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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS NEWS www.ahwatukee.com
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
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True Life seeks courtNEWS change on AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLS golf course regs PROMS’ HIGH COSTS
Stringing along together
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BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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AHWATUKEE FOOTHILLST NEWS MONEY MAN
(Dianne Ross/AFN Contributor)
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HI-TECH HOME
Playing the violin is a family affair for Ahwatukee couple Joy Pan and Lan Qiu and their sons Allen, left, and Ivan Pan. The boys perform concerts with their parents and are orchestra members at Desert Vista High School and Altadena Middle School, respectively. Meet the family and read where you can hear them: page 40.
Final PARC brief rips freeway planning as abuse of discretion BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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GET RIPPED
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tate and federal approval of the South Mountain Freeway Agency “was arbitrary, capricious, an abuse of discretion or otherwise not in accordance with law,” the attorney for the Ahwatukee opposition to the project told a federal court. In his final brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, attorney Howard Shanker said the case “presents a dramatic failure on the part of the agencies to properly coordinate their transportation planning” with federal environmental law. Shanker, a Club West resident, represents
Protect Arizona’s Resources and Children, an Ahwatukee-based group that has been fighting the freeway for more than a decade. His brief, filed last week, represents another small step toward a hearing sometime later this year on PARC’s appeal of U.S. District Judge Diane Humetewa’s rejection of the organization’s effort to stop the $1.77 billion project – the biggest highway project in state history. Before the panel is likely to set a hearing, it still must get a brief – not due until the end of May – from the Gila River Indian Community. And it has yet to rule on a request by a >> See
he True Life Companies has turned to state Superior Court for help in changing the land-use regulations governing Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course. Ahwatukee Lakes homeowners fighting for restoration of the course said the company is raising a white flag in its effort to win their neighbors’ votes to change the site’s covenants, conditions and restrictions. A True Life executive said that its campaign for homeowner approval will continue. But he also said it’s time for a court to rule that “nobody is going to spend the necessary money to try to operate a stand-alone golf course on the property when it will fail again economically.” Aidan Barry, a senior vice president for the company, said the court request is just another legal means of getting what it wants. True Life last week asked the same judge presiding over a homeowners’ lawsuit against the company to change the CC&Rs governing the 101-acre site – a move that would pave the way for the next step in the company’s effort to create an “agrihood” called Ahwatukee Farms. Judge John Hannah not only agreed to hear True Life’s arguments, but also postponed the lawsuit trial to Oct. 23 – four months later than its original start date. He will hear True Life’s arguments then. Since August, True Life has been soliciting Ahwatukee Lakes homeowners’ consent for a change in the CC&Rs so it can build approximate 270 homes, a five-acre farm, a
FREEWAY on page 10
Take the first step – it’s time to enroll! Accepting preschool and kindergarten students.
#FirstStepKyrene • www.kyrene.org/earlylearning • 480-541-1000 • Follow us on social media.
>> See
LAKES on page 14
#FirstStepKyrene