The Tempe City Council announced a new age-friendly subcommittee that will focus on issues ranging from transportation to housing.
Vice Mayor Doreen Garlid has a vision.
“I think it's really important that we are intentional about looking at the gaps in our community as far as transportation or housing, social support for our older residents," Garlid said.
Garlid is leading this new subcommittee, which will guide the development of the Age-Friendly Tempe Action Plan. And ideas are already turning into reality.
Like a dementia- and age-friendly park — the brainchild of two Tempe residents.
“So it'll be an area that somebody will be able to go in and go with their family member or their friend who has dementia, or seniors and be able to walk on wide pathways. There'll be wind chimes in there," Garlid said.
Garlid says they’ve started looking at a location inside Kiwanis Park.
Roughly 11% of Tempe’s population is 65 or older — and is expected to grow significantly. One focus area, Garlid said, is housing, especially in land-locked Tempe where the costs are high.
“One of the things that we are looking at doing on some of the properties that the city of Tempe owns is to build an apartment complex — a place that is going to allow us to have some of those properties in there as special designation for our seniors," Garlid said.
The inaugural subcommittee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday at the Tempe Public Library.
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