"Oro Valley strives to be business friendly."
This is an assertion that we have heard from the Oro Valley Town Council and town staff for the past three years. There is also a similar assertion that Oro Valley was not business friendly in the past.
So, what has changed?
Oro Valley Actively Supports Businesses
There is no way to measure Oro Valley's business-friendliness. One can only point to anecdotal evidence which, by definition is imperfect. Here's five evidences we've identified, all of which occurred in the past three years:
- Money: Oro Valley now contributes funds to the Greater Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce. The amount this year is $xxx. The majority-4 on council (Hiremath, Hornat, Snider and Waters) actually increased the spending over what town manager Greg Caton had recommended. Prior to 2010, when the majority-4 were elected, there was not Oro Valley payment to the Chamber.
- Events: The town now works in concert with the Chamber to build business in Oro Valley. An example of this is the "Shop Oro Valley Program" and the Oro Valley Cash Mob program.
- Amendments: Developers seem to get their way with the Oro Valley Board of Adjustment. We've written about this already. We believe that this is because of a rather liberal interpretation of the first of the five reasons why a variance can be granted.
- Access and Assistance: The Oro Valley Development and Infrastructure Department staff seems to work hand in hand with developers in their submissions to council. Yes. The staff does make changes to the submissions. However, these are all agree-upon well before the council meeting. Resident concerns are not handled in the same manner. The same cordiality and assistance that is afforded developers is not accorded to residents who oppose projects.
- Relaxes Sign Codes: The Oro Valley town council has voted several times on more liberal sign codes.
Oro Valley Code Enforcement Is Business Friendly
"As you know, Oro Valley strives to be a business-friendly community; therefore, we take a proactive approach to sign code enforcement and potential life safety concerns, while also trying to accommodate the needs of our businesses, " observed Oro Valley's Consituent Services Coordinator, Chris Cornilson in an email to us.
"As you know, Oro Valley strives to be a business-friendly community; therefore, we take a proactive approach to sign code enforcement and potential life safety concerns, while also trying to accommodate the needs of our businesses, " observed Oro Valley's Consituent Services Coordinator, Chris Cornilson in an email to us.
Sign and outdoor display compliance is the responsibility of the DIS Inspection Compliance Division. The Town has two staff members dedicated to code compliance. Cornilson's email to us noted four areas of compliance protocol .
- Staff will always follow-up with citizen complaints and will take the appropriate action based on whether the complaint can be verified as non-compliant
- Staff performs weekly compliance patrols, specifically looking for violations.
- Staff performs bi-weekly compliance patrols on weekends, alternating between Saturdays and Sundays.
- Inspection & Compliance staff are cognizant of prohibited actions under the Zoning Code and will notify the manager and code compliance staff when a potential violation has been observed.
Town staff works with the code violators to seek corrections, rather than simply issuing citations and telling violators to follow our code.
As we have previously posted, Resident Don Bristow has identified a number of sign and display code violations that were simply not identified by town staff. Some have been going on for a long time. Either the town's enforcement officials have not observed these or the town's "gentle" approach to enforcement is simply not working.
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Council Member Mike Zinkin believes that Oro Valley should enforce its laws regardless of what the current "philosophy" may be: "Codes, Laws, and Ordinances come about through a democratic process. Elected officials pass the laws after hearing from the public. Once these are passed, there should be no need to reinterpret the law based on a philosophy. Either enforce the law or repeal it." Zinkin continues: " I can go along with a through education process with business and not use a heavy hand. However, after a certain period of time, something must be done."
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Do you think that Oro Valley is more business friendly than in the past? Do you think Oro Valley's approach to enforcement is working? Are you pleased with Oro Valley's business-friendly posture?
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As we have previously posted, Resident Don Bristow has identified a number of sign and display code violations that were simply not identified by town staff. Some have been going on for a long time. Either the town's enforcement officials have not observed these or the town's "gentle" approach to enforcement is simply not working.
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Council Member Mike Zinkin believes that Oro Valley should enforce its laws regardless of what the current "philosophy" may be: "Codes, Laws, and Ordinances come about through a democratic process. Elected officials pass the laws after hearing from the public. Once these are passed, there should be no need to reinterpret the law based on a philosophy. Either enforce the law or repeal it." Zinkin continues: " I can go along with a through education process with business and not use a heavy hand. However, after a certain period of time, something must be done."
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Do you think that Oro Valley is more business friendly than in the past? Do you think Oro Valley's approach to enforcement is working? Are you pleased with Oro Valley's business-friendly posture?
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14 comments:
Do DIS Inspection Compliance Division staff document all of their inspection efforts? If so, where are those documents? Are they published on the OV website? If not, why not?
The priorities for the Town of OV seem to be: (1) developers, (2) businesses, (3) citizens.
(A) "The same cordiality and assistance that is afforded developers is not accorded to residents who oppose projects."
No arguments here.
(B) Sign Codes: "The Oro Valley town council has voted several times on more liberal sign codes."
This was a waste of time. I still remember all the business owners who insisted that they NEEDED their signs lit 24-hours a day in order to attract customers. A business owner that I know personally also told me that she NEEDED her sign to be lit 24 hours a day.
Interestingly, however, when she relocated her business out of Oro Valley, she never purchased a lighted sign for the new location. Her current sign is SMALL and DOES NOT LIGHT UP!
The only reason those business owners claimed that they needed the 24-hour signage was because they PAID for the signs and they WANTED to use them. That's understandable, but since it wasn't really a necessity, the business owners need to do some give and take of their own and admit to wants vs. needs. The Town needs to stop catering to whims and phony arguments.
Bonnie Quinn comes to mind here. She deliberately violated the sign code and admitted to it at a council meeting (Mayor Hiremath laughed and rewarded her for bad behavior). She insisted she NEEDED that sign to attract customers and she went out of business anyway because her food was mediocre and high priced and dirty dishes were in full view of customers while they were eating. But everyone would overlook those things if only she had an A-frame sign on the sidewalk!
What we need in this community is these two people manning the "Welcome Wagon"
On another thread I mentioned the negativity of some posters on this blog.
Need I say more.
Might I also suggest the Mr. Bristow has a documented history of being incorrect on his reports of violation. I would certainly put little credibility in his work product.
It amazes me how some people like to constantly put down everyone else and insult them. If you think differently than him then you are WRONG.
You'll notice that whenever OVOT doesn't have a counter-argument, he resorts to insults. When he can't come up with an insult, he ignores the post altogether and doesn't respond.
So personally, I'm thrilled when he either ignores me or insults me! It means I'm on to something!
V.C. you are so right. I haven't missed that since it happens so often. Bullies do tend to back down when you stand up for what's right and for yourself.
R u......Since you are somewhat new to this scene (at least under this posting name)allow me to be so bold as to give you some accurate information.
I have refused to reply to VC for well over a year now, because her rhetoric is, for the most part' so unfounded and bizarre that it is a waste of my time and effort.
Wrong again. I have been using this posting name for quite a while. Think what you want.
OVOT
How do you know Mr. Bristow has a documented history of being incorrect on his reports of violation? Which ones are incorrect?
Victorian Cowgirl and r u kidding me... I am in full agreement with your comments about OVOT.
Cares.... OVOT sure does put a lot of time and effort into insulting everyone one, not just VC. It's amazing though how he is incorrect even about his own postings. He does waste his time and effort constantly attacking her and everyone who disagrees with him. You seemed to have quieted him with your question, he obviously doesn't have any valid answers or a reasonable response for you. It's a shame that someone behaves that way towards just about everyone.
r u....You have a common thread running through most of your posts. It is associating disagreement and or statement of opinion with insult.
Maybe at some point you can post something constructive.
OVOT I have posted several comments that have been very different than the few here. As usual you attack. And you do it to everyone. You are definitely an insulting person who feels the need to tell everyone else they are wrong and what they do should with their time. I suggest you take your own advise.
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