Residents of the Miles and the Barrio San Antonio neighborhoods are anxiously eyeing the cityβs plan to rezone and then sell the old Broadway Volvo dealership that sits empty next to the Welcome Diner.
The Tucson City Council will discuss selling the nearly 2-acre site Tuesday, part of a larger strategy to sell surplus city-controlled properties to be redeveloped into to tax-generating businesses.
Informal recommendations from a 2014 workshop, with input from area residents, proposed a project that could be 75 feet tall that would provide a buffer for adjacent neighborhoods to busy traffic along East Broadway at Park Avenue east of downtown.
City officials said Friday the council will be considering uses that fit into the character of surrounding area and will ban some types of residential and commercial uses at the site β including high-density student housing.
With the suggestion the site serves as a gateway to both downtown Tucson to the west and the βSunshine Mileβ business district to the east, a city planning memo states the site will not be used for billboards, auto repair shops or various types of βgroup homes.β
City spokeswoman Lane Mandle said the city has been working closely with area residents to understand their concerns and what they want for the property. Despite persistent rumors to the contrary, Mandle said there is no framework in place for would-be developers to submit their plans for the property.
Ted Warmbrand, a member of the Barrio San Antonio Neighborhood Association, is concerned about the propertyβs future, noting the Volvo dealership has sat mostly vacant for the better part of the last decade. And while the 2014 efforts to come up with a plan for the property led nowhere, he said city staff has moved the new rezoning effort along during the last three months.
Warmbrand said a number of his neighbors have heard rumors about a seven-story hotel to be built on the site.
Councilman Steve Kozachik said area residents shouldnβt be concerned about the zoning process, as the city is in the earliest steps in eventually selling the surplus property.
He said the city is not reacting to formal proposals from developers and instead is looking for residents to guide what is suitable for the area.
To that end, the city is restricting what can be built on the property, ruling out the possibility of student housing.
βThe fix is not in,β Kozachik said.
City officials have a goal of having the zoning in place by May, with the intent selling the property later this year.
The former dealership is the last remaining remnant of a string of car lots that enjoyed their heyday in the 1970s, when more than a dozen different businesses sold cars along Broadway from Euclid to Plumer avenues.
The city purchased the former car dealership property in 2007 for $2 million and used it for parking and storage.
