The Daily Agenda: Shaping the city's future
The city is working on a new general plan ... More than 13,000 comments were received through community outreach ... Jail death toll continues to rise.
Running a city is hard, and planning for the future of that city is even harder, especially when trying to take into account the various needs and wants of residents.
The City of Tucson is in the middle of the years-long process of updating its general plan, which is used to guide city decisions, fund projects and inform land use decisions.
Voters approved the city’s current general plan — intuitively called Plan Tucson — in 2013. But a lot has changed in the last 10 years, so it’s time for an update.
But it’s not a fast process, and the new 20-year plan that residents are weighing in on won’t appear on a ballot until November 2025. The years between will include listening sessions, policy development, reviews, revisions, education and outreach.
The city just wrapped up phase one of the plan update, having spent the first several months of 2023 seeking feedback from residents about priorities for the future.
Thousands of community members weighed in, answering the questions:
What do you like about Tucson?
What are you concerned about Tucson?
What ideas/changes do you have?
Answers were split into five categories, including economic vitality; community resources; water, climate action and green space; land use, housing, neighborhoods and design; and transportation, mobility and access.
More than 2,000 people attended in-person events, which included a dozen community workshops and meetings and 15 pop-up events. Another 950 people completed surveys online. In total, the city collected more than 13,000 comments from residents that will be used to guide the new plan.
City officials released a detailed summary of the feedback and people thought that for the most part, life in Tucson is pretty good. But they also pointed to a lot of problems that need work, although most of those are issues that many communities are facing and that city officials are already working to address.
In the interest of saving you all some time, we dug into the summary so that we could give you the rundown. Here’s what people had to say:
Economic vitality
Likes: Survey takers thought the city was doing well when it comes to economic vitality. The majority of feedback focused on things people liked, including food and murals, Tucson’s startup-friendly environment, festivals and events.
Concerns: But their concerns centered around serious issues, including limited job opportunities, wages that are less than the cost of living, vacant big box stores and shopping centers, overregulation that prevents business development and the impact of short-term rentals.
Suggestions: Respondents wanted to see more services, including programs and incentives to retain employers and employees, job training and education, entertainment, and local business development and support.
Community resources
Concerns: Nearly 60% of the comments related to community resources focused on problems, such as unsafe public places, crime, access to the local newspaper, unsheltered individuals and inequitable distribution of resources.
Likes: It wasn’t all bad news, though, with respondents saying they appreciated their ease in access to parks, the current city ward structure, a local culture that embraces diversity and the wide variety of “big city amenities,” including museums, concerts and gyms.
Suggestions: Ideas for improvements included providing more support for people in need, an increase in community updates on current projects and data-driven programs, diversification in funding for social programs, better recreational areas for adapting to heat and increasing partnerships with community groups.
Water, climate action and green space
Likes: Half of the comments in this area focused on “likes,” including Tucson’s natural beauty, the city’s dedication to climate action, its encouragement of conservation measures and the abundance of open space. People also liked the city’s stormwater infrastructure and the newly created plastics program.
Concerns: But given the serious nature of the topic, concerns centered around big issues, including water availability and access, heat, energy costs, pollution, litter, maintenance of the city’s existing tree inventory and using too much water and resources for growth and development.
Suggestions: Survey takers suggested a variety of solutions, like increasing the city’s current environmental programs, creating more neighborhood cleanups, using solar power to support mini-grids, removing grass, requiring new developments to include sustainability assets and incentivizing carbon footprint reduction.
Land use, housing, neighborhoods and design
Concerns: Given the current housing climate, it’s no surprise that most of the comments in this area were concerns, which included urban sprawl, housing accessibility and affordability, neighborhood plans, zoning restrictions, gentrification, increasing population needs and the increased urban heat island effect.
Likes: The good news is that people appreciated the diversity in housing, historic preservation and adapted reuse, Tucson’s small town feel, the walkable downtown, the friendly community and the encouragement of development along key transportation routes.
Suggestions: While respondents agreed the city is doing some things well in this space, they wanted to see the continued expansion of Tucson’s downtown, preservation of open space, conversion of empty buildings into community centers, increased local food production and mixed use infill development.
Transportation, mobility and access
Suggestions: Most of the comments surrounding transportation were recommended changes, including improved bike and pedestrian infrastructure, a better public transit system, better road maintenance (more specifically, fixing potholes), smart traffic signals, increased connections to open space and nature and the creation of no-car zones in commercial corridors.
Concerns: Their concerns focused on similar areas, including road quality, a lack of road safety for all, bus frequency, reliability and safety, and traffic congestion and road noise. People also weren’t fans of Tucson’s many road-widening projects, the lack of shade at bus stops and on bike and pedestrian paths, and the focus on car-centric investments and developments.
Likes: Survey takers didn’t dislike everything about Tucson’s transportation scene. The current fare-free transit system was included in the “likes,” along with Tucson’s many bike boulevards and The Loop, the streetcar and the ease of access to nature.
So while there’s a lot that people like about living in Tucson, it’s clear that officials have got their work cut out for them in addressing some serious quality of life issues over the next 20 years.
And now that the city has gathered all this intel, what’s the plan for how to use it?
Phase two of the Plan Tucson update will include community forums, public outreach and working groups that include experts in the various areas.
These experts will help the city update its goals and policies to fit the community’s needs. Each of the five themes will have its own group, and the city will hold regular community forums to report on progress and receive feedback.
We’ll keep you posted on the plan as it continues to progress, but we can’t help but wonder why we’re trying to create a plan that will reflect the community’s needs 20 years down the road.
We said earlier that a lot’s changed since the current plan was approved a decade ago. If the last three years have taught us anything, it’s that the world can change in an instant.
Devil’s in the details: Tucson Sentinel columnist Blake Morlock gets into the details of proposed policy changes by local governments, which often fly under the radar. He breaks down a proposed sales tax and zoning changes regarding casitas in Sahuarita; new bylaws for the Pima Community College governing board; and financial moves in the Flowing Wells and Tucson Unified school districts.
Not so humane: A few dozen people gathered downtown Tuesday to ask for answers about hundreds of small animals that went missing after being transferred to the Humane Society of Southern Arizona. They also took issue with board chairman Robert Garcia and what they called CEO Steve Farley’s “cruel and inhumane attitude towards all animals.” Farley has refused to answer questions about the animals’ whereabouts, including questions from the San Diego Humane Society where they came from.
Walking a tightrope: The Star’s Emily Bregel sheds light on the “daily chess game” of making sure asylum seekers have a place to stay for a few days after they cross the border. One big factor that’s complicating the game is the decision by the Border Patrol to drop people off without notice, and sometimes on the streets of small towns, now that a rise in asylum seekers is straining federal resources.
“Because we’re not getting clear insight into the numbers being dropped off at any given time, it’s still challenging to know what we’re working with for the day or the next day,” Diego Piña Lopez, agency director for Casa Alitas, said. “We need more clear information on what’s coming down the pipeline to us, as best as DHS (the Department of Homeland Security) is able to provide.”
Taking flight: An aviation company is planning a big expansion in Marana that could bring 300 new jobs to the area, the Arizona Daily Star’s David Wichner reports. Tucson-based Ascent Aviation Services signed a deal with Israel Aerospace Industries to convert Boeing airliners to long-haul aircraft, including building two 90,000-square-feet hangars.
Needs to be fixed: Another person died at the Pima County jail, KGUN’s Bivian Contreras reports. A 36-year-old man was found unresponsive around 1 a.m. Tuesday. An autopsy has been conducted to determine cause of death. The jail has come under intense scrutiny amid the rising number of in-custody deaths.
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104: The high temperature on Tuesday, which tied a record dating back to the 19th century. Larry David’s face says it all.
