A group of citizens in Fountain Hills, AZ, calling themselves the “Logical Land Use Committee” has formed around a referendum issue challenging the Town Council’s vote five months ago to rezone 39 acres of land in town from industrial to commercial to pave the way for a mall reportedly to be anchored by a 124,000 s.f. Target store. In May, 1999, the town’s Planning & Zoning Committee voted 5-2 against changing the zoning in the town’s General Plan. But a week later, the Town Council reversed that vote by a 4-3 margin. One day after the Council vote, the Logical Land Use Committee filed papers for a referendum. The citizens needed 365 signatures to place the issue on the ballot, but gathered 1,137 names. The original business park/industrial zoning was meant to stimulate “quiet, attractive and well-designed” developments, with “very little truck traffic”. Instead, the rezoning could lead to a huge windowless box and a parking lot holding 1,280 cars. The developer, the Barcley group, has been spending significant money to influence the outcome of the vote, arguing that a Target means convenience for the community. The vote is slated to take place November 2, 1999, and residents report that “it is very hard to fight these big business organizations with very little money”. For further details about this Target battle, contact the LLUC website: www.doitnow.com/
ltarr/lluc.htm. To offer your opinion to the Town Council on the Target malling of Fountain Hills, email Mayor Sharon Morgan to prevent the community from being “Target-ed”. The Mayor’s email is: [email protected]
