Some residents of Phoenix’s Carnation neighborhood in the Uptown District are questioning the City’s commitment to the Walkable Urban Code and Transit Oriented Development.
The City created the Reinvent PHX program—a collaboration between Phoenix, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Arizona State University and other organizations—to create highly walkable communities and guide development along mass transit corridors. Part of the plan included the creation of the Walkable Urban Code and the creation of TOD Districts, including the Reinvent PHX TOD Uptown District Plan.
Uptown is bounded by Indian School Road, Missouri Avenue, 7th Street and 15th Avenue.
Uptown advocate Cliff Valenti, development chair for the Carnation Association of Neighbors, says the City is deferring too much to developers, who are creating an abundance of high-rent apartment communities. He says these come at the expense of mixed-use elements that promote a range of commercial and other outlets that would make a positive contribution to the community’s overall quality of life and accessibility of services.
Among the problems Valenti and others point out are tall buildings across from single-family developments, high density, little to no affordable or attainably priced housing, under-investment in sidewalks and other walkable features, a lack of healthy food options and too few mixed-use components.
Residents cite the proposed 1600-unit, four-phase Central & Glenrosa multifamily development as one project that has the potential to satisfy many of the Uptown plan’s components but that misses the mark as currently planned. The plan by developer Petree Properties calls for just 7KSF of retail/commercial space, which residents say is markedly insufficient.
They point to the Uptown plan’s call for Central Avenue to be “lined with mixed-use, live-work, and creatively reused buildings” and to extensively feature ground floor retail and restaurant uses with residential and office space above.
Petree claims there is already significant retail in the area submarket and that it intends to monitor retail space and adapt as needed over the project’s 10-12-year development life. Company officials say they will build more retail into the project if they predict it can and will be successfully leased.
Residents also criticized the project’s planned height as “extreme.” The plan calls for a 240-foot, 22-story tower at the NWC of Glenrosa and Central and a 70-foot building across from single-family homes on Glenrosa between 1st and 2nd avenues.
The current zoning predates the WUC/TOD and would allow for commercial structures with heights of up to 500 feet. Residents have questioned why the Phoenix Planning Department is not upholding the neighborhood-compatible height and mixed-used elements expressed in the updated guidelines.
Residents in other parts of Uptown have also raised questions about the lack of mixed-use development and walkability/accessibility. The 249-unit Magnolia 7th and Camelback development planned for the NEC of Camelback Road and 7th Avenue has no mixed-use component.
Despite appeals from the community, the Phoenix City Council approved a rezoning request for the project on Feb. 15. Retail and commercial exist on all the project’s adjacent corners, but the 284-unit Broadstone Camelback (aka Broadstone Uptown PHX) next door also has no mixed-use element. Residents are worried that the high traffic volumes and few-to-no commercial components in the project area will eliminate any chance for the goal of walkable, sustainable neighborhoods to develop.
Advocates say creating a walkable urban landscape requires more than mere proximity to public transit. They caution that the window to develop such an environment, which the City has espoused as a goal for nearly a decade, is rapidly eroding. Their hope is that the Planning Department and City Council will scrutinize proposals and projects more carefully and compel developers to comply with the greater vision. (Source)