Meritage Homes Continues To "Trash The Desert" (Part 2)

Meritage Homes is literally trashing the desert. Yesterday we published Part 1 about this. It focused on the timeline from November 2021 through April 2022. Today, we focus on the latest. Both articles were written with information provided to LOVE over the past ten months from Amy Eisenberg, Ph.D.
---
June and July 2022

Another 50 pounds of trash discovered including rusty barbed wire
Dr. Eisenberg cleaned up another 50 pounds of trash left by Meritage Homes, AT&T, and American Tower employees. She again called The Oro Valley Police Department to report the violation. She later dragged up two large tangles of rusty barbed wire and garbage from the Pima County Open Space Conservation Zone, including a tire on the Silverhawke Trail near American Tower where desert tortoises reside.

Eisenberg continued to implore Meritage Homes, American Tower, and AT&T workers to stop dumping their trash over the enclosure and into the desert and to show some respect for the wildlife that lives there. Dr. Eisenberg reports that after much prompting and pushback, American Tower cleaned up their enclosure and AT&T cleaned up their adjacent gated enclosure.

August 2022

Broken glass and Meritage Homes signs found on the ground
By August, Dr. Eisenberg had cleaned up hundreds of pounds of trash on this parcel. She is concerned that “if a baby tortoise eats this trash, they could become ill and die.”

On August 3, 2022, Eisenberg reported broken glass and many pounds of garbage including two tires which she removed from the Silverhawke Spur Trail off of Palisades Road. She asked the Town to have someone adopt this trail and clean up the broken glass “to protect native creatures.” Eisenberg also found two Meritage Homes signs left on the ground. She again asked for the Town’s assistance in requiring that Meritage “clean up the desert surrounding their construction site.”

The Town explains their compliance process

“Per our compliance process, once the violation has been rectified the violation is closed. So, when the compliance staff determines there is litter outside of Meritage’s property, Meritage is notified of the violation, Meritage will send out a crew to clean up the litter and when the Town follows up to confirm, the violation is closed, each time. A fine is considered when the litter is not picked up from several violation notices. This has not been the case with Meritage, each time they are notified about the litter, it is picked up.

The Town continues to keep eyes on this project and works closely with Meritage to remind their trade partners of cleanup expectations.”

According to the Town, the problem has been rectified. According to Dr. Eisenberg, the problem is ongoing and she continues to pick up the trash herself and continues to report the problems to the Town and the OVPD.

An unsustainable situation
It appears that the Town only addresses each individual episode and then it's "case closed" and that a fine is only considered if they do not pick up the litter after receiving several violation notices.  The fine should not just be "considered."  It should be mandatory.  This ongoing trash problem is an unsustainable situation.  LOVE has asked the Town if they have a protocol to address a builder who continually fails to control the litter on their job site.  We are awaiting a response. 

Between Meritage Homes construction debris, Pima County not maintaining their Open Space Conservation Zone, and Silverhawke residents’ trash blowing onto the trail and surrounding area, Dr. Eisenberg believes that this trail needs regular stewardship.

We still do not understand why Meritage Homes was never fined. After all, if a person/company does not suffer the consequences for their behavior, they have no reason to change their behavior.
---

Meritage Homes Continues To "Trash The Desert" (Part 1)

This article was written with information provided to LOVE over the past ten months from Amy Eisenberg, Ph.D.  (Her bio appears at the end of this article).  She has been in frequent contact with town and county officials regarding an ongoing problem with Meritage Homes leaving their trash in the Silverhawke development and surrounding desert (First, Tangerine, and Palisades Road). Their discarded trash blows into the conservation area where Sonoran desert tortoises reside.
---
November 2021

Dr. Eisenberg reported extensive trash in the Silverhawke development area. Town Staff inspection confirmed her report.
Dr. Eisenberg emailed the mayor and council about Meritage Homes leaving their trash in the desert. She had already picked up hundreds of pounds of trash that Meritage Homes workers had dumped over the wall (where they were building homes) into the desert where Sonoran desert tortoises reside. She noted to law enforcement that if an individual person litters this way, they would be fined, yet “Meritage Homes continues with impunity.”

Although she was happy that Mayor Winfield had been picking up this trash during his walks in the area, she asked, “What will you do besides clean up after them as you carry a trash bag on your walks?” She stressed that this issue needs to be resolved proactively rather than after the fact.

Town sends violation letter to Meritage
On November 4, 2021, a violation letter was sent from the Town to Meritage Homes after the Town Compliance Staff inspected the site on two occasions and found extensive trash both times.  The Town cited, "an accumulation of trash not being contained and drifting into the adjacent properties and within the build site on individual lots" and "As per the conditions to obtain a permit, each construction site is required to maintain cleanliness at the worksite."  Meritage was told to, "Please remove or otherwise dispose of the materials immediately" and that "failure to comply with the conditions stated in this letter is a violation of town code."  However, as of November 17, 2021, Dr. Eisenberg reported that the trash still had not been picked up.

The Town also informed Dr. Eisenberg that:

"...the trail has been given over to the Town, which makes it adoptable for community members. The southern section of the trail was adopted by the Mayor and his wife, which is why you see them out there. The northern portion is still available for adoption."

It sounds as though Meritage has, in essence, been given "permission" to toss their garbage everywhere knowing that volunteer town residents will pick it up later. That may not have been the town's intent, but it sure sounds as though Meritage Homes employees are interpreting it that way. 

Dr. Eisenberg contacted local media and Meritage Homes after she picked up hundreds of pounds of trash on this parcel.
On November 21, 2021, Dr. Eisenberg contacted local media and Jeff Grobstein of Meritage Homes. She informed them that she had “just returned from walking the trail by American Tower on the development parcel between Tangerine, Palisades and First” and that “Meritage Homes did not clean up this area.” She noted “unacceptable desecration” and that Jeff Grobstein was “not adequately supervising his workers.”

On November 24, 2021, she again contacted the Town and Meritage Homes noting, “Extensive trash dumped by Meritage homes along the [Silverhawke] conservation easement trail near American Tower on the parcel between Tangerine, First and Palisades” and that Meritage had already “destroyed tortoise and gila monster burrows” in this conservation area and that she and a friend had already “cleaned up hundreds of pounds of trash on this parcel.”

Later that day, she was told by the Town that their Compliance Staff was working with Meritage to ensure that litter outside of their property was being cleaned up. As you will see below, this did not happen.

April 2022

Mayor Winfield agrees that there is a problem.
In mid-April, Dr. Eisenberg once again cleaned up several pounds of trash left by Meritage Homes, including “construction material with rusty nails along their sidewalk endangering native animals that pass through the area.” Additionally, some of this trash “had blown into the conservation zone by American Tower (between Palisades, First, and Tangerine). She reported the problem to the OVPD and the Town Council.

On April 19th, she received the following email from Mayor Winfield: (LOVE added the bold print).

“Thank you for picking up litter on the slope behind American Tower. My wife and I also picked up litter in the area you’re describing on three different mornings in the past two weeks. Litter has been a problem and Meritage has done a poor job addressing the litter generated by their contractors. We frequently walk the trails in the Silverhawke area and we have observed litter is decreasing because much of the construction is completed. I imagine once the construction phase is completed the HOA may step forward and adopt the trails. If not I’m sure someone will.”

Dr. Eisenberg responded:

“Meritage Homes benefited from the conservation easement, therefore they should assume the responsibility of cleaning up after themselves. This ongoing abuse is deeply disheartening. They continue to desecrate this conservation zone.”

Why hasn’t Meritage Homes been fined?
LOVE wonders: If the town agrees that Meritage Homes has done a poor job of addressing their litter problem, and this problem has been going on for months, why hasn’t Meritage Homes been fined?

Part 2 will be published tomorrow and covers the timeline from June through August 2022.
---
Dr. Eisenberg is an ethnoecologist and botanist who teaches at the University of Arizona and is an Associate Scholar with Center for World Indigenous Studies. She has authored and co-authored numerous articles on indigenous peoples’ issues, social and environmental impact assessment, and sustainable natural resource management.

Guest View: Diane Peters ~ Wildlife Matters

 

Despite being involved in Oro Valley development issues for the past 15 years, reading Dr. Amy Eisenberg’s recent Guest View on LOVE about the devastation on the Kai-Silverhawke property was an eye-opener even for me. (Read it HERE)

The Town needs to implement a Wildlife Conservation Ordinance
After reading her Guest View and witnessing what Meritage Homes was allowed to do on the Silverhawke property -- completely leveling the land and all those beautiful rolling hills (wildlife habitat) -- it appears that the Town does not have any protocols in place for protecting wildlife. Therefore, we can expect the same devastation to occur on the remaining Kai property at First and Tangerine if and when it is ever developed.

Since tortoises are very slow moving and cannot outrun a bulldozer, I can surmise from reading Dr. Eisenberg's article that some of them were crushed to death or buried alive during the mass grading of Silverhawke. And apparently the Town does not care because they are not federally protected. Until recently, I had no idea that there were tortoises living on that parcel.

Our Town Council has an opportunity, from this point forward, to establish a preconstruction protocol to analyze, protect, and perhaps relocate indigenous species living in the construction area. In light of what these animals could face, this is the humane, compassionate, and civilized thing to do. What the Town is currently allowing is just plain cruel.

The Town should require a “Wildlife Assessment and Plan” to be submitted with every development proposal and rezoning.

A wildlife biologist should be consulted
If the Town can arrange to have all the saguaro cactus counted on a property and make arrangements for them to either be protected in place or carefully relocated, they can certainly do the same for wildlife...and not just the ones on the Endangered Species List. How do you think they became endangered in the first place? It was due to the thoughtless, selfish, greedy, and reckless behavior of man.

Rather than destroying wildlife habitats and killing the wildlife, then waiting for their numbers to decline so much that they are eventually placed on the Endangered Species list, and then we must wait years (if not decades) for their numbers to increase again, why not be proactive and have protocols that prevent this from happening in the first place? 

Demolished tortoise habitat (Photo from Dr. Eisenberg's Guest View)

Oro Valley - It's in our nature!

Is it? Or is that just a slogan?


The Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan
I’ve wrongly assumed all these years that Oro Valley’s wildlife was being catalogued and protected due to The Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan that has been in effect since 1998. According to their website, below is one of the components in the plan:

• Working with local jurisdictions such as the City of Tucson, Town of Marana, Town of Oro Valley, and Town of Sahuarita on regional habitat conservation planning and the development of their conservation policies and ordinances. We also continually monitor how these policies and ordinances are applied to specific development projects.

This did not appear to happen on the Silverhawke property. Is the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan just a guide without any actual requirements and enforcement?

A plea to our Mayor and Council
Impacts to wildlife habitat must be considered in all future General Plan amendments and rezonings. I call on our Town Council and Town Staff to immediately begin implementation of a wildlife conservation plan. And not just a guide that can be overlooked or modified when convenient, but an actual Town Code to prevent this travesty from ever happening again. We must stop allowing wildlife to be killed simply because developers deem them to be in the way and disposable. On the contrary, it’s us humans who are in their way!

And do it now because we are not likely to have a more environmentally friendly council than this to do it.
- - -
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. In 2014, she organized a citizens group, who over a 9-month period, successfully negotiated 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.

Guest View: Amy Eisenberg, Ph.D. ~ Sonoran Desert Tortoises are Greatly Imperiled by Unsustainable Development in Oro Valley

This Guest View is derived from a letter sent by Dr. Eisenberg to the Town of Oro Valley regarding the proposed residential development of the Kai Property at First and Tangerine. LOVE added the subheadings. The destruction described below was witnessed on the large contiguous Kai parcel from Palisades Road to Tangerine. This is a large tortoise habitat that has been greatly reduced and fragmented due to development on that parcel.

A public hearing on this General Plan Amendment and Rezoning will be held this Wednesday, January 6th during a Town Council Special Session Zoom Meeting.  You may join the meeting and comment.  A link to the Zoom meeting can be found HERE

---

Sonoran Desert Tortoise dens destroyed by Meritage Homes and Capri Co., LLC
As stewards who reside in the adjacent community, we understand and witness that this parcel has environmental and archaeological significance: Sonoran Desert Tortoises - Gopherus morafkai reside on this parcel and some of their dens were destroyed during Capri Co., LLC trenching and Meritage Homes development during tortoise brumation! This is unlawful, unethical, unacceptable and disgraceful. I contacted the President of Meritage Homes, Jeff Grobstein and Steve Hilton as well as Game and Fish to no avail!

*No hired biologist monitored this before the destruction except myself, and I was not consulted by the developers who destroyed the tortoise dens and burrows.

An illegal dumping ground
There are significant native plants and trees on this parcel as well as ancestral tools, Native American trails, ceramic shards and worked stone. Kai and Capri have been irresponsible and negligent land owners and developers. Kai has allowed this parcel to be an illegal dumping ground for many years. As stewards, we reported illegal dumping on this site to the police on numerous occasions.

Unsustainable development of this parcel leads to environmental impacts to the native plant and animal communities as well as the human community. Meritage Homes is currently trashing the parcel and workers are leaving their garbage and recyclables all around the perimeter of the Meritage Homes development zone. It is disrespectful and unacceptable. I reported this illegal dumping to Oro Valley Government, the Arizona Attorney General, and the Better Business Bureau.

Lack of respect towards native plants, trees, and wildlife
A healthy intact environment sustains life. The continued destruction of this parcel with its significant plants, trees and animal communities will be further harmed by this proposed development and it will further impact the human community. Extensive trash, destruction of animal burrows and dens, workers treating the desert parcel as a wasteland, workers defecating and leaving their fecal matter and wiping paper is a health and sanitation hazard and violation. I reported this to Oro Valley government to no avail!

Tortoise Den on Kai parcel

Shame on Kai and Capri Co., LLC for their unethical and shoddy practices of digging deep vertical trenches that entrapped native animals without placing barriers, destroying tortoise habitat, burrows and dens, and archaeologically significant sites and trails. Our human health and well-being are inextricably tied to a healthy environment. Kai, Meritage Homes, and Capri Co., LLC have negatively impacted the environment with their irresponsible development practices, negligence and illegal dumping.


Oro Valley government is certainly complicit
Oro Valley gives a green light to many unsustainable developers who have irreparably altered the natural environment to a great extent. There are mounds of hundreds of pounds of rusting cables and rusting hardware on this parcel that have been dumped there for decades. This impedes the growth of native plants and the safety of native animals that travel in this zone. It appears that Kai is not at all concerned that illegal dumping has been occurring on this once beautiful parcel and this is lamentable. As Arizona stewards, we greatly care and have cleaned up hundreds of pounds of illegally dumped trash by Meritage Homes, American Tower workers, contractors, Capri Co., LLC workers and others. These irresponsible adults should be cleaning up after themselves, but sadly, this is not the case.

Demolished tortoise habitat

A sacred homeland
This type of shoddy development is unsustainable, unacceptable, and negligent. NO, indeed, we are strongly opposed to this proposed development project. Enough damage has been done to this once pristine and beautiful parcel that is rich with Native American history in the Tohono O’odham Haki: Dag - the sacred homeland of the Tohono O’odham Nation.

As knowledgeable stewards and citizens, we must all carefully and responsibly respect and safeguard the Sonoran Desert Tortoises that still live on this greatly fragmented parcel. Sonoran Desert Tortoises and their broken habitat will surely be further devastated by the impending proposed development. They will not survive the onslaught! Gopherus morafkai urgently need Federal Protection to ensure their perpetuity and wellbeing. These magnificent creatures of the Sonoran Desert greatly deserve this.

[As previously reported on LOVE, the proposals for the remaining undeveloped land on this parcel include five land use options: apartments, rental casitas, townhomes, senior care facility, and single family residential.]

- - -
Dr. Eisenberg is an ethnoecologist and botanist who teaches at the University of Arizona and is an Associate Scholar with Center for World Indigenous Studies. She has authored and co-authored numerous articles on indigenous peoples’ issues, social and environmental impact assessment, and sustainable natural resource management.

Important Public Hearing - LaCholla Rezoning

Planning & Zoning Commission

Tuesday, April 3, 2018

6:00 PM

Council Chambers

11,000 N. LaCanada Drive

CAPELLA PLANNED AREA DEVELOPMENT.  Discussion and possible action regarding a proposed rezoning on 207 acres from large lot residential (R1-144)* to Planned Area Development (PAD) for approximately 199 acres located on the west side of LaCholla Blvd. between Lambert Lane and Naranja Drive AND 8.2 acres located on the NW corner of LaCholla Blvd. and Naranja Drive. 

*R1-144 equals 144,000 square foot lots (3.3 acre lots). The rezoning request is for minimum lot sizes of 6600 square feet.

What to expect
If approved, this rezoning will allow the development of 500 residential lots on minimum lot sizes of just 6600 square feet. It will also allow commercial OR the addition of another 70 residential lots at the NW and SW corners of LaCholla/Naranja.

The applicant is Paul Oland of the WLB Group (the development/engineering firm representing the landowner). WLB also represents Jeff Grobstein, President of Meritage Homes, the likely builder.

Who is representing YOU?
Who is representing the residents who live along the LaCholla corridor, Lambert Lane, Naranja Drive, and the Canada Hills subdivision who will be adversely impacted by this development?

In 2014-2015, when this development proposal was being presented as a Major General Plan Amendment, you were being represented by a citizens’ group, Citizen Advocates of the Oro Valley General Plan. They negotiated with The WLB Group for 9 months.  They negotiated the number of homes from 778 down to 500.  They also fought for and were granted the following Special Area Policies.

Click HERE to view the Special Area Policies.

(NOTE: The 6600 square foot minimum lot sizes were agreed to reluctantly as The WLB Group would not budge on this issue. However, in exchange for 6600 square foot lot sizes in one area of the residential parcel, WLB agreed to increase the lot sizes to 10,000 square feet along Lambert Lane).

All of this can still be re-negotiated during the current rezoning process.

Citizen Advocates is no longer active as their goal was to negotiate the Major General Plan Amendments that pertained to this property. This was settled in May 2015.

So the answer is…YOU have to represent YOU!

Entitlements vs. Mandates
The applicant’s bottom line is getting all 500 homes that they are currently entitled to build. In order for them to fit all 500 homes, the lots need to be on the smaller side, thus the rezoning request.

However, although 500 homes is the maximum allowed per the 2016 General Plan, it is not a mandate. They can always go lower on the density without requiring Town Council approval. No one is forcing them to build 500 homes.

Campaigns funded by developers
We currently have a 7-member pro-development town council whose election campaigns were funded (and will likely be funded again this year) by the same people who are looking to develop this property. It stands to reason that the applicant wants to get approval before the upcoming 2018 Town Council election when the makeup of the council could change and may no longer be so developer-friendly.

What can YOU do?

(1) Send your objection letters to Oro Valley Principal Planner, Michael Spaeth (mspaeth@orovalleyaz.gov).  Your letters will be included in the packet for the Planning & Zoning Commissioners. Should they vote to approve this rezoning despite citizen objections, your letters will then be included in the Town Council packet for the next Public Hearing.

(2) You can also plan to speak during the Public Hearing portion of the Planning & Zoning meeting.

You can view the agenda and all of the attachments HERE

View the entire proposal and the rezoning requests HERE (The rezoning requests are on pages 188-190 of the proposal)

If you are concerned about the small residential lot sizes, pay special attention to:

Items #12, #13 and #14. (Medium density residential, west side of LaCholla from Lambert Lane to Naranja).

If you are concerned about the commercial parcels, pay special attention to:

Item #4 (Neighborhood Commercial, NW corner of LaCholla/Naranja)
Item #15 (C-1 Commercial, NW corner Lambert/LaCholla)

Residents need to do more than just complain about the rampant development in town AFTER the bulldozers have arrived. You need to speak up now BEFORE the development is approved so that YOU can have a say in the future of YOUR town and YOUR neighborhood.