Neighbors' dispute centers on park

Rancho Manor residents say Shriners' Masonic Temple not living up to deal

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For more than 30 years, they had a handshake agreement. Now, Rancho Manor residents say Shriners want to wash their hands of the deal.

Neighbors contend that years ago, Shriners' Masonic Memorial Temple, on the corner of Mesquite Avenue and Rancho Drive, agreed to build a park on a portion of its land in return for residents allowing a commercial variance.

That variance allowed the temple to be built on what was then low-density residential (R-1) land. In return, temple officials agreed to build a park at the far-east end of the property, where it butted up to residential homes.

Residents also agreed to allow a billboard near the freeway. Since then, the temple has gained constant income from the billboard but the neighbors have not gained a park.

Now the Masonic Memorial Temple, in conjunction with Thomas & Mack Development Group, is planning a three-building office complex on the 1,058-acre property, which is in Ward 5 of the city. That plan is stalled unless another zoning variance goes through, a variance that would change a residential adjacency setback requirement from 192 feet to 122 feet.

Temple officials were contacted for comment but declined.

Tension has been building on the matter. About two dozen people attended a neighborhood meeting on Jan. 24.

Jean Zorn, president of Rancho Manor's neighborhood group, passed around an aerial view of the neighborhood to help people understand the impact.

Bill Stojack's parents bought their home in 1970. They welcomed the verbal agreement, expecting to gain a neighborhood park in return. But there is nothing on paper to prove that intent.

"It was all done with just a handshake," he said. "That's how business was done back then."

Three years ago, temple officials requested another concession so they could erect a two-story office building. That required changing the zoning for the western-most side of the property. In return, residents say, they were promised a 30-foot-long earthen berm for more privacy and traffic islands with xeriscaping on Mesquite Avenue. The neighbors agreed but now say it took three years for the temple to come through on the deal.

The new zoning request will allow constructing two office buildings and an 800-space parking garage. The current temple building will be replaced by one to the eastern-most part of the property, where the park was supposed to be.

Darlene Swierski has owned her Rancho Manor home since 1977.

"My desert leads right up to the temple so this will be in my backyard," she said. "I could be looking at a parking lot."

David and Hattie Vann have lived in the area for 29 years. He said when he first heard of the latest variance request, his first thought was, "they're at it again."

The couple said they'd fight it as much as they could.

"I'd like it to stay the way it is," David Vann said. "We don't need commercial (zoning) here."

"I do echo the sentiments of the neighbors on this," said Lawrence Weekly, City Councilman in Ward 5. "If approved, this will have a huge impact on them, especially the amount of traffic."

Stojack said a traffic study indicated the street would see an additional 4,000 vehicles a day.

Weekly said the four-story building proposed for the Rancho end of the property will impose on the Rancho Bel Air neighborhood by "looking right into those two-story homes, into their windows."

Weekly said from the neighbor's point of view, the streets are used as a "crazy cut-through" for commuters and there's a safety concern over the high concentration of school children.

He said from the temple's point of view, it's dealing with the frustration of the freeway being widened while it's trying to raise funds for its social programs.

"I'd like to see the Masonic Temple honor what it said it would do," Weekly said. "Don't tell the neighbors one thing and then turn around (and not do it)."

The matter is slated to go before city planners on Feb 28.

"They said, 'We have nothing in mind, no plans for rezoning,' " Stojack said of the temple representatives. "The Masonic creed -- doesn't it say, 'Be a good neighbor?' "