Hector Conde's Letter With His Concerns For Arroyo Grande

The following is a letter from our friend Hector Conde as it appeared in the Jan. 31 Tucson Citizen.

In reference to the wildlife corridor that Pima County planned to preserve north of Oro Valley: Two Oro Valley City Council members wrote, "Oro Valley is determined to ensure the preservation of the open space in perpetuity through the development agreement. "As we have said repeatedly, we will not consider this parcel for annexation if it does not make sense for the town and the region.

Failure to protect the 68 percent of open space in perpetuity would be a deal breaker for Oro Valley." To put it alliteratively, that is an assemblage of absurd assertions. Protection of the wildlife corridor by means of a development agreement is not assured by Arizona law. To the contrary, Arizona Revised Statutes 9.500.05.C. states: "A development agreement may be amended, or cancelled in whole or in part, by mutual consent of the parties to the development agreement or by their successors in interest or assigns."

The state Land Department and Oro Valley can rescind the agreement by mutual accord. Why would they? The Land Department has shown no interest in any wildlife corridor, as indicated in its initial Jan. 11, 2008, proposal, in which the corridor was not even mentioned. The department wants to sell the land to developers. The development, at $300,000 per home, is a $12 billion sale. The council can change its collective minds by means of a future developer-sponsored election campaign.

The plan calls for 16,000 homes. With the proposed population density (4.75 houses per acre), more than 41,000 homes would be built in that area if the corridor area gets developed. Another 261,000 houses already are planned in the Oracle Junction area, and the communities of SaddleBrooke, Arroyo Grande, Oracle, Mammoth, Los Cordones, Willow Springs, Catalina and Eagle Crest are all going to use the same aquifer. Nobody is recharging that aquifer, not even in Oro Valley.

Global warming is going to make CAP water scarce. Also, Oro Valley plans to annex 29 more square miles in Pinal County, for another 88,000 homes. In the future, 665,000 more people are going to try to use Oracle Road. And nobody to date has an answer to these problems. We have to realize the building frenzy of the last decade destroyed the economy and put us in this recession. Economic growth does not mean building cookie-cutter homes.

Hector Conde
retired engineer