Gilbert Town Council took up two heated issues from last fall, but the status quo did not change at council’s Feb. 21 meeting.
New council members Jim Torgeson, Chuck Bongiovanni and Bobbi Buchli banded together to place an anti-rail ordinance on the agenda as well as a discussion about the Ocotillo Road widening project.
The rail ordinance, originally proposed last August by former Vice Mayor Aimee Yentes, would have prevented the town from spending money or using any town resources to further light or commuter rail, but it failed on a 4-3 vote. Yentes, who did not run for re-election, was among the residents who spoke in support of the ordinance.
Mayor Brigette Peterson and Council Member Yung Koprowski argued that, as written, the ordinance would prohibit anyone from council or staff from discussing plans for how rail would affect the town, even if the town opposed such a plan.
Peterson urged council members to table the item so that it could be reworked into something that would address those concerns and that more council members could support. Bongiovanni, however, called for the question immediately, with Torgeson seconding, and the ordinance failed with Bongiovanni, Torgeson and Buchli voting in support of it.
The trio also put the widening of Ocotillo Road on the agenda. The long-planned project calls for the street to be widened to minor arterial standards with a 65-foot right of way between Greenfield Road and 148th Street. Residents along that stretch, many of whom are technically on Maricopa County island land, are fighting to keep the right of way to 55 feet so as not to encumber on their front yards as much.
However, the three new council members told residents at the meeting they had learned they could not reverse the previous council’s action and expressed dismay at not being able to help them.
Three residents spoke at the meeting. One, Rich Robertson, presented a document he said was staff produced last fall that rated each of the residents on a 1-4 scale for “vocal level” in their opposition to the project.
Peterson joined the new council members in condemning such an exercise but noted that there was no action that could be taken on the project.
In other items at the meeting, council voted unanimously to raise wastewater rates and the environmental compliance fees. The wastewater rate will go up $8.02 monthly to each customer while the environmental compliance fee, which mostly pays for stormwater infrastructure, will go up $2.51.
Additionally, rates for nonresidential reclaimed water users also will go up, depending on services use and volume of usage.
Council also voted unanimously to table a major general-plan amendment and zoning change to accommodate The Ranch light-industrial development on Power Road between Warner and Elliot. The developer requested tabling the matter as it continues to work with Morrison Ranch residents on modifications to the development that would make it palatable for neighbors.
Tom Blodgett Senior News Editor | Gilbert @sp_blodgett
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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