By Gary Nelson | The Arizona Republic
Some big ideas are beginning to emerge from Mesa’s next big effort to define its future.
One involves the fate of the many retail centers that sprouted during Mesa’s late-20th-century growth spurt and that now, in many cases, stand empty or nearly so.
Another may affect how the city permits projects such as care homes whose residents rely heavily on mass transit.
Those ideas, and several other relatively new concepts, landed on the table when Planning Director John Wesley updated the City Council recently on progress in crafting Mesa’s next General Plan.
Originally conceived as just an overhaul of one approved by voters in 2002, the plan is morphing into a new kind of document aimed at moving Mesa from growth mode to one of maturation.
