Good morning, Gilbert. Mid-July tilts the calendar toward school prep and air-conditioned library programming, and there's plenty of both this week.
- 🏗️ Gilbert moves to tighten data center rules. The town is drafting stricter controls as the industry keeps eyeing East Valley land.
- 🏠 381 new homes hit the market. May brought a fresh batch of Gilbert listings.
- 📚 A full week at the libraries. Book clubs, storytimes, and a STEAM afternoon across county branches.
- 🏫 School prep kicks in. Orientations at Mesquite and GCA, schedules live on ParentVue, and a state audit of Arizona's school grades.
- 🎟️ Worth the drive. Drum corps in Mesa, plus Evanescence and Dear Evan Hansen in Phoenix.
The town takes aim at data centers
The Town of Gilbert is writing stricter rules for data centers, the warehouse-sized computing campuses that have been landing across the East Valley.
Key facts:
Town staff are developing tighter zoning controls for how and where data center projects can be built.
The Gilbert Planning Commission and Town Council are the bodies that will weigh the changes.
Reported by Gilbert Sun News, July 13.
Data centers occupy large parcels, draw heavy electricity and water for cooling, and create relatively few permanent jobs once built. That combination is why towns across the region have started rewriting their zoning to control where the campuses can go, rather than reacting project by project.
What to watch: the proposal as it moves through the Planning Commission toward a council vote. Details.
Property beat
The latest read on the Gilbert housing market: 381 new listings came on in May, the freshest wave of homes to hit the market this spring.
The week ahead
Monday
- 📖 Monday Morning Fiction discussion. A Maricopa County library branch, 10:30 AM.
- 🚀 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Book Club. Heinlein's The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, a Maricopa County library branch, 2 PM.
- 🧬 Genealogy workshops. Writing and research sessions at a Maricopa County library branch, 4 and 5:30 PM.
Tuesday
- 🌾 Agritopia Farm Tour. The working farm at Higley and Ray, noon. Details.
- 👶 Toddler and family storytimes. A Maricopa County library branch, morning.
- 🎬 Summer movie matinee. Water Horse: Legend of the Deep, a Maricopa County library branch, 2 PM.
- 🎨 Collage Club for adults. A Maricopa County library branch, 6 PM.
Wednesday
- 🎹 High Key Wednesdays. Dueling pianos. Details.
- 🍺 Beer Barn Bingo and brewery movie night. Bingo at 7 PM, plus tasting-room movies, 7 PM.
- 🔬 Full STEAM Ahead. Hands-on science for kids, a Maricopa County library branch, 4 PM.
Thursday
From the schools
The pre-year rush starts this week across both districts.
- 🏫 Mesquite HS new student orientation. Gilbert Public Schools (GPS, the district covering most of the town) hosts incoming students Tuesday at 1 PM.
- 🏃 Cross country summer clinic. Williams Field HS, in Higley Unified (HUSD, the district covering southeast Gilbert), meets at the track Tuesday at 6:30 AM.
- 💻 Schedules go live. Higley HS posts student schedules on ParentVue starting Wednesday.
- 📅 Coming July 21. Gilbert HS bookstore days, Gilbert Classical Academy 7th grade orientation, and the GPS Governing Board business meeting (6 PM) all land the same day.
Worth a read for parents weighing schools: the Arizona Auditor General faulted the state's A through F school grading system in a new report, questioning how reliably the letter grades reflect actual school performance. Details.
Around the Valley
A few picks worth leaving Gilbert for this week.
DCI: Drum Corps International. Mesa, tonight. Competitive drum corps on tour, closest to home of the bunch. Tickets.
Young The Giant, Cold War Kids and KennyHoopla. Phoenix, Tuesday at 6:30 PM. Two 2010s indie-rock mainstays on one bill. Tickets.
Dear Evan Hansen. Phoenix, Wednesday at 7:30 PM. The Tony-winning musical in one of the smaller rooms it plays. Tickets.
Evanescence, Spiritbox and Nova Twins. Phoenix, Wednesday at 6:30 PM. Amy Lee and company outdoors, a bigger drive north. Tickets.