A few years back, Mark Metcalf and his family had a flight to catch.
Living near the intersection of South Wilmot Road and East Sahuarita Road, they really had only one choice: head west about eight miles to the Nogales Highway, then another 14 miles north to the airport.
However, with traffic backed up for miles on Sahuarita Road and the boarding time fast approaching, Metcalf’s family flipped around and set off north on Wilmot, a rutted, arrow-straight dirt road that takes motorists across 7.1 miles of arroyos, potholes and other hazards that make it a less-than-ideal way to make a flight.
“Man, that road, when you’re in a hurry, that’s a pretty rough road,” said Metcalf, thinking back with a laugh about running to the gate with seconds to spare.
By next spring, however, the soon-to-be-paved Wilmot might just be the Metcalfs’ first choice for flights and other trips north to Tucson.
Utility work is now underway, and paving should begin in August, according to Priscilla Cornelio, director of the Pima County Department of Transportation. Completion is expected by April 2017.
The Wilmot paving is one of many Regional Transportation Authority-funded projects underway or planned in the area. The county estimated construction would cost about $6.5 million, and the Board of Supervisors recently awarded the work to Hunter Contracting Co., which bid just under $5 million.
The top goal listed in a 2015 planning document is to “improve access to and from the southeastern part of metropolitan Tucson.” As it stands, residents near the Sahuarita-Wilmot intersection have only Houghton Road, five miles to the east and prone to flooding, and the Old Nogales Highway or Interstate 19, more than six miles to the west, to choose between for trips north.
The repaving is music to the ears of another area resident, Thomas McKinney, who runs an animal-boarding business out of his home that he described as a “bed and breakfast for dogs.”
“Typically (we) have to choose between Houghton and I-19,” he said. “Having Wilmot paved would be beneficial to everyone who lives on Sahuarita Road.”
It should be pointed out that the new road is not all-weather, and will likely be impassible during heavy downpours, according to Cornelio.
But there’s more at play than simply shortening commutes between the far-flung neighborhoods and Tucson’s metropolitan core. Cornelio said improving access also improves the calculus for residential development, a claim for which there is already evidence in this particular case.
The same month the supervisors awarded the contract, local developer Diamond Ventures submitted an application for a zoning change on 359 acres nearly two miles north of the Sahuarita-Wilmot intersection. The land is currently zoned rural homestead, which sets minimum lots sizes at 4.13 acres, but Diamond is hoping to rezone it to allow for much smaller lots. The application, a copy of which was provided to the Arizona Daily Star by the county, states that there would be no more than 800 homes on the Wilmot Park property.
Cornelio said the developer had been “sitting” on the plan until the repaving started, adding in an email to the Road Runner that another project in the area is in the works.
“Improving the access to a totally undeveloped area of town, it’s going to make it much more attractive for future development,” Cornelio told the Star in an earlier conversation. “With those roadway improvements, I believe that you’ll have a lot of development being generated.”
“I really, truly believe, build it and they will come,” she added later.
According to written comments from Diamond Ventures Vice President Priscilla Storm, the company purchased the land in 2013 and has other commercial and residential projects in southeast Tucson, which Storm noted has been identified as a “future growth area” by local governments. While the Wilmot Park project is still in the planning phases, Storm also noted that “economic development requires public infrastructure,” referring to projects like the paving.
Lewis Mitchell, a real estate agent with Long Realty who represents a builder active in the area, agreed, saying that the paving will “speed things up.” What might help more, he added, is shopping centers or restaurants.
Not every current resident will be cheering the possible pick-up in residential development. McKinney said he welcomes the possibility of more business, but a nearby neighbor, Marigold Love, said the development proposed by Diamond clashes with the rural “values” of some residents.
“The problem is, if the development comes in with that kind of density, pretty soon they don’t like the horses next door, or rural stuff,” she said. “And the people complain.”
Though she’s apprehensive about development spurred by the paving, she is nevertheless looking forward to less time behind the wheel on her near-daily commutes to Tucson.
“That’s a plus,” she said. “It will cut at least eight miles off of each trip to town.”
