Urban University Interface.com

CAMPUS ACQUISITIONS scores a win over public process.  Tucson’s mayor and council chambers was packed with angry neighborhood residents who watched their elected officials favor a Chicago based student housing developer over  their plea to downscale the development and most likely lose the project which Tucson’s development stakeholders did not want.    Many core neighborhood associations supported WUNA’s  alternative plan, but it didn’t look like a design issue.  It doesn’t even look like public process for that matter.  Forty five years and counting,  a divide and conquer strategy has worked for developers and planners;  one neighborhood at a time.  Maybe that tide is shifting now as neighborhoods react to what they see as a planning coup.  The Main Gate Urban Overlay District Zoning was adopted following  a historically quick notification and meeting process with a small handful of WUNA residents.  Under the pressure of a deep economic recession, came an almost a unanimous approval by Mayor and Council, save for Councilwoman Uhlich.   Old neighborhoods have suffered serious attrition in the past and this certainly continues that unfortunate reality.  On February 28th, 2011, historic neighborhoods were shut up again.