Subject: Residents design life along light rail Date: Wednesday, February 01, 2006 7:44 PM Residents design life along light rail Jim Walsh The Arizona Republic Feb. 1, 2006 12:00 AM Residents peered into the future Thursday night, imagining a west Mesa transformed by the Metro light-rail line as they dabbled in architecture. About 70 residents broke up into five teams and used white foam blocks and models to design an affordable housing development, with one extreme example 16 stories tall. "I think we have to accept the rail is coming in," said Margie Schlechty, 47, a Pepper Place resident for 22 years who peppered architect Michael Pyatok of Arizona State University with numerous questions. "It has to be. There has to be change. I just don't like the sky rise." Wendy McAtee, 25, who held her son, Devin, 8 months, in her arms, said she was more comfortable with transit-oriented development after attending the two-hour exercise that was held at the East Valley Institute of Technology. The exercise, known as a charette, French for "small cart," has been popularized by a Paris design school as a way to get communities involved in city planning. "I definitely left here more optimistic. I came here more pessimistic," she said. "We already know that Sun Pontiac is moving. I'd rather have a development than an abandoned building." Actually, Sun Pontiac is already gone. Owner Art Piccinati now rents the longtime dealership at Main Street and Sycamore to Henry Brown Pontiac, Buick and GMC. Brown has plans to move his dealership to the San Tan Motorplex in Gilbert, but Piccinati said he has an option to rent the property an additional four years. Regardless, Piccinati participated enthusiastically in the planning session. He is allowing his property to serve as a test case but has not made a commitment to sell it. "The exciting thing is to change the whole nature of west Mesa and bring it up to the 21st century," Piccinati said. "A project like this could provide the nexus for other development." The light-rail line will run south on 19th Avenue from Bethany Home Road in Phoenix, then east on Camelback Road, south on Central Avenue to downtown Phoenix and then east past Sky Harbor International Airport, across Tempe Town Lake and through Tempe to Mesa, where it will run one mile into the city on Main Street. Preliminary construction work on Main and the Mesa-Tempe boundary started this month. The exercise's purpose was to have residents plan a development from the ground up, with the help of Pyatok's Stardust Center for Affordable Homes and the Family. The conclusions were obvious. High rises are out. Residents prefer something on the order of 50 units per acre, or 200 units on the 4-acre site. "This is another voice saying, 'too high is too much," Pyatok said, as some residents panned a 300- to 350-unit model. Groups of eight to 10 residents, including one table of Spanish speakers, spent about an hour building models ranging from 50 to 100 units per acre. At minimum, the models were more reminiscent of San Francisco than Mesa. The high-rise jokingly was referred to as the "Manhattan" model. Teams cut out such cardboard amenities as pools, tennis courts, basketball courts and jogging track. They planned courtyards that would separate senior-citizen units from family units. Each model was plugged into a larger model of the area. All featured a green buffer zone between the development and nearby homes. A team spokesperson then described the model and received feedback from other participants. "It's a group effort. There's a lot of different ideas," said Susan Scoon principal of the East Valley Academy, one of the participants. Schlechty and other residents noted the lack of park space in the area. She said nearest city park was Riverview. Schlecthy asked if Pepper Place residents could use pools or playgrounds at the new development. "I'd say that's negotiable," quipped Dave Richins, executive director of the West Mesa Community Development Corporation.