Oro Valley residents speak out against the Town Centre PAD zoning amendment. Part 3.

This week, LOVE is presenting some of the speeches given by Oro Valley residents during the Public Hearing on the above proposal.

Today’s speech is by Oro Valley resident, Bill Gardner.

Bill Gardner – Doubling the pressure in a 35-year old water pipe
“I’m a 32 year resident and my house is Ground Zero. Regarding water, WLB has never given us any specifics as to how this is going to be done. All we’ve been told is that we have no recourse in this regard….Our water line runs from Oracle Road at the intersection all the way up to the hotel at the top of our development. That's a mile. It’s a 35-year old pipe and 6 inches in diameter. I think we’re owed an explanation as to how you can come in and double, if not triple, the pressure in that pipe to pump the water down to this new development and also possibly to Area 3. We’d like to have an independent hydrologist come in and tell us how it’s going to be done. I think that's only fair. We’ve never been told how it’s going to be done.

Secondly, who’s going to do the work? A subcontractor to Richmond American.

Our roads are private and it was established at the Planning and Zoning Commission that you couldn’t use them to access this development as a road, yet somebody can come in and tear up our roads and our common area and we don’t even get formally asked.

Third, if anything goes wrong, who’s responsible? We’d like to see some sort of contract or agreement in place before the work starts so if this thing goes south (with water problems)…Who do we call? Who’s in charge? Is it the city, Oro Valley Water, Richmond America, or is it the subcontractor? I think this all needs to be sorted out. We want to make sure that our 7 irrigation lines are not affected by this. Nobody has mentioned sewers. We want to make sure that this thing does not cause any problems with our sewer system when you come in and dig up our roads.

I realize we can’t have all these answers now, but I certainly request as a resident of our community that somebody come and explain all this and give us a good solid legal and hydraulic engineering explanation.”

Oro Valley residents speak out against the Town Centre PAD zoning amendment. Part 1.

During the March 6th council meeting, there was a Public Hearing regarding the zoning amendment to the Town Centre PAD (Planned Area Development). If approved, this zoning amendment would allow 82 mass graded cluster homes on the Oracle Road Scenic Corridor (just south of the CVS Plaza), grading into the hillsides, and obstructing our views of the Catalina Mountains with an 8 foot high sound wall.

After listening to the applicant’s presentation and comments from residents during the Public Hearing, the Town Council voted to continue this item until the April 3rd meeting.

This week, LOVE is presenting some of the speeches given during the Public Hearing by Oro Valley residents who are against this proposal. (We are guessing on the spelling of the names and apologize if any are misspelled.)

Today’s speech is by Oro Valley resident, John Warney.

John Warney – A failing grade and a gash on the countryside
“This is much like a negotiation and a bargaining session. We know what Mr. Rooney (landowner) and Richmond American want. They have permission to build 65 homes on this property and they want more. The reason is simple. They’d like to make more money. We’d all like to make more money, but the question comes to what do WE the neighborhood and the Town get out of this?

We know what we’ll get. We’ll get disruptions, bulldozers, all types of trucks with really loud back-up signals from early morning until quitting time. Dust, dirt, digging up our streets to install water lines, and traffic congestion in an area already Graded F by the State Traffic Engineer. The addition of another 150 or so cars won’t help. What comes after F?

I’ve decided that our best hope here is to try to make the development do justice to the location. This is one of the few remaining building sites literally nestled against the Santa Catalina’s and Pusch Ridge. To understand the importance of this site to this community, I’d invite you (the council) to turn around and look at the Town Logo. It’s not made up of houses. It’s made up of those pretty mountains.”

He then described a portion of the development with just 50 foot wide lots and 5 foot side setbacks between the homes.

“What would be visible from the road is 180 yards of concrete and stucco, a wall almost two football fields long with no space between the houses. No room for trees or landscaping. Here’s a chance for you to improve on that. If you extend the width of these lots from 50 to 65 feet, you provide space for trees between the lots, landscaping for shade, room for some toys and a BBQ, some ventilation, and a view breaking up that ugly wall effect, converting these ugly houses into actual homes….Reducing 11 lots along that bend to 8, a loss of 3 houses but leaving a total of 79 homes, which is 30% more than the original 65 homes that they originally agreed to…

I hope you’ll think about that gash up on the countryside. It won’t be very pretty.”

Tomorrow’s speech is by Oro Valley resident, Don English.