In a front page article in the Nov 29 Az Star, reporter Tony Davis writes, as a result of the recent Oro Valley Council vote on the Arroyo Grande General Plan Amendment, the status of this parcel is "up in air."
The issue of contention, at least from the standpoint of Pima County officials is the fact that Oro Valley and State Land Department officials won't commit in writing to having the wildlife corridor land in this massive project sold below market value for conservation.
We believe the future of Arroyo Grande still requires a lot of study and has many facets that need to be addressed.
Please read the Az Star article here. If you don't totally understand all the issues, you won't be the only one.
http://www.azstarnet.com/metro/269459
12 comments:
One thousand an acre?! WTF, I’ll buy all of it for $1001 and acre and I understand I CAN NOT develop this land. Does Paula?
It certainly sounds like King Chuck is a little angry he can’t increase his kingdom up here in OV. All anyone needs to do is to go to http://www.pima.gov/elections/ccf_Index.htm and take a look at our County Supervisors to get way they are so eager to get their hands on this land.
Just take a look at Ann Day, Richard Elias, Sharon Bronson, and Ramon Valadez and who made contributions to their 2008 funds. You’ll find many engineering companies that do the county contracting, you’ll find developers, land grabbers, and the fat cats that own Chuckleberry. Valedez even had a fund raiser put on by Diamond and his boys.
I found this article very slated and unfair to our council. I say good bye Chuck and take your slim bags with you.
Holy cow. Now this is starting to make a little sense. So the developers who are funding the county supervisors want their buddies at the county to have control of the land. Interesting.
unlax.
the developers will not be able to get money to build a dog house the way things are going.
i dont even know if they will have money for bribes, oops, contributions after 2008.
why cant we just have some open space. why do we destroy the natural beauty that brings us to locations like OV.
If the County had such good intentions for conservation, why did they wait so long to jump on the bandwagon? After all, the Arizona Preserve Initiative, that which had the potential for influence in this matter, has been in place since the late 90's. The County which sat on it's collective butt all this time NOW claims it might have been able to buy/lease the land with certain monies ($4,000,000?)it has. Yes, just now, AFTER Oro Valley was put in a position of having to 'wrap it up'.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned.
Had Oro Valley not taken the action they took at this time, then, who knows what kind of an conflagration we could end up with.
Yes, I am still concerned with the 'holes' that appear to remain in the amendment but getting off the dime and cashing it in is better than letting some other entity steal it from you.
I have great confidence in the sensitivities, intellect, awareness, and abilities of Barry Gillaspie and Salette Latas, and it is in their hands that I put my confidence in this matter. As to what 'endthehandouts' writes, believe it!
Oops, nombe, you snuck in ahead of me. I agree with your contention, however, look around you. Look at the State, look at what they have done in the past; look at their insatiable thirst for power and money (for a few). Research the influence the land barons and developers have brought to bear on this State and the means by which they have achieved it; yours is an ideal world, theirs is hell! Oh, and by the way, in the past few days more and more articles have been in the 'news' about the straits that real estate world is in as related by the National Association of Realtors and the National Home Builders Association. Ya' think that they might want to get on the 'handout' list; don't bet against it.
I read the article. As Art said, "If you don't totally understand all the issues, you won't be the only one." I don't understand all the issues and apparently I'm not the only one.
Can someone explain to me why the wildlife corridor may not be protected? I'm not following the reasoning on this. And please explain it to me like I'm 10 years old.
Trying to follow this story is like watching one of those movies where there are so many people involved and so many plot twists that you walk out of the movie asking your friend, "What the hell was that movie about??!!"
i agree with VC, i am confused.
let me see if i have this right:
we want OV to annex the Arroyo Grande area so that development will be in our best interest.
we would like as much open space as possible, we would like to protect as much wild life as possible, we would want any development to reclaim water and be green as current technology will allow.
why do i have as, bb king often says; a bad bad feeling??
Nombe.
Make no mistake that Chuck Huckleberry wants to control Arroyo Grande. Even though the Pima Board of Supervisors have done very little (they usually do very little) to push for this to be their turf, Chuck has been working behind the scenes.
As I pointed out in my earlier post, our county officials are most definitely controlled by developers and those who feed off the conveyor belt of government contracts. If the Oro Valley Council had caved to Chuck’s demands and stipulated that the State sell him the open space at $1000 an acre, most likely below market value, the state land department would have pulled the plug on the OV annexation. The land would then remain in Pima County’s control. The open space could be jeopardized since Pima has not done any pre-annexation planning.
Sure, Pima could be as responsible with planning as OV is showing to be, but given the developers, as previously mentioned, who control our Supervisors, what conclusion would most rational folks come to? You can bet that Don Diamond and Conley Wolfswinkel want Pima to control development. They see that OV has raised impact fees and is heading toward more environmental restrictions, and they’d rather deal with the devil they know and have already signed on with.
i thought wolfswinkel was in jail
No, Nombre W. A convicted felon? Sure. In prison? Unfortunately, no.
Wolfswinkel was convicted of fraud. He was not required to serve prison time but was asked to continue community service activities. One might say he was lucky, but Wolfswinkel might instead be called a 'deep survivor' who has an ability to overcome. His first real estate empire went bust at the turn of the last decade. He declared corporate bankruptcy in 1990 and personal bankruptcy in 1991. Today he advises W Holdings concerning multi-million dollar developments.
I'm still confused. One post says that Huckleberry wants the land so he can develop it and increase his kingdom (Pima County).
Another post says the county claims it wants the land for conservation.
So which is it? Does Pima County want to build on that land or do they want it for conservation?
Another post says that Huckleberry wanted the SLD to sell him the land for $1000/acre and that if OV agreed to this, then the SLD would have stopped OV from annexing AG and the land would remain controlled by Pima County.
What???!!! This is beginning to remind me of an Abbott and Costello routine...Who's on First?
If OV wants to annex AG, why would they agree to the SLD selling the land to Pima County for $1000/acre? I'm trying to understand what one has to do with the other.
Cowgirl, maybe being confused is part of the plan, they like to see us confused :> ) Consider that some of what is posted is opinion and not factual
Power and control is the objective or goal of both OV and the county
Who will do a better job, I don't know.
I think the majority of our council has the best intentions but I just see developers wheeling and dealing and looking for legal loopholes that benefit their bank accounts
Also our current council may paly by the rules but how about down the road will different council members cave-in like previous councils
Who knows
I also question why the state decided to sell that particular property at this time?
To me it says a particular developer is interested.
Well they can buy it cheap now and sit on it for a while until the economy recovers, then they can sell it for a big profit or develop it when prices go up
Above is just my opinon
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