rose Wilcox
Way. Because for Mary Rose there w there
there is no other way than her
commitment and determination to improve
the lives of others. Her mining town
roots and labor union upbringing infused
in her allegiance of service to to the
community and appreciation for the value
of coalition building and working to
bring about economic and political
change. In May and in May and June of
1972, Santaita Hall became the United
Farm Workers headquarters. Many
nationally known figures, civil rights
figures showed up in solidarity with
Cesar Chavez's 24-day fast. Mary Rose
was there when Kretta Scott King came to
Senorita Hall. That moment propelled her
into political action and to be a
community leader. In
1978, Mayor Rose Wilcox became a case
worker in the office of United States
Senator Dennis Deansini. She later
became the senator's special assistant
and leaison with the small business
administration and the immigration and
naturalization service. Personally, I'm
proud to have two things in common with
Mary Rose. We're both from the Copper
Corridor and served on the Phoenix City
Council representing District 7 and
we're we both work for former Senator
Dennis Dancini. Mary Rose's legacy will
be one that she was unafraid and took
issues headon and that's her way.
Nicely, nicely put, Councilwoman Pastor.
Thank you. First, I want to thank my
colleagues for recognizing a very
inspiring,
powerful, humble Latina that has served
not only the roots, her mining, her
copper mining roots, but also served uh
the city of Phoenix and the county.
Um and Mary Rose is actually a mentor of
mine. Uh because
uh Mary Rose and my father were very
close and my father uh really and Mary
Rose the two together because of their
friendship helped one another to get
elected. Uh she was the first Latina
elected at the city of Phoenix and then
on to the county. Um that's incredible
especially during that time of
um the
1970s. Uh, and that was really where as
we as Councilman Galinda Alvida spoke
about Santaita Hall and the and the
inspiring of Cesar Chavez, really where
the movement of local uh, Hispanics and
Carper Corridor Hispanics uh, decided
that they were going to create the
movement and make change within the city
of Phoenix and make an impactful change
by electing and not only electing,
placing people in positions in private
and public so that they could influence
the community.
Um, one of the things I also want to say
is uh she won her election in 1983 and
has won after that 10 times. That's
incredible for a woman like that. Um,
Mary Rose helped unionize and boycott it
with the farm workers as we stated about
Sanita Hall and she defended and fought
for our immigrant community and
continues to fight for our immigrant
community. Um she was actually there was
a collective group but she was actually
the pioneer of the collective of what we
know today of office of accountability
and transparency. Office of
accountability and transparency goes
back to that space and time of when they
have been advocating for it to be here
today. I had the great pleasure to be
part
of voting for the office of
accountability and transparency and for
her to be able to witness it. Uh she was
also part of creating the black and
brown
coalition and this was a coalition that
brought the black and brown community
together to build relationships but also
to elect candidates. It's especially
significant to have uh to be honored in
front of El Porto which has become the
staple of the must must go to place of
the politicals to be able to solve
problems and come with solution as a
collective.
uh before El Pora we what we had in back
in the day what used to be called Wajaka
and that's where you would really sit
and see the legislature the county the
state uh the city
come in and have lunch and discuss the
issues and then come up with plans on
how to solve them and bring money
together has replaced that space for us
um she wouldn't have been able to do it
without her husband, Earl Wilcox. And in
his own right, he has his own legacy.
And uh one day we'll talk about it. Um
but most importantly, congratulations to
Ivonne, her her daughter, her only
child, and the rhymes
men because there are no granddaughters.
There's great granddaughters, but there
are no granddaughters. And she has five
beautiful
grandchildren. and Ivonne's husband and
they're all men. So, I'm just giving a
shout out to the Rymes men because the
women keep them all moving in together.
So, I could not be more excited today
than to vote for this and so I'm very
grateful to my colleagues for bringing
this to the forefront. Thank you. Thank
you, Councilwoman Gordado. Thank you,
Mayor. Um, first I wanted to take a
moment to express my heartfelt gratitude
to my colleagues for bringing this
together. Um, this is such an amazing
thing to be able to do um, for Mary Rose
and I'm also very grateful for her for
Mary Rose's friendship and leadership on
the city council and everything that
she's done in our community. And I'm not
going to repeat a lot of what my
colleagues already said. Um, but for my
personal experience um, with her is
meeting her at El Portal. El Portal
became a place of refuge for a lot of
people in our community during some very
difficult times for for a lot of us here
in Arizona as we battled against Russell
Pierce, Jar PA and SB 1070. El Portal
became an area where people would come
there to try to figure out a plan to try
to work together on how was it that we
were going to fight against a lot of
these injustices that were happening in
our community. and she was not scared.
She was ready to take on the different
battles that she had to take on and the
retaliations that she also suffered
thanks to standing up to a lot of the
challenging moments that we were living
um here in Arizona. So, I cannot thank
her enough for all of her all of her
leadership, everything that she's done
and the mentoring um that that she gave
um to a lot of us either directly or
indirectly. um can't thank her enough
for all of her leadership and everything
that she's done for all of us and I'm
very um proud and happy to be able to
support this item. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Councilwoman Stark.
Thank you, uh Mayor. I I'm going to
speak a little differently about Mary
Rose because I knew her as a staff
person and I will tell you I always
thought she was one of the hardest
working elected officials I ever saw.
She always stepped up and helped her
constituents. I can remember times that
she would come down to my office with a
constituent and she said, "Deborah, you
need to help this person." "Yes, ma'am.
I'll help this person." She really,
really does care about people. That's
the kind of heart you want to see in an
elected official. She went above and
beyond uh the duties of being an elected
official, both for the city of Phoenix
and for Maricopa County. She is a
wonderful woman. This is a wonderful
tribute. Wish we could do more, but this
is a great start to honor a great
elected official. Thanks,
Mayor. Thank you. Mary Rose and Earl
stepped in for the city of Phoenix at a
very difficult time in our budget
process. They helped us operate Grant
Park and really deliver for the kids.
Mary Rose had an incredible passion for
our young people. She worked so hard to
get them access to internet and great
computers to make sure they had a great
holiday. She'd help kids get fantastic
presents like a bicycle at Christmas
when that might be the only present they
were getting. And just so many happy
faces. I I feel like there's a whole
generation of kids who are in love with
our parks department because of Mary
Rose's work and the great partnership
with the city of Phoenix parks
department. Our parks department will be
recognizing her shortly as well for that
great work. I also want to acknowledge
her service on what was the Maricopa
integrated healthc care system became
valleywise during her time of service.
She helped lead a bond that made huge
investments in the city of Phoenix
including a really best in the nation
burn unit, a wonderful clinic that helps
serve our refugee women.
So many folks who didn't usually have an
advocate benefited from Mary Rose's
leadership and concern. I got some
personal benefits. She really helped
make sure during COVID that there was
access to vaccines and my son got
vaccinated at one of the clinics that
she helped sponsor. She was very kind
because he was in a phase where he
really did not like shots and he went
running all over Grant
Park and she helped me with that. Um, so
was grateful on a personal level from a
mom to another mom and so really looking
forward to supporting this item. Thank
you to Councilwoman Hud Washington and
Council Galinda Alvivera for bringing it
forward. Another benefit of the
remarkable partnership that the two of
you have had. Uh, you guys have
certainly shown how much two elected
officials can get done when working
together and and it's we're all better
off for it. So, thank you both. Roll
call. Elinder Vida, yes. Guardo, yes.
Punch Washington, yes. Pastor, yes.
Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. O'Brien, yes.
GGO, yes. Passes 8 Z.
All right. The good news continues. Item
83 is senior affordable housing in
district 5. And I will turn to the
councilwoman. Thank you, mayor. I would
like to make a motion to approve item 83
as corrected.
Motion and a second. and I'll recognize
you for comments. Thank you. Today's
item approves Smith Group, the project
design team working to help convert the
former Super 8 into an affordable
housing site. And I could not be more
excited. Approval of this item will
allow Smith Group to continue their work
and support the construction process and
selection of a general contractor. Smith
Group will work closely with OHS to
ensure the project goes smoothly. Once
complete, the converted hotel will
provide 126 affordable units affordable,
I'm sorry, 126 units of affordable
housing for seniors aged 55 plus with
very low incomes. We are on schedule to
have a general contractor on board by
August 2025 and targeting timeline for
leasing to begin in June of
2026. The project is adjacent to the
Cass Haven, which is already open.
senior emergency shelter and innovation
27 workforce and education center and
will revitalize the area and surrounding
community. This item adds the ability
for OHS and the streets department to
work with Smith Group for the
construction portion of the hotel
conversion project at the former super
8. We need to come up with a new name. I
want to thank Assistant City Manager
Inger Ericson, deputy city manager Gina
Montes, the city engineer and human
services department, and also our city
manager for all of their incredible work
in making sure that we were able to
bring this item today. Thank you, Mayor.
Thank you, Councilwoman. Thank you for
your hard work and all the neighbors in
your community who helped us get here.
Roll call.
Delva, yes. Yes. Hodge Washington. Yes.
Pastor,
congratulations. Councilwoman Wal, yes.
Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. O'Brien, yes.
Yes. Passes 80. And thank you to Senator
Kelly who also helped us with some
congressionally directed spending to
help move forward in this area. Next, we
go to item 94, which is amending the
downtown code.
We'll open the public hearing. We do not
have
uh one individual available to speak if
necessary. Any
questions? Close the public hearing. Do
we have a motion? I move to approve per
the planning commission recommendation
and adopt the related ordinance. Second.
Motion and a second. Roll call. Alind
Vida? Yes. Yes. Haj Washington. Yes.
Pastor Stark. Yes. Yes. We wearing
O'Brien. Yes. GGO. Yes. Passes 8 Z. Item
95 and 96 are both related to an area
near 67th Avenue in Adam Street. We will
have one hearing and two votes. We'll
open the public hearing. Uh we do
have one individual representing the
applicant available to testify if
needed.
close the public hearing. I'll turn to
Councilman Galinda Alvira first for 95.
Mayor, I move to approve item 95.
Second with the
planation and approve the related
resolution. Yes. Thank you for that.
Any comments? Roll call.
Galinder Vida. Yes. Mado, yes.
Washington, yes. Pastor, yes. Stark,
yes. We wearing Yes. O'Brien, yes.
Yes. Passes 80. Item 96.
May I move to approve item 96 and the
chorus?
Yes. But per per the planning commission
recommendation and adopt the related
ordinance. The chorus. I heard you.
Okay. Okay. The chorus did not do well,
guys.
Second.
We have a motion and a second on the
councilman's motion to approve for
planning commission and adopt the
related ordinance. Any comments? Roll
call. Helen Vida. Yes. Yes. Hodge
Washington. Yes. Pastor, yes. Stark,
yes. Wearing, yes. O'Brien, yes. GGO,
yes. Passes 80. Item 97 and 98 are both
related to the northwest corner of 30th
Avenue and Deer Valley. We will have one
public hearing and two votes.
open the
public hearing. We do have a
representative for the applicant
available to speak if
necessary. Close the public hearing.
This is in district one. I'll turn to
the vice mayor. Thank you, mayor. I move
to approve the planning commission for
the planning commission uh
recommendation and adopt the related
resolution.
Second. Any comments? I do have.
Wonderful. Vice Mayor. All right. um
related both to 97 and 98. I could not
be more proud and excited for this
project will which will offer needed
affordable housing in North Phoenix to
the LITC housing. This project is
planned to be five stories making it
equal in height to the tallest
residential building north of the loop
101. It's expected to have 147 units
with various sized options ranging from
two bedrooms up to four bedrooms for
families. When I asked for diversity in
housing in my district, this is what I
was asking for. Housing where families
of all income levels could truly live in
the communities they work in. This
project will join other points of pride
throughout District 1, including
projects like the reserve at
Thunderbird, which offers housing so
families can begin to rebuild after
experiencing home life troubles or
homelessness. or projects like home at
Happy Valley developed by Shelter Asset
Management, which at the time was the
tallest residential project north of the
101 and offers truly afford attainable
housing opportunities. While the
northern part of my district experiences
rapid growth with the development of
high-paying jobs thanks to historic
investments from TSMC, we will need
places for community members of all
income levels. A true diversity of
housing options for all. I'm very proud
to have made this motion to approve the
H LITC housing in District
One. Thank
you. Second and congratulations. Thank
you for bringing much neededed
investment. Roll call. Galinda, yes.
Yes. H Washington, yes. Pastor, yes.
Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. O'Brien, yes.
VGO, yes. This
is sorry. 8 Z item 98. Mayor, I move to
approve per the planning commission
recommendation and adopt the related
ordinance. Second motion and second. Any
comments? Roll call. Dan Vida. Yes.
Yes. Punch Washington. Yes. Pastor, yes.
Stark, yes. Wearing, yes. O'Brien, yes.
GGO, yes. passes 8 Z.
Items 99 through 101 are all related. We
will have one public
hearing and three votes. We'll begin
with a staff report and then we will go
to a chair of a commission that helped
us with these items followed by a chair
of a commission who advises us on water.
These are uh really important
investments. We have been working on
this for a very long time. A huge thank
you to Alan Josh and Adam Miller for
your thoughtful and thorough work on
this area. Well, as well as leaders from
a variety of different departments,
including uh related to water. As our
city continues to grow in exciting ways,
our residents expect city services to
maintain the same level of excellence
they've experienced historically. This
item responds to new needs and
acknowledges that construction materials
and labor costs have gone up and that
the city and its residents shouldn't b
shoulder that burden alone. The impact
fee program asks growth to pay for
growth. In this way, the program is
progressive. Rather than relying on
existing residents and businesses to
shoulder the cost of infrastructure that
primarily benefits new development, it
asks new development to make investments
in the essential infrastructure it
depends on. I want to thank the many
members of the development community and
related organizations who have been
meeting with our city manager's office
and our city staff since January of 2024
to develop a schedule of
fees. As you'll hear in the
presentation, these fees are determined
through a detailed technical analysis to
define what facilities and investments
will be needed to serve our growing
community. This council and the
incredible staff team leading this
effort have pushed the limits to draw
down costs as much as possible, modeling
and remodeling to ensure we've captured
every opportunity for cost savings.
Thank you to the team for your
patience. With that, I will turn it over
to Deputy City Manager Alan Stevenson.
Thank you, Mayor, members of council. uh
like to introduce Adam Miller, our uh
deputy director of the planning
development department who oversees the
infrastructure financing team. It's uh
he and his team that are principally
responsible for the the impact fee item
coming forward. Like to thank them for
their hard work uh as well as uh Dr. Max
Wilson uh and his team within the former
water department. Now he's our water
resources adviser as um as most of you
all know. Uh I'd also like to go through
and and thank uh the many departments
who are part of the impact fee program.
All the departments that uh have fees
that are part of the this process had
representatives that participated
throughout that uh almost three-year
process that you just described. Mayor,
on today's agenda are three items. Item
99 is a resolution adopting the
development impact fee fee report. Those
are based on the city council
infrastructure uh plans are adopted in
December. Item 100 is the city code
amendment to put in the new fee tables
for chapters 29 and 30 of the city code.
And then item 101 resends uh development
occupation fees as the new fees in item
100 begin to take effect through a
phasing process pursuant to state
statute. Uh, as you stated, mayor,
impact fees are critical items that
allow the city to uh require that those
who are benefiting most from new
development are the ones paying for
those improvements uh for the upfront
capital costs associated with that. Um,
the next slide
here just outlines those uh parts there
for the for the presentation. So, what
are impact fees? Um, what they are not.
They're fees that ensure that those
residents pay for those fees as as
discussed. Uh and then they're only for
planned improvements that benefit new
development. Uh they are based on the
actual cost to build public
improvements. The money cannot be used
for any other things than uh those
improvements and they're charged when uh
building permits are issued. They do not
cover any operations or maintenance nor
enhanced services. uh not a construction
tax on construction or nor a new
regulation or requirement. The
operations and maintenance uh part of it
are important to note because those are
things that the city then is required to
uh provide for as part of the normal
process. And so that's why it's uh very
important to have the impact fees to
help cover those upfront capital costs
because the city is responsible for
daily operations and maintenance flows.
With that, I'm going to turn it over to
uh Adam Miller, who's going to walk us
through a quick background of it, and
then we'll get to Dr. Max Wilson. We'll
be back for any
questions. Mayor and Council, the
proposed impact fee update features 11
fee categories covering public safety,
parks, libraries, flood control,
streets, and bridges, and our water and
wastewater systems, including our water
resources. The map identifies 15 unique
impact fee areas across Phoenix. Each
area has a different set of needs for
extending public services to new
development. The shading represents
relative total charges with the highest
fees occurring in the newer growth areas
where facilities are lacking and
investment in public infrastructure is
needed in order for development to
continue. The proposed update extends
water and wastewater treatment fees to
the green shaded areas uh such that all
new development will contribute toward
long-term water system resiliency along
with existing
rateayers. The last fee update was
completed 5 years ago. Since that time,
there has been a significant increase in
the cost of construction. This slide
illustrates the cost increase of a 42 in
water transmission main since the last
update, more than doubling from about 4
and a.5 million per mile to over 11,000
millions u million dollars per mile
today. This is a similar slide featuring
road costs that have nearly doubled and
bridge costs that have more than doubled
since 2019.
And finally, a look at the three bay
fire station that also more than doubled
from 8.6 million in 2019 to nearly $20
million today, just over $18
million. This table shows the current
total net fee by area and the
progression of the estimated fees
through this update process.
As illustrated on the map that I shared
earlier, you can see here that the
increases would be greatest in the
northern areas where existing
infrastructure networks are very limited
relative to the new development that is
anticipated in those areas. Water,
sewer, and road infrastructure is
largely in place in the southwest and
Awatuki areas. So, these locations would
experience the smallest increases.
Finally, the lowest fees would be in the
balance of the city or the area that was
shaded green on the map where only water
and wastewater treatment impact fees
would be
collected. It's important to reiterate
that the impact fees are only paid by
new development and the vast majority of
those fees are for critical
infrastructure including facilities like
water and roads that need to be in place
for a development to move forward. The
proposed fee update provides for $1.6
billion of investment in new
infrastructure over the next 10 years.
We have modified the approach and
methodology for our public safety fees
to help ensure response time standards
can be upheld as areas with limited
transport transportation networks
develop.
And based on feedback from the
developers that build and invest in our
community, we have modified our street
fees to focus on bridge
funding. This will better position the
city to contribute toward critical new
bridges as we move forward. At this
time, I'm going to ask city water
resources management advisor Dr. Max
Wilson to cover some of the highlights
and challenges related to water and
wastewater systems. Thank you, Adam.
Thank you, Alan. And thank you, mayor
and council, for the opportunity to
speak here today. There are two primary
benefits that the uh new impact fee
program brings to the city from a water
and wastewater perspective. The first of
these is in the area of water
resiliency. Uh as the council has been
briefed many times, the Colorado River
is currently facing uh one of the
largest droughts in the history of the
Colorado River and we've seen very poor
runoff conditions on the Salt and the
Birdie River this last year. Investing
in water system resiliency, especially
through uh water reuse, is a critical uh
component of ensuring that we're able to
make the most of every drop of water we
do have so that we can continue growing
uh sustainably moving forward.
Additionally, uh the construction of
these water reuse facilities sign
substantially will relieve uh um
constraints on wastewater system
capacity that we have in the northern
part of the city at this time where
we're facing major constraints on the
ability for that area to develop until
wastewater capacity is developed.
Uh, additionally, one of the pieces of
feedback that we heard from the council
at our most recent public hearing on
this topic was a question about whether
we could adjust fees to uh, reflect
smaller homes having uh, a smaller
impact on the system. We were able to
work with our statistitians within the
water department to examine this issue
and what we were found was that
primarily water use at single family
homes is determined by uh, as Adam has
put it, plants, pools and people. And
that is to say that inside a uh a very
small house that has lots of landscaping
with lots of people, you may see larger
water use than in a very large house
that has very little landscaping and
very few people living in it. And as
such, because that is not an element
that we uh can predict at the time of uh
zoning and uh and planning and
permitting, we may recommend no changes
to the fees based on these factors at
this time. With that, I'll pass it back
to Alan.
Thank you. Uh Max, a couple of other
points that were brought up uh at the
February city council meeting. One was
about uh the impact on uh affordable
housing. Uh and unfortunately the impact
fee program is required pursuant to
state law to uh charge fees for anyone
who is developing within those impact
fee areas. And those fees have to be
based upon their uh impact to the system
as a a whole on the infrastructure in an
equitable fashion. Um and so the city
cannot wave any uh impact fees for
affordable housing. They would have to
be uh built uh and paid the same times
as regular development would be. Uh the
next one that the council had some
questions on is how the uh impact fee uh
proposal could be phased in over time.
And so what this slide shows you is that
state law has provided a a process to
phase in the the impact fees over time.
And so you see that there's a 75day
ordinance effective date uh which is uh
more than double the typical 30-day
ordinance effective date for most uh
general G ordinances. Uh and then it
also includes adjustments for no fee
increases for 24 months for single
family uh homes for baited from the
first building permit within an approved
plat. And then multifamily and other
uses uh are from the final site plan
approval. And so you can see that uh the
impact fees will be phased in over time
uh because of this uh requirement. So it
is phased in a way uh to try and ensure
that projects who have been working uh
on this uh on their projects will be
able to have some time to get through
the the rest of the process so long as
they meet these uh requirements pursuant
to state
law. Staff does uh recommend approval of
these three items. Uh they will help
enable the city to collect impact fees
so that we can continue to fund uh major
infrastructure that will allow us to
continue uh to grow and expand as a city
and be able to attract highquality uh
employment uses and uh as well as
address residential shortages by
allowing for new development to to come
in. Uh I would like to note that we do
have support letters from the Arizona
chapter of the association of general
contractors along with a support letter
from uh Valley Partnership about the
process and acknowledging uh the need
for the fees uh because of uh the
increase in costs over the last 5 years.
Uh with that we're happy to answer any
questions.
Thank you. Any questions before we go to
public
comment? Wonderful. We will begin with
public comment again. will have one
hearing on all of these items but three
votes. We will begin with the uh chair
of our advisory committee, Heidi Kimble,
followed by Dave White, who chairs our
water rate advisory
committee. Thank you, Madam
Chair. On? Yes, it is. Okay. Sorry. Good
afternoon, mayor and council members.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak
with you today about the process uh the
committee has undertaken for the past
year. It's been my honor to chair this
committee once again and I was pleased
to work with city staff, consultants,
and the members of the committee. I hope
you had the opportunity to review our
recommendation and comments uh dated
August 2nd regarding the process and
recommendations outlined in the draft
land use assumptions and the IFP update.
Per statute, the committee's role is
advisory only, and as such, we relied on
city staff and consultants for the
incredible amount of work required for
this datadriven process. We found staff
members to be highly communicative,
responsive, and inclusive throughout the
10-month 14 meeting process. In
particular, I'd like to thank Adam
Miller for managing the process and
providing thoughtful guidance and
instruction. The constituent the
constituency of the committee is broad
and includes representatives from all
segments of the real estate development
community and homebuilding industries
including affordable housing as well as
Arizona state land department preserve
and mountain parks preserve committee
and development related trade
associations. With regard to the land
use assumptions, considerable time and
attention was devoted to asssure the
projected growth was sequential and
logical knowing this drives the
infrastructure required and thus the
resulting fees. The level of detail was
literally down to a parcel by parcel
analysis. Likewise, the committee
scrutinized the costs for all the
necessary improvements down even to the
per square foot of landscaping and
public parks. Again, city staff was
entirely transparent in this effort and
provided any information requested by
the committee. In particular, it should
be noted that staff went to great
lengths to find ways to minimize the
resulting fees through methodology that
doesn't overburden one cohort of new
development over
another. That's the end of my two
minutes. I guess you feel free to finish
the thoughts. Okay. Thank you. Finally,
I'd like like to note that the resulting
fees are admittedly going to be
burdensome, especially for affordable
and attainable housing. We encourage the
city to undertake a revision of the IFP
should factors arise that could result
in a reduction of the fees prior to the
next required update. Thank you. Thank
you. Real public service to chair this
committee and this is not the first time
you've testified before this council.
So, we appreciate you taking your time
to help us have a good process. We'll go
next to Dave White, followed by Patrick
McDaniel.
Good afternoon, Mayor and members of the
council. It is my pleasure to speak with
you today. Um, my name is Dave White. I
am a professor at Arizona State
University, and I have the pleasure to
chair the water and wastewater rate
advisory committee. Uh I'd first like to
thank staff, consultants and the
committee for the deliberative,
thoughtful, inclusive and comprehensive
process uh undertaken to come to the set
of recommendations that uh sit before
you today. Um on behalf of myself and on
behalf of the committee, uh I'm here to
express support for the implementation
of the uh impact fees as described in
the presentation. Um, I'd like to
emphasize uh two points in my brief
comments. Uh, first to reiterate what
Dr. Wilson shared. Uh, the impact fees
provide the necessary investment for
infrastructure that will ensure
resiliency of the city's water and
wastewater systems, particularly in the
face of increasing stress from surface
water supplies from the Colorado River,
as well as increasing stress on
groundwater supplies. I'd like to point
out in particular the development of the
advanced water purification process uh
and investment in that renewable locally
controlled droughtresilient
droughtresistant resource and the impact
fees and the associated investments
infrastructure in water and wastewater
uh will enable the city to continue to
grow in a sustainable and resilient
fashion. Um, second, I'd like to point
out um and emphasize uh to this
committee the fact that the
infrastructure, the impact fees as
described are an equitable and targeted
way that while recognize the burden that
it uh adds to our citizens, it is uh
targeted, equitable, and um allows
growth to pay for growth. Um and with
that I'll conclude my brief brief
comments and just reassert the
committee's support as well as the
committee's gratitude uh the water uh
rate advisory committee's gratitude to
staff and consultants for their
thoughtful and deliberative process.
Thank you mayor and councel. Thank you
and thank you for your public service
and and chairing one of our key
committees. We'll next go to Patrick
McDaniel followed by Michael Norton.
Good afternoon, Mayor Ggo, members of
council and city staff. Thank you for
the opportunity to speak today. My name
is Patrick McDaniel and I'm here today
speaking in my role as advocacy director
for Phoenix Community Alliance and on
behalf of our central city planning and
development committee as well as our
social and housing advancement
committee. First, I would like to thank
uh city staff um uh city staff and as
well as the committee for all the work
that they did to put into these fees.
This was quite a process and we
understand that a detailed amount of
work went into these. So, we'd like to
express our appreciation for that. I
understand that the uh fees will be I
understand that the fees will be um most
likely approved today, but I'm just here
today to ask that the council and staff
look forward towards the future and how
these fees might be reconsidered to
encourage the development of all classes
of housing, including affordable housing
in downtown. Members of our central city
planning and development committee
collaborated in a working group with the
um planning development department that
led to changes in the chapter 12
downtown code. Please consider these
collaborations in the future as we look
to address the next round of impact
fees. Uh potential ways to um to lower
impact fees especially in our downtown
balance of city um interests of PCA
include a conversation about offsets and
credits recons reconsideration of
multipliers for multifamily projects um
working within statute to grandfather in
projects that were already addressed.
Thank you for addressing that. Um the
constant streamlining and um perfection
of the per permitting and approval
process to which director Benerk and his
staff have made great strides in the
last year. Collectively, these potential
reductions assist in lowering overall
cost to developers and ultimately to
residents. Affordable housing and
workforce housing are crucial to the
downtown fabric. One question that I
respectfully pose to council and staff
is what resources can the city dedicate
to assisting in the construction of
affordable housing um as they relate to
impact fees. The city currently has been
pledged contributions of afford to the
affordable housing fund by developers in
lie of affordable units in their
projects. Can stipulations be made to
ensure that these monies go to projects
guaranteed towards 80 60% less AMI or
less? Uh doing this would allow the city
to collect on proposed impact fees. Uh
finally, I would like to um wrap up by
saying that PCA organized the sharet for
the 7th Avenue in Washington
redevelopment that was voted upon
earlier. Um, one of the big
conversations that we had was to think
we gota you got to come back for a
public comment because that's a
different agendaized item and I won't be
in trouble with the city attorney, but
it'll be very soon I think. Um, and a
very important we would like to hear
what you have to say but in a legal
way. Uh, Michael Norton is our final
speaker.
Mayor Ggo and city council, thank you
very much for the opportunity to speak.
I speak today on behalf of the residents
of the Rogers Ranch community, the res
the Rogers Ranch residence committee and
the governing board and the president of
Rogers Ranch 2 HOA and it and its uh its
manager vision
management. Over the last two and a half
years, we've watched the development of
the impact fee discussions as well as
the development of the 10-year master
plan for parks. And what we what we've
realized is that while new development
pays for new infrastructure in most
cases because you cannot build a new
subdivision without pikes. You can't
build a new subdivision without roads.
Parks are a completely different story.
Parks have been delayed capital
expenditures which have lagged between
15 and 40 years behind the development
of new communities. But that situation
is not going to be resolved by the
impact fees. We want to be very clear
that we strongly urge the city to
improve to approve the impact fee
proposal. But we also strongly urge the
city to recognize that when we are done
with the impact fees, over 120 of the
184 acres of park property in the
southwest region will still not be
parks. By the year 2040, we will still
have up to 12 acres of bare land where
neighbors are still disappointed because
the parks have not been built. This is a
great step and one that needs to be
made, but it is just one of many steps
that will be required to solve the
unique problem of underfunding of the
capital expenditure project for parks. I
thank you very much for the chance to
speak.
Thank you. That is our final public
comment. Probably important to that
final comment, the state legislature
amended the statute that governs these
impact fees to really restrict what we
could do related to parks. It it was a
more flexible tool earlier, but is now a
little bit more restrained in that way.
But if if you, Michael, could convince
them to change it, I I think you'd have
willing partners at the city of
Phoenix. Uh our I will turn to our
transportation infrastructure and
planning chairwoman for a motion and
comments. Thank you. Uh just a couple
quick uh comments. Um I I've known Heidi
for years and she works for a wonderful
development um organization and and for
her to get up here. I know it's hard
because it's your company that'll be
paying some of these fees. So, I really
appreciate your thoughtful comments. Um
it means a lot to me. Impact fees are
important for the growth of the city,
but impact fees are paying their fair
share. We all still pay a fair share as
well when it comes to growth. So, as a
taxpayer of Phoenix, I too pay for
growth. And I know when you work on
these impact fees, you take all those
factors in into place. We did get a
letter from Valley Partnership. They had
some comments. So, I want to include
those in my motion. Also, we heard from
um the Arizona chapter of the general
contractors. So, it certainly looks like
you've done your job in outreach to all
the different players that work within
the development uh community. So, with
that, I'd like to make a motion to
approve the development impact fees
specified in the development impact fee
report dated February 11th, 2025 based
on the infrastructure improvement plans
approved December 18th, 2024 and adopt
the related resolution. Also, d I also
would like to direct staff to conduct
the following and these were some of the
points that we did hear from the
development community.
A continue pursuing outside funding to
reduce the costs of advanced water
treatment infrastructure. B track actual
inflationary costs compared to the
projected costs that were applied in the
infrastructure financing plan. And if
the actual costs are significantly less
than the projected costs, then we could
amend the
IFP. Evaluate actual project delivery,
including the administrative and design
cost on city manage capital design
projects to inform future infrastructure
improvement plans and the resulting
impact fee updates. Thank you. I hope
you got that second. Okay, I've got a
copy if you need it. We have a motion in
a second and I bet the council would be
willing to read it again if any council
members need that. Um, I have a a
question for the team. The highest fee
is in an area where the state land
department is a huge land owner. Does
this benefit them and and were they
consulted about the infrastructure that
would go into this area?
Mayor, members of council, yes, the uh
Arizona State Land Department had a
representative that attended all of the
ad hoc committee uh meetings and they
are the beneficiaries. The trust is a
beneficiary of the most expensive impact
fee area in uh the Northeast because the
the charges uh that make it the most
expensive are to recapture uh trust
monies that are being applied to uh
taking the rawhide wash. uh that goes
through that project and that property
uh out of the flood plane and build a
naturalized uh wash quarter that saves
them from having to sell land that
somebody would have to build uh the dirt
up 20 to 30 ft to get out of the flood
plane if they did not uh invest in this.
So this is a way that the state land
department as the the land owner, the
city of Phoenix and the Marop County
flood control district are investing in
that uh area to make the ultimately the
trust land more valuable when it is
sold, but then the impact fee will be
paid by whoever develops it to then
repay the the trust. Uh and so that's an
excellent example of the trust is using
its resources to uh make the trust land
more valuable.
That is great news particularly for our
students who will benefit from the more
valuable trust land. So a good
partnership between the state and the
city. Additional questions. Councilwoman
Hud Washington.
Sorry my is not really a question but
more so of a comment. I wanted to also
recognize the dedication and diligence
of the departments involved in the
advisory boards for your hard work on
this and diligence on this. um you were
asked to uh to determine the fee
increase that's necessary to continue
growth. And I think you specifically did
that in a way was very thoughtful and
thorough. And I think one of the things
that you kind of glossed over and I
think I want to highlight for you is was
your efforts that led to reduction in
the preliminary impact fees. In some
cases, we saw reductions of up to as
high as
$11,000, which allows which continues to
allow for responsible growth in an
equitable and logical manner, ensuring
that no one area was over unduly
burdened. Um, and I really appreciated
your responsiveness to the community
feedback and the collaborative spirit in
which this was that was shown throughout
the process. The fact that we have
support from development partners for a
fee increase is a testament to the work
that has been done thus far. And I just
wanted to say thank you um for all that
you've done to move this forward to
ensure that we continue to have the
resources necessary to continue to
invest in our city including one of I
think one of our all pet projects is the
not pet project needed project the
advanced water purification u which will
help us to continue to be more
independent when it comes to water
resources given all the things that we
are experiencing with the Colorado
River. So I just wanted to say thank you
for the diligence on that.
Well
said, Councilwoman Pastor. Yeah. Thank
you. Well, first of all, I want
to I know this has been a
a back and forth, I guess, of the impact
fees and it's been a back and forth main
with interested parties, but also with
the council. So, I want to thank uh
Adam, Maxwell, Allan, and Ginger, and
any of the other staff that was part of
this process in having the patience and
understanding of educating us and
getting to where we are today because we
did decrease
uh the impact fees by $10,000. So we
were able to you heard us you we moved
we pushed and we were able to land to a
to where we needed to land in order to
run our and move our great city forward.
Um my understanding is that obviously it
was discussed earlier uh about state law
and the requirement of the
infrastructure costs and the impact fee
and that there is no way to reduce the
impact fee for affordable housing
projects. If we were to do
that, what would we have to do to do
that?
Mayor, uh, Councilwoman Pastor, uh, you
the council would have to dedicate
another funding source to replace, uh,
the the money that would be taken out
that would not be charged to an
affordable housing developer. That would
be due a requirement because we cannot
wave those fees. So, they have to come
from another funding source is the only
way to to do that. And that would come
from another funding source. I'm
assuming the general fund or we would
have to raise money or or raise rates. I
don't Can you add clarity to that? Uh it
would just depend on what type of
program you're talking about and uh
there could be a variety of funding
sources from it from the general fund uh
from uh user fees if we're talking about
water um uh uh things. But in general,
it's going to take a complete other
source to to backfill those monies
because we can't wave them. And I would
say that the water rate has their own uh
issues associated with being able to do
that. It's not something that is a a
straightforward uh to way to make that
happen. It would really have to come
from a a general fund because the water
department operates it as a utility and
so they're charging customers for a
service. If the council wants to to do
something different, they have to find
other monies to cover the utility cost
the same as they would cover the impact
fee uh program. Thank you for that. Um
my other understanding is that impact
fees are really for public inf
infrastructure and that public
infrastructure is water sewer lines for
new new homes could be also not
necessarily for fire stations but that
does get embedded because they need the
water and the sewer in order to operate.
Um and that's the purpose of impact
fees.
Mayor Counciloman Pastor that is
correct. The purpose of them are to
provide that backbone infrastructure
that serves uh new development that then
new development projects can plug in
their infrastructure and their
requirements to those to be able to uh
sell homes or have businesses move in or
whatever the the proposed development is
doing. And I also believe the probably
unprecedented inflation right now that
we're seeing other than groceries is
impacting uh infrastructure and all the
materials that we need. And and in a way
we need to be able to uh in order to
make us uh build or or be able to build
the infrastructure, we're going to have
to raise our fees.
Mayor, Councilwoman Pastor, you are
correct. uh we are just reflecting what
costs are today because of inflation and
that's what is in there to serve the
area in the future. And if we choose not
to raise the impact fee, what does that
do to the system?
uh mayor, members of council, that would
impact the the system in some different
ways depending on which part of the city
you are are talking about to some areas
not being able to have support much more
development because critical
infrastructure is is at capacity to some
areas being able to support some
development. Um but you would end up uh
eventually not being able to have much
development happening because these
critical infrastructure items are
necessary for development to continue.
Okay. And I guess my final question is,
and you can explain it to me or correct
me if I'm wrong,
um really what's happening is the cost
is
upfront and then in order for um through
impact fees, the impact fees don't
really cover the total cost of what
we're building. impacts is a piece of
the pie as we are continuing to grow in
the north and and there's a demand but
it's not the complete cost of all our
infrastructures and the maintenance and
the buildouts that we need to do in the
north.
Mayor uh Councilwoman Pastor, you are
correct. uh state law requires that we
uh offset some of the upfront capital
costs for other fees that are collected
and other taxes that are collected to
specifically fund uh various items. And
then in addition, there is uh no
maintenance uh money that is collected
via the impact fee program. It is all
for upfront new capital expenses.
Maintenance for infrastructure has to
come from existing operating budgets and
other sources. Thank you. and that I
happen to be in a probably older
district where uh the impact that I have
is really maintenance and older
infrastructure that needs to be replaced
or repaired. And so um I understand the
dialogue uh regarding the impact fee. Uh
what I do want to say is uh because
we're an older space and where I land in
the heart of the city is that uh
district 4 constituents or residents and
probably some other other older
districts uh are really paying the
lowest in impact fee. And uh really
constituents of districts 4 are not
paying uh impact fees to build
infrastructure in the newly development
areas which is a benefit because at one
point and point in time we probably were
at the same space and time as the
dialogue that we are having. So, I
wanted to thank before I end, I wanted
to thank uh Heidi Kimble and Dave White
uh for serving on committees, but also
leading the dialogue along with uh all
the uh Valley Partnership and uh our
contractors uh and really getting us to
where we needed to get to. So, thank you
and thank you,
Mayor. Thank you, Councilwoman.
We will go to roll call on 99.
Kinder Vera,
yes.
Yes. Hudge Washington,
yes. Pastor, yes. Stark, yes. We wearing
O'Brien, yes. GGO, yes. Passes 80. We'll
next go to item 100. And I'll ask the
city clerk to read the title. Item 100.
100 is for ordinance G7375, an ordinance
relating to development impact fees and
water resource acquisition fees by
amending Phoenix City Code Chapter 29
section 29-3 section 29-4 section 29-5
section 29-8 section 29-9 section 29-10
section 29-11 section 29-12 and
repealing and replacing section 29
appendix 8 and amending chapter 30
section 30-4.
Nicely done. Vice Mayor, do we have a mo
or I'm sorry, uh, Councilwoman Stark, do
we have a motion? I I have the motion.
And I I just amazed at how quickly
Denise can read that ordinance.
Wow. I make a motion to approve
ordinance
G7375 amending Phoenix City Code
chapters 29 and 30 to update the PE
schedules and make other code
modifications and adopt the related
ordinance. Second. Any comments? Roll
call.
Vida, yes.
Yes. Washington, yes. Pastor, yes.
Stark, yes. We wearing O'Brien, yes.
GGO, yes. Passes 80.
Item 101. Will the city clerk read the
title? Item 101 is for ordinance J7376,
an ordinance relating to development
occupational fees, impact fees, and
water resource acquisition fees. I
amending the Phoenix City Code, chapter
19 A section 19A-2, Chapter 19 B,
section 19B-2, Chapter 19 C, section 19
C-2, and Chapter 19 D section
19D-2. Do we have a motion? Yes. I'd
like to move to approve ordinance
G7376 amending the Phoenix City Code
chapter 19A, 19B, 19 C, and 19D related
to sewer and water development
occupational fees and adopt the related
ordinance. Second a motion and a second.
Any comments? Roll call. Melinda, yes.
Ward, yes. Haj Washington, yes. Pastor,
yes. Stark, yes. wearing O'Brien. Yes.
GGO. Yes. Passes 80.
All right. Thank you to the team who has
been working on this for more than a
year. And thank you to all of our
community members, business leaders who
participated in the process to get us
here today. All right. In our 792 page
meeting packet, we have our grand finale
agendaized item which is at the
northwest corner of Central and Broadway
Road.
Councilman Glendo, I feel like you got
to make this motion. Before I make a
motion, mayor, I want to yield to my
colleague, uh, Laura Pastor. I believe
she has some questions and some
clarifications she'd like.
Thank you. Um, I have some
clarifications. Uh, when the RFP says
temporary, temporary
means what? I mean, I know what
temporary means, but how long would this
uh
RFI be in existence?
Mayor, Councilwoman Pastor, it's staff's
intention that it would initially be
issued for a 2-year period of time and
then it would be able to be extended
based on the issuance of a future RFP
for the redevelopment of the site.
And could this be monthly or does it go
monthly or how does this work? Mayor,
Councilman Pastor, we could accept
offers from any proposers for different
terms that would be there. Our intention
would be that it would be with one
entity that would then be able to sublet
to others that would come into the area.
Um, so it would be our intention would
be we would start with two years and
then if we needed it could go
monthtomonth moving forward. Now the
entity that that wins the request for
interest from the city which of course
would come back to the city council the
intention would be that whoever is the
master leor they could lease to someone
on a month-to-month
basis. Oh okay.
So there could be a possibility of an
award and then they could have I want to
say subleasasers
council pastor. That's correct. Okay.
Okay. And that's the correct term.
That's good to know. And then how soon
will it be activated? Like how soon will
the RFI be crafted and and go to the
community? Mayor Council released.
Counciloman Pastor. Um, should the
council move approval of the item today,
staff would get to work right away and
get that out into the market. So, let's
say this is the first week of April. I'm
going to get shot by our staff, but we
would have it out in June.
Okay. Thank you. And then I just want to
be clear and maybe uh clarify that um
I'm going to read a a statement that
I've received. And so um and it was part
of language uh really to bring new
amenities for the community that include
but are not limited to to social
benefits such as a farmers market, a
marcado, local artist space, business
support or incubator services,
organizations that provide community
based support options or temporary
health care services or any other retail
options. Um it's not clear in the packet
that those are some of the things that
could uh possibly go there or uh work as
a collaborative um because it just says
such as healthy food options, health
care services or other retail options.
Not very clear that that could happen.
So I just wanted to put it on the
record. Thank you. Thank you,
Mayor. Thank you, Councilman. Thank you,
Mayor.
Um, mayor and me and honorable members
of the council, this is the last motion
I'm going to make, but I want to be
clear, we're talking about the Pastor
Transit Center. And, um, the
conversations that I've had with staff
um, and with Councilwoman Pastor have
all been about the best way to honor the
legacy in a way that's respectful of Ed
Pastor. We want the owner, the operator
and potential DC's for the services to
speak to the dignity of El Paso's
service in Congress and the values of
support for community, assistance for
the underserved, and a steadfast
commitment for culture. We want to make
sure that it is not a
place that others will consider of
little value. There must be a
significance to this building in honor
of Ed Pastor. Um, and especially with
the announcement of light rail coming up
and down on June 7th. Um, we need to
make sure that people when they're
passing that center, they know that
those tracks were laid and that the
whole story of lighter begins with
Pastor. So, mayor, I move to um approve
um the RFI for the northwest corner of
Central Avenue and Broadway Road, taking
into consideration the um request by
Councilwoman Pastor.
Second. We have a motion and a second.
Any comments? Roll call. Alinda, yes.
Ward, yes. Haj Washington, yes. Pastor,
yes. Stark, yes. wearing O'Brien. Yes.
GGO. Yes. Passes 8 Z. Congratulations to
those who have been working on this. And
just so people know, this is not the
councilman's last council meeting. We
will be back next week with the policy
session. So, we're not letting him go
yet. We will next move to the final
portion of our meeting, which is public
comment. And I'll ask our city attorney
to explain that portion. Thank you,
mayor. During citizen comment, members
of the public may address the city
council for up to three minutes on
issues of interest or concern to them.
The citizen comment session is limited
to 30 minutes. The Arizona open meeting
law permits the city council to listen
to the comments but prohibits council
members from discussing or acting on the
matters presented.
Thank you. We'll begin with Patrick
McDaniel.
Patrick will be followed by Christina
Tyler.
Good afternoon, mayor, mayor, and
council members. Uh, thank you again for
the opportunity to speak today and for
the opport and for the opportunity to
conclude my thoughts. I was just saying
stating that um we had the opportunity
to organize a sharet for the corner of
7th Avenue in Washington. The
redevelopment of the area is a
generational opportunity for downtown.
It will unite the warehouse district,
the emerging Capitol Mall area, Grand
Avenue, which is seeing so much
attention, and we know that there are um
stipulations for affordable housing in
the RFP. We just ask that as that that
that be the baseline that that be the
minimum that there are more
opportunities for affordable housing in
our downtown core. We have a chance to
shape downtown to remake it for a new
generation of Phoenicians. So please
let's not lose this opportunity. So once
again, thank you for my second
opportunity to speak today. Thank you
very much.
Thank you Christina.
And Christina will be our final speaker.
Hi. So, the reason why I'm here speaking
today is because one, I have not been
able to get a hold of you, Ann O'Brien,
or anybody within your office. And what
has been happening is
that you guys for your trial budget plan
on having over $22 million go to the
fire department. And when I was reading
through it, it has to do with reducing
response time, which I'm in full support
of. Uh, however, the thing is is what I
don't understand is why the city of
Phoenix is still not partnered with the
nonprofit organization who created an
application called Pulse Point, which if
you do not have the app, I would
recommend for individuals to download
it. It is a free app and in no way,
shape or form and am I am I incentivized
or paid or anything like that to
encourage people uh to have Pulse Point
or to partner with Pulse Point. What it
does is it makes it to where people who
are willing responders within the
community of a fivemile radius uh with
the fire departments that have partnered
uh with the nonprofit organization to
use the application. You would be able
to get notifications even while your
phone is on silent to be able to help
and assist in doing CPR in Cassagran
there. when I have spoken to their uh
firefighters where the Cassagran Fire
Department has partnered with Pulse
Point, they get res uh they get
notifications from Pulse Point even
before the 911 dispatcher. So, I think
if our goal is to uh have more
responders and to reduce the amount of
time that it takes to respond, I think
that the city should really consider
what is there um as people who are
willing volunteers
uh to be able to help assist and aid an
emergency. Thank you.
Thank you. We are adjourned.
makes the kids eyes light up. We made
like a little tiny flashlight, LED
lights, copper tape, battery, and a
copper clip.