OV Staff Recommends No Annexation of Foothills Mall

The following is reprinted from the April 25 The Explorer
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Property tax fears may stall Oro Valley’s southwest annexation

Oro Valley town staff has decided that the town should wait to annex southwest to the Foothills Mall.

It has recommended that the Town Council table the expansion plans when it meets May 2.

Planning for the annexation, which would stretch south to Ina Road and west to Shannon Road, was approved by the town council Nov. 1, 2006.

However, after meeting with the area’s residents and large commercial land owners, town staff has decided that the expansion of the town may not be a good idea.

According to Scott Nelson, the town’s special plans coordinator, the possibility of the town adopting a property tax — a possibility discussed by town council members when considering upcoming budget needs — scared many of the annexation area’s residential property owners away from supporting the expansion.

To compete an annexation, the town would have to collect signatures from more than half of the area’s residents representing more than half of the area’s total assessed property value. Of the 1,456 property owners in the proposed annexation area, all but 51 were homeowners.

“This really in and of itself was primarily a residential area,” Nelson said. “It the residential property owners weren’t going to go ahead with (the annexation) it wasn’t going to happen.”

The town was negotiating economic incentives to entice the business owners, such as the Foothills Mall, to sign annexation petitions. According to Nelson, the terms proposed by business owners in those agreements also played a part in the staff’s recommendation to table the annexation.