Brian E. McCarthy, former WUNA president, dies at 82. (See calendar for more information)

West University Neighborhood Education, Arts, Culture and Entertainment

 WUNA Yahoo Group

Find out more about Historic tax rates.

Get information about making changes to historic properties.

Referendum to Repeal the Main Gate District Overlay

On Tuesday February 28, 2012, the Mayor and Council with a 6-1 vote passed a rezoning for a large portion of West University Neighborhood referred to the Transition Area.

WUNA opposed this rezoning for several reasons.

1)      The rezoning sets a precedent. HPZ’s (Historic Preservation Zones) were considered the strongest zoning protection for a residential neighborhood. This rezoning changes the game and puts all neighborhoods on notice that changes to their zoning may be imminent.

2)      The rezoning allows for overpowering heights up to 159’ next to single story historic buildings. The highest building in the area is the Marriott at 109’. The scale overwhelms both the historic and the nearby U of A buildings.

3)      The rezoning incentivizes historic building demolition. WU will lose up to 14 historic buildings.

4)      The lack of overall impact studies, traffic and infrastructure, leaves the question of who will pay for all of the improvements in this area. The citizens and taxpayers of Tucson?

5)      The speed of this process (3 months) is far too quick to develop a viable long term plan. Neighborhoods cannot respond this quickly. The rezoning overlay plan is being paid for by the developer who intends to break ground March or April 2012.

 WUNA made several suggestions to remove historic properties from this overlay/rezoning and to reduce heights. We commissioned our own sketch up model to demonstrate preservation of historic properties and to use a more gradual transition of heights away from single story buildings. 

The only option for WU after this Council decision is a referendum that will put the matter of the rezoning up for a vote by the citizens of Tucson. Our deadline is March 29, 2012 to have 8500 signatures.

West University has had requests from people wanting to volunteer to help sign up city voters for this referendum. There are several large public events this month and we need help to get 8,500 city voters signed up. Please contact us to volunteer. We have several orientation meetings set up for people to get info about the rules for collecting signatures and will have signature packets volunteers can take.

Location: Trinity Church Educational Building Room 205 (2^nd floor) at 4^th Ave and University—this building is accessed from the east parking lot and is the south wing of the main church building

Date:  Thursday, March 8    5:30 pm – 6:30 pm, more will be set as needed.

Petitions may also be picked up Monday through Friday from 4 -5 pm at 22 E. University Blvd. You can also sign the petition at that location.

For further information:  nowayoverlay@gmail.com or https://www.facebook.com/nowayoverlay

Below is the link to view the document WUNA presented to Mayor and Council showing WUNA's suggestions to the overlay.

Thank you!