The Marana Planning Commission has again recommended approval of a controversial plan to convert a historic guest ranch into a 178-unit gated community. The Town Council will consider the proposal for the second time in December.
All six of the commissioners present at Wednesday night’s meeting recommended approval, despite neighbors’ concerns about ceaseless development draining the area’s water supply and encroaching on wildlife in a fragile watershed area.
The proposal from Mattamy Homes, Canada’s largest new-home developer, is nearly the same as the one the commissioners recommended in August and that the Town Council subsequently rejected in early October.
Councilwoman Patti Comerford was the only vote against the proposal. Because Vice Mayor Jon Post was absent at that meeting, and rezoning motions require a super-majority, the proposal would have needed support from all council members present.
Comerford has said she will again oppose the proposal if it comes before the council. But the developers are counting on the rest of the council’s support in their second attempt.
If the Town Council approves the plan, opponents including the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection have said they will file a referendum petition and try to override the council’s vote. The opponents would have 30 days to collect 617 signatures from like-minded residents. If they do, the Lazy K proposal would go to a public vote as early as next spring, said Town Attorney Frank Cassidy.
On Wednesday, some opponents to the proposal, represented by attorney Pat Lopez, presented a detailed alternative plan to the commission and Mattamy. Their plan included a smaller footprint on the 138-acre Lazy K property, with homes condensed on the eastern side of the property to give more leeway to the wildlife corridor to the west.
But commissioners did not add anything from the alternative proposal in their recommendation, other than the addition of wildlife-friendly fencing on the property’s southern border.
PUBLIC OPPOSITION
A dozen members of the public spoke at the meeting, all but one opposed to the plan.
Advocates for, and officials with, Saguaro National Park said the project would continue a destructive pattern of incremental “up-zoning,” just one-half mile from the Saguaro National Park West’s northern boundary.
“We don’t want the park to become an island of nature surrounded by development,” Libby Howell, vice president of the board of Friends of Saguaro National Park, said at the meeting.
Joan Pettit, who lives near the northern edge of the Lazy K site, told commissioners that in early meetings with the developers, she and other homeowners received a “less-than-veiled threat” that they would never get access to water, once their wells run dry, if they did not support the project. That convinced some homeowners to support the plan, she said.
Speaking on behalf of Mattamy Homes, Linda Morales of The Planning Center in Tucson responded that the developer did not intend to threaten to withhold water. But Mattamy did reach an agreement with homeowners to give them access to a water main the developers will install if the plan is approved, and if those Pima County homeowners also annex into Marana, she said.
Morales said opponents’ proposal to shrink the development’s footprint would mean fewer homes or smaller lot sizes, and a decrease in quality of the project.
Barbara Rose, an opponent to the project and long-time resident of the area, said the developers have a “once-in-a-lifetime” opportunity to create something special, such as desert-friendly homes that harvest sunlight and rainwater. Rose said she’s personally built five zero-energy homes on her property just north of Lazy K.
“Certainly well-trained architects and builders can do it much better,” she said.
The Lazy K property is currently zoned as resort and recreation, which would allow for a number of uses, including one single-family home per 3.3 acres. That density was in place when property owners Jim Shiner and Peter Evans bought the place in 1998. The new proposal would quadruple that density.
Opponents also said the plan violates Marana’s own General Plan and its habitat conservation plan, which is still in draft form and therefore not legally binding.
The Lazy K proposal includes a minor amendment to the town’s General Plan to allow for the increased density on the project site.
