Residents could see more high-rises and redevelopment projects in Chandler‘s future, but city officials want to hear from them first.
A series of General Plan Update meetings ends tonight, with talks focusing on what happens in about five years, when there’s no more land for new subdivisions. After the meetings, a committee will recommend changes and the City Council will vote. The last plan update was in 2001.
"We’re changing from a rapidly growing city to a more mature one," planner David DeLaTorre said. That means the city will start growing "up" – as taller buildings, he said. There has been talk of mixed-use projects with offices and shops on ground floors and residences above them. The new plan will show where they will be allowed, he said.
The city’s looming build-out also calls for a strategy that prevents older areas of the city from deteriorating and may require changes in redevelopment boundaries, DeLaTorre said.
State Sen. Jay Tibshraeny, a Chandler native and former mayor, is chairman of the General Plan Update Citizens Oversight Committee. He said he volunteered for the post "because I see this as a critical next phase in the city’s development."
When Tibshraeny took his first municipal post on the Planning and Zoning Commission in 1980, Chandler’s population was 29,000. By 1986, it was 65,000, and when he left the mayor’s post to run for state office, the city was home to 200,000. Today’s population is about 247,000.
"This is a critical General Plan Update," Mayor Boyd Dunn said.
"The very nature of our city is changing. We have become more urban and are looking very different," he said, confirming the new emphasis on taller buildings and where they may go.
He wants to incorporate environmental sensitivity and conservation.
For the first time in city history, the General Plan Update will be tied to a new municipal transportation plan, DeLaTorre said. That means coordinating road improvements, new bus routes and bicycle paths with the changing urban landscape, he said.
Mike Normand, acting assistant public-works director, said he had his first meeting with transportation consultants earlier this month but it will be another year before the city comes up with a revised transportation plan.
High-rise development, high-density housing and a change in the urban landscape will prompt changes as shopping and commuting patterns shift, he said.
Edythe Jensen
http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/0829biz-cr-genplan0829.html
