[ASU Diablo]

Is The Fillmore Phoenix's version of The Pier?

https://downtowndevil.com/2019/02/27...enue-fillmore/

The city of Phoenix officially abandoned an alleyway at a Tuesday morning City Hall Hearing, but only with the stipulations that nearby landowners would not lose essential alley access.

The alley in question is one of the parcels along Fillmore Street from Fourth to Fifth avenues that landed Councilman Michael Nowakowski in hot water in late 2015 for possible conflicts of interest in the proposal process.

The city ultimately chose the Trammel Crow Company and the Cesar Chavez Foundation to develop the project.

Nowakowski served as the executive vice president of Cesar Chavez Foundation’s radio network at the time. A report looking into whether Nowakowski had violated conflict of interest laws cleared him of any wrongdoing, but the development went on without the Cesar Chavez Foundation.

Remaining developer Trammel Crow Company is now working on a two-phase multifamily project with 692 units dubbed The Fillmore, although the city still owns the land and it is currently an undeveloped dirt lot. Development is still a few years away, but construction will ultimately require the northern part of the alley to be removed to make way for one larger building.

Monique Fox, a landowner of two apartment buildings south of the development, explained that her residents only have access to a parking lot through the alley.

“Our utilities, water and electric are on the backside of the building … our city waste dumpster is in the back of the property as well, so they need access,” Fox said at the meeting. “So that is where our primary concern rests right now.”

The developer, on the other hand, attempted to address this issue with the construction of a new “Paseo,” which they described as being a pedestrian-friendly roadway.

“There is a concept to include an East-West pedestrian access called the Taylor Street Paseo,” Xandon Keating, a program manager with the city’s economic development department, explained.

This road would run between Fourth and Sixth avenues and bisect over a 1,000-foot-long super block where the alley currently runs perpendicular.

“The way the plan is envisioned is that the access to the South would continue indefinitely through the paseo we have built,” Keating said. Until the completion of the paseo, the northern part of the alley way would not be disturbed.

Some nearby residents still had concerns regarding the updated plans.

“Any further traffic going onto Sixth Avenue there, there’s gonna be so many accidents. You can’t even fit two vehicles on that street right now at the same time,” said Eric Nelson from Pure Fillmore Apartments. “Again, my concern is just vehicles coming into Sixth Avenue there. Is there gonna be a stop light? A stop sign?”

Experts from the city said the entire area is being studied to make traffic improvements.

“Third and Fifth avenues at the present time are being studied, instead of one-way streets, to go back to two-way streets,” Alan Hilty, a plan review coordinator for the city, said at the meeting. “At the present time, we’re thinking about a traffic signal at Fillmore and Third. So that may help relieve some congestion.”

Developers want to start construction on the paseo right away, but they do not think it will be finished within the year. The alley abandonment is part of the developer’s groundwork so that the city will eventually approve the sale to them on the consolidated property.

The plan for the alley abandonment was approved with additional stipulations regarding landowner access and project timelines.