Testy Council meeting / P. 10
Constitutional champs / P. 18
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
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SE Mesa growth alarms Eastmark residents Developers push EV boundaries amid home shortage ........ See page 8 BY TOM SCANLON Tribune Managing Editor
THEMESATRIBUNE.COM
Sunday, February 21, 2021
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s bulldozer wheels begin churning on the slow-motion construction of State Route 24, commercial and residential developers are lining up near the new stretch of highway. As Economic Development Director William Jabjiniak put it, “There’s a whole bunch
of things going on in southeast Mesa.” The proposed extension of SR24 runs smack through the Cadence at Gateway development, planned for 3,500-plus homes on 465 acres. The developer is asking for a change from commercial zoning to residential in a 20-acre section of the development near Ray and Crimson roads. Some residents of Cadence at Gateway’s eastern neighbor, the massive Eastmark development on 3,200 acres, are furious over a new request for more homes. Eastmark developers DMB and Brook�ield
also want city to allow “the development of signi�icant employment and industrial uses along the Elliot Road corridor as well as along Ellsworth Road.” Eastmark’s existing plan allows for a mix of residential and commercial development. If approved, a new amendment would allow “large-scale, campus-type employment uses.” Those large employment hubs would be located in two districts totaling 300 acres off Ellsworth Road, which extends to SR 24.
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Kidney karma: Mesa donor becomes recipient
BUSINESS ............... 20 New kind of rush for ex-chopper nurses.
SPORTS .................... 23 Mesa Mick ready for the big ring. COMMUNITY ............................... 18 BUSINESS ..................................... 20 OPINION ....................................... 22 SPORTS ........................................ 23 GET OUT ........................................ 24 PUZZLES ...................................... 25 CLASSIFIED ................................. 26 Zone 1
BY TOM SCANLON Tribune Managing Editor
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amian Paige believes in what can be called “kidney karma.” The Mesa man was lucky enough to get a matching donor when he needed a kidney – 25 years after he donated one of his own to help a friend. “It’s like a good deed that came back around,” he said. “I’m thankful for it.” He said the doctors who treated him had never heard of someone who donated a kidney later being an organ recipient. “It’s a rare club,” Paige said with a chuckle. Now 47, Paige was living in Los Angeles and just entering adulthood when he became a friend indeed to someone who needed a kidney. “I made decisions based on understanding
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Twenty-five years after he donated a kidney to save a friend, Damian Paige was on the other end, receiving a kidney from a donor. Damian and his wife, Lisa, live in Mesa. (Pablo Robles/Tribune Staff
Photographer)
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