Generation Church grows/ P. 18
FREE SUBSCRIPTION
INSIDE
Council approves industrial park over school’s opposition BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer
NEWS..................... 8 Volunteers hit Mesa streets to count unsheltered people.
BUSINESS............ 22 Mom, daughter open special school for teens, young adults
Sunday, January 29, 2023
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | TheMesaTribune.com
An edition of the East Valley Tribune
T
he Mesa City Council approved a rezone that will allow 50 acres of vacant land inside a specialty health care district to be turned into industrial buildings available for a wider variety of uses. The specialty district just south of the U.S. 60 near Baseline and Recker roads was envisioned by city planners 20 years
ago as a hub for medicine, research and education. The developer of the Baseline Business Park, as the recently approved project is known, plans to construct eight buildings totalling 700,000-square-foot of industrial space on spec, meaning there are no tenants lined up yet. In a presentation by the developer’s representative, attorney Sean Lake, a slide included pharmaceutical and medical industries as likely tenants, but also “food
and grocery,” “apparel” and “general retail.” Those uses, particularly the last three, are not desirable for the district’s longtime anchor tenant, A.T. Still University, which has opposed the Baseline Business Park project for months. A.T. Still wants the land to remain earmarked for more complementary uses to the university, like more schools, clinics see
COUNCIL page 17
Squatters, off-roaders threaten Twin Knolls’ beauty BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer
R SPORTS................ 32 Toros head basketball coach Andy Johnson finds success. COMMUNITY .............................. 18 BUSINESS ................................... 22 OPINION ..................................... 29 SPORTS ...................................... 32 GET OUT ...................................... 34 CLASSIFIED ............................... 39 ZONE 1
esidents of an unincorporated county island just east of Mesa are trying to raise the alarm with Maricopa County officials that Twin Knolls, a privately owned series of hills rising above the surrounding neighborhood, is becoming a village for squatters, a dumping ground and a magnet for off-roading. In drone footage shot by residents this month, there were a dozen camps with mattresses, tents, chairs and piles of garbage among palo verde trees and creosote bushes along the base of the hills, which rise on the north side of Main Street just east of 80th Street. The camps are also visible from streets and see
TWIN KNOLLS page 6
Twin Knolls neighbors Nancy Damone, Jenifer Finkbeiner and Cathy Dreifort are distressed by a camp of squatters that have turned the north side of the area into a camp ground and a mini-dump. (David Minton/ Tribune Staff Photographer)
The latest breaking news and top local stories in Mesa!
www.TheMesaTribune.com
JUST A CLICK AWAY