Tucson has failed to enforce a policy meant to preserve native plants like saguaros for at least the past 20 years, a shortcoming that officials said saps limited groundwater, hinders the cityβs climate goals and wreaks havoc on the areaβs iconic Southwestern landscape.
The 1997 law requires developers to preserve at least half of the native plants growing on the lots where they want to build. It covers 29 species and includes special protections for saguaros and ironwoods, only allowing 30% to be bladed rather than the 50% rule applied to the other plants.
It touts big environmental and economic perks, promoting native landscaping that requires little water and protecting the cactuses that draw millions of tourists to the area each year. Some of the protected plants, such as saguaros, also suck massive amounts of carbon out of the air and could be an important piece of the cityβs plan to become carbon neutral by 2030.
But despite the potential benefits, Tucson has all but forgotten the ordinance even exists: staffers rarely confirm that the rules are being followed, developers are free to skirt reporting requirements and the city doesnβt inspect the sites after construction to make sure some plants were spared.
βWeβve got this ordinance in place and weβre simply not enforcing it,β said Councilman Steve Kozachik, who raised the issue at Tuesdayβs council meeting along with Councilman Kevin Dahl. βIf weβre going to be focused on climate (and) this whole climate action plan, and we have ordinances in place that are specifically intended to address that, then we need to walk the talk.β
The policyβs failure isnβt a recent discovery. Troy Goodwin, a University of Arizona masterβs candidate, sounded the alarm in a 2001 study that showed 100% of the developments he reviewed failed to meet the policy requirements.
Itβs unclear why the ordinance remained unenforced over the next 21 years, though officials said staffing issues in Tucsonβs Planning and Development Services Department is the largest barrier to implementing the policy today.
The city department is one of the offices that still faces a staffing shortage after Tucsonβs recent hiring efforts, which brought the cityβs overall job vacancy rate down significantly over the past few months.
Officials said the department is struggling to carry out its basic functions, like issuing construction permits, so making the time to count the number of native plants on a lot hasnβt been easy.
Still, it doesnβt appear that anyone in the department raised the issue. Council members said they werenβt aware that the policy was failing and that they βassume that when an ordinance is passed that staff is going to implement it,β which proved wrong in this case.
βHow do we make sure that when the mayor and council request policy and require certain things to be done in a department, how do we make sure theyβre being done?β Mayor Regina Romero said. βI believe it is the responsibility of the directors of our departments to call attention when something is not working. When something is not being instituted because of lack of staff or (just) because itβs not working.β
Council members recently voted to spend about $300,000 on three new positions at the planning department β one landscape architect and two city inspectors β in an effort to better implement another policy called the Commercial Rainwater Harvesting Ordinance, which has also gone unenforced for years.
The new staffers might be tasked with enforcing the native plant ordinance as well, though officials doubt thatβs enough to turn things around. Future positions might also be hard to fill because the highly-skilled roles require expertise about local plants and landscaping.
βI donβt have a number (for how many staffers are needed), but three is not going to get it done. Especially if theyβre also required to enforce the rainwater harvesting ordinance,β Kozachik said. βWeβve been waiving the flag about the whole climate program, if thatβs going to be our mantra we need to make sure we have staffed up appropriately.β
Itβs not clear what extra steps the city might take to increase staffing levels at the planning department, but experts said the clock is ticking and the impact of blading more saguaros could be felt for centuries.
Experts said the cactuses arenβt able to reproduce for the first 60 years of their lives and their reproductive cycle isnβt consistent, meaning itβs impossible to know how many will crop up in a given season β though that number has been consistently decreasing since the 1990s.
βWe had a really nice cooler, wetter period during the 1980s that lasted until the early 1990s. Since then, the number of new saguaros coming into the population has really declined dramatically,β said Don Swann, a Park Service biologist at Saguaro National Park. βThatβs probably because weβve been in this extended drought since the mid-1990s. We hope that changes, but thatβs the current situation.β
Saguaros also grow very slowly, requiring nearly 30 years to grow a single foot in some instances, so it can take an entire human lifetime to replace even one mature cactus thatβs bladed.
The timeline raised additional concerns about the cityβs policy for Kozachik and Dahl, who also spearheaded the discussion of the ordinance Tuesday.
Both officials think Tucson should reduce the number of plants that are allowed to be bladed under the current rules, but that will be an admittedly pointless change until the city is able to provide some sort of enforcement.
βThe time it takes to regenerate what weβre allowed to be bladed right now, weβre talking about generations beyond when anybody sitting on this call right now will be around to enjoy it,β Kozachik said. βThatβs the reason why the enforcement of the (policy) is so important. Because the enforcement of this policy will affect generations beyond us.β
Council members didnβt take any votes to adjust the policy on Tuesday, but are expected to continue discussing potential changes in the coming months.
