"Thomas Jefferson said a democracy is dependent on an informed citizenry. I don't care whether it sounds corny or not. It's the truth." -Jim Lehrer
Carefree Truth
Issue #1100, July 21, 2024
Issue #1100, July 21, 2024
Anton Wilke has lived in the Boulders since 2009. He thanked everyone for the work they did. He supported the General Plan (GP) that we currently have through all stages of this. He continues to support the Special Planning Area (SPA) on the N.W. corner of Carefree Highway and Tom Darlington Drive. He is not as big a fan of citizen advisory groups as many others at the meeting are because the Council members are the ones we elected. We each represent one vote. "I'm happy to speak when I can and give my opinion." He felt that the work everyone did to come up with a compromise was very positive. It's a good plan and he finds it hard to understand why people are opposed at this point.
At the last meeting, he heard that the Council was being asked to keep in the 9 elements but take out the SPA, but the 9 elements define the SPA. They were asking for something that was not logically coherent. With the language in the General Plan, if you took out the language "SPA" and called it something else, you still wouldn't have to generate around the GP to build it because it defines everything that a SPA defines. It's a very good GP and he will support it. He encouraged everyone to vote to put it on the ballot.
(We agree with Mr. Wilke's comments.)
https://vimeo.com/976300907
At the last meeting, he heard that the Council was being asked to keep in the 9 elements but take out the SPA, but the 9 elements define the SPA. They were asking for something that was not logically coherent. With the language in the General Plan, if you took out the language "SPA" and called it something else, you still wouldn't have to generate around the GP to build it because it defines everything that a SPA defines. It's a very good GP and he will support it. He encouraged everyone to vote to put it on the ballot.
(We agree with Mr. Wilke's comments.)
https://vimeo.com/976300907
7-2-24 Anton Wilke from Herb Hitchon on Vimeo.
Candidate Nakisa Azizi doesn't feel that Carefree should consider development of the N.W. corner of Carefree Highway and Tom Darlington Drive as a foregone conclusion. There is already a Special Planning Area (SPA) that lacks the protections proposed by the Mayor. There are only 3 of the candidates running for the Town Council who consistently oppose this SPA. She is one of them. "There's no guarantee that those in office next year will support its removal, leaving residents in a worse position than they are in now." (The existing SPA exerts very tight controls on what can and cannot be developed on the N.W. corner, and was created in conjunction with the surrounding neighbors, all of whom are happy with it. This is private property and Ms. Azizi has no right to declare that development of it should not occur.) Opposition to the SPA by engaged citizens and the impact that development on that corner would have on the town have "fallen on deaf ears", and the Council voted unanimously to leave the SPA on the N.W. corner.
She does feel that commercial development outside of the town center only belongs on the N.E. corner of Carefree Highway and Cave Creek Road. Yet some on the Council and one of the other candidates running against her "think they know better". She claimed she is not against any development and thinks the town has significant untapped potential within the town center. What she opposes is what she call "needless destruction of the desert" (So is she saying that HER house did not cause destruction of the desert?) and "the general disregard of the will of the people" (a very small percentage of the approximately 3800 residents).
At the last Council meeting, Mayor Crane was not even able to obtain a motion, much less the super majority needed to remove the SPA from the N.W. corner. She appreciates the Mayor's efforts to find a middle ground. She hopes the next Council will "represent the will of the people, and not private interests". (A respect for private property rights is not "private interests".) She does not get our votes.
https://vimeo.com/976316328
7-2-24 Nakisa Azizi from Herb Hitchon on Vimeo.
Candidate Diane Roth said she is a resident of the Boulders "and went through the really happy experience of the water tank, where we had engagement; we had people come to the HOA. We ended up suing the Town But we were promised a landscaped underground water tank". She said they were shown beautiful pictures. "We got a fort instead." (Below is a photo of the finished water tank taken from the front yard of the home closest to the water tank. The photo was submitted by a resident of the Boulders.
(Ms. Roth was on the board of the north Boulders HOA at that time. They brought 13 lawsuits and appeals against the Town, and lost every one. They even tried unsuccessfully to appeal the ruling against them by the Arizona Supreme Court. This cost both the Town and the Boulders residents quite a bit of money that could have been used for more constructive purposes. The concern of the Boulders HOA and residents was what the tank would look like from inside the Boulders. The "fort" referred to by Ms. Roth is the legally required block wall that screens the equipment necessary to keep the water in the tank sanitary. This was not a concern expressed by the Boulders. Their board was shown this wall and they approved it. Ms. Roth was no longer on the board at that time, having lost her bid for re-election.)
She said the Town claimed they were not engaged about the Hampton Inn and that the Town had many public meetings. "How did we get the Hampton Inn we got? You're asking us to suspend belief, and jump off a cliff and hope the water's deep enough". (The Hampton Inn developers brought multiple plans to the Town meetings over a 2 year period. The Hampton Inn that was built was the one the citizens who were engaged chose. Utilizing the citizens' input, a few minor tweaks were done. The final renderings of the proposed Hampton Inn were displayed at Town Hall and at the Carefree Post Office for 3 months, and were published in the local newspapers, as well as shown in Carefree Truth. There were no objections from any of the residents.)
"During the last 18 months, it's been like Groundhog Day, the movie, the only difference being that Bill Murray learned every day and he grew, and things got better. We have attended every meeting, every workshop. We have fulfilled every obligation required to make our General Plan (GP) a citizen driven document. Even Matt (the Baker Group consultant) said our percentages were higher than Phoenix." (I have attended the past 2 GP updates, once as an audience member of 1, or sometimes 2 if there was a item of interest to someone, and once as a Planning & Zoning Commissioner, with a similar citizen attendance. I strongly suspect that Phoenix had a similar rate of engagement, so it wouldn't be hard to exceed their percentages.)
"We were very clear about our priorities and the future direction of our town. We have not failed. You have failed us."
"Your job was to listen to our input and to form a GP from what we told you we wanted and what we felt was best for us." She said that instead they are assuring us that they have modified the SPA which they don't want. (What a very small percentage of the approximately 3800 Carefree residents "want", does not make a document citizen driven.) "We are not children. We are well educated. Our average age is 69, so we've lived through a lot." They wanted the Town to listen and gave them lots of opportunities to listen. The Town was not transparent, according to Ms. Roth's group, so why is the Town not listening "to what we have obviously made sure you understand is our will?" This is supposed to be a citizen driven plan for what is wanted for the next 10 years. (Your "will" does not necessarily reflect the will of most residents, and most certainly does not reflect the "will" of the neighbors surrounding the property, who worked with the Town to create the SPA on that corner. Ms. Roth represents a small special interest group.)
https://vimeo.com/976254496
She said the Town claimed they were not engaged about the Hampton Inn and that the Town had many public meetings. "How did we get the Hampton Inn we got? You're asking us to suspend belief, and jump off a cliff and hope the water's deep enough". (The Hampton Inn developers brought multiple plans to the Town meetings over a 2 year period. The Hampton Inn that was built was the one the citizens who were engaged chose. Utilizing the citizens' input, a few minor tweaks were done. The final renderings of the proposed Hampton Inn were displayed at Town Hall and at the Carefree Post Office for 3 months, and were published in the local newspapers, as well as shown in Carefree Truth. There were no objections from any of the residents.)
"During the last 18 months, it's been like Groundhog Day, the movie, the only difference being that Bill Murray learned every day and he grew, and things got better. We have attended every meeting, every workshop. We have fulfilled every obligation required to make our General Plan (GP) a citizen driven document. Even Matt (the Baker Group consultant) said our percentages were higher than Phoenix." (I have attended the past 2 GP updates, once as an audience member of 1, or sometimes 2 if there was a item of interest to someone, and once as a Planning & Zoning Commissioner, with a similar citizen attendance. I strongly suspect that Phoenix had a similar rate of engagement, so it wouldn't be hard to exceed their percentages.)
"We were very clear about our priorities and the future direction of our town. We have not failed. You have failed us."
"Your job was to listen to our input and to form a GP from what we told you we wanted and what we felt was best for us." She said that instead they are assuring us that they have modified the SPA which they don't want. (What a very small percentage of the approximately 3800 Carefree residents "want", does not make a document citizen driven.) "We are not children. We are well educated. Our average age is 69, so we've lived through a lot." They wanted the Town to listen and gave them lots of opportunities to listen. The Town was not transparent, according to Ms. Roth's group, so why is the Town not listening "to what we have obviously made sure you understand is our will?" This is supposed to be a citizen driven plan for what is wanted for the next 10 years. (Your "will" does not necessarily reflect the will of most residents, and most certainly does not reflect the "will" of the neighbors surrounding the property, who worked with the Town to create the SPA on that corner. Ms. Roth represents a small special interest group.)
https://vimeo.com/976254496
7-2-24 Diane Roth from Herb Hitchon on Vimeo.
Candidte Colleen Rose-Scurti thanked the Council and staff for all the work they have done. She noted that there has been much discussion on the Special Planning Area (SPA) on the N.W. corner of Carefree Highway and Tom Darlington Drive.
She is in favor of keeping the SPA in the General Plan (GP) for the following reasons:
1. She has read the full 68 page agreement. It is very specific on what can and cannot be built.
2. She has walked the property.
3. She has spoken with the neighbors who directly border this property, and after much discussion with each other, they have created a SPA with which they are very happy. In fact, this is the development they would like to see on this property, especially with the new revisions proposed by the Town at the Council meeting that evening.
For those who say they would like to be part of the process, they should be and they will be. If a developer ever comes forth with a plan, they can be as involved as they want to be. If the SPA plan were to be redone, she doesn't believe it would be as specific as it is currently. There would be more opportunities for other projects that the closest neighbors do not want. The most control is with the SPA currently in place, especially with the new additions.
She asked why some residents are so insistent that the SPA be removed from the GP. They say that the was a lack of transparency and that more public input is needed, but there were almost 2 years of discussion and public input before the SPA was finalized. More importantly, there will be much more public input before anything can be built under the current SPA. It will need to go through a zoning change with the Planning & Zoning Commission and with the Town Council. There will be many more opportunities for public input.
Because the current SPA is so specific, she has asked those who say they want more input what they would remove, what would they add? They cannot answer the question. They just say they need to start the process over. But why start a process over if there is nothing you would change?
She believes there are those who want nothing built on that corner. They say otherwise, but their answers don't make sense. Remember, this property is owned by an individual with private property rights just like we all have. Would any of us like to be told what we could or couldn't do with our own property? She doesn't think so. "As a resident, it's our job to do research for the things impacting our town and then make the best decision, based on our values.
We should not let any group or person tell us what is best for our town." Ms. Rose-Scurti endorses keeping the SPA in the GP and letting the voters decide in November.
(I have no comments to add. Ms. Rose-Scurti did her homework and she said it all. She has our vote.)
https://vimeo.com/976245058
7-2-24 Colleen Rose-Scurti from Herb Hitchon on Vimeo.
During the Candidate Forum, Lon Johnson said the most important thing they need to concentrate on is economic development. His background is in sales, and numbers must be hit. He said Carefree needs an Economic Development Director who does his job. "We have a corner sitting vacant, we have a CVS sitting vacant, and we're losing Ace Hardware." Those aren't things he would accept. "We need to get those things filled in. It may take a team effort; it may take a Council effort to do it, but we need to do it." "As we all know, we have 8.8 square miles to utilize, and so we need to utilize it wisely, and we cannot afford to have areas sitting vacant."
(This from the candidate who pushed to take the N.W. corner Special Planning Area (SPA) out of the General Plan (GP), and is on the board of the group that was pushing to have the 48 acres of State Trust Land inserted into the GP as Park/Open Space until the Town got a letter from the State Land Trust telling them it was illegal to do that to land owned by the State Land Trust, making the property significantly less valuable. The N.W. corner and the 48 acres of State Land Trust property are the last 2 remaining properties available for potential economic development.
It is ignorant to blame the economic development director, Steve Prokopek, for the N.E. corner sitting empty. That sat empty for so many years because the water to that corner, until it was recently moved over to Carefree water, was provided by the Cave Creek Water Company, which refused to supply the legally required 100 year Will Serve letter, guaranteeing water to the site. This is why we lost Sprouts, which was ready to go there but instead went to Cave Creek.
The CVS was closed by the chain during its consolidation program, due to under performance. We are losing Ace Hardware at the end of this year because it was so successful that it has outgrown the space and is moving to a larger one.
After the Forum, during the Q&A period when the audience got to ask questions, within hearing range of several residents, one resident asked Mr. Johnson if he would really fire staff members. He doubled down on it. He does not get our votes.)
https://vimeo.com/986897639
6/19/24 Lon Johnson from Herb Hitchon on Vimeo.
John Traynor thought Mayor John Crane "showed incredible leadership during this process. It was not easy. We made it difficult on all of you because you all told us it was our plan. When we didn't hear what we thought we wanted, we gave you a hard time." He admitted that he thought the compromise arrived at was a well thought out compromise.
"That doesn't mean that it won't happen again, just to set the record straight. We are not going away. We don't represent the 80%; we represent the residents who care about Carefree. They may or may not be part of that 80%." (Mr. Traynor's group did claim they represented 80% of the residents because that percentage agreed with them in voting against a dedicated property tax for automatic aid fire protection. If you do not agree with Mr. Traynor's group on every issue, you apparently don't care about Carefree...) "They worried about it last time because it was a pocketbook issue. We're not stupid. We understand that. And the ones who accuse us of that are the ones who are a little bit challenged mentally." (Wow. Just wow. Those of us who realize that Traynor and his group made that claim are "mentally challenged." Alrighty then...)
He congratulated Colleen (Rose-Scurti) for her stump speech (She was one of the 3 candidates that Mr. Traynor originally supported, until she read the 68 page N.W. corner SPA document and talked to the surrounding neighbors, at which point, understanding the facts, she jumped ship. This happened after he gave his Call to the Public speech.) and thanked Matt from the Baker Group for doing a phenomenal job. He noted that Matt listened to both sides with patience and humility, and did not come off as pushy. Mr. Traynor thanked all those who contributed to that night's discussion. "Which ever way the vote goes, and I think we all know which way it's going at this point, it does come down to the residents deciding." He said they will get the opportunity in November, and they will all have to accept that answer.
https://vimeo.com/976233375
7-2-24 John Traynor from Herb Hitchon on Vimeo.
Rick Kasmiskie thanked Matt (the Baker Group consultant), Stacey (the Carefree Planning Director), and the Council for all of the effort they've put in to dial the Special Planning Area (SPA) down even tighter for any potential developer wanting to develop the N.W. corner of Carefree Highway and Tom Darlington Drive. Not only will they have to adhere to a very strict set of requirements, they will also have to go through a very robust engagement with the community, so thank you for doing that.
He's all for this and he was before. He thinks it makes sense. It may take 10 years, but some day it's going to be developed. But what will be developed there, as far as the words and the restrictions on it, is tremendous.
He again thanked the representatives of the Town, as well as the residents, for being involved. "This is an amazing process. I'm all for it. Thanks"
(We agree with Mr. Kasmiskie's comments.)
https://vimeo.com/976291695
7-2-24 Rick Cominsky from Herb Hitchon on Vimeo.
Lyn & Herbert
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