Williams' claim that she is committed to protecting the airport would seem to be undercut by her lack of communication with Phoenix aviation officials over the proposed Continental development. Not only did Williams fail to bring the project to the attention of airport officials, but Longstreth, who is chairman of the Aviation Advisory Board, never discussed the Continental Homes subdivision plan with aviation administrators, either.
Aviation officials didn't begin to voice their displeasure with the project until after the city council, led by Mayor Williams, rejected the planning commission's recommendation and approved Longstreth's general plan amendment.
N.A. Bertholf Jr., aviation director, finally got involved in the skirmish when he sent a May 26 letter to city planning director David Richert, objecting to the housing plan and telling him the proposed subdivision may be subjected to "overflights numbering hundreds per day."
Williams says she didn't learn of Bertholf's letter until late July.
That's not the only thing Williams was in the dark about. The mayor says she just recently learned that Arizona Precision had long been subjected to numerous noise complaints at its present site, even though city planning department files document complaints and subsequent noise studies.
"There were no complaints in our [council] files," she explains.
The glaring contradictions in--and the lack of basic homework behind--her arguments have left Williams with only one real defense of her vigorous support for what appears to be an indefensible project: Trust me.
"I'm not getting any personal gain from this whatsoever," she says.
@rule:
@body:With moving day a little more than a week away, the Thuls are trying to put their best face forward. They have had discussions with Mayor Williams and presented her with a wish list. At the top of the list is a request that city planners require Continental to construct a 14-foot sound barrier along Arizona Precision Sheet Metal's property line.
While Williams says she agrees with the Thuls' mitigation requests, she also made it clear to the Thuls she hadn't discussed any mitigation measures with Longstreth or Continental Homes.
And there are no assurances on what type of mitigation, if any, will be required in the residential development, until and unless the council approves a zoning plan next month. Even if the city's planning department proposes sound walls and setbacks, there is no guarantee the city council will agree.
Continental, meanwhile, remains stone silent on the issue. Longstreth has provided only vague assurances that an acceptable residential project will be built without negatively impacting industrial property owners.
"We have promised a quality development which provides elements to ensure a desirable neighborhood for the homeowners while at the same time offering sufficient buffering to the adjacent light industrial user who is building next door," he wrote in a letter to New Times.
These words do little to reduce Tim Thul's anger. It is clear to him that the city council has failed to address--or even really consider--the fundamental question that needs to be asked about the proposed development.
What, he wonders, will the quality of life be for those who purchase homes in the subdivision?
The Thuls' new sheet-metal-stamping plant will receive trucks around the clock, have three shift changes a day and operate ear-shattering equipment.
"I wouldn't want to move next to me," Tim Thul says during a tour of the present 25th Avenue plant. "There is just no reason to have my family growing up next to this noise.
