TREO: What Does Oro Valley Get For Its Money?

TREO is the Tucson Regional Economic Organization. When our former Economic Development Administrator, David Welsh quit his job, he went to work for TREO.

Oro Valley contributes $50,000 to TREO and we're not sure if this is money well spent. Other than retail developments which received $50 million plus in giveaways, what has Oro Valley gained? We acknowledge that Pima County, Tucson, Marana & Sahuarita contribute to this organization, but that's not the point.

We found an Explorer article from Dec. 6, 2006 which quotes Mr. Welsh, who was still our Economic Development Administrator. Welsh is quoted as saying:

"Oro Valley has very little undeveloped land. The situation won't change unless the town completes its annexation plans. So the town can't work to recruit a number of new businesses because we don't have a place to put them."

Well, as we all know, the planned annexation fell through, and best as we can determine, there is no "new land" that as been added to Oro Valley since Dec. 2006.

Don't Mr. Welsh's own words substantiate that we should not give TREO $50,000? And even if there is land for new businesses, might the $50,000 expenditure be better utilized in an attempt to entice new businesses to our community?

Your comments are welcome.

Vestar Announces LEED Program For Marketplace

Hopefully, Vestar will not be seeking any additional incentives from Oro Valley on their Marketplace Development.

Retail developer Vestar Development has launched GreenStar, a commitment to sustainable shopping center building techniques with the goal of achieving LEED certification for new development projects.

The US Green Building Council currently doesn’t have an approved LEED program for retail projects. Guidelines were drafted in September 2007 and are currently in the pilot stage - Vestar is participating - but adoption is not expected until early 2009.

The first Vestar project to be part of the new initiative will be Oro Valley marketplace, a 900,000-square-foot center just north of Tucson. Projects throughout the Phoenix, Tucson, Las Vegas, San Diego and Los Angeles metro areas will be developed to the new standards which Vestar says will reduce water use, cut CO2 emissions, reduce waste and lower electricity consumption.Current Vestar projects are being evaluated for potential green retro-fitting.

Read more about LEED by clicking here.

Arroyo Grande: An Analysis Of The Water Concerns

We received the following message from Bob Simpson. Bob, a resident of Saddlebrooke was a foreign-service officer who specialized in economic, commercial and agricultural affairs.
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I have written an analysis of the potential water impact Arroyo
Grande on the Catalina/SaddleBrooke area. It contains info pertinent to
Oro Valley as well. It is on several websites, including
http://www.sbcom.org/community.html. Also on that site is a longer paper I
did, A SaddleBrooke Water Primer. Both papers are objective and accurate so
that citizens can make up their own minds about local water issues. Both
have been reviewed by officials in the AZ Department of Water Resources
whose comments I have taken fully into account. You may wish to bring them
to the attention of your audience.
Bob Simpson