As huge East Mesa rezoning nears OK, farm exodus begins
by Jim Walsh | Tribune Staff Writer
Urban sprawl may level Jim Boyle’s bucolic East Mesa dairy farm and force him to move his home and operation to Casa Grande, but he’s okay with that.
Despite the more than 40 years his family has tended his two farms near Phoenix Mesa Gateway Airport, Boyle and four other neighboring dairy families aren’t afraid of the coming upheaval in their lives.
Indeed, they’ve been looking forward to it.
The upheaval will come if the Hawes Crossing proposal – a large controversial zoning case with astronomically high financial stakes – gets Mesa City Council approval later this month.
The measure to rezone hundreds of acres in the area is to be introduced tomorrow, Feb. 10, with a final council vote slated Feb. 24.