News and observations compiled by the Tribune's Gilbert reporters and editors
Archive for the 'Neighborhoods' Category
December 22nd, 2008, 4:24 pm by Blake Herzog
Gilbert’s annual Chrismas tree recycling program, which typically yields about 11,000 pounds of mulch for town landscaping projects, will gear up again the day after Christmas. A majority of residents recycle their trees, rather than place them on the curb for refuse pickup. Trees can be dropped off from Dec. 26 through Jan. 5 at:
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Hetchler Park, at Greenfield and Germann roads
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Nichols Park, at Higley and Guadalupe roads.
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A to Z Rentals, 1313 E. Baseline Road.
Living trees can also be donated to the town for planting in parks and open spaces across the community. Residents can schedule an appointment to have their tree picked up by calling (480) 503-6274, or trees can be can dropped off at the Parks Maintenance Facility, 658 N. Freestone Parkway, on Monday through Friday. Living trees will be collected through Jan. 9.
Posted in: Government • Neighborhoods | Post a Comment »
December 3rd, 2008, 12:59 pm by Blake Herzog
The Gilbert Town Council gave unanimous approval Tuesday night to all three phases planned for St Mary Magdalene Catholic Church, planned for the northeast corner of Williams Field Road and Parkcrest Drive.
Last month the town’s planning commission approved the first two planned phases of the church, which required a conditional use permit to proceed. The parish would have had to return for an additional hearing before building a K-8 school, something church officials expect will happen about seven to 10 years down the road.
Neighbors already contending with traffic from a nearby Mormon church said at both hearings they did not oppose the church building there but were concerned about the additional vehicles that St Mary Magdelene’s would bring to Parkcrest, the street most of them use to get in and out of their homes.
Town Councilwoman Linda Abbott triggered the council hearing by appealing the commission’s decision on the permit, explaining she wasn’t opposed to the church building there but wanted the council to take more responsibility for how traffic circulation in the area had changed since its acccess to Greenfield Road had been closed off, after the Loop 202 freeway was built through.
Council members expressed particular concern over how the opening of a school would affect traffic in the area, but in the end concluded the church and town were taking the right measures to handle traffic, and the local officials who helped create the situation in the first place would be taking the calls in any case, rather than church leaders.
Posted in: Government • Neighborhoods • Catholic • Church • Gilbert | Post a Comment »
November 30th, 2008, 12:00 pm by Blake Herzog
The Arizona Foreclosure Prevention Task Force has scheduled two “foreclosure survival” events for the East Valley, including one 9 a.m. to noon Dec. 13 at Gilbert Town Hall, 50 E. Civic Center Drive. Topics to be covered and include: the options to foreclosure and the foreclosure process, how to create a “crisis budget,” and how neighborhoods can work through the issues they face due to foreclosures. One-on-one counseling will be available for families facing a foreclosure, as well as information on where to get help when facing economic challenges and how to get help when someone has lost a job.
The Leadership Centre is co-sponsoring the event in partnership with the municipalities of Mesa, Chandler, Fountain Hills, Gilbert, Queen Creek and Apache Junction. For more information visit www.theleadershipcentre.org.
Posted in: Government • Neighborhoods | Post a Comment »
November 29th, 2008, 12:00 pm by Blake Herzog
Gilbert’s Higley Park neighborhood near Higley and Ray roads has been awarded the first community grant from the Arizona Association of Community Managers’ Homeowners Outreach Program Enterprise program, which aids homeowners and communities in financial distress.
The grant will be used during a Dec. 6 cleanup, from 7 a.m. to noon, in which hundreds of community residents, church volunteers, Boy Scouts and others are expected to help clear out weeds and landscaping the neighborhood.
Higley Park residents, who have tried to maintain their common areas since its builder went belly-up before the project was completed, won the “Neighborhood of the Year” award at the recent Gilbert Community Excellence Awards ceremony.
The association’s HOPE grant program has given out $31,000 since 2005. The actual value of the Higley Park grant will be determined after the event, by how much time and monetary assistance is required.
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November 28th, 2008, 6:26 pm by Blake Herzog
The Gilbert Town Council has two controversial zoning issues for its 7 p.m. Tuesday meeting:
• The Pecos-Mercy general plan amendment, involving 98 acres near Pecos and Greenfield roads, just east of Mercy Gilbert Medical Center. The property owners are seeking a change to office and commercial classifications which would allow research centers and medical offices to be built. Some nearby residents have objected to building heights and overall densities proposed on the site, though the developers have made some concessions which appeased some of their concerns.
Others are objecting to the idea of an 8-acre shopping center on the corner of Pecos and Greenfield roads, arguing the town already has too much commercial space and that it isn’t compatible with other planned buildings at the intersection, which include a Mormon temple.
• A minor general plan amendment for the Bridges planned development at Higley and Ocotillo roads. The developer is seeking permission to increase the density for two areas set aside for apartments or condominiums. One reason the developer wants to proceed is that there are no immediate neighbors around to object to the idea, but Town Council members and other residents concerned about the number of apartments already built and approved in Gilbert have raised objection. The Planning Commission has recommended approval of the change on one of the parcels involved and denial on the second.
Also, the council will accept the resignation of Gilbert Planning Commission member and Highland Justice of the Peace-elect Dan Dodge, who is stepping down after 17 years, in accordance with state laws which prohibit justices of the peace from holding positions on other boards.
The Town Council is scheduled to accept his letter of resignation at its Tuesday meeting. He officially steps down Jan. 1 and his current term ends June 1. The council will fill the vacancy next year as it interviews and selects applicants for numerous board openings.
Any Gilbert resident interested in serving on a town board can fill out an interest form on the town Web site.
Other topics on the agenda include a report on the possibility of a four-day workweek for some town employees, a conditional use permit for a Catholic church that wants to build in a neighborhood already unhappy with traffic levels from another church, a hearing on an ordinance which would allow for alcohol consumption in the Polar Ice rink located in Crossroads Park, an intergovernmental agreement with Mesa for fire dispatch services and the reallocation of $95,000 from a little-used rehabilitation program for landowners in the Sonora Town neighborhood.
Posted in: Government • Neighborhoods • Traffic | Post a Comment »
August 8th, 2008, 1:48 pm by Devon Hersom
A Gilbert furniture store is offering a percentage of their August earnings as a donation to a Gilbert horse ranch, according to the store’s owner.
Sweet Potatoes Furniture and Accessories, located at 3143 E. Williams Field Road, is holding the month-long fundraiser for Wildhorse Ranch Rescue, a Gilbert horse ranch featured in the Tribune. The ranch described how the low number of monetary donations, coupled with rising food prices and horse donations, have left them with barely enough money to feed their 11 horses and two mules.
According to Sweet Potatoes owner Marci Riggs, the company wants to help the horse ranch, and will be donating 5% of their earnings to help the animals. The furniture store specializes in wood furnishings and accessories.
Riggs said the store will be closed from August 11 to August 17, but will re-open on the 18th to the normal open schedule, which is Wednesday through Saturday - 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.
To contact Sweet Potatoes, please call (480) 279-4200. To contact Wildhorse Ranch Rescue, please call (866) 926-8007.
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July 29th, 2008, 10:00 pm by Blake Herzog
The 15 libraries of the Maricopa County Library District are expected to have their phones and Web browsers back tomorrow morning, according to a statement released by the district this afternoon.
Spokeswoman Audrey Brownell said Pinnacle Property Management has installed a temporary generator at the downtown Phoenix building where the district is headquartered. The district’s IT department will be downloading the necessary software tonight so the online catalog and public Internet stations will be available.
A small explosion which occurred while the building’s transformer was being worked on knocked out power to all of the district’s phones and Internet access Saturday afternoon. Libraries were open Monday and today, and patrons could still check items out. Staff could not check items back in, and had no access to the online catalog.
Within the East Valley the district operates the Southeast Regional and Perry Branch libraries in Gilbert, the Robson branch in Sun Lakes, and branches in Queen Creek, Guadalupe and Fountain Hills.
“The Library District appreciates how understanding and supportive library customers have been throughout the down time even though service was interrupted,” Brownell said.
The district’s hopefully operational main telphone number is (602) 652-3000 and the Web site is www.mcldaz.com.
Posted in: Neighborhoods | Post a Comment »
July 29th, 2008, 11:51 am by Blake Herzog
Gilbert residents hoping to put a mixed-use project to a public vote very narrowly missed gathering enough signatures and their petitions are invalid, Town Clerk Cathy Templeton said in a letter to the citizen group dated Monday.
A Maricopa County Elections Department analysis of the petitions found that the two petitions filed, one for the zoning ordinance and the other for the general plan change, contained 787 and 780 valid signatures. Both had between 950 and 1,000 signatures, and 788 were needed to trigger a town referendum, according to Templeton’s letter.
Most of the invalid signatures came from unregistered voters or signers who didn’t provide all of the required information, according to a county analysis of the signatures which was included with Templeton’s letter.
If the petitions had been accepted the Town Council would have then decided whether to hold a special election or include the referendum in a previously scheduled election. Town Council primaries will be held next March and the runoff in May.
Calls to leaders of the citizen groups behind the referendum and of project developer Aspen Group were not immediately returned this morning.
Roosevelt Square is a 65-acre mixed-use project planned for the southwest corner of Val Vista and Germann roads with commercial space and about 250 single-family homes.
The zoning and general plan changes were narrowly approved by the Town Council last month. Residents of Spectrum Estates and other surrounding housing subdivisions say the residential density doesn’t fit into that part of Gilbert.
Today is Templeton’s second day back from a two-week paid suspension which began after she submitted a resignation letter to the Town Council, citing errors she had made involving the Roosevelt Square petition and one submitted in June attempting to recall Mayor Steve Berman.
She provided a too-low number of required signatures to the mayoral recall group, and failed to give a complete copy of the zoning ordinance to the Roosevelt Square opponents.
Posted in: Government • Neighborhoods • Politics | Post a Comment »
July 14th, 2008, 11:35 am by Blake Herzog
Gilbert’s Southeast Regional Library has been forced to close by a burst interior sprinkler head that may have destroyed up to a third of its magazine collection, the Maricopa County Regional Library District said Monday.
Branch manager Andrew Chanse said he expected the library to reopen tomorrow (Tuesday), at or near its normal opening time of 10 a.m.
A sprinkler burst in the southeast corner of the library shortly after it opened Sunday, and the building was quickly evacuated, according to a press release from the library district. The water reached almost to the middle of the building before it could be turned off.
It appears none of the library’s books have been damaged. Electricians are checking for electrical damage, and Gilbert town buidling inspectors will inspect the entire building before it’s reopened.
The library, located at the southeast corner of Guadalupe and Greenfield roads, is the county distict’s largest and busiest outlet. Gilbert patrons have one more local option, the Perry Branch library at 1965 E. Queen Creek Road in Gilbert. For information on county libraries visit www.mcldaz.org.
Posted in: Neighborhoods • Uncategorized | Post a Comment »
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