By Casey Torres | AZ Family
It was a heated night Wednesday at the Church of the Epiphany in Tempe during a neighborhood meeting hosted by developers who want to buy the Shalimar Golf Course and build single-family homes and townhouses.
”Frankly, any time there’s change, that’s met with opposition and that’s difficult for people to understand. It is very emotional,” said Branden Lombardi, the President of BB Living.
He said BB Living and Cachet Homes are in escrow with the owner of Shalimar, Jane Neuheisel. It’s a multi-million dollar deal contingent on the city of Tempe rezoning the 44-acre piece of land.
The developers have had two neighborhood meetings in June where they laid out their proposal to the community.
People who live near the townhouses booed at the developers and grilled them on Wednesday regarding details about traffic impact, property values and how many people will be living in the homes. More than 200 people were in attendance, including the president of the group called Save Shalimar, Carl Streiff.
”That is a real issue to our organization and there’s a complete lack of empathy by the owners and the developers of the impact to the neighborhood,” said Streiff. “The profit they’re going to make is being supplemented by the loss of equity by hundreds.”
