[Source: Emily Gersema, in azcentral.com’s Phx Beat]
Some Phoenix residents believe city officials just won approval to pave paradise and put up a parking lot.
City officials last week at a hearing with a zoning officer won a permit to turn the Second and Taylor streets site of the old Ramada Inn into a parking lot.
Business leaders and residents with the Downtown Voices Coalition want to save the pink-stuccoed property that they believe has historic value. Last week, about a half-dozen coalition members argued unsuccessfully for rejection of the temporary use permit application.
Marilyn Monroe stayed in the hotel, once known as the Sahara Motor Inn, during the filming of “Bus Stop,” which was shown in theaters in 1956.
Opponents can appeal the zoning officer’s decision to the seven-member Board of Adjustment.
However, city officials have said the plans for the old inn are a done deal.
Phoenix officials intend to turn the site over to Arizona State University for a law college building as soon as the university has the funding it needs for construction.
That could take a few years; ASU is waiting for the state to recover from its budget crisis – or a very generous donor.
The five-year permit gives ASU some time to drum up funding. The parking lot would be used for overflow parking by the nearby, city-owned Sheraton Inn at Third and Van Buren streets.
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You can read the DVC’s position on this demolition and parking lot here and here.
Downtown Voices Coalition 