THE VOICE OF THE EAST VALLEY SINCE 1891 AND WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR LOCAL REPORTING
So how did sprawl become welcome?
THE SUNDAY
Tribune
PAGE 15 Chandler/Tempe Edition
INSIDE
This Week
NEWS ............................. 8 EV legislative races shaping up beneath a red cloud.
NEWS ......................... 10
Study will look for opioids in city drinking water.
BUSINESS ................ 15 Chandler Airport complex combines offices and hangars.
EAST VALLEY
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Girls wrestling OK’d as high school sport PAGE 18 Sunday, June 3, 2018
Temple renovation will remake downtown Mesa BY JIM WALSH Tribune Staff Writer
B
illed as a linchpin to downtown Mesa’s rebirth, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints rolled out a massive redevelopment plant last week to the eastern side of downtown Mesa. The plan features three four-story, two threestory and three two-story buildings designed to accentuate the Mesa Arizona Temple and move the LDS Church Visitors Center/Family History Discovery Center closer to the light rail and add 500 residents. The redevelopment plan includes 250 apartments, 12 townhouses, a huge underground parking garage with 450 stalls, 7,500 square feet of retail space at Main and Udall streets and 5,000 square feet at Main and Mesa Drive.
Renovation plans for the adjacent Mesa Temple block call for demolishing and relocating the temple’s Visitors Center. A new 18,000-square-foot Visitors Center and Family History Discovery Center will be built on the corner of Main and LeSueur as part of CCRI’s project. Plans also feature 1.6 acres of open space on the Temple grounds, historically used for the Easter Pageant and the Christmas lights show. “We’ve been planning this project for years,” said Matt Baldwin, real estate development director for City Creek Reserve, an investment affiliate of the Church. “We’ve talked with city and county government leaders, city planning staff, and other local developers. We want to enhance and beautify this block, but we also want to make sure what we’re proposing is what downtown Mesa needs.”
CCRI worked with Scottsdale-based Dale Gardon Design to create a plan what City Creek called “a vibrant, transit-oriented neighborhood using diverse residential unit sizes, comfortably scaled buildings, Mesaauthentic architecture, and landscaped streets and gardens.” “What CCRI has envisioned is exactly right for downtown Mesa right now,” observed Mike Hutchinson, executive vice president of the East Valley Partnership and former Mesa city manager. “They’ve done their homework. This project will bring renewed vitality to this key block on Main Street.” The new apartments will include studio, one-bedroom and two-bedroom floorplans. The townhomes will feature two-bedroom See
TEMPLE on page 4
Hopefuls sign up They graduated 80 years ago for council election BY GARY NELSON Tribune Contributor
F D'ATRI ...................... 20 Here's how to make fruit salad like a pro
COMMUNITY........ . 12 BUSINESS.....................15 OPINION..................... 15 SPORTS......................... 17 CLASSIFIEDS............. 22
rom one end of the city to the other, Mesa City Council seats are on the Aug. 28 primary election ballot, and the result could give city leadership a new look. Council races in Chandler and Gilbert also will be robust, with numerous individuals seeking positions on governing boards. If no clear winner in a municipal race emerges from the primary, the top vote-getting candidates move on to the general election on Nov. 6. Municipal races in Arizona are nonpartisan and the issues are often generic – public safety, balanced budgets, quality of life. But See
ELECTIONS on page 6
(Kimberly Carrillo/ Tribune taff Photographer)
Possibly the only remaining five members of the old Mesa Union High School Class of 1938 gathered for their 80th annual reunion recently, including, from left Sam Davis, Cecile Bradshaw, Molliemae Hatch Taylor,Margaret LeSueur Steverson and class President Oakley Ray. Details on page 12.