This story was originally published Dec 2, 2024 in the Mesa Tribune
By Cecelia Chan, Tribune Managing Editor
Since its launch in 2021 Mesa College Promise has helped low-income city residents attend Mesa Community College cost-free by covering gaps in tuition when federal student aid comes up short.
The program was born out of the city’s participation in the Achieve60AZ Action Plan, which aims to develop Arizona’s workforce by reaching 60% post-secondary education attainment in the state by 2030.
Just 48.1% of all adults in Arizona has a degree, professional certificate or license in 2022, according to the latest data from Education Forward Arizona, which promotes the initiative.
“We are right now reliant on the city’s (annual $100,000) contribution as well as fundraising,” said Sarah Tolar, city Education and Workforce administrator. “This year with enrollment we reached the threshold for number of students that we could support with the current funding.
“It’s really important to have that long-term solution for sustainability so that we can talk about expansion opportunities.”
The long-term solution proposed by the Maricopa Community College District is to install two revenue-generating electronic billboards on the southern side of Mesa Community College’s West Mesa campus’ 134-acre site along US 60.
The request for a rezone and billboard overlay goes to council Dec. 2 for introduction and final action Dec. 9.
Each billboard is proposed to be 60 feet tall, double-sided with a 48-square-foot sign face area. One would be located west of the college’s performing arts building and the second placed 1,000 feet west of that, according to Planning Director Mary Kopaskie-Brown at the council’s Nov. 21 study session.
“One of the biggest concerns about billboards is the light, the distraction and the potential impacts on drivers,” Kopaskie-Brown said. “So what we’ve done is in our code we have identified specific details as it relates to messaging and how light the billboard can be and how often billboard messaging can change.”
The billboards would be restricted to a certain brightness level of lighting from sunset to 11 p.m. and remain dark from 11 p.m. to sunrise. They can’t exceed 300 nits, which is as bright as packing 300 candles into a square meter.
The billboards also must not be visible above the freeway sound wall to the residents south of US 60, according to Kopaskie-Brown.
She said that according to the applicant’s light study, which used a computer-generated model, the residents won’t be impacted by the billboards due to their properties sitting lower than the freeway and due to the retaining wall.
“None of that light from those billboards would spill into that residential neighborhood,” she added.
A few council members still expressed concerns.
Councilwoman Julie Spilsbury said that because real light was not used for the study, could something be done if the computer-generated model is off and light spilled into backyards.
“I know the lights at some of the high school football stadiums or the pools cause a lot of issues with neighbors in their backyards and in their windows at night when they’re trying to sleep,” Spilsbury said.
“I just want to make sure that if for some reason these studies aren’t exactly correct that we’re not going to do any harm to our neighbors.”
Kopaskie-Brown responded that the city required and put into the amendment that the applicant had to do a line-of-sight study “to show that the billboard itself could not be seen from 500 feet away.”
The study showed that from that distance, “that even the top of the billboard could not be seen,” she said.
That may be so, Spilsbury said, noting that the submitted photos were taken during daylight hours.
“Again, having a really bright billboard at night that’s coming in your back window or something is incredibly problematic,” she said. “So I just want to make sure.”
Land-use attorney Reese Anderson said that Becker Boards has a similar billboard in Gilbert that she can go view.
Anderson also assured Spilsbury that if the proposed billboards were too bright it would be addressed.
Mayor-elect/Councilman Mark Freeman asked if it was possible to shut off the billboards before 11 p.m. during the winter, when it gets darker earlier and people go to bed early.
“There’s actually two pieces of it,” Kopaskie-Brown said. “It has to dim at sunset. So if it’s 6 p.m. and it’s dark, the billboard has to dim and then it does still go off at 11.
“But at sunset, no matter what time a year, if it’s 6 p.m. or if it’s 8 p.m., it has to dim down to that 300 nits.”
Anderson said 11 p.m. is a universal national standard that everyone’s adopted, including Mesa.
“There’s always an opportunity to come back and revisit,” he said. “What you have here with the district is a cooperative partner and we’re engaging this together.”
Kopaskie-Brown said that staff extensively studied the proposal “and these are really national standards.”
Anderson added that a 200-foot-tall radio tower on the campus can’t be seen from the backyards of the residents living across the US 60 and the billboards are less than half that height.
Tolar said that the overlay includes an agreement specifying that the gross revenue generated by the billboards would go to the Mesa College Promise program in perpetuity.
“The estimated revenue is between $350,000 and $400,000 annually for the first 10 years and hopefully to grow after that,” Tolar said. “It’s equivalent to the district receiving a $10-million endowment and being able to use those funds to support the program.
“So it is you know, a really substantial additional funding source for the Mesa College Promise program.”
She added that the 99-year agreement is to be updated every five years in order to evolve with the program.
Additionally, under the agreement, the city would be able to use the billboard to publicize Mesa services, business, programs and events, according to Tolar.
Spilsbury said that the program is a huge blessing for her son-in-law, who is currently enrolled in it and she thanked Mayor John Giles for making education attainment a priority. Under Giles’ leadership, the program this year expanded to cover adults over 24 years old who want to return to school to start a new career or boost their credentials in their current field.
“To think that we could expand it to every student is really incredible,” she said. “These kids just seamlessly slip into their careers and their whole world changes when they have these opportunities. It’s affecting generations.”
City Manager Chris Brady called the program one of the milestone projects for Mesa.
“We’ve always talked about have a qualified workforce,” he said. “That is the greatest economic tool incentive we can have with any major developer. They don’t ask about utilities, they don’t ask about land availability first.
“The No. 1 topic for business today to relocate is, ‘do you have the available workforce. Do you have the skill, the workforce that can meet our demands?’”
Brady said that when he and the mayor meet with CEOs, their No. 1 issue “was filling positions.”
“We think this is an important pipeline,” Brady continued. “Frankly, my goal would be to not only fill in all those who are eligible but I would hope that every student who graduates from high school in Mesa would have an opportunity to receive an education regardless of income, to make it so easy for them to come and get an education.”
He added that the city is appreciative to have MCC as a partner to create what he called “a unique opportunity.”
“I know it’s billboards,” Brady said. “None of us are big fans of billboards but I think we’ve done it in a way to be very respectful of the surrounding neighborhoods.
“I was amazed by the significant source of income it is and to take that and put it back into the community and to provide these unique opportunities to help our community grow and provide opportunities.
“I’m hoping that over time as this grows and we find ways that we can be not only successful in getting them into the College Promise but successfully employed in Mesa and I would hope that would be something we could do for every Mesa students that graduates in Mesa.”
According to Brian Spicker, president and CEO of the Maricopa Community Colleges Foundation, the promise idea has been front and center to the district and its 10 colleges.
“It was the mayor’s leadership to actually attempt this that really has led to a model that we’re looking at rolling out district-wide,” Spicker said.
“It’s part of our strategic plan to have a College Promise Maricopa. Mesa would be a part of that and we would like to see all students that need financial support to have access to a high-quality education or access to workforce and industry certification.”
Giles said that one of the things Mesa need to improve is post-high school educational attainment.
“We do not compare favorably to our neighbors or nationally,” Giles said. “And that is a weakness. We need to own that and try to figure out how to get better at that. To me the best tool that we have to fix that weakness … is Mesa Community College.”
He said that the billboard proposal could be a game changer, allowing for the program’s expansion.
“We don’t want this to be a program that is impacting the lives of hundreds of students,” Giles said. “We want it to impact the lives of thousands of students.”
