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December 15, 2000/Kislev 18, 5761, Vol. 53, No.12
Campus plan clears hurdle
BARRY COHEN
Community Editor
The Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus is one step closer to reality.
Nearly every design aspect of the campus - architecture, traffic mitigation, playing fields and landscaping - was approved by the City of Scottsdale Development Review Board at a Dec. 7 meeting.
The board has required campus planners to review the athletic field lighting system and return for a future meeting with information and clarifications.
"I know that the JCC will be a great addition to the community. We will continue to work with the community to deal with some of the issues," said Mark Shore, executive director of the Valley of the Sun Jewish Community Center, one of several agencies to be housed on the campus at Scottsdale Road and Sweetwater Avenue.
"We were very blessed by the best team we could put together, and more important than that, God blessed us with that one," said Ron Bookbinder, chairman of the campus task force, of the review board's determination.
A number of speakers presented the campus plan to the board: Al Ward, senior Scottsdale city planner; John Berry, a lawyer with the firm of Beus Gilbert; Jack Black and Paul Krukow, project architects with Langdon Wilson; Paul Basha, traffic engineer with Agra Infrastructure; and Bookbinder.
Review board members expressed concern mostly with lighting for the athletic fields.
"No matter what you do with ball-field lighting, there will always be a visual presence, even with the best fixtures made on the market," said Mark Soden, board member. "Even if you get down to zero measurable foot candles at the property line, you will still be able to see those fixtures from a block away."
"I do not like the idea of having 70-foot light poles on these sports fields," said E.L. Cortez, also a board member. He asked campus spokesmen whether the board could accept the campus plan without athletic field lighting.
Berry clarified that the campus received a conditional use permit for lighting from the Scottsdale City Council on April 4; as a result, the design board lacked jurisdiction to disapprove an aspect of the plan that had already been approved.
"If the current (lighting) system does not pass the test, we will find another one," said Art Paikowsky, executive vice president of the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix.
The next step for the campus team is to present a revised lighting plan at a design review board meeting Dec. 21 or Jan. 11. Meetings, held in the Kiva room at the Scottsdale City Council Building, 3939 Drinkwater Ave., are open to the public.
Once the lighting is approved, the campus task force expects to formalize construction plans and receive building permits. Construction is slated to begin in May, with a 13-14 month completion window.
Paikowsky said the goal is to be ready for classes in fall 2002.
At the Dec. 7 meeting, 10 area residents voiced their opinions about the campus being built in their neighborhood. Not everyone viewed it positively.
"This building does not fit, conform or add to the flavor of this neighborhood or its surrounding area," said Chris Graham, who lives in the Sweetwater-Scottsdale area. He likened the plans to "a space ship."
Jerry Turek, another neighbor, was concerned the area would change from residential to commercial. He complained that the design was "ramrodded through" the city council in April.
"There is not a hunky-dory, apple-pie relationship between the neighborhood and the federation," Turek added.
Dr. Richard Dobrusin, also a neighbor of the proposed campus, disagreed.
"We as a committee met several times, and we got almost unanimous approval from the neighbors in terms of thinking that the outcome on Sweetwater Road will be good for our neighborhood," he explained.
Bookbinder said the campus task force recently met three times with 50-70 representatives from the neighborhood, Oct. 5, Oct. 12 and Nov. 27.
Other complaints by neighbors included increased traffic, orientation of the playing fields and design of the wall surrounding the property.
"It is a handsome building. I think it will be quite beautiful," said Mark Gooden, design review board member. However, he said he understood the sentiment of those who bought residential property near the corner of Sweetwater and Scottsdale, thinking it would be developed similarly.
"It's difficult to 'carte blanche' lighting in this area because of the impact," said review board member Mark Hammons. "We have to be realistic here - talking about the 70-foot poles - that's a pretty big impact in this neighborhood."
Hammons nevertheless moved to accept the campus plan as presented, with the stipulation that the performance standards for the proposed lighting system be further examined.
The motion passed five to one, with Soden, Tim Burns, Tom Silverman, Hammons and Raymond Potter voting in favor and E.L. Cortez voting against it. Member J.T. Elbracht was not present.
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