Applicant seeks rezoning of 2.24-acre Oro Valley parcel; town staff opposes

At a neighborhood meeting in Oro Valley, Kyle Packer, senior planner for the Town of Oro Valley, said Town staff does not support an applicant’s request to amend the general plan and rezone a 2.24-acre parcel south of Naranja Drive to allow a single-family residence.

Packer told neighbors the proposal requires two separate applications — a general plan amendment to move the parcel from Open Space (OS) to LDR1 and a rezoning under the River’s Edge planned area development to CR2 — and that the town will review both the policy and zoning implications. “Staff is not in support of this request for two primary reasons,” Packer said, citing the town’s open-space goals and a concern that approving development on land originally preserved under the River’s Edge PAD would amount to a form of “double-dipping.”

The applicant, Jerome Stringham, said he and his wife bought the privately owned lot after it had been split out of the original open-space parcel and marketed as developable. “This property cannot function as open space,” Stringham said, arguing the parcel is eroding from runoff off Naranja Drive and that a paved, lined gutter and a minimal access road within the existing roadway easement are needed to stop the loss of soil. Stringham described a tentative plan that would place an approximately 1,800-square-foot, three-bedroom home on the west side of the parcel and said he does not intend to commercialize the property or disrupt wildlife corridors.

Neighbors at the meeting and online raised questions about environmental impacts, water usage and the possibility that rezoning could make the site more attractive to future developers. An online participant identified in the meeting as Gary said the change “will impact wildlife as it effectively cuts off the land for animal migration,” listing deer, bobcats, gila monsters, coyotes and raptors as local species of concern and asking how water demands would be evaluated.

Packer said those concerns will be addressed during the formal submittal and review process. He said the application package will be required to include drainage information, soils and engineering reports, and typically will involve outreach to the Arizona Game and Fish Department to identify any protected species. Packer also noted that rezoning carries a tentative development plan; anyone proposing a substantially different plan would need to return to the neighborhood meeting and Planning & Zoning and Town Council process. He estimated, as a rough yardstick, that CR2 minimum lot sizes could allow about four homes on a 2.24-acre parcel, but he framed that as an approximate calculation tied to zoning standards and the applicant’s tentative plan.

Stringham said Oro Valley Water provided a will-serve letter and Tucson Electric indicated power could be extended from nearby infrastructure. Town staff reiterated that no decision will be made at the neighborhood meeting; the next steps are a formal submittal, a second neighborhood meeting once materials are assembled, Planning & Zoning hearings and then a Town Council decision.

Materials and notes from the meeting will be posted on ovprojects.com and staff asked residents to use the contact channels provided in the presentation if they want to be added to the mailing list or have follow-up questions. The meeting closed with staff and the applicant offering to stay after to discuss questions one-on-one.