News
Developer: Mission Peaks to include workforce housing
By Philip Franchine, Sahuarita Sun
Developers of the proposed Mission Peaks project have told town planning officials they would include in their development “workforce housing” that would be affordable to public employees, though they have given no details so far.
They also gave some new details about their plans for an odor-free sewage plant; wildlife corridors; expansion of Mission and Helmet Peak roads and burial of electric lines.
Dan Naef and Matthew Lawson of Las Vegas-based American Nevada Co. were peppered with questions at the town Planning and Zoning Commission study session on July 22 and assured officials they would deal effectively with wastewater odor control and water conservation issues, among others.
A public hearing has been tentatively set for Wednesday, Sept. 10, when all 10 proposed General Plan Amendments will be heard. A state law requires that all of them to be considered together for their cumulative effect.
The study session also covered the town-initiated effort to annex 10 square miles of State Trust land east of town and a square mile of State Trust land north of Quail Creek.
The meeting took place after Naef and Lawson helped lead a brief bus tour of their property for commissioners and members of the public. The 4,200-acre property roughly straddles Twin Buttes and Mission roads, starting west of the town limits.
No major news came out during the tour or meeting, but a number of details were revealed about the project, which would include 15,000 housing units on private land and possibly another 2,000 on a square mile of state Trust Land south of Helmet Peak Road.
The project will include “workforce housing,” Naef said, without giving away many details.
“Our intent is to do everything from custom homes to workforce housing. We want to be the first providers of quality homes in a master planned community where teachers, firefighters and people working at the future (Carondelet Health Network) hospital could live in a signature master planned community, in the same community where they work. It’s a commitment by the Greenspun Companies,” the company that owns ANC, Naef said.
That may please at least one Town Council member, Marty Moreno, who recently was elected vice chair of the Governor’s Housing Commission and expects to be going to Phoenix at least three times a month, in part to advocate for workforce housing. She has said workforce housing will be critical to the success of Sahuarita attracting employees for the planned Carondelet hospital at Sahuarita and La Villita roads.
Asked about the number of units in the workforce category and what the definition of that would be, Naef later said, “We are still working on the details of workforce housing and look forward to sharing them with you at the appropriate time.”
ANC would eventually build Helmet Peak Road to six lanes for the mile west of Interstate 19 to the entrance to the project. The east-west arterial road inside the project would start out two to four lanes wide at the eastern end but would likely grow to six at buildout on the eastern end, tapering off as it goes west, Lawson said.
Mission Road would be widened to four lanes within the project as far south as McGee Ranch Road. South of McGee Ranch Road it would be made into an all-weather road and given shoulders.
Asked if the planned 20 commercial acres would be enough for the project, Naef said there could be as much at 100 acres, if all the acreage designated for mixed use in the proposal eventually is developed as commercial. The rezoning has not been approved.
Commission Chair Tim Trosper and Commissioner Ken Woodward grilled the ANC officials on the odor issue, pointing out that the area closest to the proposed plant location, near the western town limits at Twin Buttes Road, for years suffered from odors generated by Kerley Chemical on Twin Buttes Road. Trosper said community reaction to the Kerley odors, which include a lawsuit, helped to spur residents to incorporate the town in 1994.
Woodward said, “It’s all fine when the wastewater treatment plant runs properly, but we have one in town already that is not being run properly and there are all kinds of smells there."
pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738
They also gave some new details about their plans for an odor-free sewage plant; wildlife corridors; expansion of Mission and Helmet Peak roads and burial of electric lines.
Dan Naef and Matthew Lawson of Las Vegas-based American Nevada Co. were peppered with questions at the town Planning and Zoning Commission study session on July 22 and assured officials they would deal effectively with wastewater odor control and water conservation issues, among others.
A public hearing has been tentatively set for Wednesday, Sept. 10, when all 10 proposed General Plan Amendments will be heard. A state law requires that all of them to be considered together for their cumulative effect.
The study session also covered the town-initiated effort to annex 10 square miles of State Trust land east of town and a square mile of State Trust land north of Quail Creek.
The meeting took place after Naef and Lawson helped lead a brief bus tour of their property for commissioners and members of the public. The 4,200-acre property roughly straddles Twin Buttes and Mission roads, starting west of the town limits.
No major news came out during the tour or meeting, but a number of details were revealed about the project, which would include 15,000 housing units on private land and possibly another 2,000 on a square mile of state Trust Land south of Helmet Peak Road.
The project will include “workforce housing,” Naef said, without giving away many details.
“Our intent is to do everything from custom homes to workforce housing. We want to be the first providers of quality homes in a master planned community where teachers, firefighters and people working at the future (Carondelet Health Network) hospital could live in a signature master planned community, in the same community where they work. It’s a commitment by the Greenspun Companies,” the company that owns ANC, Naef said.
That may please at least one Town Council member, Marty Moreno, who recently was elected vice chair of the Governor’s Housing Commission and expects to be going to Phoenix at least three times a month, in part to advocate for workforce housing. She has said workforce housing will be critical to the success of Sahuarita attracting employees for the planned Carondelet hospital at Sahuarita and La Villita roads.
Asked about the number of units in the workforce category and what the definition of that would be, Naef later said, “We are still working on the details of workforce housing and look forward to sharing them with you at the appropriate time.”
ANC would eventually build Helmet Peak Road to six lanes for the mile west of Interstate 19 to the entrance to the project. The east-west arterial road inside the project would start out two to four lanes wide at the eastern end but would likely grow to six at buildout on the eastern end, tapering off as it goes west, Lawson said.
Mission Road would be widened to four lanes within the project as far south as McGee Ranch Road. South of McGee Ranch Road it would be made into an all-weather road and given shoulders.
Asked if the planned 20 commercial acres would be enough for the project, Naef said there could be as much at 100 acres, if all the acreage designated for mixed use in the proposal eventually is developed as commercial. The rezoning has not been approved.
Commission Chair Tim Trosper and Commissioner Ken Woodward grilled the ANC officials on the odor issue, pointing out that the area closest to the proposed plant location, near the western town limits at Twin Buttes Road, for years suffered from odors generated by Kerley Chemical on Twin Buttes Road. Trosper said community reaction to the Kerley odors, which include a lawsuit, helped to spur residents to incorporate the town in 1994.
Woodward said, “It’s all fine when the wastewater treatment plant runs properly, but we have one in town already that is not being run properly and there are all kinds of smells there."
pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738
Copyright © 2009 - Green Valley News and Sun