Philip S. Moore, Inside Tucson Business

Growth is good, but right now slower growth is better.

That is the general consensus of the top governmental administrators of the region, all of whom were gathered at a breakfast meeting Friday of the Metropolitan Pima Alliance at the Viscount Suites Hotel. In what was probably first, Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, Tucson City Manager Mike Hein, Marana Town Manager Mike Reuwsaat, Sahuarita Town Manager Jim Stahle and Oro Valley Town Manager David Andrews were invited to offer their insights on the community in a single forum.

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Staggered by several years of rapid expansion, the region’s governments seemed to be in general agreement they need time to catch up. Still, though, they see growing population demands will be their biggest challenges.

Noting that Arizona is now the fastest growing state in the nation, Pima County’s Huckelberry said the housing slowdown has come at a time when everybody has to do a better job in planning how to accommodate that growth.

Offering “a chance to breathe and a chance to plan,” he said the slowdown is a chance to be seized, “because we need to do things a little differently than we’ve done in the past.”

The era when Tucson and surrounding communities could be pursue low-density development connected by roads is over. “We need more density, defined growth areas and more talk about mixed use,” Huckelberry said. “We also need to push regional cooperation and regionalism, maybe even regional land use planning, some day.”

Regional cooperation is already a reality, Tucson City Manager Hein said, but it’s only in small things. He said the city and county have worked together on transferring responsibility for the library system to the county, and he said Tucson has worked with other communities on water and infrastructure planning.

Yet, Hein said there’s no agreement on impact fees, “and the city and the county haven’t even agreed on population estimates, let alone what’s needed in infrastructure” for a 20-year water plan.

Also welcoming the housing slowdown, Hein said it will allow time “to reinvent some of the ways we do things as a city. We need to look at how we staff and how we approach service delivery.”

But he said the highest priority for the city may be surviving the next three years.

He called Rio Nuevo downtown redevelopment a process of “starting over while creating the illusion of moving forward.” Compounding the issue, the impending three-year Interstate 10 widening project, which will close all downtown exits, “isn’t going to be a rosy picture for anyone.”

The downtwon Depot Plaza and The Post projects are likely to move forward, Hein said, timed to be completed about the time I-10 is finished. But, beyond that, “it’s going to get uglier and uglier every week, but if you’re going to suffer, it’s better to suffer big and get it over with,” he said.

Further out, Sahuarita, Oro Valley and Marana aren’t facing the same kind of suffering.

Annexation is a priority for Sahuarita, currently encompassing 30 square miles. But Town Manager Stahle said adding to the town will require agreement from the Arizona Department of State Lands, which owns most of the adjacent acreage.

North of Tucson, Oro Valley is running out of land to develop, said Town Manager Andrews, who said he sees annexation as an on-going process.

Neighboring Marana has been aggressively annexing land for the past eight years.

“Now the town encompasses 122 square miles,” said Town Manager Reuwsaat. All of the land is already master-planned and ready to provide homes, shopping and jobs for an estimated 180,000 people.

He said Marana’s greatest challenge will be “raising the bar” for development, to make of value for the long-term.

When it comes to regional cooperation, Sahuarita’s Stahle said, “We’re not yet a card carrying member of Tucson Regional Economic Opportunities,” but the town is working toward the same goals and cooperates with the Tohono O’Odham Nation, Tucson, county, state and federal agencies.

“We’re happy not to be facing 400 percent growth,” Stahle said, which is giving the town time to complete roads, sewers, waterlines and other basic needs. “It has also allowed us to begin thinking of the big picture, to help our infrastructure plan for the tremendous need to come.”

The greatest challenge for Sahuarita is keeping up with expectations, Stahle said. Growth creates the need for infrastructure improvements. It also pays for them.

“We have very healthy reserves but we need to educate the community to the fact that if we have the money to pay for it, we’ll do it. If not, then it will have to wait,” Stahle said.

Oro Valley’s Andrews agreed. “You can get addicted to those revenues from growth and forget that they pass,” he said. “That doesn’t mean it’s all gloom and doom, but it’s important to get the tax-based infrastructure in place as soon as possible.”

E-mail comments for publication to editor@azbiz.com. Contact Philip S. Moore by e-mail at pmoore@azbiz.com or call (520) 295-4238.

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