Tucson City Council to consider legal action over University of Arizona dorm plan

The Tucson City Council will consider whether to sue the University of Arizona over a proposed 1,000-bed dorm north of campus.

The council will meet behind closed doors Tuesday, May 23, to discuss the matter with city attorneys. At issue is whether the city believes the university has the legal authority to ignore local zoning laws even if the proposed multi-story dorm and secondary structures are not in the university’s planning boundaries.

A larger concern is a possible precedent the project could set: allowing the university or any other state entity to build whatever it wants on privately owned land.

The proposed six-story dorm would span an entire city block between East Drachman and Mabel streets and North Fremont and Santa Rita avenues, north of East Speedway. The University of Arizona only owns a portion of the proposed development. The location is outside the UA’s campus boundaries.

The Austin, Texas-based American Campus Communities, one of the largest student housing developers in the country, owns one of the two city blocks that is part of the proposal.

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Councilman Steve Kozachik, who represents the midtown ward where the dorm would be located, worries the project could unlock a floodgate of new student housing proposals trickling into residential areas surrounding campus.

“What I’m concerned with is the state substituting a ground lease for our normal rezoning process,” Kozachik said. “If the state can step in and craft an arrangement that bypasses local zoning regulations, people’s investments in their homes are made with a big asterisk in the margin.”

Councilwoman Karin Uhlich wrote in her newsletter a few weeks ago that she also wanted legal advice, but stressed she wants to avoid a legal battle if possible.

“Residents and the University need to know the city’s position on this matter sooner rather than later,” she wrote. “Nobody wants a court battle over what could instead be a well-planned, well-integrated project of benefit to the university and wider community.”

A spokesman for the University of Arizona declined to comment on the executive session item.