Two Tubac businesses may have a portion of their property located illegally on land owned by Santa Cruz County.

But the business owners have protested that assessment, so a professional engineering survey is being looked at to provide answers.

County officials have said in the past that one side of the patio of the Old Tubac Inn restaurant is on county property and that a rock-based sign for Mariah's clothing store is on the county right-of-way along Tubac Road.

Print this story Email this story Post a Comment The Old Tubac Inn patio on the right of this photo is said to be on land owned by Santa Cruz County. ADVERTISEMENT

The contentions are the resultof a study commissioned by Santa Cruz County in 2005 to review all the right-of-way locations within the commercial district of the village of Tubac.

On eight streets, 37 encroachments were found and results were explained at a community meeting in Tubac on Sept. 22, 2005. Property owners were informed by mail and asked to have the signs, landscape rocks and parking bumpers, among other things, removed by Nov. 4, 2005.

Everyone did so either then or in the following months, except the owners of the Old Tubac Inn and Mariah's, said Luis Parra, a deputy county attorney.

In a December 2006 interview, Parra said that injunction letters requiring immediate action would be mailed in mid-January of this year to the owners, but that did not occur.

The issue has been discussed recently at two Santa Cruz County Board of Supervisors meetings during closed-door executive sessions.

On Monday, County Manager Greg Lucero said it was decided to commission a survey of the county-owned property. Boundary lines; the location of underground septic tanks and leach lines; and overhead utility lines are all to be included.

County Community Development Director Mary Dahl is supervising the survey, which will be carried out by Frank Vasquez, P.E., of Rio Rico. She said she anticipates having results by May 17.

The survey, however, only covers the land in the Tubac Plaza, located at the rear of shops that face onto Tubac Road and Plaza Road. It doesn't address the status of the rock sign in front of Mariah's.

In response to a question from the Nogales International, Lucero said, "We will be addressing all encroachments in due time. Currently, we are focusing on the Plaza and as soon as we address encroachments in that area we will assess what area of the county we need to focus on next."

(Editor's Note: Freelance writer Kathleen Vandervoet can be contacted at kathleenvan@msn.com.)