Group fights proposed height change for Fry's store

Several east-side neighborhoods have launched a campaign to fight a proposed Fry’s supercenter development, saying the height of the buildings violates a promise the city made 30 years ago when it annexed the area.

The group, called Save Houghton East, also says the development would hurt Saguaro National Park.

The proposed development calls for a 124,000-square-foot Fry’s grocery store on a 16-acre site at the northeast corner of South Houghton Road and East 22nd Street. It would employ 160 people and be open from 6 a.m. to midnight.

For comparison, the Target supercenter at 9615 E. Old Spanish Trail is about 144,300 square feet, and the Walmart supercenter at 2711 S. Houghton Road is about 92,900 square feet.

The development would additionally have a 9,300-square-foot, nine-pump gas station and two separate retail or restaurant buildings of 12,900 and 4,500 square feet.

There are two vacant grocery stores a mile north, one of which will reopen next month. Fry’s would close and sell its 52,900-square-foot store a mile west at Harrison and 22nd if it is allowed to build the new store.

Building on that lot is subject to rules in the Houghton East Neighborhood Plan, which was created to set conditions under which the neighborhood agreed to be annexed into the city in 1985.

The rules say buildings at the site can be no taller than 20 feet. Brentwood Development is asking for the rules to be changed to allow 26 feet.

While the issue is complex, the request to change the height limit is what the Tucson City Council will vote on at its March 8 meeting.

A public hearing will be part of the meeting.

City Councilman Paul Cunningham said he doesn’t yet know how to vote when the issue comes to the council, and said it will be a difficult decision. Both sides have made compelling arguments on the pros and cons, he said.

If approved by the council, the developers next would have to go through the planned-area-development rezoning process. New commercial zoning would allow additional height for “ornamental elements.” The developer’s plan calls for a 26-foot-tall building with 4-foot-tall parapets for signage.

A previous amendment to the neighborhood plan allowed commercial buildings up to 35 feet in height at Broadway and Houghton, where there is now a vacant Safeway grocery store that’s 27 feet tall, including a parapet, which is planned to reopen next month. A Walgreens at that intersection is 35 feet tall, including a cupola.

The developers also would have to complete the purchase of the property from the 22nd Street Baptist Church.

The point of the plan is to “ensure superior site design” that addresses open space and drainage concerns, protects existing neighborhoods and “integrates” new development with the national park.

Linda Schaub, a Save Houghton East organizer who lives a few houses away from the development site, said, “We accept that it’s going to be developed.” But the group wants developers to follow the existing rules.

She said 2,000 people live within 3 square miles of the site, so many shoppers will come from outside the area.

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Houghton-area residents don’t have a formal neighborhood association, but they have banded together as Save Houghton East to circulate petitions, launch letter-writing campaigns, raise funds, set up a website and meet with council members.

The group is adamant that they are not NIMBYs (people who say “not in my backyard”).

Some of the group’s top organizers are not city residents but live near the development in unincorporated Pima County.

They collected more than 200 signatures for a petition opposing the plan presented to the Planning Commission.

A group representing the developers also collected more than 200 signatures on its own petition supporting the plan.

Both sides have accused the other of spreading misinformation.

The project would be next to, but not within, the Saguaro National Park buffer zone.

The park superintendent is opposed to the project.

“We believe there could be potential impacts to night-sky viewing, scenic vistas and other visitor-related values,” Superintendent Darla Sidles wrote in a letter to Councilman Cunningham, whose ward includes the site.

“In the transition zone between this great city and its only National Park, we ask to maintain or improve development practices so they are not eroded away one amendment at a time,” she said in the letter.

Among those who support the project are longtime Eastside Neighborhood Association president Frank Salbego.

“I believe it is absolutely reasonable to slightly increase the building height from the current limit of 20 feet to 22 to 26 feet at the highest point in order to accommodate the new Fry’s store,” he said in a letter to Cunningham.

“A conveniently located premier grocery store is a desired enhancement to our quality of life,” he wrote.

The city’s Planning Commission approved the requested rule change 5-2 at a meeting last month and sent the request on the to City Council for consideration next month.

The chair had to remind the audience multiple times to be respectful, as the meeting got rowdy.

This story was updated to correct the vote tally of the Planning Commission meeting.