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This is about if an owner of a business can use money and the election process to negate the city councils decision on the city's planning process for his own gain. To prevent another similar company from doing business in the area.
Prop 2 is for a QT station to be built on 44th Street a major arterial street from the airport, to Cave Creek Road, 27.6 miles with a drive time of 31 minutes with no stops, impossible to do with mix of commercial and residential. The area from Thomas Road to McDowell the location where the QT is to be built is mainly commercial. There are a few houses behind the subject site, however QT has donated over 2 acres for a park that will be a buffer to the houses.
The negative is voters of Phoenix who are not in the vicinity will be voting.
Vote YES on Prop 2
QT's are well maintained, clean, well lit, safe and sell gas less expensive than most stations.
QT has City Approval and gone through the planning process.
But a Chevron Station owner has paid over $51,000 to get it on the ballot for voters to decide..
The rumor mill among PR firms is Mr. Takhar has stiffed one of consultants for a portion of their fee after Prop 2 was on the ballot.. Great Guy, huh?
He said the neighbors thought the property was going to be turned into a park. "We educated them," Gurvinder Takhar said. "They were lied to." Questions: Mr. Takhar, who lied to them? Did the city ever own the property? Who was going to make it a park? Why is the web site prop2 using a picture of a boy skateboarding near a school bus, the school is three blocks away across from Pierce Park. A
little deception going on?
http://youtu.be/smuSvXRn7Ns
Arizona Republic Article
Phoenix voters to settle tiff over gas station
by Emily Gersema - Jul. 23, 2011 12:00 AM The Arizona Republic
QuikTrip representatives believe the battle over their proposed gas station has been portrayed as a David and Goliath fight of neighbors opposing big business. But really, they said, it is a battle between businesses.
• Campaign-finance documents show that the residents' political-action committee, Citizens Against Neighborhood Encroachment, has a big piggy bank for a city election. In its statement of organization, the PAC said it got a $51,500 loan from Enterprise Bank and Trust late last year. About $50,000 of the loan covered the residents' fees for Summit Consulting Group, which gathered more than the 9,798 signatures the residents needed for a voter referendum to fight the QuikTrip.
• And the neighbors have a well-to-do supporter. Their most recent campaign filings at the Phoenix City Clerk Department show the loan was from Takhar Associates Investment Group, a Glendale limited-liability company whose owner, Rajinder Takhar, lives in Paradise Valley. She also owns and operates two Chevron stations, one of which is in the east Phoenix neighborhood and the other near 67th Avenue and Bell Road, according to Maricopa County assessor records.
• County records show her husband, Gurvinder Takhar, owns several properties: some condos in Glendale and Scottsdale, a house in the Moon Valley area of Phoenix, and their Paradise Valley home, which is valued at more than $1.5 million. Rajinder Takhar's station in east Phoenix has a lot in common with a typical QuikTrip. The station is open 24 hours a day, and it sells liquor and beer. At the northwestern corner of McDowell Road and 44th Street, it is a short walk from the homes of the residents opposed to the QuikTrip.
• The station also is next to another Takhar property, a trailer park.
• Court records show Gurvinder has been involved with other gas-station companies on unfriendly terms. In 2007, he and one of his businesses, Kacil Management, were sued in federal court by BP company Arco am/pm for breach of contract. Takhar was accused of trying to use the ARCO am/pm brand after BP terminated franchise and loan agreements for stations in Glendale and Phoenix. He was also accused of defaulting on two Arco loans, one for $98,000 and another for $470,000. Takhar also was accused by BP of trying to give his wife the franchises without Arco's knowledge, according to records in U.S. District Court in Phoenix.
• Court records also show he served five months in prison in 2002 and paid $40,000 in fines after he was convicted of felony attempted tax evasion. Phoenix police records show Gurvinder later was denied a liquor license for the am/pm gas station in Phoenix that is now the Chevron under his wife's name. A well-known Valley public-relations representative, Jason Rose, is working for the Takhars and the neighbors.
• He and a contract firm out of Texas have put together a website, prop2stinks.com, with a picture of a boy skateboarding near a school bus and a number of arguments against the QuikTrip. Web users also can donate via PayPal, but the site doesn't list who receives the money. "It is a tough thing, going up against a $9 billion corporation, especially one that is running this campaign as a referendum on gas prices and jobs," the website said. Rose said the Takhars are fighting for the neighbors, not business territory. He noted, though, that they have a hefty investment in the trailer park and gas station. "They invested $3.5 million on that corner," Rose said.
• Mike Thornbrugh, a spokesman for QuikTrip Corp., said this is not a story of David and Goliath. "They've gone out and hired attorneys to represent them, and they've gone out and hired petition circulators, and they've gone out and hired a professional consultant," Thornbrugh said. "I think Takhar is using them for his own interest." Republic reporter Lynh Bui contributed to this article. Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/community/phoenix/articles/2011/07/23/20110723phoenix-voters-gas-station.html#ixzz1TzwfciKG
