Well, good morning, everyone.

Hi there.

I think this weather has brought out the best of us, you know, the clouds, we know the impending rain, the storm.

It's pretty awesome to have some weather coming in.

Hey, thank you, everyone.

Mesa City Council Study session for October 9th, 2025.

All our council members are present.

We'll start with item one is to review the agenda we have for our October 20th council meeting.

And let's go through that agenda.

Miss Spillsbury.

Absolutely.

Staff staff's definitely prepared for that.

So if we could have um have staff come up to tell you a little bit about the purchase of this building.

Morning, Mayor and Council.

Uh Mark Alstrom, Assistant City Engineer, and I have Lisa Davis, our engine our real estate manager with us to talk about the purchase of this facility.

Good morning, Mayor and Council.

Uh we're here to talk about the potential purchase of two buildings from MCCD, which is Maricopa County Community College District.

They're located here in downtown Mesa, uh just east of Center Street here, and then south of university.

Here's our Mesa Convention Center, and then the Delta Hotel is right across the street from 165 and 145 North Centennial.

Um 145 North Centennial is on top of our uh garage that we own currently.

It's on the fourth floor.

Uh and 165 is a two-story building.

Uh starting with the discussion of 145 North Centennial.

Um it is approximately 33,000 square feet.

It was constructed in 1990, and the AC units were recently replaced.

There is a unit three, which is just air rights for potentially building in the future, about 18,000 square feet.

We had a uh third party appraiser appraise the building, and it came in at a valuation of 4 million, 80,000.

Um, here are some pictures that staff took when we had the tour.

They recently did some renovations on the lobby building as well as in the conference buildings.

The second building is 165 North Centennial.

Uh it's a two-story structure.

It was built in the 1980s.

Um it has um it had a lot of deferred maintenance.

Um, that actually MCCD uh provided us a list of those deferred maintenance, and it costs about 2.7 million dollars to bring it up to standards.

So it appraised at six six hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

And the plan is to demolish the building, put in some like low water landscape, uh, and then use it maybe potentially for some redevelopment in the future.

It is close to site 17 as well as the Delta Hotel.

There's here's some staff pictures as well from the tour.

Uh these are some internal pictures, uh, and then this is external windows there.

Um again, staff is recommending that we purchase the two buildings uh for four million seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars.

If you have any questions, I'll be happy to answer them.

Council, any questions.

Mayor, I would I would just add we we've appreciated the discussion, the partnership with MCC and the community college district on this.

Um they approached us when they realized that this would be access property for them.

Certainly, as has been alluded to, the location of this adjacent to cul-de-sac, adjacent to the Delta and the convention center and the library.

Uh it's it's just a key uh site for us to be able to help control redevelopment on the area for the one for the site that we would demolish and then um look for future opportunities for redevelopment on the um side on top of the parking garage, though, that is definitely space that that we need um for for city staff right now.

Um we we have some of our own facilities with deferred maintenance and and uh we we have a desperate need to find some areas that we can relocate some of our staff as we look towards future redevelopment, including the 55 North Center building, which is you know part of our long-term agreement with ASU for for redevelopment, the DSD and the other uh employees that reside in in that building.

Um they they could speak to it's seen its better days, and um, and we were about to spend uh potentially uh millions of dollars to just get that up to uh workable uh status, and it would be much better for us to instead use those funds uh toward uh issues like this, getting our employees into a better space and then be able to further our partnership with ASU on that building, for example.

So uh staff's engaged in an overall master plan right now so that we make sure that we match up um our facility needs with the long-term needs and and current needs, frankly, um, of the city as well.

So we're working through that right now, but we definitely see uh this purchase is as a key component to that.

Thank you, Miss Billsbury.

So the that floor above the garage is still good, and we would use that for city offices, is what you're suggesting.

It it is facilities and engineering, uh spent a lot of time looking at this.

There it needs a little bit of TLC just to get it uh up to up to the standard to move our employees into, but it's in it's in really good shape.

It's got great bones and good infrastructure, AC units, other things as they alluded to.

So um, we we feel very good about being able to get some employees into that space in the not not too distant future.

I know the chamber already left and um the veteran center, I think already left or is leaving.

They already left.

Anyway, so are there other what what's happening to any other tenants that are there?

Mayor, council member spillsbury.

Actually, the Veterans Coalition is still there.

Oh, okay.

They're gonna be there until the end of November.

Okay.

Okay.

So and then um MCC is just not planning on using it at all anymore.

That's okay.

That's correct.

Correct.

Okay.

Ms.

Duff.

Yeah, I just wanted to add that um looking at the overall structure of what we're trying to achieve in downtown, is um, you know, the arts and innovation district.

When we think about our future development and um transformation, um we're looking at, you know, definitely from Main Street, if not further, tying in the Mesa Arts Center between center and centennial, which this is the street that about to this property, all of the way to university, that that being our arts and innovation district, where we're bringing in ASU, we want to have some uh economic development opportunities, going more vertical, getting a garage, convention center, amphitheater, all tying in, having a pedestrian pathway along the Lewis pathway, which actually used to be a road, I guess, but um it's a walkway right now.

It's just no one knows about it unless you know the area.

Um, but to enhance that so you have um pedestrian bike access through all the properties, especially as we get more ASU schools.

So I think it's very important that the city takes control of the properties and for the our own use or whatever proposed use that we think is ideal.

This one a particular property is um targeted as needing it for staff so that we can um make other areas near the main street and um for some other opportunities with ASU and whatever else.

So that corridor between Main Street to University, between center and centennial is highly defined, including the Mesa Arts Center, which is a little bit south, as the arts and innovation district taking control of the area to have some economic development and higher education and city public services all through there and making it all connected, walkable, and um a place.

Um and so we have some other projects and works as far as on the private investment side.

So this is gonna be a fabulous.

Um so I I think it's very important to take control of the properties so that we can shape that and not leave it to happen stance.

Thank you.

Oh, one other comment.

Um since my husband was renting here a number of years, they MCC went through the 165 centennial building and put in all new AC units, they spent a huge amount of money.

So in looking at the demolition, and being those units are maybe one or two years old, somehow salvaging those, whether we would reuse them, sell them for another purpose, maybe MTS, I don't know.

But I would like to see those repurpose since there's a huge investment in those and they're in good shape.

Mr.

Olsterman wants to speak to that.

Yeah, we can thank you, uh Mayor, Councilmember Dove.

Um the the units with on the building were replaced, I think it was five years ago is in the report.

But we'll definitely, as we develop plans, once we have uh authorization to go forward, we'll look at what opportunities there may be for salvage and reuse.

Um we've had some cases in the past where reuse doesn't always work as well as we'd like it to, but we'll definitely look into that.

Mr.

Adams.

Thank you.

Good morning.

Um a couple of questions at least.

A couple questions at least.

So 165 is the I can't get my laptop to my batteries almost gone.

So 165 is the one in disrepair, correct?

Correct.

Where the chamber used to be and where the veteran center is.

So if the building is gone, what is the land worth?

What's the dirt worth?

Do we know?

Uh Mayor, Councilmember Adams, we did not have that appraise as far as just the land value on its own.

Um I can we can definitely find that that information or talk to the appraiser.

Well, I'm just curious because it were if it were raw dirt, we would probably roll that number into the appraisal of the other one at 145 to determine value, but so I'd be curious.

I mean, it's not that important, but uh, because I understand we're gonna take the wrecking ball to it.

So um, so then the appraised number that we're looking at is for 145 only.

I just want to make sure I have the numbers clear here.

No, actually it's four million and eighty thousand dollars for the four-stair uh fourth floor condominium.

Okay, and then six hundred and fifty thousand for the two-story building.

Oh, yeah.

So the total the total of four million seven hundred and thirty thousand dollars includes the value for both.

Okay, so we're we're assuming that the dirt's worth at least six hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Yes.

Okay.

And how how large a parcel is it?

Uh just over 20,000 square feet.

So what was that work out in terms of an acre?

Uh it would be less than a half an acre.

Okay, so it's a little over a half million dollar acre, half acre.

Approximately, I again I'd have to talk to the I'm not trying to be difficult here at 7 30 in the morning.

I just want to make sure I understand the math.

Um, let's talk about for a moment the veteran center.

Um I'm I'm a little bit familiar with their struggle to find a new home.

Have they been able to locate a place to go?

Do we know?

Mayor, council member uh Adams, at this time I don't know.

I know that the timeline that they were given, they were given extra time to to vacate the property.

The other tenants were given until the end of August, and they were given until the end of November.

Mayor and Councilmember Adams, I know I I don't believe Jeff McVay is here, but um he and his team were working with them.

They did some outreach at your request and and and and council member death's request to uh work with them.

I I know they were just showing them available properties, trying to connect them with potential resources for that moving forward.

So and we and we gave them more time to vacate as well to try to make it easier uh transition for them as well.

Well, and and I want to thank you and and staff for for stepping up and helping them because I know it came as sort of a curveball out of the out of right field that they were gonna have to move.

So I very much appreciate uh that extension of time.

Yeah, they do great work, so we were glad to try to work with them to find find a good place for them for the future.

Okay, well, hopefully they can.

All right, thank you.

Ms.

Goforth.

Has this been something that's kind of you know been on the horizon for a little while, Scott?

We uh mayor, council member, yes.

We've been talking to MCC about this for uh a while now.

I don't know if we can quantify exact number of months, but it's been a while to the to the point that uh we do we did put the money for this in this year's budget uh in anticipation of this occurring.

So uh that was so that yeah, so we so we anticipate that that this would likely happen during this fiscal year.

So whose budget, where does this sit the funds for this?

Uh this sits in okay, Sam to the rescue on this side.

Great mayor and council Sam Schultz, assistant director for home B.

The budget for this came from prior land sales.

So we set aside some of the sale from 127 West Pepper as well as 5950 East Adobe.

And then the additional funding came from interest on investments that we reserved to then fund the rest of this in general capital.

Okay.

Okay.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Mr.

Summers, did you have no good?

Well, I think this is interesting how this turned out.

You know, it's it's interesting that uh we own the garage, but no other structures around the garage, so I don't know how that happened back in the day, but it's immaterial.

I know I think uh Dr.

Danielle, when he took office as president, he approached the city about five months ago, I would think, and say, hey, we're having trouble with these keeping these occupied in the deferred maintenance, is causing a lot of constraints with their budget, and they were looking to dispose of the properties.

So uh we talked about at that time.

We said if you're serious, come back to the table and we would entertain purchasing the property, and so that's kind of how it matured that way.

But um I had a question on the uh sports bar in there, a sports bar there too.

And how does that is that part of 165, 145?

Council Council Member Freeman, uh it's not actually part of this purchase, it's a separate parcel.

So it's a separate parcel.

Yeah, so it's here on the corner, so that would remain as it is today, owned by a separate entity.

Okay.

I know Mr.

Butler, we had recently had a meeting with the ownership of the Delta, and they expressed uh some of the concerns in their future development as well.

And so I maybe you can elaborate on the our uh collaboration with them, possibly with the yeah, absolutely.

And I I think they're very happy about the fact that we're taking control of this site, and and since we have a shared vision of hoping to activate this and and part of the connector that we would eventually as as council member Duff was alluding to, as um ASU has referred to it as the light walk about the Lewis pathway, uh how that's activated in order to tie in the convention center amphitheater delta area along with Cul-de-sac, uh bringing bringing that down to um the light rail station and others is all part of our future planning, and so this site may or may not be part of that, but certainly being able to activate that in a way that um helps the Delta and and the efforts that we're trying to do with the convention center and and all of the uses in that area, I think is really important.

So we will we'll we'll raise the site, we'll we'll make it look good, and then we'll hold on to that until the right opportunity come comes along for either uh to sell it as part of a partnership uh or or whatever the use may be in the future.

Good.

Uh what I didn't hear was a timeline on purchasing if this were in a move forward.

Uh Mayor Freeman, uh if it does move forward, if council approves it on the 20th, we'd probably go into escrow on the 21st.

We have 90 days for feasibility, which would give us time to do some environmental testing um as well as doing some Ulta surveys, um, and then close on that, probably January or February.

Okay, thank you.

Mr.

Adams I I could be wrong about this, but it seems to me that at one time or another between that building, the 165 building and the parking garage.

Wasn't there established some kind of a veterans uh I don't want to call it a memorial, but some type of a uh of either pavers or other or or benches with dedicated to various individuals.

Wasn't there some type of an honorarium established there at one time?

I could be totally wrong about that, but it seems to me that there was something Councilmember Adams.

I'm not sure, I'm not aware of it, but I know there's still a walkway there and the and the walkway would remain as it is today.

Well, I suppose if the folks at the Veteran Center were concerned about it, they would have voiced that concern.

But I'm probably remembering wrong.

Well, I'm not sure.

Can speak to that.

Yeah, yeah, there is uh a little what they call a kind of a garden area.

Yeah, yeah.

And the Veteran Center had used it for anybody visiting that that they had a place for reflection and sitting in a quiet outdoor space.

They have the benches, some plants.

I'd have to look as far as if they have any dedicated things.

I don't remember.

I remember being there at the opening.

I think it was uh uh Mesa leadership project that funded that, but I hope if there is any dedicated um object stones, whatever that if the veteran center moves, maybe that could be relocated.

I don't know.

I don't I I don't know.

Um I'll have to look and see if there's any dedicated things other than the just the garden area.

I think there was something about the Buffalo Soldiers there too, if I remember right, along with the veterans.

We had an event there with uh Bruce Nelson.

Okay.

Well, I think that wraps it up.

Council, anything else?

All right, we'll see what happens on the 20th.

Thank you.

All right.

Anything else on the agenda for the 20th?

Yeah, there is one thing, and maybe it's just I don't know what has happened to this room, but access to things not so good.

Yeah.

Um item I don't really have any questions on it on item six A, the Haas Village 5.

It's just I have not been able to see any downloaded documentation for that.

I flagged it just so that I could double check this morning, and I thought, you know, maybe it was just late being uploaded, but I'm still don't have it.

Does anybody else have documentation on 6A?

Yeah, Mayor, Mayor and Council, that was just uploaded this morning.

This is part of the challenge that we're reviewing uh the agenda so early.

So there's gonna be some backup material that um you you may not have, but that is now available just right now.

Just uploaded, yeah.

Uh-huh.

Right when you said it, we we hit the upload.

Yeah, I figured that yeah, they heard 6A and they like download it.

Yeah.

Um, I got it, and I can look at that over.

I don't have any questions from the outset right now.

But staff um Mary, um, could we are you staff prepared to speak to that this morning, though, if there's any Mayor um Scott, yes, we do have a presentation if you if there are any specific questions about it, um we're ready to do that.

Council, would you like presentation on this?

I haven't had a chance to review it, so I'll just get it.

Would this be a good time to review it?

Let's do that, yeah.

Okay.

I know this is one of the last uh dairyman out there in the Van Ryan dairy.

She's on to me.

I think you mayor counsel um so Haas Crossing Village 5.

This is case Z O N 240892.

It is a there's a lot in this request.

There's this specific request is a rezoning of 18 acres from RSL 2.5 uh with the PAD overlay, the Haas Crossing PAD overlay to general commercial with the PAD overlay, and then also rezoning 18 acres the other way from general commercial PAD to RSL 2.5 PAD.

And actually, let me, this might be a good map for this.

Essentially, what the request is here's the current zoning on the site.

You can see State Route 24 is on the right side of this image, where essentially the request is to move that general commercial zoning from its location up against the freeway to the corner of Warner and Hawes Road to make it a more viable commercial site.

So that's kind of the the nexus with the 18 acres.

They're also asking for a second PAD overlay that would sit on top of the Haas Crossing PAD with some deviations specific to this project.

They're asking for a council use permit related to the density for attached single residents in a general commercial zoning district, and also specific plan approval.

Specific plan approval is a concept in the Haas Crossing PAD.

It's essentially a preliminary plat for residential development.

So that's the request, and it's to allow for 342 uh single resident units.

As I mentioned, this is the northeast corner of uh Warner Road and Hawes Road.

This is village five in Haas Crossing.

There's a total of eight villages in Haas Crossing.

This one is village five.

When this comes back to council for um action on November 3rd, it will be accompanied by a major general plan amendment.

So to shift that that commercial zoning over to the west side of the site requires a major general plan amendment from the current designation of urban center to the designation of urban residential urban center, the RSL 2.5 zoning district is is uh not a supported zoning district in urban center, and single residence is not a supported land use.

Uh both of those work with the urban residential place type, which is consistent with some of the surrounding development on the west side of Haas Road.

As I mentioned, the existing zoning is RSL 2.5 PAD and general commercial with the PAD.

Those zoning districts would not change other than the addition of a second planned area development overlay.

Their locations will shift around on the site, but the underlying zonings would would be the same.

The site is currently vacant.

I hear you can see the specific development plan.

As it mentioned, there are 342 units, and they're broken into three product types.

The the dark brown units are attached single residents, and you can see those are right uh north of the the planned commercial area.

The kind of medium tan color is an alley loaded uh residential development.

You can kind of see those through the middle of the development and up in the northeast corner.

And there are 126, uh they call them Casita developments.

Those are are just detached uh standalone residential units.

Uh they are providing a variety of lot widths, floor plans, and and offerings, and those are all requirements of the Hawes Crossing PAD, which is ordinance 5567.

They're complying with those.

Um, again, this is the second PAD that would apply specifically to this site.

There are a handful of deviations.

Uh, one is for a reduction to the to the garage dimensions.

The second is an increase in the wall height, and I'll talk about that one in a little more detail here in just a second.

That was a recommendation of the planning and zoning board.

Um, as well as some deviations to lot widths, lot depth, and lot coverage specific to the single, the attached single residence development in the GC portion of the site.

Um, because it is zone GC, there are a handful of deviations to make a residential development work there.

Uh here you can see uh the the landscape plan.

There's eight uh a little actually a little over eight acres of common open space, which is about 19% of the total area of the sites.

Uh there's an acre park kind of centrally located here, as well as some other uh open space areas.

There's a basketball court on the the east and a few other open space opportunities throughout the site.

Um here's the uh blow up of this the park specifically with the pool and the sports courts and some of the additional open space areas.

Um as part of this request, there's as part of Haas Crossing, I should say there's a handful of master plans that kind of dictates how how development should go in overall overall in the Haas Crossing.

Um they relate to things like the open space network, uh, the trails master plan, uh the master street plan in the street sections.

When those were approved, they were essentially um bubbles on a map for Haas Crossing.

So they're not deviating from any of those standards, but what they're doing is asking to relocate some of the parks and things in in the site.

So they're providing the the correct number of parks and and the open space, but their location on the parcel is shifting slightly.

They're asking for alternative compliance uh related to the building elevations.

There are some specific requirements for building design materials, um, patios, things like that.

There is a mechanism for alternative compliance, and that's uh the idea is to provide a commiserate level of quality, maybe through through different means than as prescribed in the zoning ordinance.

Um they're specifically related to this the Spanish elevations.

Uh Spanish elevations don't typically provide a lot of materials as they're they're primarily stucco.

The offset for that is they'll they'll put uh maybe additional ornamentation on the building, you know, the the wrought iron, the things that you think of when you think of a Spanish elevation.

Um they are asking for uh a reduced number of windows on corner um on corner lots.

There's a specific requirement for uh 10% of a building facade on a corner to be windows.

They're asking for a slight reduction there.

Um, and then the again the two materials as it relates to Spanish elevations.

Um they did complete their citizen participation.

We had uh no residents in attendance um on this one.

Staff has not been contacted by by any members of the public in the area.

They did the neighborhood meeting as part of the general plan.

We'll talk a little bit more about that in November.

There were two public hearings required for that.

One was um at the Dobson Ranch Library, one was at the normal um the former council chambers.

Um staff does that find that it does comply with the requirements for a PAD um site plan review as well as the requirements for a council use permit.

Staff's recommending approval with conditions.

Uh the planning and zoning board also recommended approval with conditions with with four caveats.

Um, and they asked for some changes to be made before this this project came before city council.

That was to relocate merit, uh, which is the furthest east street adjacent to the 24, um, to the east, so that there were no lots directly adjacent to the 24, move some of the lots um to the west side of Merit again to try to create some more separation between the residential and the freeway, provide five feet of landscaping in an eight-foot uh theme wall along the east property line.

Here is an example of what on the left, excuse me, I got these backwards.

On the right is what went to planning and zoning board, and you can see the lots um here adjacent to to state route 24.

The request from the planning and zoning board was before this went to council to relocate those lots.

So, what the applicant did was reconfigure this portion of the site here to move the lots that were previously adjacent to the 24, more internal to the site to use merit and this additional open space as a buffer between the residential units and state route 24.

The applicant made those changes, provided um updated documents and um council.

With that, we are recommending approval, planning and zoning board recommended approval, and I'm happy to answer any questions the council might have.

Council questions, Miss Spielsbury.

So do we have the new map?

Because I'm not seeing the new map anywhere.

Correct.

The new map, meaning the new development plan.

Well, no, you just said they moved the the two maps you just showed us.

I've not seen that we have the new map.

So if that was made before council, how come council doesn't have that?

Yeah, she's right.

I'm left.

We is it in here.

It's the development plan file.

Um mayor, council member spillsbury.

Um we uploaded.

I'm happy to send you the one that the planning and zoning board saw.

What we uploaded to council was the revised version.

We didn't upload the previous version.

I'm happy to provide that to you.

The presentation we have has the old one.

Okay, I understand.

Um we we have updated the presentation slightly, and again, um, with these conditions from planning and zoning board, it's been um a bit of a scramble on this one.

So it's fine.

We do have an updated uh presentation.

We've got some updated documents for you.

It sounds like they have been uploaded.

Um I'm I'm happy to come back on the 20th uh to address any questions.

Mayor council member, it is on the backup material.

If you click on development plan, council member, that that is the current proposed post P and Z plan.

I mean, obviously, we're just getting all of those okay.

Just in the presentation itself has the old map.

It doesn't have this new revised one.

And then also on your findings page, the four um requirements down there are also not on our presentation.

I uh yes, uh that's correct.

Uh Councilmember Spillsbury.

We updated this to reflect that the direction of the planning and zoning board, but with the timing of of uploading, we we're still and I get we are early, like you said, since we're not meeting next week.

So okay.

So on um what is that little lot that's on the south side of the property?

Just the vacant dirt lot or whatever.

Is that can you tell me what that is?

Um the one right on the hard corner right here.

The yeah, uh no, not the commercial part, but just that one next to the freeway.

What is that?

Oh, this is a a parcel that's not actually part of Hawes Crossing or the development.

I believe it is might actually be owned by the county.

Um it's it's a separate parcel, separate parcel owner, and it's not part of this request.

So it's probably not something that's gonna get redeveloped or something.

It's just it could be A dot also.

It could be A dot.

I am I can't, I think it's probably unlikely given the size and the location that that it redevelops to like commercial uses or anything like that.

Okay, and mayor council member spillsbury, it's actually in the county, it's a it's not in the city.

So it's not part of this project.

Okay.

Um, and then I'm just looking at parking, of course.

And so is there street parking?

It looks like um, it's a little bit hard to tell, but it looks like some of these have driveways, but the streets look fairly narrow.

So I'm just wondering what your plans are where people are, where guests would park.

Uh great question, uh, Councilmember Spillsbury.

I had a hunch that you might ask about parking.

So weird.

We've we've got the numbers.

Yeah.

We could do that.

Um there are 342 units, and because they're all single residents, they require two parking spaces per unit.

Um, which works out to 684 spaces, which is is um satisfied through garage parking.

They also all of the units have full width driveways, 18 feet, um, including the attached units, the alleys, and the casitas.

So that's another um 684 spaces.

There are 26 designated guest parking spaces in the attached area down here, and there is on-street parking on some of the streets are wide enough to accommodate on-street parking on one side of the street.

There are 72 spaces there.

It works out to a total of uh 1,466 parking spaces when you address.

Oh, okay, wait, let me be I just found some.

Yeah, there's like next to the dumpsters, there's a few little spots there.

There's a handful here and there kind of worked into the I see.

I found six.

How many did you say there are?

They're usually um on the ends.

There's a total of 26 guest parking stalls.

So there's a handful spread throughout the whole neighborhood.

Spread throughout, yes.

There's also some on-street stalls on Renfield.

I just get nervous in a development like this that there's nowhere for people to park.

But if if there are some streets that people could park on.

The also the full width driveways helps quite a bit also.

In some of these, especially the attached single residents.

One of the common issues that planning run into is that they're providing a driveway, but it's not quite deep enough to park a car on.

People still try to park on it anyway, and then you hang over the parking uh the sidewalk.

This these are 18-foot driveways on all of them, which um is actually a parking stall depth.

So there's two in the garage, two in the driveway, and then on street and guest parking.

So each house technically has four spots.

Okay.

And so it's same with those.

Um, I don't know what we're calling them.

The light yellow ones, those ones also have driveways.

We just can't see them right now.

They do, that's correct.

Okay.

Um, and then we have not seen a proposal for the commercial area, right?

That's not the one we saw.

I get all those streets out there confused.

There is not a proposal for the commercial um area.

It there's a minimum um area for a specific plan for Haas Crossing.

That's 10 acres for commercial, which is what's reserved for the future commercial, but I think relocating it from its its previous location against the freeway to uh uh an intersection makes it a more viable uh commercial development.

There's also connections um from the residential to the north directly into the commercial and and on street uh walkways.

Okay.

Okay, I think uh that was my those are my questions.

Thank you.

Mr.

Apple, Mr.

Abs.

Thank you.

I appreciate all that information, and uh I haven't got it to download yet, but that's okay.

We got some time.

Um, just an observation.

Um I noticed that uh you have a five-zero PNZ recommendation.

I would just make the observation I have before that it would be better, I think, if the uh staff and the other PNZ board members had the benefit of all seven members' input.

I know that's outside of your control, but and I will continue to comment on that.

We have a seven-member PNZ board.

It would be nice to uh to see all seven members engaged.

We've seen quite a few 4050 votes, and that troubles me.

So I'll just continue to point that out until that improves.

Thanks.

Okay then stuff.

Um I just had a quick question, and I can't pull up the map right now, but the developments to I guess it would be the west side or the left side, as um are they committed or are they planned?

There's um single family is RSL right and um limit LC commercial.

Um thank you, Mayor Councilmember Duff.

The when when we come back, uh I'll have a larger map and we can talk maybe a little bit more about Haas Crossing and what has developed and what has not.

But this RSL 2.5 PAD on the west side of Hawes.

There is a site plan, a pre-plat approved for that area.

I believe that is village six, if I remember correctly.

Um Blandford did a pre-plat on that parcel uh maybe six months, six, eight months or so ago.

We do not have development on this LC portion.

South of the site, this RSL 2.5 on the southwest corner of Warner and Hawes.

Um, there was a pre-plat approved for that development for for residential development.

So um Haw's Crossing is it's it's moving.

Uh there's there's development in and around Hawes Crossing.

Um, this specific part of Haas Crossing is starting to develop.

It might not be quite as far along as maybe the northern portions of Haas Crossing.

And what's at the general commercial?

Just the at the bottom.

I'm sorry, is the question?

What was what is it?

Is that developed or it is it has an old farmhouse on it now?

It's part it's part of Haas Crossing and will eventually develop, uh, but it has not, and we have not had any plans for that submitted.

And then they're great.

Thank you.

They're over the streets sideways.

So there's back up.

Mr.

Summers.

No, I was just reading the material.

I think you you know my issues with garages.

This is another area where there is no transit.

This is not transit-oriented development by any stretch.

This is people own cars and they want to move their car.

This is probably the best um discussion on page five of the submittal documents.

I I just this just uploaded, so I haven't gotten page nine past page 92.

But thank you.

But this is the best description of why lesser depth is okay here.

And it and it mentions that they're not gonna have hot water heaters, they're gonna do um tankless water heat, and and they'll have spaces for the trash receptacles.

This is something I could wrap my head around.

In addition, uh, I'm gonna be looking at this more, but because of that parking space, the pads that you do have a driveway you can park on.

It's important.

I'm reserving my judgment, but I might be I might be all right with this.

So we'll we'll have probably more discussion on the 20th.

If then I'll get with you, Mary.

I know we have a meeting later today at some of the discussion, but this this starts to make sense to me.

So you all right.

Mr.

Reddy, I think uh to council member Dove's question.

I remember when we passed Haas Crossing, there's percentages around commercial uh housing.

I'm not sure if you will touch on later in additional presentations where we're at on those percentages as far as this uh all those developments kind of coming on board.

We're tracking that, I'm assuming.

Uh thank you, Mayor, Councilmember Heredio.

Yes, we are are tracking that.

Uh when this comes back for your next study session, I'll include a side a slide or two about overall Haas Crossing, where we are, the the percentages that you mentioned.

Absolutely perfectly.

And and Mayor, Councilmember Hurdy, one of the things that is really important to note is that there is that GC area that's a long 24, and in working on this project, it was very clear that we needed to maintain that, which is why the whole thing is not RS L in that we've maintained that commercial space down on Warner.

So it was kind of a swapping of the location so that we maintain that commercial space.

So, mayor, council member, I think we'd just add that considering the robust discussion that surrounded Haas Crossing in in general, we would not want to give up any of those percentages unless it was a really thoughtful discussion from council to do that.

So, whereas you know, development might move some things around like we're seeing here, we'd want to maintain that overall mix that council agreed to when they when they first passed Halls Crossing to have a more mixed-use vibrant environment like that.

Just a follow-up question, Evan.

These are for sale products and they're not for rent homes.

That's correct, Mayor.

They are um all being platted, they are all for sale single residence.

Lenar is the developer.

They did um Haas Crossing Village One, which is on the north side of Elliott, um, not too far from here, and it's it would be a similar field, I think, to that development.

Okay.

As the commercial development proceeds, you know, you you get these large neighborhoods.

I'm gonna call it a large neighborhood area without probably a fuel station, grocery store, other amenities you might enjoy close by.

So I hope some development comes with that, you know, in the future for that area.

But um Mayor, I was can I jump on to that?

I was wondering, are there any time frames, time um wrapped around residential versus commercial and those percentages and when they have to be done?

Since I wasn't here during this approval.

Yeah, I think you may or council member go forth.

Um no, so we it's it's not structured like uh kind of like we did with Fiesta, where we had those those milestones.

Haas Crossing is a little bit different in what they did is there's specific areas um of a of uh you need at least 10 acres to do a specific plan.

So when the commercial comes in, what we're trying to avoid is chipping away the commercial until you get a just as such a small parcel that it's not viable.

There are minimum amounts for that, um, but there is not a timing requirement, but they wouldn't be able to reduce that commercial area further than what it is now.

Okay, we'll look forward to further discussion on this.

Thank you.

Thank you, Evan.

Anything else for the agenda on the 20th?

Well, if not, we'll move forward to item two a presentation and update on citywide branding efforts.

That'll be Ana and Jay and team.

And let me find it here.

Whoops.

Good morning, Mayor Council.

I'm Anna Pareto Communications Director for the City, and I'm here with Jay O'Donnell, economic development director.

We're we heard you loud and clear at the spring retreat about the need for um unified city branding, and we're both here to talk to you more about what can we do to take the Mesa brand to the next level.

Despite Mesa's unprecedented growth and transformation into a thriving urban hub of education, innovation and arts, we are still facing tired old negative stereotypes that don't really refract reflect who we are today or our trajectory.

We currently lack a cohesive, consistent, easily recognizable, and modern brand identity.

As you see here, we have many logos, and that's something that Mayor Freeman brought up during uh that retreat.

We did an internal survey of all of our different logos and identity, and we found that we have more than 40 of them.

And some of them don't even lack, uh they they don't even have our colors, they don't have our three mesas.

So there is really a lack of cohesive visual identity.

On the other hand, we have Amazon.

You might not know what AWS or Kindle stand for, but you really see that it's they're part of the Amazon brand.

So imagine when they started, they started as a bookseller, and if at that point, every time they added a new unit, so household items, clothing, they created a different logo, they wouldn't have necessarily a strong a visual brand as they have today.

So that's one of the challenges that we're facing here in the cities that there is that lack of a cohesive, unified visual brand identity, but that also happens with our voice.

Our departments are different units or different initiatives.

We understand that they all have to communicate their programs and services, but we're talking about Mesa in different ways, and that is also a problem.

So we have a an issue both individual side of things, but also in our narrative.

There is a lack of cohesiveness.

So the opportunity in front of us is to uh create a unified framework, one that reflects Mesa's direction, supports investment, and builds community pride.

We will not be overhauling our brand or redesigning our logo.

We all we already have a good logo.

But it's how are we going to build from here to strengthen what we currently have?

So the goal and objectives are of this brand refresh are clear.

Shifting our data perceptions and addressing reputation gaps, increasing Mesa's brand value and recognition, unifying our messaging and identity across departments.

And I want to talk a little bit about this.

This doesn't mean that everyone is gonna have the same voice and we're gonna say the same things.

But we're gonna create some umbrella messaging of who we are and from there distill that into what it means for each one of our units.

So I want to make that clear.

And supporting long-term economic growth.

This means developing consistent visual parameters, taglines defining our mission and vision, how are we talking and to whom?

Then we're gonna create and implement the framework that is going to give us the consistency that we're gonna need and the tools that we're gonna need to all have that unified, strong visual identity and narrative for the city.

Clear, more effective marketing.

It's a lot easier when you have the tools at your disposal, when you know what you're supposed to be doing and how you're supposed to be doing it.

Better talent and investment attraction because people know are gonna know what they're gonna get when they come to Mesa, whether it's to work for us, live here, or um create business here in the city.

And a modern identity that fosters civic pride.

Thank you, Anna.

Uh Mayor and Council.

Good to be with you this morning.

I did want to just give a couple of examples of uh how we have worked in this arena before.

We have developed logos or brands over time.

Um, these are ones that we have led out of the Office of Economic Development.

You can see on screen there's LaunchPoint, Mesa Business Builder, the Falcon District, Asian District, and then we've also launched the retail awareness campaign under Morda Mesa, and we're currently undergoing a Mesa Office of Economic Development brand refresh.

But I wanted to just talk a little bit about some of the nuances in creating the brands.

Um there can be very complex processes, and there can also be very simple processes.

And it was a pretty simple process that we used to develop that.

We we talked to uh some of the users, we talked with uh council member and from the district, and we also talked about internally what we wanted to accomplish and what we were doing as that that service, and we came up with the name first, Launchpoint Mesa Arizona, and then we designed a logo internally.

So very straightforward, pretty simple, and um used really just internal city resources.

And then on the other end of the spectrum, um, we followed the Falcon district process for the Asian district, but it was actually even more complex.

So there's kind of a difference in programs and services that we've branded compared to branding an entire shopping district or employment district.

And so with the Asian district, because it was more complex and and there were more stakeholders involved, we really took um we took an objective approach where we actually hired two branding agencies.

One was focused on developing the primary research and implementing the primary research, and then the second agency worked on the graphic representation.

So the primary research that we did for that particular brand was to engage stakeholders in the district.

We developed a steering committee that I believe had about 20 stakeholders on the steering committee from the district.

They either lived, worked, or had um businesses in the district, so they were very vested.

And then we conducted intercept surveys in the market, we did online surveys, um, interviewing visitors, residents, uh, and people who came from literally uh Yuma and Flagstaff to shop monthly to learn a little bit more about what the essence of the district is, and then we also held some focus groups, so all of that research was then um aggregated and given to that body of work was then given to a creative agency, and that's where the Asian district Asian district brand came from, along with the pillars, community commerce, and culture.

So there are pillars that hold up the brand, and that's really what I think Anna's talking about doing as a community, really identifying those pillars that are key to Mesa's personality and our essence.

Um refreshing a brand, if you want to go to the next slide, is important, and it is something that is not done every year, sometimes it's not done every 10 years, but it is something that is critical to keep the brand fresh, and particularly when you're thinking about a community, communities change sometimes dramatically over a short period of time.

And I think Mesa is in that boat right now.

Um we have come a long way in just a few short years, so it is time to consider a refresh and really figure out how we want to convey those new things to the outside world.

Um, and you can see with our brand refresh that we're working on in economic development, it's it's not necessarily brand new pillars and brand new things that we're promoting, it's just a new message and some new graphics and really being intentional about how we're promoting Mesa to the economic development community and to site selectors, brokers, and developers.

And then question, Jay.

Jay, sorry, thank you.

Um so back on the previous slide, or the the previous one to that.

So all those brands, which are all great, and you did a lot of work, and they're they're spot on for what you were trying to convey.

I guess this is a kind of and a question, but they don't all say Mesa Arizona.

You know what I mean?

Like the that umbrella you're talking about, is that correct?

Like there this is this an example of very individual and almost isolated without coming under that one identity, or or is that what you would say, Jay or Ana?

Like this is not we're gonna get away from doing this, like being completely not that these are these are great, but that they don't fit under that one identity that says that's when we recognize Mesa from it.

And that can be that can be a problem.

It can also with a district, sometimes it's important to create that those recognizable elements.

So in this case, the Asian district, we're talking not necessarily about a city department, but that is an area of the city that has an identity.

So it's also about how we use it, and for example, in the um communications from the city, how do we use that?

And do we use it with our logo?

And those are the things that we're going to be answering through this process.

Is that how do we launch how do we use some of these recognizable brands and what are we going to do about it?

Because one of the issues, and not necessarily about this, but about some of the other ones that we have within the departments and initiatives is also the credibility that comes with belonging to the city of Mesa, right?

You're not just going to some organization or a for-profit entity.

You're going to the city.

There is a level of quality that we're known for, right?

So at the same time is being able to articulate all the different services and things that our city is doing for our residents, businesses, and b visitors.

So that is also part of that.

So this is something, this is part of those conversations that we're going to be having is what are we going to do with this and how are we going to use it or modify it and modify our practices moving forward.

So that will be part of looking at what are some of the best practices, how others have reconcile all of this and um and move forward, right?

So that's going to be part of the work.

Thank you.

Quick question.

Mr.

Adams.

And if if this can be answered at the end, please feel free to say I'm going to get to that.

But the one that I, if we can roll back to that slide real quick.

And Jay, you and your folks came up with what I thought was a great logo that identifies aerospace manufacturing technology.

That was the whole thing.

So my question is, are we going to do away with we talked about placemaking and whatnot, and you it's on the power boxes.

It's all over the place in the Falcon district.

You know when you're there.

So are we talking about doing away with those, or are we talking about an overall umbrella that then filters down to these specific places?

Mayor, Councilmember Adams, great question.

I'm I'm actually excited to have those conversations, but I think what we're doing today is getting direction from council to start this process that will actually create almost a flow chart.

So when we're talking about placemaking and specific shopping districts or employment districts, how do we then work on these brands?

So for example, with Falcon District, we don't necessarily go to market with Falcon District alone.

It's under, it's packaged with Mesa Arizona in our economic development material, but it's Falcon District is this employment corridor, and there's information about that.

There's also the gateway area.

So it's it's a way to package and just differentiate it a little bit to give it its own identity.

I don't think we necessarily have to go do away with anything.

It's how we make sure we're conveying the right message and that it's part of that Mesa community, if that makes sense.

Yeah, it does.

No, I I'll I'll uh sorry to interrupt the presentation.

I was just the only concern I have is it is we went to a great deal of of effort to brand that area, and it took a little while, and not everybody was too happy about it, but now they are.

So um, okay, I'm sorry, this uh look forward to the response.

And that again is goes to that example of the Asian district.

These are districts, it's different than a logo for a program or a logo for a service, right?

There is definitely an uh a difference, and it's also part of uh we do have some entities within the city that are more on the economic development, are um generating uh profit or that are more on the consumer side, and so and it's also how do we treat those?

For example, the museums, the Mesa Arts Center, right?

They they're part of the city of Mesa, but they also serve the public in different ways that we do.

So it's about about how we reconcile having that with a city of Mesa and how we do how we tell better that story that those belong to the city or they're part of the city.

Okay, carry on.

Okay.

Um, so if you want to go to the next slide.

So um, Mayor Council, Ana addressed a little bit of this already, but just to give you an idea of how one brand can serve multiple audiences.

Um there are different treatments and different ways that we're serving the public.

So there's the business to business side and the business to consumer side.

This is just one example of how we're treating the the retail awareness campaign.

So on the left, there you see our Instagram page, which is very geared toward the consumer side of things.

That's our better life Mesa handle.

And then you see on the right there, that's our business to business messaging, more than a market movement.

This is how we go to ICSC Western, ICSC Vegas, the the when we're talking to retail brokers and developers, that's that's how we're promoting it.

It's much more data-driven, and what what is the market look like demographically, and what are these different areas of the city look like?

So it just gives an example of how, as Anna said, we do need to consider the different audiences, but you can still have a single brand and then different messaging or different voices underneath that brand.

I have a question on that.

Just looking at that branding says Mesa, you know, blue and oval, but yet not on the left, where we use our Mesa's logo.

Is there a reason for that?

Mayor, we do have our logo on the Instagram.

Um, the other piece on the that particular ad, I believe, was a um a digital ad that we used, and so they click through and it lands right on our Mesa Arizona page.

Um we do say Mesa Arizona on the on the B2B, but are you talking about for the bottom of the like the t-shirts or the bags or just yeah, we're so more than a market, a movement?

Yeah, so so we're saying Mesa A Z is the premier destination.

So that's when we're going to our national shows.

Um are you saying you you have a question about the the circle?

Just the logo, yeah.

Oh, our logo.

Um, we have not included that.

Um, that's easy to add to to it, but um, yeah, just in terms of making sure we're getting Mesa Arizona noticed.

Okay.

Mr.

Radio.

I think it goes to that point, you know, where we talk about kind of using similar branding, kind of the circle, it it seems like it's off from what we have, right?

And then also kind of this color scheme.

Uh you're looking at the color scheme, you know, the purplish piece, just nipping there, as far as like, is there is there a thought of kind of uh just having some color palette to the things across the different departments to make sure it's resembling, it doesn't have to be like all the same, but it resembles kind of kind of a color palette throughout the organization that when you look at orange, blue, red, or something like that, you know, different variations of those, that is like all right, it is somewhat connected to Mesa, right?

So yes, and you're getting ahead.

Yeah, yeah, okay.

But yeah, I you know, just based on the conversation you're having, kind of the circle logo, you kind of is saying also we pushing out a different message from what you're saying initially, right?

So to the mayor's point.

So just a comment there.

All right, then you're gonna fix that, so carry on.

Are you so what is the approach and how are we gonna accomplish that?

Um so we are what we are proposing is a phased approach.

Um, first starting with discovery.

So we already took stock of all of our logos.

Uh but the next part is conducting those surveys with the different communities.

Um, also convening stakeholder groups for focus groups.

That's gonna be very important.

We really need to know where we're standing, what are our pain points, and what are our strengths?

And from there, developing those visual and narrative codes that are gonna convey who we are, right?

So that would be the discovery phase is just that research um research part of the process.

Then is the brand identity development.

It goes to what Jay was talking about, those pillars.

What is our brand wheel?

Who we are, how do we define ourselves, what are our attributes, uh, those characteristics because those are gonna be key as we're also not only when we're producing that main umbrella overarching narrative, but also how we're gonna talk about the different departments in a way that also resembles those characteristics, those identity pillars, right?

Um we're gonna determine our brand uh audience matrix.

Who are we talking to?

What are different audiences?

How do we talk to them in terms that again reflects who we are, but it's um but resonates with those different audiences and where are we gonna talk to them?

That's also very important because we know that not everyone is everywhere, right?

Where they are, how we're talking to them in those environments is also very important.

And we're gonna define all of that.

Then comes testing and refinement, and this is when we're gonna gather all of that brand identity development, and we're gonna bring it back.

We're gonna test it, right?

We're gonna bring it back to you, to the stakeholder groups, um, to our employees or residents, and we're gonna say, did we nail it?

Where are there any areas of improvement?

Are there areas that we need to change?

And from there is when we're gonna really develop um those, for example, that the the narrative, right?

Um, how we're talking and to whom those visual codes, because we know that different um different characteristics we can we can emulate those visually with different elements.

In this case, for example, like you were saying, different colors.

Also understanding our current visual codes, what do people like to see visually?

Um, what what are some of the aesthetics that are that resonate today versus 10, 20 years ago when this exercise was first started with our current logo?

So we're gonna be updating those visual codes and those narratives during this process, and then we're gonna create um some guidelines that everyone can use, both from the brand side, visual guidelines, and I brought a couple that these are from Value Metro.

They have very strong uh guidelines, both in terms of visual elements as well as in their narrative.

How do we write who we are, how do we articulate that?

It's all um compiled into guides, and so we're gonna be creating those, and then we're gonna be launching um that internal alignment, which is training staff about this and how to use it, when to use it and how.

And finally, is um once we roll it out, is about monitoring how we're using that brand to ensure compliance.

Um we plan to do most of the work internally, but we do believe both Jay and I are in agreement that it would be beneficial, particularly during the discovery phase, to use an outside facilitator, especially for those stakeholder meetings, those focus group.

Because if we're there in the room, people are likely not gonna really share their actual opinions.

They might they might try to be nice, and we wanna we wanna hear the truth, right?

Um, as hard as it is.

So that would be uh that would be an area where we definitely um feel strongly that it would be beneficial for us to have an outside consultant.

And then the deliverables.

So at the end of this process, what um how does this look like?

Um we will have a clear brand strategy, messaging framework, refresh visual identity, uh system, colors, fonts, imagery, while keeping the current logo to preserve um recognition.

Uh practical communication tools, taglines, key messages, templates, marketing toolkit, and that's those guides with those standards that I mentioned.

Um, and these are all obviously tangible tools that departments can use every day.

And the end result we hope to that we hope to accomplish is a modern professional brand system that conveys who we are.

Who is Mesa, what is Mesa today?

Any questions, comments?

I mean, this is my thing.

I love I love Fons and I'm all about the visual stuff and what everything looks like.

Um I think the Mesa Business Builder is like the perfect example of like the using the three colors, the um, you know, you have the squares that build that kind of match the little Mesa plateaus, like we uh that to me is like a perfect example of how this can all tie together with the branding without it having to be the exact same logo on everything, right?

So um I think the Asian district actually is really great because it has our three colors, and then it adds in a few more that shows like the diversity that we have, right?

So I think there's some really unique um things we're already doing that really match what we're trying to do here, right?

So even um like with and I don't I don't know that you have to, but uh maybe an example would be Falcon Field, you leave that logo, but you add the red and the orange to it, or are we calling it orange or yellow?

You leave that logo, but you add the red and the orange to it, or are we calling it orange or yellow?

What is that color?

I don't know, gold, and we're knowing those are gonna be the colors at the edge of this.

They need to be because that's Mesa, right?

Like we have a great logo, like you said.

I I would hate it if we changed our logo.

That's so I mean we don't there's other cities around here that have done some bad things with their logo.

We're not changing our logo.

That's and and I don't think we should change the colors.

We're not gonna do our crapper bearable.

No, no, no one wants that.

But so like I don't know, I I feel like I don't think we need that much work.

I I just really don't.

I mean, do you want me to be the moderator?

We could save a lot of money, I'll do it for free.

Um, I just I feel like we maybe are making this a bigger thing than we even need to.

And that would be great, because that would be a lot easier, right?

To start from that point.

Yeah, I mean, I I just think we don't want to create all these new logos, so let's let them tie in.

But we're already kind of doing that, and we have a great foundational logo to start.

And and again, that Mesa Business Builder is a beautiful example of that.

That's very Mesa Arizona, but it's saying, what does this do?

It helps build businesses, right?

Like, I think there are some, anyways, what you want to say something.

No, I you know, talking about branding and colors is almost like talking, picking out art.

Totally.

We're all gonna have different opinions.

Have this council do.

But no, it's uh you know, you're exactly right.

And and this has been really important to me as well, even before I was in this role.

That was one of the reasons why I wanted um PIO because how we communicate and what we communicate is is essential, right?

If you if you don't start with a cohesive baseline of that, you know, marketing 101 is you know, develop your message and then repeat it ad nauseum until people are tired of hearing it, right?

And I think uh if you'll go to the deliverable slide, I I just want to say, I mean, we are, and we all care about colors and the look of something.

That's very important.

I don't, but I think brand strategy, frankly, is the most important thing because that is what we say, and we may say it slightly different.

It may be a slightly different logo, even though we we want cohesiveness as as Anna alluded to with kind of the Amazon example.

But I think more important, what are we saying?

That's gonna define whether we've been successful or not, is you know, that we all have a cohesive message that we take out to the community.

And there's different, there's different groups, as Jay alluded to, right?

The way we speak to someone from business to business standpoint as we're trying to sell Mesa to a commercial broker back east or something, maybe very different than what we're trying to do to convince someone in Chandler that they need to go try restaurants uh in downtown Mesa.

You know, those are very different strategies, but still this notion though that we need to be locked in and cohesive and intentional.

My favorite word, of course, um, on how we're defining that message.

And so Jay referred to it as picking the pillars, and then the brand comes from that.

And I I think that's a lot of what we really personally define success, especially if that brand strategy element of that is it's more clearly defined, and we're cohesive throughout all of our business groups about business operations of the city and outside groups of how they speak about the me about Mesa and our brand strategy.

Okay.

I mean, I yeah, I I think we go through the process.

Like, I'm not saying not to go through the process.

I just feel like we're talking about something bigger than what we really need because I think we're already doing really well.

I I would be really sad to even update our logo.

I think we yeah, anyways.

I can promise you that logo is not going to be.

Okay.

But yeah, I mean, even I mean, I'm thinking of an example like Together Mesa.

We could have brought in the red, orange, blue colors to it to maybe make more of that cohesive instead of creating a new brand under Together Mesa.

That is then on shirts and signs, right?

So that's what that's essentially what would be like a good example of something that is a really important initiative to me, and I think we're it's an amazing thing that we do in our community, but like it doesn't really say Mesa from what we visually see Mesa being.

Correct.

That was that was the point of gathering some of those logos that I had at the beginning.

Yeah, because they the one thing they had in common was the lack of visual cues to the city.

Yeah.

They might be great on their own, but it doesn't tie them into the city.

Like um, and I hate to to single out any of them, but like some of them, um, yes, they have completely different color.

And granted, the city does have on our brand's guide, we have alternative colors that we have alternative palettes, but they only work if you have the three maces and and this the name, right?

Because otherwise it doesn't really um tie in.

So we have to be smart about how these are used, right?

How are we using the actual logo versus those alternative palettes and creating those um I hate to use the word rules, but those rules on how do we really use both um both can live at the same time, but how do we use them as important?

Pillars is good.

I like the I mean pillars kind of like gives you the structure and the foundation, like instead of saying rules, right?

Those are our pillars we work off of.

Ms.

Goforth.

Um I was gonna say I I went through this exact exercise with my community, Voss and as we were kind of that obviously smaller scale, but exactly, and as as Scott said, this is not about pictures and the important part is when you define your values and your identity, and we've talked about the lack of identity of Mesa, which is almost an identity of itself, I think is really what it was, right?

Is that everybody is who they want to be, and we we don't really define who we are, but I think it is important to go through that and define it, and it does flow, it will flow through in the decisions that we make that we continue to hold true to that identity and that and those values of who we are.

So I think that exercise is absolutely um is is going to be the most important part, and I hope, you know, I know you all um can start that off and do it, but as the elected officials who represent the people and the values that we're trying to convey, I think our role is critical.

So I hope that when that comes, there's a lot of and that'll that to me will take the longest time.

And there's gonna be some you know, some some deep discussions, I think, here on the council of of what those values and missions and character are for the city of Mesa.

Absolutely.

You'll be part of those conversations along with those um stakeholder groups of um just community uh community members who can help us define that.

And if and if our um if our definition is those unique identities and and that diversity, then how do we articulate that?

Yeah, because we're not talking about an organization, correct?

The identity of an organization.

We're talking about people in a city.

So we that's our role is critical in that.

Correct.

Mr.

Adams.

Thank you, Mayor.

Um, just a few thoughts since uh you're here looking for direction.

Um I agree.

Um identity branding, very important.

Um I personally like the existing uh Red Mountain image, whatever, but you know, we already have examples uh before us right here on the table of the same design in a different color palette, so that's occasionally something that we we already have, but um I I I just a couple of thoughts here.

I I get the overarching need for identity.

And to make the other particular districts, areas, whatnot, somehow tie into that.

Uh I'm not gonna prejudge the effort until I see what you present.

I'm I'm anxious to see, but I would it's already been mentioned.

We've seen recent examples on a national level of how all kinds of research was done and how outside firms were hired and focused groups were had, and we roll out a brand, and all of a sudden, boom, and then within a week it has to be withdrawn.

I know we're not gonna do that, but that risk always exists if you you think you've touched all the sh all the stakeholders, and then hmm, one pops up that gets real loud that doesn't feel heard.

So I I'm not suggesting we're going down that road, but it is a risk whenever you change something as important as this.

Um I do think that um I I do think that it's always a good thing to do a refresh.

Um maybe every 10 years is a good idea to look at it and say, are we keeping up with changes or are we keeping up with just the the general look of things out there in the community?

I do have one specific question though.

If we go back to your page five, shift perception and fix reputation issues.

Um and I don't want to go into a long discussion about this, but what what are what are those issues?

That's what we're gonna be discovering.

Okay, so that this is part of the discovery process.

That is part of the discovery process.

Okay, that's and I think that's what I think it would be unfair to say one specific one, because at some point we've all heard different things, right?

It would be unfair to say one specific one, because at some point we've all heard different things, right?

But that is exactly what we want to discover.

What are those reputation issues?

Because we can't really create a map or create that though that narrative if we don't know what some of those uh old stereotypes or negative perceptions are.

And it is crucial to know that in order to to be able to create that narrative.

So we want to do away with wide streets and narrow minds and that kind of old thinking.

Spend some time on social media, Rich, and you'll figure out what I think.

I don't know.

I think I leave I live a much simpler life because I don't.

Yeah, maybe don't ever get on social media.

I don't know.

But but I I mean I think to that point, I mean, one example, Mayor and Council would be, you know, that Mesa's just a bedroom community, right?

We we all know how how different, you know, that that is, and how different uh Mesa is now than it is 30 years ago, and the growth we've seen, the development we've seen.

But some folks who have grown up in the valley um may not may not have um watched us as closely as they should have, and may still, you know, think it's just a bedroom community that doesn't have jobs and um, you know, uh it just have different perceptions.

So that's part of just one example of something where we have to we have to project an image nationally and internationally as we're competing for high-wage employers and and others, but also we have to we have to compete in a region, right?

And we have to define our brand in a region because as um council member go forth always, you know, our our retail attraction and other things are for our residents.

At the same time, though, we want people to say, I want to drive to Mesa to eat at that restaurant.

I want me, you know, to drive to Mesa to do this activity.

And I think part of having that that brand is it defines that.

Um Glendale may have moved away from it because it may not be timely now, but you think a few years ago when they were leaning in uh with their sports stadiums and other things, they they had the kind of tagline of Glendale's got game.

And I thought it really defined though what they were trying to do.

I mean, they were just starting with their entertainment district, they they had just secured the Cardinals, they had secured hockey, other things like that.

And of course, all a lot of that's changed over the last 20 years, but it really kind of defined, I think what Glendale was doing at the time.

And that's just one example of how they use kind of a logo to shift the perception in the region and nationally about what's happening in Glendale Aircomb.

And that was not a that I actually uh spoke with Julie Frizoni, who wasn't who created that, and her team, her public information team came up with that idea, and it was over 20, I think for the first Super Bowl, and I that was what almost 20 years ago, maybe?

Um anyway, so what they they used it not just for the game and to attract um economic opportunities, but then they started using it locally, um, Glendale's got game.

They put it on their trash trucks and and on different uh different uh city assets because it meant that they were in the mix, that there were things to do.

It it wasn't just about sports, and that's more of what we're trying to do.

And it wasn't a logo, they did have an identity for that um marketing campaign, but it wasn't a logo.

They still they still use their City of Glendale logo, uh, but they had this message, this tagline, Glendale's got game.

And and it was very successful, and it was still used um not too long ago.

So that's something uh that we would like to emulate with this effort.

Oh, I I look forward to your further presentations and council's involvement, though.

Thank you.

And Mayor, if I may, um just to answer your question to Councilmember Adams about the risk.

I I do think that it's it's really important to do the research up front and to have a steering committee, which you would be deeply engaged in that process as council members, as leaders of the community, because it really does help identify where there are gaps and where we need to prioritize the focus.

Um, oftentimes too, and I think Mesa sometimes falls into this category, there's not necessarily a negative perception, there's no perception, and it's almost harder than to sell against that.

I I can't tell you the number of times we've brought people into the community and they're blown away by the growth and what's happening in downtown and just the change.

And they've they've said, I haven't been to Mesa in in 10 years.

I had no idea this was happening.

So finding those points that are going to resonate with those who we want to continue to have that relationship with and who we want to bring into the community again and again is really important.

I don't look at this as a change or a dramatic departure of what we've been doing.

I look at it as a clarity around how we communicate, and that I think is what everybody's been asking for.

So we're all saying the same things and sing singing off the same song sheet.

And that's where we're going to get with this process.

So Mesa's got Moxie.

Is that what we're doing?

No.

I like it.

I like it.

You heard it here first.

I really like the conversation of what's going on and you know, looking ahead and what we can do.

Because I I think there's different elements here that sometimes we cross over and and we have our brand, and that's I mean, our logo, right?

Um, which is, and I think we all agree it's strong and it doesn't need to change.

Then there is a brand.

What is that experience?

What is that feel?

What is that vibe?

When you think of Mesa, what is that that goes through your mind?

You have the logo, but what is the kind of the feeling of that?

What is that vibe?

And then we have a motto.

And I don't know exactly what our motto is.

I know we have Elevate Mesa, and someone came to me recently, an employee said, What is Elevate Mesa?

I understand Elevate Mesa, let's promote it and stuff.

But there is no, it hasn't been discussed or conveyed, or we don't understand in a deeper way how to how to use it other than just to say it.

Um, so I think you know, having those deeper conversations, not only in Mesa, but outside of Mesa.

How many people tell us, oh, you know, I'm live at Mesa, and they go, Oh, you know, you know, and and I have to kind of pump them up.

This is what we're doing, and then you know, like that, and try to change that perception.

So the perception also outside of Mesa, because when you live in Mesa, sometimes you know what's going on, and there are sections of our city is so large, there are sections that aren't aware of other things that are going on.

So they have old perceptions of what that area was when they last frequented it, and since it can be years.

Um, I was just gonna share an experience.

I went to a an event at a park, and there were tables there, and I was looking over this one table and everything, like, oh, this is so cool.

Like, you know, everything I love the logo, what's your what you're doing, and everything like that.

I go, who are you?

And you're like, oh, we're the city of Mesa.

I go, oh, this is us.

So to your point, here I am, someone who knows the city of Mesa, and maybe you know, I'm not always observant as I should be.

I will own that.

Um, but it wasn't forward-facing.

I needed to dig and pay attention a little deeper and and spend more time to understand that.

Um, so that was an example of I know other people might have had that same perception.

We're making quick judgments about what we're seeing, what it is, and how we feel about it.

And I'm proud of the work we do, are proud of our departments, and I I want I was like, oh, this is City of Mesa.

And and to your point, that's part of this, right?

Is that we're doing so many great things, but being able to um make sure that people know that that table was the city of Mesa, and that great experience was brought to them by the city.

Yeah.

Um, Julie just pointed out, Jen.

Look at all the different logos of Mesa you have on your iPad.

I mean, that's that's all the different things that you're saying.

You're not gonna stuff.

Like while she was talking, I was like, wow, look at that.

Some of them are other organizations.

I didn't open those out, but it's just funny.

Um Anna said, I said, you don't have any other hand argument.

I do not, I saw that.

They look great.

I mean, that's all wanted well.

Thank you, everyone.

Uh, I just have one question.

Uh I never heard a timeline because when I looked at slide 10 and all your approach and things that you need to do, it'd be nice to have a timeline to come back, and I challenge you to come back sooner than later.

Yes.

We're looking to to start, obviously, wanted to get your direction before we started any work.

Um, but you had enough direction already.

Yes, now we do.

Now we do.

So the the timeline we're looking into three months, about three months to to get that first set of um to have the discovery and start developing those uh that brand wheel and all of that, and then um from there to when we roll out would be another about another three months.

So six months at that I'd rather just give us a little bit more time.

Uh but we'll be we will be all facilitated, right?

Mr.

Butler will facilitate.

We will be coming back with that first iteration for for your direction and just to make sure that did we hit the mark, did we not?

And um that we are we're good to proceed to then start developing um the rest of the assets and the messaging and all of that.

Great, thank you.

All right, then you ladies.

We'll go to item two B presentation on entryway monuments in the city, which is uh Mary, Rachel, Sean, and Noah.

You got a good team, Mary here talk about this.

Thank you, Mayor.

Council.

Um so I want to thank you, uh Mayor Council for the opportunity today to present an update that really aligns with and really furthers the direction of what we've been hearing from council as it relates to one of your strategic priorities.

We heard you stress the importance of placemaking and quality development in Mesa.

And so this is one of the first initiatives that we're working on that where we really want to present to you this placemaking initiative that is directly related to your priorities.

This is an exciting time for us.

It's more than text amendments, it really is a not that they're not important, but it really is a long-range planning opportunity for us here in the city of Mesa to really look at you know some of those future placemaking opportunities.

So the long range planning team's been working with several departments to really understand and engage in what they're working on, including some of the presentation materials that you just heard from Anna and Jay related to the branding, and these will all be integrated into this project.

We're in the initial stages, and so what we wanted to do is come today seeking your input and your feedback so we can move forward in developing the plan and an implementation strategy.

So Rachel and Sean are here to do the presentation, and we're happy to answer any questions.

All right, good morning, Mayor Council.

Um, so I think this is a perfect segue from that last conversation, and I'll thank Ana and Jay for kind of establishing the baseline for a lot of what we're gonna be discussing in this presentation as well.

So we're we're excited about the opportunity to explore the creation of this entryway monumentation plan.

And as Mary was describing, this is really a place-making initiative to create a sense of arrival into not only our city but also our districts and the neighborhoods throughout the city, and really what we want to do is we want to elevate the image of the city and with that support economic development by creating memorable first impressions through this effort, too.

We want to establish clear cohesive brand and identity for Mesa that can um further guide investment from the the private developers as well because we do have some ideas about how we might be able to translate this throughout the city through private development.

So when we talk about our entryway monumentations in the city, um, I think we're all pretty familiar with the Mesa Drive in the 60 monument that you can see in the upper left-hand corner of your screen.

Um but then we also have two other welcome to Mesa signs that are over in the Fiesta district, and they're the same design, but one is on Southern Avenue just close to the Tempe border, and the other one on Alma School, just uh south of Southern.

But then throughout the city, we've probably all seen these um smaller, more street sign um style signs that just are you know a signal that you're here in Mesa, and we have 24 of those located just throughout the city, really on the the borders of our city limits.

But as we were discussing, we also have um several different monument signs that signify and identify our various districts throughout the city.

So we have the the new Asian district sign, we have a fiesta signs on um Southern Avenue, we have kind of I've heard it called different things, the check marks, the the swoops over in the tech corridor.

It looks like the hand and coming out with a salad, and what was that moving?

Oh uh beetle juice meeting.

Beetle juice, that's what it looks like to me.

What do you see and then we have the the Falcon District signs, which there are uh a few of those over in in North Mesa.

So we have six district signs.

So we do have a little bit of this concept, but really we we don't have that cohesive identity as you see on this this slide with our existing monuments or welcome to Mesa.

Um there's not there's not a whole lot of them throughout the city, and they aren't consistent in their uh design.

So when we when we look at the surrounding cities, you can see that that some have evolved a little further to develop some consistent design language, such as Chandler and Queen Creek.

But it's really a mixed bag for cities throughout the valley.

But when you look at those, those are on the very right hand side of the screen, they're they're not a consistent design language either.

But we just wanted to show what was in the surrounding jurisdictions.

So really the scope that we're looking at creating with this plan, um, and I'll go through each one of these elements more detailed, but we want to be able to create a sign family or hierarchy.

So having different scales and typologies of signs.

We want to identify where these would be sited, located.

We want to establish branding and design standards.

We want to uh look at what the operation and maintenance requirements for these signs would be, and then what phasing and budget would also be required.

So the first one of those elements that I mentioned is the sign family and hierarchy, and I think this is really important when we talk about having a consistent design language.

So not all of these signs, and these are just some examples on the right hand side from other uh cities, not all the signs have to be the same orientation, have the same exact elements, but they all have a consistent design language.

So we can have some that are more of your grand monuments, some that are more of a neighborhood scale, and some that are more of even kind of street elements, but they all have that same branding, um, very identical.

Um, so just that consistency.

So with the sign family and hierarchy, we'd be looking at creating some gateway monuments, and those are really your iconic, those bold um entryway monuments into the city.

We want to have some entry monuments that are at key access points that are welcoming travelers, but they're a little bit smaller scale than the gateway monuments.

We want to have our district monuments that are highlighting our economic hubs, our cultural areas and special destinations within the city, but then also those community monuments like we discussed with what Gilbert does, where we can reinforce the city's branding within our neighborhood centers, our parks and our civic spaces.

So when looking at creating a plan for all where all these different signs would be, we would want to have a um a method for the siting and location of them.

So for the site selection of where they would be placed citywide, we would be looking at having a geographic balance of where these signs are.

We want to look at the the traffic volume.

So where are we getting the greatest visibility for people entering and um exiting the city?

We want to look at the context and the proximity to other destinations, and once again, that kind of plays into are these the the major um entryways or routes that are people going to be using to come into the city to go to maybe the the Mesa Art Center.

Um looking at existing signage and what other visual clutter is it in the area?

Because we want the signs to complement the area.

We don't want to have to be competing with a lot of other signage from commercial developments, or if we have existing City of Mesa signs, that wouldn't be the best location either.

Um but once we we establish kind of the citywide location of where we would these would be, we also want to have uh methodology for looking at the site-specific location of these.

So that gets into looking at the site lines and the geometry of you know, when you're exiting maybe the US 60, where can you actually with your view shed, where are you actually gonna be able to see these signs to making sure they're placed appropriately?

Um we need to look at constructibility.

So, what is the right-of-way availability?

What kind of access do we have to get in there to construct the sign and to also maintain it over time?

Um, what sort of utility conflicts that might we have that might preclude some locations?

Um we also want to look at down the road the operation and uh maintenance of this.

So, once again, is there electric access for for the actual lighting of the signs?

Do we have access there to maintain the signs?

And then looking at the the area itself, so what are the size requirements that we would need for the different uh sign hierarchies or the sign families?

So then another section of the plan would be a section talking about branding and design standards.

So when we we talk about creating a plan for signage within the city, we want to make sure that it's timeless.

So if we do have any sort of branding efforts where we we could be, I know we said we are not changing the logo, but if we were going to go undergo any major branding efforts, we want to make sure that these signs endure that and we wouldn't have to go in and replace them because they no longer match the city's brand.

We want to look at design standards to make sure that these materials are durable, that they're easily maintained, and that we can source them for replacement.

We want to make sure when we are looking at the design of these that the lighting systems can be maintained by city staff, and that we don't have to outsource this to companies and in those instances that could be uh significant delay to get someone in to fix them.

We want to make sure that they have power supplies that are close to them and dedicated for those signs, and we want to make sure once again for the lighting that those components are easily sourced for maintenance.

Um a lot of the operation and maintenance aspects that we we talk about in here.

We had some really great discussions with our uh streetlights folks that do maintain our current signs, and they give us a lot of um insight into some assets aspects that are really important to consider.

So some of these about the sourcing and the materials being able to be replaced, um, I think is is really key.

Um but when we talk about the the branding and design as well for the actual signs, we want to talk about the legibility.

So are is the the size of the text or the logos is that designed for the speed of the roadway on which it's gonna be located.

Um, we want to make sure that it's a high contrast so it's easily to read those components and that it's not cluttered, so you're not having to look at it and decipher what that means, that it's just really easily understood right when you see it.

Um we also want to look at the landscaping that is associated with this signage and the opportunity for further placemaking than that gives with different areas within the city, so that we can tailor it.

Um for example, if you're gonna be in the in the desert uplands area, landscaping there would be very natural, native landscaping, but then we could have different signage, for instance, over in in district three that might be you know a more high foliage sort of um landscaping.

So, really just making those unique to their locations, and then with this, we would have the design standards that would really be the base that could be used as as a guidance for any sort of future private investment and development of signs within the city as well.

So, for operations and maintenance, we want to look at asset management and make sure that it is clearly defined who's responsible across various departments for the the maintenance and routine inspection of signs.

Um we want to be able to establish dedicated funding for ongoing maintenance of these and also contingency funding for unseen repairs if we have any sort of vandalism or vehicle strikes.

Um there's not currently a dedicated funds, and so if something does hit a sign right now, it becomes, you know, you have to find that within the budget, a budget somewhere to address those.

And then we also, as we've been talking about this opportunity for some private contribution, we want to explore the opportunities for partnerships to offset the cost of these signs for design for maintainability.

We want to require uh very detailed shop drawings so that if there is a need to replace components of signs that they're able to do that easily and quickly, and also looking at the opportunity to standardize components across the different family types and sign typologies so that we're able to streamline the procurement of any sort of um pieces if needed, and lastly, um phasing and budget.

So we uh we'll be proposing a phased implementation of this plan, and we're gonna be discussing just in the next couple slides as a first phase really prioritizing those gateway monuments, and those were the iconic kind of grander entryway monuments.

Um but within the phasing and and budget section of the plan, we also want to establish cost estimates.

So we want to account for not only the design and construction costs, but really look at the operation and maintenance projections for the long-term maintenance and durability of these.

So this gets into coordinating with our our CIP.

So if we're gonna be having projects that are touching certain corridors, what's the opportunity to upgrade and and um install signs with some of those improvements as well, and then within the sequencing of improvements, we'd also be looking at the the leveraging opportunities for that public partner uh public private partner um investment.

Just call it a P3.

Okay, that's easier.

So with the the first phase, what we wanted to bring to you today is just some ideas, and you know, hopefully um working towards accomplishing some of this placemaking initiative is our goal right now is to deliver one high visibility sign per council district and really as a starting point for the system.

Um we'd be coordinating with not only our city departments that Mary had mentioned, but also with ADOT, McDot, SRP, other agencies, and then the the exact locations would really be determined after we were able to do some surveying and utility potholing, um, those sort of analyses.

But for now, these are just staff's initial proposals of where when we did an evaluation where we think these were appropriate.

And once again, the site selection criteria that we used was based on a geographic uh balance, traffic volumes, the visibility and approach geometry, right-of-way availability, context and proximity to destinations, proximity to our existing entryways and district monuments, and the volume of commercial signage.

And since we have our our districts are numbered and in an exact order, it might be a little weird, but I'm gonna start off in district one and go counter clockwise through this.

But for district one, where staff um is suggesting the first monument sign B is that country club and the 202 freeway.

So right there in the median as you exit the 202, coming south into Mesa.

Uh for district three, the recommendation would be at McKelops and the 202.

So on the east hand side of the road within right-away as you're coming off of the 202 eastbound into Mesa for District 4 at uh Gilbert and the US 60.

So once again, on the right hand side of the road as you're heading north into the city.

For district five, we'd be looking or suggesting that power when you're coming off of the salt river, so heading south into Mesa.

So on the right hand side of the roadway within the right-of-way coming from the Salt River, and then for district six, Ellsworth and SR24.

So this one would be in the medium, it would be a little bit further south of the actual exit because there are some other signage there, but as a a good get like a good entryway as people are heading into Arizona Athletic Grounds, the gateway airport, all of those sort of destinations.

And so Steph wanted to give you a just a kind of feel of what this this might be.

So a little bit of taste, and you'll see some concept images, and they are not consistent, but they're just to give you an idea of variations of what this could look like.

And we're gonna give you three examples.

The first one here was the country club and the loop 202, and you can see that this one we're suggesting that this be within the median.

This provides the the greatest visibility coming off of the 202 here.

Um, so within the medium, it would be a vertical element, as you can see here.

But um what we asked when we um got these concept drawings was was to keep something that was um that would be timeless.

So you can see there's no specific um logo on these, but it's very timeless, easy to read, um, and these are a very basic in the materials, they could be customized to whatever colors or different uh materials we wanted.

Um the next uh location we wanted to show you is district three, so McCellops and the loop 202.

Um, so this would be on on the south side of McCullups Road.

Um, so once again, see a little bit different variation and what this sign could be, but in this case it's a it's a horizontal variation.

And then um district five, so power and the salt river.

So this would be if you're coming in off of the salt or heading, you know, heading heading south into the city on the right hand side of power road, um, another horizontal variation of what this sign could look like.

Um and in this example, they have uh component on the top that could be customized.

This could be a city of Mesa logo, this could be other sort of um branding and and icons, but um with this concept, the idea is that you have these pieces that are able to be removed and replaced so if there was a need to to change any any sort of branding or logo that could be easily done and maintain the rest of the sign.

So what staff is is looking for is Mary mentioned, is it's really um guidance from city council if this is something that we should pursue.

Um so the the next steps would really be initiating the the start of work on this entryway monumentation plan.

Um we're also looking to um get some sort of consensus on the locations for those phase one signs, and if those are appropriate, we can have further discussions with council members.

Um but if if we do find a consensus on those, um we also would like to start um conducting some site feasibility analysis and preparing cost estimates for those six uh gateway and freeway signs.

Um so with that, we are happy to answer any questions and and looking for for some direction.

Should we let district one go first?

We'll just go by district.

Well, well, thank you.

There's sometimes an advantage to being one, sometimes not.

Um yeah, I I like the concept.

Um I think that's a good entryway.

Um if I if I had my brothers, I'd probably have uh one of those at all the uh major arterials entering district one, but that's probably a little bit of an overreach and uh big ask, but no, I think that's a good concept, and uh I I I guess I'd be looking for consistency among them.

And I understand we might want to consider each each district has its own unique characteristics, but uh I think uh we we just finished talking about branding.

So that should carry forward, and I assume this is gonna be tied hand in hand with the the rebranding.

So uh yeah, I I like that.

Miss Spielsbury.

Okay, so the um first of all, I guess are we keeping anything that's currently there I think those discussions would need to be have when we we start creating this plan.

Mayor, council member right.

I I think we want to add to is to take away now to council member Adams' point.

Um it would we would be nice.

I know this is what Rachel has alluded to, that we would get some consistency, right?

We would maybe come up with some options that follow the same theme.

They may be different depending on the needs of the site.

You could have the more vertical ones or the the more horizontal ones depending on land and all the other issues, but there would be consistency in what that is.

And so, but those that already exist um could just be something that over time we look at, yeah.

We don't repair them.

Well, you know, they they some will obviously become dated, right?

Or more dated as as each year passes, and that could be that could be an opportunity in the future to change those out um with something that's more consistent with what comes out of this process.

I don't I wasn't around when like I'm just gonna for example the Mesa Drive ones.

Um like I don't know, we knew okay, you knew.

Okay, um I wasn't gonna mention them, but um yeah, they're just not attractive.

And I like was the plan when those got put in.

I don't know who in the room invented those, so that's why I'm trying to not, anyways.

But like, so was the plan to like that was going to be the new theme that we were then gonna do those around the city?

Like, does anyone know?

Was that the initial idea that we were gonna like use that as the branding for the city?

Or that was like a one-on-one.

I think I think a lot of the folks who had direct control over that might have retired.

Uh but um, but I I don't know either.

I don't know the answer to that of whether that was thought to replicate.

I my belief is though it was more site specific and and unique to that corridor, which again I think is not what long term we'd like to do.

We'd like to see something more consistent throughout the city.

So again, that you know, you're not having to guess.

Um Rachel gave some examples of maybe where you don't have consistency um in other communities, and and that doesn't help the brand, right?

That doesn't help as well.

Right, that's why I'm just like if you if you get off at Mesa Drive and you see that, and then you get off at Gilbert and you see something else, and then you get off at Higley, right?

Like, and and Higley is these sites were picked for traffic.

I'm assuming you already looked at that.

Um, where the most people are coming into the city.

Councilmember Spilsbury, that was one of the metrics that was used.

So there were other pieces as well.

Okay, because Higley's actually the part of my district that's Gilbert.

So I mean, I know if you go north of the freeway, you know, then you're gonna be back into Mesa.

But if you go south, then that's Gilbert.

So that's that one little area right there.

But um, yeah, I I really do like that.

It seems to look like the same font is is being used, and like the lowercase M, like since that's our brand, I think that's a good direction to go.

Um I I think the I know that maybe that logo is just a placeholder on the um slide 18, but that looks like a dolphin tail to me, which feels weird driving into Mesa.

But I like I would say, like, you said we don't want to like stick ourselves um on something or or whatever, but those three mesas, I just think need to be included for now, even if it's like um something that goes on the sign that we then take off, right?

Like so on the tall one on 16, and again, I'm probably getting way too picky here, but um love that the the fonts are kind of matching, but then let's throw those three mesas on there, like you know what I mean, like where it could be taken off if we end up taking that brand away someday, but um it's it it could show up on the other signs.

So I guess that was another one of my questions, which um Mr.

Butler kind of just alluded to, but depending on the space of these is whether you're gonna put a tall one or or a vertical or a horizontal one.

Exactly.

So mayor council member spillsbury.

So, as part of identifying that family sign family or hierarchy, that's where we start looking at the location and the sighting of these.

So it's gonna be dependent on on area and as well as different conflicts that might be there, but we're also wanting to, you know, capture our our grands, our our gateway monuments with our high volume areas or or routes to key destinations, and then that's where you start getting into the tier of you can still have some some good monument signs at entryways, it might not be that same grand scale at your other locations and kind of following following down.

Okay, and I and I do like the kind of neutral palette too.

I think that's important to keep it timeless.

I think that might be one of the issues with some of the other things is like the colors start to look kind of faded and bad.

Uh, you know, anyway, so I I like keeping it a neutral palette too.

So, anyways, I'm on board with this.

I think it's great.

I think anything that can kind of help that image and branding that we're trying to um focus on is gonna help.

So Mr.

Adams, you had a follow-up.

I I just I may be able to help with this.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I think former vice mayor and council member Dennis Kavanaugh was involved at some level in the Mesa Drive and 60 markers.

I'm not saying Dennis, if you're listening, I'm not saying you're you advocated for it.

I'm uh I'm just saying I think you were in office at the time and may have some knowledge of the fitter.

So uh we all know Dennis, we can reach out to Dennis if we're curious.

But that that's my distant recollection.

So all right, Miss Sharedia.

I don't know if Scott was here.

You've been here almost 20 years.

So maybe Scott was where I'm residing.

It just turned out so you know, I I I try to own things on behalf of the city, but I will deflect from that one.

Uh just uh just to add to the comment.

I think the pat the you know, the timeliness, I think with some of these signs, kind of we see deterioration of them uh when you add too much uh and you know, different types of materials, right?

Uh I know we've had some issues on the the uh you know additional signage on Fiesta and those kinds of things, and so um just to add the point and then um with the the locations that you put in slide 15, it does seem like one and three really close.

I'm not sure why Dobson and the tool two location is we build out Riverview and you know the stadium there, and uh I don't know if that was looked at, but uh other than that, I don't, you know, I like this uh where we're heading, uh just those those points that I want to comment on.

Okay.

I'm actually going east.

Can you get off Dobson?

You can.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Ms.

Duff.

I would concur on somehow having a monument sign near the access to the Sloan Park.

I don't know if Dobson or the Rio Slaw, I don't know where the opportunities are in the traffic counts are, but I think it's a point of pride, and we have a huge amount of traffic.

I know it might be seasonal.

I I don't know.

I'm just putting that out as a possibility.

Um then I didn't know if there's any opportunities.

I was looking at the map, maybe not from the transition from Chandler into Mesa off of the 87 off of Country Club or Arizona Avenue.

But there may not be the right-of-way to do something like that.

Um, that is since in 87 there's a huge amount of traffic on there.

I'm just putting out as a possibility.

I can't, you know, not a requirement because I don't know the conditions.

And that um, oh, I had a note here about the 101 in Rio Salado as far as uh access to Sloan Park.

Thank you.

On that one corner where the animal shelter used to be, I don't know what's the thing with that.

I don't know.

Um it's not developed or is it identified for development?

Yeah, so Mayor, um, council member Duff.

So we have had a a pre-submittal for the redevelopment of that corner there for both some housing for cubs and also for um a hotel, a possible hotel there.

Oh, on that one, there's enough room.

Okay.

So I thought, well, that if there's a redevelopment opportunity, would we somehow try to incorporate that in the development of you know to have some kind of signage?

Maybe it doesn't mean you need to be huge, but capturing the difference between Mesa and Tempe divided by the 101.

Yep.

Um, council member, yes, that's an opportunity we can look at.

Uh we we did look at that corridor, and it's it's a little bit challenging because on the south side, that's actually uh that's to be um so we would have to use that north corner, and the the visibility isn't isn't as great, and then you also have the cub sign that's not too far from it.

But we could look at that closer also, Dobson and uh the 202 over by rear view as well.

Um I know once again there were it wasn't as ideal for the sighting, but we can always look at those opportunities.

Um looking ahead for the streetcar development, there might be some opportunities too as we we look at the streets, so we might just kind of shelve that until that area is uh redeveloping.

Um the other comment was hopefully the sign designs are coordinated.

The PIO office and it all kind of blends together, so we're not creating yet another since we're doing a rebranding, we want it to be consistent.

Okay, thank you.

All right, Miss Goforth.

Yeah, I guess that that's my biggest concern.

You you have examples here, but we haven't finished the branding.

So I I are these aren't really examples that we need to be commenting on, right?

You're just you just kind of threw those out.

Okay, no, Mayor.

I would say we cannot do a monument until we have finished our branding exercise.

But I do think the point is that if we're not changing the logo, it's the Mesa A Z with the lowercase mesa, A Z, it's the three Mesa.

We're not doing colors, we're not we wouldn't add anything other than welcome Mesa.

I I don't know what we would change.

Uh I mean, anyways, I don't know that any branding we were gonna do would change the simplicity of what we want on an entryway monuments.

Well, I guess that's the question.

Until you can answer that, you should probably thought this was really, I think I think Rachel um was definitely just trying to give you too much.

It won't be a one-size-fits-all monument sign that's just plot down, you know, throughout the city that it will fit the environment, it will fit the right-of-way and other constraints that that we may have.

So these are more illustrative of exactly so um, but okay.

But like we were saying, and you know, Nana and I were joking, um uh as this I mean the fact that these are presented together is is meant to show that we want that consistency.

Uh the fact that branding and monumentation have been um presented here today, we'll make sure there's consistency.

That would be the utmost IRI of irony if we if we didn't ensure that we're all talking to one another through this process so that you know we we maintain it.

Thank you for that clarification.

I mean that that makes a lot more sense.

Um so I guess what you're asking today is do you want gateway signs?

Do we as a council want gateway signs?

And are these the locations that we're we would like you to go forward with?

Is that essentially what you're asking for?

So mayor, council members.

One, would you like us to create a gateway or entryway monumentation plan as we outlined?

And then two, as a first phase, are these first six locations appropriate and can we start working on site feasibility for them and cost estimates?

Because if we do do a phase one, we'd want to bring them forward with upcoming budget um to kind of coordinate those aspects.

Okay, great.

That's great.

And I think you're probably getting a consensus that we like the idea of gateway.

I I particularly don't like the location.

I I appreciate you're trying to get every district, but I think the location matters more than satisfying each district, the the unique location.

Like to me, coming in on country club.

I mean, I leave it to Rich, but I I'm not sure what we're highlight.

I I feel like you should highlight something.

I guess I'm conflicted because I don't I don't know a lot about, and maybe Anna's the better.

So I don't know a lot about what the gateway sign is supposed to do.

To me, I get it is it just supposed to say, hey, you're in Mesa, or is it sort of an entry into something a place, you know?

I mean, because when you come off country club, it's not really a place.

I don't know.

I may come some of our go for it.

Rachel, do you want to pull up the different hierarchy of signs?

Because this is just one type of sign that would be part of this overall plan.

These are the gateways.

These are the welcome to Mesa here.

Coming into Mesa, crossing the line.

Right.

And then as you go down into that hierarchy, and I don't know if you want to talk about the different purposes of uh that hierarchy.

So these are just the you are in Mesa kind of sign.

Okay.

I mean, even uh so for my I'll just speak for my district, I guess.

You know, I'm not sure as far as traffic and I mean the goal is to get as many people to see it, right?

Put it in as you said in high visibility.

I think I would I would ask you to look at Ellsworth.

Um where it um at the city limit.

I think you I think there's a lot more traffic there than there is at pa at the entrance of power.

I could be wrong about that, but that's my sense.

Did you did you look at that?

Um council member, we did.

I don't have our evaluation right now in front of me.

Um I mean, those two say the same thing, you know, you're coming into Mesa in that sort of um outdoorsy area, but I'd say as far as I I would want to get as much traffic volume to see it, and I feel like that what I've I've been told in the past is Ellsworth has a lot higher traffic volume.

But anyway, so I would just ask that you look at that because I don't think it really matters one way or the other power Ellsworth, unless you tell me there was a reason for power.

It came out the highest when we looked at the criteria, the various criteria that we we talked about.

I'm gonna have to go back down.

I'm sorry.

Um so the traffic volume, that visibility, the right-of-way availability, the the proximity to destination.

So it came out slightly above.

Okay, but that doesn't mean that that has to be the chosen location.

So I this are just staff's preliminary recommendations, and we want to continue having those discussions about where the appropriate location is.

And it might be that more people from out of the city of Mesa come in on power than elsewhere.

Ellsworth might be more actually City of Mesa people.

So I don't know if that plays into it as well for you.

But now and Mayor, I was gonna say that you know, going back to the question of what direction today.

Yeah, I mean, I think we can continue to work and refine.

So don't feel like after today these exact sites are locked in.

We can we can still work with each of you if you have different thoughts about you know the signs that may what we wanted to capture, knowing that as council member Adams said, we we would love to have them on every entryway, but we know that's not feasible and it is a matter of time.

But we wanted to show we wanted to spread it around the city, not just to try to make all six council districts happy, but to really have some images out throughout the community so that they would see it, it all just wouldn't be concentrated in in one part because if you went just on traffic counts, that might just you know totally isolate it to one area.

So we wanted to we wanted to spread that out a little uh a little bit.

Um but we can continue to work with each of you on on some refinements or some site locations.

I think we heard some different things about Riverview today that we can uh take a hard look at and uh I think your site selection criteria is great.

Uh when I look at it, I don't love the sites, but maybe that's I mean, if they came up the highest, and that's just my preliminary, just looking at them, you know.

But if but I like your criteria.

So I mean that's sort of the high level, you know.

I'm not gonna pick the sites.

That's not my job, but I think the the criteria is is right.

Yeah, I and I think council, you know, it's interesting.

We um, you know, the mayor talks about this as part of you know, part of creating a sense of place in Mesa, but also just improving the look and the feel of Mesa.

I the McCallop side is you know something that um I've used that site a lot over the years, but that is the primary entryway when people are coming from Phoenix or from Sky Harbor, you know, they're taking the McAllitz Road exit, and it's not necessarily our our you know the most attractive um entry point into the city, and so being able to do something there, I think is is really important for everyone who's you know coming uh into downtown Mesa and and and coming to Central Mesa.

That's a huge entryway point.

But you know, we we've heard not just from this council about stepping up.

There, you know, there's prominent folks in the community.

When you know, I've had conversations, and you and my role it's it is, and you you hear this, you hear it more than I do, even about we just we just want to improve the overall look and feel aesthetically, too, of the city.

And you know, and that comes in many different forms as we've discussed, but this is part of it, right?

Creating, you know, uh inviting uh attractive entryway points that create a sense of place, but also help you know create and just an interactive environment as as folks come into our community.

I guess I'd say go forth.

Keep going on this move, move forward.

This is great.

And I don't think you know, sometimes that the sign needs necessarily be tied into it directly a place, but just the gateway to the city, like I see country club, it helps whatever.

Is a you know, um state highway 87 is on country club.

I use that access to go to downtown all the time.

That's how I go back and forth.

Um also, like you said, from the Phoenix area from off the freeway, the freeway and the B line, it is the access point to reach downtown, which we have significant investment and attention to.

So I think we have to make these little statements of being proud of our city and where you are and a sense of place, even though you might say, well, it's underdeveloped there.

And it can over time it will, but we have to I think say you're in Mesa, and we know you're going to great a great place.

Mr.

Adams, you haven't used all your questions up yet.

Well, this is probably my last one.

Thank you.

Um as I think about this, and this is good discussion.

I uh I assumed when I saw traffic volume here, and I think this is what you've done is you've looked at the traffic volume on these various arterials.

Um the the missing P, and I like data-driven decisions.

Uh makes sense to me.

The thing we don't know is of the traffic volume.

How many of those are people who live in Mesa and how many of those are people who don't live in Mesa?

We have no way of knowing that.

So without that knowledge, I I don't know what else we would use other than traffic volume.

Um this is an excellent point made about the 87.

But then I thought, well, if someone were coming into the valley into Mesa from Northern Arizona, they might choose to take Gilbert Road and cross the new bridge.

Or they might choose to come down to the country club if they're going to downtown.

So you can you can really drill down into the data a whole lot.

So uh maybe maybe showing us the traffic volume studies would be helpful when we get further into the weeds of this.

And um but but other than that, I don't know how you would make a uh an evaluation if everything else were equal, other than well, there's there's uh this much volume, and it's 10% more than this street and whatnot.

I think I'm not gonna complain that we have the country club sign, and then Mr.

Heredia's district is right around the corner on McKillop's.

I like that.

There it they both feed into District One, so thank you very much.

But whether that's the best choice, um, I don't know what else we do other than look at the data.

Um so I'm I I think this is good.

Um I remember uh quite a while ago there was discussion about uh entrance into our city from the West.

Uh those of you who remember Mayor Wayne Brown, he was not happy at all that the first thing you see when you come into Mesa is a is a wastewater treatment plant.

And it's it's been dressed up, it looks pretty good, but still that's the first thing you see.

So I think more that we can do to uh make entry into Mesa feel to people who either live here or don't, that we're coming into a classy place.

This is a place that's open for business, it's welcoming.

Um there's some consistency.

Uh I think it's good.

So I I'd like to see the let's drill down to the data on the traffic volumes if we could, maybe over over a period of time, two or three years of history to see if it's changing patterns.

I don't know.

Uh I can get really lost in data.

Okay.

Thank you.

Vice Mayor.

Yeah.

I think I think we used up all the words on this uh conversation.

So I'll just say I like the location for the D6 site.

Well, I'll just uh finish off that this is a good great baseline to start with our monuments coming into our city, and it's necessary.

I've heard people say, Well, I I don't even know if I'm in Mesa or not.

So having these at least a template on how to build them would be great.

I was just thinking as you were giving the discussion about designing them, you know, maybe using local architects, have a competition, issue design of school, um, maybe some other local ones here, and then uh when we talked about utilities and stuff, maybe considering solar inter uh integration into the monument, so you don't have to always have underground utilities.

You may have may have to in the future.

I don't know, but having a roughed in there for future on the but solar be great.

I know there'll be right-away issues and having to uh get those done.

And then I think we have a lot of uh in district one steel manufacturers and fabricators who do engineering and do a lot of maybe they would like to participate and build a nice still monument for district one.

But uh I mean there's a lot of uh opportunities here for uh building these, and then of course the P3 component will allow maybe putting in more monuments than just six, and you know, from Miss Goldforth on Power Road to Ellsworth Road is miles apart, and uh whether you take which route uh depends on your day of travel.

But and then other parts uh just moving forward and creating some great monuments.

And I like having the template there and and that creation uh creating uh great entryway into our districts and our city.

So with that, that's that's kind of all I have.

Um so can if there's nothing else, council, um great.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Sean, you were very talking while I thank you.

You will be seeing more of Sean, so we want to make sure he's up here.

And if my voice went out, he can cover for me.

All right, he had your backup.

He's invite you.

Okay, with that, uh, next is current events and conferences attended council members.

Who you'd like to share anything.

Well, Mayor, you and I were at Diamond Don's the other day for the grand opening.

Yeah, which is a um new eatery and music entertainment place, which is part of the Salt Mine Studio Oasis, which is at 42 South McDonald.

I'm so excited to see um this activation on South McDonald.

It's been a while since we've had um something new down there is kind of quiet.

So this is completing not only the activation on South McDonald's, driving people there, but now it's focused on nightlife and music and having and this Saturday they're having an open mic and with a surprise special guest that we all want to see.

I don't know who this is, but I'm gonna go and find out given that it's not raining, but no, I'll go anyway.

But um they have great um upscale casual food.

Uh they have a full bar, huge patio area, big stage for the the music and the bands.

I I encourage everybody to check it out.

I think they're gonna be open until 1 a.m.

So uh coupling those with you know what's going on with the Nile, their concerts, the Rosetta, the Alchemy, and we're having some later night entertainment that'll be going on in our city, so that rounds out that part of it that no, we don't close at nine or ten o'clock.

Um we have some of our bars who are open later now, but it's been a hard because you need that activity, you need you know activation and and some of these uh things going on.

So ice cream is open until one a.m.

Well, I there is a line.

Oh my gosh, ice cream uh does have a line at uh late at night.

So yes, I forgot to include them.

You don't always have to have music, you just need to have some ice cream too.

So um after hours is is coming to downtown, and we're glad they're part of it.

Great.

Over here, it's Julie.

I just wanted to ask um with this impending storm with celebrate Mesa or what what's the plan there?

You're uh previewing what I was gonna say, Councilmember.

Um, so we we do want to encourage everyone to keep an eye on our social media um pages and our and our we're we're gonna make a call in the coming days.

We're gonna see we we hate to cancel it too early and then the rain not happen, right?

We've all experienced that before when we've heard there's a hundred percent chance of rain, and then we get nothing.

But it it does seem that rain is imminent.

So we'll we'll assess the field conditions, um, try to understand the environment that we're going to be dealing with.

So if folks will just um you know um keep an eye on social media, we'll put it out through all of our channels um and and make sure that if a call is made to cancel that we do it as early as as possible to give people advanced notice and and so we'll be monitoring this over the next couple of days.

Good, thank you.

Uh Ms.

Goforth, anything you want to share?

Um sure.

I had the opportunity yesterday to speak to um Realty One group and provide them some information on what's happening around um the city of Mesa.

So I appreciate their invitation.

And then I had participated on a call um with several other council members from around the state um with Senator Kelly's office and advocating for cities and transportation funding um with the upcoming service transportation bill.

So appreciated that opportunity.

And then uh Mayor, you and I had a fun community meeting last night at uh one of my communities around Falcon Field and their concerns about um air traffic and things like that.

So I appreciate you coming.

I appreciate you, Julie sitting in as well.

So aviation is uh a hot topic right now with Falcon.

I was able to attend the Arizona Fall League and throw a couple of baseballs um, and I got across the plate, so that's good for me.

And uh in fact the other team says, hey, sign him up, and we'll put him in the pitch.

So they need a left-handed pitcher.

But um uh with that, I that's all I have.

Mr.

Smith, did you want to add anything to the I've gotta throw you?

You know, you sit there very asked Jim what he wants to say.

I just you know.

Do you really want to give Jim the mic?

Yeah, no.

Sometimes he wants, you know, he should give just 30 seconds.

But Mr.

Butler, why don't you share a future meetings?

Well, uh, thanks to um the council member, we were able to address celebrate Mesa.

So again, keep an eye out for that as we make a determination as we see how the storm develops.

And then uh next Thursday, you're off the hook.

You have a free morning.

We are canceling study session for next Thursday, October 16th.

So our next council meeting will be Monday the 20th.

But of course, since we are, as was evidenced this morning, just getting information to you on the agenda.

Don't be shy to reach out to staff over that over that interim, and we'll be glad to to brief you on any of the items that are on there, and of course, we'll have an opportunity to publicly discuss those on the 20th at the study session prior to the meeting as well.

So thank you, Mayor.

All right, thank you.

I'll entertain a motion to adjourn.

Thank you, Vice Mayor, Miss Billsbury.

All in favor say aye.

Aye.

We're adjourned.