On the one hand, blight. On the other, loss of neighborhoods.
The Tucson City Council weighed the choices for stalling or proceeding with the Broadway expansion plan presented by passionate speakers at a public hearing Tuesday evening.
About 200 people turned out for the hearing, which was not part of the required process to widen the major roadway at the east gate of downtown Tucson from two lanes to three lanes in each direction. The council chose to hold the hearing to gather additional public comments.
The design for the wider roadway is 30 percent completed. The $71 million project is not expected to be constructed until 2018. Voters approved the concept in 2006 as part of a Regional Transportation Authority package.
The public input process for the design has been going on for more than three years.
SUPPORTERS: ‘IT’S TIME’
The theme among supporters was “it’s time” to get the project done.
Nancy McClure, a local commercial real estate expert, told the council she sat on a citizens task force on Broadway in the 1980s. The group concluded the road should be widened and there was never any funding, she said.
“Here we are some 30 years later talking about the exact same issue,” she said, “and I’m really disappointed.”
Nothing has changed on Broadway because property owners have been caught in a wait-and-see pattern, she said. Most of the buildings are obsolete and wouldn’t be able to get a building permit today because of a lack of parking.
“I really hope that you have the wisdom and that you have the ability to say yes to this because it’s really time and we need to move forward,” McClure said.
Artist Diana Madaras, whose gallery is in the project area, told the council that the reality on Broadway is growing blight as property owners haven’t invested in their buildings because they expected the government to take their properties for the project.
“It’s going to continue to get worse and worse and worse,” she said. “It’s time. There’s been enough study. There’s been enough input. It’s time to move forward. And I believe that if you want to save Broadway, the only way to do it is to move forward with the plan.”
OPPONENTS SAY ‘NO WAY’
Opponents wore “Save Broadway” stickers on their chests and held signs saying “Communities Not Corridors.” At times they booed, hissed or laughed at supporters and cheered loudly for one another.
The Broadway-design process has been a “four-year mess,” said Bob Cook, a former member of the Citizens Accountability for Regional Transportation Committee, an oversight group for the plan approved by voters in 2006.
His online petition to oppose the project was signed by 1,500 people.
He said traffic counts don’t justify expansion and the RTA should have revisited the project scope.
“Tucson’s arterial roads are already a landscape of empty buildings and many undeveloped lots,” Cook said.
He called for repaving, expanded sidewalks, safe bike paths and more public transit.
Stephen Pompea, an astronomer and Rincon Heights resident, said the plan is “not a project for people, it’s a project for cars.”
The project doesn’t contribute to the revitalization of the area or make it more livable or more attractive to visitors, he said.
If the project is built, the city will be ashamed of wasting money, for not being responsive to the task force’s comments and for demolishing homes and businesses, Pompea said.
The City Council is expected to vote later this month on whether to move forward with the property acquisition phase of the project.
The public may submit comments online at broadwayboulevard.info/comments.php by April 15.
