What a farce!
Well, an astute reader(we don't know) wrote the following letter to the magazine's editor. The letter says exactly what we've been saying to Oro Valley----so far to deaf ears.
Here's the unedited letter.
Art
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I have just finished reading your article"the Oro Valley Marketplace"(September 2008).
Although I am not a resident of either community, I am disappointed with what I see.
Consider the appearance of the Marketplace] when heading east on Tangerine, approaching Oracle. It is truly an impressive view of rooftops, air handling equipment, vents and all the rest of the hardware common to commercial buildings. Truly NOT a grand view of what was touted as a premier shopping experience.
Now, consider the view when heading south on Oracle south of Tangerine -----a most impressive display of the rear facades of commercial buildings and loading docks. It will certainly look even more impressive(oppressive?) when the loading docks are full of semis discharging their content, and trash containers littering the scene.
The less than pleasing vista offered by the Marketplace certainly reflects poorly on Oro Valley, its planners, Vestar and its designers. The Tangerine/Oracle intersection will definitely look less "Arizona" with the presence of the Marketplace as it now appears.
D. Minow
1 comment:
Oro Valley, once known for it's unfettered beauty, now has a scar on it's face as well as a blot on it's once envied reputation. How did it happen? First and formost, this corner should NEVER have been allowed to have a massive, anti-landscape designed architectural abomination approved for it. The design guidelines written into the Oro Valley zoning regulations are quite clear along with the recognition that the Oracle Road and Tangerine Road corridors are to be even more restrictive in application. One of the DRB members once suggested to me that [well, these are only GUIDELINES and implied that these 'only guidelines' weren't really meant to be boundries]. I have news for that person and any others that might question the term - a set of guidelines, when included in a body of restrictions, means that anything outside of these guidelines is outside of the MAXIUMUM perameters set. That is the commonality of understanding as observed by most political subdivisions throughout the country.
The DRB, Planning and Zoning, Board of Adjustment, Staff, Council, ALL have had a hand in 'bending' the rules that have resulted and are still resulting in the messing up our beloved Oro Valley. I don't think the Town has ever seen a 'variance' they didn't like; IF it was a 'request' by a favored business entity.
Some time ago, after I personally demanded that a certain new business building, in the process of construction completion, observe the rule that industrial appurtanences be hidden from view, and after it tried instead to camouflage it's violation, I, when I tried to have a MAYORAL PROMISE enforced, was met with resistance and 'meandering' by certain members of the town staff. I requested that a Certificate of Occupancy be denied until the proprietor complied with the ordinance. Well, the result was a bit of compliance mixed with micky-moused architecture and so the emissions stack housing on the Vistoso Memorial Chapel remains an architectural joke.
As a 40 year interior designer, architectural consultant, one who is very much in tune with the flow of architecture as well as it's ability to coordinate with nature and/or assimilate into it's surroundings, this BEAST, the ORO VALLEY MARKET PLACE which has been planted in our midst, a BEAST that defies the architectural demands/regulations of this community to an extent that no other structure has, most certainly did not have to be. There are many, many examples of architecutral sensitivity throughout the country, the OVM is NOT one of them.
NO CERTIFICATE OF OCCUPANCY SHOULD BE GRANTED TO ANY TENANT UNTIL SUCH TIME AS AN ACCEPTABLE REMEDY TO THIS EXTREME IN-YOUR-FACE UGLINESS AS WELL AS OUTWARD DEFIANCE HAS BEEN PUT TO BED.
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