"Oro Valley strives to be business friendly."
This is an assertion that we have heard from the Oro Valley Town Council and town staff for the past three years. There is also a similar assertion that Oro Valley was not business friendly in the past.
So, what has changed?
Oro Valley Actively Supports Businesses
There is no way to measure Oro Valley's business-friendliness. One can only point to anecdotal evidence which, by definition is imperfect. Here's five evidences we've identified, all of which occurred in the past three years:
- Money: Oro Valley now contributes funds to the Greater Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce. The amount this year is $xxx. The majority-4 on council (Hiremath, Hornat, Snider and Waters) actually increased the spending over what town manager Greg Caton had recommended. Prior to 2010, when the majority-4 were elected, there was not Oro Valley payment to the Chamber.
- Events: The town now works in concert with the Chamber to build business in Oro Valley. An example of this is the "Shop Oro Valley Program" and the Oro Valley Cash Mob program.
- Amendments: Developers seem to get their way with the Oro Valley Board of Adjustment. We've written about this already. We believe that this is because of a rather liberal interpretation of the first of the five reasons why a variance can be granted.
- Access and Assistance: The Oro Valley Development and Infrastructure Department staff seems to work hand in hand with developers in their submissions to council. Yes. The staff does make changes to the submissions. However, these are all agree-upon well before the council meeting. Resident concerns are not handled in the same manner. The same cordiality and assistance that is afforded developers is not accorded to residents who oppose projects.
- Relaxes Sign Codes: The Oro Valley town council has voted several times on more liberal sign codes.
Oro Valley Code Enforcement Is Business Friendly
"As you know, Oro Valley strives to be a business-friendly community; therefore, we take a proactive approach to sign code enforcement and potential life safety concerns, while also trying to accommodate the needs of our businesses, " observed Oro Valley's Consituent Services Coordinator, Chris Cornilson in an email to us.
"As you know, Oro Valley strives to be a business-friendly community; therefore, we take a proactive approach to sign code enforcement and potential life safety concerns, while also trying to accommodate the needs of our businesses, " observed Oro Valley's Consituent Services Coordinator, Chris Cornilson in an email to us.
Sign and outdoor display compliance is the responsibility of the DIS Inspection Compliance Division. The Town has two staff members dedicated to code compliance. Cornilson's email to us noted four areas of compliance protocol .
- Staff will always follow-up with citizen complaints and will take the appropriate action based on whether the complaint can be verified as non-compliant
- Staff performs weekly compliance patrols, specifically looking for violations.
- Staff performs bi-weekly compliance patrols on weekends, alternating between Saturdays and Sundays.
- Inspection & Compliance staff are cognizant of prohibited actions under the Zoning Code and will notify the manager and code compliance staff when a potential violation has been observed.
Town staff works with the code violators to seek corrections, rather than simply issuing citations and telling violators to follow our code.
As we have previously posted, Resident Don Bristow has identified a number of sign and display code violations that were simply not identified by town staff. Some have been going on for a long time. Either the town's enforcement officials have not observed these or the town's "gentle" approach to enforcement is simply not working.
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Council Member Mike Zinkin believes that Oro Valley should enforce its laws regardless of what the current "philosophy" may be: "Codes, Laws, and Ordinances come about through a democratic process. Elected officials pass the laws after hearing from the public. Once these are passed, there should be no need to reinterpret the law based on a philosophy. Either enforce the law or repeal it." Zinkin continues: " I can go along with a through education process with business and not use a heavy hand. However, after a certain period of time, something must be done."
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Do you think that Oro Valley is more business friendly than in the past? Do you think Oro Valley's approach to enforcement is working? Are you pleased with Oro Valley's business-friendly posture?
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As we have previously posted, Resident Don Bristow has identified a number of sign and display code violations that were simply not identified by town staff. Some have been going on for a long time. Either the town's enforcement officials have not observed these or the town's "gentle" approach to enforcement is simply not working.
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Council Member Mike Zinkin believes that Oro Valley should enforce its laws regardless of what the current "philosophy" may be: "Codes, Laws, and Ordinances come about through a democratic process. Elected officials pass the laws after hearing from the public. Once these are passed, there should be no need to reinterpret the law based on a philosophy. Either enforce the law or repeal it." Zinkin continues: " I can go along with a through education process with business and not use a heavy hand. However, after a certain period of time, something must be done."
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Do you think that Oro Valley is more business friendly than in the past? Do you think Oro Valley's approach to enforcement is working? Are you pleased with Oro Valley's business-friendly posture?
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