Making Sprawl More Liveable

By Macario Juarez Jr. and Karen Mracek
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
August 15, 2003

Sprawl is here to stay in Southern Arizona , but better planning practices and compromises can help lessen the negative effects of urban fringe development.

That was the message delivered Thursday by a panel of government officials and developers who gave their perceptions of urban sprawl, its causes and what's being done to keep it in check. The discussion was part of the quarterly Pima County Real Estate Research Council meeting, held at the University of Arizona 's Science and Technology Park .

"Sprawl is a really slippery pig," Ben Changkakoti, Pima County 's Comprehensive Plan administrator, told about 50 in attendance. As long as there is time to travel, a car to get around in and money for gas, there's always going to be someone who wants to live outside the city's core. "That's a given," Changkakoti said.

That's part of the reason why satellite communities are popping up in Pinal, Santa Cruz and Cochise counties, said Ken Abrahams, vice president of Diamond Ventures. "The buyer has said, 'We want suburbia,' " Abrahams said. Developers such as Diamond Ventures are responding, buying huge swaths of land and building "master-planned communities" in an effort to promote what they believe to be more controlled growth.

They aren't being built in the city proper because of the amount of land they require. Such developments average about 2,000 acres, Abrahams said. Examples of such developments include Rita Ranch, on the far Southeast Side, and Rancho Sahuarita, south of Tucson . Master-planned communities can take years to build and offer a chance to plan for schools, parks, job centers and infrastructure such as utilities and roads - the type of planning that older urban areas lack.

Not all home buyers are looking for such developed neighborhoods, said Gary Brasher, a Tubac real estate broker who is developing a mix of about 400 town homes, patio homes and custom homes on 100 to 200 acres some 45 miles south of Tucson . Sprawl can be partially attributed to a desired lifestyle change by people who are moving out of once-secluded areas - Cave Creek and Sedona - to areas that can afford them more open space.

Years ago, the bulk of private land in Santa Cruz County was blanketed by a lower-density zoning code to ensure the area would maintain its rural character. It gives government officials there "a real strong hand" when developers want to bargain for higher density, Brasher said.

"About half of our property is being left as open space," he said. Planners such as Changkakoti say other factors that need to be considered include the availability of water and the protection of wildlife corridors.   With the push to develop outward, it's important not to forget the infill and redevelopment opportunities that still exist, said Albert Elias, the city's comprehensive planning task force director.  

He would like to see more incentives and guidelines created to entice builders to develop on scattered vacant lots and land that is now underutilized. If done right, Rio Nuevo, the multimillion-dollar public-private effort to revitalize Downtown, could serve as an example of how to create attractive higher-density living in the urban core, Elias said. Even so, "the inertia of sprawl is really powerful. It will take concerted effort to change," he said.

* Contact reporters Macario Juarez Jr. at 573-4663 or at mjuarez@azstarnet.com;
Karen Mracek at 573-4179 or kmracek@azstarnet.com

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