Citizen Staff Writer
GARRY DUFFY
gduffy@tucsoncitizen.com
Pima County officials want a criminal investigation by the Arizona attorney general of a residential aviation park near Sahuarita where property owners claim a developer for years has violated lot-split and other zoning laws.
The Board of Supervisors Tuesday voted to ask for the investigations into Ruby Star Airpark, a 640-acre development near the Sierrita Mountains, after hearing an hour’s worth of complaints from irate homeowners.
The complaints said the developer has allegedly repeatedly failed to comply with zoning codes and direction from the Pima County Development Services Department to make improvements as stipulated in conditional-use permits.
The Arizona Real Estate Department already has asked the attorney general to probe Ruby Star, owned by Denny and Terry Nolen.
That was based on earlier complaints from property owners that the couple have turned deaf ears to complaints about roads and the community water system, allegedly improperly permitted aircraft hangers and about the homeowners’ association allegedly stacked with relatives and allies to frustrate efforts to resolve concerns.
The couple has paid a $150,000 fine issued several years ago by the Department of Real Estate for illegal lot-splitting, Terry Nolen said Tuesday.
Since then, they have been hamstrung at further efforts to comply with additional county requirements because they can’t get permits to do the improvements, she said.
“They’ve had us in lockdown for two years,” Terry Nolen said.
Property owners at the decade-old Ruby Star Airpark told supervisors a vastly different story.
“The problems with Ruby Star have not gone away; they sit, continuing to fester,” Barry DiSimone, a real estate agent who has invested at Ruby Star, told the supervisors.
In other news, the supervisors also approved an almost $25.2 million contract to construct a new interconnect pipeline between the Ina and Roger roads wastewater treatment facilities.
The construction manager at-risk contract, to Sundt/Kiewit Joint Venture, stipulates that the contractor pay costs above that maximum amount if the project goes over budget.
The project will be paid with 2004 sewer revenue bonds.
Pima supervisors seek attorney general’s probe of Sahuarita subdivision