O M M U N I T YP.27| P. 2 4 | O P I N IAF O NP.31 P. 3| 6 | B U S I NP.34| E S S BUSINESS P. 3 8 C H A M B|REAL E R P. 4ESTATE 1 | G EP.RE1| TO U T GETOUT P. 4 2 | P.41 S P O|RT S P. 47P.45| | C L ACLASSIFIED S S I F I E D P.P.47 48 INSIDE: AROUND OPINION P.37 SPORTS INSIDE: CCOMMUNITY
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QuikTrip concerns draw interest of lawmakers, mayor BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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s he drove last month to Pecos Community Center for the Ahwatukee Foothills Village Planning Committee’s consideration of the QuikTrip gas station plan for 40th Street and Cottonwood Way, Derrick Johnson had a thought that turned quickly into alarm. “I was thinking it would be nice if I could cut out back to save some time. Then I realized, ‘wait, there is no way out back,” said Johnson, a resident of the Foothills Paseo II community that is the focal point of the controversy around the proposed gas station. It wasn’t that Johnson didn’t know how to
get in and out of the community he’s lived in almost since it was built nearly 20 years ago. What alarmed him — and now has the attention of Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego and all three lawmakers from Legislative District 18 — is the multi-pronged danger posed by a gas station at the mouth of the only way in and out for 185 homes. It’s a powder keg — literally — in more ways than one, Johnson fears. He ought to know. He’s a captain in the Phoenix Fire Department with 40 years of firefighting under his belt. Though he is speaking for himself as a Foothills Paseo resident and not representing the Phoenix Fire Department, Johnson is one of
many Foothills Paseo residents who are concerned about the QuikTrip plan, As the city Planning Department continues to review its site plan, residents are hoping city officials can force the property owner to abandon the gas station plan and build one of more than 30 other types of businesses allowed by the site’s C-2 zoning. Like other opponents, Johnson is neither against QuikTrip as a company nor against a business on the site. “No one moved here thinking it was going to be a piece of dirt forever,” he said. “And a QuikTrip can be someplace else,” he added. “Not having it there is not going to af-
see QUIKTRIP page 8
Lawyer: True Life not Ahoy, Captain Alex active in Lakes case BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
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he True Life Companies may still be a party in the long-running litigation involving the future of the Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course, but a lawyer for the developer says his client is not “directing or participating the pending litigation.” In a letter to AFN last week, Attorney David E. Shein said it is “factually inaccurate” to say either True Life or TTLC Ahwatukee Lakes Investors, a subsidiary, has any interest in the course even though it continues to be a party in the case, which comes up for argument May 22 before the Arizona Court of Appeals. Although True Life appears as a
named party in the case, as does course owner Wilson Gee’s Bixby Village Golf Course Inc., Shein said that after a Sept. 20 trustee sale by Gee, “the entire Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course property was transferred to ALCR LLC.” Gee held the sale after True Life failed to pay the approximate $8 million note it signed when it bought the course in 2015. “Neither TTLC nor TTLC Ahwatukee hold any direct or indirect ownership or management interests in ALCR and neither TTLC nor TTLC Ahwatukee hold any direct or indirect ownership of management interests in the Ahwatukee Lakes Golf Course Property,” he wrote, adding: “As an additional matter, neither
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Alex Berniger is flanked by two women who have meant a lot in his stay at Kyrene de la Estrella Elementary School - school nurse Patricia Kuluris, left, and his mother, Jennifer Berniger. The Ahwatukee boy, who is fascinated by pirates, was pivotal to a big thank you his mom arranged for the school staff last week. Details: page 22. (Pablo Robles/AFN Staff Photographer)
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