Canoa
Ranch leads the list of the Top 15 stories of 1999
By The Editorial
Staff
Green Valley
News
1999 was a
very busy year for the residents of the Santa Cruz Valley and Southern
Arizona.
It was the
year of the developer.
It was the
year of mines.
It was the
year of the override.
It was the
year of the lake debate.
It was the
year of the grocery store.
And it was
the year that we worried about the clocks turning from 1999 to 2000.
In the past,
we have presented what we felt were the top 10 stories of the year past,
however there were just too many to chose from this year so you get the
Top 15 stories of 1999.
Canoa Ranch
Fairfield Homes’
plans for the Canoa Ranch were dealt a setback on Jan. 14 when its master
plan to develop the 6,000-plus-acre parcel southeast of Green Valley was
rejected by the Pima County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 14.
The developer
had submitted the Canoa Ranch Specific Plan to the county over a year before.
But as the
plan wound its way through the required public hearing process, opposition
to Fairfield’s ambitious development plans grew.
Critics said
the proposed 6,111 homes, 600 acres of commercial, golf courses and private
airstrip were unsuited for the historic ranch property and would forever
change the character of the surrounding rural area.
It culminated
on Jan. 14, when over 1,000 people jammed the auditorium at the Sahuarita
schools campus, some to speak in favor of the plan but most to voice their
opposition.
The proposal
drew opposition from the Smithsonian Institution, whose astronomers at
the nearby Fred Lawrence Whipple Observatory worried aloud that
“light pollution” from the development posed a threat to impair astronomical
research on Mount Hopkins.
Also registering
opposition were environmentalists, who argued that the Canoa Ranch represented
the last remaining open space area for wildlife to range from the Santa
Rita Mountains west to the Sierrita Mountains and Buenos Aires Wildlife
Refuge.
And, others
argued, the property was a valuable historic and cultural area, with Native
American archaeological sites dating back 10,000 years.
Juan Bautista
de Anza camped at Canoa Spring in 1776, starting out on his expedition
that would lead to the founding of San Francisco.
The supervisors
did not stop the rejection of the Canoa Ranch Specific Plan.
They voted
as part of the motion to deny the plan that county officials draw up amendments
to the Pima County Comprehensive Plan, the county’s official long-range
land use planning guide, that would change recommended land uses for the
property to conform with a yet-to-be-finalized Sonoran Desert Conservation
Plan.
That plan is
intended to set aside permanently lands that are identified as environmentally,
culturally or historically important.
It contains
six elements defining such lands, and county officials say Canoa Ranch
fits five of the six criteria.
Nine possible
comprehensive plan amendments came before the supervisors on Nov. 16.
In a surprise
move, the county governing body adopted none of them, instead voting to
begin the process to condemn the property for acquisition as public land
instead.
Fairfield’s
attorneys filed a lawsuit two days later, alleging that the actions of
county officials were intended to unfairly deprive the company of the full
value of the land.
A week later,
the supervisors did act to adopt an amendment to the comprehensive plan
that, in effect, changed the recommended uses of the property to single-family
residential with a density of no more than one unit per 4.1 acres.
As the year
drew to a close, it was lawyers, not public officials and property owners,
who looked most likely to decide the fate of the Canoa Ranch.
Developers
The town of
Sahuarita may have incorporated a mere five years ago, but the community
is fast on the way to becoming a population center for the Santa Cruz Valley.
Developer Robert
Sharpe broke ground on his long-awaited Rancho Sahuarita master-planned
community with its first phase Rancho Resort, an age-restricted, gated
subdivision of manufactured homes northwest of Helmet Peak Road and Interstate
19.
Rancho Sahuarita
is planned for a mix of up to 8,000 homes, a golf course, commercial areas
and a town center over a 20-year period.
Sharpe was
the first major developer to come to the community.
But he is
not the last.
The Tucson
metropolitan area is running out of land and the eyes of developers have
begun turning south.
Donald Diamond
is seeking to develop two parcels in the community as both residential
and commercial.
One is a 116-acre
tract north of the Kmart Plaza on Duval Mine Road and Interstate 19.
The Sahuarita
Planning and Zoning Commission has recommended that the parcel be rezoned
to allow for up to 420 homes.
Action was
still pending a year’s end on a 222-acre parcel north of the Wal-Mart/Bashas’
Plaza east of I-19 and north of Duval Mine Road.
Diamond wants
to build housing and a large commercial development on the property.
The Town Council
voted in September to rezone 920 acres east of Old Nogales Highway to allow
for the development of up to 1,800 homes and a golf course in a non-age
restricted subdivision to be called Madera Highlands.
That property
was not in the town when the year began.
The property
owner, the Scottsdale-based Harvard Investments, petitioned the Council
to annex the property.
The Council
did so, expanding the town’s area by 3.25 square miles in the process and
bringing incorporated Sahuarita southern boundary to within a stone’s throw
of unincorporated Green Valley.
The town has
not annexed the Quail Creek Country Club.
Yet, the property
changed hands in late July, having been acquired by Robson Communities
Inc.
The property
owner and town officials have discussed annexation, which would put future
development there in the hands of municipal officials and take it away
from Pima County planners.
Incorporation
Incorporation
has been on the minds on Green Valley residents for over three decades.
Those both
for and against this official creation of town or city have not been shy
to express their opinions.
Regardless
of how many times (Three) thevoting residents of the community have said
“No” to it, much controversy has continued to follow this word around.
Approximately
every five years, the issue floats to the surface, a delightful rubber
ducky to some, an old tire to others.
On Sept. 16,
the Board of Representatives of Green Valley Community Coordinating Council,
Inc. listened to an update from the Planning and Zoning Committee in which
Hugh Copeland, chair of the committee made a request.
“We feel that
it would be important for us as a community to establish an advisory committee,
a study committee to look at the pros and cons of incorporation,” said
Copeland.
After very
little debate on the issue and no public comment, the GVCCC Board of Representatives
voted almost unanimously to approve the establishment of an advisory committee
on incorporation, with what appeared to be three negative votes.
By Oct. 1,
no word had come from the GVCCC on the matter.
Jud Richardson,
president of the Council, assured that he was in the midst of establishing
such a committee.
A week later,
Richardson had chosen the Committee for Investigating Incorporation comprised
of Jack C. Cissel, Marianne Collins, Pete J. Davis Jr., Al Fisch, Jim C.
Hodges, Ken Patterson, and David Sirota.
Richardson
said that he tried to get a cross-section of the community so that the
committee would be “more equally divided.”
He added that
his main requirement was that all of the members remain open-minded.
On Oct. 14,
they had their first official meeting developing a mission statement to
guide them in their research: “The mission of this committee is to research
and develop the information and options related to the pros and cons of
incorporation for the area known as Green Valley, Arizona and to report
this information orally and in writing to the general community.”
The plan was
to have their information ready for public consumption by March 1, 2000.
“I do feel
it is very important for each of us to enter into this endeavor with a
totally open mind,” said Hodges, who took his seat as chair of the committee.
Since the first
meeting, the established subcommittees have been looking into several issues
including: boundaries, city services, government structure, and finance
and budget.
Speakers have
included Jeff Ziegler, executive director of Green Valley Recreation, Inc.,
Ray Carroll, Pima County Board of Supervisors, District 4, former Sahuarita
Town Manager Ann Parish, (who recently accepted a position with the town
of Casas Adobes) and representatives of the local water companies.
Tucson Mayor
Bob Walkup had to turn down an appearance due to his hectic schedule.
With each new
subcommittee report, the committee moves one step closer to their final
report.
By March 1,
2000, the committee should be able to present a full report on what they
feel should be the boundaries of a town of Green Valley, the services they
feel should be provided by the town, the type of government they feel would
best suit the town and the means by which operation of a new town would
be financed.
Their job is
not to express whether or not incorporation would be best for the community,
but to present the information that they have developed from months of
research and discussion.
While all interested
residents are allowed to attend the meetings, there have been an average
of about seven attendees at each meeting.
Pima budget
woes
Pima County
will end the year and millennium in the red, mostly because of longtime
fiscal bleeding by the county’s public hospital for the poor.
Kino Community
Hospital ended the year about $40 million in long-term debt.
Much of that
was accrued over a span of years, mainly because of a failure by hospital
officials to collect millions in payments for care provided from state
and federal agencies.
Members of
the Board of Supervisors also found themselves pressed to provide money
to law enforcement and the courts, with officials of those county branches
noting that understating and overcrowding in the courts and jails put the
county far beneath state and federal standards.
Board members
appeared to agree that a half-cent sales tax was needed.
It would raise
about $40 million in a 12-month period, allowing the county to pay down
the Kino debt, hire more sheriff’s deputies and prosecutors for the county
attorney, open a new juvenile detention center, and avoid a property tax
increase.
But Supervisor
Ray Carroll, who represents Green Valley in his District 4, had campaigned
in 1998 on a pledge not to raise taxes, even indirect ones like a sales
tax.
Fellow board
members, along with the sheriff, county attorney, presiding judge, and
the area news media all pressed Carroll to change his mind and vote for
the sales tax.
He didn’t and
the tax failed because under state law, it had to be passed unanimously
by the supervisors.
That left county
officials to struggle with the politically abhorrent task of raising property
taxes to begin paying off the Kino debt and avoid cutting services drastically.
On Aug. 3,
board members bit the bullet and approved a 1999-2000 fiscal year budget
of almost $780 million that contained an increase in the primary property
tax rate of about 32 cents per $100 valuation.
Many homeowners
were hit even harder than that because on top of the flat-out property
tax hike, they also may have seen the valuations of their homes raised
by the county assessor’s office the year before, making for a double-whammy.
Homeowners
in the Sahuarita Unified School District experienced a triple-whammy this
past year. Their taxes went up even more most county residents to make
up for the lowering of the value of mine property in the district by the
Arizona Department of Revenue.
As a result,
the mines paid less and Sahuarita homeowners subsidized the tax break by
paying more.
One of the
casualties of the budget war was the Pima County Office of Pollen and Mold.
County administrators
cut the office’s budget of $45,000, wiping out the only air-quality monitoring
agency that provided free daily reports on airborne organic allergens to
the public.
Mines change
hands
The two local
mines are soon to be under new ownership as the end result of some major
corporate maneuvering.
It all began
when Asarco and Cyprus Amax began discussions about a possible merger.
Then, copper
giant Phelps Dodge suggested that those two companies merge with them to
make the largest copper country in the world.
Both Cyprus
and Asarco resisted the idea of merging with Phelps Dodge at first, but
eventually, Cyprus and Phelps Dodge reached a deal and the merger between
Cyprus and Asarco was canceled.
Meanwhile,
Phelps Dodge continued to pursue Asarco until a Mexican conglomerate, Grupo
Mexico, which owned 10 percent of Asarco made an offer that Asarco couldn’t
refuse and a merger was agreed to.
All of this
maneuvering drove up the price of copper, which had been one of the reasons
why the companies had begun discussions of mergers and takeovers.
What the future
holds for the newly-reconstituted copper giants is uncertain.
Override
failures
For the third
time in 12 months, voters in the Sahuarita Unified School District will
have an opportunity to go to the polls March 14 to decide whether or not
they will allow themselves to be taxed for additional funds to finance
programs and personnel costs over the next seven fiscal years.
A 10 percent
budget override request was defeated at the polls, Nov. 2, by a vote of
566-635.
Last March,
a similar proposal was defeated at the polls 281-338.
In Arizona,
school districts are allow to seek voter permission to spend an extra 10
percent of what they are allowed to spend under state funding formulas.
“Maintenance
and operations funding is the problem,” said Superintendent Jay C. St.
John. “School budgets are expenditure driven and they are based on the
number of students that you have, period.”
Revenues to
support this proposed extra 10 percent spending are generated by imposing
additional taxes on property owners in the district.
As a result
of the two override election failures cuts to programs and services have
been imposed by the district.
“We spend almost
all of our money on people,” St. John said. “Any time you have to cut large
sums of money you cut people and you affect children.”
As a result
of the override defeats, district residents began lining up on both sides
of the issue.
“This district
has an awful lot of anger,” said Tony Bruno, a member of the Governing
Board. “It’s time to let some of that anger go.”
Perhaps the
biggest fallout from the override defeat was the imposition of $50 fees
on students wishing to participate in extracurricular sports at both the
high school and the middle school.
If the override
fails again in March, students can expect to only be able to participate
in a limited number of sports, including, football, volleyball, boys and
girls basketball, and track.
All other
sports would be eliminated.
ABCO closes
Last May, Green
Valley and area residents were stunned by the announcement that ABCO supermarket
at the Green Valley Mall would be closing and leaving the community.
The closure
left many local residents, many of whom do not drive and who had moved
to neighborhoods adjoining the mall so that they could walk to the market
without many options for groceries.
All summer
and into the fall, rumors floated about regarding plans by one chain or
another to take over the empty store after extensive renovations.
Finally, in
December, it was revealed that a deal was in the works with Idaho-based
Albertsons’ that if consummated after the first of the year would result
in the building which housed ABCO being torn down and a new building built
to house a supermarket.
Green Valley
Recreation
In February
through April of this year, the Green Valley News reported on a proposed
resale fee for houses that held a membership with GVR.
The fee would
have applied to all GVR homes, regardless of the GVR membership status
of the home buyer.
Concerned about
the possibility of voter fraud and manipulation of the GVR election results,
some GVR members continued to call the Pima County Division of Elections
that was in charge of vote tabulation.
Division of
Elections Director Mitch Etter told the News, “... if they don’t trust
me to do the election, then cancel the contract, I have no problem...I’m
getting calls from both sides and I’m getting sick of it.”
In the end,
the Resale Fee ballot was defeated by a 1,472- vote margin at the March
30 annual meeting.
Also at the
meeting, the four new GVR directors were announced.
The top four
candidates with the most votes received were Betty Jo Preis, Jim Mauldin,
Dick Ramette, and Bernie Klein.
In the Dec.
8 edition of the News, resident Rod Stebbins made his views on what he
called the “Battle of the Richards” known.
He listed five
options in finding a conclusion to the verbal battle between Richard R.
Long and Richard J. Hansen.
One option
went so far as to call for “a boxing match between Richard Long and Richard
Hansen on the stage of the West Center charging an admission fee of $10.”
Quotes like
“GVR must obey the law,” and “Jeff Ziegler’s contract should be terminated”
have filled the letters, commentaries and speeches of Long over the years.
Hansen thus
responded, seldom at GVR board meetings, but often in the form of a commentary
in the News.
Their verbal
fisticuffs came to a head recently prompting Hansen to refuse to respond
to Long in any form stating that it is “a fruitless task.”
A December
editorial called for a moratorium on letters from Long, thus ending, at
least on the editorial page of the Green Valley News, the “Battle of the
Richards.”
The final GVR
Board of Directors meeting of the year was a special meeting called for
the purpose of taking actions related to the Phase II Las Campanas Recreation
Center Project.
Sharpe’s
lake
Critics said
Robert Sharpe’s plan for a 10-acre lake for his Rancho Sahuarita development
was all wet.
Sharpe envisioned
the lake as the centerpiece of his 2,810-acre master planned community,
but quickly came to realize that not everyone shared such a sanguine view
of the lake.
Instead, critics
lambasted the idea of using groundwater to fill and maintain a lake in
what they continually reminded the developer and town official alike of:
That the community is in the desert.
Under state
law, a private landowner like Sharpe cannot have a lake as large as the
one proposed for what was to be a 15-acre town park.
For that, Sharpe
needed town officials to agree to take over and operate the lake and park
as municipal property.
In return,
he agreed to provide the water to fill and maintain the lake and surrounding
park.
The developer
temporarily withdrew his proposal in the face of vocal opposition.
It returned
to the Council after Sharpe had rallied equally loud support for his proposal
and the lake deal was approved by the Council in late October.
Y2K
Preparation
for Y2K was on the minds of most people this year.
Concerns centered
around whether or not the fabric of society would be damaged or begin to
break down as the result of computer glitches anticipated as the result
of the date turning from 99 to 00 in older computers.
As the so-called
end of the millennium approached, most countries and societies were reporting
they were ready for the situation.
Some concerns
were expressed locally regarding the preparedness of Mexico to deal with
the problems anticipated from computer crashes.
Local law enforcement
was prepared for the change from 1999 to 2000 by installing a new two-way
communications system and with training of officers in the skills necessary
to quell anything from fights to riots.
Health care
cuts
Carondelet
Health Network saw some major changes in 1999, including moving its hospice
services office last May.
Although Carondelet
Health Network (CHN) Home Health, Hospice, and Behavioral Health Services
remain in Green Valley, the local offices for these services and the Durable
Medical Equipment showroom were merged with offices in Tucson.
Carondelet
Hospice Services offices now operate out of the St. Mary’s site in Tucson
at 1802, W. St. Mary’s Rd.
Hospice patients
who need in-patient care still have the option of using the facilities
at Santa Rita Care Center and La Posada.
Officials said
these changes are part of a $43 million dollar turnaround plan designed
to put the organization back on stable financial ground.
By reducing
administrative overhead, Carondelet officials said the organization can
better focus its resources on patient care.
CHN also gave
notice in May to 175 employees that their jobs had been eliminated.
These and other
recent staff reductions are one-half of the $43 million plan designed to
put Carondelet back on solid footing.
In the last
year, Carondelet has entered into new contracts with some HMOs and have
dropped a significant one.
Town manager
Sahuarita Town
Manager Anne W. Parrish abruptly resigned in early July, stunning residents
and leaders in both that town and in neighboring Green Valley.
Parrish said
she quit the post because of threats by some Town Council members that
she would be fired if she didn’t resign.
Her resignation
led to a recall election for Council member Louis Butler that will be held
March 14.
Some residents
and two fellow Council members
blamed Butler
for leading the move to oust Parrish and circulated recall petitions that
garnered enough signatures to put the question on the ballot.
The Council
conducted a search for a replacement for Parrish and this past September
named Gerald Flannery to the post, which pays $64,500 per year.
Flannery is
a former assistant manager of the town of Marana.
Parrish recently
was named as manager of the new town of Casas Adobes northwest of Tucson.
Tucson annexation
efforts
Sahuarita town
officials listened politely this year to two presentations by an official
of the city of Tucson’s Project Foresight about a proposed massive annexation
of 32 square miles of State Trust Land to bring the boundaries of the municipalities
to within a mile of each other near the Santa Cruz River.
Town Council
members heard that the city wanted to annex the land to ensure that existing
well fields of Tucson Water, one three miles north of Sahuarita Road, would
be protected from possible contamination from future development.
But Council
members said that they saw no benefit to the town from the annexation,
and voiced suspicions that Tucson officials were after new water rights,
not to protect existing wells.
The Council
voted 7-0 to oppose the city’s annexation proposal to state land officials.
The town has
no actual authority to veto such an annexation, however.
Rio Nuevo
Sahuarita voters
were asked in November: Who wants to be a millionaire?
They said
no. It was their final answer.
The town stood
to reap $1 million in cash from voter approval of a partnership with Tucson
in the planned Rio Nuevo redevelopment of historic downtown Tucson.
All that was
required of the town was voter approval and participation in occasional
meetings of a Rio Nuevo Multipurpose Facilities District board.
Under the deal,
the town coffers would receive $500,000 directly from the city in the form
of diverted state sales tax revenues from the new district.
Another $500,000
would come from private developers who would have to agree to do so before
getting permission to build in the district.
Plans by the
city called for a massive redevelopment of the downtown area featuring
museums and cultural attractions, new restaurants, hotels and retail stores,
and residential areas.
But town voters
rejected participation in the project on Nov. 2 by a 307 to 279 vote.
Voters in South
Tucson approved the venture with Tucson.
Movie theater
The area’s
first cinema complex is set to open this spring, after a series of delays
that prompted what may have been the one question most frequently posed
to this newspaper this year:
When is the
movie theater going to open?
The Desert
Sky Cinema is slated to open around Memorial Day, according to officials
of Trans-Lux Theaters, the company that will own and manage the six-screen
complex.
The 17,000
square-foot complex is going up right now northwest of the Duval Mine Road
and Interstate 19 interchange.
Trans-Lux officials
had planned to have it open by now, but ran into design red tape with county
officials.
Plans call
for the theater to show first-run films.
The complex
will feature digital sound, stadium seating, a snack bar, sit-down dining
area, and an arcade.
Trans-Lux operates
movies theaters in the United States, Canada and Mexico and specializes
in smaller market communities.
The theater
was cited as the most wanted amenity for the community in s survey of Sahuarita
High School students several years ago.
Company officials
cited that survey as the foremost reason for their decision to come to
the community.
Fairways
revolt
The Fairways
Property Owners Association, the largest in the community, voted nearly
2-1 to remain in the Green Valley Community Coordinating Council (GVCCC).
On Sept. 22,
a heated meeting was held in which Robert Munsie, president of the association,
listed the pros and cons of remaining in the Council.
In an effort
to express their belief that the GVCCC was not acting in the best interest
of Fairways residents, the Fairways Board met to discuss removal of the
$4,169 collective payment to the Council from the Fairways proposed 2000
budget.
“We thought
we were misrepresented by the GVCCC,” said Munsie, adding that the decision
had nothing to do with the $5 a year dues.
Herb White,
Fairways I homeowner and 2nd vice president for the GVCCC, a strong voice
for the opposition, concluded that the representatives of the Fairways
have been absentee members of the GVCCC.
“You have a
seat,” said White. “Sometimes it’s filled, sometimes it’s not. No one has
spoken.”
With the receipt
of 400 ballots from 759 Fairways homeowners, over half of the residents
proved they have a voice.
266 homeowners
voted to stay members of the Council. 134 voted to leave the Council.
Munsie had
no comment on the outcome.