Mesa · 2026-10-22 · case details pending

Well good morning everyone welcome to our Mesa City Council study session for October 22nd, 2026 and I'm sure we're all excited about the weather change for the last few days. Hopefully nobody got any wind damage, rain damage and I know it hit our city kind of hard in certain areas. But with that said, Councilmember Heredia, you're participating by Zoom. Are you online? Yes. All right, thank you. Other than that, all council members are present.

As usual, item was review the agenda we have for Monday, October 26th council. So let's go through that. Any questions? We have everyone here. Mayor, I'd like to ask that we review 5F, the Craftsman Tax Incentive Package, as well as, you know, 7B on the Historic Preservation Amendments. Should we wait until Monday? Because it's more of just information for the public on the overhaul that's been going on? It's not really something for a decision. We could refer to Mary or Rachel.

I think it's more informational. Mayor, Councilmember Duff, what's on the agenda today as it relates to the text amendments, as for the introduction of the text amendments, in two weeks both the final action for the text amendments and the design guidelines will be on if you wanted to wait for that so they're both there together or we could talk about both of them on Monday if you want but anyway you want to do it But staff is prepared to talk to them at any time you want.

Yeah, let's wait for two weeks when we have the design guidelines in conjunction with the text amendments. That'd be great. Thanks. Very good. I think 5B is just public notice at this point, right? To review? 5F? 5F, sorry. Vice mayor, yes, this one is just public notice that's required by state statute to enter into this type of DA. I'll get my letters right when this is a little empty here. That was a this is an interesting project though of 5F, the craftsman.

Do you want to, I know there's a presentation for that. Do you want to go through that? Yes, thank you mayor and council. I'm Jay O'Donnell, Economic Development Director for the city and joining me today is Kelly Whittemore, Deputy City Attorney. And we'll go through the deal points of the craftsman. So the purpose of the development agreement or the meeting today is to go through the development agreement points and talk a little bit about the development itself.

So this is a planned elevated mixed use development that is comprised of both residential apartments and nearly 40,000 square feet of retail and office space. The retail will contain a minimum of 10,000 square feet of modern upscale restaurants. And we'll talk about the major terms and conditions for the proposed development agreement.

And we'll provide the developer with a retail sales tax incentive for the reimbursement of the developer's contribution toward public infrastructure costs along Elliott Road. So just to orient you of the location, this is along Elliott Road and it's in between Hawes and 82nd Street. So the total site is just over 19 acres and it's basically split 65% residential, 35% commercial.

The development agreement structure is set up so that the developer will construct the craftsmen, including the public improvements on the east and west side of the entire development. So 82nd Street and Hawes Road. And the city is constructing the Elliott Road frontage along the property as part of our CIP on Elliott Road. So the developer will actually make a public improvement contribution toward the cost of the Elliott Road public improvements.

So they're contributing to this development, $775,000 and change. That contribution to the infrastructure would then be eligible for reimbursement from construction sales tax and sales tax that's generated by the project if the developer meets certain minimum requirements, including having that 10,000 square feet of modern upscale restaurants. And you can see the map shows specifically the public improvements along the development site.

This includes pavement turn lanes curb and gutters sidewalks and landscaping streetlights and striping And again the developer makes the public improvement contribution toward these costs along Elliott Road And now I'll turn it over to Kelly to go through the conditions. Mayor and Council, good morning. The conditions for reimbursement on this particular retail sales tax incentive agreement are laid out in front of you. You will notice there's a time frame for each of them.

This deals with the effective date of the actual development agreement. I'll note them that they first it requires them to obtain all of their building permits within six months. They also have to complete construction and convey ownership of those public improvements on the east and west side of the property within nine months.

They'll they also must within that same nine month period pay what we're calling that developer public improvement contribution that's that seven hundred and seventy five thousand dollars. All of the private improvements which would mean the craftsman itself must be completed within 30 months. And then within that 36 month period, so they have an additional six months after completion of the private improvements, is when they need to meet what we're calling the restaurant occupancy minimum.

That is this 10,000 square feet requirement of a certain level of restaurant that must be opened on the property. The requirements of what that must meet are listed below, but just to cover them, it's a modern upscale restaurant. It could be restaurants defined as chef-driven, full-service restaurants offering a distinctive non-standardized dining concept.

They have to have a brand with fewer than 100 locations in the United States, and it must be a restaurant that does not operate within 10 miles within the city of Mesa. Now if they meet all of those conditions precedent within the timeline that's required under the development agreement, then they're eligible to receive a tax reimbursement for that contribution that they're giving towards those Elliott Road improvements.

The construction sales tax is a part So, since this particular development is within the Hawes Crossing development area and they are zoned MX, one of the requirements under the Hawes Crossing DA is that MX zone land must include 35% of commercial development. So, in order to be in line with that same 35% requirement on this particular DA, we're going to offer them 35% of the city's 1.2% non-dedicated.

So we're matching up their commercial requirement with the amount of the construction sales tax that they could receive. And again, this is the 1.2% of the 2% that is the city's sales tax, and the 1.2% represents the non-dedicated portion of the tax. In addition, they'll also be eligible for the general, what we're calling the general sales tax. This would be 50% of the city's 1.2% non-dedicated.

There is a maximum reimbursement cap, which is that amount of that developer public improvement contribution, that's $775,000, and we would have a reimbursement period of 10 years. These particular types of agreements have very specific statutory requirements. I know we've mentioned these to the council before, but I will say them for the benefit of the public.

Per ARS 9500.11, when you do a retail sales tax incentive agreement, which are what these agreements are called, you're required to make two findings as a council. The first is that the incentive of the project will raise more revenue than the amount of the incentive reimbursement during the term of the agreement. The second is that in the absence of the reimbursement, the development would not locate in the same time, place, and manner in Mesa.

That first finding dealing with the revenues requires a third party review. We, I believe we mentioned it in one of our next slides. Let me double check. Yes. Okay. So I'll cover that in just a moment. But we did have that third party review done. It will be included as a part of the development agreement resolution that is for the November 16th city council meeting.

But aside from that, the, I want to point out that ARS 42610 that deals with economic incentives the city is allowed to give to developers does allow for the reimbursement of public infrastructure so long as it's dedicated and accepted. Those Elliott Road improvements will be owned by the city in this sense, so we're able to offer them this reimbursement. And that actual third-party economic impact analysis, so this was performed by Applied Economics.

This is a company the city has utilized before because of their familiarity with projects in Arizona and in the city of Mesa. In that economic analysis, they have an impact summary that looks at the projected sales tax, tax revenues, and the total economic impact, including job creation and labor income. Overall, the most important element of that is always going to be the revenues to the city, because that's what we can show meets the actual requirements under the state statute.

The final analysis report again will be offered to the council to look at. I will say I've had the opportunity to review the draft report.

In the draft report, it's estimated that over a 10 year time period plus a little bit of construction at the beginning, The city is estimated to receive a gross tax revenue of million and then the repayment that we looking at is only We also looking at a potential of 160 on jobs and that will all be laid out in that particular analysis for you to have the opportunity to look at for the November 16th city council meeting Kelly, that analysis is over the 10-year period of reimbursement for $3 million versus $775 million.

Mayor, my apologies. Mayor, yes, it is over that 10-year period, plus they do include some of the tax that is collected while construction is going on. That 10-year period really constitutes the reimbursement period that we're offering them, plus the time that they'll have actual retailers and restaurants that are open. Okay. Now for next steps, these particular agreements require two approvals by the council.

The first is what we're asking for today, is our presentation on the 22nd, but on the 26th we'll be asking for a notice of intent. Again, this is just a notice to the public that you will be looking at this particular issue. It is not an approval of the development agreement or anything related to it. We acknowledge that the development agreement is not included in your packet as a part of this particular item in Legistar because you're not looking at it today technically.

Technically it's just the notice. You'll be looking at the DA on the November 16th council meeting. Then you will have the opportunity to have the full development agreement attached to that resolution as well as the economic analysis. Will those also be available in time for the public to review? Mayor, Vice Mayor, yes they will. Sorry. Okay. Well, I think that's fantastic. District 6, what do you think is in your district? I appreciate the effort to upscale this.

This is probably coming in a little bit at the last minute because we're about to rip up Elliott Road. We found out it wasn't under construction, so why not? But to be fair, to be fair, it is a two-lane road right now. So it's going to see some massive improvements. So the opportunity to utilize what's going to happen on Elliott Road as part of a scheduled and voter-approved road improvement package to upscale development in the area.

And I know there's quite a bit in Hoss Crossing of excitement with this to try to bring something a little better than the typical drive-throughs that we have seen. And those efforts are starting to pay off. We're seeing some really good restaurants starting to pop up. Is this on the north or south side of Elliott? North. Is it on the north side? North side of 82nd and Elliott-ish. So we'll be dedicating a new fire station in that area too as well? Two blocks away.

Hopefully we don't need it for this. No, but I'm just saying... It's there if we need it. Let's put it that way. Mayor, if I could just add to Vice Mayor now that this has been what Council's been asking for are ways that we can partner with the private sector to make sure that we have an integrated mixed-use development like this with office, retail, and higher-end restaurants.

And again, if you mentioned about the drive-throughs and some of the traditional development, this is the type of partnerships that we realized we needed more carrots out there. As we, you know, as we're, you know, working with the development community on ways that we can bring higher end restaurants and different dining opportunities into the area.

And as Kelly said, we, you mentioned the similar language that you've seen in other agreements that we've had, where we try to get distinct, locally, more bespoke type restaurants and shops that are coming in to these type of developments. And it requires some partnership. But I think, you know, you're, You're, as you heard from Kelly, where our sales tax incentive on this that's just based off of revenue generated and construction activity generated on this site and only on this site.

We'll go back into making this a more high quality, higher level development with the types of restaurants and retail that folks have been wanting to see down in this area and throughout the city. So this is just the continuation of a model that we will, you know, not replicate just here at the Craftsman.

We've already used in other sites and you'll see in other sites in the future because this is all part of our of our restaurant and retail attraction strategy that Jay and her team have been utilizing. Per Council's challenge to make sure that we're getting a higher quality development into the community.

I just thinking of the area alongside that there a lot of future growth in that area and there some county I think property to the south and a little bit to the east of there that has probably be annexed in the city sometime in the future based on development So I know that area is really growing and has a lot of potential there So I find this just a really good opportunity for Mesa and district six And I think some of your constituency out there would enjoy some more food and beverage out there with the commercial aspect Yeah you know one of the things I really appreciate about this and what in the language is chef lead because that really talks to a level of quality and this provides some opportunities.

We've seen it in District 5 as a project that's going on. We had Cannon Beach is starting to really pick up. I know it's just Lenny's Burgers as a start, it's not exactly Chef-led, but that's brought some excitement to the area. I went to eat there the other day. There is a Chef-led concept coming to that area very soon. It looks like they're still under construction. But the opportunity to have, I know not long ago we had the incubator, what is it, the restaurant incubator?

That's going to be downtown. How's that going, by the way? We need an update. The opportunity to take the folks that are learning their craft there and maybe providing that space. I will take all the really good ones over in District 6. I'll share a couple with five. I think District 2. But it's, this isn't just one project. It's a series of things that have gone on that this council's been focused on to bring a lifestyle, an elevated lifestyle to Mesa. So this is just one more piece of that.

And at some point we're going to hit that tipping point where we don't have to do this anymore. They just come to Mesa because the gravity is finally built up enough where people, that's where they want to come to play and to eat and to surf and then use our fire department right after that. Can I ask, is chef driven an industry defined term? What's the definition of chef driven? So, Mayor, Councilmember, go forth.

So, one of the struggles that we have in trying to define what restaurant quality requirements we have is that there is not an industry standard, unlike the hotels that have certain levels. So, through some trial and error over the years, we have come up with different ways to define that. And in this particular one, we went with this concept of chef-driven and a full-service restaurant.

There are some exclusions that aren't specifically listed here that are in the development agreement that deal with concepts that are more like the family dining type concepts. But this is something that we would work with the developer on in terms of the interpretation of it, but the intent is very clear in terms of what we're asking for for restaurants.

But again, because we just don't have a standard, it is more making that determination in conjunction with economic development, our office, and then working with the developer as to what the intent of the parties was, parties was and then just putting that in the development agreement and what you have in front of you is what we've come up with. So I foresee ongoing negotiations sometimes on what this actually means when it comes to fruition. Does this really satisfy this definition?

Mayor, Councilmember go forth. We would need to have discussions with the developer as they're deciding what those restaurants are to ensure that both parties are in agreement that it meets the definition of that 10,000 square feet. And we've had that happen with other developments previously that we need to have discussions with developers about whether it met their particular restaurant requirements in their development agreement. And I would just say I agree with Kelly.

I think that's in all of these agreements, every one of them is going to require that ongoing dialogue to make sure that their vision of how restaurants defined meets our vision. We say it on the front end, but then it actually comes time where they're leasing up their property, and we just, you know, we'll have that.

But I think we've been able to work through that with the different developers, but it will require ongoing collaboration since there's no set list, no easily defined standard for that. And obviously, did you want to say something? So basically we are also a judge in this. What is and what isn't. It is. And you know, of course, if I went and asked all seven of you to define it, there would be seven different definitions. And, you know, the same with us.

And that's why I think it's collaborative between the developer and economic development staff. I mean, certainly folks are paying attention to the restaurant trends, what the different brands and local establishments that are generating interest in the Phoenix metro area or nationally. And so we're able to obviously take some of that into consideration.

But it will be a collaborative effort between city staff and the developer to ultimately decide on, you know, does this meet the standard that we're looking for. And Mayor, Council, if I may, we have had extensive meetings with the developer. It's Martin's Development. And they have done a fantastic job developing other projects in Mesa. They understand very clearly the vision for what we're trying to accomplish with retail and restaurants. And they're excited to deliver on that.

We've had meetings with them about specific brands that they're targeting and we're very pleased with with who they're going after. And I think that the development in and of itself and the quality will certainly attract those types of brands that we're looking for. Obviously, I'm all for more upscale quality brands. This is confusing to me because this is a development, I believe, that we approved several months ago, the rezoning for Mixed Heroes. I'm curious, why are they coming back?

Why the timing on this? I'm a little confused about that. How did they get us to come back to the table on this? Mayor, Councilmember Goforth, I think from a timing perspective, they wanted to understand how the CIP project was developing because they didn't want to come in and have to do things over if the CIP, if the road was coming in. So they were looking for a partnership from the very beginning. I think we've been working on this project two years now, maybe even more than that.

And so we were trying to time it in a way that made sense. They could go ahead and just do the development. They could put in by rate what they wanted to and the types of restaurants and retailers that would come potentially. Within what was approved. Yes. We approved a site plan, you know. So this was a way for them to get some reimbursement back, but also then for the city to get the quality that we wanted. I'm just confused at the time, Ian.

It seems a little odd to me that this wasn't negotiated originally. Well, we weren't ready. We were still doing the planning for Elliott Road, so in order to do the reimbursement amounts, we had to get the Elliott Road planning done so we knew what revenue we had, what their obligations were going to be. And frankly, so they just move forward to do the zoning.

The good news is when they did this, when we did the zoning, and I think this is also part of the agreement for Paul's Crossing, that they, while they had the zoning, they also have to build certain elements in front of others. So they had to have a certain amount of commercial space to residential space. So that gave us a little bit of leverage to come back later when we were ready and say, okay, this is the level of quality we want.

This is the amount of frontage you have, what the cost is going to be for your component of that, because that's the item that we didn't know. And then they came back to the table after they had their base zoning and said, okay, we're willing to raise the level if we can get this amount of money, which is 775,000, right? 775,000. So normally we would do this all in one, but because the infrastructure wasn't there yet, we were still in planning. That's why it's kind of an odd piecemeal.

Sorry, you said they were willing to raise the level of... Quality of the restaurants. ...of improvements? Of what goes into... Yeah, I think there's a drive-through right now as part of that. At least one, I want to say, out in front. So to have 10,000, I'm pretty sure. We're going to look it up now. Not right now, but we can get it later.

So Mayor, Vice Mayor, I will say, and I'll let Mary speak to this a little bit, the DA specifically says that this 10,000 square feet cannot include drive-throughs. So just if that answers your particular question. Good job, Mary. And nothing wrong with drive-throughs before we get into that conversation. It's just we were looking for a certain elevated level of quality.

And the good news is what the mayor is referring to, the area that's around it that's now county, is looking to come in to rezone for some more residential and retail and we have a potential to utilize this to help upscale that as well. So a lot of this was planning because it ties into our CIP project and that's why it looks a little different than maybe the one we did in your district that was all pretty much.

Well, I mean normally not just my district but every one that I've been a part of, it's typically with the rezoning. District 6 we like to just do it differently. Yeah, I mean, that makes sense. I just want to ensure that once we, you know, rezone and agree on something, we don't have developers coming back and holding us hostage, right, for these incentives. That's my concern. Yeah, no, that wouldn't happen. We did this also for Cannon Beach for the hotel.

When we upscaled the hotel, Cannon Beach was already done, but there was a lot of infrastructure that hadn't been completed. I can see you have a comment, so I'll get off my horse.

No no Because as we talked about a lot of times they come back they say I can I can perform I can what I agreed to I can build what I agreed to Yeah that not this It upscale Yeah this is upscale Okay Yeah Yeah that exactly I see what you I see where you thinking but that not the situation It not like we approve something and they came back and said oh now we want more and are able to make that happen No this is as Jay said first of all this has been over two years of discussing working with them on this So it's been a collaborative effort.

And sure, I think ideally we would say that zoning and DAs would always come through at the same time, but as the vice mayor said with the Cannon Beach Hotel, sometimes that just doesn't work that way. But this was always envisioned that in order to get the level of quality that we wanted, there would be this follow-up DA through that. And in fact, I think they made the decision, the developer made the decision that they would go ahead with the zoning beforehand.

And that carries some risk for them in order to do that as well, right? And that's not always the case where the developer, just like the city, would like it to be. But I think it's because it's been collaborative and we've all been striving for the same goal here. We felt comfortable moving those separate. Okay. It's a difference between, yeah, I got a hotel on my property. It could be a sleep in. Right. Or it could be a four star tapestry hotel with ground level restaurant and a rooftop bar.

Yes. And the delta between those two things still has to work out in the math for Kelly to say, We can do this legally. So I think that's what's important is when we look at the numbers, and I know we don't have the full report here, we will, but to be able to review, those numbers will show that we as a city are going to benefit as a whole by gaining far more sales tax revenue than what we would otherwise with what's already approved. Accurate, Mr. Butler? Mr. Jim?

Yeah, Mayor, one other thought is, and I see your point, Councilmember Goforth, I think there's another factor, is that when the city needs to keep them together, we will, developers usually want, because they don't want to close on property and they don't want to move forward at all without it. For sure. This council has a stability and credibility that I think many other municipalities do not have, and they're willing to allow the separation occasionally, based off the ongoing negotiations.

Most developers would not have agreed to go forward with the zoning without this DA. So I see your concern, but ironically it's actually, I think it's there's a trust factor with the council to say, we feel comfortable moving forward, we know you're gonna in good faith bring it to council, or they're willing to separate them. Your review must be coming up. That was outstanding. Yes, that was a pretty good point. Okay, I appreciate it. Thank you. Okay, Mr. Adams, or go Miss Duff and then Mr.

Adams. I thought you were going down on the street. So, 10,000 square feet, approximately how many restaurants is that? Like three? I don't know. Mayor, Councilmember Duff, it depends on what restaurants they bring, but it could be two, maybe three. Okay, two or three. Or one. Or one. Yeah, it could be. Some of the larger sit-down restaurants require 10,000 square feet. Recently, I just met with a restaurant developer and they set up to 12,000 square feet, some of your larger restaurants.

Well, it's a good time to leverage and put that out there and there's more growth at the higher end than there is in mid-market. So, seeing the separation, right? You know, you got to eat as cheap as you can or you just go out to celebrate or help be able to... A lot of restaurants are nationwide are suffering in the mid-market right now because of the economy. So, I love mixed use. I'm so glad. I think it's a great way to build and has a lot of flexibility to make it a viable project long term.

The apartments, how many apartments are there? I assume they're upscale as well to support the retail? Mayor Councilmember Duff, I see Mary going to look what's planned. Okay. And what's going on with the surrounding properties? Because with mixed use, it does present an opportunity to connect to other properties for that walkability. There's, well, to the south are, there's apartments and housing to the south. There's a rezoning request that is just going to public meeting, I think, next week.

I just posted on this. To the west of 80th Street, or right around 80th Street, that'll be housing. There's housing to the north as well. There's a large development, a large swath of land next to, you'll find it at Elliott and the 202. That's coming through planning right now for a housing project with some retail on it as well to the south. And then Mary, did I miss anything?

Mary Kaye So Mayor Vice Mayor we also looking at a couple of annexations coming to council for some of the state land to come in to be rezoned for residential and those are to the south and to the southeast So there's a lot going on residential as it relates to residential in Hoss Crossing right now to kind of support these higher end types of uses. And it's a little early to be specific, but it's a mix of densities. So we're going to start seeing more folks there.

There's still some build out and potential land around Eastmark that would come to this, especially when you raise the level of the quality of a restaurant and people want to drive to it. It's because it's not that far. It's only a couple of miles. So I'll go. Miss Duff? Yeah, I just I'm glad there's some residential near it and to make sure that we have those pedestrian, you know, routes that are comfortable and enjoyable in order to support this kind of development.

I think we'd all rather be within a short distance of where we recreate and rather than having to get in the car and go someplace. Taking advantage of that and making a neighborhood around this development I think is a great idea. Thanks. Mr. Adams. I'll be real quick. Kelly, I did have one question about the terms of the agreement, and I think it's smart to create the exclusivity by having that 10-mile radius. Why do we restrict that to 10 miles within the city of Mesa?

Why don't we just say a 10-mile radius? And I know your work is always very detailed, and I appreciate it, so I'm sure there's a reason. I'm just curious what it is. So, Mayor, Councilmember Adams, I wish I could give you an extremely significant reason on that one, But I think when we have generally looked at the placement of these different restaurants and different retailers and the distance that folks will travel to go to them, I think 10 miles was what we had talked about previously.

That's, I believe, in the Medina station development agreement as well. So I think that was historically what we've done and moved forward that way. In terms of a specific analysis, I could ask Jay if that's something that economic development did, but that was something that we had looked at previously and so we kept that same distance for this particular project as well. I was probably not clear in my question. I guess I'm wondering why don't we just say a radius of 10 miles.

Why do we see a radius of 10 miles in Mesa? I'm asking why is in Mesa there? Why not just 10 miles? Which I agree with. Council member Adams, we could technically do either. I think for these purposes we were trying to bring something unique specifically to Mesa. And so that if there happened to be something in Gilbert or Queen Creek that would be in that area, we would be bringing something specific and new to our Mesa residents.

So that we were making sure that 10 mile radius is just within Mesa. But, Councilmember, we could change the language and make it just Mesa. We could make it just 10 miles in general. We do have those options depending on what the council would like. I'm just curious because you could have, I don't know where the city limits are from this location, but let's say there was within five miles in Queen Creek or Gilbert, another property.

I think we want to be farther away than just across the city limits. If the direction of the council is that you would like it to be 10 miles, we absolutely can change the terms as they're written right now. That's an easy thing to do and I'm happy to get that drafted for you. Mayor, Council Member Adams, if I may, some of this will be determined too by the market data and research that the restaurants are doing and that they require.

But we also don't want to exclude some potential brands that are within a 10 mile radius if you draw the circle around the area that might be in Gilbert, as Kelly said. But it would still be a new brand to Mesa. And if the trade area supports a restaurant site in Gilbert or Tempe and Mesa, we definitely want to take advantage of that. Well, what I'm thinking is, let's say it's the ABC Steakhouse, for lack of anything else, generic.

And we're building one here in Mesa, and there happens to be one just across the Queen Creek line, five miles away. We want people to drive to Mesa if they're coming from the south. We don't want them to stop at that place in Queen Creek. We want to bring them into Mesa. That's my point. You take it where you feel you should go with it, but that's just my point. Mayor, Councilmember Adams, we were just sidebarring on some of this because I think some of the concern is to your point.

If you have a Postino's in downtown Gilbert, that's within 10 miles. If you have a steakhouse at Chandler Mall, that's probably within 10 miles. Now, if the market can support, you know, those in multiple locations, and I think some of those brands that could then, you know, that that I think that's why we didn't want to lock ourselves into that.

I get it I not an expert in restaurant demographics The other comment I make is we were talking about Chef Grimm and I can offer this having a professional chef in the family that would mean to me that it either a known chef or a chef with a specific specialty and we could probably consult with our friends at the Arizona Restaurant Association who are probably experts in this area to help us define that Any other comments? Ms. Taylor? You have one minute. Just kidding. I'll give you a minute.

Okay, it's actually, it's not really a comment, it's just one question. I love all the restaurant concepts. I think that's awesome. I forgot to ask this when we were on our call the other day, and it was, do you know if it will also include any, like, probably very few boutique retail at all? I know that in some cases people like to eat, they kind of like to have that eatertainment, right?

We took our picture, we had a really great meal, but we want to walk around and window shop come back or some places stay open a little bit later. And they are quite successful because, you know, in some cases you have a few cocktails and you want to go buy a dress because all of a sudden you feel like your wallet has a lot of money in it. So it's just reality, right? I didn't know if this would include some of that type of... No big box, right? I'm not talking about throwing Marshalls in here.

No offense to Marshalls, I love you, but like... Mayor, Councilmember Taylor, yes, there will be additional retail. So it's 40,000 square feet of commercial space. 10,000 of that is the upscale restaurant. So yes, there's another 30,000 square feet that they can play with for retailers. And we do anticipate it to be differentiated retail for those smaller suites. That's always encouraging. Okay, great. That's awesome. Thank you.

We're also trying to get Waymo out there so you don't need the fire station up the right. Well, this conversation has made me hungry and I think I want to go shopping as well. Okay, council continuing on the agenda. I just had a comment on 5G about our intergov agreement with mutual aid on solid waste. I thought, you know, we've done that in the past helping other municipalities. I don't know if Sherry wants to share anything on that, why we do that, and the importance of that.

I know sometimes solid waste apparatus, I'll use that word, gets damaged or they need more trucks in certain cities. So I like this spread out from west side to east side. Good lightness. Mayor, I think we have a purchase for some vehicles. Yeah. And along that we're buying diesel powered and not having them transition to natural gas. Yes, Mayor, Council, so a couple of questions in there so I'll cover the IGA first. So the IGA is something that we're continuing to use.

We've had it in place for 10 years or so. It was put into place for emergency situations. It was a really good thing that we had put into place across the valley with all the other cities that are listed there. And essentially what we use this for is to cover short-term needs. So if we need a truck for a day or maybe a week, that's really what this is for. And it's across the valley, like I said.

So if we have extra trucks and another city uses it, then we can let them borrow a truck or we can borrow a truck for them. It has been extremely successful and all the cities are very excited to continue this partnership. And then in addition to that, so that helps us out on a very short term basis. In addition to that, we do have seven vehicles right now on the agenda to purchase and they are diesel. Those trucks will be stationed at our East Mesa Service Center.

Our Fleet Services Department has a third shift coming on board that was approved a few months ago, I believe through the budget. And so we're getting the diesels and they'll be stationed out of East Mesa Service Center. That's going to cut down on route time for the routes that we're able to deploy out of that service center. So it's just starting to move in that direction, putting some of those trucks out east.

The way that Fleet Services is constructed right now, they can't work on CNG out there. The construction of it would create a hazard and a danger in their actual fleet base. So diesel is what they can work on out there. So getting work out there for that third shift and then deploying some of our resources out of there will be a savings to us, not only time and cost for those routes that we can deploy out of the East Mesa Service Center. Okay, good.

Just circling back on the IGA reimbursement for, you know, cost sharing. We're reimbursed if our trucks go somewhere else and vice versa. Is that correct? Yes. How does that work? Just maybe explain how the reimbursement model works for this IGA. Yeah, sure, Mayor and Council. With this IGA, there's not a lot of cost transfers. If there's damage to the truck, that has borrowed a truck. So if we borrow a truck from Scottsdale and we have it and something gets damaged, we will pay to repair it.

So the reimbursement, it's almost a no cost, I would say, because if it was our truck and it was damaged, we'd pay for it anyway. So it's just a way that sets the parameters up so that if we need to borrow, we can borrow it. If there's any, if we end up borrowing it, sometimes we've borrowed it for a couple weeks in the past.

And it's rare that they can let their trucks go for a couple weeks, but some Sometimes they can, and if there's any maintenance on it, we'll just do the maintenance to our fleet shop. So it's just really an exchange, and that's what this IGA is setting up. It's a great thing. Okay, great. All right. I always like talking solid waste early in the morning. I do too, thank you. You mean trash talking? Trash talking. Let's recycle it. I understand there's a presentation, if needed, on item 6A.

This is kind of Terrible's commercial development. Terrible's, it's like okay, that's kind of a new word. Does anybody think we're okay with terrible? Yeah, you want to go ahead and do a presentation, that would be great. I was going to ask. May your council member go forth. Actually, Evan will do the presentation for us. And this is smaller acreage, this is only 1.3 plus or minus acres so, thank you Evan. Thank you. Good morning Mayor, Council. This is the Terribles Development KZON 25895.

There are a couple requests with this one. The first is a rezoning from Planned Employment Park with a Planned Area Development overlay to the limited Commercial zoning district, a special use permit for service stations in the LC district in site plan review. Specifically this would allow approximately a 4,600 square foot convenience store with about a 4,100 square foot accessory fuel canopy. The property is highlighted in blue here.

We're just, what would that be, south of the southwest corner of Hampton and Crisman. Just for reference there's a paint store on the corner and a Dutch Brothers just south of this. South of this. It's approximately 1.3 acres. The existing zoning as I mentioned is PEP with a PAD. It was part of a larger planned area development when it was originally entitled which actually included the craftsmen on the west side of this property.

The request is to rezone to LC again for the convenience service use. The general plan is is urban center with an evolved growth strategy. Convenience services are identified as a principal land use within the Urban center place type. Here you can see some photos of the site. This is actually the last vacant commercial piece with frontage on Crisman Road. The one on the left is looking north, the one on the right is looking west into the site. Here you can see this site plan.

They are providing pedestrian connections to Crisman Road on both the north and the south side of the property as well as to the Lincoln residential development on the west side of this site. There are two main access points through shared drive so there would be no new curb cuts installed, no new drive accesses on Crisman. They are using the existing facilities. Here you can see the landscape plan.

The trees are redpush pistache, mulga, date palms, to highlight entries and more of a statement, as well as a variety of shrubs. Here you can see the elevations. The one on the top is the east elevation, so this would face Crisman Road. The one below that is the north elevation. The top elevation here, the west elevation, faces the Lincoln. I would note that there are laser cut panels to kind of enhance that elevation.

There's a condition of approval actually that they have these two different designs so that there's some uniqueness to each of those as well as a condition to put shaded benches on the back so there would be shade structures. The reason that we're doing that is to better engage the Lincoln developments. There is, I would also note, on this south elevation, you can see that large ramp. There's a pretty substantial grade change on this site.

It's about six feet from the northeast of the site to the southwest of the site. So to be able to access that, they had to put in a ramp for ADA access. But you'll also notice that there's a staircase on the back that provides direct access to the Lincoln with a pedestrian connection to integrate it with the larger development.

You can see the gas canopy Some materials and colors This went to the design review board last month They did get a few comments that they were working on revising for cohesiveness on the elevations They had three materials before The board recommended that they consolidate those so that it a more streamlined design Here you can see renderings. This would be the west elevation that faces the Lincoln. Staff is recommending approval with conditions.

The planning and zoning board also recommended approval with conditions by a vote of 7-0. With that, I'm happy to answer any questions council might have. Just go forth. Yeah, this one, excuse me. I think we, they probably didn't realize the amount of commenting we would have on something like this. We've kind of put them through the ringer a little bit on this development. Evan's done a great job, Mary's done a great job.

And the reason was I had concerns about, A, giving up more planned employment parcels. I don't like doing that. And we don't have many. Now, I understand this was, this is a small part of a larger PEP, and not sure that it makes sense to preserve, you know, an acre and a half or whatever it is. So I do understand that.

The other thing is the Lincoln across that we all voted on a few months ago, they did a really good job of assessing or of addressing all of our concerns about how it's built, making sure that it's connected to the surrounding area. There's a church across the street, there's parks down the street, there's bike lanes in front of it. They did a great job.

And then to bring in another vehicle heavy service station, I had concerns about, but I think staff has done a great job of eliminating those as much as is possible for the use that's coming in. So again, not super happy with the use because of those two concerns, but I think staff has done as much as they can do to alleviate some of that. Vice Mayor. So this is Terribles is new to Arizona, right? This is our first one. Terribles is new to Arizona.

This is definitely their first one in the East Valley when we were doing research earlier. It looks like they were in California. They might be developing others on the West Side. I think they're a Vegas-based organization. Have we looked into what their crime prevention activity is? Are they subscribing to CEPTED principles, crime prevention through environmental design? Is all that included in this design and the flow? Yeah, so we reviewed it for SEPTED.

We are confident that it meets all of those kind of baseline standards. As far as integration with the police department exactly, that's something that I'm happy to look into and find out. Yeah, I would like to remember our crime prevention and make sure. And then just a review, since they're new to our neighborhood, I'd like to know who's moving in. Sure. Right, so to make sure that they're a good neighbor and work to keep the crime rights down and work with our police department.

Some do this a lot better than others, and we know who they are. So I want to know that this is going to be a good neighbor before I zone them. This is not your first convenience store, huh? This is not my first go around with convenience stores, yeah. This is my first. So thank you for those comments. Yes, ma'am. I appreciate that. I can't tell, Evan, but to the west of this site there's a pad there. Is that PEP so far? Yeah, so the orange one here... The ones off of Hampton?

Yeah, so it's Planned Employment Park on the north, and this is a Sherwin-Williams. This is a Dutch Brothers and an EG's. This orange portion here was Planned Employment Park. That's the Lincoln, and it was rezoned to RM2 with the Planned Area Development overlay. It was originally all part of the same PAD and that one was removed. Okay. I have a quick question. Is there, thank you by the way, is there another gas station around here? I don't know this area as well.

I just shop at Sherwin-Williams. I don't know. I have a Tesla. Poor thing. You're pretty lucky right now. Mayor, Councilmember Taylor, there are a few gas stations on Southern. There's one in Southern and Signal Butte. I believe there's actually one on the south side in Crisman and Baseline. The Bays Line, actually I might be making that up. There aren't any immediate corners. So there are not any immediate adjacent. There's a couple, south side of Signal Butte. Signal Butte, thank you.

It looks like the closest one. There's a quick trip north of Southern, on the east hand side of Christmas. A few blocks up. So this could service that little, that whole little area. I mean, I'm thinking the people who live at the Lincoln, if nothing, they're like, hey, it's right there, it's easy.

And then I just I sorry I was reading through this quickly yesterday Is the name of the gas station Terribles It is Councilmember Yes the name is Terribles That is so I hope it good gas Okay Thank you Okay. Well, that was a great conversation there. Mayor? Yes, Mr. Adams? Are you ready to move on to another item? Please. I'd like to explore, this won't involve gas stations or electric cars. Or food and beverage or shopping. I'd like to explore 5A just a bit. I don't know if Sharon is here or...

Yeah, I had this same question, South Canal and Nehi shared use gas. Yeah, I saw that, liked that. Good morning. Sharon Skinner, grants coordinator. Happy to respond to any questions that you have about the SRPMIC item on our agenda. Just a quick overview. We are a pass through entity for the tribal gaming funds for Prop 202 or otherwise known as 12% gaming revenue from the tribes as part of the compact that was developed with the state and The tribal, or the local tribes.

So we passed through 12% funding for all of the tribes in our local community. May I continue, Mayor? Yes. Good morning. I'm curious, and I'm probably forgetting from the presentation last year, but do our friends at the Salt River Pima Maricopa Tribe, Do they put together a commission or a group that determines the allocation? How do they rank that? I know we've got different organizations, different amounts of money. Is that the tribes work?

Or how does that, how does this presentation come about with the amounts to the various not-for-profits? Yes, Mayor and Councilmember Adams, the tribes all self-direct this money. So it's up to their council to determine who they fund. We are simply a pass-through entity for that funding. But in this case, and every tribe has a different process, this particular tribe does their applications by invitation only.

And so only the people they invite to apply can apply and then they select the awardees and then what they do is they go to the local governments and say we would like to pass through in your community these funds. And they don't just pass through Mesa. They pass through other cities as well as the county. Okay, so it's the tribe and its committees or entities that determine who gets how much. Certainly grateful that they're considering passing that amount of money on to us.

And I won't second guess or question the process or structure that they use to determine those amounts. The only reason I ask the question, there are some recipients, proposed recipients here that have, Very healthy balance sheets. And there are some that probably struggle for funding more than others. So I don't know if we have any any feedback that we provide during that time, not questioning their judgment by any means.

Just curious where that was coming from and very grateful to see that the Lehigh shared path is part of that allocation. So thank you. You should have brought Harmony with you. Should I? So why don't Harmony stand up or at least come up? Come on up. So as you may or may not know, I'll be retiring in January and I will no longer be the grants coordinator for the city of Mesa. You have a new grants coordinator who is currently shadowing me, who we are in the process of transitioning with.

This is Harmony Zalanka. So Mayor and Council, this is a good opportunity because Sharon's not often at the dais and so this might be the last time before she does retire, but after many years and many years of having me beg her to delay, which she did for several years, her retirement, the time is finally coming and congratulations to Sharon, but she has done a tremendous job over how many years she's been. How many years now? It's been 15.

Fifteen years I hired Sharon back in one of my previous roles and she has done a tremendous job doing this and we really appreciate the work and support that she given the city and helped modernize and streamline the way that we do our grants and has looked at our federal process our state process our Indian gaming process And so it been it been a lot of work that she been able to put into into this over those 15 years So thanks to Sharon We look forward to having Harmony join us Like I said she she has some connections here at the city and so she fit in very very nicely So we look forward to her being able to step in and not skip a beat.

So... Should we say, say hi to her mother-in-law or something like that? All right. Well, can I just say thank you, Sharon, for your 15 years of service to the city. And we haven't had a lot of interactions with the ones we've had. I've been very appreciative of your knowledge and dedication, commitment to the city of Mason. So thank you.

Yeah, I would add that, Sharon, you went through great pains with me, the freshman council member, explaining how this works last year and congratulations Harmony. We've known each other since your days at Macy United Way, so congratulations. Thank you. I'll just add on the 150,000 going transportation, that's to Eric's department, I guess, for the design. You don't have to come up, Eric. I love how fast they stay at town. It's either you or Lance, you know, getting these money.

So I imagine it's going to transportation about the design for the South Canal, but please reach out to District 1. Let's make sure everything is there could be a little bit of this and that out there in that Lehigh area. Trust me. Okay. So thank you. Okay. Council, I see on the agenda as well. Is there anything else from the council? We have Mesa Town Center Improvement District number 228 coming to council for approval. Or we'll see. Yeah, Mayor, and I'll just say, yeah.

Continuation of the resolution. Jimmy and Jeff did a great job a few months ago providing that overview of the presentation is really the same that you saw We saw back just a couple of months ago when they came and gave their update, so we weren't planning to do that, but they're available for any questions if folks have that. We just didn't want to run through the same material you saw just... No, I just put it on the radar. Yeah. Downtown Merchant Association. Okay. Anything else, council?

Yeah, I am. You go first. 4F. So, Eric, I think you do have to get up. I just was curious about that we only had one response and if you could talk a little bit about that and who's doing it now? Is this the company doing it now? Did the company doing it now? Did they not respond? It's never good when there's not competition, right? Good morning, Mayor Council. Yes, we did look at this. There have been in the past three contracts going back to 2016 and we've always had one or two bids on it.

We did contact the vendor that has the contract now. They did say that either they missed it in their emails or that they weren't prepared to respond. So we did follow up with them. It's not anything that we did wrong. It just happened to be the way they were responding to the contract. So the current contract, they missed it? Yes. Wow. Okay. Yes. And as I said, the last three times we put this out, including this, we've only had one or two responses each time.

So it's a very limited vendor pool to pull on. Okay. Thank you. I have a 4H. Is that you all as well, probably? Oh, yeah, thank you. Thanks, Ari. Thank you. Did you have another one? Yeah, 4-H on, um, so... If you could just kind of give us a rundown. So we have $755,000 more, uh, dollars of work That we didn't know that we needed?

Yeah, so 4-H, this, Mayor, Councilmember Goforth, this is a contract that's been in place for a number of years, and we're asking for additional spend authority under this contract. We have, whether it's inspection work, there's quite a bit under this contract of several vendors, and it's essentially work to continue ongoing maintenance in our system. An example, we do a lot of valve replacement work so if we have a valve in our We have a system that's not working properly.

It means if we have a leak, we can't isolate. That's a problem for us. And typically we will do the work in-house for the smaller valves, but for some of the larger ones on our system, we have these contracted vendors to do that work. So this is work that we've identified that we'd like to get done to keep our system in good working order. And we have the budget capacity to do that. and would like to extend some additional work to these vendors.

This contract is in its last year, so it'll be getting rebid here shortly. Yeah, so it ends in April of 2027. So just in the next few months, you want to finish this work? Correct. Okay, it just seemed like a lot of work for, you know, the last six months of a seven-year contract that came up. Yeah, I was asking staff about this. It seems we, um, maybe lined up a lot of work here coming up towards the end of this contract. Okay. Appreciate it. Thanks, Joe.

Joe, you sound like a cardiothoracic surgeon. We have valves, they're leaking, you know, I was like, immediately imagining you working in a hospital. Mayor, I have one that I'd like to discuss. It's 5C. This has to do with the Arterial Life Cycle Program, the Country Club in Southern. Hi again. Thank you. I was looking over the the MAG contract and I was just trying to understand, really, was this, is this dedicated to start in June of 20, is it June of 2027 that I was reading?

Fiscal year, material life cycle program. So, yeah, so what's coming to council on Monday, Is our agreement with MAG as part of the arterial life cycle program that we can get 70% reimbursement for the entirety of the project, for the construction of the project. Engineering is just finishing up the design of this project, so I'm not exactly sure when we're going to be going to construction. It'll be sometime next year. There's some coordination with SRP that still has to be finalized.

But what's going to you on Monday is the agreement with MAG so that as we expend money, we can then go and get reimbursement on a monthly or quarterly basis of 70% of what we spend. Got it. Okay. And that's that $7,985,000. Correct. Okay, great. And then you said it's probably not even slated to start maybe even for another year into next year? Uh, it needs to be started sooner rather than later. This is Proposition 400 money that needs to be expended by the end of June of 2028.

I'm mostly asking because I have residents here, how much construction is going on? You know what I hear. Like we've got Southern and all this, we've got Broadway, so then they're going to ask about this as well. So it's always... Right. Mayor and Council, we actually just recently executed an agreement with SRP to do some of their work. on the electrical side before we start, but yeah we we are finalizing design now and we'll be moving forward with construction next year.

Okay, as long as I can prepare just drivers in general who live in my district as well and not in my district. We understand it's a busy corridor. Yeah, thank you. Thanks for explaining that this is more just around the reimbursement, not necessarily around the whole entire project being executed. So I know it's gonna be a big one. It is and that's where I asked staff if they could wait till after I retired before they did this.

Unfortunately, no, because we'll lose the bag funding that comes along with us. So we're gonna have to do it. We've been expecting and preparing for this project for years. We know that this will be this is one of our busiest corridors in the entire city. But it's also very much needed from a safety enhancement standpoint. That's one of our most dangerous corridors. the corridors in the city. And so we, this will be a very good project.

But that is why right now, as we have talked about these major construction projects, we're working on Val Vista in Southern right now to stand up a business assistance program here in just a matter of weeks. That will carry over into that concept into other CIP programs. And certainly this project will be this kind of a scale and the scope that will require us to ensure that we're doing everything right by the businesses along this corridor too. Because this will be a very disruptive project.

There's just no other way to say it. And so we just going to have to be very mindful of that And these chalminar like I said we been preparing for this project for years if not decades And so it finally coming to a head right now as we get closer to construction Good. Ms. Steph? Not in district. Oh, you didn't? Okay. I'm just glad it's actually fine. We've been talking about it before. So I've been here 12 years and there were designs before I got here that were finally getting to this project.

So yes. I think Chris Brady said do construction after he had retired. So I think that's why. Well I think one of the highlights is both 5C and D. We're going to maximize shared costs and we're going to take those monies back from flood control and be able to maximize and put those monies into other projects. Right, gentlemen? Right. I mean that's our goal. Yeah, so the reimbursement money that we receive from MAG goes into a fund that then we fund other transportation CIP projects. Yeah, good.

All right, thank you. While they're up here, council, any other for them? I want to get them all the way back to his seat to call them back up. Good morning, we're done. All right, council, anything else on the agenda? Cup of coffee. All right, I think the next part might be a little faster. Item two is to acknowledge receipt of board minutes. Is there a motion to that effect? Thank you, Mr. Adams. Thank you, Ms. Taylor. All in favor say aye. Aye. Motion passes unanimously.

Current events and conferences attended. Council members, would you have anything you'd like to share? We can start with Mr. Adams on the left. Do you, my left? Ms. Duff? I'll take his time. There's a lot going on but I do want to highlight some great events that have happened. On October 9th we have the Green Living Magazine Best of Arizona Awards right here at the Post.

Water use it wisely receiving an award so thank you to Donna DeFrancisco, Lauren Whitaker, Scott Boucher for their work on this program. The next day, the main library celebrated its 120th anniversary. And the most cool thing ever, the celebration was wonderful, I even made a crown, but the most cool thing ever is also they're introduced the Mesa Room, which is the history of our city, which typically you told Shanlin what you were interested in, and she would bring a stock.

and you could look through all these publications and photos and everything, but now it's all digital. So on the main floor of the main library, there's a huge map of what Mesa is back to 1897 with photos. You can layer it, you can go to current day, anywhere in between to see historical data, maps, changes in color, black and white, you name it, to see the history of Mesa. And it's fascinating and much more fun than looking through a stack of documents. I would highly recommend it.

The next day on October 11th, I went to the Phoenix Pride Parade. Great turnout on that, always fun. October 14th was LISC, Local Initiative Support Corporation Awards Breakfast. I think Councilmember Taylor showed for a little while there too. So thank you for all the work that they do in supporting our nonprofits, Community Good. October 15th was our ninth annual Domestic Violence Awareness Night at The Post.

Thank you to the City Prosecutor's Office and Mesa PD for hosting this event yet again. The Post was a beautiful place to have it. I thank you to all the resources and vendors that were there to bring awareness and also assist people who wanted to make an inquiry for themselves or that are people that they know in order to have a safer life and get out of dilemmas. Last weekend it was humming around here in downtown Mesa. It was Mesa Music Festival. The POD finished out on Saturday night.

I wasn't able to make that performance, but I saw the photos. It was jammed. A lot of people showed up. There was also other great performances. And so thank you Indian and the Mesa Music Festival.

on Saturday morning I think it was Saturday morning Empty Bowls was at the Mesa Arts Center down in the what do we call the anyway at the Mesa the Contemporary Arts Museum right in that courtyard there they had the Empty Bowls this is a beautiful day so glad that it was here in downtown Mesa I been attending this event for decades it seems like It been at Mesa Community College for many years and not to take that away from them I glad to see the art of selling these pottery bowls The money is in conjunction with Waste Knot and United Food Bank And you buy a bowl for $25 for your first one to $15.

The money goes for hunger. And you get unique, you know, ceramic bowls. Also going on that day was Willow and Oak Alliance had their first food bank distribution at VFW here on downtown Mesa. Bringing food distribution right here in the heart of Mesa, where we are in a food desert and we have many people in need to have it so convenient and walking distance for many was, we very much appreciate the alliance with United Food Bank and they ordered to bring it to downtown Mesa.

And yesterday I attended a Together Mesa quarterly meeting. And I'm of course very familiar with the collective we have of nonprofits and churches and that was created enduring COVID and coming together to address social and serious issues in our city collectively, how we can make things better. But it's very powerful.

Yesterday we discussed the intricacies of poverty and the important acknowledging humans and it's not just a handout, it's really being present to people and making a personal connection in order to help people is so important to understand them as people. As well as we talked about all kinds of solutions to that. So I appreciate how the work they do is tremendous and coming together to solve our problems and social issues. Thank you. Mr. Radio. Just in the line of shout out to the library.

They also have the library card, Jimmy E World. I think it's how they use that to make literacy cool. So shout out to the staff there at the library. I'm still in line to get my card. Yeah, no, it's a, and Jimmy E World, like Mesa Zone, right, Westwood and I think Red Mountain was it? They went to those high schools. So shout out to the Mesa Library. And then this weekend, I don't know if Mr. Butler can mention, Dia de los Muertos here in downtown. We always get a good crowd out there.

A lot of volunteers, a lot of sponsors, a lot of great activities, both on Saturday and Sunday. So come down to Mesa Arts Center, downtown Mesa, a lot of great things. Lila Downs, I think is performing in the evening, So it should be a great event this weekend here in downtown Mesa. I'll see you there. Vice Mayor? Just a couple quick things. Coming up today, if you haven't noticed, Mesa Boo is back at the library.

Speaking of libraries, so tonight they will be in Superstition Springs at Brady Park at the Mesa Express Library. The big event will be on the 27th in my district, sorry. Big event in my district or at other places too. On the 27th at 10 a.m. at the Gateway Library. So bring the kids, bring, you know, dress them up so they can get some candy and whatnot. The and also we had a meeting, Mesa Gateway Airport had a meeting which was really interesting because we had a tour with Waymo.

If you didn't know Waymo's are made south of Gateway Airport and the mayor's been working on and the board had been working on trying to get Waymo to service that airport. So they had a little tour, they had a couple vehicles out there and I got some B-roll for a future announcement hopefully details forthcoming. But that's pretty exciting. Well, but you can't. They were recording you if you didn't notice. So I have to be careful what I say.

So they will actually, you can take Waymo anywhere and go to Mesa Gateway Airport. You can be dropped off in. It doesn't come out to Power Road. Well, okay. Yeah. In Waymo's territory, you can go to Mesa Gateway Airport. Let's put it that way. And back.

Yes we would like them to expand their territory if you listening to Waymo Yes we would to Power Road It would be great There a lot of people who live out there We leave that to Ian and get them on it Yeah All right Just go for it So a couple weekends ago we had Celebrate Mesa which apparently historic turnout Record turnout Yeah, that's great. Yeah, I was there. The mayor was there. There were a lot of people. It was a great event. Yeah, it ended up really nice.

And then thank you to Eric Guderian. We had another city session for the New Frontiers Lifelong Learners. So he did one on transportation and it was well attended and enjoyed by all. And then our BOO event in District 5 is Wednesday the 28th, 10 a.m. Red Mountain Library. That's a popular one. Okay. Ms. Taylor? I feel like we haven't been up here for a while.

So on the 10th, I was really excited because we had the ribbon cutting for the grand opening of White House Black Market and Ann Taylor in Dana Park. So those are two prominent retailers that we're very excited to welcome. That is a part of the Knitwill slash Chico's brand line. So we now have Loft, White House Black Market, Ann Taylor, Chico's, and Soma all in the same area. So people who are really loyal to that brand will find that everything is available now. So we do a little shopping.

I took my mom. She was here visiting. That was very fun. Thank you so much to that retailer for being there. We really appreciate you here in Mesa and we're very excited to host you And hopefully you'll be extremely successful. And then on the 14th, yes, I saw Councilmember Duff at Lisk. That was, I wish I could have stayed longer. That was a really great introduction to that group kind of working with our not-for-profits in our housing development for people that are in underprivileged lives.

And then I ran over to Nexus, which was in our downtown Mesa Delta Hotel, our Marriott, and I got to catch the very end of Nexus. I was hoping to stay to get there early enough to hear the full scope, but that was for our economic development department. And, Mayor, you were there, right? You introduced the whole entire thing. Yeah. And then I went to the East Valley Partnership luncheon. That was extremely insightful.

We had, we basically had some people that were candidates that were discussing why we should vote for them. I really enjoyed kind of getting to see both sides. The Democrat candidates and the Republican candidates were there and they had their moment to stand up and say this is why I think you should vote for me. And it was an enjoyable experience. And then I had the opportunity to go to... Sorry, I'm moving over here. Oh, I met with the new owner of a new leaf.

So Brandon and I got to chat and he kind of explained what his vision was for that not-for-profit. I was very excited to have the opportunity to kind of hear him out. And I think that was everything for me. I want to say that's the whole shebang. Sorry, just checking to make sure I didn't miss anything. Didn't get to do the sunset reset. I was really hoping. I'm going to try to make the Mesa Cemetery tour. That is my goal. Do you know they're doing that? This, yeah.

Well, I know people are dying to get in there. Oh. I'm going to, I'm just going to close out with that. Thank you. That was phenomenal. I can't resist. I grew up next to the Mesa Cemetery. I had one more. Okay, that was good. I toured the Heritage Academy yesterday and that was just an... No, was it yesterday? I'm sorry. It was on Tuesday. I had the honor of touring the Heritage Academy and that was just a really insightful opportunity to listen in on some of the teachers teaching their classes.

They were doing a government class, so they had formed a dictatorship and then they were going to talk about all the rules of communism and the class was just upset because they didn't want to follow these rules, so then they had to create a revolution to create a new form of government. I'm just sitting in on this and I'm like, this is amazing. Listen to these kids debate this out. This is awesome. So thank you to Jared for allowing me to come tour your campus. It was awesome. Great.

Mayor, you keep making puns like that. People are going to ghost you. Oh, my gosh. Oh, it's time to do it. Oh, Jared. That's great. This study session, wow. Love it. Mayor, I'm going to add on, the Mesa Historical Museum is doing the cemetery tour on Saturday 8 to 10 a.m. You can buy tickets in advance or I'm sure right there I'll be participating at the RAF grave sites. And the library Halloween boo for the main library is Thursday at 10 a.m. the 29th.

Yes, the Mesa Cemetery tour is this Saturday morning from 8 to 10. I will be doing the welcome. With that, I just want to give a huge shout out to Jay O'Donnell and her economic development team on Mesa Nexus. We had 100 and something, 200 people, business leave 200. I mean that was really a big deal. And the first time we've done that, Jay's done that. And that showcased Mesa. Then there was a panel set up with David Larcher, Mr.

Butler, Boeing, Mark Gaspers, and TJ Clausen talking about restaurants and food and beverage. And that was an enlightening panel. So I appreciate, Jay, you need to do that every year, correct? For the next 10 years. So with that, I appreciate that. As well as I did a relay for life at Westwood High School for the American Cancer Society. And I'll just say that I had some cancer removed from my nose and just awareness for everybody.

If anything is not properly fitting on your skin, get into your dermatologist, get checked out and get it, get removed.

Yesterday Mayor Youth Committee was done at the Arizona Museum of Natural History and I like to thank all the departments that attended It was pretty awesome I think there were like everybody there pretty much and I thought wow And the youth had a really great experience listening to all of the departments and we were trying to do recruitment on the end with that Nothing else I have Mr Butler can you share the schedule of meetings Yeah, thank you, Mayor and Council, and thank you.

You all covered anything that I had on my list to discuss, so thank you for doing that. I know it's a busy time of year and it's greatly appreciated. I know it's hard to carve out some of the times to make all the different events, but you all do, And so we're very appreciative of your time. We'll be back on Monday for study session at 515, followed by the full council meeting at 545 after that. So thank you very much, Mayor. All right. I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Thank you, Vice Mayor.

Thank you, Mr. Ready. All in favor say aye. Aye. Okay, we're adjourned. Have a good rest of the day. The name of the B-1-R-O-L-S-E-C-H.