2022 a year of change here
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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
Sunday, December 25, 2022
Inside today
668 apartments, 135 townhomes proposed near downtown COMMUNITY............. 15 Cowboy preacher tailors Biblical message for horse country.
BUSINESS...................18 Gilbert businesses rate town high, with caveats.
BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
A
developer is proposing to build 135 townhomes, five-story buildings with a total 668 apartments and ancillary commercial projects on 27.67 acres near the southeast corner of Neely Street and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks in Gilbert. Missouri-based Keeley Properties will first need to get the town’s approval for a General
Doherty Award Luncheon honors Gilbert gridiron stars. COMMUNITY..............................15 BUSINESS................................... 18 OPINION..................................... 22 SPORTS.......................................24 GETOUT......................................26 CLASSIFIEDS............................. 33
B
rittany Montoya was 13 when she landed in the state foster care system. It was the month of October, she recalled. “My biological mother, she married a man from another country and he was the one who was abusive and she just let him,” the Gilbert mom of two sons said. “I was taken away from home because of him. Thanks to him I was put into foster care, put into a group home.”
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see general industrial zoning except in areas located away from residential communities. He told residents that if they saw what was allowed under this zoning category, they would be concerned with what could be there in the future. According to the town, general industrial uses cover activities such as manufacturing, food and materials processing and packaging, warehousing and storage,
see NEELY page 6
Gilbert mom’s blanket drive helps forgotten kids BY CECILIA CHAN GSN Managing Editor
SPORTS...................... 24
Plan amendment and a rezone of the land use from general industrial. Foxworth-Galbraith Lumber Is selling the property and relocating. “General industrial zoning is your most intensive zoning in the Town of Gilbert,” land-use attorney Adam Baugh said at a neighborhood meeting Dec. 14. About 30 residents, mostly from the Neely Ranch community, attended. Baugh said a lot of development these days is light industrial and that it’s rare to
Adding to her trauma, Montoya said, was the fact she was uprooted and moved into a different group home every 30 days. At her third group home she was taken out just a few days before Christmas by a couple who eventually adopted her and gave her a loving home. To this day, Montoya hasn’t forgotten what it was like for her. “I personally know how bad it is,” she said. “A lot of people think when you are in foster care at least
see BLANKET page 9
Brittany Montoya of Gilbert remembers her teen years in foster care and to help other foster kids, she has been collecting blankets for them. By mid-week last week, she had 413.(David Minton/GSN Staff )
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