On Tuesday evening, the Tucson Mayor and Council held a public hearing for comments on the 30% Broadway Corridor improvement project, named for its 30% reduction in scope that was sent for concept design on June 9, 2015, to the Tucson Department of Transportation. The meeting outgrew its normal meeting space and was moved to the Pima County Board of Supervisors meeting room that holds 250 people. The room still wasn’t large enough, and had to proceed with standing room only.

The 30% Broadway Improvement Project reduced the number of buildings to be demolished from 87 to 50, from eight to six lanes, with bike lanes, bus pull outs, sidewalks and landscaping, taking into account all the recommendations made by the prior Citizen Task Forces.

Comments were heard for over an hour on the 30% Plan, with much repetition in talking points from those opposed to the project. However, the conversation needs to continue and we encourage those who were unable to speak at this public forum to submit their comments for publication as an open letter to Mayor and Council’s consideration in their decision-making to be made on April 19^th.

Gary Andros, a property owner from the area who will be affected by the road widening, was one who was not called to speak to Mayor and Council of the City of Tucson. Gary had this to say:

Mr. Mayor and Members of the Council,

I’ve heard it said that ‘all decisions are good decisions, just some are better than others’. We all have different opinions and that’s fine; it makes us human. That said, at Tuesday’s City Council meeting, it became abundantly clear that the goal of some Tucsonans present was not to discuss how best to complete the voter-approved project, but rather to attempt to sway City Council to override the vote and cancel the project.

During the meeting, Councilman Steve Kozachik stated that he ‘does not believe it makes sense to incur the cost of expansion so that people can leave downtown one minute faster in twenty years’. In reality, the travel time information provided by the staff was taken out of context in this statement. What they actually said was that if the current proposed expansion were to take place, eastbound traffic in 20 years would still progress one minute faster than it does today, implying that it would progress even faster in the interim. They also stated that their modeling software would not accept current conditions as applied to the predicted traffic patterns of twenty years from now, as it simply showed the street as “gridlocked”.

The existing congestion causes a number of problems, one of which is the difficulty of merging with Broadway traffic in the first place. Trying to turn left (west) during the day, one is forced to wait for minutes. If you are lucky, a pedestrian might use a crosswalk to stop traffic momentarily and allow you to make your turn. On the south side of Broadway there are many commercial businesses with large trucks. These trucks have to work their way through small side streets, exit onto Campbell and then turn onto Broadway at the light just to join the seemingly endless line of vehicles. Turning east onto Broadway from southbound Campbell is also quite difficult.

Realistically, only three cars will get through the light before it changes. When you are finally on Broadway, traffic is reduced to a single lane as soon as a bus stops. If you are unlucky enough to be behind that bus, you will likely be there until the nearest light behind you turns red and pauses the line of vehicles on the inside lane long enough for you to pass.

We have six lanes east of Country Club and six lanes west of Euclid. Why allow a four lane bottleneck to exist in-between? When I moved to Tucson in 1985, a bypass highway was the topic of discussion. It was replaced with the promise of larger interior arterial roads. The citizens of Tucson voted and expansion of Broadway was approved. To not proceed is to tell Tucson voters that their votes have no meaning or value.

The most common point brought forth by the opposition was that historic buildings along Broadway should be protected. As a contractor and a real estate broker, I have seen many so called “historic buildings” designated as such as a ploy to limit property taxes.

Many of the properties along the corridor in question are not maintained, and still more are obsolete for the requirements of today’s commercial tenants.

Furthermore, City of Tucson codes regarding change of use for a certificate of occupancy may restrict the utilization of many existing structures and parking. Historic buildings of merit have already been identified and protected.

Regarding the buildings that have not received protected status, I’m of the opinion that if you bury a tin can and dig it up two hundred years later, it may be historic, but it’s still just a tin can.

Thanks for listening,

Gary Andros

This project is a Regional Transportation Authority Plan  roadway improvement managed by the City of Tucson that will widen Broadway: Euclid to Country Club to a 6-lane arterial, with bike lanes, sidewalks, and landscape.  The project is currently in the design phase.  Acquisition is to begin in 2016.  Construction is not anticipated until late 2017-2018. 

Visit the project’s Design and Construction web site at www.broadwayboulevard.info for the most current information, to find contact emails and phone numbers, and to provide comments.  Details about the RTA plan are available at www.RTAmobility.com.

It’s not too late to be heard, questions and comments can be submitted to the Tucson Department of Transportation before April 15^th. Take 1-2 minutes now and submit a quick “I support the Broadway 30% plan” by clicking on the following link: https://www.broadwayboulevard.info/comments.php

The public is invited to give input to the Office of Economic initiatives and Planning and Development Services recommendations, tasked to identify additional financial and regulatory incentives to further the success by expanding incentives such as GPLET has yielded in the downtown area. The Tucson Mayor and Council Study Session will be Tuesday, March 22 at 1:00 pm City Hall, 255 W. Alameda to voice opinions on City Manager’s Office recommendations.

1. Expand the Government Property Lease Excise Tax abatement area from 1.5% land area to 2.5%

This would allow the southeast boundary to align with the Infill Incentive District (IID)

The GPLET boundaries include: Southeast – The Bridges, Northern – Along the commercial cooridors that extend to Prince Road, and Eastern – Along the commercial corridors that extend to Campbell Avenue.

2. Amend the Unified Development Code (UDC);
3. Establish Plan Tucson Special Exception Option;
4. Expand the use of the Planned Area Development (PAD) rezoning tool;
5. Establish an administrative tool for MS&R setback relief.
6. Plan Tucson Special Exception Option:

• Allows for an additional land use exception, when the request is in compliance with Plan Tucson and associated underlying neighborhood or area plan.
• Applies to projects that are in alignment with Plan Tucson Building Blocks
• In commercial and industrial zones, this allows for permitted uses, such as alley access and use, parking, loading, landscaping, waste collection and setbacks to utilize waivers allowable under the special exception process
• Adds a level of review for variations in use and height as long as in conformance with Plan Tucson Building Block and area or neighborhood plan.

Expanding Use of and Streamlining the PAD

• Lifts the 40-acre minimum size requirement to allow a project of any size to use the PAD
• Staff will explore ways to streamline submittal requirements and establish an appropriate fee schedule for projects utilizing this tool.

MS&R Setback Zone

• Introduces an administrative approvalprocess for minor MS&R adjustments, subject to the approval by the PDSD and Transportation Directors
• Provides an administrative process allowing improvements to occur in privately and publicly owned MS&R right of way areas.
• Allows flexibility using right of way areas where there is findings that the subject right of way will not be used for road expansion or similar uses in the future and no negative impact is created for surrounding properties.

Sign up here to attend.

Be Heard Project Information Sheet

City of Tucson Future Growth Scenario Map

Be Heard is a conduit of information by Metro Pima Alliance for the purpose of creating more public engagement from the business community. Information created by Be Heard is solely based on jurisdictional, public information as included in staff reports. Supplemental information may be submitted by applicant, but all applicant content is the responsibility of the applicant and does not indicate Be Heard support for or against the specific project.

More information can be found here.

Properties along Broadway from Euclid to Country Club are being held hostage waiting a decision for Broadway Boulevard alignment. Properties owners and small businesses along the Broadway expansion corridor are tired of waiting and simply want a proposal to pass by the Broadway CTF and work to finally begin. The final meeting of Tucson’s Citizens Task Force (CTF) for the Broadway Boulevard Expansion will be held tonight. This will be the last opportunity to voice an opinion before final recommendations go before the Mayor and Council on June 9^th and seal the fate of all the small business owners and property owners who have been patiently waiting since 2006 when the decision by the voters was made for the $72 million initiative.

The project is expected to ease congestion and create an eastern gateway to revitalizing Downtown Tucson.

One of the property owners told us that when he moved there in 1986 they were already talking about Broadway widening. Basically, property owners along this stretch have been held hostage for a very long time waiting confirmation; “we can’t sell our buildings because nobody wants to buy a building destined to be demolished, and we can’t put any money into the thing to paint it or make improvements, because we won’t ever get that money back from the city,”  when they come in to condemn it.

 Photos shown in this article are only a portion of the businesses affected, from the north side of Broadway only, there are more on the south side of Broadway as well.  For Thursday’s meeting agenda CLICK Here.

The status of the Broadway widening was summed up by Ward 6 Councilman Steve Kozachik in his newsletter this week that we reprint here:

There’s a lot of design work left to do on the Broadway project. Whereas Grant has an alignment established, and now we’re just working on the land use details, Broadway is still working towards an alignment of the roadway. That’ll introduce the land use discussions that are yet to come.

The next CTF meeting is this Thursday, May 7^th at 5:30pm. It’ll be held at Our Saviors Church again – 1200 N Campbell Ave. The goal is for that group to finalize a proposed alignment that’ll come to M&C on June 9^th for us to consider. That’s a key step in this process, as it will open the door for real estate and our civil engineering staff to begin approaching property owners along the corridor and working on solutions for them to stay up and running or to relocate. Without an alignment to work from, those contacts cannot happen.

Last week, I asked staff to do a walking tour of the entire length of the corridor from Euclid to Country Club, maps in hand, to look at the challenges each property owner will face with the draft alignment the CTF will see on Thursday. I owe a debt of thanks to those who participated: Beth Abramovitz (civil engineer on the project), Nicole Ewing-Gavin (Office of Integrated Planning), Phil Swaim (consulting architect), and Gene Caywood (consulting transit advocate). I also dragged along both Alison and Mark from my office. Since it was the hottest day of the year so far, all were thrilled to take me up on the offer.

Here’s an example of why the alignment is so important. Tucson Tamale Company and its co-tenants in Solot Plaza are going to lose parking. There are about 14 tenants in the center, each of which will need to decide whether or not they want to work together and figure out joint parking arrangements. Those conversations can’t happen until we finalize the alignment. Once we do, staff and our consultants can begin approaching individual property owners and explaining some options. As we learn which of them want to remain and which want to relocate, that information will open the door for creative parking and access solutions for those who choose to stay in their buildings. For example, if two or three of them want to go and those existing buildings are taken down, the new space can serve as a parking remedy for the businesses that remain. There are lots of moving parts to this, but the first step will be laying the draft alignment down on a map to serve as a starting point for those negotiations.

The City cannot compel solutions, but we can put the players together, show them options and let them sort out how they want to move forward. An example in the case of Tucson Tamale would be for them to approach the property owners who sit to the west and talk about leasing some of the covered parking you see at the edge of the picture. That’s just one of many options they’ll have to consider.

Another important piece of this is, of course, the budget. On our walking tour we identified some locations where, based on the existing draft proposed alignment, there are buildings on both the north and south sides of the street that are potential full acquisitions. Where we can shift the alignment one way or another, we can save the buildings on the opposing side.

Where there are significant cost implications for preserving one over the other, staff will take those factors into account as they refine the alignment.

There will likely be a loss of some contributing historic structures that sit on the south edge of the Rincon Heights neighborhood. In order to protect their status as a Registered Historic neighborhood, I’ve already confirmed with staff that the project can pay to have the boundaries of their neighborhood redrawn so the loss of individual structures will not impact the percent calculation they need in order to maintain their Historic designation.

This began in 2006 with the voters saying they wanted to eliminate about 120 private residences and businesses along the north side of Broadway in order to accommodate a 150’ wide, eight lane roadway. Getting to the point at which we now find ourselves is a huge win for the community.