They did 2401 Washington Avenue, the Exile Theater at 13th and Reed.
They do really high quality work, and we strongly support this.
I also want to make somebody make a comment.
Sorry, we appreciate your comments, but I have several other people who want to get on now.
And I think, but thank you very much.
We appreciate it.
Next hand, please.
Marie Spencer, who has been allowed to speak.
Good morning.
Could you please state your name and spell it for the court stenographer?
Marie, M-U-R-R-A-Y, Spencer, S-P-E-N-C-E-R.
I hope you can hear me.
No, I can.
Do you swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Are you a neighbor, Mr. Spencer?
I am the chair of the SACSA zoning committee, and I'm also on the architectural review committee with Richard, who just spoke.
So I guess the question I have for you is, are you for this project or against?
Right. Again, I'll be brief. We are. I'm supporting this project. Yes.
On behalf of the South Arizona committee and the architecture committee.
Thank you very much, sir. We appreciate you taking the time. Next hand, please.
Tony Marino has been allowed to speak.
Could you please state your name and spell for the court sonographer?
tony marino t-o-n-y-m-a-r-i-n-o you swear affirm to tell the truth the whole truth nothing but the
truth i do i do are you a neighbor yes and also a business owner okay um are you for this project
or against this project sir against okay um we've we've had a lot of comments relative to
the person who testified before why, is there anything different that you can offer?
Yes, especially parking. I'm on Alter Street.
Okay. All right. All right. Well, thank you very much. We appreciate you taking the time.
Next hand, please.
Nicholas Feely has been allowed to speak.
I could please state your name and spell for the court stenographer.
Oh, yes. It's Nicholas Feely, N-I-C-H-O-L-A-S, and then Feely, F as in Frank, E-A-L-E-Y.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Sir, are you a neighbor?
Okay. Are you in favor of this project or against?
I'm in favor of it.
We've had a lot of testimony about why this is an interesting project for people.
Is there anything different you can offer?
Yes, I just have one thing that's different.
Two things are different.
I'm the chair of the Vision Zero Strong Towns Committee.
And I just want to say like mixed use buildings, you know, make our cities more financially resilient and reduce long term liabilities.
And they produce economic activity and jobs.
I'm also agree with everything said previously with Richard and Murray.
and I also
were in favor of it having like bike parking
as well
thank you very much
for taking the time we appreciate it
next hand
chair I now have four more hands up
phone number ending in 065
calling user has been allowed to speak
could you please state your name
and spell for the court stenographer
Tiffany Green concerned citizens of Point Breast
you swear
or a firm to tell the truth, the whole truth,
nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Hold on, hold on, hold on.
Are you for this project or against?
We're in opposition
against the project, okay?
We've had a lot of testimony already.
Is there anything you could tell me differently?
Yes, I would like to, on behalf of
the residents that live on this
side, make the case for them.
They don't have a lawyer, and I'm just asking for
a little extra time
so that we can make the case,
because we're the RCO on this side, okay?
First of all, I want to say that the coordinating RCO that held the meeting held the meeting on Juneteenth, which is a black holiday.
First of all, I want to say that the coordinating RCO that held the...
And if you look at their letter, they have no nearby neighbors that came to that meeting.
And so as a result, our group decided to go out and do the petition where I went out myself and two other people because we felt strongly about this.
And so we, as you see on our petition, most of the people live between the 1,400 block and the 1,600 block of Ellsworth Street.
These are long-term residents, majority African Americans, who live right behind Washington Avenue, okay?
And I'm just going to take from my letter.
I want to just add in, because I think this needs to be on the record in case it goes further, that the resident's position was to keep it commercial.
This is what we feel on our side.
Washington Avenue has been a business corridor for over close to 80, 100 years, okay?
It is a snow route emergency.
It is also a route where truckers, trailers, and delivery trucks connect from I-95 to 76, and so they've been used on this.
What has happened is that the Planning Commission in 2012 split Washington Avenues down the middle and put on the other side, the north side and south side, I believe, intentionally,
where they allow Sajna to control the other side
and point freeze on this side.
Now, Sajna has put many buildings on,
and they never invited a lot of the black-led RCOs to their meetings.
So, Tiffany, listen to me.
This is not about somebody else.
Tell me what you think about this project.
I'm telling you what we're thinking.
I'm telling you what the situation is.
I don't want you to have to tell me what Sajna's doing wrong.
I want to know where you are with this.
I'm telling you what Sajna is doing wrong.
them to speak. Wait a minute. We're saying
that we have buildings at 25th Street.
You allow the lawyer
to say that they have all these wonderful
buildings there. I'm saying to you, Chair,
allow us to say that they have those buildings
and we had no say on it. For them
to come on today and want to push this
is not right. The multifamily
buildings at 25th Street, 24th
Street, and your zoning committee
may not be aware of this information.
22nd Street, 21st
Street, 18th Street. I'm concentrating on this.
Tiffany, listen. I'm concentrating.
You know, we have over 2,200 units on the north side of Washington Avenue.
So when he came, when this developer came with 50, we said to him, this is not really making a dent.
A lot of the apartments are still vacant on the other side.
Can you try and do something for us on this side and maintain it?
On our side is all commercial from 25th Street to 15th Street.
Recently, we got in Habitat for a Manu Resale business.
We have a storage.
We have a new pet hospital. We have restaurants on this side and soon to come a gym at 19th and Washington Avenue as well.
They have a bakery there. And then they're going to also have more professional offices.
Now, with this particular project, he could he could do because there's no hardship here.
This is self-imposed. And as you know, variances does not include economic hardship, does not make right for a variance.
So, therefore, we have proposed what they have, what Bach School,
vocation school was turned into when a young lady purchased it.
She has what they call a little small marketplace with little unique
businesses, boutiques, and everything.
They even won an award for Le Bach Fin, the restaurant on top of the roof.
Okay, so we were saying that would be great because you have 2,200 apartments.
That's a walking crowd.
They would love to come in and do boutique-ish type of things,
and this is something that he could do.
Or he could do an office building with specialty, like cardiologists.
But Tiffany, Tiffany, Tiffany, Tiffany, listen to me.
Listen to me, Tiffany.
No, I hear what he should do, but this is what he wants to do.
And the question for us is the variance.
Are you against this variance?
Tiffany?
You can press star nine to unmute yourself.
Unmute, please, Tiffany.
We are, okay, what I'm saying, we are against this project, but I think that if we should be given the time to make the point that they, Tiffany, I hear everything you said.
I understand your points, and we're going to move on to the next person.
Next hand, please.
Morgan Rodriguez has been allowed to speak.
Good morning.
Could you please state your name as spelled for the court stenographer?
Hello, Morgan Rodriguez, M-O-R-G-A-N-R-O-D-R-I-G-U-E-Z.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?
Yes, I do.
Are you a neighbor?
Yes, I am.
Are you for or against this project?
I am for this project.
You've heard a lot of testimony already.
Is there anything different you can offer?
Yes. And just as a note, I am joining this as a neighbor, and also I am the current chairperson of the South of South Neighborhood Association.
And just as a note, I am joining this as a neighbor.
We've had several people testify already from your organization.
Yep, I have a different comment to make, and I did want to clarify a comment that was made earlier in regards to our board about the owner and developer of this.
Okay, just concentrate on this building, please.
Okay. He is not part of our board, though. But that being said, Washington Avenue on the west side of Broad Street has been zoned solely for industrial use for as long as that has existed. And that zoning classification no longer has a place on the street in the current world. And the rezoning of Washington Avenue is long overdue. And we welcome mixed use development along Washington Avenue on the west side, which will bring more residents and jobs to the area.
Thank you very much for taking the time to cause. How many more hands do you have?
I have one more hand here.
Thank you.
Tony Marino, you're not allowed to speak.
Didn't he testify already, didn't he?
Hi, my name is, excuse me.
My name is Rosa Marino.
I'm co-owner of the business that is.
Could you spell your name, please, for the court stenographer?
It's R-O-S-A-M-A-R-I-N-O.
You swear or affirm to tell the truth, the whole truth, nothing but the truth.
Yes. Please proceed. Okay. Now, here's the point. You know, your husband testified before. Is there anything different you can offer about this project? And I'm sure you're going to be against it. Am I right?
Yeah, more particularly because of the serious concern of the parking and the traffic and the parking and the impingement on Alter Street during and after the construction of this building.
As you know, Altar Street is extremely narrow street, very narrow. And how is that going to be impinged upon by the construction of this huge building? And then further on, parking spaces will be taken away on the 16th Street side.
you said you want to make it more pedestrian friendly there are many businesses that uh
affront altar street how will that affect the traffic now and for the business that you know
our own altar street this is marina thank you very much for taking the time to call us we
appreciate it planning commission
amy board mr chair may i make up go ahead you can go ahead no no you should you should if you
have a comment make your comment before the planning committee i just i just wanted to
make the board aware that um when the community meeting was scheduled on juneteenth we recognized
that it was scheduled on a holiday and we asked the uh rcos if they wanted to reschedule that
and that the meeting was not scheduled by us.
I just wanted to point that out.
And thank you.
Thank you very much.
Planning Commission.
Amy Boyd with the Planning Commission.
This property completed its Civic Design Review in July 2024.