30 replies to this topic

[nuplanner]

I am not a fan of these sprawling ugly master planned communities.  I thought Tucson area was going away from this kind of stuff.  Especially the ugly, 4 models, cracker jack boxes.  They are so car dependent and cheaply built and designed.  

Civano is very sustainable, especially when you compare it to Marana community site plan with grass, stick housing and so forth.  But if you look at how our communities are being developed, it is atrocious.  For some reason, things just keep getting worse?  Could design have something to do with it???  I think so.  But no one seems to get it.  We have gone to plan everything around the automobile as gas continues to skyrocket, and no one seems to care.  

Did you guys see the tanker that caught on fire and collapsed two bridges in the Bay Area?  It has crippled the commuters, and luckily, they have other modes of transit.  Think of big metro areas like Phoenix?  It would come to a crawl if something like this would happen.  For some reason, many of the residents, government leaders and developers are blind to see our shortcomings in the way we build, plan and think to move people around.  That is what happens when you only plan for one mode of transit.  The light rail is a start.  

Tucson is a nice area, but to me, the city is pretty ugly.  The foothills have some nice homes and Oral Valley is ok.  I had some friends live there a few years back.  Tucson has a great opportunity to reinvest into the existing infrastructure and communities.

[MJLO]

nuplanner, on May 3 2007, 11:11 AM, said:

Tucson is a nice area, but to me, the city is pretty ugly.  The foothills have some nice homes and Oral Valley is ok.  I had some friends live there a few years back.  Tucson has a great opportunity to reinvest into the existing infrastructure and communities.

Nuplanner, not to discount your post, as it's well taken, but can you tell me where "Oral" valley is?     I've been dreaming of going there my entire adult life.    I believe you're speaking of Oro Valley perhaps?

[colin]

I had a friend that called it that. I'm not sure exactly what the significance is though.
"Denture Valley" may work better.

[colin]

NW Medical Center plans Marana site

As the article states, it's a great location, and there aren't really any hospitals for many miles around that site.

[colin]

DDevelopers offer to pay $40M to fund new interchange at I-10 and Tangerine

Quote

It would be the first developer-funded highway project to occur in Pima County since the Arizona Department of Transportation began allowing such projects in the mid-1990s.

I don't really see why the state would ever not allow this. Personally, I think there should be a lot more of this, like developers paying for road improvements, fire stations, schools, parks, etc. Impact fees are slated for this purpose but they're often misdirected.

It's great too because this area would have been developed at some point for certain and the taxpayers would have had to pay for this interchange to be redone. Tangerine is currently 2-lanes under and near I-10 with an at-grade railroad crossing. Any population push in that area means huge delays.

[colin]

The Ritz-Carlton, long rumored, is going up in Marana

Specifically at Dove Mountain, which is on Tangerine Road (far north) between I-10 and AZ 77/Oracle Road.
It's going to be a hotel/spa plus a golf course and high-end townhome residences.

Edited by colin, 18 October 2007 - 08:24 AM.

[convulso]

^ to borrow an inspired response from our 16th president:

'for all the people who like that sort of thing, that's exactly the sort of thing those people will like.'

this will get tiger to come back to dove mountain for sure! hellyeah!.....

more of the same in the old pueblo. hit snooze.

[colin]

Proposed Marana development to have 'Historic main-street feel'

Marana will get a mixed-use development in what is essentially its center or, at least, where its community center and library currently is.
Quite a feat for a town that's so suburban.

[colin]

Developer to pay state millions for blading prime Pinal County desert

Since you have to log in to see some Daily Star stories now:

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The state sued developer George H. Johnson in 2005, alleging he bulldozed trust land, destroyed archaeological sites and brought goats into an area where they infected desert bighorn sheep with disease.
The state trust land was in and near the Ironwood Forest National Monument and Los Robles Archaeological District. About 270 acres of saguaros, creeks and washes were flattened. About 2,000 acres of private land in the Santa Cruz River valley also was cleared without permits, destroying portions of seven major Hohokam archaeological sites.

Johnson is paying $12 million, $7 million of which comes from his company, with the remainder coming from his contractors.
I've been watching this since '05. I was actually out at the site near Red Rock in early '04 when the blading was happening and the whole thing looked very, very wrong. It was like a big wasteland.
Things have gotten considerably better though, but have not fully recovered, which is why the state was seeking the money.
Johnson's original goal was to build a mass, new city, with virtually no employment or retail, and all small, cheap homes on small lots. Pinal County denied this permit, I believe, in 2005. Johnson had previously operated under the guise of raising sheep on the land which, of course, was disastrous for the bighorn population in the adjacent Silverbell Mountains, the last remaining bighorn population in the Tucson region.
The whole situation is one huge travesty and the strongest case for developers like Johnson to be simply banned from doing business in the state. Nothing has quite as bad has come up since and it hopefully never will. It was really disastrous for that region.

[colin]

Longer story appeared in today's paper:
Builder agrees to pay state $7M

Quote

With similar agreements reached with two other defendants, including the company that did the blading for Johnson, the state ultimately will collect more than $12.1 million.
That amounts to the largest civil penalty ever collected in Arizona in an environmental case, said Attorney General Terry Goddard.
Of that amount, $150,000 will go to create a new Heritage Preservation Fund. This is the first time the Arizona State Museum, which is charged with protecting the state's archaeological sites, will actually have money to do that job, said Beth Grindell, its acting director.
The balance, after reimbursement of about $500,000 in costs of investigating and prosecuting the case, will be divided among other state departments affected by Johnson's actions, including Land, Environmental Quality and Game and Fish.
The settlement is "a strong message to anyone who would seek to despoil our heritage," said Goddard.

[colin]

Downtown Marana?

Marana has been trying to create a defined Downtown for years, which is why the newer town hall and library are amongst cotton fields right now.
Straddling I-10 is not the best idea, I think, because then you're just going to encourage car traffic. They should really try to integrate it with some of these new developments coming in. New urbanism, maybe?