My View
BY DON SORCHYCH | MAY 15, 2013
Cave Creek happenings
VOTE YES FOR PROP 459 and for THOMAS McGUIRE!
Thank you!
You should know, if you don’t already by people knocking on your door, the slate is going all out to defeat Proposition 459 and keep it as a scraggly never used residential parcel rather than a commercial, tax-producing, fast food place. For those that think Carefree Highway isn’t going to be a commercial corridor, sooner or later it will be. It makes perfect sense to convert that parcel to commercial and why would anyone listen to Carefree activist Jim Peirce and his harem of supporters, all losers or people who wouldn’t stand a chance competing for office. Go for the tax revenue and for convenient access to a first class fast food place. Voters, you were fooled in the primary election; please don’t make the same mistake twice.
Let us not forget Carefree developed the commercial zoning on that corner, making it necessary to go commercial, otherwise property owners would be stuck with a residential parcel no one would build on. People who bought property in that region did so because the property was cheap and now want to stop progress and tax revenue.
Cave Creek has a lot of activity facing it. There is the general election followed by another try to do something on the property known to Creekers as the Julie Terry property. That is the 5 plus acres immediately north of Cave Creek Tap Haus. Three referendums have successfully kept the it residential.
The owner of, let’s call it the JT property, is T.C. Thorstenson who is moderately famous for riding Buffalo. Thorstenson also owns commercial property just west of the Granite Yard. He has hung signs on it screaming Horses and Hogs, with promises to compete effectively against the Buffalo Chip Saloon and the Hideaway.
The local bets were that Horses and Hogs promise would never be kept, but after tries to get town approval sans impact fees he relented and gave a $97,000 check to Cave Creek to begin construction of his dream. It is rumored he is training bulls to compete with the Buffalo Chip’s highly successful bull riding programs. But will the “hogs” come too?
Well Thorstenson needs to try to get along with Hideaway owner and part owner of the Tap Haus, Mark Bradshaw. Yelling about putting him out of business will not achieve his other dream of parking RVs on the JT property.
Although the conversion of the JT property to Commercial Ranch can’t be stopped by the town outright, Thorstenson still needs to meet all the town requirements. The most important one is access. The property needs a 32 foot right of way to legally access. Currently Vermeersch Road is only 16 feet wide while 32 feet is needed. We hear neither the owner of the building where Kevin Binkley resides nor Dave Perfect, owner of the lumber yard, will give up any property.
That means the access will have to be through the Tap Haus parking lot. Can they and still have enough parking and will they for financial gain? It will be most interesting to see.
Time to kiss butt?
The other obstacle facing Thorstenson is a referendum if the council on June 17 approves it. To be sure, based on all his bombast in the planning meeting Bob Moore will lead the referendum parade. Maybe he should consider getting a surrogate because I doubt anyone would vote for anything led by the guy who was kicked off the planning commission by council vote for lying.
The other thing of interest is how the new council will deal with the JT proposal. First of all, Bob Moore, who hates the proposal, is also an ardent proponent of the slate. Furthermore, Adam Trenk who outspent all other candidates is a buddy of Thorstenson and has acted as his lawyer or adviser, or both. When Trenk was on council, he was appearing with Thorstenson at planning meetings and was advised it was a conflict of interest since he would be voting on the project. Thereafter Trenk still called the planning department to check on the progress. Hello?
So will Trenk recuse himself when the JT project is heard?
The blizzard of signs continues, with Eilleen Wright adding new promises to her signs, some in conflict with each other. What do you expect from a candidate who stated in the Buffalo Chip forum that she “has the ability to be intelligent?”
Slate members and supporters have suggested ballots in town hall might be changed by nefarious staff members. So Sarah Vannucci, Ron and Rae Iverson and Jerry Freeman went to town hall to see the security box where voters may leave ballots. You have to wonder how disappointed they must have been to realize they were conned or simply living on another planet.
That fable is a lot like the one I reported on about cars from Anthem flooding down Morning Star Road after crossing Cahava Springs property. That is impossible and a lie Mayor Vincent Francia has tried unsuccessfully to quell.
Morning Star is desperately in need of paving. After every town dust treatment and blading it becomes a bumpy mess within a week or two. When that area was annexed in anticipation of saving Spur Cross Ranch there were restrictions placed on the nature of the road. However, the town could still repair and pave the road for dust control reasons if they chose to. The town has bent over backward to give the homeowners what they want, which is a bumpy dusty road.
I am against black topping as much as anyone. But that is the only solution in this case.
Once again, Vote YES for Prop. 459 and Yes for Thomas McGuire!
