Town Plans 50th Anniversary Celebration For Town That “Almost Never Was”

Becoming Oro Valley wasn’t easy

In April, the Town of Oro Valley will mark its 50th anniversary. This is a milestone that many now take for granted. Tonight, the Town Council will discuss plans for the celebration. And there is reason to celebrate because becoming Oro Valley was a hard thing to make happen. It took six years and then some to get to the point where people were sufficiently united to move forward.

The process of incorporation was a formidable and time-consuming endeavor, spearheaded by dedicated residents. Names you might have heard… like Jim Kriegh and Steve Engel. Not surprisingly, not only did the City of Tucson and Pima County actively fight against this move, but some community members also opposed it.

The town’s creation is detailed in the first chapter of Jim Williams Book “Oro Valley: The First 50 Years”. Here is some of we learned from his outstanding research.

Residents did not want to be Tucson… No Cluster Zone Developments 

It began with a threat of annexation. In March 1968, Tucson Mayor James Corby Junior announced the plan for the City to annex unincorporated Pima land north of the Rillito River as far as the intersection of Oracle Road and Calle Concordia.” (p10) Corby said he was going to do that at all cost. Tucson favored cluster zoning. Today, Oro Valley predominantly features clustered homes, with nearly all recent developments concentrating houses on smaller lots, preserving more desert areas. Contrastingly, in 1968, Oro Valley’s homes were predominantly on larger lots, embodying a more suburban character. During that time, homeowners strongly opposed the concept of clustered housing in their community, a key motivation behind their decision to incorporate the Town.

Residents did not want a City property tax

That would have been something that they would’ve incurred had the Tucson annexed the area. Those favoring incorporation promised the residents that they would never have a property tax in Oro Valley. The town is true to that concept even today. 

The “Town Founder” was the town engineer and council member

 Jim Kriegh is recognized as Oro Valley’s founding father, and there is even a park named in his honor. He dedicated a decade of relentless effort to both establish and maintain the town’s incorporation. Kreigh drew the boundaries of the town such that the southernmost boundary was sufficiently far from the city of Tucson to meet state requirements for incorporation. Kriegh was was appointed the Town engineer in 1976 and served as a member of council in the 1980's.

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Guest View-Diane Peters: Danny Sharp’s Claim Is Quite A Stretch

Mayoral Candidate Danny Sharp’s comment in the Explorer
In the June 22nd edition of the Explorer, Oro Valley mayoral candidate Danny Sharp continued his battle cry that the OVPD is understaffed, and then says, “I mean this town was founded on the premise of strong public safety. They [the Winfield council] are not attending to that strong public safety piece that the Founding Fathers of Oro Valley thought was important."

This is the first time I’ve heard that Oro Valley was founded on the premise of strong public safety. Every article I’ve read on this topic over the years has stated that Oro Valley was founded because residents didn’t want to be annexed into Tucson. They wanted to control their own destiny. They wanted to protect the desert landscape. The founders also promised that Oro Valley would never have a property tax. Now that the former chief of police is running for mayor, suddenly we’re told that Oro Valley was founded on the premise of strong public safety.

The Oro Valley Historical Society (OVHS) published an article on LOVE in April 2021 about Oro Valley Founding Father, Jim Kriegh. They listed all of the reasons that he wanted to incorporate Oro Valley. Strong public safety is not mentioned.

Here is what was mentioned in the OVHS article:

The Main Reason was to continue “Country Living”
When asked why he wanted to incorporate Oro Valley, Kriegh said the main reason was that he believed that Tucson was “going to spread to the North and Northwest, and there goes country living. Country living is why I am here.”

With that, Kriegh ensured that his core value of protecting the environment was encompassed in Oro Valley’s first General Plan which included the following objectives:

• Ensure that development is compatible with the area’s topography, natural landscape and resources

• Promote physical forms which are in harmony with the natural environment and reflect a design quality appropriate to the area

• Protect the natural beauty and qualities of the existing desert environment

• Encourage the preservation of the mountains, foothills, and hillsides

Police protection was barely a blip on Kriegh’s radar screen
In a video interview that Jim gave many years ago, he was asked why he wanted to form a separate town. In that interview he again spoke of land use issues and that the founders were not happy with the Planning and Zoning being approved by the Pima County Board of Supervisors and that the Board was not responding to their desires and requests. This was why the founders wanted to “gain control of our area.” He briefly mentioned that the Pima County Sheriff’s Department was “spread too thin and just could not cover the area” and as such, he felt that our police protection could be better. But this comment was barely a blip on the radar screen and he never said that Oro Valley was founded on the premise of strong public safety.

The recurring theme in Jim Kriegh’s plan
As you can see, the recurring theme in Kriegh’s desire to incorporate was to preserve country living. Therefore, Sharp’s assertion that “this town was founded on the premise of strong public safety” is quite a stretch.

Our public safety is doing just fine under Mayor Winfield
In April of this year, the Town announced that, “OV was ranked the #1 safest place to live in Arizona for 2022 by Elite Personal Finance, using FBI statistics and crime scores.”

Additionally, as reported on LOVE on May 16th, during the May 2022 Budget Study Session, Chief Riley stated that she got everything she asked for in her $19.1M police budget request. (Town Manager’s Recommended Budget for FY 2022/23 which begins on July 1, 2022). You can read about it HERE. And on June 24th, the OVPD announced that they were hiring more lateral police officers.

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Diane Peters has lived in Oro Valley since 2003, moving here to escape the humidity of the East Coast. She’s been involved in OV politics and development issues since 2006, including organizing a citizens group in 2014 that spent 9 months negotiating a controversial 200-acre development project. In her past life, she worked in medical research at various University Hospitals in New England. Her interests include reading, writing, nature photography, travel, art galleries, museums, and politics.