Mesa Grande Action Plan

Focus Areas

1. Mesa Grande Archaeological Site
2. Medical Campus
3. Business and Industrial Corridors
4. Neighborhood Schools
5. Neighborhood Transportation
6. Parks and Open Spaces

Focus Area #1:

Mesa Grande Archaeological Site: A Destination and Neighborhood Point of Pride

Existing Conditions: Mesa Grande Archaeological Site remains undeveloped and an eyesore in the neighborhood. The Archaeological site is not zoned properly for the current or eventual use. Additionally, the Mesa Grande Archaeological Site is not developed to its full potential as a visitor destination or asset to the community. The City of Mesa has owned the land since 1988. A master plan was last developed in 1994, and 95 percent of the soil stabilization has been completed. The Mesa Grande Community Alliance advocates the preservation of the Mesa Grande Archeological site.

Vision: The Mesa Grande Archaeological Site is a world-class Archaeological destination, a Neighborhood Point of Pride, and a recreational, educational, historical and spiritual asset for families in the Mesa Grande neighborhood.

Goal: Complete Archaeological site excavation and develop the site as an educational and historical park.

Goal: Create a network of historic trails, walkways, and canals for recreational and educational use, tied into the Mesa Grande Archaeological Site.

Strategy

1. Work to establish or affiliate with a non-profit organization or endowment to work closely with the City of Mesa to develop the Mesa Grande Archaeological Site into a visitor destination.
2. Develop a fundraising strategy and lobby for funding for the implementation of the Mesa Grande Archaeological Site master plan.
3. Raise the profile (e.g., publicity and education) and the awareness of the site and its potential.
4. Solicit financial and technical support (e.g., the businesses, service organizations, and foundations) in the redevelopment of the site.
5. Partner with Mesa schools to encourage field trips and educational programs to the Archaeological Site.

Focus Area #2:

Existing Conditions: The Medical Campus near Mesa Grande Archaeological Site has public safety issues and requires revitalization. The Mesa Lutheran Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy developed in partnership with Banner Health, Mesa Lutheran Medical Center, citizens of the Mesa Lutheran neighborhood, and the City of Mesa is currently underway. The plan will be presented to the City Council.

Vision: The Medical Campus is a beautiful employment center with major health care facilities which provide jobs and services in the Mesa Grande area.

Goal: Create a medically related office complex and campus focused around the Mesa Lutheran Hospital and Desert Vista in Mesa Grande area.

Strategy:

1. Adopt, develop and implement the Mesa Lutheran Neighborhood Revitalization Strategy to encourage the development of a cohesive medical/institutional environment within the Mesa Lutheran Neighborhood.
2. Revise and improve the way traffic is managed and the streetscape appearance in the Brown Road/Date Street Corridor.
3. Expand the existing Opportunity Zone Subcommittee to create a neighborhood coalition that will be responsible for ensuring that the revitalization master plan is implemented.

Focus Area #3:

Business and Industrial Corridors: A Neighborhood Point of Pride

Existing Conditions: Some industrial uses are eyesores, aging and in need of reinvestment in plant and equipment.

Vision: Mesa Grande area is known as a business-friendly place where businesses and residents enjoy a two-way civic conversation about the mutual benefits that each provides the other and jointly works on planning, zoning and community development issues.

Goal: Establish the Dobson Road Business and Industrial Corridor as a Gateway and job producing Point of Pride in the Mesa Grande area.

Goal: Create favorable conditions for industrial re-use of land along railroad rights-of-way.

Goal: Make West University Drive more attractive by removing blighted properties, requiring underground utilities, and controlling new development—holding new structures and renovations to high standards consistent with city requirements in newly developed suburban areas of Mesa.

Goal: Create appropriate buffers between land uses.

Strategy

1. Establish a relationship with the City of Mesa’s Economic and Redevelopment Divisions and Chamber of Commerce to ensure that quality business development occurs in the area.
2. Coordinate and communicate with NEDCO regarding business development along the corridor. Develop a program to assist small and medium sized businesses so they can stay in business and expand.
3. Develop an inventory of corridor business and assets. The inventory should include:
   • What kind of businesses
   • Number of employees
   • Do employees live in the neighborhood
   • Plans for expansion
   • Issues they might have
4. Develop appropriate infill strategies to address the vacant industrial and commercial lots within the Mesa Grande area.
5. Develop a strategy to improve banking services to enhance financial stability within the neighborhood and provide financial education. Strategies might include partnering with local banks or developing a community bank.
6. Develop a corridor-marketing brochure that shows the desirability of the corridor and to encourage reinvestment. Partner with various entities to package the information.
7. Identify key business people who also live in the area to partner on strategies outlined in the Mesa Grande Focused Future.
8. Work with the City of Mesa and ensure that the Mesa Grande is included in the telecommunications study that is currently under way. Once completed, work with the City of Mesa on implementation of telecommunication strategies.
9. Partner with the Mesa Economic Development and Redevelopment Divisions in developing the needed infrastructure and services to be attractive to “New Economy” businesses.

Commercial and Retail Land Uses

Existing Conditions: Retail uses within the area are not diverse. The current land use policies allow for the proliferation of “convenience” uses without consideration of the existing vacant retail sites within the Mesa Grande area or of alternative uses that could be encouraged. Commercial uses, including uses that are incompatible with residential uses, have expanded into interior residential blocks and along arterial streets. Vacant gas station sites are a major eyesore and blight on the neighborhood; there is a disproportionate abundance of low-end retail businesses that support transient clientele (e.g. pawn shops, check-cashing stores, massage parlors, and tattoo shops).The area has reached its saturation point for dense, multi-family housing, both rentals and condominium/townhouse developments. Within the northwest area there is a remaining large tract of land that is available for development at the junction of Dobson Road and the 101/202 (known as the Hurley property).

Vision: Mesa Grande area has an appropriately diverse retail sector ranging from neighborhood serving retail services to regional retail destinations. The retail is well located and attractive, as well as appropriate to the diverse demographics of the neighborhood. The buying power of neighborhood residents and workers has been fully exploited in the marketing of infill sites. These economics have created a strong market base allowing retail uses to cluster together, new uses have been attracted to the area, and all residents and workers have been provided with the opportunity to purchase goods and services in Mesa Grande. The vision for the Hurley Property and adjoining acreage is that it be developed for uses other than high-density residential housing. Preferred uses are commerical and high-end residential and development that is compatible with and would enhance the Northwest Gateway to Mesa.

Goal: Support and redevelop the existing regional mall—Tri-City Pavilions – so that it is a Point of Pride in the Mesa Grande.

Goal: Maintain, assist in expansion as appropriate, and attract neighborhood retail and small businesses to the area.

Goal: Curtail the practice of “creeping” retail commercial zoning along arterial streets in the Mesa Grande area and plan for and develop nodes of retail uses that are appropriately located to residential areas.

Goal: Attract to the Mesa Grande area appropriate nighttime entertainment facilities and opportunities that complement the quality of life of the area and improve the local economy.

Goal: Mesa Grande will work actively with the Hurley family and the City of Mesa to support and encourage development of the more than 200 acres of property north of Eight Street and west of Alma School Road in an attractive and productive manner, as befits the Northwest Gateway to our City as accessed from the Red Mountain and Pima Freeways.

Strategy

1. Conduct an inventory of all retail businesses in the Mesa Grande area and categorize by square mile, block, or other geographical boundary.
2. Complete an analysis of existing retail businesses and determine what types of businesses are missing from the mix.
3. Devise strategies to market existing retail businesses to the area within the Mesa Grande area and conversely get existing businesses involved in the neighborhoods so they increase their own visibility and become a part of the neighborhoods.
4. Devise strategies and incentives to attract desirable businesses (i.e., using list generated in analysis above) to the Mesa Grande area, particularly to underutilized or vacant sites.
5. Work directly with property-owners that have underutilized or dilapidated properties, or vacant land, to encourage them to fix up or develop the sites in uses that will add value to the surrounding neighborhoods.
6. Develop a strategy for transitional development between residential and commercial uses on main arterials.

Focus Area #4:

Existing Conditions: Mesa Grande schools are among the oldest in the City of Mesa and, although they have been the recipients of investment by the Mesa Unified Public School District, they experience a high level of student turnover and are increasingly burdened in serving the changing population. The area has a high transient population due to the type of housing in the area.

Vision: Mesa Grande area schools are Points of Pride and anchors in the neighborhood. The City, the Mesa Unified Public School District and neighborhood organizations have developed a full partnership that benefit Mesa Grande through the efficient use of existing facilities, joint comprehensive planning for new public (either City or School District) facilities and creative synergy of experts and citizens working together toward common goals to implement the Vision for the Mesa Grande area.

Goal: Expand school sites as needed to accommodate balanced growth patterns without use of portables long term. Develop land uses on these sites in aesthetically pleasing ways with appropriate recreational landscaping and development guidelines as if they were new schools being developed on vacant parcels in suburban areas of the city.

Goal: Improve accessibility by the community to schools through appropriate development and reinvestment in plant and site and by appropriate programming.

Strategy

1. Develop a district-wide policy to influence decision-makers to ensure that local schools remain “neighborhood” schools and serve as neighborhood assets.
   • Work with the school district to eliminate temporary utilities and promote permanent structure.
   • Ensure that the school facilities are available for use by the neighborhoods.
   • Encourage the implementation of a more expanded curriculum to ensure that neighborhood schools remain competitive (i.e., basic education track), and attractive to local students within the area.
   • Establish a subcommittee of all the principals and citizens in the area to work together on issues.
2. Establish a relationship with local school boards.
3. Solicit members from the school board to serve on the Mesa Grande area.
4. Provide education on school board elections and encourage support of candidates that are aligned with the philosophy and goals of the Mesa Grande area.

Focus Area #5:

Existing Conditions: People living in other parts of Mesa and other cities drive through the Mesa Grande area without stopping. The street system caters to these drivers rather than to the safety and well being of the area. Excellent freeway access has outweighed neighborhood preservation; roads are too wide, dividing communities of people within the area one from another; speed limits are set too high thus endangering residents. Walking and biking are difficult. Public transit is not adequate in the area. The Opportunity Zone Traffic Subcommittee has identified traffic concerns of the area that include speeding, cut-through traffic, and pedestrian safety. The Subcommittee has prepared a list of traffic control and street construction projects that it feels might address these concerns. These recommendations are included in the Opportunity Zone Resident Team Proposal Packet, January 2002.

Vision: Arterial Streets are a Point of Pride in the Mesa Grande area; alternative forms of transportation are available and their use is encouraged and supported; walking and bike-riding are positive neighborhood values; streets have been narrowed through traffic-calming design and traffic management priorities have changed in key areas to support destination and neighborhood-oriented traffic rather than pass through traffic. Buses provide decent service around, through and to the neighborhood and bus pullouts and pedestrian safety design has been encouraged and implemented.

Goal: Reduce the width of arterial streets wherever appropriate and desirable in small area plans.

Goal: Enhance and beautify main arterials to the City of Mesa and Mesa Grande area as the Northwest Gateway to Mesa and a destination—a City of Mesa Point of Pride.

Goal: Improve the safety of arterial and neighborhood streets to maintain the area as a family-friendly place.

Goal: Develop walkways, bike paths and alternatives to the automobile along the canals and develop bike routes along major arterial roads.

Strategy

1. Work with the City of Mesa Transportation Division and the Mesa Citizens Transportation Advisory Board to do a comprehensive transportation evaluation of the Mesa Grande area.
2. Implement the strategies developed by the Opportunity Zone Traffic Subcommittee to improve circulation, reduce speeding, eliminate cut-through traffic, and improve pedestrian safety.
3. Survey the citizens in each part of the Mesa Grande area to see what they want in the way of transportation amenities or changes (i.e., study the possibility of closing some streets).
4. Work with the City of Mesa’s Traffic Calming Coordinator to implement traffic calming techniques other than speed humps within the neighborhood.
5. Encourage alternative transportation uses and facilities such as bike paths, etc.
6. Explore the possibilities to develop a area-wide shuttle.
7. Work with the City of Mesa to aggressively pursue federal grant funds to support transportation/circulation improvements within Mesa Grande.

Focus Area #6:

Parks and Open Spaces

Existing Conditions. The Mesa Grande area has inadequate neighborhood parks and open space. The City of Mesa is currently discussing the possibility of neighborhood pocket parks.

Vision. The Mesa Grande area has parks of all types and sizes. Its canals have been developed as a linear parks system connecting walking and biking trails to Neighborhood Points of Pride, such as the Mesa Grande Archaeological Site, the Riverfront, Riverview Park, the Medical Campus, the Industrial Corridors, schools and pocket parks within the area.

Goal. Create and locate appropriate neighborhood parks as part of the Mesa Grande area infill strategy and integrate parks with schools and other Points of Pride.

Strategy

1. Work with the city to identify, purchase, and develop the first real “pocket parks” in Mesa in the Mesa Grande area.
2. Devise a way in which neighborhood residents assume some of the responsibility for construction and maintenance of such parks.
3. Support the efforts of the citizens in the Opportunity Zone to convert the Eureka Canal path into a model multi-use walking/biking/oasis development.
4. Work with the City of Mesa to devise a pilot project in the area with an alley or set of alleys, to convert them to greenbelts, mini-recreational areas, or public gardens, while still maintaining necessary access to utilities located there. Explore utilization of grants.
5. Work with the City of Mesa to reserve a portion of the remaining large tracts of vacant land inside the Mesa Grande boundaries for a major city park/neighborhood community center development.
6. Increase the target of neighborhood and community park acreage per 1,000 population for the Mesa Grande area that is outlined in the Mesa General Plan for the East District. The General Plan sets a target for the West District of 1 acre per 1,000 residents and East District guideline is 2 acres per 1,000 residents. Both of these targets are below the national guidelines of 2.5 acres per 1,000 residents. Parks are a critical component to Mesa Grande’s quality of life.