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Pumpkins and pigs/ P. 13
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An edition of the East Valley Tribune
VOTING ENDS SEPT. 29TH
Sunday, September 25, 2022
FREE ($1 OUTSIDE THE EAST VALLEY) | TheMesaTribune.com
$80M farm sale heralds new epicenter of growth BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer
THEMESATRIBUNE.COM
INSIDE VOTING ENDS SEPT. 29TH BUSINESS............ 22 Mekong Plaza shop offers rare teas, herbs.
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GET OUT.............. 28
VOTING ENDS SEPT. 29TH
Where to get your Oktoberfest on.
COMMUNITY .............................. 21 BUSINESS ................................... 22 OPINION ..................................... 24 SPORTS ...................................... 26 GET OUT ...................................... 28 CLASSIFIED ............................... 36 ZONE 2
CHANDLERNEWS.COM
T
he Arizona Dairy Co. earlier this month sold its last 270 acres in Mesa on the southwest corner of Sossaman and Elliot roads for $80 million, paving the way for a mammoth manufacturing campus projected by the new owner. Shopoff Realty Investments said in a news release after the sale that it is planning 12 to 15 buildings comprising 4.1 million square feet of leasable space. The parcel is an island of county land within city limits and Shopoff said it
Arizona Dairy owner and general manager Justin Stewart this month inked an $80 million sale of the last
see DAIRY page 16 piece of Mesa land from his Arizona Dairy Company, which he relocated to Gila Bend. (Facebook)
Developers not lovin’ Mesa’s drive-thru proposals BY SCOTT SHUMAKER Tribune Staff Writer
T
he commercial development community is not lovin’ Mesa Planning Divison’s proposed changes to the zoning rules for drive-thru restaurants, and they’d rather have them their way. Roughly 60 people logged in for an online community meeting on Sept. 21 to discuss the proposed new rules, which are aimed at preventing clustering of drive-thru restaurants and giving resi-
dents opportunities to weigh in when the fast food eateries are proposed near their homes. Virtually all the attendees who asked questions or made comments were involved in the restaurant industry – as property managers, developers or franchisees – and all had concerns about the proposed changes to drive thru zoning rules. They worried that restrictions could make some commercial properties harder to develop and keep some franchises
from moving to Mesa. Some properties, if they couldn’t house a drive thru, might stay empty or find a less desirable tenant, like a check cashing business, they said. They emphasized the importance of drive thrus to the quick service restaurant industry even as the pandemic has waned and the quick-service landscape and consumer patterns have shifted. They told the city staff in the meeting
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see DRIVE THRU page 10