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The dispute between Phoenix and Tempe over the proposed entertainment district and its possible impact on Sky Harbor Airport escalated ahead of several public meetings, including a community gathering scheduled for Saturday.
The proposed entertainment district on Priest Drive and Rio Salado Parkway will include the Arizona Coyotes Arena as well as residential units, retail and office space and other developments.
A community meeting on the project, organized by developer Bluebird Development, is scheduled for Saturday, October 15 at 11 am at the Hilton Canopy at 108 East University Avenue in Tempe.
Sky Harbor officials said they were not opposed to a professional hockey arena, but Phoenix did refuse to place the home “directly under a flight path designed to shield Tempe residents from aircraft noise.”
Phoenix leaders also said the inclusion of residential units as part of the project violated a longstanding intergovernmental agreement between the cities.
They reiterated their objections last week and sent thousands of emails to Tempe residents and others about the airport’s objections and the potential impact of the project, including housing units, on the area.
Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said mailing the letter was an “alarmist tactic.”
“This is not a game, and Tempe residents should not be used as pawns,” he said in a release. “No one should try to manipulate our community’s basic sense of security.
“As mayor, I call for this outrageous tactic, and hope it will not be repeated – that this important issue can be considered calmly and responsibly by all parties involved.”
Woods said Sky Harbor’s statement that multifamily housing in the proposed development would violate a 1994 agreement between the cities was “highly inaccurate.
“People interested in living in the proposed location will be well informed before making a decision — just as thousands of other Tempe Town Lake residents have chosen to live in areas with aircraft noise. In addition, they are proposing and in developments that were built without opposition from the airport.”
In addition to Saturday’s meeting, the Tempe Development Review Committee will discuss the project on Tuesday, November 15 at 6 p.m. in the Tempe City Council Chamber at 31 E. Fifth St.
These chambers will also host two Tempe City Council public hearings on Tuesday, November 22 and 29 at 6 p.m.
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