City updates its truck routes
Changes made to redevelopment maps
For the first time since 1974, Yuma is updating its truck routes. All roads in the city can be used by trucks, but the roads on this list are intended for trucks. They can take the weight and are wide enough for trucks to maneuver around them.
During a Planning and Zoning Commission hearing on May 22, Principal Planner Jennifer Albers requested a text amendment to the city’s Streets and Traffic Code, which updates the listing of truck routes within the city.
The list adopted in 1974 no longer reflects the current city road system, Albers noted. The text amendment would make the truck routes consistent with the General Plan amended by the
City Council on Feb. 17, 2016, which incorporates the Transportation Master Plan. Please see the accompanying box for the complete list of truck routes.
As a side note, semitrailers and tractors will be prohibited from Giss Parkway between Castle Dome and Redondo Center Drive from June 7-13.
The commission also held the second of two public hearings, which drew no speakers.
In other action, the commission approved an amendment to the Redevelopment Element of the city’s 2012 General Plan. Specifically, chapter 6 is being changed to reflect updated redevelopment area boundaries, recently adopted redevelopment plans and current redevelopment efforts.
The primary goal of the update is to ensure the boundaries of the areas identified in this element are consistent with the most recently adopted redevelopment and revitalization areas, according to staff.
Three types of areas are identified in chapter 6: redevelopment areas, revitalization areas and study areas. Redevelopment areas have adopted plans to guide improvement or elimination of slum or blighted conditions, Naomi Leeman, senior planner, noted.
Revitalization areas are blighted areas that are mostly residential and have a high number of lowincome residents. These areas have adopted revitalization plans and redevelopment efforts are typically managed by the city’s Neighborhood Services Division, Leeman explained.
Study areas are in need of additional efforts to encourage redevelopment but have not been officially declared as slums or blighted areas, and typically do not have adopted plans. The boundaries of the study areas were determined in part by considering existing vacancy and only those areas with a prevalence of vacancy were included, Leeman said.
Collectively, these three areas are targeted for infill development incentives, as outlined in the proposed Infill Overlay District and Infill Incentive Plan.
After analyzing current conditions, staff removed some areas from the previous map that are no longer in decline. Some of those include the Big Curve area, portions of the former 16th Street Corridor Area east of Maple Avenue, and the area south of the West Main Canal that was formerly part of the West Main Canal Area.
Some additional areas were included to eliminate “islands” created by the previous boundaries.
“This creates an area with a clear, contiguous boundary that becomes the Infill Overlay District,” Leeman wrote in a report.
Representatives of the Yuma Elementary School District 1 commented on the text amendment, highlighting the adverse effects the increase in farmworker housing has on neighborhood elementary school enrollment. “Affordable rental units that formerly would have been home to families with young children are now being converted to farmworker housing, reducing the number of children who would attend the neighborhood schools. This is particularly evident in the Carver Park and Yuma High neighborhoods,” Leeman explained.
Principal Deb Drysdale asked city staff to consider family housing along the 8th Street corridor. “As you know, families are being squeezed out of the Carver Park Neighborhood due to the conversion of rental properties to migrant contracts for single males on a seasonal lease. The exodus of families seeking housing they can afford effects the enrollment of the schools within the CPN,” Drysdale wrote in her comment.
“I agree with the direction the city is taking regarding the identification of neighborhoods targeted on the redevelopment plan,” Superintendent James Sheldahl wrote. He added a suggestion: “I believe the western area should be expanded south to 8th Street to include the Pecan Grove neighborhood. While the neighborhood may not be in complete decline, a considerable number of houses have fallen into disrepair. These are ‘starter homes’ that could be very appealing to young families given an incentive to buy and rehabilitate the home.”
Principal Thad Dugan noted that Gila Vista Junior High School and CW McGraw Elementary School are “satisfied with the direction outlined in the Mesa Heights revitalization and are happy to participate in an effort to increase a sense of community, both as Mesa Heights and as a Yuma community.”
The General Plan can be viewed at www.yumaaz. gov.
Mara Knaub can be reached at mknaub@yumasun.com or 5396853. Find her on Facebook at www. Facebook.com/MaraKnaubJournalist or on Twitter @YSMaraKnaub.