Supporters: Development would spur Benson's 'pathetic' economy

The Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce is pushing hard for the 28,000-home Villages of Vigneto project in Benson, asking the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to back it.

The Hispanic chamber’s letter to the Corps says the Benson project promises $20 billion in badly needed economic benefits for Southeast Arizona, big increases in property and sales tax revenue, and more regional demand for goods and services.

It will help create thousands of construction jobs, the letter says.

“We are assured that the project developer has instituted a water management and conservation plan that augments and supports the Arizona Department of Water Resources” determination years ago that the development has an adequate water supply for up to 100 years, Lea Marquez Peterson, the chamber’s president and CEO, writes in the July 5 letter.

In an email to the Arizona Daily Star, Marquez Peterson said the $20 billion figure was discussed by project developers at public hearings this spring in Benson, and that the number also will be in a soon-to-be-released economic analysis of the project.

On water issues, she referred in part to the Vigneto developer’s preliminary community plan for the project, which the Benson City Council approved in April.

The plan, from Phoenix-based El Dorado Holdings Inc., says the project will “maintain sensitivity to water usage” by using reclaimed water for landscaping and water features.

The project will also use water-efficient hardware in homes and commercial buildings, the developers’ plan says. And it will use reclaimed water on a golf course, parks and schoolyards planned for the project.

Reclaimed water will be pumped to golf course lakes and a reservoir site for storage. During winter months, when use is low, excess reclaimed water will be disposed of in basins where it will recharge into the aquifer, the developers’ plan says.

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Marquez-Peterson’s letter is among several letters and emails the Army Corps has received on Vigneto since the Tucson Audubon Society asked the Corps in May to revisit a Clean Water Act permit. That permit was granted to the developer of Whetstone Ranch, Vigneto’s predecessor at the same site, said Sallie Diebolt, chief of the Corps’ Arizona Division regulatory branch. It remains valid for the revised project, the Corps says.

The project has been opposed by several environmental groups from the Tucson, Sierra Vista and Cascabel areas, which fear its water pumping will dry up the neighboring San Pedro River.

Before the project proceeds, many of the opponents want someone to fund a U.S. Geological Survey computer model study that could help predict whether pumping would affect the river.

In advocating for the Vigneto project, Marquez Peterson notes that 20 percent of Benson-area residents live in poverty, compared to 15 percent statewide.

“This project will be an economic driver for Benson as well as Cochise County and southeast Pima County,” she writes.

In another letter to the Corps endorsing the Vigneto project, Benson real estate broker Mary Ann Scott termed it environmentally sensitive and economically sound. Her recent letter, published in the Sierra Vista Herald, makes many of the same arguments as Marquez Peterson’s letter.

It adds that the project will bring Benson and the surrounding area long-term business opportunities in real estate, construction, renovation, manufacturing, wholesale and retail businesses, transportation, warehousing, education and health care.

“Please note the pathetic number of new business permits between 2008 and 2014 — 9” in Benson, Scott writes. “Benson is in its fifth consecutive year of decline.”