A use permit proposed an interim surface parking lot for the 2-acre city block between First and Second streets and Polk and Taylor streets. The parking lot will exist for up to five years until ASU has the funds to build a new law school on the site, Board of Adjustment member Jeremy Legg said at the hearing in the City Council Chambers.
The motion was passed with the stipulation of a two-year evaluation on the property to make sure the “over 100 trees planted and 300 flowering plants” are being watered, according to the city’s plans for the lot. Emilio Gaynor was the only board member to not vote for approval.
Sean Sweat of the St. Croix Villas Homeowners Association opposed the construction of the parking lot and suggested instead that the city use half the land for a parking lot and the other half for a dog park.
An issue brought up at the hearing was that the city was “landbanking” the area for ASU’s future use in a law school when they do not have the funds to build it yet, Sweat’s attorney and former Board of Adjustment member Harry Keidan said. Legg said in his presentation that ASU supported the parking lot, but Keidan presented a letter to the board from Dr. James Rund, senior vice president of student initiatives at ASU, which said the university would remain neutral on the issue.
City zoning administrator Elizabeth DeMichael said the city’s position is to support the use permit because of ASU events that bring more people to the Downtown campus, which in turn helps create a more vibrant downtown.
“It is not the parking lot that will create increased traffic, it’s the activities that are so important for us to have in the downtown area,” DeMichael said. “It is those activities that we want to encourage.”
A 90,000-square-foot parking lot in the middle of the city is not needed and will reduce property values, which is why St. Croix Villas opposes the lot due to the investment residents made in their properties, Keidan said. The city already has an excess of some 14,000 parking spaces and the need for parking during those activities is already exceeded, Sweat said during his presentation.
The requirement for granting use permits, according to the City of Phoenix’s General Information for the Board of Adjustment Hearing Process packet, is that the use “will not cause a significant increase in vehicular or pedestrian traffic in adjacent residential areas; or emit odor, dust, gas, noise, vibration, smoke, heat or glare at a level exceeding that of ambient conditions…”
Those environmental conditions surrounding the parking lot were at the center of the debate. Sweat and Keidan argued that Phoenix doesn’t cool down at night because of the urban heat island effect caused by fresh asphalt in parking lots across the city.
“We feel that the parking lot has so many adverse consequences that it cannot possibly, rationally qualify for a use permit,” Keidan said. “But if half the property is a parking lot and half is a dog park, the green benefit of the dog park will offset the issues which are the standards for granting a use permit.”
Legg said the fact that this lot is temporary is just one reason why it won’t be hazardous or exceed ambient conditions in the area.
“This is not an industrial complex or giant smokestacks; today’s passenger vehicles do not emit smoke,” Legg said. “Those are the vehicles that will be using this lot, or the physical structure of this lot will not be emitting any smoke.”
The urban heat island effect, Sweat said, is one of the two main concerns he has with the parking lot in addition to the vehicle-pedestrian imbalance. Legg addressed that concern by emphasizing the city’s plans for extensive landscaping of the lot.
“This temporary parking lot will have more shade and landscaping this property has ever seen, in its current state, in its previous state or in any state before that,” Legg said in regard to Sweat’s comments about the urban heat island effect being perpetuated due to the lot’s amount of asphalt.
Sweat said he moved to downtown Phoenix from Chandler to live an area where he’s able to walk places and interact with people, adding that he wants to create awareness of a downtown area’s specific needs.
“People often don’t know what it takes to create an urban environment,” he said. “They think shade and tall buildings are all it needs, but really, you need to create walking areas because pedestrians don’t want to go two more blocks after walking half a mile.”
Sweat said half the battle is to educate those who don’t understand that, and said he plans to appeal the case with the Maricopa County Superior Court within the thirty-day limit after the board made its decision.
“We’re working on (the appeal),” Sweat said in an e-mail. “(The Board of Adjustments) did wrongly interpret the zoning rules, however, so we have a foot to stand on there – even if it’s not the foot I would like.”
Mayor Phil Gordon and Vice Mayor Michael Nowakowski announced in a press conference on Wednesday that they have created a dog park ad hoc committee to support raising funds to build and develop a dog park.
Contact the reporter at ssteffan@asu.edu
