The Town of Oro Valley at the urging of the the Oro Valley Town Council is rushing to complete Naranja Park. The goal is to complete the buildout of the park by 2024. The town is moving forward without a council approved conceptual design. They are doing so without knowing what the cost of the buildout is going to be. They are doing so without knowing what the cost of maintaining whatever it is they are building will be.
They are pressing forward with this massive undertaking at rapid pace. They are doing so that at a time of extraordinary high inflation, significant material shortages, and labor shortages.
Town staff presented the latest design to council at its April 6 study session. The design is different from the design presented in the 2020-21 Parks and Recreation Master Plan. That is the plan that kicked off this rush to complete the facility.
The first construction step is to prepare the site. That requires mass grading the site and building the underground utility infrastructure. Site preparation is costly. It does not result in any immediate benefit to the community. This concerns Vice Mayor Barrett. At the meeting, she asked asked if the cost of this "all at once" site preparation approach would consume a large portion of the $15 million in bond funds that were earmarked for building the park.
Barrett did not receive a direct answer from Town Public Works Director Paul Keesler, who is in charge of the project. Rather, Keesler explained that preparing the entire site was necessary because of the various grades of the existing land. One simply could not grade one area without impacting the other areas.
Barrett then observed: “If we are in a situation where the grading is going to eat most of [the bond money], and we’re still not able to put in at least a significant portion of the amenities, then I think we would need to come back and take a look at it."
The cost of building the facility is unknown because the town does not know what the facility is going to look like. “Staff is putting in motion plans to get the final maximum bid price of our Construction Manager at Risk (CMAR) contractor, Haydon, so plans can be made to start the mobilization and then grading phase.” (Source).
Keesler confirmed that the Naranja Park buildout cost will be significantly more than anticipated even a year ago. "“I can guarantee you that Naranja Park will take the majority of the $25 million in park bond money.” According to Town Manager Jacobs. the cost is expected to be at least $5 million more than the allocated amount of $15 million.
According to Keesler, the biggest risk is the availability and cost of materials. "Everything is crystal ball…” at this point.
Since the town does not know what the site is going to look like, it does not know the cost of maintaining this extraordinarily large, amenity rich facility in a manner consistent with Oro Valley’s vision as a “Town of Excellence.”
About the only thing that is certain is the town's communication plan. “Once construction begins, the Hayden [CMAR Contractor] team will be providing weekly project reports to Town staff. The OV Communications team will summarize those reports into reader-friendly updates that will be posted to the project web page located here. Updates will also be included in the Parks and Recreation email blast as needed, and photos will occasionally be posted to social media to keep the community engaged and mindful of the project web page and the progress on this exciting amenity. Site signs will include a QR code to lead residents to the project page as well. To kick off the project and communication efforts, staff is planning a press release, an Explorer article and a podcast episode ahead of the May 31 groundbreaking ceremony.” (Source)
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