Gilbert land purchase will go to stormwater management, not apartments
Independent Newsmedia/Arianna Grainey
Gilbert is preparing to make Vaughn Avenue an access point from the west to and from the Heritage District. (Special for Independent Newsmedia/Arianna Grainey)
The town of Gilbert acquired last month land zoned for apartments and will use it for stormwater management.
The town acquired the property Dec. 6 for $17.8 million from an entity tracing to Foxworth-Galbraith Lumber Co., according to commercial real-estate website vizzda.com. The land was zoned for multifamily-high density housing.
The land purchase is related to the management of stormwater needs in and around the Heritage District, according to the town. The land is near Elliot and Cooper roads.
For construction timing and efficiency, Gilbert has incorporated the relocation of the Vaughn Avenue Basin into the Vaughn Ventilator road capital improvement project, according to officials. The Vaughn Ventilator is meant to give road access from the west into the Heritage District.
Portions of the Heritage District and surrounding area are in a floodplain, creating stormwater management needs in the district.
In examining the stormwater needs for the Heritage District, acquiring the Foxworth Galbraith Lumber Co. site in the long-range planning area, as identified in the 2018 Heritage District Redevelopment Plan, allows the town to meet its standard of a 50-year, 24-hour storm event protection level, officials said.
A 50-year, 24-hour storm event protection is a design standard for flood protection that is intended to withstand a rainfall event with a 2% chance of occurring in any given year.
The acquisition of the 17.37 acres creates a comprehensive solution for stormwater management to protect public health, provides future development opportunities in the Heritage District by relocating a well site and supports the direction and vision of the 2018 Heritage District Redevelopment Plan, officials said.
However, Foxworth-Galbraith concurrently sold the adjacent 9.25 acres Dec. 6 to an entity tracing to Keeley Properties for $6.44 million, according to vizzda.com. That land is proposed for a 285-unit multifamily residential project, “The Lumberyard,” in one three-story building and two four-story buildings.
We would like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Tom Blodgett can be reached by email at tblodgett@iniusa.org or follow him @sp_blodgett on X.
Meet Tom Tom Blodgett joined Independent Newsmedia, Inc., USA, in 2022, when the company acquired Community Impact Newspaper's Phoenix-area properties. Raised in Arizona, he has spent more than 35 years in journalism in the state.
Community: He has served as an instructional professional in the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication since 2005, and is editorial adviser to The State Press, the university's independent student media outlet. He also is director of operations for an 18U girls fastpitch softball team from Gilbert.
Education: Arizona State University with a BS in Journalism.
Random Fact: He lived in Belgium during his freshman year of high school.
Hobbies: Tweeting enthusiastically about ASU softball (season-ticket holder) and grumpily about other local sports (pessimistic fan).
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