Mesa residents react to plan to turn vacant lot into housing

Mesa residents react to plan to turn vacant lot into housing

Maria Mancinas has waited more than 30 years to see a 25-acre vacant lot along University and Mesa drives called Site 17 be developed. She was one of more than 50 attendees at a neighborhood meeting on June 25 with Culdesac, the developer the city selected to transform the area. In the 1990s, the city bulldozed some 60 houses in a largely Hispanic neighborhood to make way for an entertainment district that never came. It spent millions to take o…