Mission Peaks developer to seek continuance Tuesday

The developer of the proposed Mission Peaks project is planning to ask for a continuance at Tuesday’s meeting of the Pima County Board of Supervisors.

The developer, American Nevada Co. (ANC) of suburban Las Vegas, has requested a county Comprehensive Plan Amendment and already has obtained from the Town of Sahuarita a General Plan Amendment. The developer has submitted identical requests to the town and county and seeks to put 15,000 housing units on about 4,300 acres of private land west of town.

Matt Lawson of ANC said Thursday that the developer will ask for a continuance to allow time for the developer to talk to officials of Freeport McMoRan Copper & Gold and to those of Mount Hopkins and Kitt Peak observatories, who have opposed the requests.

By law the county board must open a public hearing in the same calendar year the request is made, but the board can continue the decision for up to four months, or until April, 2009. County planning staff said other options facing the board include denying the request for a continuance and making a decision this week, or continuing the application for up to four months but taking comments from those who show up on Tuesday. The decision for a major plan amendment requires a two-thirds supermajority of the entire five-person board, or four board votes, but a continuance would only require a simple majority of those present.

Pipeline updates

Lawson spoke outside a Central Arizona Project board meeting in Tucson where the board heard updates on two pipeline extension proposals that could serve Sahuarita and Green Valley.

The mine and observatories have spoken against the project at both town and county panels. A Freeport official told the town council and county planning and zoning commission that putting 15,000 or more new homes in the area west of Sahuarita would lead to conflicts, as residents would object to blasting and other noise, vibrations and dust.

An official of Kitt Peak told the county planning and zoning commission that the new homes would create light pollution that would make it increasingly difficult for the astronomical industry to remain in the Tucson area.

Lawson of ANC denied that the developer is trying to play the town and county off against each other by filing development applications with both the town and county. Several members of the Pima County Planning and Zoning Commission said they felt the county was being played off against the developer. The commission in October voted 6-0 not to recommend the project.

The county planning commissioners, Armando Membrila and Thomas Spendiarian, said the project should be developed under town rules and the county should not be involved.

Sahuarita Vice Mayor Phillip Conklin later said that if the town had it to do over again, he would prefer not considering a town application that the developer filed at the same time with the county.

Identical applications

Lawson told the County Planning and Zoning Commission that the developer had filed an application with the town in 2006, then withdrew it in order to refine it more, and filed an application with the county in 2007, then withdrew that application in order to refine it more, and in 2008 filed with both jurisdictions identical applications that included the refinements. He did not offer a reason for the simultaneous filings.

The dual filings allow the developer to seek an incentive from the town, and possibly other concessions, such as higher density.

ANC has filed a document with the town saying that it would cost $50 million more to develop under town jurisdiction than under the county rules because of higher town fees and taxes, and the developer has gotten a recommendation from powerful Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry that Mission Peaks be exempted from any future increases in county impact (growth) fees. A continuance, by allowing the developer to keep open the option of developing in the county, also would allow it to maintain its rationale for seeking an incentive from the town.

pfranchine@sahuaritasun.com | 547-9738