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Wednesday, February 13, 2019
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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tating that it could take as long as three years for the courts to resolve the legal fight over the future of the Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course, owner Wilson Gee last week made a surprise offer to his opponents – offering to share potentially millions of dollars in profits if they allow him to sell the land to a homebuilder. The offer was promptly rejected by Lakes residents Eileen Breslin and Linda Swain, who are suing to have the 101-acre site restored as a golf course. In an email to the two plaintiffs, Save the Lakes and the Ahwatukee Board of Manage-
Ready to roll
ment, Gee said he could possibly reap between $20 million and $25 million by selling the site to a homebuilder if the land use restrictions requiring a golf course were lifted. In return, he promised to pay all legal fees incurred by Breslin, Swain and Save the Lakes as well as give Swain and Breslin each 1 percent of the profits and 18 percent to ABM for any community improvements that the umbrella HOA and its member homeowners associations want to make. “My clients have rejected the offer,” said attorney Tim Barnes, who is representing Swain and Breslin. Gee did not appear surprised by the reaction in an interview Monday with AFN. “They want to go through the whole court
process,” said Gee, who regained ownership of the site that he closed in 2013 after foreclosing on The True Life Companies when it walked away from paying nearly $9 million it had agreed to spend on buying the land. True Life, which is still the primary defendant in the suit by Swain and Breslin, wanted to build about 270 homes in what it initially envisioned as an “agrihood” with a five-acre farm, private school and amenities. And Gee in his offer insisted that houses were the only future for the defunct golf course. The hang-up remains over the covenants, conditions and restrictions that are central to
see LAKES page 6
More EV lawmakers backing suicideprevention training BY JIM WALSH AFN Staff Writer
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Gee strikes out on offer to settle Lakes battle
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Like hundreds of other youngsters last Saturday, 6-year-old Cooper McKean got to sit in grown-up vehicles during God’s Garden Preschool’s 19th Transportation Day. The event at the Ahwatukee school has become one of the community’s traditions and you can see a pictorial essay on this year’s festivities on page 23. (Kimberly Carrillo/AFN Staff Photographer)
nly days after a 16-year-old Mountain View High School student hung herself in her parents’ garage, an Ahwatukee legislator last week introduced the latest version of a bill aimed at helping to prevent teen suicide. Sen. Sean Bowie’s bill would require the training every three years of all school personnel working in grades 6-12 in recognizing the early warning signs of teen suicide and appropriate intervention techniques. The bill comes as the Mesa teen’s death brought to 33 the number of teenagers in the East Valley who have taken their lives since May 2017. The act is modeled after an initiative undertaken last year by Tempe Union High
see SUICIDES page 9