Mesa puts 'general' back in General Plan

• Mesa General Plan clears planning board
• Mesa council to consider General Plan on June 16
• New plan ditches color-coded land-use map%2C stresses broader %22character areas%22

There are towns in this country where nothing much ever changes. A generation comes, a generation goes, and the skyline is still a grain elevator and a couple of steeples.

Mesa is not one of those towns.

When voters last approved a General Plan only 12 short years ago, Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport wore its original name and no passengers went there. Light rail was just a concept. General Motors was testing cars here. Loop 202 was nowhere near finished. The Mesa Arts Center did not exist. Riverview was an alfalfa field and Cubs Park a golf course.

Some of the massive change that swept Mesa during the ensuing decade-plus was on the drawing boards in 2002, but much of it wasn't. So it stands to reason that any planning document bearing that date might need at least a touch-up.

Mesa has gone far beyond a mere touch-up, however, with the General Plan that is now steaming toward a vote in the November general election.

It seeks to guide Mesa's decision-making on a wide range of issues through 2040, envisioning a maturing city expected to have 170,000 more residents than it does now.

The document, titled "This Is My Mesa: Mesa 2040 General Plan," emerged from two years of staff work, numerous community meetings, online feedback and continuous molding by a citizens panel called the Planning Advisory Committee.

The latest draft cleared the Planning and Zoning Board on May 21. Next up: a City Council hearing on Monday, June 16.

It covers more than 200 pages, touching on almost every aspect of civic life and broad areas of municipal governance, including how Mesa will pay its bills for the next quarter-century. The chapter on transportation, however, is merely a summary of a much more detailed transportation master plan still being developed.

The plan embraces the HEAT economic-development initiative that emerged shortly after a new council took office in 2008. The acronym denotes health care, education, aerospace and tourism as the pillars of Mesa's economy. Later another "T" was added, representing technology.

Planning Director John Wesley said as the process began that he wanted the new plan to point Mesa toward a more urban future, undoing some of the effects of auto-centric development that drove the city in the decades after World War II.

Wesley called the effort "sprawl repair."

The plan recognizes that much of Mesa in 2040 will look pretty much as it does today.

But where possible, there will be an increased focus on walkability and mixed-use areas, with a keen eye out for environmental sustainability. To that end, the plan says, "Although the city will always be auto-oriented based on past development, the resulting sprawl can be retrofitted."

Wesley also made it a mantra that he wanted to put the word "general" back in the General Plan process.

So a key component of previous plans — the color-coded map prescribing land uses for every parcel in Mesa — is gone.

It has been replaced by a map that outlines what planners call "character areas," which describe in general terms how they are used now and the kind of development that likely will be allowed there from now on.

The "Community Character" chapter, covering 47 pages, serves as the heart of the document. "Individual development and redevelopment decisions," it says, "will be made based on whether or not the proposal would further implement and enhance the planned character of the given area, help to create a greater sense of place and make the place more economically viable into the future."

The character-area concept, however, does not nullify the zoning ordinance, which details the allowed use of each individual parcel. Proposed zoning changes still will need council approval, but Wesley believes the more broadly worded General Plan will need fewer amendments than the old one has undergone.

Among the character areas are thoroughfares marked as transit corridors, served either now or in the future by light rail or Rapid bus lines.

The transit corridors:

• Main Street from the Tempe border to Power Road.

• Dobson Road from Main to Southern Avenue.

• Southern from Dobson to Country Club Drive.

• Country Club from Main to the Chandler border.

• Gilbert Road from Main to U.S. 60 — at present, seen as the most likely route for a future light-rail extension.

• Power Road from Main to U.S. 60.

Mesa expects these corridors, which include downtown and the Fiesta District, to redevelop in coming decades with a far more urban density and feel.

The Planning and Zoning Board's final hearing on the plan May 21 drew limited public comment.

Denise Heap, who chairs the Human Relations Advisory Board and served on the General Plan committee, said the new document will help Mesa become a more cosmopolitan place.

"I love this city, but ... there has always been a bit of a lack of respect for diversity," Heap said. The new plan, she said, will make Mesa a more "welcoming" community.

"I think we speak not to a plan but also to the people that are thinking of moving here, to the companies that are thinking of moving here," Heap said. "And with that I am very pleased with the General Plan."

Richard Tracy, a retired lawyer and judge, told the board to keep an eye out for Mesa's environment and to promote a more urban future.

"I beg you to make this a city because our whole area is not a real city," Tracy said. And because of suburban sprawl and air pollution, "we are ruining a gift from God."

Planning and Zoning Board members praised the new document.

"It's been a long road," board Chairman Randy Carter said. "... I think it's a document worthy of governing the city of Mesa for the next 20 years."

Next steps

Mesa is nearing the home stretch in a more than two-year effort to update its General Plan.

Although the Planning and Zoning Board approved what will likely be close to the final version, the plan can still be adjusted as a result of public and City Council input.

The council's public hearing will be part of its Monday, June 16, regular meeting, which begins at 5:45 p.m., 57 E. First St.

On Tuesday, July 1, the council is scheduled to vote on the plan and send it to the November ballot.

The latest version of the plan is at www.thisismymesa.org/GeneralPlan.aspx; click on individual chapters under the heading "Draft general plan — PAC clean draft."

The current General Plan passed with nearly 66 percent of the 78,174 votes cast in the November 2002 election. State law requires cities to update their plans every 10 years, but the Legislature granted an extension for this update because of the recession.

Protecting the airport

Mesa resident Richard Bettilyon grew up in the shadow of Chicago O'Hare International Airport and has spent much of his life studying airport development.

He told the Planning and Zoning Board on May 21 that the proposed General Plan failed to adequately address the potential for Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport.

"The future of that airport is going to be massive if we plan properly," he said. "It's going to be an absolute cash cow." Growth in the Superstition Vistas and other parts of Pinal County, as well as in Mesa itself, will turn Gateway into a major airport, he said.

Bettilyon urged the board to include language suggesting Mesa buy land south of the airport to add as many as three runways.

Board Vice Chairwoman Beth Coons supported his arguments.

"It seems like it's a great catch," she said. "If we're looking at 2040, Gateway will be a huge part of any of our future."

Planning Director John Wesley said he would insert into the plan a sentence that says, "Consider ways to acquire or protect land adjacent to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway for possible expansion of the airport."

That doesn't commit the city to either rezone or buy the land, Wesley said. But it does impose an obligation to make sure such an opportunity wouldn't fall through the cracks.