PHOENIX — The City of Phoenix is asking a judge to set aside an order to show significant progress by mid-July in clearing out "the Zone," the four-block homeless encampment west of downtown.
"While the city seeks to maintain a clean and crime-free environment for its residents, those are outcomes the city cannot possibly guarantee, even with the expenditure of significant resources," according to a court filing this week.
Phoenix's lawyers contend the judge's "vague" order is "impossible to fully comply with."
They also make a larger point: The judge doesn't have the authority to tell the city how to spend taxpayers' money or deliver services.
The city wants the stay of the judge's order while it files an appeal to a higher court.
Back in March, Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Scott Blaney agreed with business owners and residents who sued the city that the encampment was a "public nuisance."
Blaney ordered the city to remove tents on public property in the encampment, an area roughly bounded by South 9th and 13th Avenues on the east and west, and West Jefferson and Jackson Streets on the north and south.
The city got a July 10 deadline - the scheduled start date for the trial in the case - to show "material results."
Ilan Wurman, attorney for the business owners suing the city, responded via text message:
"The city can appeal all it wants, but it knows this ruling ordering the city to do its job and clean up the public nuisance in the Zone is right on the law. And it's the right thing to do."
According to Phoenix spokesman Dan Wilson, the city still intends to proceed with its block-by-block cleanup on May 10.
"The material ruling - 'Clean up the Zone' -is moving forward," Wilson said.
After May 10, the 900 people living at the encampment won't be able to return once their block is cleaned.
"Right now, if everyone down there said, 'I'm ready to go to an indoor place,' we absolutely do not have capacity for that, which is one of the reasons why we have to do it block by block," said Rachel Milne, director of Phoenix's Office of Homeless Solutions.
"And we've got to bring some more solutions on board."
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