The redevelopment of Gracie’s thrift store in Tempe into a five-story low-income housing complex is causing unrest in nearby local communities.
Seventy-five units of low-income housing are planned for the store’s two-acre lot on Apache Boulevard near McClintock Drive, said Tempe senior planner Kevin O’Melia.
Under the City of Tempe’s General Plan 2030, a plan that provides the framework for development in Tempe, the area where Gracie’s is located is to be an area of medium density, or 25 units per acre. In Gracie’s case, this would only allow for 50 units.
Also, because the building is in a corridor, more than 800 feet from a light rail stop, the maximum height for the building is 40 feet. Under the current proposal, the building would be 58 feet tall.
To allow the 75 units and the increased height, the preliminary plan calls for rezoning of the area to allow higher density, O’Melia said.
To allow housing, the lot would have to be rezoned for mixed use. The store’s lot is currently zoned for commercial use.
Members of neighborhoods surrounding the store banded together to protest the store’s redevelopment beyond medium density on Sunday in Tempe at Grace Community Church, which owns of the thrift store.
ASU professor emeritus Ron Gasowski, a resident of Hudson Manor, a neighborhood south of the thrift store, said traffic and parking has increased in his neighborhood since the light rail’s construction and doesn’t want to see more.
The amount of green space for the proposed design is also a concern, Gasowski said.
“With 75 units going in, there is hardly any place for children to play or people to recreate within that property,” he said.
Gary Martelli, who lives in Tomlinson Estates, a neighborhood just north of the store, is concerned that this density of housing will become normal on Apache Boulevard.
“I don’t think it’s a good thing,” he said. “We’ve already got too many people in this area. We’re surrounded by apartment complexes.”
Coming from a low-income household himself, Martelli said he doesn’t think the preliminary plans for the redevelopment provide enough outdoor recreation activity for families that would live in the building.
“I don’t think putting all these people in such a small area with very little outdoor spaces is a healthy environment,” he said. “It’s not a nurturing environment. It’s not going to bring these people up.”
Graduate student Christopher McKee, an eight year resident of Borden Homes, a neighborhood located next to Tomlinson Estates and north of the store, said he is gravely concerned about the increase in density this project will bring to his neighborhood.
McKee said this is not a battle over low-cost housing because the neighborhoods in the area are low-cost and there are many low-cost apartments nearby.
The proposed façade of the building is also a problem for McKee.
“As the current project looks, it looks like a touch of East Soviet Germany has come to Tempe,” he said.
Tomlinson Estates resident Chuck Buss said the current design reminds him of the downtown Phoenix Prison.
“It’s out of scale with the character of our neighborhood,” he said.
The first design for the building was for a six-story building, Buss said.
Some residents of Tomlinson Estates are worried this could create a privacy issue for the homeowners who would only have an alley in between their property and the redeveloped Gracie’s thrift store, Tomlinson Estates resident Gail Martelli said.
The preliminary plan for the redevelopment was submitted to the city on Oct. 4. The city has a week and a half to review the proposal.
Grace Community Church could not be reach for comment.
Reach the reporter at ryan.mccullough@asu.edu
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