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COLLECTOR’S ITEM
Golf course polarizes Club West homeowners
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LOCAL CAKERY
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Wednesday February 17, 2021
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
ith a critical court ruling expected any day and an even more critical election two weeks away, Club West’s defunct golf course has polarized the community of 2,600 homeowners. Radically divergent views of the course’s future – and, more significantly, how to achieve it – have made the Foothills Club West Association board of directors and the Club West Conservancy the chief combatants in the monthslong debate. The court ruling and the upcoming HOA board election could determine how course owner The Edge and its affiliate, Community
Land Solutions, will deal with the 160-acre site that it bought for $750,000 from Wilson Gee, who holds the note on the deal. Other than to say it wants to create a park, The Edge has not disclosed much about its plan for the course after its aborted proposal 13 months ago to restore the 18-hole course and finance the project by selling three tracts to homebuilder Taylor Morrison. Even with its park proposal, The Edge has said selling some pieces of the course to a homebuilder is the only way to pay for it. HOA board President Michael Hinz depicts the Conservancy as a group that has obstructed constructive dialogue with both the board and The Edge. “Everything they’ve done has been with the
Kyrene of�icials look to March 16 to reopen classrooms
intention to hamstring any collaborative effort to resolve the golf course,” Hinz said in an interview. “And what they’re afraid of is the community is going to do something that they can’t control – that’s what the issue is.” Pointing to its survey of more than 800 households last June in which 80 percent of the respondents opposed any homes on the course, Conservancy President Matthew Tyler blames the board for the course’s condition and its muddled future. “It’s really kind of ego and hubris that’s leading them to where they are now and it’s not healthy,” he said. Aside from five months in late 2017 and early 2018 when it had been fully restored by a
see WEST page 12
With gratitude and love
BY PAUL MARYNIAK AFN Executive Editor
K
yrene administrators last week told the Governing Board classrooms will reopen March 16, though they held out a slim possibility that kids might be back at their desks a bit earlier. In a lengthy presentation Feb. 9, Superintendent Dr. Laura Toenjes and several top aides laid out the district’s game plan for reopening classrooms that were closed after Thanksgiving. The presentation also included results from a survey of staff and parents on reopening that illustrated a continuing divide between staff and parents who want classrooms open and those who fear for their safety regardless of vaccinations and safety measures. And it included a look at how the district is preparing to address learning gaps resulting from online learning. Unlike learning gap presentations in Tempe Union and other districts, however, they provided no data on
see SCHOOLS page 4
Stephanie Phillips, principal of Akimel A-al Middle School in Ahwatukee, was busy Saturday taking more than 1,000 Valentine’s Day cards to healthcare workers at Tempe St. Luke’s, Chandler Regional and Banner Baywood medical centers and Dignity Health ER in Ahwatukee. Phillips’ localized version of the national “Hearts for Heroes” project was inspired by her daughter, a nurse at Banner Baywood, and so she enlisted kids from her school as well as Kyrene Traditional Academy, Kyrene de los Lagos, Kyrene Monte Vista and Aprende Middle School. Phillips said the Lagos PTO donated Crumbl cookies and her school’s PTSO donated Valentine goodie bags. “We were able to put together a treat bag with Valentines for 200 health care workers,” she said. (Pablo Robles/AFN Staff Photographer)