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Renderings depict light rail's future in Mesa

By Gary Nelson The Republic | azcentral.com Sat Dec 1, 2012 9:39 PM

Mesa is beginning to get a sense of what light rail will look like as it courses into and through the city’s historic downtown from the west.

At the same time, the city is taking steps to help businesses upon which the impact of light-rail construction might not be as pretty as some of the recently released drawings .

MB Finnerty, public-art administrator for Valley Metro, which is building the light-rail line, briefed the City Council on artwork proposed for three of the four stations to be built for the 3.1-mile extension along Main Street.

Alma School Road: “The Alma School Road station is very tall,” Finnerty said. “The idea here was emergence — this is an area that is going to grow with technology and different businesses coming in.” The station will feature a striking stained-glass centerpiece with a large circular panel that rotates with the wind.

Country Club Drive: The western gateway to downtown will have artwork that is illuminated at night and designed to throw off distinctive patterns from reflected sunlight.

Mesa Drive: The design here will echo themes from the nearby Pioneer Park and Mormon Temple grounds and attempt to evoke Mesa’s heritage. Panels will reflect a storytelling theme, the idea of “passing history and stories from one generation down,” Finnerty said.

The design of the station at Center Street is still in progress. Finnerty said it will not compete architecturally with nearby buildings but will create a sense of convergence at Mesa’s signature intersection.

City officials said, however, that none of that artistry and design would matter if downtown has become a ghost town by the time light rail opens.

Mesa and Valley Metro have long worried about the impact of construction, and several years ago they began trying to spread awareness of rear-access to businesses and parking in the downtown core.

Among numerous government and non-profit agencies trying to help businesses get through the construction is the Neighborhood Economic Development Corp., based in downtown.

NEDCO has been providing marketing and technical assistance for businesses along the route, and the city has channeled two $250,000 allocations of federal grant money to the agency for that work.

Lately, however, federal strings on how that money can be used have been tightened.

Shea Joachim, a city economic-development official, told the council last month that federal-reporting requirements “impaired the ability to effectively administer this assistance.”

Because of that, Tammy Albright, Mesa’s housing director, said NEDCO’s $250,000 federal grant for this fiscal year is being redirected to La Mesita Family Shelter, which is launching a major construction project.

Mesa now will use $200,000 from the city budget to fill that gap for NEDCO. City Manager Chris Brady said the money will come either from the general fund or from an economic-development fund the city established this year.

Brady said the expenditure is necessary because the light-rail project is “at such a critical point that we had to find a solution.”

He had unanimous council support for the contract, which expires June 30.

Mayor Scott Smith said spending the money will help the city keep a commitment it made to businesses when the light-rail extension was approved several years ago.

Smith said the $250,000 is peanuts compared with what Mesa might lose if light rail drives businesses away.

“I think the long-term impacts of having failed businesses trying to restore that business activity along Main Street will far exceed the investment we’re making,” Smith said.

Construction on the 3.1-mile line from Sycamore Street to just east of Mesa Drive began last spring with utility work, which already has blocked off parts of the thoroughfare for extended periods.

Valley Metro will spend about $200 million — all of it from federal grants or a regional-transportation sales tax — to build the extension.

Last month Mesa announced it has come up with a funding scheme to pay for another nearly 2 miles, from Mesa Drive to Gilbert Road.

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