The housing market may be at a standstill, but the developers and planners are very busy right now. The Planning Center alone has eight major projects in the Tucson area alone.
The firm’s partners—Linda Morales, Michael Grassinger and Jack Neubeck—lead a team of land planners, urban designers, site planners, landscape architects, development strategists and real estate market analysts who do everything from community and regional planning, master planning, site design and urban design, land use feasibility studies and zoning changes to design guidelines,
 The Planning Center’s partners, from left, Michael Grassinger, Linda Morales and Jack Neubeck in their downtown office at La Placita. |
The firm was part of The Planning Center in Costa Mesa, Calif. and has had a presence in Arizona since 1982, but after consolidating some of its offices, Morales and Neubeck decided to branch off on their own in Arizona. After deciding not to establish a Phoenix office, they set up shop in Tucson in La Placita downtown. They kept The Planning Center’s name and logo, but have independently owned the Tucson office since 2000 and have expanded their operations to Flagstaff, Phoenix, Utah, Mexico and California.
After becoming independent, they added landscape architecture to their repertoire, which includes theming and guidelines for how a development will look. Morales said there is a trend toward developments seeking a more distinctive look. “People are tired of the same old stuff,” she said.
Most of The Planning Center’s projects involve residential housing and commercial projects. Grassinger points out that when a developer or governmental entity starts a project, it may take up to five years of master planning, architectural planning, rezoning and construction before it is completed. So developers now are anticipating what market conditions will be like five years from now and are planning accordingly. They certainly don’t anticipate that the current slump will be here five years from now, so they want to be ready when better times return.
Here are the area projects that are keeping The Planning Center busy right now:
Mission Peaks Specific Plan near Sahuarita, a 4,000-acre development adjacent to Interstate 19 being developed by the American Nevada Company, which bought the land from a local development who had been creating a master plan for commercial and residential development.
Sendero Pass master plan at Ajo and Valencia roads on the southwest side, an 800-acre residential and commercial master-planned community being developed by Montecito Communities of Las Vegas.
Easter Mountain Ranch master plan on the Cochise/Pima counties border, a 550-acre residential community that will include 300 homes and is moving through planning for street patterns, landscaping and rezoning.
A master planned more than 500-acre project at Interstate 19 and Valencia Road at the old San Xavier sandpit, which will have a mixed-use design to accommodate commercial, industrial and residential development.
A residential community of 267 acres near Tangerine and I-10 in Marana, a master planned project being developed by Terramar Properties of Green Valley.
A residential planned community of 800 to 1,000 acres near St. David in Cochise County.
A residential community of about 200 acres north of I-10 near Vail, a private developer’s project.
Preliminary review of a 12,000-acre project in Pinal County that is being carried out by a rancher who also has 100,000 in leased grazing land owned by the state. He wants to create a master plan, not for himself, but for his children and grandchildren to eventually use.
“We have about two or three times as many small parcels on which we’re doing rezoning and creating subdivisions compared to master plans,” Grassinger said. “Most of the master plans end up with national builders because they are so expensive to do. They have to put in hundreds of millions of dollars in infrastructure. Smaller projects are more viable.” Most of the smaller projects are in unincorporated county areas, not in cities, he added.
Grassinger said his firm likes its downtown location—in the heart of the Rio Nuevo Redevelopment District—because they deal with many government entities that also are located downtown. Ironically, however, the firm isn’t involved with Rio Nuevo now, although initially the firm did some pro bono work for the City of Tucson to help get funding to set up the tax increment financing (TIF) district. He said his firm was interested in working with the city, but officials then opted for an out-of-town firm.
The Planning Center encourages its employees to get involved in the community and has done a number of pro bono projects, including landscaping work for the administrative office of La Frontera, a substance abuse center, where Grassinger serves as board president; for Casa de Ninos, which helps children and families in need; and for South Pointe Catholic and St. Gregory’s College Preparatory high schools.
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