The Road to Riches
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VOL 4 NO. 4 SEPTEMBER 2 0 0 4 The Road Building a City Beyondto Riches Expectations CITY COUNCIL 623.583.5899 Joan Shafer, Mayor Thomas Allen Danny Arismendez Dave Reuter Martha Bails Cliff Elkins Three months after Surprise11 began Joe Johnson offering live and videotape-delay coverage Gary “Doc” Sullivan of City Council meetings, the City’s gov- Communicationsernment access TV station Directoris preparing to expand its programming. CITY MANAGER Beginning Oct. 5, Surprise11 will broadcast the City’s us 623.583.1080 Planning and Zoning Commission meetings. The Commission Jim Rumpeltes meetings will air live at 6 p.m. on the first and third Tuesdays of each month. Commission meetings will also be aired on PLANNING & ZONING a tape-delayed basis for residents who are unable to view the COMMISSION meetings live. 623.583.1088 Surprise11 is a division of the City’s Communications Ken Senft, Chairman Department. Residents who subscribe to Cox Communications Janelle Blair cable TV services are able to view Surprise11 programming. Bob Gonzales Surprise11 airs a variety of programming in addition to meetings Daniel Morris of the Surprise City Council and the Surprise Planning and Zoning Commission. Schedule information is available on the City’s website, Randy Nachtigall surpriseaz.com, or by calling Surprise11 studios at 623.583.4840. Antonio Segarra Another addition to the City’s fall broadcast schedule will be the live cov- contact Skip Hall erage of City Council Work Sessions. The work sessions, which are usually conducted prior to regularly scheduled Council meetings, cover a variety of topics important to the Council. Agenda information and a schedule of Work Sessions are also available on the City’s website. WINNER! The City welcomes your interest and support of Surprise11. The station 3CMA Silver Circle is always interested in suggestions and comments about how it can better Award, 2004 serve residents. Please do not hesitate to call the station during normal business hours. 3CMA Silver Circle Award, 2003 3CMA Award of Excellence, 2002 Surprise Progress is published by the City of Surprise Communications Department and distributed 4 10 to all City residents via Paving the way for growth. Putting the brakes on Bell Road. mail. We hope you like our Some say Surprise’s economic future From Bridge repairs to rising accident format and content. We’d hinges on expansion of Loop 303 rates, there are plenty of reasons to slow from a two-lane road to six-lane free- down on Bell Road. like to hear from you about way with two additional HOV lanes. Surprise Progress. Please call or e-mail us. CITY OF SURPRISE Communications Department T: 623.583.4840 Dave Reuter 4 12 Communications Director Poking fun at pesky rumors. Planning to save lives. E: [email protected] The talk about a Six Flags in Surprise is The Fire Department is on a mission to simply amusing. make Surprise a “heart-friendly” City by placing AED units in all City-owned Cover Photo: Justin Warner, buildings and training employees to member of the Surprise use them. Economic Development Advisory Board. There won’t be any early voting CITY COUNCIL conducted at Surprise City Hall during this 7 p.m. Sept. 23, Oct. 14, year’s general elections but, starting Oct. Oct. 28, Nov. 10 5, Surprise voters can cast a ballot from City Hall, 12425 W. Bell Road Gilbert, Avondale and eight other satellite Info: 623.583.1098 polling locations across the Valley. City Clerk Sherry Aguilar explained that PLANNING & ZONING the City of Surprise is consolidating with COMMISSION the County elections scheduled Nov. 2. 6 p.m. on the first and third “We have to use their existing polling Tuesdays of the month locations which were pre-cleared by the City Hall Council Chambers Department of Justice months ago,” she 12425 W. Bell Road said. The upside is that voters can take 623.875.4332 advantage of the satellite locations but for early voting only. ARTS & CULTURAL ADVISORY BOARD Three of the satellite polling locations open 623.583.5899 Sept. 30 for early voting in the general election; the remainder on Oct. 5. All of ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT the locations will close on Oct. 29. All of ADVISORY BOARD the locations are open between 9 a.m. and 623.875.4273 4 p.m. and some have extended or some Saturday hours. FINANCE COMMITTEE november 2 tuesday vote 623.875.4258 THE FIRST THREE SATELLITE LOCATIONS TO OPEN ARE: PARKS AND RECREATION Maricopa County Elections Department Administration ADVISORY BOARD 111 S. Third Ave. in Phoenix PARKS AND RECREATION YOUTH ADVISORY BOARD Maricopa County Elections Department 623.266.4500 510 S. Third Ave. in Phoenix See page 14 SURPRISE REVITALIZATION Maricopa County Recorder’s Office ADVISORY BOARD for 222 E. Javelina Ave. in Mesa Surprise 623.815.5495 election results! The remainder include: TRANSPORTATION Avondale City Hall COMMITTEE 11465 W. Civic Center Drive, Suite 200 623.875.4246 10 Gilbert Town Hall SPECIAL NEEDS 50 E. Civic Center Drive COMMISSION 623.583.5899 Peoria City Hall 8401 W. Monroe St. P.O.R.A. 13815 Camino Del Sol in Sun City West Kids voting South Mountain Community Center 212 E. Alta Vista Road in Phoenix on-line starts Tempe Public Library Sept. 30 at 3500 W. Rural Road kidsvotingaz.org 12 schedule Via Linda Senior Center, 10440 E. Via Linda in Scottsdale The City of Surprise will have 15 polling locations open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Nov. 2. For a list of polling locations and for other election news, visit the City’s website, surpriseaz.com, and look under City Clerk’s Department, or call 623.583.1098.To request a ballot on-line or find out your polling location, call the Maricopa County Elections Department at 602.506.1511. | 3 meeting supriseaz.com have you heard? The road to SIX FLAGS IS COMING TO SURPRISE SURPRISE’S So has Phil Testa, direc- economic future tor of Surprise’s Community and Economic Development Department. And if Testa had may need a few more lanes. a dollar for every time he’s heard that…well, he wouldn’t In June, plans for a 4,200- acre development called Cactus need this job. Lane Ranch were presented to the “THERE’S ABSOLUTELY Surprise City Council. The mas- NO TRUTH TO THE RUMOR,” ter-planned development between he said. “I don’t see a big Peoria Avenue and Greenway Road includes low to medium density amusement park coming to homes built around a system of Surprise.” Testa said the Six lakes and interconnected trails, Now open: Loop 303 between 99th and Grand avenues. Flags story surfaced more but the featured attraction is the mixed-use portion that straddles Loop 303. That’s where an upscale regional mall, than 10 years ago when he power center and an auto complex are slated to go - provided the 303 goes from a was working as Director of two-lane rural road to a six-lane freeway, a general plan amendment is approved and Planning for the east valley the area is annexed into the City. The general plan amendment should come before the City Council in December city of Chandler. “Only then – if approved, annexation would follow. That leaves the final hurdle, the Loop 303 it was coming to Chandler expansion. “Obviously the 303 is a vital part of our project and anchor users of a or Gilbert.” regional mall are counting on the 303 coming to fruition. One of the primary Debbie Nauser, vice presi- criteria for the anchor tenants is the proximity of the 303 freeway,” said Scottsdale zoning attorney Paul Gilbert, who represents a group of investors including Westcor, dent of public relations for developers of Scottsdale Fashion Square, Arrowhead Towne Center and nearly every Six Flags, declined to com- Valley mall. “ ment on the rumor. “But I “Why would they put a mall on a two-lane road?” asked Justin Warner, an invest- ment counselor and member of the Surprise Economic Development Advisory Board can tell you this,” she said, who is pushing for passage of Proposition 400, a measure on the November ballot. “We’ve only built one park “Development will jump over us if we don’t have a clear transportation system. A lot from scratch and that was of our east/west corridors are shut down by pre-existing developments, and Avondale in Madrid, Spain three years and Goodyear have those corridors.” Phil Testa, Surprise’s Community and Economic Development director, agrees. ago. We buy existing parks “303 is critical for that mall to be successful because it creates the accessibility. and turn them into Six If we don’t get the 303 widened, I think Cactus Lane Ranch will still happen, but Flags parks.” projects like the regional mall, power center and perhaps the movie theaters may be delayed or moved to other locations.” If it’s any consolation, Proposition 400 would extend a half-cent transportation sales tax for another 20 98 percent of the United years to pay for a $15.8 billion regional transportation plan that includes freeway States lives within an eight- construction and expansion, improved arterial streets, expansion of the regional bus hour drive of a Six Flags. system and, for Phoenix, light-rail. In the West Valley, it would mean completion of Loop 303 as a freeway from Southern Avenue to Interstate 17, improvements to Surprise residents are only Grand Avenue, improvements to make Northern Avenue an east/west arterial from 401 miles, or six hours and Loop 303 to Grand Avenue, and new or enhanced bus service along segments of Bell 10 minutes, away from two Road, Grand Avenue, Dysart Road, Litchfield Road and Waddell/Thunderbird Road.