Highland girls claim title
Gilbert home inventory flux
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REAL ESTATE
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
INSIDE
This Week
Gilbert teachers get wishes granted.
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ommercial land that sat dormant in the town’s largest and densest employment hub for over three decades will now be home to a 278-unit apartment complex. Despite staff’s opposition, Town Council Nov. 16 voted 5-2 to approve a minor General Plan amendment and rezone for the Alta Gilbert development, which includes a sit-down restaurant, on 13.46 acres at the northwest
corner of McQueen and Elliot roads. “I think it fits and I think it works,” Mayor Brigette Peterson said. “I want to see us bring residents to the area. “The letters of support that we’ve received…from the commercial is very telling because I’ve watched the commercial on that southeast corner of McQueen and Elliott just suffer over the years and I’ve seen businesses come and go,” the mayor added. Peterson said the commercial landscape has changed with brick-and-mortar retail steadily being replaced by online shopping,
Councilman suggests town influenced bond vote
COMMUNITY..........12 Gilbert girl, 11, creates helpful app.
BUSINESS................. 19 Legendary comic book store opening here.
COMMUNITY........................................12 BUSINESS............................................. 19
SPORTS.................................................. 22 PUZZLE..................................................24
CLASSIFIEDS.......................................24
Sunday, November 21, 2021
Council OKs 278-unit complex over staff protest BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
NEWS................................ 6
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE OF GILBERT) | GilbertSunNews.com
which was exacerbated by the pandemic. She said the only commercial interest she’s heard over the years for the site was a proposal to park delivery trucks. “I struggled with this because the neighbors are going to be impacted,” Peterson said. “The traffic is difficult in that location no matter what development goes there – that won’t change. There will still be traffic. There will still be issues coming and going.” Senior Planner Keith Newman urged the
see ALTA page 8
Helping those without
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
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Gilbert Town Council member suggested that overzealous town employees who pulled down a bond opponent’s signs influenced the outcome of the election that saw the $515-million measure pass by a razor-thin margin. The transportation and infrastructure bond passed by just 164 votes in the Nov. 2 mail-in election. “I’m concerned that the Town may have illegally interfered in the election,” Councilman Laurin Hendrix said at the Nov. 16 meeting. “No matter which side of the bond or any election you are, on you should be concerned if we can’t trust the integrity of our elections.” At issue were signs opposing the bond posted at major intersections by resident Jim Torgeson just before early voting began in October. “My understanding is the gentleman put them up over a period of about a day and the following day the signs were gone,” Hendrix said. “Turns out that the town instructed town employees to take those signs down immediately, urgently without delay.”
see ELEX page 3
Oscar Gutierrez and Julie Christoph unload a large donation of dozens of frozen turkeys for United Food Bank’s distribution of more than 2,000 frozen turkeys along with other nutritional holiday food items to people in need of food assistance. Desert Financial Credit Union donated $50,000 to match the number of turkeys donated by the community during the food bank’s Turkey Tuesday event last week. “We’re invested in supporting the communities where we live and work,” says Jeff Meshey, Desert Financial Credit Union president and CEO. “That includes making sure people don’t go hungry and that families can celebrate Thanksgiving after a difficult year of coping with a pandemic.” Turkeys will be distributed 9 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday, Nov. 22, at Mesa Convention Center, 263 N. Center St. in Mesa (David Minton/Tribune Staff Photographer)