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.
