Monday, September 19, 2022

Opposition to OVCN Sports Complex Continues

Residents unanimously oppose the OVCN Sports Complex 
Opposition to the sports complex proposed by the Oro Valley Church of the Nazarene “OVCN continues.  Residents have formed the "Concordia-Buena Vista Group" to oppose this complex.

Tim Tarris represented the group at the town council meeting of September7. We have included a video of his remarks to council in the insert below, right.

Tim and members of his group have been speaking to council members at each council meeting.

The following are from remarks made in June

Speaking to council, resident Jessica Tran, who lives near the church said: “I am a stay at home mom of two children under the age of two. We absolutely love our home and the area we live in. However, the traffic has been greater than we expected when we originally purchased our home.

We recently experienced a scary incident where an impatient driver was tired of waiting at the 4-way stop sign in front of our home and therefore drove through our driveway to dodge traffic. My daughter approximately 12 months at the time and I were outside exploring collecting rocks (something we regularly do). 

We could have easily been hit had we been in our driveway rather than on the side of the driveway. It was scary, frustrating and concerning to say the least. I assume we would see more behavior like that if the church continues to grow. As a resident of this area and as a mother I do not want that. I strongly encourage you to not continue with this rezone for the sake of the residents of this neighborhood.”

At he same meeting in June, resident Tarris noted just how out-of-place a large sports complex is in this area of our town.

 “Tonight I am going to speak in perspective on where large items might fit. Choosing a random location, I pick 500 W. Concordia, the site of the church. On this R-144 residentially zoned parcel, the following would fit 
  • 8 Boeing 747 aircraft or  
  • 6 St. Louis Gateway Arches or 
  • 4 Saturn V rockets (placed horizontally) or
  • 2 Empire State Buildings (placed horizontally) or
  • 1 Gerald R. Ford Class United States Aircraft Carrier 
Obviously, no resident of Oro Valley would ever consider having overly large items such as these, that take up space, draw crowds and make a lot of noise anywhere in our community, much less in a residential neighborhood. 

There is one item however, that just won’t fit. An unwanted sports complex shoehorned into an existing neighborhood absolutely against the wishes of the long time residents.

Having the items that might fit in the neighborhood would be a novelty

But having one item that would not and absolutely should not be there would be a disaster for the families that live there and don’t just visit on Sunday.”