SPEAKER: COUNCILMAN GREG STANTON

SUBJECT: BILTMORE AREA UPDATE

City Budget Situation: City operates in a nonpartisan environment. We were able to deal with our budget issues in a very professional way. We voted on a budget a few months ago that had about 90 million dollars in cuts. When economy gets better we can get back to doing business. Still, great things are happening in the city of Phoenix. The reality is that there are lots of good things happening, business is happening. You voted in November for the proposition on funding public safety. Five hundred police officers and one hundred firefighters and support personnel. We are actively hiring additional public safety personnel because of that. Even though we had to make cuts in other areas, when it comes to our number one priority, Public Safety, we are in a hiring mode. In fact, the biggest challenge we have is finding qualified personnel to fill those positions. So, if you know somebody who is thinking about changing careers, and wants a career in law enforcement, please have them give us a call. We are looking for excellent individuals to fill those positions.

Passage of PPPI: You voted for the Parks and Preserve Initiative, which was a tenth of a percent sales tax extension to be used for new parks, existing parks, buying desert preserve land in North Phoenix, more park rangers so that we will have better security in our parks. You will see a lot of new activity when it comes to benefiting the park system with in the City of Phoenix.

Both these propositions are funded by sales tax. Brings to light how important it is to shop at our Phoenix businesses and do it at the actual location not on-line. The Biltmore Fashion Park is opening 15 new stores by the end of the year.

Camelback Underpass Maintenance: Hope the residents and businesses in the area appreciate the underpass with the tiles on the floor. I want to say thank you to the local business and residents who have stepped up to actually fund additional cleaning up of the Underpass as it does get a lot of wear and tear, so it does need additional upkeep. That is happening so we want to say thank you to the area. I think you will see the city using this as a model for having pedestrian friendly amenities. We need to make Phoenix a more pedestrian friendly city.

Camelback Streetscape: The streetscape committee is on going, it is kind of quietly happening. I have been made the Chair of the committee. What is being talked about is kind of taking the look of the Biltmore Hotel and making it much more visible at street level throughout the Biltmore area. The look will probably be more classic than modern. We need a vision of the area that will stand the test of time. We are actively involved in this project.

Biltmore Hotel: They are looking at their future and the number of hotel rooms, etc. One of the things they want to improve on is the street system into the hotel. Just beginning that process. I just want to mention that, because there is still so much interest in this area, and having it grow and be successful.

Water Pressure: We learned from many of the zoning cases that we did not have enough water pressure for high rise buildings in the core. We can’t pull water pressure away from the residents in the area for high rises. We knew that to successfully get these new projects built, we would need an entire new water pressure system. There has been a very successful resolution of the water pressure issue. Hines was the lead entity in negotiating on behalf of the nearby developers to get it done. What it is going to take to get the necessary water pressure to allow for the development of what was approved a couple of years ago; we are going to have to build a water pump station. We originally looked at Highland--20th and Highland. That was discussed, but ultimately deed restrictions made it unrealistic. We found another site to the south, but cannot talk about the exact location at the present, where a water pump station will be built. There is actually a unique public/private partnership between the developers and the city, where the city is going to pick up a pretty good chunk of the cost. Why we can justify that to the city is that it will increase water pressure for the residents in the area. So there is a tremendous public benefit for doing it, but at the same time it will allow for the sufficient water pressure for these new developments. Ultimately the cost of these projects have gone up--last few delays where about who is going to pay for these cost overruns, etc. What was the City on the hook for, what were the private developers on the hook for? We have never done this before in the City of Phoenix. It is a unique private/public partnership that I believe it will be kind of controversial when it comes to writing it and all of us in the area are going to have to stand up and explain why this is important that we have the kind of projects that are ultimately approved and why it is important that there is be a public investment in what would normally be infrastructure associated with new development. We will probably never do something like this again, but I think it is very appropriate that we do it at this particular location. We have made a commitment to get these projects done and there is a public benefit. Our friends at Hines will have those cranes out there for a long time. With the economy, there will be a lot of jobs created, so it is very important that the City do our part.

Questions:

Why can’t you name site? It is in the Indian School and 20th St. general area. Until everything is signed we don’t want to mention the exact location so the costs won’t go up.

Overview of what components are being discussed as far as the Camelback Streetscape goes? What the feel of the area is--we do not want to stop individual development from having their own individual flavor, such as the Biltmore Fashion Park. At the same time, we want people to know when the enter this area that they are in a very special area. Landscaping is very important; signage is very important, landmarks. A lot of these from the city perspectives--right of way issues--what is public property that is going to be used versus what is the private property that is going to be used. This is not going to be optional, but required--it was part of the settlement of the zoning dispute a few years ago.

The median areas--looking to copy the style of the Arizona Biltmore Hotel. Not affect the architecture of any individual building. Anybody driving through or walking through the public streets or the pedestrian spine a continuous set of images - items in the ground, items along the side of the road, sidewalk benches, protection from the traffic. No specific entry way that says you are out or in the Biltmore Area. We don’t want any specific lines about being in or out of the area. We like the fact that a lot of people want to be in the Biltmore area/neighborhood.

Thank You Westcor for getting this project going. They have been a real positive force.

When will we see something publicly on this? I think the first thing will be at an East Camelback Village Planning Committee presentation--best way I think to present this to the community. This was purposely done as a private committee, but obviously anything that has to have City approval will need to go through the appropriate public bodies. No attempt to keep anything secret. We will let you know about future meetings, any body can come and listen in, we want community involvement-the more we get, ultimately the better the product we will end up with.

Are there any offshoots to this project such as ambassadors, shuttles /trolley of some kind? As a priority for me as a Councilman in this area, I would like to take another run at, as this group has talked about for a long time, the creation of a municipal service district, similar to the downtown partnership, so that you can have some of those upgraded amenities beyond which we would normally be provided, including an intra transit system, etc. There has been talk of a rubber tire trolley, making this area much more accessible-park your car in one location and be able to enjoy all the amenities in this area. That is a great goal. To make this happen we really need to come together as a community to make that decision. I ultimately think that this would be a good thing for this area. to have those additional amenities.