Pima County Conservation Bond Advisory Committee

 

County Administration Building

130 W. Congress, 1st Floor

Tuesday, November 4, 2003

6:00 p.m.

 

SUMMARY OF MEETING

 

Note: The following is a summary of what transpired at the November 4, 2003 meeting.  Audio tapes of the meeting are available upon request.

 

1.                   Roll Call

 

The meeting was called to order without a quorum at 6:15 p.m.  Committee members discussed items but could not take any actions.

                                                                                               

Members Present                                           Members Absent

Paula Chronister                                             Pat King                                                         

Chris McVie                                                     Steve Alexander                                             

Chuck Pettis                                                   Gayle Hartmann

Tom Sheridan                                                 Jenny Neeley

Rob Marshall

 

Others Present

Diana Freshwater

Marty McCure, City of Tucson

Brent Sinclair, Town of Oro Valley

Bob Jennens, Town of Ovo Valley representative on County Bond Advisory Committee

Albert Elias, City of Tucson

Julia Fonseca, Pima County Flood Control

Roger Anyon, Pima County Cultural Resources

David Cushman, Pima County Cultural Resources

William Staples, Pima County Real Property

Christine Curtis, Pima County Real Property

Jim Barry, County Administrator’s Office

Nicole Fyffe, County Administrator’s Office

 

2.                   Discussion of Other Jurisdiction’s Open Space Bond Proposals

 

This discussion was held with the understanding that no Committee level decisions could be made because of the lack of a quorum.  Comments and recommendations from individual members would be forwarded to the absent Committee members in a effort to reach consensus via email on recommendations to the County Bond Advisory Committee.

 

Roger Anyon and David Cushman from Pima County’s Cultural Resource Office presented staff’s updated proposal based on the review of cultural resource projects submitted by other jurisdictions.  Funding was increased for the Ft. Lowell project by $500,000 (recommended by City of Tucson), and for the Steam Pump Ranch project by $1 million (Oro Valley).  Three interpretation projects were dropped from the original proposal, and 3 projects were added: Historic Preservation Easements (City), Esmund Station (City), and Honey Bee Village (Oro Valley).  Mr. Cushman and Mr. Anyon explained that loss and vulnerability were the top criteria used during this evaluation, and therefore acquisition and stabilization of buildings were more important than interpretation, which funding could be sought for at a later date.

 

Committee members discussed the updated Cultural Resource proposal.  Representatives from the City of Tucson and Oro Valley provided their comments.  Both Albert Elias and Marty McCure from the City of Tucson, said they agreed with the methodology and criteria used by Pima County staff. Jim Barry, County Administrator’s Office, noted that staff’s proposal needed to be reviewed by the County Administrator’s Office.  Committee members were supportive of the proposal.

 

Open space acquisition proposals were then discussed.  Staff provided a summary document of the other jurisdictions seven open space proposals that fell within the purview of the Conservation Bond Advisory Committee, as opposed to those proposals that were more Parks and Rec. orientated.  Two of these proposals were identical to projects already proposed by the Conservation Bond Advisory Committee at the October 17, 2003 County Bond Advisory Committee meeting (Kino and 36th Street proposal, and the $42 million allocated to the Tortolita sub area for Arizona Preserve Initiative Applications and other projects).  A third proposal, 36th Street Open Space Corridor, had potential overlap. City staff said the proposal was general in nature, and Conservation Bond Advisory Committee and Pima County’s Flood Control District had already proposed projects in this area. That left 4 proposals without full overlap. One of these, the City’s Agua Caliente proposal, could potentially have a small amount of overlap with 2 parcel identified as Habitat Protection Priorities in the general area.

 

Committee members discussed the details of Oro Valley’s Kelly Ranch proposal with Brent Sinclair, Town of Oro Valley. Committee members also discussed Sahuarita’s Open Space Preservation and Environmental Protection proposal for the preservation of land along the Santa Cruz within the Town of Sahuarita, and discussed the City of Tucson’s proposals with Albert Elias, City of Tucson.  Committee members expressed their appreciation for the time and effort of the other jurisdictions in submitting proposals with both biological value and archaeological sensitivity, and encouraged the jurisdictions representatives to continue to work with Pima County to implement regional conservation and cultural resource protection.  However, Committee members explained to the City and Oro Valley’s representatives that they could not support any changes to the Committee’s original recommendations for the following reasons:

 

 

•                      Respect for the integrity of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Planning process - a 5 year process

•                      The Board of Supervisors intent for the 2004 bond program to primarily fund the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan and the Sonoran Desert Peoples Plan.

•                      Respect for the rigorous process the Committee went through to narrow 40+ proposals to only 16 Community Open Space Proposals, 2 months ago.

•                      The fact that at least 7 of the Committees Community Open Space Proposals already overlap with the other jurisdictions proposals.

•                      The recommended Conservation Bond Program will directly benefit residents of Pima County, regardless of jurisdiction, due to the adjacency of proposed protected lands to urban and suburban residents, and the easy accessibility to these exceptional lands

 

•                      Committee members supported the $20 million package of Cultural Resource proposal, which were updated to include many of the other jurisdictions proposals.

                                                           

Committee members noted that if additional open space projects were to be recommended by the County Bond Advisory Committee or the Board of Supervisors, then these should be in excess of the original Conservation Bond Program Proposal of $250 million.

 

Committee members requested that staff begin to draft a response to the County Bond Advisory Committee, based on that night’s discussion.  Absent members would then be asked to submit input on the draft via email, in an effort to reach a consensus.

 

 

4.                   Call to the public

           

No members of the public spoke at this time.

 

5.                   Adjournment

 

The Meeting was adjourned at 7:50 p.m.