Mayor advocates regional water plan
by Garry Duffy on Dec. 04, 2008, under Edge, Local, SpecialTough times for housing and related industries are here now, but regional leaders say they intend to be ready for growth when it eventually returns.
Elected officials of Pima County, Tucson, Marana, Oro Valley, and Sahuarita addressed about 300 government staffers, and employees of the housing industry – planning, engineering, and construction firms – Wednesday at a Tucson Regional Town Hall at the Tucson Convention Center, 260 S. Church Ave.
The topic: Don’t stop thinking about tomorrow – collectively.
“We have got to come together with a regional plan,” Mayor Bob Walkup said, noting area-wide cooperative undertakings such as the Regional Transportation Authority and Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities development agency already are in place.
Cooperation between area municipalities – and the city of Tucson and Pima County especially – is relatively new but must continue to address major unresolved issues, he said.
“We’ve been able to come together on some critical regional issues,” Walkup said.
Vital to the future of all communities in the region is agreement on conservation and use of water.
“We need to have the water issue resolved,” Walkup said.
The city and county have taken the lead on the issue with the formation of a Tucson-Pima Water/Wastewater Infrastructure, Supply and Planning Study, which could lead to formation of a regional authority similar in structure and purpose to the RTA.
“We need an authority to figure out where the water is going to come from,” Walkup said.
Board of Supervisors Chairman Richard Elías was involved with the formation of the study group, composed of city water and county wastewater reclamation advisory committee members, along with city and county planning commissions.
“We have to be concerned about the quality of growth,” Elías said.
Infill should be encouraged to steer development away from the county’s conservation lands system, with a vision of creating mixed-use communities where education and employment opportunities, and health care services are planned during design stages, he said.
Existing neighborhoods and the diversity of the region’s cultures and traditions should be preserved as growth occurs, Elías said.
Annexations will play a key role in guiding growth, officials at the session agreed.
The town of Marana’s growth since incorporation in 1977 has been spurred by annexations of formerly unincorporated county areas.
Mayor Ed Honea said officials expect the town population to be about 100,000 by 2035.
“We don’t want to be just a bedroom community,” Honea said.
Town officials are seeking businesses to locate in the community, helping to reduce the impact that town residents have on the Tucson metropolitan area, he said.
A Marana Strategic Plan is being developed toward that end, Honea said.
“It will be a living document that our community will revisit every year,” he said.
Oro Valley Mayor Paul Loomis also touted planning as vital to the region.
“Land use planning is key to establishing a community’s character,” he said.
Sahuarita incorporated to the south of Tucson in 1992 – by a 14-vote margin in a contentious election that pitted neighbors against each other.
The fledgling town started with a population of about 2,000 – and could grow to about 90,000 by 2023, Mayor Lynne Skelton said.
Sahuarita also plans annexations to accommodate orderly growth, she said.
Town officials from the outset planned a town center off Sahuarita Road and Interstate 19 for municipal and commercial services.
A goal is to provide employment opportunities that will reduce the need for residents to travel outside town limits, Skelton said. About 60 percent of job-age residents must travel out of town for work, she said.
“We want to reduce that to about 30 percent” by 2023, she said.
Town officials hope to see the Central Arizona Project pipeline extended into the town center. It now terminates at Pima Mine Road at the town’s northern boundary.
