City, School Leaders Discuss Use of Land

With talk of turning an isolated field across from City Hall into part of a new urban center, school district and city officials Wednesday discussed ways to develop the vacant 36-acre property.

Preliminary plans, reviewed by school board and City Council members, call for a mix of homes and shops on the land, located at the northeast corner of Tapo Canyon Road and Alamo Street. The district also hopes to build a new headquarters there.

It isn’t the first effort to develop the land, which is owned by the school district and currently covered with crops. Past attempts to build retail shops on the property foundered when neighbors complained that the stores would clog streets with traffic.

But with a local developer pursuing plans for a 16-screen Regal Cinemas theater, surrounded by stores and restaurants, at the intersection’s southeast corner, district trustees said building a shopping center on their property might make sense.

“I think it’s exciting with the theater going in,” trustee Janice DiFatta said. “It’s a great opportunity.”

A draft of the Vision 2020 report--a document outlining how the city should grow in coming decades--also recommends rezoning the entire property for commercial development and making it part of a city center that would include the government offices across the street.

But Mayor Greg Stratton warned that neighbors might not accept such a large shopping center in their backyards and said a smaller center might be more palatable.

“The traffic study won’t support 40 acres of commercial [development],” he said. “The neighbors would kill you.”