The city’s planning commission voted Thursday night to send the decision to redevelop the site of the Benedictine Monastery to Mayor and Council without supporting or opposing the plan.
In a vote of six-to-one, the commission moved the decision to the next level with a caveat that Mayor and Council consider some neighbors' concerns about lowering the height of the proposed development on the east side of the property, which faces the neighborhood at 800 N. Country Club Road.
After much go-round with neighbors and the area’s city councilman for several months, plans for the development have been modified multiple times with concessions on height, buffers, architectural style, preservation of certain plants and trees and public use of the monastery.
Local developer Ross Rulney bought the six-acre site from the Benedictine Sisters of Perpetual Adoration when they relocated to Missouri.
The site is currently zoned for office use and group dwelling, which would have allowed the developer to move forward with student housing sans any public input or hearings.
In a nod to the neighbors, Rulney instead agreed to market-rate apartments and a public use for the historic monastery and its preservation.
After months of, sometimes contentious, back-and-forth Councilman Steve Kozachik hosted three meetings to find common ground between the developer and neighbors, which appeared to have happened.
Neighbors for Reasonable Monastery Development and Tucson Monastery LLC — who represent adjacent neighbors — sent the commission a letter supporting the development as long as agreed-upon conditions were binding.
But on Thursday night, two speakers at the commission meeting voiced objection to the height of the development on the east side of the property. Instead of the modified four stories — which is four feet taller than current zoning allows — they asked for the height to be reduced to three stories.
The issue now goes to the City Council, likely in December, but has not yet been set on an agenda.
