Mission Peaks wants CAP water, habitat land

The developer of the proposed 17,000-unit Mission Peaks project west of town says it will spend millions to extend the CAP line south and will put 35 percent more water into the local aquifer than it uses.

In addition, the developer, American Nevada Company of suburban Las Vegas, said in a press release that it “proposed to purchase an additional 1,000 acres of highly sensitive lands off-site that would benefit the entire region.”

It said the land will be in an area approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

ANC on April 30 submitted identical plans for Mission Peaks to both the Town of Sahuarita and Pima County with some significant changes from plans that had been filed and withdrawn in both 2006 and 2007. The applications for the town General Plan Amendment and county Comprehensive Plan Amendment seek more intense land uses.

The water and habitat conservation plans will be addressed in future documents that will be open to public scrutiny and comment, ANC Vice President Dan Naef said.

A fact sheet posted on the project’s Web site, www.missionpeaks.com, says “ANC will extend the CAP line several miles at a cost of several million dollars to a strategically located recharge basin. More water will enter the aquifer for the benefit of others than the proposed Mission Peaks project will use.”

Naef said the project will recharge 2,000 acre feet more per year than the 5,600 acre feet it expects to use.

ANC is expected to use a recharge facility upstream (south) of the well field of the Sahuarita Water Company (formerly Rancho Sahuarita Water Company), which it partially owns and which will supply water to Mission Peaks.

By filing for plan amendments with both the town and county, ANC can delay for several months before deciding whether to pursue annexation to the town or stay under county rules. The developer in 2006 submitted a request with the town and in 2007 submitted a request to Pima County, then withdrew each request.

The proposal is for a master planned community straddling Mission and Twin Buttes Roads on 4,217 acres of private land and another 632 acres of State Trust Land. The land now contains a handful of homes and otherwise is raw desert.

It would include 15,000 housing units on the private land plus perhaps 2,000 more on State Trust land, including a price range from starter homes to executive homes.

The plan would cluster denser residential in the center, near commercial areas, while putting low-density property near the edge of the project.

The land contains a few homes now and is bordered by old mining property and a few neighborhoods so rural in nature that residents haul in water.

Some neighbors have complained that such a project will destroy their lifestyle, but others welcome closer shopping.

Mission Peaks also will contain 26 acres of neighborhood commercial development; another 118 acres of retail/office/mixed use commercial; 109 acres of parks (down from 117 acres in the 2007 request); some 40 miles of trials within 200 acres of linear (mostly roadside) parks; 1,000 acres of open space on-site; five school sites, a police and fire substation, three worship sites and a wastewater treatment plant that could be turned over to the town or county.

The ANC proposal is one of eight GPAs that were filed by the April 30 deadline.

Town Manager Jim Stahle said the town probably will decide on the Mission Peaks this fall, and then would consider zoning and annexation to the town. The county will decide on all its plan amendments in December.

Regardless of whether the project annexes to the town or remains under the county’s rules, it would require additional town parks, road and police services, but also would bring in sales tax, Stahle said.

Stahle would prefer that Mission Peaks become par of the town, so the town will have more control over its fate. Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry repeatedly has said that urban developments belong in cities or towns, which get more state funding than counties.

The manager said he thinks the developer will go where it can get the best deal and will see whether the public in Sahuarita will accept Mission Peaks as part of the town.

pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738