City of Chandler Council Meeting - August 15, 2024

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good evening and welcome to the August
15th regular city council meeting we're
glad that you are here uh clerk please
uh take the role mayor Harkey present
vice mayor Harris is absent excuse
council member Incas here council member
Ellis here council member Stewart here
council member Orlando here council
member Poston here we have a quum thank
you so much our indication will be
brought forth by Reverend father Tayo
Lue uh from St Andrew the Apostle
Catholic church and our Pledge of
Allegiance by council member of man
Orlando Reverend please come
up let let us
pray God of Justice mercy and
love we thank you for the gift of life
and of our great nation and of our
city we thank you for our counselors and
staff and for giving them the
opportunity to serve the people of our
city of
Chand
Lord make them good servants of all
those they serve and Inspire them to
speak the truth with respect but without
shame to offer hope to others but
without fear and give glory to you in
every word they speak and actions as
they take as a
councel help them to act with character
and
conviction to listen with understanding
and Good Will and to speak with charity
and
restraint give them a spirit of service
reminding them that they are stewards of
your Authority
guide them to be the leaders your people
need and
deserve help them see the humanity and
dignity of those who might disagree with
them and to treat all persons no matter
how weak or poor with reverence your
creation
deserves and finally father renew all of
us gathered here today with the strength
of your presence and the joy of helping
to build together a community worthy of
the human person we ask this as your
sons and daughters always confident in
your goodness and love amen amen mayor
real quick father this is just like
church everyone's sitting in the
back standing now pledge allegiance I
pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America to the
rep one nation
thank you Father thank you council
member Council on Monday we had
opportunity to review and ask questions
related to the items on the consent
agenda how would you like to proceed
tonight mayor council member Stewart I'd
propose to move to approve consent
agenda of the August 15 2024 regular
meeting items 1 through 38 second motion
second by council member incus any
recusals or other actions requested by
Council seeing none Council please vote
council member
Ellis
yes motion carries
unanimously very good thank you next on
our agenda tonight is an economic
development update I'd requested this in
light of the uh just the
uh the upheaval across their Nation to
better understand how Chandler is
fearing and where are our challenges and
where are our strengths at this point
Micah Miranda
all right good evening mayor and Council
thank you for this opportunity to
provide a briefing um as you know yes
there has been a lot of uh economic
turmoil these past few weeks and um
what's interesting though is we live in
an Ever evolving economy chanler is not
immute for that um obviously we've seen
headlines over the past like some of
these up here however it evolves into
something new something uh different
which is okay we have businesses that
close that open um on the econom iic
development side we're always
proactively working though to identify
those future
opportunities um obviously the big thing
these days is what's happening with
Intel we've seen those recent headlines
um the impact on Chandler is not known
yet and probably won't be known for
about two more months as Intel goes
through their process uh voluntary
separations and buyouts so um however I
will say when you're making a
multi-billion dollar investment in two
new uh manufacturing facilities for your
Fab clients I think Chandler is going to
be in a pretty good shape and based upon
all the feedback we've heard from our
Intel Partners they're pretty confident
that Chandler is going to be pretty
resilient as well however um all that
being said there's a lot of positive
momentum in Chandler I'm not going to
talk about everything on these slides
tonight because we're going to be here
for an awfully long time but I want to
pop uh highlight a few of these things
in here first and foremost this um
recognition we received from uh
Financial Times Nikki uh as Channeler
being the 16th best city in America for
foreign direct investment the number
City number one city in Arizona to put
that in perspective there's about 20,000
cities and towns in America it's a large
country and the fact that we're top 20
is pretty phenomenal and number one in
Arizona speaks highly to the environment
we've built and what we're going to
continue to build in the future and then
all these other Awards in recognition
really uh exemplify what we're building
in this community to remain a resilient
en vibrant
economy um but where does that start it
obviously starts with education um
Chandler's educational entainment rate
49% from an economic development and
Community Vitality perspective that's
phenomenal what's interesting is the
fact that when I first got to Chandler
our educational attainment rate was
about 39% which is still extremely
healthy higher than the state and
national average but as we've grown in
population we've become more educated
that's unheard of usually as you grow
you regress to the mean Chandler is
getting smarter and it's something that
obviously has a direct impact on income
and our quality of life so um supporting
education has been a Hallmark of our
community and the impacts are obvious
and so this is where we spend a lot of
time in working with our external
Partners in our community to keep
driving educational attainment and
making sure Chandler the destination for
people that can contribute to our
economy um where does this take place it
happens in The Innovation economy 27% of
all of our workers are in high-tech
Industries East Valley which is known
throughout the country as a hot bed for
Innovation is only 15% the USS General
10% so again we are punching well above
our weight for this little town that is
Chandler um but we do this in a very
targeted approach um we don't make any
um we don't try and hide the fact that
we are targeted we know we can't be
everything to everybody um we have
opportunity costs and so we really
Target those industry clusters that are
going to drive us into the future
they're going to provide well-paying
stable jobs that can support our
residents and their families and that's
Automotive Tech aviation Aerospace
Advanced Business Services Healthcare
high-tech manufacturing it and software
I'm going to talk a little bit more
about healthcare because it plays into
some of the other things we're goingon
to have to face as a
community um what this shows right here
is is a location quotient comparison it
compares the density of jobs in Chandler
to another region in this case it's the
mag region you can see here that we are
well over the location quotient of a
one:1 ratio at
4.54 to1 so again 27% of our employment
Hightech manufacturing this is where it
shows up these are stable export
oriented jobs that produce something
here sell it somewhere else those
dollars come back to our community
supporting our quality of life
I'm going to go down to healthcare
because this is an area that we're
really focused on um we are obviously
under represented in the density of
healthare jobs in chamber um this has
this is going to become even more
prominent in the future and I'm GNA
You're Gonna Hear why but this is a
target industry cluster that we're
really aggressive and supportive of so
we had the Dignity Health expansion
making sure that gets done the uh Banner
Health hospital getting that project
over the hump there were some challenges
to that one but those have longterm term
impacts that we're really working to um
minimize but at the same time Drive
expansion opportunities forward to
address some of the future
challenges um but the proofs in the
pudding I'm not going to go through all
of these because my fellow directors
will be upset if we spend an hour here
so I'm I'm not going to get into each
and every one of these but again little
old Chandler is doing phenomenal we have
obviously major expansions from Intel
we've had uh publicly traded
HQ relocations in Vive we're going to be
celebrating comex corporate headquarters
opening tomorrow um and you go down the
line these are the types of jobs that
previous councils and this Council has
really wanted us to go for and so we are
doing extremely well um Insight another
publicly traded headquarters relocation
asml one of arguably the most important
companies in the world is doing a new
expansion here in Chandler Striker
medical device manufacturing that
straddles the health care and
Manufacturing industry clusters we are
doing a good job of recruiting and
helping companies enter into Chandler
and these are the exactly the type that
Council ask to go after um we recently
welcome Wedgewood pharmaceutical new
pharmaceutical manufacturer to the Air
Park area now those are the projects
that I get really excited about but our
residents tend to focus more on the
things that they walk into they can
touch and feel so Trader Joe's Josh this
has been you know probably the number
one question I'm asked every week when
are we getting into Trader Joe's so
we'll be celebrating Trader Joe's grand
opening here uh this fall um
andrey's uh opening up Shields um again
when Nordstroms was closing there was a
lot of angst on the economic development
side we had been soliciting them for I
don't know like five years before it
went public and we were Milling them
packets and harassing them these things
take time um and we play close attention
to what is happening in our real estate
space so we can backfill or help others
expand into it so andrey's first in the
region so we're really targeting those
um retailers and experiences that we
don't currently have that'll add to our
overall
vibrancy um get to talk real quickly
about development stats uh you can see
here we've got 17 million square feet of
retail 11.7 of office and about 28.6 of
industrial obviously we're not going to
be delivering any new office product
right now we'll talk a little bit more
about that but the industrial space is
very critical I'll spend more time on it
so
retail in the winter of 2020 we were
having all day weekend calls with our
retail Community our brokerage Community
our developer Community thinking that
was going to be the long-term negative
that we were going to have to solve for
and how do we go about doing that our
vacancy rate 4.7% well below our
fiveyear average um it's very healthy
we've done a lot of things to take class
C retail off the market and reposition
it as other uh opportunities whether
that's residential or medical office so
we're we we're doing really well there
our lease rates are above our fiveyear
average and I and we're going to
continue to see this vacancy rate dive
down especially as Redevelopment
projects in uptown Chandler come to
fruition this number is going to dive
well below 4% very
shortly on the office side
and it's shrinking is that that charge
telling me the available square footage
is that it says vacant and available
does that mean overall retail square
footage is decreasing or in or is it
flat or what are you see it's flat we're
see we're seeing flat retail we're not
adding a lot we're this means that our
availability is shrunk is that driving
up cost um slightly okay slightly
there's there's normal growth but it's
being backfilled by other value ad
things
in our economy
okay on the office side this is the one
where we have a majority of our
attention in the real estate space now
we know we're going to have softness
here however we've got some ideas to
reposition properties to drive it down
um historically Chandler was 50,000 foot
tenants three stories or more now our
tendency is shrinking from 50,000 square
feet to 25,000 feet we're working with
our development community and a number
of council members sat on on our uh
development Round Table where we're
working through these issues with our
development Community um but again we
have a saying product RNs projects so
there are office projects they're coming
back to the market U we're positioning
Chandler for those so we have things to
show people now however we do have some
things that we want to bring forward in
the future to make Chandler more
desirable for the new office uh many
thought users are looking for
mayor yeah so office space they okay go
back here presentation I guess they took
it off the screen here um so a couple of
things um obviously since covid there's
this work from home hybrid maybe in
office one day two days um and and we're
not unique to this obviously Chandler
there are leases that are were given
prior to covid that may be coming due
the next year or two
uh where there may be some vacancies
even though we don't see it today the
off the vacancy rate is high or or low
whatever OCC case you want to look at it
so what are what are our thoughts on
that or is that something your staff's
working on and what I mean the
revisioning that issue yeah through the
mayor council member Orlando so we call
that vampire space space that we know
isn't fully being utilized but it's on
the market as occupied so there's a
there's a few things we're doing one um
we're working to find um developers and
partners who are willing to take that
risk now and we're seeing it to invest
in subdividing their space um there
wasn't a 100% shity that the office
Market that exists now what's going to
stay the development Community is now
reacting to that and so they're now
willing to spend time and money to
reposition that space the second thing
that I'm going to address a little bit
later at that point is from a overall
City approach what are we doing to
deliver new amenities and new locations
that will draw those tenants who are
looking to release um as opposed to
other markets how can we position our
employment corridors um to respond to
the new Realties so mixed juice uh
retail in areas that previously didn't
have retail walkability placemaking
those are the things that we're going to
be bringing forward to council to find
some solutions to while simultaneously
we're we're I mean office leads our
number one goal right now fill and back
fill the space okay and then go back to
your med don't go back to the slide but
the medical piece of it um as we yeah
you have to go back to I'm just um so um
as we as your team marches down this
revisioning revisiting revision revision
vi si n
um the uh there are Industries I.E
medical you talked to where you need
somebody to an EKG so you need people in
that building you just can't do that
remotely maybe you could someday but is
that something that is helping us drive
that answer as well absolutely through
the mayor council Orlando that's some of
that repositioning we're talking about
um development services staff actually
had a really good conversation with our
new development services director on
flexibility around parking standards
where it may not be parked exactly to
code but what can we do to proactively
solve these problems to have healthare
backfill that space and so we had a
really good dialogue this morning on
Solutions and um the development
Community knows we're working there and
so we've got a couple projects that um
we think will get over the hump that
will medical office users will absorb
office space bringing that vacancy rate
down so we're definitely pushing that
route um and obviously light
manufacturing um and I'm just using an
example Price Road Corridor that allows
for manufacturing all those buildings or
that's something you have to look at a
general plan overlay or P or something
through the mayor council member Orlando
um converting Office to General
manufacturing Flex space it can be done
uh however that the guts of the building
uh generally don't support that whether
it's U slab thickness column space
specifically um stacking internal
building Heights so those buildings
traditionally don't lend themselves
outside of what I'll call that Flex R&D
office which is a use that's permissible
within the price Corridor um employment
Corridor one last question mayor if you
don't mind the um this real estate
obviously the biggest I think the
biggest issue we're facing today is so
we did a lot of call centers to
diversify our portfolio now we're seeing
that hybrid workspace we have large
centers um is there a revisioning for
that reimagining for those facilities as
well through the mayor councilman
Orlando so what we're hearing um it's
very company specific um a lot of those
companies are bringing their employees
back in a complete hybrid uh capacity
and they own their building so Wells
Fargo obviously has 800,000 square feet
campus they're still committed to
Growing that campus so it really varies
on a caseby Case basis um but the
general thought is we're going to
continue to be a western hub for
consolidation so what we're hearing from
those larger Advanced Business Service
Financial Services firms they're not
quite ready to completely get out of
their office space that's owned Okay I
lied one quick question you brought that
up consolidation is that something we're
seeing in the market as well uh through
the mayor council member Orlando yes um
Chandler has a very compelling uh
business case for West Coast
consolidation so larger Financial firms
generally west of the Rockies are
looking to shrink their Footprints as a
result to covid and centralize a lot of
those operations and Arizona in general
and specifically Chandler where a lot of
these companies own their own campuses
they're they're focus of that
consolidation attention Okay thank you
mayor that's
question thank you Michael this is this
is a great presentation I really
appreciate this and I know I've been
bugging you about this stuff for a long
time so I really appreciate it um I was
wondering if you could talk a little bit
about the hybrid Workforce I think we
thought that was all going to go away
every every body thought everybody was
going to go back to office um and and I
think we've seen a lot like overall in
the country it seems to and correct me
if I'm wrong sort of be a failed attempt
to get people back full-time and it
seems like the hybrid Workforce is here
to stay so I'm curious you know how
you're adjusting your strategies based
on that there's a domino effect when you
don't have people they're not going out
to lunch in our restaurants and all of
those things and we're positioning the
building if I remember correctly is it
is it a about 35 miles people will drive
or that's that's kind of what they're
looking for for their Workforce does
that does that change you know the way
we're presenting oursel to companies and
where our Workforce is or how you know
I'll just let you take it from here how
are you handling or adjusting you know
the hybrid Workforce because it seems
like it's here to stay for quite some
time uh through the mayor council member
Post in yes in my opinion it's here to
stay um the each businesses is handling
it a little bit different as you would
imagine whether it's three days in two
days in um but in the area that the city
control this is going to be part of our
new general plan and all honesty and I'm
going to talk a little bit later in the
presentation we're going to have to
reimagine our employment quarters it's
going to have to in my mind become much
more mixed juice vertical development
where you could you know hypothetically
be an employment quarter we never let
residential before and it could be
ground floor retail two stories of
office in the middle and then five
stories of um residential living to
create really that amenity to support
those retailers who are there as well as
serviced employees that are looking to
stay out of their car so it's it's going
to be a thoughtful approach as we go
through our general Plan update to allow
some of this so um staff is already
talking about it I've had a lot of
conversations with the planning staff
Kevin May over there is how do we how do
we deliver product where people want to
be and that's another part of the
presentation around demographics and we
are thinking about it um and we're
telling developers like hey what you've
heard in the past it's not going to be
Chandler in two years there's going to
be a probably a whole new set of
development ideas around making our
employment corridors viable for the next
40 years in light of the changes that Co
impacted that sounds to me like more of
the very similar to the approach that
we've taken downtown where you bring in
the people and they feed those
businesses the retail the offices that
walkability that kind of thing is it
kind of a similar strategy there through
the mayor um Council posted I think
that's really going to be the Crux of it
is getting people closer to where they
work you mentioned the 30 minute drive
time um we have opportunities to even
shorten that now I mean most of the
employees in channel are within 30
minutes if you live here but that's
going to be the wave of the future that
true mixed juuse development um in micro
sites um and I think it's really going
to be depend on which employment center
you're in West Chandler not so much
right those are more manufacturing jobs
where it's just not conducive price
Corridor yeah that makes a lot more
sense Uptown Chanel certain areas that
makes sense so it's really going to be
site specific on that interaction
between those different uses thank you
mayor I have
a proceed counc can you hear me we can
hear you yeah thank you Mah you brought
up education as our number one place
right now where we really need to see
growth and also um be flexible and open
can you talk a little bit about more the
Partnerships that we're looking at not
only those we already have but how we
are forging forward uh with other
organization and and universities and
everything to continue to put out um a
space where people can come to learn and
then grow that Workforce that we just
talked about that did so well needed
right now absolutely Council M through
the mayor council melis so education is
really driving Innovations in economies
um and it all starts at our our K
through 12 levels um and so Partnerships
with USD and our Workforce Development
space uh for example the the four
Chandler education partnership uh cusd
Chandler Gilbert Community College the
Chandler Chamber of Commerce as well as
the city um making sure we're delivering
the workforce based upon the needs of
our businesses so we're collaborating
across a lot of I don't know where to
look this is weird um a lot of different
uh entities um obviously we are
welcoming the first cohort to downtown
Chandler from the University of Arizona
for the master of business analytics um
next month or next week as a matter of
fact amazing yeah so they're propping up
new programs down here GCU uh as you
know is uh very very excited about the
growth and onboarding they've experience
with their Advanced or excuse me
accelerated Bachelor's of nursing
program and we're talking with them
about additional programming that can be
delivered in their West Chandler campus
then obviously our proximity with ASU
here in downtown they continue to grow
programs get more exposure they're doing
more programming around their um um Josh
helped me out their masters of public
administration um program and so that's
something where we're not taking our eye
off of it um obviously these are
long-term
opportunities where we're trying to
incrementally grow access to higher
education and you know this this um this
fall the city will be awarding our first
um scholarships to Chandler Gilbert
Community College U individuals so we
hope to have them before Council here in
a few weeks uh once those scholarships
have been awarded so education is very
much a a long-term partnership with
these entities and we're not slowing
down there at
all thank you thank you
mayor proceed please all right so
medical office um our vacancy rate uh
4.6% this is an area uh of need and
we've talked a little bit about that
council member Alando was asking how can
we reposition properties to get them to
serve medical office that's what we're
working on now um and it goes back to
our location quoti we need more medical
office facilities to least get on par
with the region and also deliver
healthare services to a new demographic
cohort that I'll talk about in a
second um and then on the industrial
property side uh 5.7% vacancy it's
incredible um we're throwing up product
um it's being absorbed this trend I
don't think is going away um there has
been a lot of geopolitical shakeups over
the past five years everybody
understands now that the supply chain
within critical materials needs to be
shortened um specifically in advanced
manufacturing that's where Chandler's
bread and butter is so we're really
working to deliver new industrial
product for the types of users that we
want in that advanced manufacturing
Aerospace Aviation uh and standard
manufacturing we're not interested in
industrial product that doesn't have the
density of jobs that Council was asked
for and so we're going to we we need a
keep delivering the space and it's going
to tie into some of the long-term
visiting things that we need to keep a
close eye
on um that's Stewart you know I want to
comment about that about the industrial
I remember 16 17 maybe it was 18 we
started talking about diversification of
our employment corridors and
diversification period and that right
there shows me and just everything you
showed in the earlier slides about how
many high-tech industrial manufacturing
jobs we've created we haven't created
but they've created in our in our
community um is a testament to you
diversifying and the community
diversifying our economy do you foresee
that sort of helping us stem the tide in
case there is a you know recession
coming in third and fourth quarter uh
through the mayor council member Stewart
diversification is key um you know
whether it's you know people always ask
me what keep going awake at night it's
any one of our primary industry clusters
getting you know um slammed we're not
seeing that we're very well Diversified
as just said um and that onshoring is
going to make us even more resilient and
so
um we're leaning into that uh it's
definitely on the higher end stuff we're
we're saying no to other onshoring
industrial projects that do want to come
here they don't fit within our industry
cluster they could use a lot of
buildings a lot of land a lot of water
and we look at all these things through
the lens of opportunity cost you know I
have one project here 10 more down here
which one is best for Chandler in the
long run and let's pursue that one to
put into this building provide that
diversification well I appreciate you
you're following that vision from back
then and and and get into where we are
today because I think it's going to help
us hang on if if something's happen you
know me I'm always kind of a bear yeah
and uh so I appreciate that thanks
absolutely and I'll just add kind of to
that um I I really Gotta Give
development services a lot of credit
they they took a lot of that feedback to
heart and have really been out there on
the front um working with the
development Community as well on on the
things that Council directed them so
they've been doing a good job um
unemployment which is really a pretty
good barometer of economic performance
um we have 3% unemployment in Cham we
have virtually zero unemployment
economists call anything under 4%
virtually none so we are in a very good
space here but this is why we we
devoting so many resources and um
partnership time to Workforce
Development we need to matriculate our
talent locally get them educated and
then get them paired up as early as we
can with local employers to keep these
numbers low we don't always have to
worry about people coming in we've got
very smart individuals very smart
students we need to do a um a better job
and that's what we're working towards
getting them early getting them the
training they need whether it's
technical whether it's University across
the Spectrum and then getting them
connected with our employers to keep
these numbers down this is this is
phenomenal I mean you look at Arizona
about 4% the national average is
slightly above that um Chandler
continues to outpace the country in
economic performance um restaurant and
bar Revenue which always consider a
proxy of uh economic health you know all
these numbers are great go look at a
Olive Garden on a Thursday night if
there are people waiting outside in
Olive Garden on Thursday night you know
the economy is doing good and that line
is long and Cham so uh we have one month
to go uh in this fiscal year and based
upon historical Trends we're going to
get over uh 18 million in fiscal year
2324 in restaurant bar sales tax
collection so trending in the right
direction there but one of the things we
haven't talked about as a community or
at least publicly with council is our
population and what's before you right
now is a population
pyramid um it's an effective way to
visualize population age change over
time and generally you want a for a
long-term healthy economy you want a
pyramid where you have younger
population on the bottom to replace the
older
generation and the US and advanced
economies in general the population
pyramids are
changing um you can see in this in this
slide that the US population has grown
but we've also significantly aged over
that time and the baby boom cohorts
driving a lot of that and that's going
to have demographic implications um not
just for the country but for Arizona and
Chanel as well so that's some of the the
things we're starting to think about how
do we address these issues before they
become real and just to show you what
chanders looks like um the gray bars are
2010 population uh the gold is 2022 and
you can see we are getting older when
you look at the bottom 0 to 14 we are
much further behind where we used to be
in that age and then when you compare
the the middleaged population the the 30
to 45 between 2010 and 2020 we've gotten
much older and it hasn't backfilled with
the younger population so these are
things we're thinking about um and these
could have impacts on our economic
competitiveness but we're in a good
position we're thinking about it we're
having the
conversations but it could impact Us in
terms of Labor Force ability um consumer
spending habits change what does that
mean for the city school enrollment um I
know cusd we talk with them a lot and
they're demographer about what they're
seeing in school enrollment it's going
to have impacts certain areas um
changing service expectations from our
residents what are they going to want
from us and then sustainability of
revenue streams we are a consumption
based economy um as you get older you
just generally spend less you're not
buying roller skates and baseball gloves
and all those things that um young
families need and so this will be a
potential challenge but we have ways to
address this and ideas that we want to
start talking to council about um and
part of is that vision for continued V
ality and I stole this from Yogi Bear is
the future ain't what it used to be
Chandler in the future what made us
successful today isn't going to be what
makes us successful in the future and so
we're going to have to tweak some things
and we're going to have to evolve with
the times um and some of those ideas is
you know in partnership with
stakeholders you know we need to Market
Chandler as the Premier Community in
America for young families and
professionals and this could be a
multi-prong strategy detailing our
educational excellence athletic
Excellence within our community it's a
huge selling point our Recreation and
cultural am amenities to draw these
people in we have fantastic Public
Safety um and advanced placemaking to
really stand out within the region as a
destination for young
families um feasibility for new industry
clusters we have all the requisite
talent and Chandler and there's emerging
industries that are nent that we should
start thinking about do we have an
opportunity in the space um specifically
I'm thinking areas on the south side of
the airport it's where a lot of our raw
undeveloped land is can we facilitate
the vision for what that's going to look
like um and one of the things I'm kind
of nerded out about is electric vehicles
take off in Landings we have an
opportunity there you know we were the
leader in autonomous vehicles we were
recognized as the autonomous vehicle Hub
of the world in
2021 so we know how to do these things
and so the these are some of the other
industry clusters that we're going to
really want to spend some time
evaluating and seeing if they can Propel
us into the The Next
Century um competitive positioning um I
I think we really need to to take a step
back and think about how we can position
ourselves as the global top of Mind
destination for the types of companies
we're wanting to attract specifically in
those advanced economies that are
demographically challenged South Korea
Japan Western Europe they're going
through a demographic shift that's going
to be challenging for them we should be
telling our story to those companies
because they're goingon to have to put
them somewhere they're going to need the
workforce and we have those amenities we
have that talent and they can be doing
that here U we need to get in front of
those folks and really um develop a
long-term commitment to putting Chandler
at the Forefront right now our audience
is mostly domestic you can see here um
California our our Target audiences
right now from a marketing perspective
are California Texas Chicago New York DC
and a little bit of New Jersey um
there's some site sectors there that we
do a lot of work with but there's a lot
of global companies looking for new
homes and they used to just think the
coast you gota be in California got to
be on the East Coast right on the
Seaboard that's changing now and
Chandler has a a unique position because
some of our our natural amenties we are
low on insurance cost ranking we have a
fantastic utility provider
SRP
um access to international airports
we're in a good spot we need to position
ourselves as the company as the
destination for those
companies um and then a little bit to
council member Orlando's question
earlier about repositioning properties
uh we need to have a 21st century
development vision and encourage and
support projects that allow us to
compete for these modern projects a lot
of that is going to be on mixed use
development that walkability that
council member post who was asking about
where you can live work and um play
close to home very similar to downtown
and so as we approach a the general Plan
update that's going to be a lot of the
the conversations that we need to have
and I'm not talking about wholesale
throwing um the employment quarters and
our protection of them over the past 40
years out the window that's that's not
what I'm saying it's how can we continue
to make them economically viable in a
new era where that's what users are
looking for they're looking for those
amenities think tempy toown Lake they're
attracting a lot of great companies
because of walkability um and we can do
that too verticality were appropriate
we're functionally built out we have 2%
unaccounted for um raw land from an
economic development perspective
Chandler two point up is going to be our
21st century we got to do that in areas
where it makes sense um proactive
investment in infrastructure
specifically Water and Sewer you know
we're lucky to have John canson and his
team they they really have
their thumb on the pulse of what it
takes to get projects over the line so
him and I spend a lot of time thinking
about where we need to put
infrastructure investments in North
Chandler to allow for redevelopment we
have pipe constraints up there we can't
redevelop some properties if we can't
move Wastewater and water to serve them
we're kind of handcuffed so smart
investments in projects that allow us to
get Roi long run and then one of the
things that we working on right now and
it's going to take a while is um we
commissioned a hotel study we've been
hearing from all these great companies
that are located in Chandler I have
visitors coming in I have international
dignitaries I have salespeople I'm
having board meetings where can I host
these things um and so we commissioned a
hotel study to quantify is there a
market in Chandler in the Southeast
Valley that can support upper upscale
Boutique properties and we said don't
tell us what you think we want to hear
tell us what the market can actually
support so they went out and um they
interviewed Partners interviewed the
chamber they interviewed businesses
other Hotel years other communities
airports they came back saying yeah and
so Ed staff and tourism staff has been
out there working with the hotel
development industry to drive this
because that's going to help round out
our offerings to these high-tech um and
really Innovative companies we want we
need those amenities we need to be able
to compete in that space and that's
where we we have a challenge right now
so we're going to keep pushing into that
um so in summary um Local Economic
Development Trends are extremely
positive um sometimes we have all this
good stuff going on I don't think we
take a step back and really slow down
and appreciate what we have out of the
other 20,000 cities in America they
would all love to be in our positions
the city council has done a phenomenal
job of positioning us over the past
years and into the future um our past
infrastructure Investments are really
allowing us to compete for these
projects and smart investments in the
future will continue um but we do have
some some things we need to think about
uh realization of our demographic shifts
addressing gaps in commercial real
estate how can we maintain our
competitiveness with those projects and
where those employees want to go
commitment to high quality growth we are
now at a point in our maturation where
we can we can kind of lean into projects
press them on design um to attract those
tenants that are looking for true class
a space and then this is nothing new to
Chandler but really focusing on the
future um mayor and I had the
opportunity to speak to the Business
Journal and we're focused on the future
we don't we don't look at the next
quarterly earnings we look at what the
community is going to look like in a
decade and how our our residents will
respond to that so happy to answer any
questions Stuart you had a question are
you
good I was wondering if M could clearly
hasn't had the free bread sticks and
salad
at no I I was going to ask you about
that chart when you were showing the 16
million through June does that mean
we're going to blow right past that
number or okay you're projecting yeah
we'll be over 18 million for the fiscal
year and so that's the that's a
barometer of a local economy really is
restaurants I think we talked about that
a few weeks ago yeah if people are
eating out that means they still have
money in their pocket and so all right I
appreciate that that's all of the
questions
comment mayor if I may right council
member Poston Orlando and then
Alice thank
you thank you mayor just one final
question you talked about you know the
lease renewals and I think you called
them the vampire the vampire buildings
yeah do you have a database of what
buildings have those leases and when
when they'll be up um like is that is
that something that is available or
information that you have yeah through
through the mayor council member poster
we subscribe to a real estate database
service called coar where that's where
we pull a lot of our data from We're
projecting it's we also use it on our
business retraction expansion efforts
like hey this business is leas is
expiring in 18 months we're going to go
meet with them so that's where we track
some of this space the one thing that
CoStar doesn't allow for is that vampire
space and so that's we're having the
relationships with the um the office
brokers who represent the building uh
the chamber when they're doing their br
Outreach so when we hear these things we
can proactively address it as we hear
that they may be looking to leave um
downsize we get in there and start
presenting Alternatives
in okay thank you thanks M council
member
Alinda that was pointing to council
member C is but I do have a follow
question but um so the general plan
updates that every 10 years obviously
know that so is your thoughts on this is
to do
a a subsidiary of this plan in order
like a visioning process like we've done
before with the the next 20 or the other
shoe drops or some of the other
futuristic plans is that your thoughts
on that through the mayor council
Orlando yes to answer your question um
we've talked about do we run a uh this
the economic Vitality portion of the
general plan as a full-blown visioning
session or do we run it in tandem as a
subset of it so that's something that
we're still working through to figure
out where we want to put this visioning
but the general plan seems to make a lot
of sense
that makes sense because you're going
out after I I think what I heard you say
is what we envision in the economic side
of this is going to have a huge impact
on the general plan because there's no
longer there used to be just how much
land we have vacant what can we put
there let's carve out as piece for
medical part piece here for
manufacturing and we're pretty much done
voters vote on it what I'm hearing you
say is is oh I don't want to put words
in your mouth are we kind of flipping
that a little bit and let's look at
where the future will be in 10 years 5
to 10 years from now since the plan is
only 10 years and then what we could do
to Overlay that future through the mayor
council member Orlando yes you're not
putting my words in my mouth that's
that's very accurate um the economic
development portion of the general plant
whether it's in it or running in tandem
it's going to be much more integrated
we're not it won't be massing and
blocking and tackling it's going to be
much more of what I'll call community
and economic development approach where
things are threaded much tighter as
opposed to just being uh what I call
siloed but adjacent so very much more
integrated in this new general plan so
um go the mayor has his economic develop
or economic uh was it the forum team or
something what do we call that mayor's
economic committee Economic Development
yeah Advisory board so those folks be
engaged the chamber dccp P local
business brokers Realtors all those
folks would be in this visioning process
which sometimes we didn't include some
of those because again there wasn't that
fit absolutely that's that's the
input that happens through the general
plan so we get a real 360 degree
approach to what the future is going to
look like and they get the Buy in from
the community um to make it happen well
I think is exciting mayor real quick um
this sends a strong message to the
community the business community that
we're looking at 2.0 whatever you want
to call that or this visioning process
that's taking place I think that's a
very healthy uh you know I want the
newspaper article tomorrow the Articles
to say hey chand's looking at the next
10 years and we're building for that um
I kind of like that so appreciate that
thank you so Ken and Jason please uh
take those headlines yeah they think
they they're surey shaking their heads
no oh darn it and councilman berlando uh
there are quite a the quite a few people
from our economic development team will
will certainly be on the good both our
bond committee as well as on this
process too so they're they've been
engaged involved and I spoke with
another one today who's really eager to
search so and I figured you would be
doing that including those those key
stakeholders in there because they are
the future yeah counil
baralis I'm thank you mayor M car I
remember when we did the Strategic plan
for the airport area and one thing that
key thing that we mentioned was that it
was a jewel when we looked at the
different colors that were represented
how much potential that area has and I
didn't hear you mention a lot about it I
wanted to know um are we still on track
with with the things that we envisioned
and uh do we need to in view of what you
just said concerning the general plan um
do we need to keep looking at that again
or continue on some of the things we
already laid out for that area
and then I have another comment go ahead
and answer to that yeah through the
mayor council member Ellis so the Air
Park area plan really is kind of the
vision that we're talking about here and
we're still on track to implement that
it really talked more about Innovation
the types of innovation users within
those land use areas and um we're we're
holding the development Community to it
actually had a call yesterday with an
out ofate developer inquiring about our
Innovation zones and what does that mean
and so yeah we're still very much
committed to it I I think um that
approach will be included in the new
general plan I don't want to speak for
the planning team but that is still so
new and fresh I don't think we would be
changing course on that right
now well thank you so much that makes
sense I really would like to take a
moment to thank you and your team um I
know in the last two years you've you've
worn so many different hats um having to
go to Zone in and then come back again
with your team but along the way I
believe that your leadership has really
shown some stronghold where your staff
were very much involved in every
decision and helping Chandler keep
moving forward I I just love the idea
that uh they are here to stay and they
committed to the vision that mayor and
Council has put laid down and you have
not default from that you just kept um
driving the ball forward for us and um
hopefully this is uh definitely the
direction that we will continue going in
the next 10 years so I really appreciate
you and I'd like to say thank you to you
and your team for great work work well
done thank you thank you Council any
other Council MZ thank you mayor um Mike
about a year ago you and I had a phone
call and I was kind of picking your
brain on some ideas sharing my vision
sharing our thoughts on where chanler is
where it should be going um you know
based on your expertise and what you're
seeing um there and tonight this
presentation is a great Glimpse and a
health check of where we are and the
future of where chanler may be going and
I'm happy to hear that you are looking
into the future and rebranding or
reimagining and looking at a channel 2.0
I'm going to push you even a little bit
further because I'm looking 20 30 years
out into what chanler can possibly be
and what our storyline is going to be in
that time um so I'm looking at a chanler
10.0 but um with that being said you
know we we've had so much tremendous
success even in the 80s the early 2000s
and stuff but we're just not there
anymore in that sense of space or at
that pace any longer and so I'm wanting
us to you know even us as a council and
with your team um to be looking forward
at that and I think this is that
starting step to continue that and even
your slides right now were even a little
concerning for me with the Aging
population and our challenges um that
we're going to be facing um coming up in
the near future with this um but I'm
also looking at it as an opportunity
it's kind of motivating to see what is
going to be our next piece here what's
going to be whether we're going to be
focusing on an industry or um a
different type of space whatever it may
be what is Chandler going to be known
for is what I'm excited about and I
think you're you're on you're on it now
and you're ready to go for it and so um
I'm kind of tasking you with that and
along with city manager staff and the
rest of this Council of coming together
and looking at what channelers I don't
want to call it a Rebrand a reimagining
of what our future is going to look like
because we've been very successful and
we've had a long um standing name for
ourselves and so I want to continue that
for our next Generation our next Council
and our residents so thank you for this
presentation tonight absolutely thank
you and I'll close out comments I guess
most people want to close out my
closeups I I do know that yeah that was
interesting the the population pyramid
and and even really reimagining housing
for what does it mean very interesting
with our our current housing and and how
do we attract these young families that
aren't
necessarily maybe they are but just
looking for for new product rather than
there there's not a lot of existing
housing stock and and uh you know there
comes a point where where people move
from some de from Apartments to housing
so I know that's going to be a a big
challenge for us too is future Workforce
and and those kind of items and I know
that the freeways continue help us in
transportation in terms of developing
that Workforce that angel is talking
about whether they're living in LaVine
or CA Grands we've got some projects 10
years out that will uh further move
people around of course but it's it's
yeah we've there's some big challenges
is who is that future Workforce that we
are talking about to develop those great
ideas that are on the on the tap right
now so thank you absolutely thank you
for be up there all right well
very
good next on our agenda tonight is
unscheduled public appearances I haven't
seen any cards so we will move on to
current events I'll start recently
Chandler has been the recipient of two
national accolades again highlighting
our city as one of the top in the nation
earlier this month Chandler was named in
Fortune's annual best places to live for
families which look at metric such as
Access to Health Care education
affordability and resources for seniors
we were um also named uh uh livability
did a study of the top 25 cities in the
southwest and we came in fifth as the
best place to live uh highlighting our
fast growing Tech Hub outdoor amenities
or exciting downtown events and we were
the top city of in Arizona now say that
there was a town next to us that that
happened to be fourth but so we'll
continue to do that Jib Jab and uh Tempe
was right behind us six too so it's kind
of exciting the to me that helps us a
cluster of uh of where people might want
to live and move to in the future so
those things help us I believe when
Tempe Chandler and Gilbert are all
coming in well these rankings emphasize
the strong work of not only our city but
also our Community Partners our school
districts nonprofits and businesses that
have chosen Chandler so it's to me it's
always exciting to see how Chandler is
being acknowledged and recognized for
what we are and where we are going and
my second and
last um announcement has to do with an
event tomorrow comtech is is having a
ribbon cutting uh moving their Global
headquarters to Chandler so myself and
Council will be joining leaders
throughout the state at a Riv been
cutting celebrating comex Global
headquarters opening Chandler we are
excited to welcome This Global
Technology Company to our community with
com adding their name to our impressive
list of cuttingedge companies that call
Chandler home so council member and
cenus all right uh council member
Stuart thank you mayor you know with all
of this low unemployment and chanler we
obviously uh have been working with the
school districts and with the uh local
businesses and it's really about
Workforce Development so thankful to the
economic development team uh I want to
highlight a new Workforce devel
Development initiative that was just
launched by our economic development
team the Chandler career center aims to
streamline the connection between
Chandler skilled Workforce and the
employment opportunities with our uh
local businesses and uh that'll help
them Thrive even more it's a noost
resource that offers dual Ben benefit to
both job Seekers and employers and has
been established with a in a partnership
with asus's uh pipeline a Workforce
Development is critical to ensuring our
local economy is sucess successful and
this additional tool represents
Chandler's proactive approach to
supporting our local businesses and job
Seekers um one of the things that I'm
the most excited about that's coming up
is Constitution Day so this is the day
that we celebrate uh the founding
document of our constitutional republic
and so I want to thank mayor and Council
for supporting that initiative uh and
bringing that forward so on seven
September 17th which happens to be my
birthday too but it's my favorite day
because it's Constitution Day right it's
really my birthday no I'm just kidding
um we're gonna right out here in the
courtyard right out here at City Hall at
8:30 in the morning that we'll be
celebrating uh the Cornerstone of our
constitutional republic uh this special
event will begin with a Constitution Day
Proclamation the mayor will be there and
then we'll have engaging speakers some
students from the local school We the
People group will be here as well um so
you can learn more in rsbp
chandleraz.gov Constitution Day and it
is 100% free so we look forward to
seeing you there thank you mayor will
there be a cake called we the people
called
Stewart that was I'm I'm okay with that
I was gonna say he's bringing cupcakes
for everybody right yeah you should
that's a good idea I should do that all
right I'll help you fund that one
I think I think I'll take care of that
got okay good hey you know one of the
easy parts of this job is when we listen
to our residents and I know communities
have been taking a beating over the last
well throughout the Nation about not
listening to their residents but about
three years ago a group of residents
from the Chandler girl softball league
which has been around in Chandler since
1977 one of the oldest um not just in
the Arizona but in the Western United
States they came to us and said look
portfolio has been a great field for us
and for years but we need something new
we need something fresh and uh this
Council and the council before us took
that the heart we put it back into the
CIP plan and on September 7th I am happy
to say we are ready to open the fourplex
Diamond uh the Chandler girl softball
team is excited to be there uh they'll
be moving from Foley which we'll be
doing some more revisioning and
reimagining of Foley fly everything
works in tandem here um so I'm looking
forward at September 7 opening for that
is
I plan on being uh they're they're
calling oldtime umpires to come back and
as a celebration doing the games I'll be
in uniform mayor you got the first pitch
and we'll get a catcher maybe council
member Poston and we'll see if I call
balls and Strikes on the mayor that's
it's always got to be a strike it'll
always be a strike maker all right for
just for you I don't care if it bounces
in there got call a strike strike three
baby yeah but we'll have a good time
that day uh finally um again another
item where we listen to the residance
pickle
um the uh the city has taken an
aggressive approach that puts on pickle
ball courts up at the Germaine Road near
Tumbleweed Rec Center and that'll be
soon to be opening up uh later this year
I believe NOP next year one more year
sorry about that one more year the
contract was just LED that that's right
okay we won't be bu so again these are
two issues that uh are dear our
residents they and we we heard you and
we put this in the plan and uh you're
paying for it we appreciate that but at
least we're listening to what you have
to say thank you mayor council member
Poston well thank you mayor earlier this
month I was very happy to represent
mayor and council at a an event that
really kind of showcases why those
Partnerships between our nonprofits and
our businesses are so wonderful it was a
ribbon cutting um for the Salvation Army
but it was at FedEx and FedEx donated an
emergency disaster Services mobile cam
team to the Salvation Army you can see a
few of the photos there that I took
myself look they turned out and
everything but this would be dispatched
during crisis um they're already
imagining lots of different ways that
they could reach out to the community
and help the community the Salvation
Army was so excited to be there FedEx
brought in their Executives to talk
about how important it is they have
several of these all over the country
but this is why it's so great to have
those kind of community oriented uh
businesses in our community that they
can do things that are going to
ultimately help our residents so um
mayor thanks for letting me attend um
this event and represent mayor and
Council it was it was actually really
really great people were so excited to
see that it just you know they you
couldn't can't imagine how people were
excited to see this ban so they're ready
to get that into use and if you don't
mind I'd like to talk about something a
little personal um that I haven't talked
about for a while and I'm going to take
council member Harris's space since he's
not here tonight um over the last nine
months I've had sort of a limited
availability to public meetings and
those sorts events as uh I and my family
dealt with cancer um between being done
with the surgery and finally through
with chemo I am back to public again
events again I just wanted to take this
opportunity to one say thank you to the
community for being so supportive and
understanding not good with talking
about personal stuff so this makes me a
little nervous I also want to thank U
mayor and counsel for being so
supportive and kind there were texts
there was food there were you know this
this is a big deal it it affects our
whole family um just a quick little pat
on the back throughout this the day of
my surgery I missed a council meeting
other than that I didn't miss a council
meeting a study session a work session
our all day budget hearing our Retreat I
planned around it um I I take this
position very very seriously and uh the
voters elected me to be here and I did
my best to be here um kind of proud of
that on my own but in addition to that
that could not have been done without
the amazing support of City staff Josh
um poor Marie in our in our our Council
assistant my schedule has been a
question mark because I never knew what
it was going to be from dayto day so she
managed that incredibly well and just a
huge shout out to her it was constantly
changing and she just changed it with a
smile she let companies know when I
could come or or I thought I'd be
somewhere and I couldn't but it was also
um due to the work of our video staff
and Our IT staff also could not have
done it without them and I wasn't always
able to give the kind of notice that
makes their job easy so I just wanted to
show a little appreciation and a thank
you to them um you know from now on my
schedule will be a little more
predictable but you know it was it was a
lot to to take over it kind of took over
my life a little bit I just wanted to
show my appreciation to both this
Council and the city staff for helping
me through this time so thank you sounds
like more cupcakes mayor I was just
thinking cupcakes you could join the
cupcake crew of Stewart and Orlando in
appreciation so I don't think you guys
want my
baking all right well thank you and uh
welcome back and thank you for uh just
working through I know it's not been
easy for you so yeah C manager thank you
mayor members of council just a few
brief announcements thank you Council
 for sharing that about our city
staff I'm going to build on that Trend
because I love talking about our
incredible City staff and their many
achievements just three quick uh notes
that I wanted to make for you and for
the public some of these may be things
that we've uh passed around the
organization but would love our
community to know as well so want to
congratulate our fire department uh they
were recently re accredited for another
five years by the commission on fire
accreditation International we have
really the best Fire Department in the
country they're one of the few that's
not only rated uh as accredited but also
what they call an ioso one rating which
means we have basically the safest city
that you can live in when it comes to
fire protection so congratulations to
them for another five years of that
accreditation we're very proud of them
also want to recognize uh accreditation
um redesignation as actually the proper
term for our public housing authority so
we have what's called a high performing
public housing authority which is
designated by Hud and so they recently
were redesignated again as a high
performing Housing Authority they
received a score it's 100 Point basis 98
was the score they received so very very
high congratulations to Leah Powell and
Amy Jacobson and that entire team on
their redesignation from HUD and then
finally although she's not here tonight
I told her that I would embarrass her a
little bit uh da is on vacation but uh
our very own Deputy city manager and
Chief Financial Officer Don Lang
received a personal award uh for her
many years of excellence in Public
Finance so the finance Excellence award
from the government finance office
Association of Arizona she was uh able
to receive that last week before heading
out of the office and of course we all
know she's been a very special part of
Chandler's financial success for many
years so we were thrilled to have her
receive uh that award from that very
important group so thank you uh again
mayor and councel for your kind words
about our staff and uh that's all I have
tonight very good thank you Council good
meeting thank you