By admin 
TEMPE, AZ — A developer has pitched a new student apartment complex to the Tempe City Council multiple times over the past year, and each time, neighbors say the project does not fit in their community.
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The proposed development, called Marshall on Spence, would take shape as a 7-story apartment complex on Spence Avenue. It would be built on a parcel smaller than one acre — the current site of the Tempe Palms Apartments, built in the 1970s— and would include 296 bedrooms and 89 parking spaces.
Phil Amorosi, co-chair of Citizens for a Vibrant Apache Corridor, has voiced concerns of traffic congestion and a towering building that does not fit in his neighborhood.
“We know the city needs that,” Amorosi said. “It needs housing, but this particular project is out of scale and out of whack.”
City Council has sent the developer back to the drawing board three times. A June 4 votewas expected to be final, but a 6-1 vote gave the developer more time instead.
The project, as proposed, would require rezoning on the parcel. To do so, the development would need retail space, and the applicant plans to include an ATM to satisfy that condition.
“We don’t want to put forward a project that will not have support, that the community will not enjoy, that will not make us a good steward of the land for many years to come,” a representative for the applicant said.
The latest revision moves traffic exiting the parking garage from Spence Ave. to Apache Blvd., but neighbors say the overall impact remains the same; the entrance would remain on Spence.
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“But that still means, since they have 89 spots, that there’s going to be 89 more cars coming into their project off of Spence,” Amorosi said.
Amorosi used a diagram to illustrate his concerns about the project’s scale relative to the surrounding neighborhood.
“The blue is what a single-family home looks like in the Jen Tilly neighborhood across a 25 ft wide street. This is overwhelming,”
The developer already operates a complex one block away on Apache Boulevard. Neighbors argue Arizona State University itself should address the student housing demand it created.
“ASU is laughing all the way to the bank,” Amorosi said. They have 300 acres down at Rio Salado. They could build the student housing.”
A public commenter at the June 4 council meeting echoed the broader housing challenge facing the city, though in support of the Marshall on Spence development.
“Tempe continues to face significant housing demand, and expanding our housing supply must remain a priority,” the commenter said.
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