County rips Quail Creek strip mall plan

The Sahuarita Sun

A proposed commercial area near Quail Creek has drawn opposition from the Pima County administrator, who called it a strip mall that is out of character with the scenic Old Nogales Highway. And, he added, it’s partly in a floodplain.

Robson Communities Chief Financial Officer Steve Soriano said his company’s proposed convenience store and other shops have been requested by residents and amount to sustainable development because they would reduce lengthy drives to retail services for thousands of residents.

Soriano said the 50.68-acre site already has a county floodplain permit and is outside the floodplain, but Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said the permit was for a park, not a commercial area.

Robson has proposed a convenience store, a self-storage unit and an RV storage facility, as well as other shops, which might include a real estate office and a coffee and ice cream shop, Soriano said. The buildings would be on a site 1,700 feet north to south and 400 feet wide at the southwestern corner of Old Nogales Highway and Quail Crossing Boulevard.

The project is within town limits, so the county has only an advisory role.

Huckelberry on Monday sent a letter to Town Manager Jim Stahle saying, “Pima County strongly opposes the land use change for a number of reasons.”

Huckelberry said the development proposed is “nothing more than strip commercial — something that should be avoided. The scenic quality of Old Nogales Highway is unique to the area and is a character icon of the Santa Cruz Valley. To destroy it with strip commercial development would be inappropriate.”

Soriano said the proposed uses might be out of character with the current landscape, which is undeveloped, but he said it is appropriate to provide retail services in an area where people live. There are 1,590 occupied homes in Quail Creek, with another 77 under construction.

The county administrator said, “For decades it has been well-settled public policy that building in major floodplains is bad idea,” but Town Planning Director John Neunuebel and Soriano agreed that if the revised map shows the commercial site in a flood plain, it will not go forward. Soriano said he is confident the higher-elevation portion of the developer’s land, along Old Nogales Highway, will be determined by FEMA to be outside the floodplain.

In fact, he said, “the area where these buildings are going is already graded. The grading was completed under a 2002 Pima County-issued flood plain use permit.”

Huckelberry disputed that Wednesday, saying he had the permit pulled and it had been issued for a park. The county still had flood plain jurisdiction in the town at that point and the town public works department took over several years later.

The site was approved for a General Plan Amendment last year by the Town Council, and the rezoning request will be for a General Business (CB-2) from the current Rural Homestead (RH). Robson has done engineering and grading, has just given its first submittal to the town and is awaiting town comments. Town departments’ comments are due Friday.

One factor in the process may not be completed for another year, Soriano said. A portion of the site is in federally designated floodplain, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), is about one year into a two-year revision of its flood plain map for that property, Soriano said.

Soriano said federal flood plain mapping is done with a “broad brush” and that it is up to property owners to seek detailed revisions of the map for their property. He said the town has given a conditional revision that puts the project outside the flood plain.

Soriano said the county letter and attached staff reports contained useful information and he said the developer would add screening for the RV facility as suggested by county staff beyond the six foot high masonry wall already proposed. He also noted that the staff reports say there is no riparian habitat on the site and that the county parks department has no objection.

The county staff report found no archeological or historic sites within the property, but noted that the site is “located within a zone of high archeological sensitivity” and extends into the Continental Madera Priority Archeological Site Complex, which consists of as many as 50 archeological sites.

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