Save Shalimar Supporters –

On behalf of the Shalimar Association and Save Shalimar Campaign, I want to thank all of you for your continued support to save this precious 44-acre greenspace for all of Tempe.

Our supporters come from all over Tempe and beyond. You expect your neighbors to be united as they have much to lose, but experiencing the support of so many across the valley is a real inspiration. This 44-acre green space is precious, important, and worth saving for all of us.

I am going to bookend this year-in-review message with a simple “we are winning.”

This might require modifying your definition of ‘winning’ with regards to the campaign to stop rezoning. The owner and developer expected to be well into construction by now. Not only are they not, but progress has been halted. The process has not moved to the Development Review Commission or to a vote of the Tempe City Council.

We all of course want to get to the capstone of “we won” and a solution that works for everyone. This unfortunately will need to wait, as a well-funded and misguided owner and developer continue to search for any way to push their will upon the neighborhood, community, and Tempe. Their focus is on money. Our focus is on the future.

As a community, we will not sit idly by and reward a greedy owner’s injurious behavior, and the bullying tactics by a developer, with property rezoning.

What the owner is attempting to do is just gross. The emphasis is on financial gain. The complete disregard for the neighborhood’s concerns, quality of life/well-being, monetary impact, and the community’s future, is revolting.

Tempe citizens have made it clear where they stand and that Shalimar is a voter issue.

Save Shalimar petition signatures go well beyond the neighborhood. Tempe citizens want this community hub and historic 44-acre green space saved for Tempe today and Tempe tomorrow.

The Ugly

Scorched earth ecocide program was initiated by the owner, designed to punish and drive submission of the community to the will and demands of the owner & developer.

• The entire Shalimar community has watched the deliberate destruction of a decades-old ecosystem. Wildlife deaths and killing of 60-year-old diverse plant life are the result of greed and will be a final legacy for those responsible.
• Unmitigated dust from the property continues to be spread throughout the community. This includes piles of fertilizer and remains from ponds and streams. Minimal site maintenance is being completed only with pressure from city and county authorities.
• Owner/Developer sponsored PR Firm publishing blatant misinformation, specifically designed to confuse citizens. They have abandoned any semblance of truth.
• The owner/developer has made it clear they are not interested in making any proposal changes of significance. Any changes made to date have been lipstick-on-a-pig.

The Bad

Developers treated to a full house at neighborhood meetings on June 4^th and 11^th.

• Developer meetings with the neighborhood were ‘checking the box’ marketing presentations. Dozens of questions were not answered for months, and when answered, were more of the same developer psychobabble.
• Traffic and safety concerns regarding the development were minimized in Developer marketing materials. Only after citizens challenged, traffic engineering admitted that one thousand vehicles could be expected at the property, all funneling into the neighborhood via one entrance into the property and only two outlets.
• Questions on equity loss facing the community were given a significant data point when the property owners listed their home for $999K and ended up selling it for $575K.
• Owner business and LLC added significant debt ($M’s) post-closure to a now defunct business secured by the property, creating new financial dynamics depending on outcome of property disposition.

The Good

Save Shalimar campaign is thriving with broad-based city-wide resident support.

• Construction was targeted to begin shortly after the April 2025 golf course closure. The citizens of Tempe have successfully stopped all progress to date.
• Years of neglected property maintenance has been forced on the owners to rectify, following hundreds of complaints to the City of Tempe.
• Following the golf course closure, the property reverted to residential for tax purposes. This resulted in a new $910K yearly tax bill for the owners. Attempts by the owners to challenge tax responsibility have resulted in two appeals being denied. A third one is pending in Superior Court.
• Citizens supporting Save Shalimar attended every Tempe City Council meeting in 2025.
• The current City Council (less one), as well as 2026 council candidates (less one), have indicated opposition to rezoning and support of the Shalimar neighbors. The protest petition requiring a super-majority vote for rezoning approval remains in place.
• Hundreds of concerned citizens packed two developer neighborhood meetings. Feedback was clear and unequivocal: No rezoning. The developers (BB Living, Cachet Homes) have not completed any of the next steps in the rezoning process, effectively going dormant for 6 months.
• Coverage in local newspapers and TV reporting, together with a strong social media campaign, have successfully challenged the fantastical owner narrative. This includes logic flaws and fallacies, inconsistencies, facts, figures and data errors, misrepresentations, and gross errors in underlying assumptions.
• Owner/Developer PR Team exposed for attempting to gaslight the community.
• Meetings were held with individual councilmembers and council candidates to provide updates/status on the campaign and to ask and thank councilmembers for their support. City leadership support remains strong, led by Mayor Corey Woods.
• Friends of Save Shalimar on active information distribution lists exceed three thousand. Social media interactions across multiple platforms are in the thousands daily.
• Timely rainfall has given hundreds of trees a lifeline. A countermeasure by the universe against the owner not supplying water to the ecosystem.

Moving Forward

Throughout 2025 we certainly experienced the good, the bad, and the ugly. If the owners thought the community was going to give up and submit, they made a colossally bad assumption.

This battle is far from over. We would like to see this process move toward a resolution. The timeline is 100% in the hands of the owner and developer. From a current process timeline perspective, the developer is required to have public meetings (Development Review Council and City Council hearings) within one year of the developer neighborhood meetings (which were in June 2025). Failing to do so would require a reset of the review process and the requirement to hold new neighborhood meetings. There are noteworthy events coming in early 2026 that could influence the future of Shalimar. We are watching these closely and will keep the Save Shalimar Nation well informed.

Rough timeline for early 2026 as we know it today. We will adapt to any changes in developer actions.

Tempe City Council election in March/May 2026 – It is important to know your candidate’s position on Shalimar. Ask questions. Get clear and unambiguous answers. Shalimar is a voter issue. Save Shalimar has provided feedback from both incumbents and candidates for office. This feedback will be ‘refreshed’ ahead of the election. The Tempe City Council will decide by vote on any rezoning.

2026 state legislative session – In the past two years, state legislation has been put forward that is completely developer biased. There is a well-funded lobby that is pushing representatives in state government to free developers to do whatever they want. In some cases, bills are being drafted that take many development decisions away from city councils and from citizens. This includes: eliminating development review councils; eliminating the ability of cities to determine zoning; fast-tracking approvals; allowing developers to decide zoning and building standards; allowing developers to skip review processes (including public meetings); changing zoning in the name of doing something right, but with a reality that does not benefit the intended. And… taking away your right as a citizen to challenge a wrong decision with a referendum. It is important that we all keep an eye out for legislation that only benefits the wealthy and powerful. Please reach out to your representatives and ask for their support.

Combating misinformation and exposing any ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’ – An on-going challenge is to provide accurate information on any proposed development. Private equity is actively engaged in investing in, and buying up, the so-called affordable housing. Private equity is building large rental communities for perpetual rental streams. In a bizarre twist, many citizens pushing for affordable housing and price-control (which by itself is not a bad thing) are doing the developers bidding. The consequences of this are far-reaching. It is very short-sighted and benefits the wealthy few. Housing development is complicated. ‘Build-baby-build’ without careful consideration of long-term implications is reckless, prioritizing short-term gains over long-term sustainability, leading to issues like environmental degradation and economic instability. The ‘yes-in-my-back-yard’ (YIMBY) movement has become the unwitting marketing communication channel and supporter of private equity.

Monitoring owner and developer activity – The plan that was set upon the Shalimar community has not gone even remotely as intended. The plan was built on a foundational assumption that the owner is entitled to a rezoning and entitled to decide what will be built in a neighborhood they no longer reside in. Their belief was that any pushback or resistance from the neighborhood would be minimal and of little consequence. The new age aristocrats decide what is right and just for the commoners. This arrogant over-confidence has not only created a planning crisis for the owner and developer, but more importantly, a crisis of confidence for them both. They are experiencing something that is very foreign and extremely uncomfortable. That being the universal experience of rejection, or in simple, common terms: Being told NO. While most people might take a moment to reflect, question one’s need for control, and try to seek greater understanding, this is most certainly not the case with this owner and developer. The Save Shalimar campaign fully expects an escalation of hostilities. Just the idea of ‘losing’ to people they clearly see as socially below them is something they cannot live with. Rather than seeking a collaborative approach to a compromise, we expect actions that will be technically within the bounds of the law but are widely considered unethical, aggressive, or morally questionable. Hostile, but legal methods. We would love to be surprised. We will hope for the best, but plan for the worst.

Maintaining citizen engagement and mitigating any campaign fatigue – Keeping the community engaged is of critical importance. The greatest gift we could give the developer is apathy. We all know what will happen if we give in, and it is not good. Commitment to going the distance is of utmost importance. “The things worth fighting for are not easy, but they are always worth the effort.”

Above is the Neuheisel (Owner) & BB Living/Cachet Homes (Developer) vision for Shalimar.

In closing

We will not reward the bad behavior of creating an ecological catastrophe by allowing a high-density, rental-centric, traffic-danger project to be built in a historic neighborhood.

We will not reward bad behavior with a financial windfall for the owner on the back of hundreds and hundreds of homeowners’ equity.

Your voice matters. Your petition signature matters. Your email to the city council matters. Your donations matter. Collectively this adds up to successful resistance.

Thank you for all your support throughout the year. It is only because of the effort of thousands that we have avoided seeing yet another poorly designed, open-space stealing development in Tempe.

We are winning.

Again – thanks to everyone and thanks in advance for your continued support in 2026.

Regards,

Carl Streiff

President

Shalimar Association / Save Shalimar Campaign