LAND USE QUESTIONS involve those questions about issues of zoning, commercial use and property sales "above the curb" which includes the sale of remnant parcels caused by the unused portions of lots taken for the road widening.
REMNANT PARCELS - Questions "asked" and "answered"
Q and A 11/18/2015 from Beth Abramovitz,Grant Road Project Engineer, Beth Abramovitz, Phase 2 , 201 N. Stone, 3rd Floor, T/A (85701), 837-6656 The following questions were posed by Henry Jacobsen, resident of SAMOS
1. Will these parcels be sold individually or will they be bundled and sold as a group? We do not know at this time as the parcels have not yet been appraised. The City has no plans to appraise these parcels until all Grant Road acquisitions have been completed. We do not anticipate appraisals will start any earlier than eight months from now.
2. Will a first right of refusal option be offered to interested adjacent property owners? Typically that is done when there is no other alternative available. However, as these may have marketable value on their own, a public bid process would likely be undertaken unless Mayor and Council indicate otherwise.
3. Can the city retain ownership of these parcels until long-term options are clearer and phase 5 has been completed? Our intent is to resell these properties as soon as feasible to return the funding to the RTA for use on the remainder of the Grant Road project unless Mayor and Council indicate otherwise.
4. Since the existing Samos neighborhood mini park near the north west corner of Grant and Campbell will be taken for the future widening, is there any public recourse for establishing an equivalent public space elsewhere along the Corridor? The basin area between Hampton and Park is over twice as large as the existing public space near Campbell and contains significantly more amenities (seating, water fountain, shade structure, walking path, etc.) than the existing space. At the request of the adjacent neighborhood significant additional amenities were placed at this location, over and above what are required for a functioning basin, so that this area could function as a public space.
Note: Jefferson Park has researched all meeting minutes with the city to verify the statement that Jefferson Park requested the referenced amenities. No record of that request has been found. The neighborhood representatives have no memory of the request and believe there was no neighborhood request. City minutes were also taken and JP has requested their minutes, not received yet.
5. Might there be an existing mechanism or one that can be created to allow these parcels to remain under city ownership in perpetuity and be maintained by adjacent qualified committed neighborhood associations? The parcels were purchased using RTA funds. Mayor and Council would need to allocate funds to purchase the parcels from the RTA.
Q and A 2/3/2016 from Beth Abramovitz,Grant Road Project Engineer, Beth Abramovitz, Phase 2 , 201 N. Stone, 3rd Floor, T/A (85701), 837-6656 The following question was posed by Henry Jacobsen, resident of SAMOS 1) Will there be any future access permitted to these remnant parcel lots directly from Grant Road? It would depend on the configuration of the remnants. But likely not.