Tempe approves 20-unit townhomes with tree privacy conditions; state law may block ADU denial

Good evening everyone. Welcome to the Tempe City Council regular council meeting. Item number one is called to order. Council meetings can be watched in real time via CoxCable channel 11 and at tempy.gov/temp1. Members of the public may also attend the meeting virtually through Microsoft Teams. I'd like to also begin by recognizing the students, parents, and teachers from the Manita Student Council of the Kyne de Lasitas Innovation Academy who are joining us here this evening.

They're here to learn more about how an official city council meeting works and we want to encourage them to continue engaging with and participating in their community. So, welcome to all the folks from Kyne de Lasponas. Uh, next announce that if you signed up to speak on items later on the agenda, please know that as a presiding officer, I have the discretion to introduce items out of their regular order as listed on the agenda.

I may change the order of items from time to time to accommodate scheduling to allow us to address items with a large number of speaker cards. So those wishing to speak on those items don't have to wait until later in the meeting or to otherwise expedite the business of the meeting.

If you wish to speak on an agenda item and you haven't filled out a speaker card quite yet, please make sure to fill out and submit your completed card to the city clerk prior to the item coming forward for council discussion. I will call your name when it is your turn for public comment. I'd now like to invite everyone who's able and willing to stand to join me in a moment of silence followed by the pledge of allegiance. Thank you.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Tonight's agenda has a number of items that the city council must consider in order to conduct city business. Guidelines for conduct at city council meetings are on the table near the entrance for those in attendance at tonight's meeting.

We will now play a video with the proper protocol for ensuring the appropriate conduct at city council meetings. The city of Tempe welcomes public comment at this time. Disruptive behavior will not be allowed. Continued disruptive behavior will lead to removal from the council chambers. We need to be able to hear everyone in the room. Behavior that disrupts, disturbs, or otherwise impedes the orderly conduct of any city council meeting is not helpful and is not permitted.

This includes behavior both inside and outside of the council chambers. Should individuals inside the council chambers become disruptive so that city business is not able to be conducted, the mayor will first ask that the individuals allow city business to be completed. There will be time for public comment during the call to the audience portion of the meeting.

If no cooperation, the mayor will issue a verbal warning and let them know that the continued disruptive behavior will lead to removal from the council chambers. If there is still no cooperation, the mayor will issue a second verbal warning and let them know that the continued disruptive behavior will lead to removal from the council chambers.

If there is no cooperation after asking and two verbal warnings, then the mayor will ask security officers to remove only those individuals who are causing the disruption. Security personnel should not engage in any way, but only escort them from the council chambers. If individuals refuse to leave, security personnel shall warn them that they are trespassing and that the next step will be arrest by a Tempe police officer. Tempe officers may have to arrest if individuals refuse to leave.

Charges for trespass and disorderly conduct may apply, as well as other charges. Should anyone be asked to be removed, the mayor will recess the meeting. Thank you. We will now play a video conveying the city of Tempee's native land acknowledgement statement. We wish to acknowledge that Tempe is the homeland of the native people who have inhabited this landscape since time immemorial.

These ancestral lands of the Aam known as Puma Peiposh known as the Maricopa and their ancestors extend far beyond our city. This land continues to be spiritually connected to the aotham of the Salt River Puma Maricopa Indian Community and Hila River Indian Community. We accept the responsibility of stewarding those places and solemnly pledge to consider this commitment in every action. Thank you. Next up is item number four, meeting minutes.

We actually don't have any city council meeting minutes ready for approval under item 4 A. So, I'm going to move on to item 4B, which is the acceptance of board, commission, and committee meeting minutes. Council member Keating. Thank you, Mayor. I move we approve item 4B 1 through 8. Okay. It's been moved by Council Member Keating and seconded by Vice Mayor Garland. Please vote. And that item passes seven to zero. Next up here, item number five, reports and announcements.

We have Biddy this evening. So, I'm going to go ahead and come down just as council as well. When we finish actually with the law day awards, I'll have you join uh myself and Judge Kane and all the folks down here in the front for a photo, but we're going to do this first. So, always going to do law day in style around here. So, all right. So, the wonderful artwork. Let's see. Is it displayed here this evening? There it is. There we go. All right.

So, the wonderful artwork that you can see displayed in the council chambers today ushers in another year of celebrating Law Day. The posters here are the winners of this year's Law Day Art Contest. And the 2025 Law Day theme as designated by the American Bar Association is the Constitution's promise out of many one. 23 years ago, the Tempe Municipal Court, first presented to students in elementary schools throughout the city of Tempee.

This year, presentations have continued to be offered in schools and kids programs to educate students on the designated theme. In addition to the art contest, the Tempe Municipal Court collaborated with the Mayor's Youth Advisory Commission and ASU School of Social Transformation to develop teaching content for seventh and eighth grade students to explore diverse perspectives on unity and constitutional promises.

So, coming down with me right now, I do feel a little Bob Barkeresque, uh, to present the winners for the best artistic impression of the law day theme is the presiding judge of the Tempe Municipal Court, Judge Kevin Kaine. Thank you, [Applause] Mayor City Council, and those of you in the audience, parents, friends, teachers. Um, I want you to know how proud I am of the Phoenix Municipal Court, uh, hosting this event. We've done it now for 23 years, and this year is no exception.

It was, uh, an amazing response from teachers and students. We had uh, presentations in 15 different classrooms. We had a total of 421 students who received presentations from our judges regarding the law day theme and the history of law day. And we had 125 entries. And you'll see the slideshow on the screens that show all of the entries uh that depict uh the theme for this year, which is set, as the mayor said, by the um the American Bar Association.

So, we're very proud to host this again this year and welcome everyone here. I received today from the Arizona Supreme Court Chief Justice a letter regarding Law Day. I'm going to quote a little bit of it.

She said, "Today we proudly join Americans across the country in celebrating Law Day, a time to reflect on the fundamental role that the rule of law plays in safeguarding our democracy, our rights, and our freedoms." And she closes by saying, "The law day reminds us that justice requires vigilance, integrity, and active citizen participation." And this is an example of active citizen participation, the law day art contest.

And I also want to recognize some of our court staff and our judges who helped us organize and bring this uh celebration and art contest to fruition. Um, I'd like to invite uh judges uh Fuller and Judge Judges Fuller and Rate to come down and help me greet the students as we announce the winners. But I'd also like to again acknowledge court staff and especially Alicia Major, our court executive assistant, who did a yman's job in organizing all of the events surrounding our LA Day celebration.

It's now my pleasure to announce the winners. And as the mayor said, the winning uh entries are in the back being displayed. The others are going to be displayed along with the winners and have been displayed in at the Tempe Art Museum. It will be dis the display will be there until May 11th. So I encourage you all to go down to the art museum and see the other entries that are being displayed on the screens tonight.

So without further ado, I'd like to begin by recognizing our honorable mention winner who is Abigail Stevens from the fifth grade class of Rover Kid Zone and her teachers are Nicholas Alejandre and Justin Behar. If you'll all come down and join us um as we call the others down for a picture at the end. Please join us. Congratulations. The third prize winners, we have two are Emma Hughes from Come on down, Emma. She's from the Ward Traditional Academy Kids Zone and her teacher is Jamie Dashini.

Come on down. And Realel 2 and Adeline Calderon, fifth grade from Rover Kids Zone. and their teachers are Nicholas Alejandro and Justin Dehar. Those are our third prize winners. Our second prize winners are Rosalyn Whitfield, sixth grader from McKenna Kidzone, and her teacher is Shannon West. If you all come down. Our second second prize winner is Isaac Lee Alderman. Isaac, congratulations. fifth grade ID law kids zone and Isaac's teacher is Jeffrey Maxwell.

And then our first prize winners, Catalia Salvini, fifth grade, Espironza Elementary. Her teacher is Michelle Patella. And then our second first prize winner is Georgia Gurmer, fourth grader at Rover Kidzone. Her teacher is Nicholas Alejandre and Justin Behar. Congratulations to all of our students who are winners.

We also want to be in we want to include in the picture um with mayor and city council Patricia or Patty Russell who um is our senior community education coordinator with the city who also helped us organize for this art contest. So Patty, if you'll come down and join us, too. Thank you. All right, we're ready for a photograph, I guess. Thank you. Get in front. I'll be having a gentleman here. You can't see me. Everyone smile and one more. [Applause] Major mic. All right.

Next up here, item number two, Kyne de Laspanita's Innovation Academy. So I want to make sure as we did earlier here, welcome the Kyne de Laspanita's Innovation Academy students, parents and teachers in the audience this evening and want to make sure that we can invite all of you down here for a group photo. The students the students for everyone. Um, so if you are, so if you are here from Kyrie de Las and you're a student or a parent, come on down.

So, just as a quick note here, too, a couple times, I want to make sure that I'm recognizing the 12 students, 10 parents, and two teachers for the Bonita Student Council of the Kyne Deas Bonita Innovation Academy who are joining us this evening. They're here to learn more about how an official city council meeting works.

And of course, as I said before, we want to continue to encourage them uh to show up to these meetings whenever they have time to learn more about our form of city government because obviously uh all of us here, myself and the six council members, we're not going to be here forever. So, we are constantly out there looking for replacements. So, welcome each and every one of you. Thank you for being here. [Applause] Everybody big smile like that one last jobate. All right.

So, next up here, item number three, Bike Hero 2025 award presentation. So the Tempe Bike Hero Award recognizes individuals and organizations that aid in increasing awareness of bicycling and promoting bicycling as a viable mode of transportation right here in the city of Tempe. This year, the Tempe Transportation Commission selected as the 2025 bike hero, Steven Gerner. [Applause] Congratulations. Awesome. Thank you very much. [Music] I was going to say Mr. Mr.

Gerard that is yours because as they teach me all the time in this job if I actually somehow walk home with that I have officially not done my job for the evening. So So Stephen has been a transformative force in advancing cycling advocacy and nurturing a vibrant bicycling culture in the city.

As part of the Tempe Bicycle Action Group, Steven rebooted and expanded Teabag's bike rodeos, making them more engaging and inclusive while promoting safety and active transportation throughout the community. In addition, Steven organized a certified instructor's course, a program to train new instructors to teach the League of American Bicyclists safe cycling curriculum, hosting the the course at his bakery. We should talk about that later because I do love I do love baked goods.

uh even providing lunch and of course fresh baked pastries. He created a warm supportive environment that has significantly bolstered Tempy's capacity to grow its cycling culture. He's implemented bike rodeos targeted primarily towards new bicyclists and children. And with each event, he modifies the curriculum to foster more involvement and joy for the participants.

As part of the three feet please organization, he helped transition it into a nonprofit organization and spearheaded innovative initiatives. Steven's collaborative spirit further shines through his exceptional grant writing efforts because once again, every good nonprofit organization needs a good grant writer.

We all know that his work has been instrumental in securing funding for multiple key initiatives, including the Tempe Bicycle Action Group, the Broadmore Bike Bus, and the Mcccleintoch High School Bike Club. You know, you know, it's funny. I I knew she was going to do that and it still shocked me when she did it. Someday I'm going to learn.

These grants have been vital in sustaining and expanding programs that promote safe, accessible cycling for all while getting national recognition for our community groups. His visionary leadership, dedication to community engagement, and multiaceted contributions exemplify the spirit of the Tempe Bike Hero Award and make Tempe a safer, more bike friendly community. So, congratulations, Stephen. We really appreciate your efforts and congratulations on being the 2025 bike hero. Hey, picture.

Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you for all the great stuff you guys did. Oh, thank you. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Oh, thank you. I appreciate that. All right. Next up here. I'm looking right at at at our clerk because I think she knows exactly what's coming. It is the 56th annual Professional Municipal Clerk's Week proclamation. So, if our clerk's team can come join me in the front here as well. Oh, and the council assistants as well.

[Music] You got to love a happy night in the council chambers. What What's not to be happy about if you live and work in the city of Tempee? All right. So, this proclamation reads, "Whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk, a timehonored and vital part of local government exists throughout the world. And whereas the office of the professional municipal clerk is the oldest among public servants.

And whereas the office of the profession of municipal clerk provides the professional link between the citizens, the local governing bodies, and agencies of government at other levels. And whereas professional municipal clerks have pledged to be ever mindful of their neutrality and impartiality, rendering equal service to all. And whereas the professional municipal clerk serves as the information center on functions of local government and community.

And whereas professional municipal clerks continually strive to improve the administration of the office of the professional municipal clerk through participation in education programs, seminars, workshops, and the annual meetings of their state, provincial, county, and international professional organizations. And whereas it is most appropriate that we recognize the accomplishments of the office of the professional municipal clerk.

Now therefore, I, Corey Woods, mayor of the city of Tempe, Arizona, do hereby declare May 4th through May 10th, 2024 as Professional Municipal Clerk's Week in Tempe, Arizona. [Applause] Okay. All [Applause] right. Next up here, item number five here, National Child Abuse Prevention Month Proclamation. Uh, let's see. Do we have Michelle Brown or Lan Davis here or anyone else from our team who are coming forward? I know you wonderful people. Got to make it more than a couple times a year.

So you said wonderful you are I just want each and every person to know uh a lot of these folks here are from the Tempe Women's Club and as a note I think most of us on the city council including me are official duespaying members of the Tempe women's club. I want that note for the record. But in all seriousness, they do such an exceptional job uh for the city of Tempe and we appreciate all of their efforts and we have this proclamation this evening.

So whereas during fiscal year 23-24 in Arizona, 42,566 reports were made to the Department of Child Safety, child abuse and neglect is a serious problem affecting every segment of our community. And finding solutions requires input and action from everyone. And whereas our children are our most valuable resources and will shape the future of Arizona. And child abuse can have long-term psychological, emotional, and physical effects that have lasting consequences for victims of abuse and neglect.

And whereas effective child abuse prevention activities succeed because of the partnerships created between child welfare professionals, education, health, community, and faith-based organizations, businesses, law enforcement agencies, and families. And whereas we acknowledge that we must work together as a community to increase awareness about child abuse and contribute to promote the social and emotional well-being of children and families in a safe, stable, and nurturing environment.

And whereas prevention remains the best defense for our children and families in Arizona. And whereas the city of Tempe urges all residents to recognize this month by dedicating themselves to the task of improving the quality of life for all children and families. Now therefore, I, Corey Woods, mayor of the city of Tempe, Arizona, do hereby declare April 2025 as National Child Abuse Prevention Month in Tempe, Arizona. [Applause] I'm always here. All right.

Item number six, mental health awareness month proclamation. I see Tim Bur and his team coming forward right on Q. All right. So this proclamation reads, "Whereas the city of Tempee is proud to recognize May as mental health awareness month to raise awareness of available city and community resources while also helping to break the stigma surrounding mental health.

And whereas we are encouraging everyone in this community to focus on the healing value of connecting, prioritizing mental health, and reaching out for help. And whereas Tempy's Community Health and Human Services Department is committed to offering city resources and collaborating with community partners to address immediate and long-term needs.

And whereas Care 7, the city's crisis response program, offers 247 crisis response services, support groups, youth specialists, and victim and veteran services. And whereas the city's counseling services offers professional lowcost counseling services through licensed clinicians to the Tempe community. And whereas the city's resource navigator helps connect individuals to mental health support services through the Tempe City Jail and Municipal Court.

And whereas the Tempe Police Department and Community and Health Community Health and Human Services Department continue to partner with Solari Crisis and Human Services to ensure 911 callers get specialized mental health assistance in Tempee. And whereas the city of Tempe encourages all residents this month and beyond to consider how they can make a difference in the lives of a friend, family member, or neighbor who might be struggling.

Now therefore, I, Corey Woods, mayor of the city of Tempe, Arizona, do hereby declare May 2025 as mental health awareness month in Tempe, Arizona. [Applause] Thank you. All right, item number seven here, reappointments to the Tempe Fire and Police Public Safety Personnel Retirement Systems Boards and the Merit System Board.

So this evening, I want to congratulate Bill Munch, chair of the Merit System Board, and his reappointment to the Tempe Fire and Police Public Safety Personnel Retirement System Board, and Jim Foley on his reappointment to the Merit System Board, as outlined in item 7A1 on this evening's agenda. That concludes my announcements. I'm going to look to item 5B, city manager reports and announcements. Madam City Manager, thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I only had one announcement this evening, and I think Jason, there he is on quue. So, Arizona summers can be very dangerous as we know. To help those in need, Tempe offers multiple sites and I wanted to make sure that we amplify where those sites are um to our residents. They can go to cool off, hydrate, and get connected with resources from our hope team. We are committed to listening to our residents and meeting our community needs.

Last summer and earlier this year, we held several meetings about our cooling centers regarding the help they provided and the impacts on our neighborhoods. As a result of these meetings, we developed a criteria. Thank you, Tim Burch and his team for selecting funded funding sites. These the criteria took in account the needs of those who use the centers as well as the needs of those neighborhoods that are located around these areas.

It was determined that centers need to be located at least 1,000 ft from a school. And to make and to make them convenient to those who need them most, they need to be located at least a quarter mile from a public transportation area. We also determined that the centers need to have accessible restrooms and adequate air conditioning. They need to be pet friendly and had shaded outdoor waiting areas. The criteria the criteria is only used for sites that receive city funding and resources.

Any group can decide on their own to provide heat relief in Tempb and add themselves to the heat relief network from the county. Church of the Epiphany met the criteria for funding cooling centers. We are very grateful for their partnership. Visitors can stay all day and connect with the city's hope team, homeless outreach team about resources such as shelter and jobs and other resources. We also have five hydration stations at Tempe facilities.

These these are places where people can cool down, get water, and relax. They are located throughout our city. For example, Tempe Public Library, Escalante Community Center, the Kowanas Rec Center, North Tempe and West Side Multi-generational Centers. The centers are spread throughout the city of Tempe. They are also cooling centers within a half a mile of our city limits in the town of our partner town of Guadalupe and in South Scottsdale.

We hope these centers will help the people in need who need them and also provide a feeling of safety to all our residents. Thank you, mayor, for the opportunity. Thank you, madam city manager. All right, that brings me to item number six, public appearances. According to the Arizona Open Meeting Law, the city council may only discuss matters uh discuss, respond to, or take action on matters listed elsewhere on this agenda for discussion and legal action.

The purpose of the open call to the public is to allow individuals to address the city council on any issue within the jurisdiction of the city council. No person shall speak more than once and there is a limit of three minutes per speaker.

In the interest of allowing all members of the public to have an opportunity to speak, in the case that there are such a large number of persons intending to speak during the meeting that it may deprive other members of the public from the reasonable opportunity to speak, the mayor may limit each speaker to less than three minutes. Speakers present at the podium must state their name and city of residence and provide a speaker card.

Members of the public shall refrain from making personal, impertinent or slanderous remarks and from becoming boisterous while addressing the city council or while attending the meeting. Speakers will be taken first come first serve in the order in which the cards are received. Speakers visual aids and appearances by phone or recordings are not allowed.

The city council is prohibited by state law from discussing, responding to, or taking action on matters raised during the call to the public, even if asked to do so by a member of the public, so long as the subject discussed by the speaker is not listed as a specific agenda item for council's consideration for discussion and legal action. Individual members of the council may respond to criticism made by speakers, ask staff to review a matter, or request a matter be placed on a future agenda.

With that said, I'll now get to my speakers this evening. I've got quite a few cards here. Uh, the first speaker I have is Mario Martinez. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Good evening. My name is Mario Martinez. I live in Tempe. Regarding corrupt Corey's illegal meetings, currently I have two Tempe public records requests into city hall which are over two weeks overdue and I have heard no meaningful meaningful reply.

One request was for the invoices for Corey's covert surveillance program that he illegally tried to conceal. The other request is for all the public information provided to the attorney general regarding their open meetings law investigation. Cor Corey currently has three illegal meetings on his records. do the math. Unless someone can provide legal evidence that any other Tempe mayor has this record, that makes Corey the most corrupt mayor in Tempe history.

Every member of this council took an oath to uphold the law. The attorney general cited the mayor of Ngalas for an illegal meeting dated March 22nd, 2024. In remarkable contrast to the uh Tempe Council in Ngalas, two members of the council did the following action. They publicly denounced the illegal meeting conducted by the corrupt mayor. They emphasized the importance of upholding the law and promptly reported the meeting to the attorney general office. Public integrity matters.

The lack of effective action by the mayor and the council on this ma matter is even more reason that those who truly value the democratic foundation of our city should courageously speak out. The public was excluded from these Tempe meetings. In contrast, former temp uh Tempe mayor Hugh Halman, who charged the Tempee $160,000 for his free legal services in the uh uh Coyote deal, got a local celebrity invite. So did Cory's current city manager, who gets paid over $330,000 per year.

The Tempe personnel rules explicitly prohibit official loafing on taxpayer expense. The city manager is a nice person, but like the rest of the manager staff, they get paid to constantly make excuses for Corey's professional loafing. This is not acceptable. Corey, the public deserves to see the information requested and further delays will not be tolerated. That being said, any plans on getting the information that I requested? You could ask the city attorney. Well, you're in charge.

I'm asking you. I don't fulfill public records requests as we've discussed many times. How many city attorney? Mayor, we're aware Mr. Martinez's request. They're in the queue for processing and they'll be processed in same order as everybody else. Okay. So, thank you. What why did the uh uh the dashboard the dashboard why did that disappear? Where did it go to? I'm asking. Mayor, do you want me to answer that question? I mean, it's it's up to you. I mean, it's I'm not It's public comment time.

It's not a Q&A session. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Martinez. Next up, Steven Bartell. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Is Mr. Bartell here? Okay. Next up here um is a virtual uh David Sakalowski. Mr. Mayor, yes. We have a David in the audience. I'm not sure if it's him, but I can allow his mic. Okay. Um, Mr. Solowski, can you hear me? Best fellow. Can you hear me? Uh, yes, I can. Please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes.

My name is David Sokoski. I live in Tempe. I'm speaking today because the city hasn't been able to validate my concerns. I also want to balance the nimbies who repeat the same things and I want you to support new housing projects. Our state needs to solve the housing shortage, but city staff said Tempe is ignoring the housing shortage. Excuses like other cities have more land is another way of saying this isn't the place for apartments. You're not better than Scottsdale.

And based on the reports, Tempe is actually the second worst city in the entire state. This would create a bad precedent. If Tempe can ignore the housing shortage, then other cities will follow. The state's only option will be to take away local control. Housing is a supply and jobs are the demand. And refusing to build housing in Tempe doesn't remove the demand to be in Tempe. Many people don't want to commute 2 hours each day.

That's why there's a lot of competition to rent an apartment and why the rents are so expensive. Phoenix Metro would probably need to build the entire city of Chandler up to 10 times by 2050. Eventually, people would have to live in Tucson. My life expectancy is the year 2072. That's like trying to build Chandler up to 15 times. We can't keep doing this. We're in a new phase of urban development, and it's time for new policies that will lead the city into the future.

We need a density bonus program to create 15-minute urban villages. places like the Smith Hub, Broadway Maker, and Priest Elliot. The Autoplex is 350 acres of parking and urban heat. It's time to revitalize this area and create a mixeduse transportation hub. Everything you need is within one mile, and the city doesn't see the potential. Where else can you find a Walmart, a Costco, and an IKEA within half a mile of your apartment?

Many large and dense cities have an extremely high quality of life. Up to 80% of Vancouver's 44 square miles is single family. That's more than temp. Problems like housing, traffic, water, and urban heat are not caused by growth. It's caused by a failure to plan for growth. Denial isn't going to fix our problems, and we need you to plan for the future. Thank you. Thank you so much. The next speaker I have is Laura Mertich. Is is Laura Merch available? She's also virtual. She's virtual.

Okay, wonderful. Yes, that is noted on my sheet. I should have noticed that. Miss Berich, are you there? Madam cler, do we see her in the virtual room or? Yes, I do. I did enable her mic. Okay. Hi, Miss Martich. Are you Are you there? I'll try one more time. Uh, Miss Mitch, are you there? Can you hear me? And if you can, uh, can you try to unmute your mic? still there, madam clerk. Uh, yes, she is. But all right, let me try one more time here before I move on. Um, Miss Bage, can you hear me?

And if so, please unmute your microphone. Okay. Yeah, it's disabled. Okay. not letting her turn it on. Okay, you know what? Let me do this. Just tell her to stay in and see if she can work it. I'm going to go to the rest of the speakers and I'll come back around to her at the end. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate that. That was very helpful. Unexpected assist. Thank you. All right. Uh next up, uh Naomi Chaan. Yes. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes.

All right. Good evening. Um, my name is Naomi Chaffan. I currently reside in Phoenix. I spent the last three years living and working in Tempe and I was very involved in the community here and I still am.

Um, I wanted to address with you this evening a matter that has come to my attention recently and which some people have only recently learned of as well that I don't believe is getting the attention and the gravity and the urgency that it deserves, which is that discussed just a moment ago, the cooling centers in Tempe are actually being reduced quite a bit from last year.

Even though last year in 2024 we saw only 602 which is still a great massive number 602 confirmed heat related deaths in Tempe or in Maricopa County excuse me compared to 2023 when we had fewer cooling centers fewer resources for people and we saw 645 heat related deaths. Now obviously this is a very complex issue. There's a lot of things that go into it, but we want to see more resources because we have people willing to help out with this. We believe the money is there.

They're not telling us why the grant money was not allocated for this. Um, we understand that we recently, you know, there were obstacles that came forward. Um, uh, you know, safety issues perhaps in the area. Um, there's easier ways to resolve this than trying to condense all of these people into one cooling center. Um, I believe that's only going to make the problem worse.

Uh, it means there's going to be a higher concentration of people in this area and fewer people probably able to monitor, guard, help this out. Um, so we need to reopen the other cooling centers and allow the people who have the area, have the buildings, who are willing to help to help.

Um, reallocate the money to them and make sure that the people who are unhoused and who are maybe experiencing air conditioning issues this summer are not going to die because they don't have the resources that they need that the city is withholding. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker this evening is virtual. Uh Lawn Griffiths. Oh, he's here. Okay. It was Noctis virtual, but he's here in person. We don't use your phone. All right. Good evening. Please state your name and city of residence.

You have three minutes. Good evening, Mayor Woods, City Council, and the Tempe community. My name is Lon Griffith, 1952 East Park A Drive. I have lived in Tempe for 41 years and take my citizenship here very seriously. I'm here to urge that the residents get their dead trees cut down and do away with shrubbery near intersections that block the vision for drivers trying to see around shrubs and tree branches.

I am astonished when I drive around the city to go to meetings, deliver meals on wheels, shop or whatever to see so many young and old trees that have died that are not being removed from the landscape. The drought and climate change have really decimated many trees. Pines and evergreens especially have been hit hard.

We know how much it costs to remove large dead trees, but it seems that there could be incentives established as there have been for zeoscaping here in the city and the tree services and property owners ought to get together and do things that make things happen. It is also fun to see large trunks carved into eye-catching wooden sculptures. Over the years at our home, I have probably planted eight trees and have had to cut down about that same number.

My prize tree is a mosquite near my front door. I call it the Pat Hatton tree named for named for former four-term Tempe City Council member who gave me the mosquite sampling at a Tempe Quantis meeting after winning it in a drawing about 30 years ago and that tree has really flourished. On a related topic, I would like to see property owners from trim back their bushes and and shrubs.

Bushes should not be planted in the rightway between the street and the sidewalk or in their on their property if they would pose a vision issue. All too often we must inch our way into an intersection in the path of oncoming vehicles in order to see whether we can make a turn. It is simply dangerous in all too many cases around Tempe. There is a those are how real hazards.

Recently, I successfully worked with the city enforcement officers to get tall oleanders trimmed down at a house at college and Broadway to open the view for northbound vehicles on the college to look to the west. I would have significantly myself have trimmed back the holanders a lot more than what was done. Hedges are really problematic. At once once trimmed the the branches tend to come back.

Over the years, I have been so annoyed by blocking roadside shrubs that I have trimmed them myself, sometimes with adjacent owners, okay? And sometimes not. Short palm trees with a large stalks really are a special nudes. I take them it takes them years to grow to to be tall enough so that we can see past them underneath their leaves. One of the worst spots in the city is at Orange and Dorsy for eastbound Orange Drive drivers. one has the wor worst spot.

One of the worst spots is at orange where where the it's very hard to see southbound traffic on coming down orange and and at that corner. I'm surprised so many businesses have plants and shrubs growing in front of their sides as well. Thank you. Thank you, Scripts. Appreciate it. All right, I'm going to try to turn back here to uh Laura Merrtich. Uh Miss Merich, can you can you hear me? Okay, Miss Murdish, if you can hear me, could you please try to unmute your microphone?

I'm going to look to the audience again for any help. Yes, she can hear, but she's unable to. She says chat is also disabled. Yeah. Yeah, the chat's always disabled for the um Yeah, I don't know what to do, unfortunately. I mean, I'm sorry if if for whatever reason she's able to figure out before we get to the end, let just get my attention and I'll try to go back to her again. So, okay. It's not her. No, we can't. Yeah, we can't. Yeah. No. Um Well, try again. Okay.

The next speaker I have is Bob Bortel. Please come forward. State your name city of residents. You have three minutes. Mayor, council members, my name is Bob Bortfeld. I'm a retired civil engineer. I chose to move to Tempee in 1975 and I have lived in the Shelomar neighborhood since 1986. Um, I'd like to thank you for allowing me to speak this evening. Uh, I moved to Tempe to raise my family in a lower density community, nice open spaces, uh, some transportation and beautiful vegetation.

When I moved here, there was no town lake, there were no freeways, there was no light rail, and there was no dedicated bikeways. However, there was Kowanas Park. There was Cella Park and there was Shalomar Golf Course and Country Club there. I learned how to play golf very poorly even with lots and lots of years of practice. Uh just couldn't get it. Um ate at the restaurant hundreds and hundreds of times.

Enjoyed the food truck roundup and the open space that the area provided and also the wildlife that it attracted.

attracts the whole area of Shalomar is a low density area provided mixed use of multif family excuse me not multif family single family custom homes uh duplexes and patio homes um I am not in support of any change in the zoning of the shallomar area when it comes up the zoning and any increase in density will lead the congestion, poor air quality, reduce the open space and and green vegetation in our area, and increase the demand on Tempee's infrastructure in the area, which was not designed to support increased zoning in that area.

Again, I'm in not in support of any reasonzoning, and I would hope that down the road when it comes forward to you that you would not support it. Also, in addition, I'd like to put kudos on to the solid waste management crews that have been doing alley rehabilitation in our area. And also hope that street repair is also coming in the near future as there's been no rehabilitation on a street in front of my house in the last 22 years and it's falling apart. Okay. Thank you. Have a good Thank you.

Appreciate it. The next speaker I have is Melanie Lavell. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Good evening. My name is Melanie Levelvel. I live in the city of Tempi and I appreciate y'all giving me the opportunity to speak to you about a matter that's very important to me. Um I am here to lend my voice to others who have spoken.

I'm here to lend my voice and opposition to others with others who have spoken uh out against the the zoning the resoning the proposed resoning for Shalomar neighborhood. Um Shalomar, you've heard from others talk about the the problems with traffic and density and the fact that it's a green space and there's wildlife that lives there. And I want you to know that while I live in Shalomar, I don't play golf.

And um my house is not on the golf course, but the the the community is what is so important to me. And it's the reason I actually bought my house there. I wanted when I came to Tempi in 2019 to find a community and Shalomar is that community that I was looking for. And the golf course is the hub. It is um what holds that community together.

And my husband and I have spent many hours at the the little restaurant there watching the sunset, watching the golfers, um having deep discussions, and it's just a beautiful open space where the birds chirp and it's it's it's magic. Uh you could say that the that area that is being proposed for resoning is Shalomar's living room. It is it is the literal hub of the neighborhood and it is not just a metaphorical hub. It's the literal hub. It is in the center the very center of the neighborhood.

It is not on the outskirts. And if if that area is infilled, it will be removing the hub itself of the neighborhood. And not only will the neighborhood lose its cohesiveness, but it will be erecting a barrier to the community. And that just doesn't make a lot of sense to me um in terms of maintaining its magic and the sense of community that is so strong in that area. Um, a million years ago in another lifetime, I taught uh, speech communication at the University of Georgia.

You can probably tell, god bit of an accident. And one of the things I taught was proxmics. And it's the use of space and how we as humans use space amongst us and how that sense of space can lead to a sense of community. And it is so very important. And I realized when I came up to speak or while I was waiting to speak that this this room is built very much like the Shalomar neighborhood. I'm standing where the golf course is. And it makes sense the way y'all built this room.

You want to be able to see the audience. Y'all want to be able to see each other. And if you take that away, it's not going to make any sense anymore. So, thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. The next speaker I have is Curtis Wood. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Good evening. I'm Curtis Wood. I live in Tempe. And guess what I'm going to speak about. Um, thank you to the two past speakers we've had here.

As we go through the development process, which is moving along to the point where community meetings have been set for June 4th and 11th, I would just like to ask you again to consider the effect of the enjoyment and the property values of the houses immediately on the golf course and those that surround it if a zoning change is approved. The Shalomar Association is not opposed to the sale of that property. We are just simply opposed to zoning.

If someone buys it and uses it as it is zoned agriculture nine, excuse me, one house per acre, we would be most happy if it stayed a golf course, but it could be something else at that point. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. The next speaker I have is Katherine Blake. Please come forward. State your name and city of resident. You have three minutes. Hello, my name is Katherine. Nice to meet you formally now. So, yes, nice to meet you, too. Thank you. Thank you for having me here.

Um, my name is Katherine. I work at Tempi Church of Christ. It's just down the street from here. And I'm here to speak on behalf of the cooling centers. As we had a friend already speak on and as you guys have already announced about, our church has served faithfully for IHELP and for iHelp for years. And this last year was one of the churches uh chosen to be part of the cooling centers as a respit center.

That means people could come they could stay as long as they needed to receive the resources they so desperately needed. We received word this year or I should say so last year there are three to five centers that were in that were churches in this and we were able to be a part of serving 7,000 people which we saw the first reduction in of deaths in 10 years.

Uh this year we there was there as we talked about there was new qualifications that were put in there as including that there would be a security guard at each of those locations. A brilliant idea because there were complaints, there were concerns, there were citizens that were concerned about what was going on um and concerned about some of the things that came with having a cooling center.

So, we added a security guard that was supposed to be in the budget as well as the u more monitors to also be able to help um give these people what they need um to be able to give them the security and the safety that these cooling centers are supposed to provide. We received word three weeks ago that our cooling center was cut from the cooling centers from the churches that were supposed to be among these centers.

It was reduced from three centers from the church of the Epiphany, Tempe Church of Christ and University Presbyterian to one cooling center. And by that again, I'm sorry, by that again I mean as a respit center, a place where people can actually relax for a long period of time. Um, so we were mortified when we heard this because we saw the impact on our community by having a respit center. We saw the impact on the houseless community.

We saw the impact on our own community um and being able to be engaged in caring for the houseless community. Uh, I got to know a lot of the participants personally. I got to know the monitors personally. I saw what it meant for them to have a place that they could rest, that they could be safe, that they could escape the heat, and they could actually survive the summer.

Um, what I was told was that this decision was made because there were a lot of complaints from primarily two uh two um neighborhood associations. These neighborhood associations aren't by our center. And these two neighborhood associations made the decision for countless people. Um, it seems that the city decided to include them in the conversation but didn't include the churches in this conversation. I was told there were community meetings but I was not invited.

No one from my church community was invited. No one from the other churches that I know of were invited. We could have given a different account. We could have shared the personal impact of these community centers of these cooling centers on the people that interacted with them daily. We could have been a part of that conversation. And so we ask that you reconsider this. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. I'm going try one more time to go back here. And sorry. Okay.

I try one more time here to go back to uh Laura Murdich. Oh, she's calling. Is that okay? What What can we What are we allowed to do, Mr. City Attorney? The situation, I'm not Is this a different speaker that you're just I think that's a different speaker. Mayor, as I understand she has someone on the phone that she's gonna hold her phone up to the microphone. And if if you and if that is allowed, I will allow. Certainly permissible with your discretion. Okay. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. Okay.

Okay. Thank you. Sorry. I think this first. This is a first, ladies and gentlemen. See, we're we're doing everything we can to get public comment here. Laura, yes, this is Laura Bertik. Am I audible in the room? Yes, I can hear Can you all the back here? I I see a lot of thumbs up. So, go ahead, Laura. All right. Awesome. I'm not sure what the technical difficulty was, but thank you so much for bearing with me. My name is Laura Martek, and I'm speaking from the city of Tempy, where I live.

As both a resident of Tempy and a member of a church that hosted a cooling center last summer, I am deeply disappointed and concerned about the severe cutbacks to this program for the summer of 2025. Last year, the cooling centers program boasted impressive success serving thousands of individuals in need of relief from the heat. Moreover, in the summer of 2024, Maricopa County experienced a decline in deaths from heat related illness relative to the previous year.

This was the first time in a decade that the county reported fewer, not more, heat related deaths year-over-year. Evidence which is consistent with the idea that these cooling centers are providing vital protection for members of the community exposed to extreme heat. However, despite the success, the program is set to shrink significantly in 2025 with additional limits on a site's eligibility to serve as a cooling center and a reduction in the number of cooling centers overall.

I am frustrated and disappointed in the prevailing narrative, which is that cooling centers are unsightly and bothersome to the communities which host them. As a resident of Tempe, I would like to firmly assure the council that it is not a nuisance to have people in need receiving help in my neighborhood and that I believe our city is gravely failing its most vulnerable citizens when we deem their presence undesirable and refuse to provide assistance.

Tempy is committed to making homelessness a rare, brief, and one-time experience. Surely, we must recognize that the minimum actions to back up this commitment would include protecting the physical safety of citizens experiencing homelessness in the face of extreme weather.

The National Weather Service is predicting a high likelihood of above average temperatures in Arizona this year, and we will undoubtedly witness the tragic loss of life due to preventable heat rellated illnesses in the coming months. Cooling centers provide a crucial stop gap against these deaths. I ask the council to please reconsider restoring our cooling center program to full operation at the same level as last summer as part of its duty to help all of its citizens thrive.

Thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right, that's all the cards I have this evening. If there's anyone else in the audience wishing to address the city council, can you please get my attention at this time? All right, seeing none, I will close that portion of the meeting and move on to item number seven, which is the consent agenda.

All items listed on the consent agenda will be considered as a group and will be enacted with one motion by the city council unless an item is removed for separate consideration. Members of the public may remove public hearing items for separate consideration. Public hearing items are designated as public hearing item at the beginning of the item title. Council members may remove any item for separate consider separate consideration or to declare a conflict of interest.

If a council member would like to declare a conflict at this time, the city clerk will provide the council member with a disclosure form. If you wish to speak on a public hearing item, please fill out a speaker card and submit your completed card to the city clerk prior to the agenda item coming forward for council discussion. I will call your name when it is your turn for public comment.

This evening, the consent agenda is listed as miscellaneous items 7A1 through 7 A11, awards of bids and contracts items 7B1 through 7B12 and resolutions items 7C1 through 7C4. Let's see one second here before we move forward. Okay, perfect. Um, that is the consent agenda this evening. I'm going to look to the council. Actually, let me go first to the public hearing portion here.

Uh any item on the agenda designated as public hearing item can be removed by a member of the public for a separate consideration. So if anyone would like to have a public hearing item removed, please get my attention now. Okay. Seeing none, I'll look to the council uh to see if there are any agenda items you'd like. It's been moved by council member Hajj, seconded by Vice Mayor Garland. Please vote. And that item passes seven to zero. All right.

So, let's go here to the non-consent agenda, which is item number eight. All items listed on the non-consent agenda will be considered separately. Agenda items scheduled for introduction and first public hearing will be heard but will not be voted upon at this meeting. Agenda items scheduled for second public hearing and final adoption will be voted upon tonight.

Council members who may have a conflict of interest may abstain from voting on a matter and the city clerk will provide the council members with a disclosure form at this time. First up here, 8A, miscellaneous items, bids, contracts, and resolutions.

The first item under the section is 8A1, which is to hold a public hearing for an appeal of the development review commission's decision to approve a use permit to allow a 6-ft wall in the front yard setback and a development plan review for a new single family residential townhouse development containing 20 dwelling units on 1.96 acres for Tempe 20 town homes located at 966 East Guadalupe Road. The appellant is Laura Kerry. The original applicant is is Sinetic Design Incorporated.

I should also note this is a quasi judicial item. So, as a note for those of you uh who have not seen one of these before, although we've actually had quite a few recently, the city council sits as a quasi judicial body when hearing appeals. In this situation, the council will conduct the public hearing in a similar fashion to that of an appellet court. Premitting contact with the city council on quasi judicial matters is prohibited.

Any materials or conversations concerning the item shall only be presented to the city council at the scheduled public hearing. Per the zoning and development code, an appeal shall be limited to the issues raised in the petition, ZDC section 6-803. Issues not raised in the petition for an appeal are not considered.

Tonight's public hearing is an appeal of the development reviews commission's decision to approve a use permit to allow a six-foot wall in the front yard setback and a development plan review for a new single family residential townhouse development containing 20 dwelling units on 1.96 acres for temp 20 town homes located at 966 Guadalupe Road. The appeal was filed by Laura Kerry and meets the legal requirements for an appeal under the ZDC.

The appellant will be represented by their attorney Steven Brower. The original applicant is Sinetic Design Incorporated and will be represented by Ashley Sams. So in order here, we're going to ask the appellants attorney, Steven Brower, to make a presentation. Good evening. Good. Good evening. Thank you so much for your time and your uh your allowing us to be here. and I represent Laura Kerry. As you just heard, my name is Steven Brower of the law firm Brentwood Law Group.

We're a Tempe based law firm on uh 1222 East Baseline Road. Yes, people are always saying I talk too loud. So, okay. Oh, gotcha. Like that. I see. It's like for the for the record, I've never had that issue. So, sometimes it pays to be short. I love it. So, let's just to introduce the project. Um, and of course the the applicant is here and they can go over this more, but the project's located at 966 East Guadalupe Road in Tempee. That's about a mile from my law firm.

Um, it uh involves 22tory town homes on roughly 2 acres. Uh the town homes will be about 29 feet tall and on the rear um of the town home development close to the neighborhood there'll be a 10-ft rear setback. So as we think about the zoning for this area this is a RORO zoning ro zoning uh requires a maximum height of 30 feet. This is 29 feet. So it meets that requirement. It also uh requires a 10-foot setback in the rear and it meets that requirement.

Uh but more than meeting the requirement, there's also need there needs to be a consideration of the um conformance with the neighborhood. All the surrounding areas in this town home, all the areas surrounding the town home development are single f uh single story single story. So immediately be behind the town homes is a bunch of single family residents. on the east and the west of the town homes are singlestory office uh medical offices.

And there's a uh visual impact to this um because it is the only nearly 30 um foot building in the area. With height comes privacy concerns. Um the developer has made some changes that we want to note. Um, there used to be balconies uh jutting off the back of the town homes that would overlook the my client's swimming pool and backyards. Um, and since there's only a 10-ft area, that that balcony would encroach into that 10-ft area even more.

And with a short fence on the back, which I'll be talking about in a minute, um, you can obviously see quite well over into the neighboring properties yards. the developer has changed it. So, uh changed the development so there is not the balcony on the back, but there are still are windows uh overlooking into the neighbors yards. Um in the interest of time, we'll skip this this slide. We'll move on. The in the developer's plan, the developer wants to use the current fence.

The fence is uh um just about as old as I am, maybe older. Um, so it's quite old, 45 plus years old. Uh, it is of uneven heights. Uh, there are a couple of the neighbors here that have pictures showing there's sometimes 2 feet, one ft um diff. And because there's a burm on the the land on the on the development developer side or the towns uh town houses side is built up uh when you stand next to the wall um it comes up to about here on me.

So you can clearly see over into the swimming pool areas into the people's living rooms, kitchens, dining rooms and things like that. And that's just if you're just walking in the community, let alone being on the second story looking in. So, um, more than that, the wall is of, um, it's in disrepair. There's cracks. It's broken. It's it's over 45 years old. Okay. Um, this is a this is an area where bark scorpions are. Um, so this is another concern.

As you disturb land, you've got porous walls, the bark scorpions are an issue. We'll talk about that. So the current wall that is being proposed to be used is inadequate for privacy and pest control and those sort of things. Um the request by the developer is to have a few trees along that northern border where the property owners swimming pools are and things. Um there canopy trees. Uh these canopy trees are slow growing. they have a lot of leaves and you know tree litter things like that.

Um what the what this slide shows we actually want to modify here. This shows mature polymer Indian trees being proposed by the neighbors. Um after some discussions including discussions with um some city staff. The neighbors now want uh female olive trees. Female olive trees instead. Those are um they have less invasive roots.

They will provide a beautiful you know vis landscape, a vertical landscape and uh will also provide that privacy and uh maintain the values and the the appeal and the look and aesthetic of the community. We talked a little bit about the scorpions.

I'll just briefly um mention this the with the current proposal there will be grading and disturbance of the land the there there's bark scorpions in this area this has been observed by many neighbors what we're proposing as a solution to this is um as scorpion mitigation measures and building up of a of the existing wall to either repair the wall to eight and and build it up to eight feet or to build a new wall.

Um we believe that probably a repair of the wall will be sufficient but there it should be of a uniform um height and correct repair of the wall will help mitigate some of the scorpions from eloping from one property to another. So in conclusion, what the neighbors in the area would like if this project is to go forward is a u a tree hedge of sorts of female olive trees um and not the the colmer trees listed there.

a new or repaired 8-foot builtup wall to help mitigate the privacy issues and also the pest control issues. Um, and implementing just basic um scorpion mitigation measures before and during construction and I want to reserve the rest of my time if there are any questions. Okay, sounds good. Uh, does anyone have any questions before we move on to the staff presentation? Okay, wonderful. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you for your time. Absolutely. All right.

Um, any additional comments from city staff? Ryan and Jeff are both kind of shaking their heads. All right. I'll skip that portion then. Thank you so much. Uh, so I'm going to now look to the original applicant's representative, Ashley Sams, to make a presentation. Hi there. Uh, I am not Ashley. I am Lance Baker. I'm the architect for Synctic Design. I'm Ashley's Boss. Uh, we are located at 11-11 West University Drive in Tempee, Arizona for 25 years now.

Um, so just some notes that I wanted to respond to the uh, appellants comments. We have been working with them to try to mitigate their concerns. In hindsight, we should have done a little neighborhood outreach, but given that we weren't asking for any uh variances or changing in our zoning that was adjacent to the neighborhood, the only variance we asked for was a long Guadalupe to raise the wall for sound mitigation. Uh we didn't feel that there would be an issue with it.

However, obviously there are some concerns. So, we have reoriented the balconies as their attorney mentioned so to not provide any direct view into the backyards. We've also changed the windows so there are no direct windows looking into backyards. They they now have obscure glass and the sills are at 5 feet off the ground. So unless you're super mega tall and can see through obscure glass, no one's going to be seeing into their backyards.

Uh regarding the plant material, we've offered that we're happy to work with them on the type of plant material. Their original suggestion of the Indian laurel ficcus is not a good one for being up against masonry walls. they can get out of control, cost a lot of maintenance to maintain. It's a bad idea. Um, we're willing to look at the olive trees that they're suggesting. Our plan currently meets the requirements for the city of Tempee, so we are adhering to all the zoning requirements.

Uh, with regards to scorpions, we live in the desert. We don't believe that we should be in charge of any type of pest control or a neighbor situation. Um, and regarding the wall, that is an existing wall. It's six feet tall. We don't want to build an 8ft wall. It's not a storage facility. There's we don't have security concerns. And regarding his ability to see over it, the site has not been graded yet. So, that is not the finished grade that he's standing on.

If there's a burm there, we actually have retention going along that wall that's being directed to our dog park. So, uh, these are all single family platted homes. So, we're trying to help the housing situation in Tempi. Uh, density is is coming. This is not a super dense site. So, we feel like it's a nice opportunity for new homeowners to go into an existing area. And I really don't have any other points. I don't think unless I have anybody has any questions. Just one quick question on my end.

Um, just for the public's benefit, how big are the town homes in terms of square footage, bedrooms, bathrooms? Just out of curiosity. Sure. Sure. And I'm glad you said that. Also, the town homes are 27 ft tall, not 29. Okay. And the main height is due to the Tempy's requirement to screen the rooftop mechanical units. So, it's not actually, you know, within the volume of the building. It's parapits around the building. So, these are mainly three-bedroom, two- bath homes with two-car garages.

Uh they are town homes, so they do share a common wall. Um average square footage is about 1,800 square feet, I believe. So, decent size and and they'll be a good market value. Okay. Thank you, uh council. Thank you, mayor. And these these units are for sale, not rentals, correct? Correct. They are planted lots. Thank you. Yes, Vice Mayor Garland. Um I not more of a comment than question.

Um when you're looking at the trees for the community and for you guys um reaching out to Richard Atkins, who is um our arborist would be a good place to start because he has a list of trees that are good for the environment and good for the city of Tempee. So that might be a place to start and he can talk about those. Yeah, that'd be great. our landscape architect kind of been handling that. So, yeah, it'd be great. Okay, sounds good. Any other questions at the moment from council?

Okay, thank you very much. Appreciate it. I actually have a question for staff on this before we go into the public comment portion. Yes. My only real question is regarding the the wall. Um is is the So this was actually I'm assuming got a staff approval for the 6ft wall. Um is there is this project completely following code whatever as currently outlined in the zoning and development code for the city of Tempe? Are they required to do anything higher than a sixoot wall to an 8ft wall?

I just I'm just sort of curious as to what's on the books from a city of Tempee standpoint. Sure, Mr. Mayor and council members. U I just want to make sure you understand there's two walls that we're talking about. Right. Okay. Yes. I I believe they the applicant was referring to the wall in the perimeter uh on the north side of the property that that's adjacent to Winchester Homes. uh that property line does not require anything more than a 6ft wall.

In fact, there is no there is no wall required at that location uh based on the adjacent zoning. Now, the wall that's being proposed uh and that they had to obtain a use permit for um that wall is 6 feet 6 feet tall in the front yard setback. Um that's not a requirement by code. uh they made the choice to put a 4 foot wall with two feet of up rod iron for safety purposes. Okay. Thank you, Ryan.

Just to further explain, if this was a multif family development, there would have been a requirement for an 8ft perimeter wall, but in this case, this is considered single family. Okay. Single family to single family, right? Okay. Thank you, Council Chin. Thank you, mayor. Can you share with us um did the DRC provide conditions for approval? Yes. Um Mayor, Council Member Chin, there was some additional conditions discussed at the hearing specifically to address the concerns related to privacy.

Uh they provided comments conditions about addressing the window fenestration along the north side, some screening of the balconies and to address appropriate tree foliage around the buffer to address those those uh visual concerns. So were those agreed to? Yes, they all were agreed by the applicant and I believe the applicants in their presentation does have some revised elevations that they can show and present and show you tonight. Let me see. Can you show us?

Yeah, I I was going to ask that I because I was curious as well if the appellant was aware of the changes that were made by the applicant and if we could obviously see those changes this evening for the sake of everyone watching. They are provided in the packet to uh for your your agenda packet but the the applicant may also have those as part of their presentation. It's just this one. Okay. Does he have Yeah. Well, you know, we we can I guess bring him back up.

Maybe I'll go through the public comment portion, then we can bring the the appellet back up. So, let's do that first then. So, okay. We can probably just leave that up for the time being and we'll come on back to everyone. I'll just follow the order here that's on my paper. All right. So, let's go ahead and open the uh public testimony portion of this public hearing. Um I've got three names here. Uh I hope I pronounced this correctly and I apologize if I don't. Uh Cheryl and Moser Mouser.

I I was I was trying. I'm sorry. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. [Music] M Cheryl Mouser, I called other things. Um, put it in. I lived in Tempe out of my 59 years of marriage for 54 years. a long time. All right, I want to talk to you about a tree. You can see this was this is our front yard. What you can't see because I couldn't find the picture is the tree that's right here.

That was the most beautiful tree during co we met out in the front yard. However, this is the theme tree that we had to have cut down because it's 9 ft from our house. It's 33 in on one way and 47 on the other. And it has decided to move things. This is a brick wall with cement. You couldn't hit it with a jackhammer and get it to move. The tree has decided to move it. That's very concerning. This is our backyard. The tree decided to take a trip ac under our house.

This is the corner by the kitchen. And there's another place on the edge of the patio that the tree decided didn't need to be there anymore. The following pictures are on the south side of the fence, the block wall. There's a big variance. This is a PVC pipe that I marked with six feet. Here is a a fence that's clearly under six feet. And another part of his fence is way under six feet. I thought we were told that a fence the block wall could not be added to to make it taller because of that.

That block wall has been there for 53 years. It's not it's not in good shape. And this is the other corner. So, there's lots of work that needs to be done on that block wall. Think about the tree again. That little tree that grew from a seedling into a big big tree did a lot of damage. And we think that if beautiful trees are put along the back wall with only 10 ft of variance, where are the roots going to go to make those trees beautiful to cover up the windows?

So, we have more privacy in our backyard. The privacy issue is a real issue and we appreciate that they've taken some uh made some changes that you know might make a difference, but it is a real issue and the trees now are a concern and our old fence is a concern. Thanks a lot. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right, the next speaker I have is James Herbert. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hi, good evening.

My name is James Hbert and I live in Tempe at Westchester Estates. I'd like to read a letter. Uh, sorry, a broker opinion letter from our real estate broker, Randy Courtourtney. Um, he says, "Thank you for making me aware last week of the impending development known as the Temp20 Town Homes.

It is my opinion a development this close to your yard, as well as other affected homeowners in Westchester estates, will be detrimental to your home values." Most all cities across the valley require necessary buffer zones between single level single family homes and multi-story multi-unit developments. It seems unusual to only require 10-ft setbacks from the rear wall. Twostory units directly behind your home will dissuade many potential buyers from buying your property.

When you have less people considering your home, you have less demand. And less demand typically equals less return on your property investment. I have worked temp for just under four decades and tell you from personal experience, most buyers would rather not have a twostory home peering down on them. Especially when you have a pool and large light giving, sorry, large lightgiving windows in the rear of your most intimate living space.

Selling without the units built creates a stigma and buyers hesitate when there is uncertainty. Either delay their decision to buy or simply move on to the next home that doesn't have this challenge. If the complex is completed, your buyers will then see the actual viewpoints provided from above and many will opt to keep looking. Nobody wants to live in a fishbowl.

Hopefully, the city and developer of Tempe 20 town homes will work together to provide mitigating enhancements by planting dense privacy hedges or trees with root control and consider increasing the setback the setback requirements for twostory homes abudding against single level homes many of which are valued at over $1 million. If the developer and city work together, your property value may not be adversely affected as much, but in the end, it will be negatively impacted. Thank you.

Thank you. All right. The last speaker I have is Tana Abbott. Hi. Oh, hey. How are you? Very good. You said it properly. Oh, hats off. Um, I'm Tana Abbott. I am I'm going to time myself. I'm a licensed therapist. I've been practicing Oh, am I not loud enough just with my natural voice? I uh I'm a licensed therapist. I've been practicing in Arizona for 24 years. I have a private practice at rural in Guadalupe and I also live a couple blocks away in Westchester Estates.

Um, I have some papers that I would like to show. Um, so we bought our house in 2019. Uh, it was a fixer upper. We've invested at least $200,000 in the property. It was neglected. Um, it could probably use another $200,000, but now we're real worried about putting any more money into this house after the town houses are that are going to get built because I'm going to show you some stuff if I may. Okay. The last house to sell in our neighborhood was on the next culde-sac over.

Uh it sold in end of February for 200 or 329 a square foot. So that comparable makes our house, our home is large. It's on half an acre. Worth 1.3 and a half million dollars. Okay, so this is a view. Whoops. This is a view of our backyard. I got a little couple drops of water on it, so sorry. Uh, this is our backyard, the pool area. It's currently looking over into the development area. You see there's a huge mosquite tree here. I'm going to talk about that in a minute.

This is our pool equipment. This is our hardscape deck. It's about 5 feet from this wall here. And then behind here underneath here is all of our pool plumbing. and it's about 10 feet from this block wall. Okay, this is the this is the adjoining side of our yard. Our entire yard looks out over where the town houses are going to be built. So in that half half an acre space of our yard, this is the whole view.

So this is what you see out of our living room, dining room, kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms. Our house is 1977 mid-century modern. It's all windows looking at this. And this is what that's going to look like now on both sides. Our property is long enough that there will be two of these peering down into our yard. Now, the developer did get rid of there were two big windows here. They got rid of this one and this one they turned into an opaque um bathroom window that can't be seen out of.

But just look at that. Are is anybody going to pay $1.3 million for a property that is looking at this? [Music] Anyway, I know that means that my time is up, but there if I may. There Yeah, I'm I've got to I've got to wrap up. I give you 15 more seconds, but then I got to wrap up. Yeah, there the trees. The 10- foot setback is a huge problem for the trees because those trees, any roots are going to grow into the property.

We've had lots of problems with the owner of that property already not taking responsibility for problems that happen on our property from their trees. So, we want them to take responsibility if they plant anything there, okay, for damage that will happen. Okay. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. All right. This is also still a public hearing. If there's anyone else wishing to give public testimony at this time on this item, can you please get my attention now? Oh, yes, please come forward.

Wasn't planning on No. Hey, sometimes you know the feeling just comes over you. It's all right. Please, please state your name. It's exactly. Please state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Yeah. Um I'm Laura Carrie.

I was the actual appellant in this and I moved my time for um to let Stephen Brower, but I just wanted to at least show some pictures of this wall um that you know in discussions I heard that the developer thought that the wall was actually in pretty good shape. Um, and you know, we found out in the last meeting that the back wall, um, they weren't planning on building a a new wall, that they were planning on using our wall. So, this is, uh, Tana's backyard.

There was an unrecorded easement and they had to go through and so that has actually created this crack on both sides as you can see. Um, on hers, these are pictures I took this week. This is a what the bottom looks like. on on a lot of areas. I'm just going to quickly run through these. Here's another you can see where sprinklers over 50 years are kind of eating the away the foundation of this wall.

Um, another example of the wall height and where some mitigation has been done and there's cracks here. Um, this is probably what the worst crack that I saw was here. on this one. Maybe I already showed this one. This is actually my wall and my neighbor's wall. So, this is where mine is. Mine's 7 foot on my side. Um, and that obviously is is quite a bit uh smaller. I didn't realize this till I walked the property. Um, there's a gate in the property.

So, I don't know if the developer realized that, but there's a gate um that goes right out into this uh to the area there. So, I think that's all this is I guess Cheryl's uh had done something. But anyway, I think they need to reconsider either repairing or, you know, building a new wall and we can get probably neighborhood agreement to do that um because it isn't uh it isn't in very good shape. And um that's kind of what I wanted to point out.

And then um with the trees being close to it, um the one thing we really don't want is my my pool is like right next to the fence by about this far. If you get mosquite trees or blooming, I'm getting all that crud into our pool. We already have it now from the wild ones that are there.

So, um, so I wanted to say thank you for your attention and, you know, and I wanted actually to thank the developer for at least addressing the privacy concern and redoing the, um, uh, the drawings so that the balconies on the side. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Is there anyone else in the audience wishing to address the council on this item? If so, can you please get my attention now? Okay. Uh, then I will go ahead and close the public testimony portion of the public hearing.

Um, Council Member Anberg. Mr. Mayor, this is probably a question for Eric. Um, can we legally require a different private property owner to replace a wall on another private property owner's land? Uh, mayor, council member Amber, normally no. That the answer that be no. I'm I'm operating under the assumption that the wall referred to is on is not on the developer's property. it's on the um neighboring property owner's property.

In that case, normally you can't require a one property owner to improve another owner's property. So, I guess Mr. Vice Mayor, uh is I guess is that a question for staff? I mean, where is the existing wall? Is it on the property of the applicant or is it on the private property of the homeowners that are already living there? Mr. Mayor, Council Member Hamburg. Um, yeah, this this wall is on the property of the Winchester Estates.

Um, you know, I want to note that as we mentioned earlier that all regulations and uh requirements for this site have been met except for that 6ft wall in the front yard setback. um this wall in particular though um there is no requirement for it in the first place. So if these homeowners would want this wall repaired, it would be their responsibility to do so, not the new owners adjacent to them. Thank you very much. So that was actually going to be um my question.

I was think it's going to be after Nikki who Oh, sure. Please. was um because the um the applicant for the appeal said um they're going to use our wall. Um so that just that I didn't think about that when I was reading through all the packet of information. So it is it so the disrepair in that wall the scorpion homes that are in that wall that wall and those issues are are the concern of the Winchester community. That's their wall. that that wall is owned by Winchester.

It was installed by Winchester. Okay. Any deficiencies in that wall would need to be repaired by Winchester. Okay. Thank you. That was um the question that I had. Um thank you. Okay. Thank you. Uh anyone else from council? Any other comments for Jeff? Well, we got more of the hearing. So, um let me next up. Okay. Thank you, Jeff. Appreciate it. All right.

Next up, I'm gonna uh look to the appellent's attorney, uh Steven Brower, for response to the public comments as well as a potential summary statement. Let me see if I can use this. Okay, this is amazing. Great. Thank you. Um okay so I I am a lawyer and the thing about uh walls along a boundary line is there's wellestablished law that the wall becomes the boundary line after uh the adverse possession time period. So the wall is the boundary line.

It is not a it is not the wall on the the property owner side. It has it establishes the new boundary line.

any surveyor or uh real estate lawyer can can tell you that it was I'm sure stat I'm sure it was constructed by the Winchester development 50 years ago but it becomes the boundary line the um the the comments about what what is required look I think there's a balance here right be between obviously the city of Tempe needs more housing you need inbuilt development Um, we're not saying no to that.

What we're saying is we want something like can we we just want something like olive trees along the uh the border which are they don't have invasive roots. Um, you know, they they will beautify the community. They're not that expensive. Uh, we just want to work with the developer in that regard. We don't want scorpions encroaching um and and uh being disturbed and going into people's properties and um and but yeah, we want these trees. We want these trees.

And I think that that's a reasonable request. Um I'm sure you've been approached by many people in the past that say no development, no development. We're just saying olive trees, you know, give us an olive branch here, right? That's literally what we're asking for.

Um, and uh, as far as the the changes to the the plans that I think I was supposed to get up and talk about, the changes to the plans that we saw were the changes eliminating the balcony and uh, two of the big windows, which we are very grateful for. Uh, that will make a difference. Um, there is the perception of the privacy invasion when you look out your wall or or look out your window and you see almost like this looming building, right?

Even if there's not windows or oh, there's a window there, I can't tell if you can see through it or or not. It's the perception of the privacy laws that will affect the feel of the community and and it's just not in conformance with the uh the surrounding neighborhoods, which is one of the major considerations. It's not just does it meet the requirements.

I would say does it meet the policy also behind the zoning code which is that a multifamily property you heard would require more setback would require an 8ft wall. This looks like a multif family dwelling. This looks like a multif family development. What is the difference? But I guess Mr. Mr. Brower, I guess to to that point though, at the end of the day, the challenge is from my perspective, neighborhood character is sort of subjective, but the code is actually black and white.

And so that's the ch I mean, you could probably ask 10 different people what their perspective on neighborhood character is, and you might get 10 different answers, but at the end of the day, the zoning and development code is exactly what it is, the zoning and development code. I completely respect your comment, 100%. But one of the things that um you have to take into account is the the the conformity to the area. It's it's we completely acknowledge that this fits the zoning code.

It seems a little strange, but you have to consider the conformity in the area. I see. I appreciate that. Um quick thing before you go, Vice Mayor. Yeah. So, my question is the appeal is just for the fence. the PE I I completely respect the opinions of people coming and telling us about what's going to possibly go up behind their house. I would probably have some of the same concerns if I live there also, but that's not what the appeal is. The pee is specifically regarding the six-foot fence.

Um, so my my question is again, if I'm looking at if we're going to be discussing and making um a a vote, a decision on that six-foot fence, I still go back to if if that if that development wasn't going to go in there, was Westchester community ever going to fix the fence that they put up. um that that was a that's a just a question because now this this place this organization is coming in there and they're gonna be building and looking at building something.

So I still keep going back to if if it was such a problem has why was it hasn't been fixed since before this? That's an excellent question and I would say this that you know maybe one of the homeowners would I mean we kind of heard that just now but but there are lots of homeowners along that and probably some of them would wouldn't.

The difference here is that now you have a reason to have a larger fence because it it does help create the privacy right and security and also mitigate the pests that are going to come from the development uh to the to the uh to the south. Yes, to the south. I get that. But we go back to the same question, the same statement that the mayor said that the requirement code requirement. Yes, if they it could go up to eight if it was something different, but it's six feet there.

So, they're actually meeting all the I mean, all the code requirements are haven't been met. So, okay. I that's question that that's a very fair point. Um, one thing that I you all notice on your agenda is that there's two items on this non-consent item. It's not just the FBS. It is also the review of the development as total. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. Before you uh council member Chin, then council member Keating. Thank you, Mayor. Mr. Brower, when you came up, you showed this picture.

Um, and I I just need to confirm what you're asking for is some foliage like this non noninvasive, non deep root or intrusive rooting uh along the fence line. Yes. Yes. Okay. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Council Bkini. As she often does, Council Member Chin took my stole my thunder because I was also confused on that thinking that we're talking about the fence now. We're talking about different shrubbery that's going to be around and really what the solution is to that.

So, thank you, Council Member Chin. Yeah. And thank you all. Thank you. Appreciate it. Appreciate you. Can I say something about the We We unfortunately can't according to here. I'm sorry. We I'm sorry. We we can't sorry just the the the rules around a quasi judicial hearing are a little bit more strict than our normal public hearing. So my apologies. Uh the next up I'm going to look to the original applicant's representative.

I I'm sorry I forgot your name because I keep reading Ashley and I know you're not Ashley. Was it Lance? All right. There we go. Good job. Not so just wanted to see if you had a response to the public comments as well as a summary statement as well. Yes, absolutely.

I think there is a little bit of confusion going on uh vice mayor when you mention that we're here talking about the wall the six foot wall that we obtained the variance for that is actually in the front of the development that fronts Guadalupe and that was really for privacy of the courtyards for the town homes nothing to do with the sixft wall that is currently on the north side of the property that isn't even on our property and isn't even required as the um city planning staff said so and Again, we as they acknowledged, we have changed windows.

We've changed balconies to accommodate their concerns, and we're more than happy to work with them and staff on the plant material and the root barriers along that northern property line. I was just going to ask a very quick question, then I've got a question for Mr. Anderson in a second as well.

I I know they very specifically talked about the olive trees and said that you know they're they are they feel that those would not have the invasive root systems and those would actually provide the appropriate kind of cover to provide more privacy. Are you able to commit to that this evening that you could actually do that if that's the tree that they want? Are you willing to go with that tree? I don't have my client here and I hate to say I can.

Um again originally they brought up Indian laurel ficas trees which are not a good solution. We mentioned mastic trees. They mentioned the fruitless olives. Fruitless olives are not always 100% fruitless. They do have, you know, they can fruit even though they're fruitless. So, I would prefer that we're allowed to work with staff and the neighbors and come up with a solution that everybody can agree to without putting me on the spot right this second without my client here.

I'm doing the best I can here, Lance, but but I appreciate it. Thank you. You can understand. We're happy to work with No, I more than willing to adjust the plant type. We just want to come up with the right type that everybody will be happy with. So, okay. No, I I appreciate the I totally do. Mr. Anderson, I I had a question regarding a statement that Mr. Brower actually made um and then I've got one to um to what Lance said.

He made a statement about the wall and and and who becomes responsible for I'm not going to try to repeat the statement because I'm not an attorney. Uh but I but I I saw you and I kind of locked eyes. I was just curious about that statement just because I had never heard anything like that before, but I want to see just what your sort of general opinion is about that statement about whose responsibility the wall becomes if this development gets built. Thank you, Mayor. The uh applicant, Mr.

Brower uh he referred to a doctrine of adverse possession which is a legal doctrine where property that is legally uh described as one property owners can potentially become that of another through over time and use. One of the the key distinctions here in this case is one of the key elements of that is that there's actually a claim of right to that.

Uh I haven't heard the developer uh assert a claim of right to their wall and I think uh the community development director clarified that there wasn't an obligation to build a wall on the part of the the developer. So unless the developer were actually claiming a a matter of right to that to the homeowner the Winchester wall there wouldn't be a doctrine of adverse possession in this case. So okay my other question Mr.

Anderson, actually before I let you go too, regarding the uh the fruitless olive tree, uh and I I totally appreciate what you're saying about, you know, your client not being here this evening and not wanting to totally put you on the spot, but do we have the ability as the council to stipulate to that specific tree uh being used in this situation? I mean, is that something that we would be allowed to do?

Uh, mayor, do you you could potentially one thing you could do is is uh add a stipulation that um they uh get a staff approved tree that's consistent with a discussion at the council here today and and uh allow your staff to uh approve the uh tree just to make sure that those concerns are addressed that maybe might not be fully fleshed out here. So, okay, sounds good. Thank you. Appreciate that. Yes. Uh Council Member Chin. Thank you, mayor. Uh, I point of clarification.

So, was your client unaware that we were meeting tonight to hear this appeal? No, he's at the University of Alabama for his daughter's graduation from college. Okay. Okay. So, he puts his trust in me, right or wrong, but yeah. Yeah, she's an Louisiana. So, that just that's what that comes, aren't it? It was not meant to be, right? Um, okay. And but tonight we're deliberating and we're trying to give you an answer also on how to move forward. Correct. So your response of putting you on the spot.

I think if you're representing your client, then we're going to need you to represent them. I am. And I with all due respect, I'm not a landscape architect. I do not believe anyone on this council is a landscape architect. And so I hate to make a rash decision when we're more than willing to work with staff who are trained professionals to help and we have been working with Mr. Brower. Uh we've had multiple calls with him.

We've been emailing him our complete sets of plans with all of our changes. So we are trying to cooperate, but I just really don't want to be I don't want to put the nail on the head of the fruitless olive tree. It may end up being that. I and I have nothing against it if it is. Absolutely. I have no axe to grind on the fruitless olive tree. I just would like to make sure we make the right decision.

Council Adams, um, would we be able to, we have like five recommended trees, um, from our professional at the city of Temp. Would we be able to land on something like that? I mean, there's like five or six different choices and then they're the ones that are recommended for this environment. Now, um, and so we could move forward with this tree situation. Thank you, Mr. Anderson.

Mayor, yeah, consistent with what my what I previous said, um certainly you could uh direct that the um staff reach an agreement um with the applicant and potentially the the appellant that um uh a selection of a tree amongst the approved trees for this situation uh according to the city's standards and pallets. Yeah. Thank you. Okay. Anyone any other questions? Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. You bet. All right.

Uh now this is just sort of the last portion uh for any additional council comments or discussion that we might have. I I guess I just wanted to say this. Um I appreciate all the testimony this evening. This has actually been a very interesting case and um you know my my perspective is and and I understand I do have empathy for the residents talking about a situation of all of a sudden after many many years having a two-story building directly adjacent to your properties.

I I think the challenge though from my perspective is sort of looking and I hate to sound overly legalistic, especially given the fact that I'm not an attorney in any way, shape, or form. But, you know, I have to pretty much rely on the established zoning and development code. When people submit for projects with the city of Tempee, that's what they look to to see if like something is actually going to be allowed or disallowed.

And so, I don't have the ability when something is actually in front of me at this moment to sort of make changes to something.

Obviously, we have the ability as council to regularly look at policies and if we see something that we actually think is incorrect or potentially outdated, we have the ability moving forward to come back as a governing body and make some changes to actually update some of those codes and some of those policies to make sure that they're still suitable in the year 2025 and moving forward.

But I really do have to very much when these situations are coming about rely on what the established zoning and development code is to make sure that we're actually in compliance with things that people are looking for when they're coming to propose a project within the city of Tempee. That's why, you know, as much as I do understand the concern about the wall and wanting that raised, you know, from uh 6 feet to 8 feet.

I don't have the ability per the existing zoning and development code to frankly mandate that the developer actually takes control of that and builds an entirely new wall uh that's 2 feet higher. Um but I do even though I'm not uh able to make motions as as mayor uh I do you know would hope that someone might make a motion to what Mr.

Anderson talked about and added additional stipulation uh concerning actually um working with city staff and working with our arborist Richard Atkins to find an appropriate tree as Vice Mayor Garland and Council Member Adams talked about that would actually provide exactly what the residents in this neighborhood are talking about which is adequate shade cover and a little bit of additional privacy of course minus the invasive root systems that would cause certain kinds of foundation damage uh that one of the uh speakers showed this evening I believe was Miss Mouser.

So, uh, because I definitely could see that and I was I was concerned about that. So, but I would like to see if that is something that we could potentially do to ensure that we could, uh, give you the privacy and the shade cover that you're looking for, but make sure we're not causing any additional damage, uh, with this development moving forward. So, Council Chin, thank you, Mayor.

Can we get staff to read for us for the record what the actual language was for the condition of approval that related to the hedges? I think they referred to them as hedges. I ju I just want to make sure we're incorporating and aware of that if we're making any motions. Mr. Mayor, Council Member Chin, uh, give me two seconds. So I have right here on the motion meeting. Okay. So council member Chin, you're referring to the motion made by the commission members about the added stipulations. Okay.

So, a motion was made by Commissioner Spears added conditions of approval that the applicant would increase the tree size to 48 in and continue to work with staff on the window design and placement and balcony screening to address privacy concerns. So, what's not identified in there is the type of species or proposed. Okay. So, it sounds like it's inclusive of what what we just recommended or discussed. Okay. Yeah. Uh, Vice Mayor, say I could still like to make a motion including that.

So, I'd like to make a motion to deny the appeal of the development review commission's decision um with the addition um to it with staff appro they the staff works with the appellant and the applicant with the city code approved um trees. Okay. Second. Okay. All right. It's been moved by Vice Mayor Garland and seconded by council member Amber. Uh any further comments or discussion? And let me just make sure to uh do I need to reread that, Mr. Anderson or my K just going forward.

Uh mayor, I I think I heard it correctly. I'll turn to the clerk and make sure she had it adequately. Yeah, I made some notes to it, so I added to the motion. Okay, sounds good. Thank you. Okay, so it's been Yes, it's been moved by Vice Mayor Garland and seconded by um Council Member Amber. Um any further comments or questions from council at this time? Okay. Hearing none. Uh, for some reason my screen is frozen. Uh, so I'm going to go ahead and take a roll call vote instead.

Uh, council member Amber. Yes. Council member Chin. Hi. Vice Mayor Garland. Hi. Council member Keating. Yes. Council member Adams. Yes. Council member Hodgej. And I vote I as well. That item passes seven to zero. I think up was okay. All right. Moving forward here.

Next item under the section is 8A2, which is to hold a public hearing for the appeal of the development review development review commission's decision to approve a use permit to allow a second story addition in a use permit to increase the allowed height for an accessory dwelling unit from 15 ft to 24 ft for College Avenue ADU located at 2021 South College Avenue. The appellent is Michael Zamora. The original applicant is Hickory Wind Construction LLC.

And I should also note once again, this is a quasi judicial item. I'm going to state this again. I know you've already heard it, but I've got to do it again. The city council sits as a quasi judicial body when hearing appeals. In the situation, the city council will conduct the public hearing in a similar fashion to that of an appellet court. Premeating contact with the city council on quasi judicial matters is prohibited.

Any materials or conversations concerning the item shall only be presented to the city council at the scheduled public hearing. Per the zoning and development code, an appeal shall be limited to the issues raised in the petition ZDC section 6-803. Issues not raised in the petition for an appeal are not considered. Tonight's public hearing is an appeal of development review commissions. I don't know why I'm having such a hard time saying that.

Tonight, to approve a use permit to allow a second story addition at a use permit to increase the allowed height for an accessory building from 15 ft to 24 ft for College Avenue ADU located at 2021 South College Avenue. The appeal was filed by Michael Zamora and meets the legal requirements for an appeal under the ZDC. The appellant will be represented by their attorney, Tim Lod. The original applicant is Hickory Wind Construction LLC and will be represented by Mike Wolf and Ed Cox.

I also have a number of items here on this one. Um actually items as in um people who want to speak, but let's first start this evening with the appellent attorney Tim Lod to make a presentation. Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. I'm Tim Loda here appearing here before Mike Zamora who's here and who's actually going to do the presentation if that's okay. I figured you'd rather hear from a constituent than an attorney and it is his neighborhood.

Uh so I would like to um hopefully have a couple minutes at the end to cover a couple of legal points, but at this point I'd like to call Mr. Zamora up to the podium. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Lorta. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, M Vice Mayor, council members. What I'd like to do is to go ahead and cover the six salient six salient points if I can and I'll try to be as succinct as possible on that.

The first for the grounds for the appeal is going to be character is that the applicant's proposal is not compatible with the GA guidelines for the character of the Broadmore neighborhood or the temp cultural resource area. The second is going to be subordinate in that the applicant proposal is not subordinate to the existing residents nor to the city's ADU's regulation requirements.

The third is going to be the deed restrictions that the applicant's proposal violates the Broadmore deed restrictions which are still in effect and pro prohibit two-story buildings. The fourth is going to be the negative impact. The applicant's proposal is incompatible with existing neighborhood and will negatively impact privacy views, home values, and noise levels.

The fifth is the precedent that the applicant's proposal would establish a harmful precedent of a two-story ADU in the Broadmore neighborhood. And because of that, that is where we have 214 neighbors signing the petition. The six is going to be self-imposed that the applicant proposal is self-imposed solution as there is a same space solution single floor that can be achieved on that.

If I may continue and go through these other slides quickly, that the Broadmore neighborhood itself, the Broadmore Manor is a historic neighborhood. It is one of the first residential subdivisions south of Broadway. It was started in 1955. It is six division uh subdivision neighborhood and it consists of almost 200 home sites on that. In the general plan of the city of Tempe 20 240 and 2050 they termed this area cultural resource area.

That means it's culturally significant to the character of Tempe. It's desirable to maintain the character of these areas. As can be seen in the upper map is that this location 2021 South College is clearly within the cultural resource area. These photos right here demonstrate what that original area looked like. these singlestory ranch homes, they still have the same character as the 1950 origins for that.

If I may go forward on to the second point, the subordinate the city attemp zoning and development code, specifically the ADUs, states that the purpose is for an ADU to be consistent with the character of the city designed to allow a subordinate dwelling that is compatible with the scale of a single family residential development. The applicant stated that the proposed two-story ADU aligns with the architectural style of the area.

In reality, it exceeds the existing house in size, height, and mass. A neighborhood architect, Mr. William Brazleton, went out and did an informal ADU study, as can be seen in his letter and also the photos there, that a two-story ADU building mass itself is a visual intrusion. The code uses the word subordinate for ADUs, which means smaller, lower, and minor to the primary residence. Clearly, a two-story ADU is not a subordinate dwelling.

All the ADUs in the Broadmore area are singlestory uh on that and there is concern and in this evaluation that the ad adjacent properties will experience a diminish in privacy and home values. Continuing with that that topic in the way of the scale, the 24 house proposal is larger taller than the 15 foot maximum, thus not compatible due to scale. Relative to size, the area being added is a total of 14,50027 square ft compared to the existing house of,485 square ft.

The character is not consistent with the cultural resource area of the singlestory homes. If you look at the very bottom of the silhouettes on the left, you will see the existing house, the 2021 South College. Right next to that to scale is the twotory 24T high ADU expansion. On the very far right, what you see are going to be existing singlestory ADUs in the neighborhood that are 12 ft high. These are typical for all the ADUs that are in with the within the greater Broadmore neighborhood area.

If I can call your attention again to the left, given the height of the two-story ADU uh that is being proposed, the next photo basically, which is to scale, shows that the two-story ADU will be overlooking the house. And this photo is taken from College Avenue. It's clearly not a subordinate dwelling. Going on to the third point if I could is that the address of this location 2021 South College is in the Broadmore Manor area. I see it right there on the plat plat map for that.

It has deed restrictions that are still in effect. The deed restrictions state dwellings not to exceed one story in height and a private garage not to exceed one story in height. on that within the negative impact. What you see on the left is going to be the loss of views and privacies from the visual intrusion. The left you see the before is kind of full sunset and privacy. This is to the house directly to the west.

On the right, what you see to scale is going to be the 24t high twotory ADU which will cause a loss of sunset views and also privacy for that. In addition, the neighbors to the northeast and the southeast, this is what their view will be from their backyard. For the property owning property owner application letter, it was stated it will not negatively impact the neighborhood.

An upper deck will enable the neighbors to hear the noise because there is nothing stopping that sound, be a building, a wall, or trees. So to the west, to the north, and to the south, people will be able to hear any noise coming from that upper deck. In addition, it he also stated that it aligns with the Tempe initiatives. It is clearly contrary to the Tempe designated cultural resource area that maintains the neighborhood's character.

The applicant also stated there would be an increase in value to the surrounding properties. In reality, there would be a loss of value to the surrounding areas. um a real estate broker, Miss Maggie Bob Ardusen, who has been a real estate broker in the area for over 30 years and does own many residential properties for investment purposes, has stated in her evaluation that the property values will decrease because of the size of what it's going to be there.

Thus, kind of an eyesore size if I could. that's going to have provide limited views and it's going to compromise the character of the neighborhood. Thus, potential buyers may not submit an offer. Her recommendation as an alternative is to build a singlestory unit on that. If I may then go on to the fifth point, the precedent. There are no two-story ADUs in the Broadmore neighborhood. The applicant had two examples that do not really qualify as precedents. The first one is 151 East Bonita.

That is north of Broadway, outside of the Broadmore area. It was not built. The permit expired back in 2005. Across the street, 2046 South College, four houses down, is a two-story house that was built in 2004, but that is not an ADU. Houses have larger setbacks. This particular house has a setback from the alley property line of 30 feet and the neighbor's property line is 15 feet. An ADU typically has a 5-ft setback on that.

In 2006, 605 Broadmore requested a use permit for a two-story house expansion that was turned down by hearing officer David Williams. That was the last request in the Broadmore area for a twostory house or an ADU. The concern is that a two-story ADU will establish a legal legal precedent for future case by cases applicants on that. That is the reason that the 214 neighbors did sign the petition not wanting the ADU.

In your packet, you have the initial submission, which is 140 residents, uh, my apologies, uh, Bradmore neighborhood community residents signing it. A week later, there was a second submission of 68 more names, bringing it to 208. And as of today, we have 214 people who are basically stating they do not want this within their uh, within their neighborhood. The neighbors comments have been that they are outraged, horrified, and unified against a two-story ADU harmful president.

They have stated that the Broadmore neighborhood, they've compared it to the Willow District and the Arcadia District in Phoenix. They have stated they've moved to this area because it's a highly desirable area because the quality and appeal of the singlestory environment. As the city of Temp has labeled this area as a cultural resource area, they are asking why would this house then be an exception?

If I can then move on to the final point, the sixth one, the this is what the applicant had submitted the self-imposed um uh site plan if I can is that this is uh had a lot coverage submitted of 36.7%. The maximum lot coverage for this zoning would be 45%. This lot coverage is actually an error on that. It is um should be 27%. It should be 27% because after the development review commission granted this.

I did have a conversation by phone with the city planner Lucas Jensen and we walked through what is and what is qualified to calculate the lot coverage on that one. What we did is calculate it uh individually for that one and we came up with the same number such that what is submitted was really a 25% lot coverage. That's important because the development review commission made their decision based upon what was a 36.7% submission. It was a human error. That's all. It was just a human error.

But they made their decision on that one because what was proposed by the neighbors is to take the twostory ADU and to basically take the two floors, same space, and make it a single story. You could see when this was happening some of them were calculating that it's going to be greater than the 45% and they I think dismissed that solution towards it. Now in reality for that one here is the singlestory solution.

The blue is the exact same shaped garage and the exact same location as was originally proposed by the applicant. The green is going to be the second floor which has then been moved just next to it to make it a singlestory solution. This lot coverage also confirmed by Lucas Jensen the city planner is 35.7% which is less than 45%. It is the same building area and for the blue part it has the same setbacks.

I also went out and I talked to John Hart, which is a planning review manager, talking about building codes and distances that the distance between an ADU and an existing resident needs to be a minimum of 5T. In this example, it's a 12t setback. So, it is greater than the 5T in addition to the property to the south of it. It is a 10-ft setback, which is greater than the 5-ft setback required by the ADU. I also then talked with the civil engineer of city planning for retention Jose Terano.

I inquired with him what is required from a retention perspective. He provided me all the information all the calculations that is required to do the the lot retention separately not in this presentation. I do have a lot retention which does show which does adhere to that. Thus, this singlestory solution which is endorsed by all 214 signed petitioners that we have right here adheres to the city codes, all the city codes and regulations.

Thus, looking at what was submitted is why it is considered a self-imposed solution when there is a viable singlestory solution. Those are the six items for the grounds for appeal. I thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Appreciate it. Hopefully there's still some more time. I I don't know where we are, Mr. Mayor. That's okay. You can come back. Okay. Thank you, uh, mayor and councel. And I just I did want to make a couple legal points.

I I think that, you know, if you allow this these two use permits, I don't know what you can't allow or what you what you could say no to in the future. I I mean, I think once this toothpaste is out of the tube, it's not going back in. this is going to become will become a precedent. People will ask, I mean, you'd be better off just considering it. Look, do we need a zoning change instead of just doing this piece by piece? I think the answer is clearly no.

But once you do this for one person, it's just you're going to have to do it for everyone. Um, and I don't know, um, how staff has concluded that that this does meet the legal subordinate requirement. Um, under uh, uh, Tempe City Code 3-42C6, it talks about how your ADU uh, can't be bigger than or taller than the house. I I mean, I don't know how this could possibly be considered subordinate, but there's a reason that this hasn't happened really in this neighborhood.

You do have the one example where the person built a twostory with a use permit, a two-story dwelling. It wasn't an ADU. Uh, one of the reasons is the deed restrictions, and I know they're not something that you enforce, but you've got these deed restrictions. You've got you've got expectations, you've got people adhering to it, and you've had this neighborhood stay the way it stayed uh for a long time. It's a it's a great neighborhood.

Um, it's I was out there and and the the one photo at the very beginning. Let me see if I can Can I pull that back up? Um, the presentation. Let's see if it Yeah, I mean that that's from uh Mr. Zamora's backyard. I mean, that's really um I mean for him it is an eyesore. It it it's about as as aggressive as you can get.

And once it happens, everyone else is going to come who wants to do this and they're going to say, "Well, you allowed this other person to do it." And under um very um well, kind of obnoxious circumstances actually. So, I don't know how you say no to somebody in the future. I think once this happens, it's just it's going to it's going to pop up all over the place. And this is not a one-time decision.

I know staff says we take these case by case, but um but when you you know you can't be arbitrary and capriccious either. So if you um you have to adhere to what you've done in the past essentially and you're just not going back from this. So I'd be happy to answer any questions. Sounds good. Thank you. Uh anyone on council have any questions for Mr. Lotto? Okay, sounds good. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. All right. Next, uh, we'll look to, uh, city staff.

Are there any comments that you'd like to make or anything that you'd like to add or any questions that council members have for city staff? Council member, Mr. Mayor. Yes. Um, look, they're coming up. I do have a question. Um, so what are the current height requirements u or restrictions, I would say, height restrictions for single family dwelling units in that area? 30 feet tall. And this is 24 feet tall. The proposal is for 24. That's correct.

I mean, I will say I'm in my heart, I absolutely agree with everything that the appellant came up and said, but you know, I just I was absolutely opposed to the bill, the ADU bill that went through the legislature last year. It was actually before I was on city council, and if I'm not mistaken, I think probably the city opposed it as well.

But uh according to state statutes, the city is prohibited from restricting for accessory dwelling units that are more restrictive than those for single family dwelling units within the same zoning area with regard to height, setback, lot size, or coverage or building frontage. So to me, it seems like we are procluded from state statute from telling these folks that your ADU can't be twotory when right now we are already allowing in that same area 30t single dwelling units. This is 24.

So, it is less. Um, in my personal opinion, if we were to tell them that they can't do it under state statute, that we would then open ourselves up for a lawsuit for the person that's actually wanting to build the ADU. I I would hate for this to happen in my neighborhood. Um, so I absolutely understand all of the frustrations that we just heard, the frustrations of all of the emails that we've gotten uh on Council Communicator.

Um, but for me, this is, you know, this is a state legislative issue. You know, and I said this years ago whenever the state legislature decided that they were going to prohibit cities from going and doing any restrictions for short-term dwelling, uh, short-term rentals, uh, the VBOs's, the Airbnbs, and what happened is a proliferation, you know, across our state. we couldn't as a city go in and tell these folks what to do.

The legislature realized, hey, wait a minute, there's a lot of unintended consequences. So, we're going to now allow the cities to go in and start restricting, you know, these short-term rentals. I think that's what this is going to happen.

I think a lot of these ADUs, these type of ADUs that we now as a city are not allowed to tell you no, the legislature is then going to be hearing from all of the constituents out there like, "Dude, I've got a twotory with a roof deck on top of that looking straight into my backyard and the city can't do anything because of what you did and I'm going to, you know, going to do a little foreshadowing here.

a good two to three years from now, the legislature is going to come back and now allow the uh cities to go in and be able to restrict some of this stuff. Thank you. Uh anyone else comments or questions for Jeff and Ryan? Jeff Ryan, did you have anything you wanted to add at this moment or uh not at this point, Mr. Mayor? Okay, sounds good. All right, then I'll move to the next portion of the hearing.

Uh, I'm going to bring up the original applicants representatives, Mike Wolf and Ed Cox, to make a presentation. Good evening, Mr. Mayor, council members. My name is Mike Wolf. I'm with Hickory Wind Construction. I'm a small general contractor based in Tempe, Arizona. I run the company with my wife. We've both been Tempe residents for over 25 years. We love Tempe. We're really excited about this project.

What I want to do is go through the background of the project, uh, address some of the allegations in the appeal, and then introduce Mr. Ed Cox, the owner of the project, and have him explain what this project means to him and his family. Thank you. So, as you know, the use permit was approved unanimously by the development review commission. Several of the commission members stated they lived in the neighborhood and they had no issue with approving this two-story ADU.

The same facts and public input was presented at the in this appeal were previously presented in the last review. The appeal alleges impact to neighborhood character. The design is consistent with Tempe development standards and respects the neighborhood context. Twostory ADUs are allowed through the use permit process and support affordability and flexibility. The Peele alleges negative impact. The project includes a thoughtful design with minimal privacy impact.

Privacy measures have been implemented into the design, including clear story windows, uh, obscured windows to the east, which is Mr. Zamora's residence, and also 2x6 walls to m mitigate sound. We are open to reasonable additional mitigation short of a complete redesign. The appeal claims there's no precedent, but the city of Tempee presented examples of multi-story projects all around the neighborhood and the Tempe the city of Tempe previously approved the two-story structure across the street.

I did hear them mention it wasn't an ADU. ADUs were simply just approved this December. It couldn't have been an ADU at that time, but it's very similar in design, size, and scope. This project is not the first of its kind in the neighborhood and continues Tempee's vision of the future. The appeal incorrectly states that there'll be a significant increase in vehicular or pedestrian traffic. The owners, Ed and Janet Cox, plan to move in. There'll be no additional traffic on the site.

The project is not a nuisance in any way. The approved project will enhance the neighborhood and increase the property values. When someone comes into a property and puts hundreds of thousands of dollars into a property, it not only helps that property, but the adjacent properties. The approved project is compatible with the existing surrounding structures and uses. It matches the existing house perfectly with both the same materials, colors, and roofing. The project, this one is absurd.

They're asserting that the project would result in disruptive behavior on the premises. They're literally asserting that a school teacher and a salesperson on the verge of retirement are going to on their own property that they lived in, if they lived in this city for over 40 years, they're somehow going to become disruptive. This is just absurd and and bogus. There are some new issues raised in the appeal. The first is that it was not subordinate.

They're leaving out what it really means to be subordinate. And that means with the ADU ADU rules that it's less than 75% square footage of the original house. The original house is 1500. The ADU is 780. So it's less than 75%. And the ADUs must be under 1,000 square ft. This is under 1,000 ft. It meets the subordinate rule easily. They're alleging that this is self-imposed.

the the one-story alternative design exceeds the allowable lot coverage and furthermore reduces the green space on the property. You can see by the diagrams that they presented is there is no yard available. We'll speak to that when Mr. Cox shows his love of green spaces and landscaping. Finally, they brought up the deep restrictions. Now, there are multiple Broadmore subdivisions in the Broadmore neighborhood.

This project is located in Broadmore AMD which does not have CCNRs or deed restrictions on the two-story projects. I know the city doesn't speak to that. I just wanted to clear the record. So, we'd like to address the 140 signatures from the neighbors concerned about the project. We respect the concerns raised by the neighbors and would like to respectfully correct the record.

Some of the opposition materials circulated online, including personal attacks of Ed Cox being a big developer with 22 projects projects around town. Um, basically a slum lord. Nothing is further from the truth. More importantly, inaccurate renderings like one shown here circulated to obtain signatures inaccurately depict the project and cast it in a negative way. The doctorred photo is from the center of the alley, not from anyone's yard.

The roof line is shown at a 1212 pitch, making it look appear much taller than the actual project, which is a 412 pitch, one-third that steep. Also, they showed the wall as transparent, as if you could somehow see through it. Many of the signatures and emails were collected based on these inaccurate visuals and backstory of Ed Cox. This is understandably caused concern.

We believe the neighbors signed the petitions and emails in good faith, but we also believe they were not presented with the full and accurate story. Privacy has been on top of the priority list from the inception of this project. We are not dismissing anyone's concerns. We're asking for fairness based on the project that was actually submitted and approved, not a misrepresented version of it. We ask the council to respectfully deny the appeal and uphold the approved use permit.

I would now like to bring up Ed Cox, the owner, to talk about the project and what it means to him and his family. Thank you. Is it okay if my wife stands here? She's not going to speak. Absolutely. Yes, please. I I first of all would like to thank you very much for hearing us. Uh we appreciate your time and everything you do, Mr. Mayor. Council members, I'm very nervous up here. I feel very intimidated through this whole process. the city at Tempe has been fantastic to work with.

Everybody from day one through COVID with the phone calls, all the information, everybody helping us through this process to get to this point and we do appreciate that. Including the guy that delivered all the dumpsters to the house and set them for us so we could, you know, there's there's 15 40 yard dumpsters that they brought out for us to clean this place up. I want to tell you who we're not.

We are not people that own 20 properties and we're just buying the house just to rent it out like it says online. Um I am not a flipper. I'm not a person who buys houses, puts lipstick on a pig, increases the square footage so I can sell it, make a buck. We bought this house to be our forever home. U our plan for the last 5 years is to get this thing going. We have spent countless hours uh uh a considerable amount of money just getting the house to where we are today.

My wife and I uh we met in high school, Tempe High School. We've been married 45 years. Um her parents went to Tempe High School um in 1958 and 59. Uh they opened up an auto parts store in Tempe, a rental speed goodies. Um their parents opened up a grocery store on University and Mill called Rundle's Groceries. Um it turned later into liquor store. A guy bought it, kept the name in Nudy magazines, but prior to that it was a grocery store, family-owned grocery store.

Their parents owned a grocery store on Mil Avenue called Babers Merkantail and that was just north of where Leard and Dines is. So we've been in this valley a long time. We've seen a lot of change, a lot of things happen. Uh my work history here I've worked in Tempe for the last 40 years and I have seen a lot of change. BaskinRobins at Tempe Town Center gone multi-story senior living care place.

Uh Fedmark grocery store mccllintok and Broadway back when it was an overpass at mcclentok instead of an underpass. So again we've seen a lot of change. Uh sitting in high school Harry Mitchell said one time history was made last night and you guys will hear about it later. uh Tempe became landlocked. Uh Tempe didn't just roll over and die and just stop as a city. The city itself kept moving forward being innovative. I've loved the changes. I've seen the things happen in this valley.

Um it's it's exciting. It's exciting to watch what happens. And I know we're landlocked. This particular house that we bought was in terrible condition. It been ignored for since 1994 when the lady moved out. She was a hoarder. left the house full of trash and just let the irrigation water run so it became enveloped with all the other trees and shrubbery and everything else. Uh cats were being fed there by neighbors and we went in cleaned it up.

It was a long process and again we uncovered the house and there it is. There's the the garage is there. It's original to the property. It's siding and that's what we're going to do on our edition. It depicts, you know, just a gray wall, just a bland piece, but it's going to be beautiful. It's going to be a a a 7in lap siding with beautiful trim. It's going to be a gorgeous project. It's going to cost a considerable amount of money to build this, but we're willing to make that investment.

And we haven't gone as far as we intended at this point because we just got stopped. We literally have the money set aside to do this. We fully plan on landscaping the entire property with trees, green shrubbery. And unfortunately, our property sits on college and due to changes in Tempe with bike paths and I'm an avid biker and for bicyclist uh we lost our own street parking. We don't get that. Our property now has to have all the cars on the property. We didn't want to give up our front yard.

We kept the original charm of the home the way it was. It's a carport. We left the house exactly like it was when it was built in 1957. We felt by going to the backyard and putting our addition on and doing it there, we would not only have a beautiful front yard with the character of the neighborhood and keeping in the original home that we'd also have a the use of a garage in the backyard with an ADU. And the ADU was never really planned to be a rental unit or a thing where we could do Airbnb.

It was for us, my wife and the grandkids, as a sewing room. I mean, that's kind of the way it started. But we thought why why not enhance the property and go ahead and make it an ADU and then we can have if our kids come back and want to stay with us for a while or visit whatever we've got a place for them to stay. We don't really have any intentions of renting it.

Uh possibly down the road as we get older uh we want to age in place possibly, you know, maybe a nurse could live there to help take care of us. You know, that's kind of the plan. It's a long-term plan that we're staying there. A lot of people ask me, why do you want to do this, Ed? as much as much problem as you're getting. I I honestly I want to show people what we can provide in this neighborhood and show what the city of Tempe can be with these ADUs.

It doesn't have to be a Stuckco house with a twocar garage and and whatever. It can be something like this, something beautiful. And and I I could go on and on and talk all night long. I don't know what I've missed. Um they talked about the nuisance of the noise and the odor and the fumes. There was a garage there since 1957 that the neighbor behind me's had the luxury of living there for two years and not having anybody live there. Well, somebody's going to move into that.

That's going to be a nuisance. There's going to be people living there. Many garages have alley exits. We don't plan on using that as a go back and forth between home to home. The house itself on the deck, they said, "Oh, the neighbor to the north can you can just see right in the yard." Well, that's not true. There's a wall there. That deck can only look straight towards college and to the neighbors to the left, which would be to the south. And I plan on putting big green trees on there.

If you would, Janet, would you show them? This is the house the way it was. This is cleaned up actually. Garage. Uh that's the garage exists there. Now, that's the garage was built 1957. The next photo, that's again, that's the house that we took and cleaned up and got rid of all the vegetation and so we could start to work with this house again. What's next? What we have here is my backyard on Alama. We bring our We love landscaping. We love making things nice and pretty and beautiful.

That's our backyard at Alama this weekend. This is our front yard. This is the in the middle picture is the inside of the home that we've done here on College. We plan on taking this same design, the same uh care and loving for landscaping to the College Avenue. They're all rentals on college with driveways and parking cars up in the in front of their house. We don't want to be that. We want to be a beautiful yard. We want to be a showpiece on College Avenue. We want to be an example.

We don't want to be just a a renter and just have a house to live in. Again, this is our house on Alama. It's the nicest house in the neighborhood. Not because I say it's the nicest house in the neighborhood. All of our neighbors come by and stop with their dogs and visit with us and say, you know, you have the nicest house in the neighborhood. Thank you so much for keeping it up so that we can enjoy it. We appreciate you being here. I want to bring that to college.

I want to show people college just doesn't have to be just a thoroughare. It can still be a beautiful home. These six houses that face in Broadway Manor have kind of been jettisoned from the neighborhood itself, the Broadmore Manor, they're kind of on their own because they face college. with all this change and everything that's going on, you know, it didn't affect them. It didn't bother them. We lost our parking. Okay, no big deal.

We have a two-tory across the street from us across the street. So, you know, I don't hear any outrage over that. But there's going to be change. Temp is changing. Temp is going to continue to change. It's going to evolve. Let us please build a home that we can show people what it can be. This is an example of a house in our same neighborhood and it it doesn't have the original that doesn't look anything like a farm ranch home. These are other garages in the area that have alley access.

We're going to have a tall wall in the back just like Mr. Zamora with a rolling gate and we're going to have a garage door within that wall. Again, all 2x6 construction, all insulated for sound. I'm in the building industry. I want this thing built right. It's going to be a gorgeous place. This is another home. Uh, five houses down from Mr. Zamore on the left. I don't know that they built houses like that in 1957. It's a beautiful home, don't get me wrong, but again, is it the character?

No, it's a little bit of a change. It's more modern. It's a good-looking house, and it's within that area. So, things can be done. I mean, it's pretty tall and it doesn't look ranchy, but it's still a beautiful home. Um, [Music] I would I I'll leave it alone here. I would just like to thank you for your time. I would I would appreciate that you deny his appeal.

Um, I would hope that you would uh support the the design committee that made the decision to approve us unanimously, two people of which live in that Broadmore Manor district, and they wanted it. And we've gotten this far in this many years to come to this point to reach this meeting here today. And again, I would ask you that you please allow us to build this home and make Tempee proud. We love Tempe. You love Tempee or you wouldn't be here doing this. We appreciate your time. Thank you.

Thank you. Before you sit down, I was just going to ask you, anyone on the council have any questions? My question is not about that. I just want you said Harry Mitchell was you one of his students. Pardon me. Were you one of his students? Was Harry Mitchell your teacher? Oh, yeah. Yeah. And my wife's a school teacher. She's been a school teacher for for 28 years. And to have somebody say, "We have to protect the children if there's a school near you." It's insulting.

It's very insulting when they when they sit in these very chambers and say, "Those people." I I don't know what they mean by those people about the la the last meeting the last meeting at the design committee. It just as soon as the signs went up in the yard and the letters went out, it was like a call to arms and all of a sudden we're the worst people on the planet. They want to burn us as a witch.

I don't understand why we just can't build a beautiful home in a neighborhood and show people what it can be versus just leave it like it is. It looked horrible for 25 years. It smelled. People would hold their nose and walk to the other side of the street. We've cleaned it up. people would come by and say, "Thank you. We appreciate what you've done here." Many people are probably watching this right now, have stopped at that house while we worked out there and said, "Thank you very much.

We appreciate this." And now here we are. We ask for something back and and all of a sudden again, we're we're the bad people. I'm sorry. Thank you. No more questions. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. All right. This is also a public hearing item. So, I'm going to start the public testimony portion of the public hearing. I've got several speakers uh in the audience. The first speaker actually is virtual. Uh Elizabeth Stewart, Mr.

Mary, she should be able to unmute her mic. Mr. Wick, can you hear me? Hi, Mr. Stewart. Can you hear me? Let me see. Uh, maybe can you try to unmute perhaps? All right. What we're going to do, I'm going to go to the speakers who were actually here in the audience and I can try to come back. Miss Mrs. Zamar, I have her on the phone. You know, I guess we're gonna I guess we're doing that tonight. So, yeah. Yeah, you may. I I I allowed it earlier. Wait, wait, wait. Elizabeth, are you there? Yeah.

Go and speak. Mr. Mayor, members of the is is I hear echo on the Put your computer on mute. Uh just a second. Okay. Is that is that better? And just put it as close as you can. Okay. Um Okay. Let's try now. Let's see if that works. M. Stewart, can you hear me? Yes. Yes, I can hear you. That works. Okay. Please uh state your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Okay. My name is Elizabeth Stewart.

I live in the Broadmore neighborhood in Tempee and I would urge you to grant the appeal and and reject the original applicant's special use permit. Um, I submitted comments, but I'm not really going to cover a lot of that because I was shocked at the comments that uh uh Mr. Cox made accusing those of us who circulated petitions of um of uh slanderous activities. Uh I had never heard of anything about him having 20some houses. Uh I I don't know anything about that.

I had no discussions with anyone about that. I had never seen before the picture he had up. Um, my conversations with people were about the fact that uh I and most other neighbors would not want to buy or live in a s singlestory home next to a 24 foot tall uh auxiliary structure that was two stories high. Uh that was the kind of conversation that we had and that was what people's objection was.

uh and that and that people didn't feel like it was compatible with the historic charm of the neighborhood. Uh that this was just such a massive um hulking thing uh that would be looming over our homes like a lighthouse or a guard tower and would destroy the neighborhood aesthetics and the sense of unity. there's just too much disparity and height for such an ADU to be compatible.

Those were the kind of discussions that uh that we had and I was one of the people that uh uh circulated petitions and uh I obtained a large number of uh of signatures. I didn't have to uh twist anyone's arm in and in fact there were only one or two people who said that they didn't want to sign. Um, you know, no persuasion was required and uh I don't think I ever mentioned Mr. Cox's name. I don't know him. I don't know anything about him. Um, and no one else said anything about him.

So, I I don't know where that came from, but uh I I can assure you that uh uh any uh ones that I got and and I think I was involved in uh uh personally obtaining at least 70 of the uh uh petitions and uh and um so anyway, I'm just kind of shocked at at at that suggestion and Um, and it's inappropriate. Appropriate. Now that's time. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. The next speaker I have is uh is Barbara Sokqui. Please come forward.

State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Hello, my name is Barbara. Okay. Should we probably We lower the uh Yeah, it's perfect. Yeah. Okay. All right. Perfect. All right. I'm a little nervous after all that. Um but thank you to the city council for convening this appeal and for your time tonight. My name is Barbara Soki and I rep represent myself and my husband Frank Soki who live down the street from the subject property.

My property has a singlestory ADU which is in keeping with the character and codes of the neighborhood. As such, I fully endorse this appeal to keep ADUs a single story. This gives homeowners ability to add ADUs without impinging on other pe neighbors views, privacy, and character of our historic neighborhood. I'm sorry I'm getting emotional. I just felt a little strong after the last comments.

Um, there is a strong desire in this community with over 200 people asserting that two-story ADUs are not wanted or in keeping with the historic character of the Broadborn neighborhood. There is a rental property to the north of my home that has many students living and conducting fraternity relating parties. During those parties as well as throughout this year the year, there are students that sit on the roof and peer into my backyard while drinking beer.

It is unsightly to me and is invasion of my privacy. This example why we should be sensitive to establishing a precedence that would allow two-story ADUs in our neighborhood. We have an overwhelming number of signatures over 200 people that do not want two-story ADUs in the neighborhood. We have one neighbor that desires a two-story ADU that is incompletely feasible to build all the required area on a singlestory ADU that meets all the city codes and regulations.

As a city council represents the entire Broadmore community, I would like to understand how decisions and what criteria used to make decisions in a case like this. Thank you for your time. And I just want to say that when they were getting the petitions, I never heard any negative comments toward Mr. Cox. And I do believe we come here as a neighborly just to keep the neighborhood single story. That's all. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. The next speaker I have is William Ralph Raiselton.

Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Okay. Uh William Brazelton, resident of Tempe, uh Broadmore Neighborhood Association, active member. Um I'm also um I' I've been here u for many years. I came here in 78 as a a student of architecture at ASU. Um and I've enjoyed the uh the qualities of Tempi presents. Um I too um remember Baskin Robbins, Rancher Market.

Uh my first uh attendance of this uh this council meeting was with Mayor Mitchell U Art Schwab. Uh we uh were fascinated with the idea of Tempe Town Lake project. Um, as a registered architect, uh, I have a a scaled silhouette. Uh this aerial photograph is from uh the county records. It is to scale. The silhouette outlined the portrait is to scale as well showing a college showing the neighbor to the west.

showing the applicant's main residence, the two-story ADU, alley, and neighbor to the west. It is clear to me that the ADU is not subordinate to the main residence as states in the U. um uh well the the state's statute for 80 years that Templ is following um clearly it's it's not subordinate um as well as square footage the uh the characterization of it being 744 square ft as a guest ADU second story. It's the entire building. Can we can raise it up a little bit? Yeah. Yes.

Thank Is that a little better? Thank you. That's perfect. Thank you. Everybody good in the back or are we good? Excellent. Thank you. Thank um it's just simply not subordinate.

Um I have helped clients uh in a number of cities around um in uh Phoenix there were two projects uh the owner wanted to remodel add uh in a historical district both projects because of the ownorous requirements about it being subordinate were just simply I'll give you another 15 I had to that whole microphone adjustment so take another 15 Perhaps finally, as an architect, we let our drawings do the talking.

I mean, once the drawing is done, it needs to be uh clearly um communicated to the contractor and those that build the project. This clearly, I believe, shows that the ADU um is not subordinate and shouldn't be approved. Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it. Yes. Okay. The next speaker I have this evening is Karen Zamora. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Can you hear me? Absolutely. Yes. Thank you. Okay. Um my name is Karen Zamora.

I'm a resident of the Broadmore community. Um I've been um for years we went to ASU. We've been in and out of Tempee. Our family has gone to school here. My daughter has gone to school here. Tempe is very important to us. At the development review com commission meeting on March 11th, the city had received 16 verbal written comments opposing the proposed two-story ADU and only one in favor. Yet, the permit was granted. I am hopeful that more that the more excuse me, I'm nervous.

I am hopeful that the more than 200 constituent signatures submitted in support of this appeal will be considered and will result in the recision of the permit. Tonight, I'd like to address some of the points that were made at the last meeting. The applicant stated that their current home on Alama is wellmaintained and their contractor referenced the time and money they invested in renovating their second house on College Avenue. While I respect those efforts, they are not unique.

for our forever home. We spent more money on the improvements than the fair market value we paid for the house. So, we have a lot of investment in this neighborhood as well. Many of us in Broadmore take great pride in maintaining and improving our homes. We have dedicated substantial time and resources to preserving the charm and integrity that define this historic neighborhood. Renovating one's homes should be a standard, not a justification to alter the character of an entire community.

Next, the applica applicant had mentioned a desire for a second floor to accommodate a sewing space while their contractor asked the review board to approve the permit so they could build their dream house. In reality, what what was proposed was a two-story accelerated dwelling unit, not a dream home, but a structure that will have lasting effects on its surroundings. When they mentioned this last time, the first thing that I thought of was, "What about my dream home?

What about what I want in the neighborhood or need? What about my neighbors? Isn't that just as important?" When my husband and I decided to purchase our forever home, we chose Broadmore for its historical significance, its open skies, its greenery, and critically the absence of large looming structures. I have lived in many cities and deliberately chose a home that we could live in, retire in, um, without tall buildings around it.

My vision of my home was to enjoy my backyard, watch the sunset, watch the fireworks that happen during um the holidays. You could see it from our backyard. The neighbors um put them off. We see the sunset every night. I could even see it from my living room. This proposed two-story ADU directly threatens those desires. It will compromise our view, our privacy, and potentially our property values. More importantly, it disrupts the very essence of what makes Broadmore special.

Why should one resident's dream override the shared vision of the entire neighborhood? I respectfully urge the board to consider the broader implications this two-story ADU poses. I'm sorry that's time neighborhood. That's it. I'm done. Thank you. Appreciate it. The next speaker I have this evening is Mike Johnson third. Please come forwards. State your name and city of resident. You have three minutes. Good evening, mayor and council members. My name is Mike Johnson II.

Uh, and my husband and I are proud residents of the Broadmore neighborhood here in Tempe. Tempe is a great city with diverse collection of neighborhoods that meet a wide range of needs. It's one of the things that we love most about living here. There's something for everybody. Broadmore is known for its large lots, mature trees, and the space and privacy that comes from a thoughtful layout.

But it's also known for its people, a close-knit group of neighbors who get along, who look out for one another, and respect each other's space. Many of us are actively involved in the community, and proud to contribute to the city we call home. The zoning change, which would allow a two-story ADUs to be built close to property lines, threatens the very qualities that make our neighborhood feel like home.

It introduces elevated sight lines into backyards and bedrooms, removes longestablished buffers between neighbors, and alters the scale and rhythm of our streets. Let me be clear, I support creative solutions to housing challenges. ADUs, when done thoughtfully, can be a great tool for expanding housing access. But what's being presented here pushes too far, too tall, too close, and too disruptive to the character of our established neighborhood.

Tempy's strength is in its diversity of people, homes, and neighborhoods. Please help preserve that by making sure our zoning changes don't erase what makes each neighborhood unique. Thank you for your time, your consideration, and your service. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Okay, the next speaker I have is Rebecca Ross. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Well, I had a plan. but it's changed. So, I'm Rebecca Ross.

I've been a resident of Tempi for 40 years. I live in the Broadmore neighborhood. My husband and I um bought our first house in Mitchell Park East, and we moved to Broadmore uh 30 years ago so that we could have our future children go to Broadmore Elementary, Mckame, Tempe High, etc. Um, I'm skipping over some of this because I want to respond actually to what you what you mentioned, Mrs. Amber. That's that was a really important point.

Um, I am here tonight because I feel like this issue of the ADUs is so important. Um, and I have not been in this room for 15 years since my son was a child and uh won a mayor award. So that's will tell you why I'm here tonight, why it's so important to me. First of all, I strongly support the idea of ADUs in Tempee. I feel like we need that housing. I cared for my parents um for 15 years in the house next door to us. Uh that lot is 10,000 square feet.

Had we been able to build an ADU, we have 60 foot of depth to be able to deal with. Um, which is not the situation of this current request. Um, I walked my dog up and down college several times a week. When I saw the sign uh regarding the ADU, I was curious how a two twostory was going to be integrated into the neighborhood. So, I walked down the alley. I looked at it and I was appalled thinking if this was my backyard looking at the Zamora side.

Um I would hate to have that uh be looking at that 24ft structure across my fence and also the issue of privacy although I realize that has now been addressed. Um I think it sets a really dangerous precedent for Tempe. But getting to the uh well addressing actually the SB1415 which I think is really important. I quickly did a little research on my phone and um in Tempee the as you said it allows for a 30-foot um building in our neighborhood.

Um however the buildings are required to have a setback of generally 15 ft. um that this does not have a setback of 15 feet. So in other words, I'm saying it does not meet the same requirements. Um for accessory structures, the setback cannot be less than the front yard setback. That's according to the Tempi zoning and development code and the rear yard is required to have a 20ft setback. So I guess I would say that I totally agree with you.

I'm going to be writing my legislators tomorrow to complain about this. and uh if we're thinking forward, we are going to allow something to slip through the cracks that will affect our neighborhood for decades to come. So, thank you very much for your time. Thank you. Appreciate it. That's all the speakers I have on my sheet here. If there's anyone else who wishes to address the council this evening, please. Yes, please come forward. State your name and city of residence.

You have three minutes. My name is Marklair. I grew up in Tempe. Uh, excuse me. I just want to say that I support this project. Uh, it's uh, judging by the uh, the roof line sketch that the guy brought up, the uh, the architect brought up, it seems like it'll be right in line with the roof line of the front house looking from the street. So, barely visible from the front and should be the same from the neighbor behind. I also really support ADUs.

they seem like the only way to increase housing density in the area, which I know this is not strictly an ADU discussion, but I really support ADUs in the area. Uh, and it really improves the housing value of that house, the neighbors, I'm not sure so much, but anybody who builds an ADU on their lot will improve improve their housing value enormously. That's all I have to say. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Is there anyone else wishing to address the council this evening on this item?

If so, could you please get my attention? All right. Seeing none, I will close the public testimony portion of the public hearing. Jason, I was going to ask you, can we pull that down the uh the presentation arm? Cool. Thank you. Um let me go here to um what I'm going to do here. I'm going to bring him up back in a second. Vice Mayor, um just going in order here. I'm going to look to the appellants attorney uh Mr. Loda um or Mr.

Zamora to see if you have any response to the public comments and also a summary statement. Uh thank you, Mr. Chairman, members of council. I I do have a response. Um and that's that obviously we disagree with the restrictive covenants analysis. So what I would say about that ADU bill, I'd say two things. I'd say I think it it represents an impairment of contracts which I think makes it invalid.

uh with regard to um where there are restrictive covenants and the that ADU bill specifically said it does not override restrictive covenants nor could it. There's also there's two use permits here. There's one for the second story and there's one for the height. Um you know I I don't think the bill has anything to do with stories and I know they sound the same but I think those are treated different legally.

So, I think they do need a use permit for the second story regardless of the issue with the height. Now, um the the in terms of the issue with the height, what the bill talks about is you can't have uh more restrictive setbacks, height, um etc.

But here, I think you've got a combination of setbacks and height that that are being imposed on the neighborhood that I don't think was intended by the legislature at all because you have restrictions that are applicable uh to a a house in the district which is 30 ft. Um but you've got setback requirements for that house that resulted in uh the one house on the west side of college where it is.

I mean, if you go there, it's it's very different um because it's in the middle of the lot because of the setbacks and it's also um you know, it's a part of the house. So, here um the imposition on the neighbors and and I wonder I don't think we'd have this use permit process at all if they could do this as of right. I mean, if they can do this anyway, what are we what are we doing here? Um, I I think certainly for the second story, I think there's they need the use permit.

I don't think the legislature intended to allow people to have um 30 ft um with a 5-ft setback. Um I think if you read the statute, I I think what they're saying is look um for an additional dwelling unit, you can impose more restrictive height, setback, etc. than you oppose on the house. Well, what is it for a house? it's 30 feet height and it's you've got all those setbacks. So, I think when you take that in combination, I think that's why we still have a use permit process.

I think if that weren't the case, I think your city attorney would say, uh, you know what, this whole hearing is a complete waste of time because we have to allow this without a use permit. So, that's what I that's how I would respond to that. Excellent. Thank you. Uh, anyone have any further questions for Mr. Loda? Oh, Mr. Zamora. Yes, please. If if I may. Sure. Please. But just real briefly, um there were four of us who did get the petitions. We did not bad mouth anybody.

We did not intimidate anybody. What they are stating we did. That was not done by me or any of the other three for that one. I just want to put that for the record is that that is not how it is. We know this council's professional. We want to be professional, too. We did not do that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right.

Next up here, I'm going to look to the original applicants, uh, representatives, Mike Wolf and Ed Cox, to see if they'd like to respond to public comments and make a summary statement. No, I was going to get to the council comments afterwards. Well, mine was to Oh. Oh, you was to them. Okay. Okay. Let me do this real quick. Okay. Before you come up, uh, Mrs. Moore, it was to them their question to him. Okay. I want a question. All right. I don't know who it's Okay. Go ahead.

I don't know who it's posed to. I'm sorry. check the microphone. Is that okay? Could we answer ask you a question about what they just said to us? If I understand, yes, you can certainly direct a question to the city attorney. Yes, my question is what they just asked is do that um do that use of per um does do we need a permit for the second story?

Is that correct answer or that's mayor council member Haj the determination by the zoning and planning and community development and the planning and zoning was that in this circumstance that a use permit was required that's correct if they had determined that one wasn't required then we probably wouldn't be here tonight it would have been administratively but the determination by the community development department um was that it was required so that's the genesis of this appeal Okay. Okay.

Sounds good. No, thank you, Council R. Appreciate it. Um, all right. Um, Mr. Wolf and Mr. Cox, uh, any summary statement or you passing. All right. Okay. Sounds good. Thank you. All right. Uh, now we're going to come back to the council members for any additional comments or discussion. Uh, Vice Mayor Garland, I have a question for Mr. Cox. Oh, Mr. Cox, do you have a second? Yes. Hi. Thank you for coming up here.

Um, you know, first I wanted to say I'm just really sorry for how you're feeling about all of this. I know this is not easy. Um, um, so I just want to say that out first. Um, when I looked at or listen was listening to some of the comments at the very beginning of this from Mr. Zabora and looking at the over 200 signatures, um, I made me think of, okay, what would I do in this situation?

If I had four neighbors that were around me that were like not interested in something that I was going to do at my home, I would really probably consider what I was doing because if I really wanted to make that my forever home, I wouldn't want to have my four neighbors or many more neighbors having the perception that you don't that you're doing something that wasn't going to be great for them. So that's just that just so my heart feels bad for everybody because that that's a personal thing.

But with that with that being said, um what is what is your consideration on making this just a single story? So instead of doing the twotory, if you're allowed to do or able to do the singlestory, it you would be able to get the things that you wanted to be able to have and you wouldn't have the twotory um building within this community. Well, I'm not really willing to give up my backyard.

I mean, the I deliberately left the house the same footprint from the original house so that it had that charm and that character for that area is exactly why I didn't change anything. I could have brought the house forward. I could have done a bunch of different things, but I wanted to leave the house as it was in 1957. That didn't give me a lot of options in the back as far as that goes. And I do want to have a backyard to some degree. and and I'd like to answer the question. Uh Mr. Moore Mr.

Zamore didn't say anything to me bad at all. The comments that were made to me were from people that were here at the meeting last time. Uh one of them was on record when she turned around and said those people uh when she was talking. Uh the other comment was made to me at the front door when another woman said, "We do not want you here." Or, "We don't want you here." She was just upset. And I understand I I get upset, too. and and it it just hurt a lot of hurt feelings.

But I will say one gentleman did come to me and say, "I want to apologize to you." This was at the last meeting. He said, "I I I didn't know that you were just normal people. I'm sorry." Yeah. I I appreciate you saying that. I think we could all have a little bit more kindness in this world right now. So, thank you, sir. Thanks for answering the question. Thank you, Council Brand. Sorry, Mr. Mayor. I do have a question for staff. Sure.

uh we heard from the appellet folks and then we heard from the owners that it was subordinate or it wasn't subordinate like so I just want to get a little bit of clarification on where you guys are at on that question. Certainly mayor council member Amber the um in reference to the purpose statement for the air accessory dwelling unit regulations the purpose statements outlines the provisions and regulations that were identified and adopted for that ordinance.

So the regulations you have for the requirements, size requirements, the limitations and the setbacks all define the parameters by which um the ADU provisions are allowed. Um that was some language that was drafted in the purpose statement. Um typically ADUs are subordinate in nature. The actual size of the ADU itself is just the second level portion. So none of the first level is considered an ADU component.

Although you have an accessory building that is larger than the original home, it's the second level that that is the ADU portion and it complies with all the standards allowed for accessory don units including size. All good. Okay.

Um just a couple of questions here on my end too uh regarding uh the setbacks that was raised a couple of times about whether or not this the setbacks associated with this proposed ADU are actually compliant with our current zoning and development code and I just wanted uh staff's opinion on that. So again with the accessory do units they're given additional leniency and the setback standards adopted by the state.

Uh the rule is we cannot pro require more than a five- foot setback on the sides and rear of the property. In the cases of our zoning development code where there's an alley, we actually even measure that um that rear yard setback from the midpoint of the alley. So in this case, they could be at zero lot line from the rear of the property.

I believe there is some some setback from the property line in this case, but um the setback requirements for the AD provisions are five feet on the sides and rear. And you said that's been that's mandated by state law by the bill that was signed. Okay. Good. Okay. I know someone raised that issue earlier. What we're here before you tonight is to discuss accessory buildings and their their height limitations no more than 15 ft in height.

Um second story provision comes into play when there's an existing single story pro property looking to expand to a second level. And that's why we have those two use permits is the accessory building which is proposing to have an ADU second level in height and exceeding a height of 15 ft. And that's why there's a use permit to evaluate the appropriateness of that request. Okay. I've got one other quick question. I'm going to go back to Council Member Amber. Um and Mr.

Anderson, I don't know if you're allowed to answer this kind of you can't dispense legal advice in public necessarily, but I was going to ask regarding uh Council Member Amber's first statement actually she made during this hearing uh regarding state law and whether or not there would be an issue and and I think she stated it very eloquently and sometimes the city I mean just as a note the city was actually working on our own ADU policy here and we were pretty much probably 70 to 80% done I know Ryan and Jeff, you were the two people on staff who were working on that policy.

And at that point in time, the state actually raced ahead of the city of Tempe and all the other communities working on their own individual ADU policies that we thought would take into account much more the local issues that would be that people face here within our city.

Uh but then they obviously passed a bill that was signed into law that basically preempted the city of Tempe and all the other 90 city 90 cities and towns and and then gave us only limited areas where we were allowed to do additional restrictions. That's correct. So just just from a context standpoint, but I was going to ask you, Mr. Anderson.

Um, do we in terms of restricting the height on on an ADU from your perspective, the way that the law was written and obviously signed into law, do we have the ability to make that distinction here? I mean, obviously, as Mr. Lota talked about, there is a use permit. So, clearly there's a reason why we're having this hearing.

But your reading of that law and your understanding of that law, do we have the ability to say we are going to restrict this property to only a one-story ADU or is that an an arbitrary and capriccious decision on our part or is that not in keeping with the intent of the law that was signed? Uh, thank you, mayor. Yeah. And uh my poorly answer to council member Haj's question attempted to respond. Um the state law was recently adopted as the council is aware.

So we don't have a lot of guidance on it. um it does refer to it um as being a the same height restrictions as would apply um in that zoning district because what I would look at the the second story requirement as a species or subset of height requirements. That's why I think that in this case the zoning code which was adopted and approved and and went through the vetted process to be in compliance with state law.

Um, granted there might be people that disagree with us on that, but I think that's a reasonable interpretation that was adopted by the zoning administrator who's uh by state law is the uh frontline interpreter of the the zoning and development code. So, that was a reasonable interpretation that this was part of a height restriction, the the uh use permit. So, yeah, we we we think that's consistent with the state law. Granted, it's it's not 100% clear.

There's not case law yet or anything, but we do think it's consistent, reasonable, and and defensible that and yes, we wouldn't be here if if it was if we felt it was a different way around. So, sounds good. All right. I may have another question, but I'm going to go to Council Member Amber, then Council Member Chin. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Um, Eric, kind of to this point, uh, you know, we've been hearing saying that this is a singlestory neighborhood. This is a single story neighborhood.

Are there any two-story, you know, homes in this neighborhood that we've actually given building permits to to build that second story? So, this isn't the first building, not necessarily the, you know, the original dwelling, but the building in that neighborhood that would be two stories. Yeah. Uh, Mr. Mayor, Council Member Amberg, uh, if I can focus your attention on this is a map. Let's see. Whoops. No problem. No problem.

Uh, this is a map that delineates the Broadway Neighborhood Association. Um, everything in yellow is inclusive of the Broadway Neighborhood Association with a broad, my apology. Um and uh the star represents the uh subject property that we're referring to today. Uh there are six properties uh that are within the broad more neighborhood association that have been constructed as either two-story homes um or they have had additions throughout the years added to that original home.

Um the homes that have had additions, which is about half of these properties, uh did go through the use permit process, uh to obtain a second floor addition. Um you'll see number five on the map, uh is the only property that is not necessarily within the Broadway Neighborhood Association, uh but it is pretty much right across the street from the subject property, and that's why we included it in this map. Council member Chin. Thank you, Mayor. Um, clarification on that one.

Those uh second those homes that you just pointed out on the map, were any of those ADUs or were they additions to the single family homes? Uh, none of them were were ADUs. They were either originally constructed as a two-story structure. uh all these homes were originally constructed in the 60s or they were added to later on uh and obtained a use permit to do so. Okay. Thank you. I wanted to clarify, Eric, what you just shared with us and it was in response to council member Amber's question.

So my understanding is that the we you one a city cannot impose additional restrictions on ADUs. You cannot impose additional restrictions that do not already exist for single family homes. Correct? Okay. So the issue here tonight or the topic tonight for us are the use permits for a second story structure, second story of the ADU, which if a homeowner was going to add a second story to their single family home, they would need to get a use permit also.

So it's nothing extra, it's the same process. Okay, thank you. Correct. That was it. The only Excuse me. The only question that I have to Thank you, Council Chin. I I'm just sort of looking at the options here and once again, I'm not able to make motions in my role as mayor or chair. The only thing that I'm still a little bit confused about is some of the state law issue. That's the thing that I'm a little a little still unclear about. And I also recognize, you know, Mr.

Anderson, that's because you're only allowed to give us as much information as you can in kind of an open forum, but obviously to give us more, we'd probably have to go uh into executive session to hear that. And I know it's pretty late to do that at this point. Um, but that's the only thing that I'm a little bit sort of not entirely clear about about what the law really says on that issue.

I mean, obviously, I understand that we have to have a use permit hearing here in order to grant this second story, but I mean, there is a part of me that would like a little bit of additional clarity on that law and kind of what the intent was or what, frankly, even the letter of the law was in this situation. And I'm but I'm obviously not not expecting you to be able to dispense that information at this very moment.

So, mayor, if you'd like, I could certainly read you the letter of the law because if you got it in front of you, sure I do. It's um uh the city is prohibited from setting restrictions for accessory dwelling units that are more restrictive than those for single family dwellings within the same zoning area with regard to height setbacks, lot size or coverage or building frontage. So that's kind of the okay letter of the law word for word from the state statute. So okay.

So I mean it it it sounds as if what it's saying and please correct me if I am incorrect that basically to now this is why it's a little bit confusing by by not granting this goes back to council member Ramberg's original comment by not granting this whatever would we find ourselves potentially in violation of state law mayor or am I or am I misreading that statement mayor that so just to go back to the the discussion earlier what the the the city interpretation is that led us here today because if if there was a different interpretation that would the ADU would have been administratively approved and there wouldn't have been any DRC decision.

So the city interpretation led us here today that is essentially and it's just a short version but essentially that the use for the second story requirement is a part of the height restrictions of the area and therefore it's within the uh it's consistent because uh I think we've heard testimony here tonight from the community development department that the same restrictions would apply if if the applicant had wanted to raise his existing home and add a second story to at the main structure, he would have had to have a or they would have had to have a a use permit.

So, applying that same criteria, there's a use per if they wanted to raise put a second story on top of their main dwelling, they would need a use permit. So, uh consistent with state law, then the same applies to the ADU. They're seeking to do a second story. So, it's consistent in our minds that acceptable interpretation. Granted, this, you know, the courts are the ultimate arbitrers of state law, but and I don't believe this was raised with the DRC to my knowledge.

So, this is kind of outside what was really this. So, it wasn't really considered by the DRC because I don't think it was raised in the record to them as is whether an issue or not. Let me ask you this quick, then get to council member Chin very quickly then. It wasn't to your recollection, it wasn't raised to the DRC, but could it have been raised? Was was this is this something that they could have considered as they were deliberating?

My expectation would have been if that if the applicant was relying on that um that would that should have been raised with the the staff when the the the application was processed. Um and then we would I don't know the answer to that but you know we would address that at that time and make that determination.

And so to the extent the applicant may have raised it, um the determination by the zoning department was that the state statute, this was consistent with the state statute that there be use permit consideration for the second story. Okay, sounds good. Thank you, Council Chin. Thank you, mayor. So I just wanted to clarify the issue is the use permit which you would need, one would need whether it's for the ADU or your single family home. It's not extraneous in any way.

I I think that's correct and that's what I've heard from the community development department. I'm giving them an opportunity to to tell me I'm wrong, but that if if any structure in this um area that is subject in this area that's subject to that same single family zoning, if they wanted to add say what's going to put a second master bedroom on the top of my main structure, a use permit would have been required.

Even if even though if they were with the over within the overall height of the zoning district, they still would have had to have the use permit because of the second story requirement that's been adopted into the Tempy zoning. So, thank you. And I think it's important to clarify or I'd like to clarify the issue here is not about ADUs. I I have no issue with a property owner who wants to add an ADU to to their um property.

I think the question is the second story and whether for me whether or not in this particular neighborhood it's compatible with the character area. So that's the scope for me tonight. Thank you. Okay. And uh oh, Council Member Amber. Uh Mr. Mayor, uh to go back and I guess to Eric, um you know, a lot of the folks that were opposed for saying that they didn't want to set precedent of adding a second story ADU.

Um and this is a use permit and we have already as a city provided use permits for second stories in a neighborhood that is predominantly single story. So could you say that from the state law? I mean, and this is the part that I'm just, you know, I'm struggling with. Um, you could say that we've already set the president in this neighborhood that we are allowing second stories in the single dwelling unit. Uh, but we're now not going to allow we are fine with a singlestory ADU.

What we're not fine with is a second story ADU that that then we would then be in violation of the state law that says, you know, we've already approved permits for second stories on a single dwelling unit in this neighborhood. Now, you want us to deny an approval for a use permit for a second story ADU. To me, that violates the state statute. Um, and just real quick to the fantastic um resident that came up and said she was going to call her state legislator.

After this is over, I could get your name and number. That would be fantastic because there is a resident that is literally down at the legislature all of the time opposing all of these state laws, the bills that are basically restricting cities from going in and you know restricting some of this stuff. And if you could give me your name and number, I would love to provide it to her after this is all over. That would be fantastic. Unfortunately, no. I'm sorry. So, all right.

Let me go to uh Council Member Keiting and then to Vice Mayor Garland. Thank you very much, Mayor. Um I ag I I largely agree with with Council Member Amber. Um and I certainly understand the concerns that some of my colleagues have raised. To me, this is kind of a it's it's a a question. It's a legal question that's frankly out of our hands.

Um, I understand the concerns of the residents and the concerns about precedent, but again to council member Ramberg who seems to be the allstar of the night points out that it's there are precedents already kind of set. Um, you know, it's unfortunate that we're in this situation, but it, you know, we've kind of gone round and around on this for quite some time and respect for the public and respect for our staff, I'm going to go ahead and make a motion that we deny the appeal. Okay. Okay.

The motion's been made by Council Member Keing to deny the appeal. Is there a second? Okay, there's been a move. Okay, then that mot that motion does is there a second for that appeal or for the for his motion? Well, I'll second. Okay, then seconded by council member Hajj. Um I thought we had more conversations. Well, we we we can keep talking. I mean, but but yeah.

So, basically, Council Bit is making a motion to deny the appeal and you're saying you're seconding the motion to deny the appeal and we can keep talking. Is that what you're saying? Or Yeah, because I thought Vice Mayor had something to say. She does. Yes, Vice Mayor. I think I think we need to stand we have because I was going to make motion. Oh, okay. I was going to make a motion, but we have to stand with the motion in the second that's already happened. So, right.

So, I have to wait to see what happens with this. Okay. Okay. I'm curious as to what your motion was actually. Yeah. I mean, you just made the motion. No, but I'm curious. Unless you want to withdraw the second and hers and hear hers. I mean, okay. Can I withdraw my second? You can. Yes, you can withdraw your second. Okay. So, that in that case, is there another person who wants to second that motion or do we just want to let vice mayor also hear what what she was going to say?

All right, let's do this then. Let's say that the motion by counciling is going to die for a lack of a second at the moment. And I'm going to go to Vice Mayor Garland to hear what her motion would be so we can at least hear what the motions are here. Thank you, Mayor. So, um I was looking through the approval criteria, so I wanted to be specific on what was expected of us um with this appeal. So, the approval criteria, one of the criteria criteria says we only needed one, you could have more.

Um is a contribution to the deterioration of the neighborhood or the downgrading of the property values. I I keep looking at that and I I I I was hoping, you know, there was possibly there would be an answer that would say that we would be able to maybe make it a one story and not the twotory, but um I I would like to with that make a motion to approve um the appeal. Um that's my motion. Second. Okay. All right. It's been seconded.

So, it's been the motion made to approve the appeal and it's been seconded by Council Member Chin. Um, are there any further comments or questions? Mr. May, I have a question. Yes, Council Member Adams. Well, are we are we violating state law then by having this? I mean, I guess I'll look to our city attorney. Oh, yeah. Just I want clarification. Sure.

So, just to clarify, um we we've been through this quite a bit, but no, we don't think that there's a reasonable interpretation from the city's zoning uh administrator who is in charge of administering the zoning that this property needed to have a a use permit for a second story, even with the ADU. That is supportable in my opinion under state law. Um although it's not 100% clear, it is supportable. So, um, yeah, it's it's this proceeding is fine.

I think the council can consider the whether or not a use permit is required under for the ADU. I'm going to send so the motion is on the floor for the to approve the appeal from Vice Mayor Garland. The second is from council Chin. Just my my quick comments here because once again, I'm not in my role allowed to make motions. Um my preference on this personally I mean but this is up to my colleagues.

My preference on this is to uh my third option here is to continue the case to a future date certain only because my concern here quite honestly is that there is seems to be a little bit of confusion about kind of what what the legal standing of this is and frankly I would be interested in finding out a little bit more information before making a final decision on this and seeing if there is some way to reach some kind of compromise between both sides and from my perspective the only way to do that whatever is allowing a little bit of additional time to see if there's some way um that the two parties could get together and see if there's something that could potentially be worked out uh by both sides.

But so but that's once again that that would be my preference to continue this, but at the same time I'm not able to make any motions at this time. There's already a motion on the table, but that would be my preference. So I I will just say I will probably on my end vote no on the motion only because that's my preference for a continuence. It's not that I don't I don't appreciate the appeal, but I would actually prefer to have more time.

So, just wanted to state want to want to explain my vote this evening. So, Mr. Mayor, I agree with your your statement, Mr. Mayor. I agree with you as well. I I agree. I agree with you, too. Okay. So, so we can either we can vote on the motion or we can withdraw the motion and put forward another motion for a continuence. Yes. We're still in discussion.

I think we've asked the city attorney this like four times, five times that it wouldn't have even gone this far if it wasn't if we did not believe that we already had good standing to be able to make this decision. So, I think kicking the can down the road to come up with the same decision that we've already asked him to explain in many different ways is kind of unfair to the to the appellant um and to the applicant.

And I think that I don't know how else he's how else our city attorney is going to be able to come to that decision when he's already said that multiple times. So I feel like I don't have any question on whether or not we're doing the right thing because he's already said that. So I'm mult I'm repeating myself now. No, no, to totally fine. No, I appreciate. Yes, council.

I I also believe that when the mayor asked the question, there was some information we could not speak on except in executive session. And that's why I think we should go back and hear the rest of the conversation. He did say there are certain things that that that the attorney can only say on the dis that we would have to go into executive session and ask certain questions and I think I want to hear those answers to those questions. I agree. Well, let's Yeah. Okay. Okay.

We'll resend the motion. Okay. So, the motion's been rescended. Uh is there another motion on the floor? Uh, Council Member Adams or or Council Member Kitty, one of the two. You go ahead. I'm thinking about it. Oh, go. You go for I motion we deny the appeal. Okay. Uh, there's been a motion on the floor by Council Member Keating to deny the appeal. Uh, is there a second? There's no second. All right. That motion dies for lack of a second. Is there another motion, Council Brah Hajj?

Okay, let me see if I get this right. I motion that we table this to another time so we can actually go back and um hear more information in executive session. I second that motion. Okay. It's been moved by Council Member Hajj to uh table this to another date certain. Uh Mr. City attorney.

Mayor, if I may propose a slight modification to council member Haj's motion that we continue to a date certain the next regularly scheduled council meeting um just for the reason that that will save uh the May 22nd. When is the next May 22nd until May 22nd? Okay. So, it's been the motion's been made to continue this until the May 22nd regular council meeting. It's been seconded by council member Adams. Uh any further comments or questions? All right. Hearing none.

All those in favor, please vote. I'm just And that Oh, wait a minute. Sorry. I'll just take I can take a verbal one. So that means Okay, sorry. That Okay, so that item passes 4 to three with Vice Mayor Garland, Council Member Chin, and Council Member Keiting voting no. Um, which means that this will be this item will be continued to the May 22nd regular council [Music] meeting. All right.

Next item under the section is 8A3 which is to set up public hearing date of May 22nd, 2025 for the downtown Tempy enhanced services improvement district assessments for fiscal year 2025 2026. All right. Um any council any comments or discussion from council? No. Uh okay. Uh then I'll look for a motion on item 83. It's been moved by council member Adams. Second, seconded by council member Hodgej. Please vote. I I I'm having trouble trouble with mine. And that item passes seven to zero.

The next item under the section is 8A4, which is to prove the utilization of a 5-year state of Arizona cooperative contract with Kerasoft Technology Corporation Incorporated for purchase implementation in support of an asset and workforce management software solution. Council, any comments or discussion hearing? None. Is there a motion? It's been moved by council member Chin and seconded by council member Hajj. Please vote. And that item passes seven to zero.

The next item of the section is 8A5 which is to approve the utilization of a three-year Omnia Partners Cooperative contract with Amazon Web Services Incorporated for the development of a comprehensive data catalog that will offer a singular unified platform for city data. Council members, any comments or discussion? Motion to approve. It's been moved by council member Adams. Do I have a second? Second. Seconded by council member Hajj I think by a hair I think.

Please vote and that item passes 7 to zero. The next item under the section is 8A6 which is to approve the utilization of one-year state of Arizona cooperative contracts with courtesy auto of Mesa, Courtesy Chevrolet, Sanderson Ford, Larry Miller Toyota, Midway Chevrolet, O'Reilly Chevrolet, PFBT Motors doing business as Peoria Ford, Santan Auto Partners LLC, Ford and Sands Chevrolet for the purchase of 69 vehicles. Council, any comments or discussion?

So move moved by council member Hajj seconded by council member Chin. Please vote and that item passes seven to zero. The next item under the section is 87 which is to award a professional services contract to Dibble and Associates Consulting Engineers Incorporated for project number 5499742M pavement quality index acceleration at various locations. Council, any comments or discussion? Motion to approve. It's been moved by council member Adams. Second. seconded by council member Amber.

Please vote. And that item also passes 7 to zero. The next item under this section is 8A88, which is to adopt a resolution authorizing a maximum dollar amount for an individual job order of up to $2.9 million for the purchase for the purpose of procuring construction services for the asset maintenance 2023 South Tempe water treatment plant. Job order number one, UV valves replacement and filters rehabilitation. So moved. It's been moved by council member Haj. Do I have a second?

Seconded by council member Chin. Please vote. And that item passes 7 to zero. The last item under the section is 8A9 which is to approve job order number one with Gardy Companies Incorporated for project number 3208023A asset maintenance 2023 South Tempe water treatment plant. Any comments or discussion? It's moved by Council Member Anberg. Do you have a second? Second. Seconded by Council Member Adams. Please vote. There you go. That item passes seven to zero.

The next section on the non-consent agenda is ordinances and items for second in for introduction and first hearing. The items under the section will be read and introduced tonight, but no substantive votes will be taken. The second hearings and votes are scheduled for May 22nd, 2025. All right. Uh, are there any comments from city staff on item 8B1? All right. This is also a public hearing. Actually, is there a presentation from the applicant on this item?

I almost forgot that it was it was getting late and I almost skipped it actually but I caught myself. So, Miss Sender, welcome. Thank you. [Music] All right. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Um, appreciate your your patience uh with my presentation. I I have some information here might take a few minutes, but I will be as quick as I can. And I know this is an introduction hearing. Um, let's see here. Oh, uh, Darren Cinder, Sender Associates, 464 South Farmer Avenue, Sweet 102, Tempee.

Um, first I want to thank the staff. This has been a eight-year process. Um, a lot of people have come and gone, but Jeff and Ryan and Karen and Michelle and Mike and and April are new. Josh has been with us for quite a while on this as well. Zach is relatively new. um Mike and John um amazing amazing amount of work that they put into this um over the years um including staff that that aren't even here anymore. So um just wanted to thank them for all the work that they've done.

Um everyone's pretty familiar with this property. It uh uh it's on the obviously just south of city hall here. And uh before I forget once again um I have tonight here uh Mr. Doug Tickner uh with uh uh core development core spaces and um my Mr. Mike Duffy with RSP Architects. So, he'll walk you through the design a little bit and and I'll just kind of show you what requests we have tonight. Uh the property here is in in red.

You can see it's just southeast of City Hall and uh between Sixth Street and Seventh Street east of Myrtle where the um underground access is to the uh um Brickyard um parking garage there. Show you here. So, this red line is basically all the property that uh Wexford Development Sam Gordon owns currently. Um it came in pieces. I'll go over that in a few minutes. This is what we call the development site. It's pretty much everything that that Wexford owns right now minus the sanctuary building.

So, that is not part of our request. You can see on the uh northwest corner in the in the white buildings there. Those are the ancillary buildings that we're proposing to raise. Um the alley is in the middle. Um that will be abandoned but retain all of the easements for access, pedestrian access, emergency vehicles and refues. Um the office building was the old Bluefish building. It's a little office building. And then we are all sad but House of Tricks is the property to the southeast.

Um let's see here. So that's the development site. This is a picture here showing um this is everything that is currently owned. This is a sanctuary site. This is the original property that was purchased by Wexford Development. This is a church. So, uh, originally this church property was all that was to be developed and I'll go through that a little bit in the history as well.

The office site was bought, uh, next that was a second property purchased and then the Trixs property was purchased when Robin and Bob uh, decided to retire. go through this property is currently mixeduse urban core downtown um highdensity development for uh the general plan 2050 and it is zoned pretty much consistent with all of downtown as well. It's a CC city center zoning which uh promotes high-rise highintensity developments.

Um the H on there is the uh the little um historic preservation uh overlay that is on the property. We kind of went through a little bit of this uh during the uh appeal process. This is what we proposed to reszone to. Uh we're going to retain that historic preservation overlay on the sanctuary property. Uh some of the highlights of the project, uh we're going to have murals and public art in pedestrian alley. Uh in the pedestrian alley, as well as some exterior elements of the building.

We haven't really figured out where yet, but we definitely want to have some more uh art uh surrounding the building and around uh the area. So, not just in the alley. Um we are going to be complying as much as possible with the voluntary green building code. We will have for the next hearing, we'll have a checklist of of the information that that we are complying with. Um the sanctuary building will be saved.

We are going to be preserving the sanctuary building and providing that uh to the city uh for their use. We will also be saving the Harry Walker house by relocating that to a city determined location and providing a new 4,000 foot downtown restaurant. Landscaping and trees on the frontage will enhance the pedestrian experience and building uh half the building permit fees will go to hometown for all.

Um the other uh kind of interesting part of this project, every project that we do in downtown, we're asked to create a pedestrian connection between Mill and College um create an area that's off street basically that's not on a busy street like Six or Seventh Street and create a pedestrian walkway to to really connect Mill and College and just kind of through this eastern part of downtown. And really, it's very very difficult to do that when you're peacemealing um development sites.

We we tried to do it on the west and we tried to do it on some other properties in the downtown and this one gave us that opportunity to do that. So that's why the the alley the east west alley is going to be abandoned but creating a pedestrian element there so that we have that connection going all the way through. Uh we're providing much neededed housing as well as four public EV superchargers. And these superchargers are very very fast.

Um it's basically the equivalent of 74 regular EV chargers. Um we're also providing 30 EV ready um spaces within the parking garage and supporting light rail, street car, Orbit, and the bus routes and other city investments that really demand this density and intensity in our downtown to support those transportation options. And and this is an appropriate development for this city center area. Um I'll go through the history very quickly.

Um the original development site which was just the church um was purchased in 2016 by Wexford Development Sam Gordon. Um Wexford is the property owner right now and they are the joint venture partner with core spaces. Originally we intended to raise the church. You know it was a small site. I think it was about half an acre that was going to be raised um and then a a project built in that in that area. Um so they began designing it.

2016 they started designing that little kind of the two pieces that were just the church property and then uh the congregation said we don't we don't want any of that to stay. They submitted their own demolition request in 2017. Um it didn't end up going forward. Um but in 2017 at the about the same time the office site next door was available. So Wexford purchased that and then redesigned the site for the first time. Redesigned that incorporated the office into it.

They submitted this to the city in 2019 and submitted their own demolition permit in 2020 so we could develop the church and then that little office site. Still a pretty small site for a downtown project. Um that was uh denied by the HPC in 2020 and basically ready to wait the six-month waiting period. Sam said, "Hey, you know, we're just going to move forward with this. Let's let's go." Um then the House of Tricks property became available.

Um Sam had been talking to Robin and they said, you know, hey, we might be interested in this. Trick site was then purchased by Wexford in 2021 and he resign redesigned the project again now with a lot more property. There was a lot more land available and you know the discussions that have been happening with the city since 2018 to save the sanctuary um really kind of ramped up at this stage. Now we thought aha we've got some land here.

we can we can pull back off of that sanctuary and and develop our property and still make it work. Um, so we reached an agreement with the city to preserve the sanctuary building. And in the meantime, we found out that the Harry Walker House was also on it was on the historic national historic list. The sanctuary is on the city of Tempe list. Um, the Harry Walker House is that little building that was just east of the bar, which I'm sure none of you have been to.

um just east of the bar uh at the house of tricks and uh you know really couldn't even see it. I I've got some pictures somewhere but you couldn't even see it. It was completely covered with trees. Um so that's on the national list. It's on the city of Tempy's eligible list. Um so we talked to the city for years about this and ultimately said let's do it. Um we we are going to be relocating the Harry Walker house.

it will be put on a big old truck and moved down the streets and it's not an easy thing to do. So, we are going to be doing that as well as saving the sanctuary building. Um, now we had a a a plan. Uh, we've got the property. We submitted a formal entitlement application. Everybody said, "Great, let's move forward. We're ready to go." And then Wexford said, "You know what? This is becoming a big project.

We're going to need a joint venture partner on this." Um, Wexford added core spaces as a joint venture partner and then we did some small redesign. Uh, really not a lot changed. We filed a second formal entitlement application then in 2024 and and uh a demolition permit in 2025. And the demo permit was only just for the ancillary buildings uh next to the sanctuary. And that we filed really just to facilitate moving forward with the historic preservation commission um hearings.

So, we weren't going to tear down the sanctuary or anything. Um, uh, in 2025, just recently, we went through the, uh, the HPC process, uh, which ultimately we came to the city council on appeal. Our appeal was granted, and here we are today. The history you can see starts in uh the actual formal history starts in 2019, comes all the way down to where we are here in red uh May 1st, 2025, and we will see you again on May 22nd. Uh we've had um quite a few meetings with the Islamic Community Center.

Um we've uh they reached out to us in 2023, right around like March or April 2023. um had several meetings. Uh main issues were the alley and the refuge locations. Uh we've been meeting with ASU as well, and there was a neighborhood meeting on uh January 7th of 2025. Oh, I just want to also say that I spoke to some uh residents of the Orchid House at the last hearing and we're going to set up a meeting with them to go over all this.

I would have done it previously, but I've had the flu all week pretty much since DRC. So, I didn't have a chance to do anything. So, if they're here, I think I will be we will be doing that. Um, so yeah, I'm still can't talk. Um, so the ICC comments, I'll just go through these really quickly. They very very valid concerns. um specifically with the refu location which was on the alley which we thought it's an alley that's where you put refu but it turns out that's where their entrance is.

That's where their their events are. They have weddings right there. They have funerals there. They have you know all of their activities kind of are right off that alley. Um so we took that very seriously. The roof deck amenity uh it was on the east side of the building right by their um you know overlooking their property. They wanted us to move it. So, we ended up moving that uh to the west and I'm sorry, the alley.

We ended up moving all of our refues and all of that um activity of electrical units, everything. All of that we moved inside our building. Um it was huge. It took over a month just to figure out if we could do it. And we we realized that was very important to them and they're our neighbor. So, we took all of that and moved it interior to the building so it can't be seen. We also um close the alley.

So instead of having an open alley that could actually uh utilize the trucks and deliveries and things like that, we have barards at each end of the alley so that if there's an emergency, they can be pulled out. Um but our full access, all of our access, vehicular uh access is from Sixth Street. So that that will make sure that there is no uh vehicular activity, trucks or anything like that on the uh alley adjacent to the ICC.

Um the roof deck amenity as I mentioned we moved that from the east side to the west side of the roof deck. The fourth floor amenity deck we moved that from the east side to the west side and we are not allowing any people on the east side of that fourth floor roof deck. Um took all the balconies off um that east side. We have just a couple pocket balconies on the west, but there are no balconies on the east side.

They they were very clear that they did not want people looking over there on a balcony. Um they to we talked about setbacks, but um there's a zero foot setback and then there's kind of an actual setback and there's there's a lot of property in between. Um parking reductions. Um we talked to them about that. We have since increased our parking and the dog run. there was a a dog run that they were concerned about because it was directly adjacent to their area.

And just during the process of kind of redesigning a few things um and adding extra parking, we were able to move the dog run. We still have it, but we were able to move it and and and we realized, you know, one of the things about this developer is that they weren't just doing things because, you know, it was better for them.

Um they did these things because top of mind they knew that there were these issues and they wanted to make sure that everyone was was uh uh you know thought of and thought about in this case. So we ended up solving a lot of problems that were you know that were there. The entitlement requests we have tonight uh first one is a zoning map amendment and this isn't a regular zoning map amendment. The property zone CC which is fine. We can use that for our development.

What we're asking for here is to reduce the size of the historic preservation zoning overlay. Um, whenever you place property on the Tempy's list, their historic preservation list, excuse me, their their register, you actually are reszoning the property. Excuse me. You are reszoning it. Um, it it goes to the HPC. I think I can make it. Thank you. it goes to the HBC and they give a thumbs up, but ultimately that has to go through to the city council as a zoning map amendment.

So, what we're doing tonight is is just kind of taking that off of the development property, retaining it on the sanctuary property, and doing that through a zoning process. Oh, oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. As someone who's just uh getting over a sinus infection the last couple of weeks, trust me, I understand totally. So that's right.

Um we also have a uh a PD overlay um uh that we will be adding to this property which is basically setting the development standards for height um the north parking setback and then the vehicle parking uh ratios and then a development plan review which is uh the fun stuff that's all the the the development uh pictures the renderings uh elevation site plans and everything that Mike Duffy from uh RSP will be talking about. And then just again I'll go over these a little bit more.

This is the delisting area. Um the HP or the H will be taken off the property. It will be reszoned from CCHOD to CCTOD. And again that's the area in red on the left that is currently uh has the overlay district on it and the map on the right is the uh sanctuary site that will retain the H overlay. the P A overlay that we're proposing will uh set the building height.

Uh originally it was 315 feet, but we'd been talking to staff for quite a while about parking and we came to uh a number that they had liked um 0.195 uh per bedroom on the parking. So again, took that back, took a look at that um several hours with Mike at RSP and we figured out that if we added one floor, uh we could hit that number. And I don't know if I'm allowed to say, can I say the the point? So we actually are at 202. So we are ahead of what staff wanted.

Um and with that, we added u some height to the building. So the ultimate building height uh will be 325 instead of 315. So about 10 10 ft uh with that one floor of parking. Um north side parking surface parking is 15 foot setback and then the part in yellow here for for the vehicle parking ratios that will be changed to 0.202 um and then the parking will be calculated uh for that. So the actual parking now there will be a total of 437 parking spaces.

Um 397 of those will be uh structured uh residential structured spaces. So it's quite an increase from previously. Yeah. I was just curious about uh um why we're increasing parking when this is an area that has light rail, street car, buses, the orbit, bicycles. I mean, I'm I just that just confuses me. And I mean, are we really promoting sustainable practices when we are we're asking for more parking?

Um yeah, we we had a lot of these discussions with staff, but you know, ultimately we we reached an agreement, but yeah, I guess just to clarify, so the there's three different parking standards, right? We've got our general development parking standards for citywide. We've got reductions in the transportation overlay district that gives you about 25 to 30% reduction in the parking.

And then we have alternate downtown parking standards that are much lower than than other areas of the city, 50 to 75% lower than than those other sites. So the parking required for the CC zoning, which is a much lower standard, is about 800 some odd parking spaces.

And so what we did and came with conclusion based on the the study presented by the traffic impact analysis was a recommended um study evaluation of attaining that 1.195 number which is drastically lower than the downtown number but a compromise in between what the applicant was proposing. So the difference of about I think 300 or more reduced spaces from the from the downtown required parking number which is much lower but we were happy with with the medium uh that they proposed.

We were giving them alternatives on how they could achieve that parking ratio. They could reduce units maybe reduce floors, put uh floors below grade. The applicant chose to add the additional level to to meet that ratio. Okay. I just want you to keep a close eye on the parking situation when we have every we have the best transportation system in the entire valley and and and we we have to keep that in mind when we're looking at these projects. Correct. And parking.

We don't we want people out of their cars especially in areas that in this area. Correct. Council may and and just to reiterate too, I think the number is pretty close to that previous project over on College and 7th. Okay. Street that also had their reduction. I think they're about 179. 179. That's correct. Yeah, Mr. Mayor, uh, Council Member Adams, I appreciate your words.

Um, and we have taken that into consideration, uh, you know, these numbers are still as low as we've seen them anywhere in the city of Tempe. And uh you know while I completely understand your concerns, we also have concerns that we are not yet at that point of developing a full urban core that you know where people have the ability to, you know, basically conduct all their business within the city. So they don't need cars. We're going to get there. I guarantee we're going to get there.

Whimo, Uber, Lift. We're not there yet, though. Just give me a few things I'm thinking about. So, okay. I I I of course I respect your opinions. So I appreciate Thank you. So the last uh entitlement request here is the DPR development plan review and I'll have Mike from RSP come up and show you um kind of the current plans that we are proposing. Great. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Uh I'll know it's late so I'll try to be brief. My name is Mike Duffy. I'm principal with RSP Architects.

Our office is at 502 South College Avenue where we've called Tempe home for the last 25 years. Um I've been a part of this project since about 2018 when the church sanctuary portion and the office building were acquired. So I've been part of the project for a long time and I'm excited to share where it's at today. Um, as we're already discussed, the site is here at 7th uh street in Myrtle. Um, we are bounded by the Islamic Cultural Center on the east and the Brickyard development to the west.

City Hall is just to the northwest of us. We've got a few shots of the adjacent um development area showing complimentary density, size, and scale. Uh, a quick site plan here. One of the things that's the most unique about our project here or a defining character is this sort of capital I or sideways H plan.

And and what that allows us to do from a massing perspective is really break down the overall massing of the building and make it feel more like a collection of multiple buildings rather than a single mass. Conceptually, that mass is brought down to a parking podium where we have activated uses um at the ground floor, restaurant on the corner, lobby, and um residential amenities.

And then we're further breaking down that massing um with color and material variations where we're taking inspiration from desert landscape features like rock formations, valleys, and even patternings from fields. Um some inspiration imagery for the base. Really wanting to make sure these are activated and shaded pedestrian spaces along Seventh Street. We've got a combination of both planting as well as building shade.

Um, and then in the garage screening, really trying to provide something that's both elegant and simple while fully screening the garage. Inspiration for the tower, we're really trying to balance um, variation and interest with order and rhythm. Going into the renderings themselves, we've got a couple of shots from around the four corners of the building. Here we are at the southwest corner. We've got the brickyard to our left and the uh, Union Developments on our right.

And we're looking east down Seventh Street. Here we can start to see the breakdown of the mass with both that H or I-shaped plan and then variation in material from the darker red metal panels to some of the lighter colors um of the other inset volumes. As we go around, we're standing now on the U southeast side looking west along Seventh Street. Um a shot from the northeast with the ICC in the foreground and the church off to the right.

Um and then standing more or less in the front of city a hall here looking to the southeast. Zooming in a little closer um to the southwest corner, we've got the um this would be the restaurant uh shown up close. So we've got that activated restaurant use at the corner and then we've got a combination of both uh well landscaped trees along Seventh Street and building mounted shade um over the pedestrian frontage.

Uh, and then moving further along Seventh Street, we've got a shot of the main entrance here where we've added height um as a point of interest to create a focal point along Seventh Street. I can quickly uh go through a couple of the plans. We've got our activated uses, as I've mentioned before, along Seventh Street. That's the main pedestrian access point. Vehicles all come off of Sixth Street with the alley through the middle.

The alley has been um controlled with removable ballard such that it is pedestrian only as you move east west across the site.

Um, and this has allowed us after talking with the ICC, as Darren mentioned, we reconfigured our refuge, loading, and access for electrical equipment such that it's all internal kind of at the middle of the site there, you can see some ghosted turning radi how all of that can be internalized to our property and the uh trucks in any service happen off of Sixth Street, avoiding needing to cross um the alley to the east in front of the mosque.

Um, as we stack up the building, we have our parking levels. Um, as Darren mentioned, we added one more. So, this is still showing a level two and three. There's a level four now. Um, and then above that we have an amenity deck. There is a small outdoor amenity at the top of the parking garage. We've intentionally placed this on the west side to keep it away from the Islamic Cultural Center.

And we've also placed it as far south as we can to um keep it away from um the Brickyard development to the west. The typical tower plate as it moves up to the top. Uh and then our roof deck which has a pool and amenity feature again located specifically at the southwest side of the property um to keep it away from adjacent neighbors and the activated and keep it closest to the activated uses along Seventh Street. Uh last we have a shot of the approach for preserving the sanctuary.

In the upper right you have a couple of dashed lines that show where the exist some of the existing structures that will be removed uh and the the the church beyond. Uh and you can also see on the roof plan in the lower left some of those uh dash lines that show where the existing structure is that would be removed um and leave the sanctuary in place. Talk a little bit about how we interface with the open house here. Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Just to be clear, um the other thing that this sort of H plan does is it minimizes our frontages, right? So, we've pulled the building mass into the center. So, as we stand on the um I'll jump back to a site plan real quick so that it's clear. Um we're also really intentionally minimizing our frontages that face our our neighbors, right? So, both on the mosque and on the um the brickyard side, trying to minimize that frontage that faces them and minimize the activity.

So, trying to create some relief where we can knowing that we've got uh you know a tight site where we're trying to do um a large development. Happy to answer any questions. Great. Thank you very much. I have one thing to add, please. Thank you, Mr. Mayor, members of council. Um, I I know I had a slide that talked all about the ICC and and kind of all our discussions and and that's because they approached us and wanted to talk.

So, I know that some of the people from the Orchid House that we didn't have those discussions. I wasn't approached. Um, I I did receive one phone call. I called them back, but we hadn't connected or at all. So, um I did want to let them know though and let you know though we always had them in mind. It wasn't like, oh, it's just the ICC that we're we're going to help and and and design around.

Um all of this all of the the properties around, including the the uh the park uh on the south side of city hall. You know, everything around us was was thought of in this design. Um not just the ICC. So, I just want to let you know that even though I didn't have a little checklist and we didn't have a ton of discussions, um, you know, we we reached out, we had the neighborhood meeting and and and uh I just hadn't heard from them.

So, I look forward to talking to them and explaining the plan a little bit better and uh we're definitely going to do that uh after that last uh after the DRC hearing, they approached me. So, sounds good. Thank you very much. Let's do this really quickly before we get to questions. I'm going to try to get to the public hearing portion and I'll probably call you back up. So, thank you. Thank you. All right. Let me go ahead and open up the public testimony portion here of this public hearing.

Is there anyone in the audience wishing to address the council on this item? Yes, please. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. Good evening. Uh my name is Darcy Ortiz and I'm a resident of Tempe. I am a resident in the Orchid House. Um, so first of all, let me start by saying we very much appreciate that the sanctuary is being preserved both for its historical significance and because it's our neighbor. Um, it's it's my direct neighbor.

I have a balcony right overlooking it. So, I really appreciate that and we appreciate that the willingness to meet with us. We haven't met with the developers yet. So, we're hoping to do that before the next meeting so we can get a better understanding. Um the only thing I wanted to bring to your attention today is as you know this is be the third large building being built in this kind of a oneb block area and um I'm not contesting that.

I just want us to think about in a very congested area how are we going to get in and out during construction of three nearly 30 story uh story buildings. The one on Myrtle and University and now two on Seventh Street. And so if the city can keep a watch on that and make sure we can get to our homes um with some ease, we know that there'll be disruptions. Um just keep that in mind.

And we appreciate the low density of parking so we don't have, you know, another 3,000 parking spaces in um this area which is already very congested. So that's the only thing. Um but we really appreciate this the sanctuary. I want to you know it's beautiful church. I hope it gets even more restored in the future. Um we we love that church. So thank you.

Just one quick thing before you go to I was going to say thank you for your willingness to meet with the developer between now and May 22nd on this item. And just as a personal note, I'm practically a neighbor. I live right at Fifth in Maple. So I have some of the same, you know, concerns about making sure that we're managing the construction in a way so people are still able to get to and from where they need to go.

So definitely it's something I know that staff will keep a very keen eye on as we go a little bit more vertical. So thank you for those comments. Thank you very much. Appreciate it, Vice Mayor G. I was also gonna say thank you so much for staying with us until 10:21 at night. I was thinking that too. I'm glad you said it. Uh, is there anyone else in the audience wishing to address the council on this item? If so, please get my attention. All right, team.

Then I'll close the public testimony portion of the public hearing. I turn to the council for their comments. Council member Adams. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. I'll be brief given this late hour. Um, I love it that you you guys uh I love this project. Um, I love that you're having the preservation or preserving the church and the Walker House and um relocating the Walker House um to a a preferred location uh down the road. Uh I think this project is perfect for this area.

This is where we want to have a lot of housing. We are short on housing that comes up every single meeting and this is going to provide a lot of housing for people. Um it has a lot of sustainability qualities to it.

uh 30 EV ready stations uh green code initiatives uh lots of trees I love trees I did notice that you had pal vertic trees um planted or looked in and and and that they're kind of messy so I just caution you on on when they uh land in my pool it reminds me every time so uh and uh so this is this is you know this is more housing for our current residents but also our future residents our community continues to grow and we continue to need housing. So, this is great. I think it's beautiful.

I think it's well very classy. Uh well done. I like the colors. I like the angles. Um I love that you have a a dog run and uh so that they'll be able to get out and run around and have a good time. Um and uh I'm absolutely supportive of this project moving forward. So, thank you so much for all working with everyone. I'm glad you're going to be working with the Brook House um people and um and that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Adams. Uh, anyone else any other comments or questions?

All right. Hearing none. Once again, this is only the first public hearing. The second and final public hearing on this item was scheduled for May 22nd, 2025. The last item under the section is 8B2, which is to introduce and hold the first public hearing to adopt an ordinance abandoning a non abandoning an existing non-exclusive access easement on property located at 1125 East Rio Salado Parkway and authorizing the mayor or his designate to execute an easement agreement and related documents.

This is also a public hearing item of the city public testimony on this item. Please get my attention at this time. Seeing none, I'll close the public testimony portion of the public hearing. Council members, any comments or discussion? All right, hearing none. The second and final public hearing on this item is scheduled for May 22nd, 2025. The last section on the non-consent agenda is ordinances and items for schedule scheduled for second hearing and final adoption.

So votes on these items will be taken tonight. The first item under the section is 8C1, which is to hold the second and final public hearing to adopt an ordinance amending the Tempe City Code Chapter 2 by adding a new article 1A exclusions in criminal trespass public places. This is also a uh public hearing item. So, if there's any public testimony on this item, please get my attention now. Seeing none, I'll close the public testimony portion of the public hearing.

Council members, any comments or discussion? It's been moved by Council Member Hajj. Do I have a second? Seconded by Vice Mayor Garland. Please vote. Yes. And that item passes seven to zero. The next item under the section is 8C2, which is to hold the second and final public hearing to adopt an ordinance amending the Tempe City Code Chapter 2, Article 1, Section 2-2 related to city manager's authority to execute certain contracts, licenses, grants, leases, and memoranda of understanding.

This is also a public hearing item for anyone in the audience wishing to get my attention at this time uh to speak. Please, please get my attention. I'm tired and I just screwed all that up. So, Got to be able to laugh at yourself at 10:26 at night. All right. Thank you very much. Uh, any public testimony? Going once, going twice. Okay. None. I'll close the public testimony portion of the public hearing. Council members, any comments, suggestions? The move by council member Hajj.

Seconded by Council Member Chin. Please vote. And that item passes seven to zero. The last item under the section is 8C3 which is to hold the second and final public hearing to adopt an ordinance relating to Tempe City Code Chapter 21 relating to nuisances and property enhancement and amending chapter 5 article 3 and appendix A related to nuisance parties and unlaw unlawful gatherings. This is also a public hearing item just as a note.

So I do have one card here and that card is from Jane Driscoll. Please come forward. State your name and city of residence. You have three minutes. My name is Jane Driscoll uh from Tempe and good evening council members and Mr. Mayor. My husband and I are residents of a 12 home culde-sac in South Tempe. Three rental homes over a period of time in this culde-sac have had criminal activity that resulted in raids from police departments.

most recently on April 3rd with the Scottsdale Police Department escorting a criminal criminals from the rental home. That rental property in particular has caused other residents in the area undue stress and suffering for over a year. I was told that the council members are aware of the harassment, verbal abuse, attempted theft, and other hardships that the neighborhood had to endure before the April 3rd raid.

During the year prior to April 3rd, various members of the neighborhood were working with Molly Enr Wright to try to correct this situation. The ordinance that is being reviewed tonight is a great tool to assist residents when reporting suspicious activities in the future. Our main concern with this ordinance is the lack of a paragraph that specifically states how enforcement will take place. For example, in the rental housing code I reviewed, uh there's a paragraph called authority to inspect.

Per article three of the ordinance being reviewed tonight, section 530 states what a violation of this ordinance is. And just briefly, because I know you already have it in front of you, um the city would determine if a person who is hosting an unlawful gathering um might be having activities such as minors being served alcohol or if there's possession of illegal drugs on that property.

Most likely these violations will be done inside the home or rental property, but there'll be plenty of outwardly signs of what is taking place on the inside. These these are the types of calls that the police may be responding to from local residents. Excessive parked cars, traffic, loud noise, loud music from the property, the appearance of non-resident persons entering or leaving the property in large numbers or dribbling out throughout the night.

Muscle cars slashtrs revving or burning out there thereby disturbing people trying to retire for the evening. Unfortunately, it appears that these calls are not going to directly meet the criteria set forth in the ordinance for enforcement of section 5-30. It would be nice to wrap up.

It would be nice as a resident to understand how they're going to advance from receiving our calls to citations issued for criminal activity addressed in this ordinance if that activity is taking place inside the home where it is not easily visible. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Is there anyone else in the audience wishing to address the council on item 8 C3? If so, please get my attention now. All right.

Seeing none, I'll close the public testimony portion of the public hearing. Uh I'm going to move to council members, see if there's any comments or discussion. I know council member Hodge had something. All I wanted to say is um I congratulations for staying until 10:30 to say what you had to say. Thank you. Um to just a quick question actually um for staff. I know she asked a question. I'm just sort of curious as to how that might be addressed just out of curiosity.

Is anyone here who can actually speak to that? No. Okay. No one here. Not part of the or not part of the ordinance. Okay. Yeah. It um so we if you we can get some information and we I can have my assistant get your number. We can call you. But the the changes that we were making in the ordinance, that wasn't one of the changes that's um that we were um they were that we were updating, but I still would like to get some information. I can talk to you about that later. Okay. Absolutely.

Thank you for being here. My my Thank you, Vice Mayor. The only other uh actual point I was going to make too was just sort of a compliment. I wanted to thank Vice Mayor Garland for her work on this and council Chinon I know for also being part of that committee and spending time on this.

This is something that I know all of us for uh who've been on council for quite some time and just who've lived in the community for a long time have heard about quite quite frequently uh about some of the challenges with nuisance parties and homes and things of that nature.

So I really appreciate Vice Mayor Garland and Council Chin's work on really trying to push forward something that I think will have a major effect in addressing nuisances in our in our community in a very positive proactive fashion. So thank you to both. I would say my hats off to you, but I'm not wearing a hat. So, uh, so just congratulations and thank you for your work and thank you for spearheading this. Thank you so much.

Thank you for being on the um the committee with me and Council Member Chin. Thank you. Thank you for staff, code compliance, um our officers, everybody who was able to um to be a part of this um committee. I really appreciate it. And with that, I'd like to make a motion to approve. Thank you. It's been moved by Vice Mayor Garland, and seconded by Council Member Chin. Any further comments or questions? Hearing none, please vote. Okay. And that item passes seven to zero. There we go. All right.

That brings me to item number nine, current events, council announcements, and future agenda items. Under the section, council members may request that an agenda item be added to a future council meeting during their allotted time. But in accordance with the open meeting law, there should be no discussion on the item other than to clarify the request. Uh, I'm now going to turn to council members for their comments. And this evening, I'm going to start with council member Keating.

No announcements. Mayor, thank you. Thank you very much. Next up, let me go to Council Member Adams. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Uh, last Friday we had uh a boards and commissions uh celebration and we had we have 244 boards and commissioners uh serving to the tune of 3,100 of hours that they dedicated to the city and to and equaling $17,000 um impact.

And I also um I'm proud to have lobbied for the reinstatement of the awards uh program several years years ago because we had some budget cuts back in the day and um so we eliminated that program. So I'm glad to to um honor those those uh um I'm tired too actually now and I'm usually now um but I am really happy to um um give them their their um recognition that they deserve. So thank you very much that inspiration. Thank you council member Adams. Next up, Council Member Chin. Thank you.

Next up, Council Member Haj. Yes. Um, first off, I want to uh start off with Tempi Salutes on May 6. Um, it's our 10th annual. Um, and I want to give a special shout out to Parish who's worked hard and do his due diligence on it. So, thank you so much for that, Parish. I don't Yeah, I was like, where's where's the where's the between 6:00 and 7:30? Yeah, I know it's a little late. Okay, now we can go to the next one. All right. And and I also want to say um we had music under the stars.

Myself and mayor went to it. It's when all the schools, the Tempe Union high schools get together and perform at Diablo Stadium. It was a wonderful performance. So, thank you so much. And I want to say happy Mother's Day especially to all the mothers around and to my dear mother Juel Hive. So happy Mother's Day to everyone. Thank you, Council Member. Next up, Council Member Amber. Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

I actually had a few slides, but I think I've maybe hacked up a long or two um during this meeting, so I'm just going to go to the best one, which is for my mother. I wanted to tell her happy Mother's Day. Uh she's not listening to us because she is actually uh she flew to Austin. If you want to know what a fantastic person she is, she flew to Austin today because her best friend moved from Louisiana to Austin and she's going to help her unpack. Wow. Um but also feeding my mother.

She was on a plane and she sat next to Davis who was a linebacker for the Saints and became best friends with him and at the end of the flight he asked her to take a selfie with him. That's the kind of person she is. So, happy birthday. Uh, happy Mother's Day, Mom, and I will see you soon. Thank you, Council Member Amber. Uh, Vice Mayor Garland. All right. Thank you very much. Um, I have just real quick, we um had the East Valley Mary's prayer breakfast this past week.

Um, during this week, we had some great speakers. We had Quinn Wang um who was the Tempe Youth Commissioner and uh she was absolutely amazing. And the mayor and I were talking. It's like I don't remember being I don't know was that mature at that age in high school. A senior in high school was absolutely incredible when she was speaking. We also had um Bishop John Dolan was there and the ASU gospel choir.

Um there were 200 attendees that were there from um other cities um and organizations that participated. And the coolest thing that I just loved is um the Bible verse that they picked for that event. It was Philippians 2:4. And it says, which we should all be paying attention to, let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interest of others. And I thought that was a really incredible Bible verse that they picked to support that um event. Um so that's one.

And then the last one is um on March 27th at our um council meeting, I um mentioned that the upcoming um month in April was um donate life month and how important it was for people to check make sure you check that box on your um on your license um to be able to donate life. Um on April 22nd, my sister-in-law got a heart transplant. Um and she is doing great. She was walking in in 24 hours after a heart transplant. Now, walking I'm saying just a few steps, but I just she's absolutely amazing.

Um, but I just want to say it she would not be alive today if somebody didn't check that box. So, check the box. You are going to save a life and um I just think it's an important thing to remind people. So, thank you. Thank you, Vice Mayor Garland. Uh, the only announcement that I have is uh wishing a very happy birthday to our city manager, Rosen Chowy. So, happy birthday. Thank you for all that you do for our community and for our city. Thank you. And that brings me to item number 10.

Oh yes, Council Hajj. Yes. I like I want to say something to Harleen who's standing right next to me who's been here for the whole five and a half hours. She is an ASU student. She picked a a great day to shadow me. But I also want to let her know that this is not always our council meeting. So you can still be interested in political agendas. Okay. Thank you. I didn't have her candy, so I had a good time. She also she also was very u u uh ed educated on technology.

So thank you and and inquisitive. She asked a lot of questions and um she was just phenomenal and took pictures with us. Want leave tomorrow and go switch her major. No, I'm just All right. Item number 10, public appearances. Is there anyone in the audience who would like to address the council? If so, please get my attention at this time. All right. Seeing none, next item is uh adjournment. The next scheduled regular city council meeting will be on May 22nd, 2025. We are adjourned at 10:38 p.m.

Everyone, thank you. Have a great night.