East of where Tangerine Road dead-ends at Oracle Road, a series of rolling ridges are crowded with mesquite, prickly pear and palo verde.
High above that lies a collection of sheer, twisting, gnarly rock knobs and notches on the Catalina Mountains' Pusch Ridge.
The land, which borders Catalina State Park on three sides, is so scenic and biologically rich that Oro Valley wanted to buy it as open space a few years back, but a deal was never inked. Twenty-two years ago, environmentalists successfully fought an effort to build a shopping center there.
But if a Scottsdale developer's quest is successful, some of the lower-lying ground will become home to the Tucson area's first major desert development in years, with up to 520 upscale homes, condominiums and apartments, plus stores and offices on 108 acres. An official for developer SunChase Holdings Inc., Eric Bose, pledges a "high-quality project" that will be tastefully carried out in harmony with its surroundings.
The time is right for the project because Oro Valley has enough people to make it viable, developers say. The Oro Valley Marketplace shopping center and Oro Valley Hospital are both close by, as is a 535-acre Innovation Park that houses several major employers - all of which justifies the need for more homes nearby, developers say.
But Gayle Hartmann, an environmentalist who led a successful referendum drive that torpedoed a planned shopping center near Catalina State Park in 1990, said last week that she still believes developing the site would be a tragedy.
"I don't care if it's upscale or downscale development,'' said Hartmann. "It's beautiful land and the people of Oro Valley would be better served by adding it to Catalina State Park."
Sustainability pledge
SunChase, which has developed master-planned communities across the Southwest, proposes blending stores, offices, hiking and biking trails and a mix of housing types.
Company officials say the project promotes sustainability, with mixed-use projects at major intersections that can support mass transit.
SunChase wants 85 acres at up to five homes per acre, 13 acres at five homes per acre and up, and 11 acres of commercial and offices. That conflicts with both the town's and the county's general plans for the site, which call for a resort, perhaps with a golf course, and far fewer homes.
Those plans aren't consistent with market demand, the developer's report to the town said.
The plans don't allocate enough room for a golf course - and even if they did, there is evidence that existing golf courses aren't getting enough play, the developer said. With the Hilton El Conquistador three miles south, "this site is not a logical one for a resort hotel," the report said.
Also, with the Oro Valley Marketplace nearby, only smaller-scale commercial is appropriate here, the report said. And higher-density housing is needed to justify the cost of extending water lines and other utilities to the site, the developer said.
Bose, SunChase's development director, describes his company as one interested in the site's long-term future, adding, "We're not the type of group that just goes and develops" and then walks away.
To get approval for the project, SunChase needs a series of permits and other approvals that could take two years: a general plan amendment, a rezoning and an annexation into Oro Valley, since the property lies in unincorporated Pima County.
The first big vote on a general plan amendment would probably come before the Town Council in late fall.
Several concerns
The list of concerns facing this project is long.
The State Parks Department told town officials in a letter that the proximity of homes to Catalina State Park will be "painfully obvious" and negatively affect visitors' recreational experience.
"The impact will be most significant from the campgrounds and the equestrian area; however, the loss of pristine 'view shed' will impact all park visitors," wrote Arizona State Parks Director Bryan Martyn.
Neighbors to the south, who live in high-end homes on lots of 3.3 acres and up, have hired lobbyist Michael Racy to fight the project. Racy said it lacks any kind of reasonable transition between the proposed development and neighboring homes.
Observed John Edmonson, a homeowner in neighboring Talante Estates, "We see mountain lions, one or two a week, ringtails every other week and bobcats come in our yard all the time, sit and drink out of our fountain. A neighbor has had two bobcat births right outside their window."
The 12-lot Talante Estates contains five homes, whose owners bought the remaining lots because "we wanted to keep the area natural," said Edmonson. "We just want them to have reasonable density development that doesn't destroy the environment."
species habitat
Pima County officials say the area contains habitat suitable for five or more vulnerable species deserving protection by the county's Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan - which Oro Valley's Town Council has endorsed. Developers are supposed to set aside 80 percent of such land, and 95 percent in important riparian areas, which also exist there, said an Aug. 7 letter to Oro Valley from County Assistant Planning Director Chris Poirier. While those percentages are only recommendations, separate rules in the county limit grading to 30 percent of the site.
The area is just south of where the Arizona Department of Transportation plans to build two wildlife underpasses and an overpass to help critters cross Oracle Road, Poirier wrote. The property also lies in an archaeologically and culturally rich area, with all or parts of three archaeological sites recorded and a 72-year-old house designed by famed Tucson architect Josias Joesler, Poirier wrote.
The Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection wrote the U.S. Forest Service - which owns the Catalina park land - that its three cameras have documented at least 17 species of wildlife crossing the park. It calls the park "a healthy, biologically diverse, active, functional protected area" that plays a key role in linking wildlife from the Catalinas to the Tortolita Mountains across Oracle Road.
"We'd be hard-pressed to support anything that doesn't reflect he environmental values of this property," said Coalition Director Carolyn Campbell.
barrier possible
SunChase's Bose said the developers will be as responsive to these concerns as possible.
Developers will work with Catalina park officials to design a barrier between the park and the project, he said. They also will avoid building on flood-prone areas of the site or will design solutions to mitigate flooding concerns.
Its own biological and archaeological surveys, done by SWCA Environmental Consultants, concluded that the area doesn't have habitat to support nearly as many vulnerable species as the county's scientists have said it does. It may be more appropriate to save something "on the lower end of a range between 30 and 60 percent, " he said.
"We have to solve the problems to the satisfaction of the town," Bose said. "Our basic position is that we want to preserve any component of the property that will strengthen the aesthetic and economic value of the development."
Contact reporter Tony Davis at tdavis@azstarnet.com or 806-7746. Follow Davis on Twitter @tonydavis987.
