Image courtesy City of Tucson
In 2009, city officials estimated the modern streetcar they proposed would create almost 1,500 permanent jobs. They talked up the development boom they expect along the route, rising property values, a growing customer base for downtown businesses and decreased congestion.
But the streetcar, now slated to begin running in early 2013, can have few of those effects without a halo of changing regulations and incentives to adapt to the surrounding activity. The rails and cars themselves guarantee little.
Those changes are fraught with some controversy in a city that has historically developed in a pattern more typical of a suburban area than a densely populated urban one.
Although a trolley is mentioned in university-area neighborhood plans as far back as the 1980s, it has been only since 2006, when the Downtown Infill Incentive District was announced, that the city government has really begun making modifications that would allow and encourage the kind of development that would result in the revitalization now trumpeted.
The conflicting visions of what Tucson is and should be are about to be aired anew, and officials are hoping that they’re out ahead of some of the flashpoints. The first draft plan for changing development rules along a section of the streetcar route is now on the table.
It’s a first run at tackling issues of increasing density and building height, streetscape appeal and parking rules, as well as thorny questions about historical preservation. Instead of a plan that emphasizes uses, typically the case for zoning, the new proposal highlights form—how buildings will look and interact with the streetscape.
The plan now released for public feedback—called the Downtown Links Urban Overlay District—is for the area surrounding the transit corridor connecting Barraza-Aviation Parkway and Interstate 10. The areas affected are the Warehouse district, Fourth Avenue and Iron Horse Neighborhood.
The overlay is intended to replace current area zoning, but property owners will be given a choice. They can work under the new parameters, which offer a certain degree of flexibility on items such as parking, or under the old zoning rules, or they could pursue a rezoning. Public hearings are expected in January or February, but the response so far seems to be trending positive.
Chris Gans, president of the West University Neighborhood Association, has been monitoring the draft plan and the response as indicators of what his neighborhood might expect. He’s heartened by provisions intended to discourage demolition of historic buildings and to give neighborhoods a say.
West University Neighborhood is in the midst of confronting those issues in possible revisions to the neighborhood plan. The change would allow some development taller than 40 feet, the current maximum, in a portion of neighborhood called the “transition zone,” between Speedway Boulevard and Sixth Street and Park and Euclid Avenues, because the streetcar will stop twice in the neighborhood. The City Council is expected to hear the proposed changes this month.
Gans emphasized that neither he nor his neighborhood association are opposed to development, but rather they seek quality development that prioritizes ease for pedestrians and bicyclists, encourages access to services and discourages tearing historical buildings down.
“I think it’s essential to have really good process, really good communication, good relationships, and it’s often lacking,” he said. He’s concerned enough to have enlisted Tom Warne, a development consultant who has worked with the neighborhood on past projects, to act as a liaison with the city and other groups with a stake in how area development evolves.
There is action toward resolution, but there is still no comprehensive plan. Along parts of the proposed route from the Mercado District on West Congress Street through downtown to University Medical Center on North Campbell Avenue, there are areas where neighborhood plans and current zoning would seem to conspire against the city’s stated goals.
Jim Mazzocco, the planning administrator overseeing the streetcar project, said that the city and Pima Association of Governments intend to hire a consultant early next year to do a land use plan along the entire streetcar line, examining “gaps and barriers” to the envisioned outcomes. That would be the first time the route and rules dictating development patterns along it has been looked at holistically.
“We’re learning as we go here,” Mazzocco said.
To review the draft Downtown Links Area Plan and to find out more information, go to DowntownLinks.info. Updates about the modern streetcar are at TucsonStreetcar.com.
