Developer-city battle hangs over Buckhorn Baths

Mesa city planners and Aktar Verma, who owns the historic yet dilapidated Buckhorn Baths, are sparring over plans for the site. Verma wants to preserve the baths, which have a historic overlay, but first develop 210 apartments on the adjacent 11 acres to help fund the restoration of the structures. City planners want the complex to be “more in harmony with the historic portion of the site.” But Verma’s representatives hinted that if things don’t move along, they could try to remove the historic overlay.