Urban University Interface.com

The IGT Vision; How Will it Fit

IGT (Imagine a Greater Tucson) is an aspiration for greatness, but is it more than that.  Will it be a definitive and influential voice of reason as Tucson moves into its future.   View the IGT’s website.  http://www.imaginegreatertucson.org/what-is-igt/  As the IGT project pushes towards its final vision statement, current plans are running into roadblocks.

The IGT’s keynote speaker, the evening of May 15^th 2012 at CALA, was Architect and Planner, Corky Poster.  The theme was re-thinking community.    We heard an urgent call for alternative modes of transportation, surgically installed density sectors, form based building design, planned housing @ IGT densities and neighborhood respect.  Corky Poster began his delivery with a short expose on his post college age children to make a point.  They moved to more exciting cities.  Tucson does not have what young people want and we are seeing a diaspora of educated young adults.  Apparently, the challenge is to design a new Tucson that is suitable for 25 year olds, who naturally gravitate towards sustainability and modern living.

When asked about community participation, Corky Poster, a neighborhood planner, said he starts by providing the information that neighborhoods need to make informed decisions.  He also spoke of respect.  That resonates with the inner city neighborhoods who are all fighting some kind of battle with the City for its lacking.  Respect needs to guide the surgical planning blade.  Planners have hit a lot of unexpected opposition in this regards.  The RTA for one is anxious to widen several major Tucson arterials that according to Mr. Poster, they should not.   In 2006, voters approved a Regional Transportation Plan and a new 20-year half-cent sales tax. How does that fit now, when Broadway corridor widening plan was protested by 20 neighborhoods, including City and County leaders six years later.  They all seem to disagree with adding lanes.  So do I.   Other corridors like Grant Road and 22^nd Street are also scheduled to widen.  These road projects will all chip away at the neighborhoods behind them and most likely be opposed.   The RTA says, it has to move forward and the City of Tucson would like to move forward as well on coordinated urban overlay districts (UODs) in order to deal with land use.   New overlays also include the U of A Main Gate District, the modern streetcar route, the Warehouse District, Fourth Avenue and Downtown to name a few.  Overlays seem to be the way to handle a lot of planning issues in these areas.  So, why are neighborhoods rejecting a lot of what they have seen so far.  Typically, these overlays and road projects will happen along established or historic neighborhoods.   The people who live there say we do not need any new travel lanes for cars and they want protection.  I say they need revitalization and the money should come from the overlays.

Following the real estate crash and calls for pro business planning, much is pouring out of the planning gates and neighborhoods want their voice heard.  Each UOD brings with it abundant opportunities for developers to “opt in” to higher zoning rights and help bring us closer to the IGT vision of urbanization and density.  This also translates to capital.  The Main Gate Overlay, for instance has opt-ins for 17 parcels, some of which amount to a 400% increase in zoning rights, like Campus Acquisition’s two 14 story towers valued at 70 million dollars.  This one project will impact three immediate neighborhoods in a damaging  manner, further eroding their viability as family zoned enclaves.  Why not make it a win-win and see this as a value?   Neighborhoods can work with the UODS, if there is a plan to preserve and re-vitalize what remains and ensure people can call where they live, home.  Where are the neighborhood impact fees that should rightly source from the value of the opt in zoning within the UOD?  Why are millions in potential revitalization capital not on the table?  So, why should neighborhoods support a seemingly sensible planning tool called a  UOD without a sense of certainty towards their own acknowledgement of value in the IGT vision?