ArchivesVoters will be asked on Nov. 4 to determine whether plans for the proposed Sopori Ranch 6,839-home residential, resort and business development in Amado should move forward.
  
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Prop. 401 is for Las Mesas de Tubac (The Nogales International published an article on Las Mesas de Tubac on Sept. 12, 2008.)
Planning and Zoning Director Mary Dahl said the Sopori area’s present zoning couldn’t be altered as a result of this election. The election involves the county “Comprehensive Plan,” which Dahl said is solely “intended to provide guidelines to assist decision makers in providing orderly growth within their jurisdiction.”
A “Yes” vote, according to the ballot language, will have the effect of amending the county Comprehensive Plan to designate 2,531 acres as “Preservation,” 357 acres “Ranch;” 1,488 acres “Low-Density Residential,” 597 “Medium-Density Residential,” 753 acres “High-Density Residential,” 349 acres to “Mixed Use;” and 41 acres to “Enterprise.”
According to the Comprehensive Plan, “Low-Density Residential” provides for one resident per acre or less and low“intensity tourism services, restaurant and neighborhood services; “Medium-Density Residential,” three residents per acre or less, with retail offices or commercial services; “High-Density Residential,” single- and multi-family homes with 10 residents per acre or less as well as retail office and commercial services.
“Mixed Use” is defined as high-density residential integrated with retail and employment uses in areas accessible to infrastructure and public services; “Preservation” is defined as open space areas to be preserved in a natural and/or scientifically managed manner; “Ranch” provides for one-quarter residence per acre or less, ranching agriculture, viniculture, low-intensity, low-traffic tourism, resource conservation and accessory uses.
The principal land uses for the “Enterprise” classification are heavy commercial and industrial endeavors “with significant employment potential and are situated to take advantage of facilities and major transportation corridors.”
If the measure passes it is the first step in the process of changing the actual zoning, Dahl said.
A “No” vote will nix any changes to the Comprehensive Plan that currently calls for various “Ranch,” “Low-Density” and “Mixed” uses.
Hundreds of area residents and others have expressed opposition to both projects in the past 12 months, through speaking at public hearings, submitting letters, or signing petitions for the referendum election.
Developer Ross Wilson of First United Realty said that the master planning his company will do “is a better vision” for the county.
Sopori Ranch, west of Interstate 19, would also include two golf courses and a resort hotel. There would be land set aside for retail shops and commercial and industrial businesses.
Among questions that have been raised are whether the development will create long-term employment; will new homes’ owners carry the brunt of the cost of infrastructure and services; will the development cause taxes go up for current residents; will new businesses in the development area hinder Nogales and Rio Rico business owners by luring away customers.
Wilson said about 23,000 people will move into the area in the next 20 years if both developments are built, bumping up the county’s current population by 50 percent.
“We purchased the Sopori Ranch,” Wilson said in an interview, “with a vision to come up with a master-planned community that was planned from the ground up and designed to not make any mistakes or oversights that we had seen in the way land was developed in years past.
“We want to provide a self-sustaining community that provides a diversity of housing products for first-time buyers, to growing families through retirement age. We want to provide the retail component, a recreational component. Basically, a community where you can live, work and play, if that’s what you choose to do.”
Tubac resident Nancy Bohman disagreed during a recent interview. “It’s sprawl. It will end up costing Santa Cruz County taxpayers money for the new infrastructure. It will compete and hurt the businesses in Nogales and Rio Rico and will set a precedent for the same type of development throughout the county.”
Amado resident Bill Kurtz said, “It would create a whole new community at the north end of the county that in many ways would rival the population of Rio Rico. It’s bad because we want to keep the northern part of the county as much of a rural area as at all possible.”
First United Realty and Las Mesas de Tubac are advertising through billboards, newspaper ads and their Web site that a “yes” vote will bring jobs and affordable housing to current residents.
Tumac¡cori resident Lynn Carey said, “I think the only reason the developers are promising the jobs is to get people to vote the way they want them to. And I think it’s exploitative. It’s wrong to promise people who are in need a way of solving those needs when you know it isn’t going to happen.”
Tubac resident Rich Bohman said, “Obviously, there are going to be construction jobs. But on projects like this, it’s 35 miles from Nogales but it’s about 12 miles from Green Valley. So the home building is going to be done by a Tucson-based large-scale builder. They have their own crews.”
Carey agreed: “The builders will be the likes of KB Homes, DR Horton, and Meritage. These are huge Phoenix and Tucson builders. They already have their employees.”
But Wilson said, “Our goal is to have a ‘Santa Cruz County First’ policy. That includes having the business community be prepared to provide the services required to build these projects. That would happen by them planning ahead.”“
He said, “We will start a database of local businesses and contractors and they will be offered the work.” First United would like to start a business group to advocate for the interests of business owners when the county board of supervisors is hearing a request and Wilson said it would be similar to the Tucson organization, Southern Arizona Homebuilders.
Affordable housing is another element the developers have pitched, but no specifics have emerged. Wilson said it’s too early in the process to provide an approximate price for such a home, or how many will be built. “It’s impossible to determine a price range. I have no idea how much density I’m going to be able to develop. Density equals affordability. I’m not going to give you a price range.
“It’s going to be as affordable as we can make it. If we’re allowed to do the higher density in certain areas, it’s going to be the most affordable property that can be built in that market today.”
First United Realty, which has developed residential lots in approximately 12 communities in Arizona and one in New Mexico, has never before built affordable housing. “This is the first master-planned community we’ve done,” Wilson said.
Regarding parks and open space, he said, “There will be designated park and recreation areas,” but they will be private and owned, maintained and controlled by homeowners’ associations.
“Right now, we have 42 percent of the property that will be open space.” If the project isn’t allowed to move forward, though, he said First United will have to design larger residential lots on some of that open space in order to see a profit.
Land will be earmarked, Wilson said, for a school, a fire station, and for law enforcement. The developers won’t build the facilities, however. New property tax revenue will pay for those, Wilson said.
Carey disagreed. She pointed out the Tubac Fire District is seeking approval for a $15 million bond election to handle growth in the past few years. She said, “If growth paid for itself, we wouldn’t have the bond election.”
Sustainable water is another concern. Wilson said, “We spent a lot of time and money hiring hydrologists to study the aquifer. (An aquifer is defined as a geological formation containing water. In this area, it is underground.)
“We submitted, along with our proposed plan to the Arizona Department of Water Resources, an application to obtain an analysis of assured water supply. That analysis took into account all proposed uses, residential, commercial, recreational, everything we had proposed.” Wilson said the state agreed there is sufficient water and in April 2007 issued the necessary certificate.
“To put it in plain language, we’re not taking anybody else’s water to do this development. The Sopori Ranch has been farming, raising cattle, for well over 100 years. All we’re doing is taking the water used for that purpose, and switching it over to use for homes, and growth and employment. We figure it’s a more beneficial use. It’s not an increased water use,” Wilson said.
Opponents say that since water isn’t unlimited, the project can’t help but reduce aquifer levels. Sherry Sass, president of the Friends of the Santa Cruz River, said in a guest opinion (NI, Friday, Sept. 26) that the Sopori Ranch construction “could destroy the shallow groundwater-dependent woodlands that remain along Sopori Wash and compromise major wildlife migration corridors.”
As a master-planned community, Wilson said First United will install infrastructure such as roads, water lines and wastewater treatment. “We think centralized and controlled water usage is better than unregulated wells. We think a water treatment system is better than septic tanks.”
Bohman said that some of the developers’ claims are sales-based. “The developers almost sound like they’re being magnanimous. They say they’ll put in their own wastewater treatment plant. But everybody has to do that. They all have to put in their own roads, sewer systems and underground utilities, and abide with what ADOT (Arizona Department of Transportation) tells them for the frontage roads.”
Kurtz said, “There seems to be a perception and an acceptance that if it’s called a master plan, it’s good,” he said. “There are lots of examples of master planning that don’t look too good. We have Sahuarita nearby. The developer is still going to the Town Council, saying ‘Give me more money.’ That says something,” Kurtz said.
First United could create about 1,700 residential lots without any rezoning by using the county-approved process of a Planned Area Development. If they opted not to do that, the current zoning allows for 1,475 homes on the ranch.
If the county’s planning and zoning commission in the future asked Wilson to compromise, or reduce, his request from 6,839 homes, would the company do that? Wilson said, “Well, if it’s part of the zoning process, we’re all ears. Of course, we’re going to listen. The zoning process allows an evolution and a refinement of the plan. We would love to have that opportunity.”
Two Web sites have additional information. One provided by the developers is at www.yes400-401.com. The other, set up by county residents, is at www.cforrg.org
When people hear conflicting statements and try to decide how to vote on Nov. 4, what are they to do? Nancy Bohman said, “I would ask - why they would listen to developers instead of their own planning and zoning commission (which rejected the developers’ requests) and to the many, many people who took the time to speak out at the county hearing” held on Dec. 12, 2007.
“The developers leave out the cost. We will pay for the schools and the fire department and all the other infrastructure,” she said.
Wilson, however, insisted there is a long way to go before the final plan is reached, and asked that voters allow the requests to move through the county-regulated process. “Where are the children of Santa Cruz County today going to find places to live and work, and not have to move away (without new developments)?
(Reach the writer at kathleenvan@msn.com Manuel C. Coppola contributed to this article.)
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