This is an open letter to the candidates running for Oro Valley mayor and town council.Simply put, my vision for Oro Valley is one that respects our natural landscape and our wildlife. My vision is one that respects the residents and what we’ve worked all of our lives to accomplish, and how much has gone into maintaining the value of our homes. After all, a person’s home is their sanctuary.
It was in our nature
With that, my vision for the Town is pretty much the vision that I encountered on the first day that I laid eyes on Oro Valley back in 2003. It was a small town, quiet and pretty, with lots of desert and mountain views, an abundance of wildlife, mostly 2-lane roads, many with dirt shoulders instead of sidewalks, hardly any traffic lights or street lights. It was a peaceful little town.
The undeveloped desert areas surrounding our home were all zoned for rural residential 3.3 acre minimum lot sizes, so we expected that even when those parcels were eventually developed, that Oro Valley’s “nature” would remain the same and our neighborhood would remain the same.
Local government should be citizen-friendly, not developer/builder friendly
Things changed with the arrival of the Hiremath administration who approved every greedy landowner and developer’s request to rezone all the rural residential 3.3 acre minimum lots down to 7,000 square foot minimum lot sizes with mass grading. No concern at all was given to us and what we bought (semi-custom home on a large lot with desert views). No concern was given to nearby residents who live in $800,000 custom homes on 3.3 acre and up lot sizes. They all lost their desert views, their peace and quiet, and their property values when the desert was leveled and replaced with 2-story McHomes right outside their backyards.
No concern at all was given to all the wildlife that was displaced or killed in the process. Trees that once gave shade and shelter to animals and kept our temperatures cooler were bulldozed with reckless abandon. (Before someone asserts that desert vegetation was removed to build my home, I will clarify that my neighborhood was not mass-graded and there are no connecting walls, which was specifically why we chose a home in this neighborhood…to be surrounded by trees and other desert vegetation, plenty of wildlife, and the sounds of nature).
I still remember the night when a resident who lives on a large lot on a dirt road spoke at the podium during a town council meeting regarding an Oro Valley development proposal that was going to come right up to his property and not only destroy his property value but also destroy the wildlife habitat that surrounded his home…and he actually began crying while speaking at the podium. You know it’s bad when a man is reduced to tears in public.
See us as human beings
I’ve heard former council members and former Planning and Zoning commissioners state that their decisions must be based on facts and not on “emotions.” But our emotions play a significant role in our overall well-being. Happy people are healthier. People who are often angry, sad, frustrated, or constantly stressed end up with a multitude of health problems to include stomach ulcers, high blood pressure, headaches, weight gain or weight loss, cancer, etc. So, I think that if the town truly cared about its residents, then the town would care about the health of those residents, which would include considering our emotions and our feelings. We are human beings, after all, and there is more to our lives than balance sheets.
My vision is also one where all stakeholders are treated equally. But what I have observed is a pattern where developers, builders, business owners, wealthy land speculators, and residents who live along the town-owned golf courses are all given priority over the rest of us.
Stop circumventing the General Plan and Zoning Codes
What's the purpose of having zoning codes and a voter-approved general plan when every developer shows up requesting exceptions to the rules and the town grants those exceptions more often than not?
Look at the exceptions being requested for Oro Valley Village Center. To my knowledge, they’ve asked for exceptions to the Environmentally Sensitive Lands Ordinance, building height limitations, setback requirements, the open space requirement, and scenic corridor requirements. They also want apartments to be allowed as well as permitting drive-thru uses without a Conditional Use Permit (CUP).
Give equal weight to the arts and culture crowd
Oro Valley caters to the athletic crowd, whether they be residents or tourists – golf, hiking trails, biking trails, tennis, swimming, etc. But if you are not athletic and you enjoy the arts, museums, upscale shopping, and fine dining, there isn’t much here for you, despite all of the commercial growth in this town.
Yes, we have a Spring Arts Festival and a Fall Arts Festival, but amenities for the athletic crowd are available every day, not just once every few months.
So, my vision also includes what I have seen done in other communities that appear to have a better "vision" than what Oro Valley has shown. We’ve been to other towns all over the country that have areas for boutique shopping, upscale restaurants, and art galleries all located on beautiful tree-lined streets. It can be done. But in Oro Valley, every shopping venue is a run-of-the-mill strip mall. Not long ago, we had three Mattress Firm stores at one intersection.
Epilogue
I used to be proud to live here and was always inviting our friends and family from New England to come out and visit. I no longer invite anyone to visit. What am I going to show them? Scraped desert, cookie-cutter cluster homes, traffic lights and traffic jams, street lights, Anywhere USA shopping plazas, and apartment buildings blocking mountain views? We can and should do better.
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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.
