Photo Courtesy of Town of Gilbert
By Tom Blodgett | Daily Independent
A prominent Gilbert landowner contacted the mayor and a town council member in April with concerns that council members were making threats against a project coming before council.
Jeff Cooley, an owner whose family’s land has become the Cooley Station area in east Gilbert, separately emailed Scott Anderson and Mayor Brigette Peterson that unidentified council members were threatening to vote against the District at Cooley Station project “if Cooley doesn’t agree not to sue the town if commuter rail isn’t part of Cooley Station.”
Cooley declined to identify the council members to the Gilbert Independent, but Peterson said Cooley named council members Jim Torgeson, Bobbi Buchli and “the other new one” — Chuck Bongiovanni — in a phone call to her after the initial email and that Torgeson was leading that effort.
Torgeson denied making any threats, saying he was not “dumb enough” to do that. Bongiovanni said Cooley would have no reason to think he would vote with Torgeson against the project and that he thought it was a good project. Buchli could not be reached for comment.
Anderson said Cooley did not follow up with him on an offer to meet in person, but said he later became aware of Torgeson being one of the council members to whom Cooley was referring.
The District at Cooley Station, being developed by Kaplan Management Company on land sold by Jeff Cooley, gained approval on four 6-0 votes during an April 18 council meeting with Torgeson recusing himself. The vertical mixed-use development includes commercial, retail, office and multifamily residential uses.
On a disclosure statement filed with the town after the vote, Torgeson indicated he had recused himself because “a citizen felt I was inappropriately opposed.”
