GVR board OKs new funding plan for Canoa Center

GREEN VALLEY--A plan to fund the first phase of the Canoa Ranch Recreation Center passed the Green Valley Recreation board of directors this week, and construction of the 12,900-square-foot facility is expected to commence in May of this year.

The board met in a special session Monday to vote on a new funding plan developed by Monterey Homes, now the primary home builder attached to the Canoa Ranch development, and after a long and sometimes acrimonious debate, the nonprofit approved the plan by an 8-2 vote.

The plan calls for Monterey Homes to put $1 million to build the $2.4 million facility, with Fairfield Homes adding in $775,000, and a new developer, Bourn Partners, putting up $225,000.

The remainder of the funding, about $400,000, will come from an escrow account containing the initial fees paid by every new-home buyer in the development-- money meant specifically for the purpose of building the GVR facility.

10 months to build

The recreation center is expected to take about 10 months to build, and when it's finished GVR will have to come up with about $230,000 per year to operate the facility.

The facility will include a fitness room, an indoor pool, an exercise room, offices, and lockers and dressing rooms, according to the facilities plan developed for the project.

In November 2003, Monterey Homes had asked the GVR board to put up $500,000 in advance to get the project going, but after the nonprofit turned down that idea, Monterey brought in Bourn Partners, a Tucson-based company which is planning to build 22 "fractional ownership" homes at Canoa Ranch.

The board went through a heated debate Monday over whether "fractional ownership" means that the homes will be time-share units, and whether approval of Bourn's financial help with the recreation center would lock GVR into a concomitant approval of the "fractured ownership" project, which some board members and several GVR members-at-large find less than desirable for myriad reasons.

In the end, the board amended the motion to approve the funding plan to say that agreeing to Bourn's participation in building the recreation facility did not necessarily mean that GVR would approve the construction of "fractured ownership" homes at Canoa Ranch.

Issue will be revisited

The board is expected to discuss the issue of Bourn's "fractional ownership" plans at the regular meeting scheduled for Jan. 27, 1:30 p.m., at Las Campanas.

Director Lou Lovat voted against the new funding plan, and led the opposition to it.

Lovat said that he was concerned about Bourn entering the development fray at Canoa Hills without GVR having a contract with the company; indeed, without the nonprofit knowing much about Bourn's plans for the area at all, Lovat said.

The board majority decided however that by agreeing to the new funding plan for the recreation center it was not also agreeing to any plans that Bourn may have; and GVR Executive Director Jeff Ziegler said that, after all, GVR may not even have the "legal or moral right" to say what Bourn can and cannot build at Canoa Hills.

In other GVR news, the board on Monday approved 8-0 an agreement with Green Valley Premier Homes, LLC, a group in the process of purchasing Santa Rita Springs, LLC. GVPH has agreed to pay the non-profit $71,341 in initial fees for 22 casitas planned at a subdevelopment of SRS. The initial plan for that area, approved in 1999, called for 60 units.

The development was significantly curtailed in May 2003 after an ancient Native American burial ground was discovered there.

thull@gvnews.com | 625-5511 x 22