OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

Mesa City Council Study Session – February 5, 2026: Crime Statistics Review and Site Plan Amendment Direction

Council Study Sessions — Thursday, February 5, 2026
BodyMesa, Arizona
SessionCouncil Study Sessions
DateThursday, February 5, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 2:15:14

Transcript — Verbatim
0:02

Well, welcome everybody.

0:04

It's been a short morning already.

0:06

Welcome to the ASA City Council session for February 5th 2026.

0:11

Councilmember Adams is unable to attend, and he's excused.

0:14

Otherwise, uh Councilmember Vice Mayor Summers is participating by Zoom and all other council are present.

0:22

Vice Mayor, are you still on board?

0:26

I'm here.

0:27

Thank you.

0:28

Roger that.

0:30

Item one is to review the agenda we have for Monday, February 9th council meeting.

0:35

Council, let's go through that.

0:36

And if you have any questions, we have the appropriate staff here.

0:43

Mayor, I also just wanted to note you received an email from Holly yesterday explaining about due to the pending state law change dealing with the primary election date and the new permanent date for that.

0:56

We're gonna have to add an item to Monday's agenda that you'll see this afternoon that will change.

1:03

Well, Holly, do you want to just reconfirm exactly what we're doing on Monday?

1:07

It will be the resolution to call the primary election.

1:10

It was originally scheduled for August 4th, and it's potentially changing to July 21st.

1:16

Um the governor's expected to sign it next week, which will push everything back two weeks, which means our deadline to call the election moves up.

1:22

So we are pushing it from February 23rd agenda to February 9th.

1:26

So we wanted to go ahead and get in front of that.

1:38

And so we just want to avoid having to call a special council meeting so we could go ahead and take action on Monday to get ahead of that.

1:45

Did this happen uh before?

1:48

I mean, I think I remembered like two or four years ago this happened.

1:51

Yes, you may recall in 2024, it did happen to us as well.

1:55

It's always like a last minute rush.

1:57

And and what they're hoping, this will be a permanent change, and so they're hoping this doesn't have to happen again.

2:03

We'll see.

2:04

Yes, the bill this year does say that it will be permanent, which will be great.

2:08

All right.

2:09

Excellent.

2:10

Thank you.

2:13

I'm gonna start out one question.

2:15

4A is the Arizona Farms Road high pressure gas lines.

2:18

Scott, can give us an overview why we're investing in that purpose of it.

2:22

I know when you go from a four-inch line to a 12-inch uh line, uh the capacity greatly increased by uh same in the fire service.

2:32

We have the same thing with our fire hoses, but uh explain why this is uh happening for Mesa.

2:39

Excellent.

2:40

Good morning, Mayor Council.

2:41

Uh Scott Boucher, Energy and Sustainability Director here at City of Mesa.

2:45

And um, so yes, this pipeline, just first to give you an overview here are uh the two service areas that the city of Mesa has for natural gas.

2:54

So you've got our City of Mesa service territory.

2:57

Um you'll see that Southwest Gas does serve some of the city of Mesa.

3:01

Uh and then down to the southeast, we have our magma service territory.

3:05

Um as you can see, the magma service territory is very large.

3:09

It's almost it's uh more than twice the size of our City of Mesa area.

3:13

And currently we've got about 45,000 City of Mesa customers and 36,000 magma customers.

3:20

Um the magma service area is growing uh very fast.

3:24

We're adding about 2,000 customers per year, and that's been happening consistently for the past eight, 10 years that we've been adding uh 2,000-ish customers a year.

3:35

Uh and then we also have some very notable customers um that are like larger users.

3:40

One of them will be LG, which is a battery plant being built in Queen Creek.

3:45

They're getting ready to have first gas delivered to them the end of February, so the end of this month, they will start receiving gas from the city of Mesa and start um operating their equipment to produce batteries.

3:58

Um, and then also CMC Steel, which is um in the city of Mesa, but in the magma service territory.

4:05

So there's actually one square mile that is in the magma service territory but is in the city of Mesa City limits, and that's down where CMC is and a lot of other industrial customers.

4:16

Um the reason the the project that we have is we're going to abandon about four miles of pipe that was installed, uh, I believe in the 1960s.

4:26

We purchased the magma service territory in 1979, and one of the things that we found out, so we're audited every year for our natural gas system, and the ACC went through our records, and this piece of pipe, we did not have sufficient records that came over with the purchase to prove the pressure that that pipe could operate at.

4:48

So we've been operating at a lower pressure than what we would prefer to in order to get gas to all of those residential customers and then especially gas up to the north to our uh industrial customers.

5:00

So what we're doing is we and we committed with the ACC when they found that um deficiency in our records that we would, because it was part of our master plan anyways to replace that pipe because it is a smaller pipe, that four-inch pipe.

5:12

So they we committed to having that replaced.

5:16

Um it's part of our master plan and has been in there.

5:20

Now we did upsize that pipe a little bit as we were moving forward from an what was originally in our master plan of an eight-inch pipe to a 12-inch pipe, and that's because there is so much industrial development that we think will happen in the northern portion that we want to be able to serve um going forward.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Public Safety█████████████████████████████████████████41%
Zoning And Land Use█████████████████████████25%
Community Engagement██████6%
Transportation Safety█████5%
Procedural████4%
Energy Management████4%
Immigration Policy████4%
Budget Equity Analysis███3%
Governmental Procedures███3%
Summary of Proceedings

Mesa City Council Study Session – February 5, 2026

On February 5, 2026, the Mesa City Council held a study session to review the upcoming February 9 regular meeting agenda, receive an update on 2025 crime statistics from the Mesa Police Department, and discuss proposed text amendments to streamline administrative site plan approvals. Councilmember Adams was excused; Vice Mayor Summers participated via Zoom.

Discussion Items

  • Agenda Review (Item 1): Council reviewed the February 9 meeting agenda. Key items included:

    • A resolution to call the primary election on an expedited schedule due to a pending state law change moving the primary date from August 4 to July 21. The deadline to call the election was moved from February 23 to February 9.
    • 4A – Arizona Farms Road High-Pressure Gas Lines: Scott Boucher, Energy and Sustainability Director, explained that the project will replace about four miles of 4-inch pipe (installed in the 1960s, without sufficient pressure records) with a 12-inch line. This is needed to serve rapid growth in the Magma service territory (36,000 customers, adding ~2,000 per year) and major industrial customers like LG battery plant (first gas end of February) and CMC Steel. The project is funded through capital programs repaid by Magma utility rates.
    • 5A – Highway Safety Contracts: Vice Mayor Summers asked about potential grants for e-bike safety education and enforcement. Police staff agreed to research and report back.
    • 5B – Freeway Landmark Monument Signs: Clarified that this is for on-site signage, not billboards like the previously discussed MCC corridor.
    • 7A – Lincoln Development: Councilmember Taylor discussed landscaping quality with developer Ray Brennan, who indicated such details would be addressed through the design review process.
    • Non-Residential Rate Changes: Brian Retchell, OMB Director, confirmed that the proposed rate adjustments (e.g., from 19% to 25% for some categories) are the second phase of the notice of intent process. No public feedback had been received.
    • 6A – Sun Devil Auto: Noted as a separate zoning case from the site plan text amendments.

  • Crime Statistics Presentation (Item 2A): Chief Dan Butler and Assistant Chief Nesbitt presented 2025 crime data.

    • Violent crime decreased 14% compared to 2024, with robberies down 14% and aggravated assaults dropping for the first time in five years. Homicides increased slightly but remained within historic norms; 2024 had a 100% clearance rate, with 2025 approaching 90% (national average ~50%).
    • Calls for service increased 5% (population growth), but proactive (officer-initiated) contacts rose 18% (60% since 2021), reflecting a shift to proactive policing. Shots fired calls fell 17%; armed robberies down 36%; subjects with gun down 20%. Juvenile disturbing calls rose 11%.
    • Motor vehicle crimes: Stolen vehicles down 17% from 2023 peak; vehicle burglaries and thefts of parts down >50% and 70% since 2021. Emerging trend: thefts of e-bikes and motorized scooters.
    • Traffic collisions increased moderately (national trend). Fatalities remained lower than 2022-2023. Combined citations and warnings rose 20% due to increased enforcement. Six additional traffic officers were added in January.
    • DUI arrests up 8% (2,200 in 2025); weapons violations and prohibited possessor arrests up 18% (2,036), indicating proactive gun interdiction.
    • Human trafficking offenses increased from 33 to 61 (85% increase) due to targeted investigations. Vandalism down 15%.
    • Light rail incidents: 1,500 incidents at stops in 2025 (50% police-initiated) with 1.8 million rides, equating to a 0.08% crime involvement rate. Most common offense: drug paraphernalia.
    • Mesa is the safest major U.S. city (population 500,000–650,000) based on 2024 FBI UCR data and preliminary 2025 data from the Major City Chiefs Association.
    • Chief Butler addressed community trust issues: The Mesa Police Department does not enforce federal immigration law, follows state law (ARS 11-1051) only after arrest for a state crime, and does not ask immigration status in the field. Councilmember Duff emphasized differentiation between Mesa PD and federal agents.

  • Site Plan Administrative Review Text Amendments (Item 2B): Mary Kopas, assistant planning director, and Kirsten Dvorak presented proposed changes to separate legislative from administrative site plan modifications.

    • Current process: Council approves rezoning with a site plan stipulation. Modifications exceeding 10% or 5,000 sq ft cumulative gross floor area (GFA) are considered major and require council approval.
    • Under the proposal, a two-pronged test determines if a modification returns to council: (1) significant site plan change (e.g., >15% GFA increase/reduction, adding drive-thru, increasing traffic); and (2) change of use. Only if both are “yes” does it come back. Staff recommended 15% as the threshold for significant change.
    • Councilmember Go Forth argued that site plans are integral to rezoning decisions and that a lower threshold (10%) best maintains community trust. She opposed removing the requirement for change of use prong. She suggested keeping 10% and eliminating the 5,000 sq ft trigger.
    • Vice Mayor Summers supported an iterative approach, starting with 10%. Councilmember Taylor questioned the link between site plan modifications and zoning changes and sought clarity that tenant improvements not requiring site plan changes are unaffected.
    • Staff clarified that the 10% threshold (without the 5,000 sq ft cap) would provide additional flexibility while preserving council’s legislative role.
    • City Attorney Jim Smith noted that the city has prevailed in a prior lawsuit affirming that modifying a site plan stipulation is a legislative act. The proposal aims to meet state requirements (HB 2447) while striking a balance between streamlining and council oversight.
    • Council directed staff to proceed with the 10% threshold (removing the 5,000 sq ft trigger) and continue working with the development community on the remaining technical details.

Key Outcomes

  • Board Minutes (Item 3): Motion by Councilmember Taylor, seconded by Councilmember Duff, to acknowledge receipt. Passed unanimously.
  • Direction on Site Plan Amendments: Council directed staff to use a 10% GFA threshold (instead of 15%) as the “significant change” criterion, and to remove the 5,000 sq ft trigger, for the two-pronged test. Staff will refine the text amendment and return for adoption.
  • E-bike Safety Grant: Police department will explore applying for state grants to fund e-bike safety education and enforcement.
  • **No formal actions taken on agenda review items; they will be considered at the February 9 regular meeting.
  • **The next council meeting is scheduled for Monday, February 9, 2026, with a study session at 5:00 p.m. and a regular meeting at 5:45 p.m., including a presentation on AI.

Summary generated from transcript of the Mesa City Council study session on February 5, 2026.

Meeting Transcript

Well, welcome everybody. It's been a short morning already. Welcome to the ASA City Council session for February 5th 2026. Councilmember Adams is unable to attend, and he's excused. Otherwise, uh Councilmember Vice Mayor Summers is participating by Zoom and all other council are present. Vice Mayor, are you still on board? I'm here. Thank you. Roger that. Item one is to review the agenda we have for Monday, February 9th council meeting. Council, let's go through that. And if you have any questions, we have the appropriate staff here. Mayor, I also just wanted to note you received an email from Holly yesterday explaining about due to the pending state law change dealing with the primary election date and the new permanent date for that. We're gonna have to add an item to Monday's agenda that you'll see this afternoon that will change. Well, Holly, do you want to just reconfirm exactly what we're doing on Monday? It will be the resolution to call the primary election. It was originally scheduled for August 4th, and it's potentially changing to July 21st. Um the governor's expected to sign it next week, which will push everything back two weeks, which means our deadline to call the election moves up. So we are pushing it from February 23rd agenda to February 9th. So we wanted to go ahead and get in front of that. And so we just want to avoid having to call a special council meeting so we could go ahead and take action on Monday to get ahead of that. Did this happen uh before? I mean, I think I remembered like two or four years ago this happened. Yes, you may recall in 2024, it did happen to us as well. It's always like a last minute rush. And and what they're hoping, this will be a permanent change, and so they're hoping this doesn't have to happen again. We'll see. Yes, the bill this year does say that it will be permanent, which will be great. All right. Excellent. Thank you. I'm gonna start out one question. 4A is the Arizona Farms Road high pressure gas lines. Scott, can give us an overview why we're investing in that purpose of it. I know when you go from a four-inch line to a 12-inch uh line, uh the capacity greatly increased by uh same in the fire service. We have the same thing with our fire hoses, but uh explain why this is uh happening for Mesa. Excellent. Good morning, Mayor Council. Uh Scott Boucher, Energy and Sustainability Director here at City of Mesa. And um, so yes, this pipeline, just first to give you an overview here are uh the two service areas that the city of Mesa has for natural gas. So you've got our City of Mesa service territory. Um you'll see that Southwest Gas does serve some of the city of Mesa. Uh and then down to the southeast, we have our magma service territory. Um as you can see, the magma service territory is very large. It's almost it's uh more than twice the size of our City of Mesa area. And currently we've got about 45,000 City of Mesa customers and 36,000 magma customers. Um the magma service area is growing uh very fast. We're adding about 2,000 customers per year, and that's been happening consistently for the past eight, 10 years that we've been adding uh 2,000-ish customers a year. Uh and then we also have some very notable customers um that are like larger users. One of them will be LG, which is a battery plant being built in Queen Creek.

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