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Council weighs public buyout to save park

PINETOP-LAKESIDE − Purchasing Woodland Lake Park, a 583-acre forest preserve in the center of this town in the White Mountains, was recommended to the Pinetop-Lakeside Town Council this week.

A task force comprised of developers, environmentalists, businesspeople, and residents asked the council to authorize an increase in the sales tax and hospitality tax on restaurant-and-bar sales to fund the purchase from the U.S. Forest Service, which manages the land for the federal government.

Most land around this town is owned by the federal government. The U.S. Forest Service has said it wants to sell the 583 acres that the town hopes can be protected from wide-scale commercial development. Although the land has not been appraised, it is estimated that the purchase price for all 583 acres could be between $12 million and $32 million.

Purchasing only the 98 acres around the lake first and then buying the remaining acres later may be financially feasible, the Task Force told the Council. The town, which has leased the park from the U.S. Forest Service for the past 20 years, has made improvements valued at $4 million, which include soccer and softball fields; a boat dock; a wheelchair-accessible trail; parking lots; picnic ramadas; many miles of hiking trails; and playground equipment.

Within the park’s 583 acres is a lake stocked with rainbow trout; a year-round stream; several artesian springs; a resident population of deer, raccoons, herons, raptors; tree squirrels, waterfowl and occasionally black bear and elk. The council said they want to survey the town’s 4,500 citizens to determine if a sales tax, hospitality tax, or other funding method would be supported by the taxpayers in the future.

The task force also urged town officials not to procrastinate because the value of land in the White Mountains increases every year

What’s old is new again in fast-growing Gilbert

GILBERT — Gilbert is growing up, and it’s actually looking forward to growing old.

Officials for the town where growth has boomed since 2000 are now finalizing maps and information about its Heritage District redevelopment area.

Their goal is to lure more residents from the town’s new master-planned neighborhoods to its historic downtown.

“We want to give the community options other than just the mall and restaurants, for instance, you see at every mall or near every mall,” says Greg Tilque, Gilbert’s development services director. “Places like Hale Centre Theatre, that you can’t get anywhere else in the community.”

The Heritage District, which runs along Gilbert Road, is home to many small, independent shops and restaurants such as C & J’s Antiques & Gardens, Euro Café, Liberty Market and Joe’s BBQ, among others.

The project’s goal is to expand on these current shops and add more retail shops and restaurants as well as some office spaces, Tilque says.

“We’ve been focusing lately on restaurants,” he says. “We think that’s a big key: to have destination-type restaurants that either nobody else has, one-of-a-kind, like Farmhouse, Euro Café, Joe’s BBQ, or like Oregano’s, which has just a few stores but people know of them and it’s not something you’re going to have every place in the Valley.”

The idea is to draw a mix of demographics, with a focus on making it a family-oriented area.
No new taxes have been implemented in Gilbert to fund the project, Tilque says. The main sources of financing are the town’s general fund, impact fees from development, bonds, private donations, and grants.

The plan has been received fairly well by current business owners and residents alike.

“The whole idea of the project is to give an identity,” says NAME one of the owners of C & J’s Antiques & Gardens, a shop along the Heritage District. “I think long-term it will be really good.”

Those who live in the area also agree that the project will benefit the community overall.

“There’s great shops already in downtown Gilbert, but if you add more and make it a more vibrant and robust selection of stores you will end up with more people coming to shop and eat and be entertained down here, and we’ll all be better for it,” says Maria Hesse, of Gilbert.

Two new parks, one under the water tower where concerts and events can be held, will be finished by the end of the year, Tilque says. He also hopes the Heritage Marketplace will be open by next year.

To keep the Heritage District unique, developers are being careful about which businesses they bring into the area as tenants, NAME said one of the owners of C & J’s Antiques & Gardens. They want to recruit independent shops and avoid big chains, she says.

Developers also have architectural guidelines to unify the area. Adobe architecture will be emphasized, according to the official redevelopment plan.

Plans are also in place for a two- or three-story office project, Tilque says. This will hopefully draw more retail stores down to the area.

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.

Tusayan voters torpedo Grand Canyon projects

They came with a fistful of cash and grand plans to capitalize on the Grand Canyon.

But a majority of Tusayan voters – all 69 of them – sent a worldwide development consortium back home to Italy.

The entertaining yarn that wound up Sept. 2 featured Stilo Corp. It proposed building a $330 million project on 310 acres that would have featured 900 hotel rooms, 240,000 square feet of commercial space, 2,375 living spaces and a market where Native Americans could sell their goods. The company and its supporters reportedly poured $100,000 into the race to win a majority vote in favor of expanding the boundaries of Tusayan.

The story garnered media attention from The Arizona Daily Sun, The Arizona Republic and The Wall Street Journal (thanks in no small part to Valley media hypster Jason Rose, who was representing the opposing group).

Stilo lost the election by a 55-45 score. About 72 percent of the town’s voters participated.

In a press release today, Rose states that opponents to the project will push for state legislation to make other community improvements in Tusayan (besides condos and resorts).

No doubt proponents of progress were mortified by the results. For the opposition, it was ‘crisis averted.’

Condos come to pristine Rocky Point estuary

PUERTO PEÑASCO, Mex. — A Tempe-based company is building a super-sized condominium project with all the frills overlooking one of Rocky Point’s most fragile marine habitats.

This summer, Canusa Homes will start building five 21-story condos, 30 beachfront homes and a man-made lake where endangered and protected birds nest on their way between North and South America.

The Pointe de Las Conchas project is yet another sign that the marriage between tourism and foreign investors is turning this once sleepy fishing town on its head.

“Rocky Point is probably one of the fastest-growing resort areas in Mexico right now,” said John Alty, the project’s Rocky Point-based sales manager.

Two million tourists are expected to head for Rocky Point this year, he said. But with its proximity to Phoenix and Tucson, its plans for a second airport and a highway project to lure more Californians, “it’s going to be a whole new batch of tourists coming down here,” Alty added.

Canusa is banking on the rush. Alty said the company bought the 24.2-acre site from a local Mexican family in December 2005 for $17 million. The land sits at the end of the main road into Las Conchas and overlooks Estero Morúa, one of six high-salinity estuaries in Rocky Point.

Alty said officials for the Mexican government have visited the site twice without complaint. The company, whose principles are in British Columbia, awaits city permits to start work, he said.

The Pointe will have a manmade lake atop the dune for kayaking and paddle boats, a 37,000-square-foot lobby with a five-star restaurant and shops, and a total of 800 living spaces. Condos on the 8th floor and above will have an outdoor spa, he said. About 400 workers will be brought in from Guadalajara, Mexico, to build it, Alty said.

The prices range from $265,000 for a one-bedroom condo to $3.8 million for a 6,900-square-foot penthouse.

But officials for the Centro de Estudios de Desiertos y Oceáno, or CEDO, are fighting the project with an online petition. Staff biologist Alejandro Castillo López says the mega-project will harm an established nesting area for the least tern, a diving seabird that is endangered, and other animals.

Alty said the company’s biologist found that no least tern nesting sites are near the project. “We will not be affecting the estuary at all,” he said. “Our property does not go down to the estuary.”

Castillo López disagreed, saying CEDO studies show otherwise. He also points to a 1996 study by biologists in Ensenada, Mexico, which found least tern living in Estero Morúa.

While being interviewed at the estuary by a reporter, Castillo López spotted four different bird species, including the least tern. All-terrain vehicles drove out onto the dune, and a yellow Hummer SUV parked out on a sandbar below it.

Mexican authorities have asked for more time to review the project after receiving mountains of data and studies from CEDO. The group is encouraging the use of ecotourism here, like narrated kayak tours of the estuary.

CEDO has helped oyster farmers secure grant money to build restaurants and buy kayaks for this purpose. They say it will be better than condos — a market that at least one local Realtor said is already oversaturated.

The idea that more multi-family housing might come to the estuary disappointed Arturo Candelaria, who came to Estero Morúa with family and friends to escape the din of Rocky Point.

When told that condos were coming to the site, he looked out at the estuary and shook his head at its swollen banks. “So I’m pretty sure they’re going to destroy this place, right?” he asked.

“We come here because it’s pretty quiet,” said Candelaria, 36. “It’s more difficult when you go to the city. It’s not intimidating here — yet.”

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>>Email the editor at aklaw@zoniereport.com.