Plan to open GVR to condos on hold

Green Valley News

The Green Valley Recreation board put the brakes on a proposal to allow condominiums in Canoa Ranch Resort to become a part of GVR, after members decided they needed more time to discuss the move.

At a GVR board study session on Tuesday, members agreed to keep the item off the agenda for the Feb. 24 board of directors meeting until they get clarification on several issues, including whether GVR’s age-restriction clause would allow for the inclusion of the condos.

The bulk of GVR members who attended the meeting said they don’t like the idea because it would cause overcrowding, allow non-retirees access to amenities and said visitors would largely go unchecked.

GVR Executive Director Anndrea Blackshear said the condos are part of The Lodge at Canoa Ranch, whose developer, Fairfield Homes president David Williamson, asked GVR in 2005 to remove the property from GVR and to prevent and condo owners from entering into GVR.

At a meeting with Blackshear and Fiscal Affairs Committe chairman Leon Lies in January, Williamson requested that the property be brought back into GVR because the facilities would be an incentive for buyers, Blackshear said.

Under his stipulations, 25 units with individual owners would be given the option of joining GVR, and 27 condos operated like a hotel would have GVR membership along with 110 condos yet to be built.

Blackshear said initial fees from the 27 condos and the additional 110 units would bring about $302,000 into GVR.

But board members said they will need an offer in writing from Williamson. They also said they need to look into the issue of age-registriction, whether or not it should be put to a member vote, and whether the 25 indivually owned condos would need to be included in the negotiations, “all or nothing.”

When board member Jim Burt read from the original 2005 motion to remove the property, which read that the condos and young people living there were “inconsistent with the retirement lifestyle,” board member Chuck Catino said, “Times change.”

Many in the crowd shook their heads and said, “No, they don’t.”

Former GVR board president Lou Lovat received applause when he said that the Canoa Ranch facilities were already crowded and, “We do not need hotels or condos in GVR.”

jrichardson@gvnews.com |547-9726