Title
Consideration of Citizen Petition Submitted by M. Cheak Yee Related to the Chinese Cultural Center
Description
This report provides the City Council with information in response to a citizen petition submitted by M. Cheak Yee at the Oct. 17, 2018 Formal City Council meeting regarding the art elements of the Chinese Cultural Center (Attachment A).
Report
Summary
The petitioner requests the City Council clarify development requirements related to "public art" elements for private development. The petition also asks for a declaration of and clarification of responsibility and liability for any changes made to the property by the current owner.
There currently is no Art in Private Development Program in the City of Phoenix. Developers of private parcels sometimes are required to include art in their projects if they are stipulated to do so as a condition of rezoning the properties. The art in these developments is created and is owned and maintained by the private property owner, not the City of Phoenix. Though art was required as a condition of approval of the original 1988 zoning case for C-2 Mid-Rise zoning, and carried through to later stipulation modifications that were approved to allow for eventual development of the Chinese Cultural Center, there is no record indicating a specific type of art element requirements in any final rezoning stipulations imposed by the City Council. Based on the stipulation in this case, a private property owner can modify the specific type of art.
In the late 1980s, the Planning Commission and City Council approved the use of interim guidelines to establish standards for integrating art into private developments when the Planning Commission and City Council required art during the rezoning process. The guidelines were intended to lay the groundwork for adding an Art in Private Development Program to the City’s Zoning Ordinance. However, the City Council never added an Art in Private Development requirement to the Zoning Ordinance. Staff appeared to use the informal guidelines on an ad hoc basis into the 1990s, including in the rezoning (Z-172-88-8) and stipulation modification cases for the Chinese Cultural Center.
Though the petition refers to "public art" to describe art elements at the Chinese Cultural Center, the City of Phoenix Public Art Program invests funds from the City's Capital Improvement Program solely to enhance the design of City property. These Public Art Program funds cannot be spent on private property. Thus the art referenced in the stipulations and petition falls outside of the jurisdiction of the City's Public Art Program; it is outside of the parameters within which that art is created, maintained and controlled for the public. It is privately-owned art that is visible to the public, and some type of art that is visible to the public must be visible on the site to comply with the stipulations.
Location
Northwest corner of 44th Street and Fillmore Street
Council District: 8
Department
Responsible Department
This item is submitted by Deputy City Managers Mario Paniagua and Karen Peters, the Office of Arts and Culture and the Planning and Development Department.