Marana Sucks treatment of one land owner vs two developers with money

In 2011 a property owner wanted to change his zoning from 3.3 acres to one acre lots off Camino DeManna. ( by the cell tower) Ranco De Manna. The town made them jump through hoops. They questioned them at length at the public hearing.

This month the town passes two zoning changes to cluster homes on 6000 SF lots with no discussion. How is that possible for such a major change with total opposition from the adjacent property owners? It makes no sense unless the it was a done deal before the public hearing.. for that to happen there would have to be private discussions with the developers and between councilors prior to the public hearing.....

And it did happen in the last two passed proposals.. they circumvented the pubic notice law by meeting with no more than two in the room with the developer at a time before the public hearing. So there was no discussion, no questions before the public that night.

This is just short of criminal behavior by the council..... it defeats the public hearing process. We the people needed to hear the questions and deals made with the developers to pass the zoning change that made millions for two developers at the detriment of the surrounding property owners.

During the zoning change for the Rancho De Manna they questioned the owner at length and made them make concessions in public. For these two they did not ... Why?

Then there is the publishing of the minutes, the minutes of the cell tower Rancho De Manna  public hearing were in detail and explicit.
http://www.marana.com/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/3403

and then there is this meeting for two major zoning changes;
http://www.marana.com/ArchiveCenter/ViewFile/Item/4290

People spoke passionately against the two zoning changes and for their full time allotted and this is all that is reported. It is also not mentioned that they denied several of us the use of the overhead projector. They even have a written policy for the public  to use it but they said we could not.. The planners and developers could do anything they wanted with the projector and computers.

http://www.marana.com/DocumentCenter/Home/View/4560

Marana Sucks- Honea Heights sewer hook ups continued

Well the mayor does not want to pay for sewer hookups for property he owns, so what do they do??

http://explorernews.com/news/article_3c2d870a-e8ec-11e2-9367-0019bb2963f4.htm

Marana Sucks- Specific Annexation for A Developer

On 10-15-13 the town council voted to annex a specific 36.79 acres into the town for a specific developer apparently Pulte Homes. The vote was tied with Vice Chairmen absent from the meeting roll call. It appears as though the Vice Chair was summoned due to the tie vote. He bolted into the meeting and sided with the Mayor thus annexing the property into the town. Council women Ziegler apparently questioned the ethics and legality of actions by various people leading up to and including the public hearing and was verbally attached by the Vice Chairman. (as reported to me by a attendee)

From my observations, remarks by council members and the reported comment by Ziegler above.... there is no doubt in my mind that the council is skirting the edge of meeting law and ethics with their questionable actions.

It appears again that the town wants high density housing in the Twin Peaks region so bad they will now complete specific annexation at the behest of a specific developer.

I might add that there was total opposition by the existing large lot homeowners. But as always the town goes for the developer and money. In a meeting with a neighbor and the mayor, he made an odd statement to the neighbor" Some people thing i am on the dole... but  I am not".... Must look so guilty he has to offer a comment on the subject.... just saying Next comes the re-zoning of the annexed land.... Will most likely be a waste of time and effort to try and stop.... but I will...

Please see this report for more information
http://explorernews.com/news/article_f3053adc-3b4d-11e3-b4a8-0019bb2963f4.html

Marana Sucks Taxes

I have written on that in my opinion, criminal actions of the council and the planning commission in allowing the high density housing to be built in the Twin Peaks region that is zoned R-36  one acre per residence.

At the meeting a gentleman spoke on the consequences to the surrounding Pima county residences. He spoke of the fact that high density housing is causing his taxes to increase exponentially, you say how, well he makes a great point.

If you build housing as zoned, lets say on the Preserves at Twin Peaks, it would be maybe 100 families when completely built out. So you have kids from 100 families. Now you change the zoning to 200 homes on the same property you have 200 families.

So as this keeps happening the schools can not accommodate fast increase of cluster high density homes being built.... in this case 200 at Preserves at Twin Peak and Vistas at Twin Peaks 60. 260 new families in a short time, and there are others in progress and already approved in the area. in lieu of what could be built under the existing zoning, say 125 custom homes that take a longer time to sell and build giving the turnover at the schools to proceed at a normal pace.

So now we need more schools, teachers, and staff. Well the schools are funded from Pima County taxes, so everybody in the area pays for the Marana Council's greed for roofs. Now this gentleman's taxes go up again. He stated that since  the  high density housing and apartments at Tangerine his taxes have gone from $700.00 to $4500.00 per year.....

Well I never thought of this fact but it makes sense. More money More money More money !!!!!!!!!!


 

Marana Sucks- Citizen engagement

On their website they encourage citizen engagement "The Marana Town Council, through its Strategic Plan, believes that civic engagement is a critical component of the Town’s development." This is a joke..... When fully engaged as the citizens were for two development proposals, we were ignored and both the Planning Commission and the Council voted for these abominations in favor of the developer unanimously.

So the one with money has  more concern of the government,  than almost total opposition by the neighborhood.There is nothing more frustrating than the feeling of a futile attempt to change the mind of  a blind politician. Let me hypothetically clarify the word blind, uncaring, mind made up, possibly corrupt, has a interest and did not disclose to the public.

The other day they put up a site called Marana 365 a community forum to get comments on different items of interest. Well one was the Strategic Plan update. Of course I was the first to place my comments on the site. Basically stating why bother, you do not follow the current plan. Most specifically the Twin Peaks corridor is LOW DENSITY HOUSING with R-36 ZONING on the plan. It took no time at all for the current to be changed by  an override for two developers.

Well of course they removed my remarks as they did for my comments on the hiring of more bureaucrats, most specifically an Deputy Town Manager. GONE before they even could be read.

Lets speak of the Deputy Town Manager, the other night I attended the council meeting and the Town Manager sat on the Dias, I am not sure he even spoke a word the whole time I was there, The Mayor controlled everything.

So what does he do if anything and why do we need a Deputy Manager???? mo money mo money mo money !!!!!!!!!!!!

WAKE UP MARANA

Marana Sucks This or That

The planning commission and the town council has just voted to turn the Twin Peaks corridor into a common cluster home area, nothing special as it was zoned prior to the zoning change,

The question is what would you like to see this

Or this R-36 developed lot

This is one of the area they are going to bulldozed for the cluster homes

Below: looking South west standing on Twin Peaks 

This is where Preserves at Twin Peaks is going to bulldoze. What a name it preserves nothing

Marana Sucks - The Mayor and sewer hookups

Against advice, Mayor Honea speaks as resident

hare on facebook

Chris Flora The Explorer | Posted 8 months ago

Declaring a conflict of interest, Marana Mayor Ed Honea removed himself from the council

 dais on Tuesday night when it came to discussions over emergency sewage connections in t

he Honea Heights neighborhood, of which he is the landowner.

But even after his declaration, conflict did arise when Honea requested to speak on the subject 

as a citizen of the town.

It was then, as Honea began to approach the podium, that resident David Morales – a former 

council candidate and regular at town meetings – stood from his chair and interrupted Honea, 

calling for a point of order.

Approaching the dais, Morales stated that allowing Honea to speak on the subject – whether as

 a citizen or not – was in itself a conflict of interest. 

Vice Mayor Jon Post, who was leading the meeting in Honea’s temporary absence, deferred 

to Town Attorney Frank Cassidy.

“Even though I would recommend, typically, that any councilmember not attempt to speak as 

a private citizen… from a First Amendment perspective, he has a right if he insists on doing it,”

 said Cassidy. “I do think it creates an appearance of conflict, because a councilmember has 

more sway with fellow council members. There’s no question about that. I’ll leave it at that –

 I don’t think we can demand Mr. Honea not speak.”

The item before council on Tuesday was intended to examine policy guidelines for the use of

 town funds to pay for emergency sewage connections fees and related construction for 

residents of Honea Heights, a low-to-medium income neighborhood whose residents, in part, 

are hooked to septic.

Some of those residents are experiencing failing septic systems. 

In 2004, a partnership was formed between Marana and Pima County to convert all plots from 

septic to sewage, but due to contracting bankruptcies, insufficient funding, and later, the battle 

over wastewater control between the two jurisdictions, the project was left unfinished. 

Now, with the town owning and operating its own sewer system, the burden has fallen entirely 

on Marana to – as residents in Tuesday’s meeting stated – “keep its promise” in completing the 

project. 

Town Manager Gilbert Davidson says the town has been working on doing exactly that since the 

project came to a halt, having invested approximately $4 million in town funds and grants to

 rectify failing septic systems and area infrastructure. 

Even with that amount invested, funding was exhausted before all Honea Heights homes could

 be hooked up to sewage. 

There are an estimated 96 property owners that are not hooked into the sewage system.

Approximately 350 people live in the neighborhood’s 199 units. 

The town intends to continue pursuing grant money to help offset the cost of hookups and 

construction expenses, but is also budgeting $75,000 for at least the next two years in the 

case emergency septic issues arise.

But the issue before council on Tuesday night was less about whether the town should pay

 for emergency hookups than it was about who should receive those hookups.

Councilmember Roxanne Ziegler argued that only owner-occupied properties should qualify

 and that the property owner of the rental homes – in this case Honea – should be held

 responsible for paying for those sewage hookups since he has been collecting rent money. 

The town estimates each sewage hookup and construction will cost an average of $12,000. 

If council determined rental properties did not qualify for emergency hookups, Honea would 

have to come out of pocket for each of his rentals’ fees.

It was on that subject that Honea chose to speak, albeit briefly. 

“In the early days of this promise, there was no differential between owner occupied or 

rental properties,” said Honea. 

Honea said he charges renters just $165 per month.

“If you charge me $12,000 because it’s a rental property for those units, to hook them up,

 I will shut it down, and make those people homeless,” said Honea. “It’s not a threat, it’s a business decision on my part. I can’t pay $12,000 for every one of those units to hook them up. The hookup fee for the sewer is worth more than the property.”

Those words were enough to prompt a quick response from Ziegler.

“Mr. Honea. First of all I can’t believe you would actually evict those people. Shame on you,” 

she said, adding it wasn't fair to “hold the council hostage” for what she said should be his 

financial responsibility.

Shortly after, Ziegler made a motion that only owner-occupied households, whether considered

 low-income or not, qualify for town-funded emergency sewage connection fees.

The motion failed in a 3-3 vote.

Referencing the fact that future grant money received would apply equally to owners and renters,

 councilmember Dave Bowen put forward a second motion that construction and connection fees

 would be paid for all currently occupied homes that are considered habitable.

However, there are no guarantees the grant money referred to by Bowen will be approved. 

The town has only applied for the funding at this point.

The motion passed unanimously. 

Future renters and homeowners of Honea Heights are not subject to the privileges of

 town-funded emergency hookups t

So wht does he do next??

http://explorernews.com/news/article_3c2d870a-e8ec-11e2-9367-0019bb2963f4.html

Why I moved into Marana (much is gone now)

When we were looking where to buy our winter home, we viewed approx 75 homes in many AZ locations. We fell in love with Marana area at Camino De Manna. Main road was not traveled much, side roads were sand and had the most pristine Sonora desert vegetation you could imagine.

There were Coyotes, Havalinas, more rabbits than I have ever seen, bobcats and more. The train came by in the distance and you could hear the horn, I love train horns. People set up tables on the side of the main roads like a drive by fair, you could by mostly things you could not find at store it was quaint. Cars were for sale many street corners,. It was a hoot to drive around on the weekends and shop.

Well the great town of Marana passed ordinances to stop the street side vendors, all gone just new litter now. The then passed an ordinance that the trains could not blow their horns at crossings, protected or not. trains are quite until someone gets killed.

Mountain views from all direction were incredible, in respect to everyone else only one story homes were built to save the views. Now they are letting developers build 35 foot structures which they call two story homes, where  come from 35 feet is 3.5 stories.

We could not disturb more than 30% of our lot, which for us includes the road we own, The developers can strip the desert for these cluster developments........

They built a four lane highway right through the desert from I 10 to Dove Mountain for the developers. Now Camino De Manna is a high traffic cut through and Desert Falcon (which several homeowners and I own) has become a cross over.

We had to place signs and speed bumps at our expense to cut down the speeding traffic. and now you can hear the Jake breaks, speeding, thumping cars all day and night..... not to mention Harley's and two cycle screamers.

The developers that knew what was coming bought up all the land at cheap prices, even though it was zoned r-36 one acre lots, no problem the town want "roofs" so they will let them build cheap two story houses all along the new road...  I might add we checked the surrounding zoning before we purchased to make sure of what would be built around us. It sis not matter they will vote to let a developer make millions off our dismay with no problem.

 More graffiti, more crime, more traffic, for what,  the town has a huge police force, the fire departments are great but we pay separate for them. We pay for garbage pick up, we are on wells, and septic... so what the hell do they need all this new money for.

A few years ago in the middle of downtown Marana (joke more like the dump they call downtown) they built a state of the art huge opulent municipal building. and are currently filling it with as many bureaucrats that they can fit in it to make our life miserable.  So thanks Marana for the what are now memories in just 6 short years. They sit up on their dais looking down at us like gods and they act like it too.

Marana AZ sucks, out of control government

The town of Marana AZ is so out of control or corrupt , not sure which, the hold meeting in the town hall but only have two councilors in the room at one so minutes and a possible quorum public notice do not have to be produced. The meet with developers and make deals with them so they do not have to have discussion in front of the public with minutes taken.

They then let the people speak for 3 minutes  on a topic. The town staff presents the development for the developers and shakes their hand when they beat the concerns of the public. The developers get to show photos and presentations, but they will not let the public show photos or documents when they get a chance to speak.

Almost all votes on developments are unanimous, how is this possible with out any discussion. It is pre-planned  in secret meeting or on the phone with other councilors..... Public input means nothing, On the two developments the other night their was one in favor and all and I mean all opposed, it was passed with no discussions unanimously. Not a probable outcome if it was not rigged..

Sty away from Marana if you are thinking of moving.

And of you are a boisterous opponent, you get you own armed police officer sitting behind you.....

Marana Sucks .....Council votes to allow cluster homes in Twin Peaks corridor

After hearing pleadings by all homeowners in the area to keep the zoning as is R-36 one acre lots, the council without discussion approved two cluster home development on 6000 sf lots with two and a half story homes with more to come.  This tells me that the deal was done before they had the public hearings. Most of the homes in the area are horse farms, with cattle, pigs, goats chickens, other homes are half million to three quarter of a million dollar homes on one to three and a half acres.

Land sharks came in during the down turn and bought up the land knowing they had the councils criminal ears. In short they would get what they want., and they did. Now our property will be worth less and hard to sell as it is developed. There is nothing special about Marana now, it will be just like Phoenix and Oro Valley, house on top of house.

No concern for the current property owners,they are ow allowing two story houses 20 feet from the property line. Vistas ruined by 30 foot high structures. Traffic is going to be horrific on the surrounding roads, the price point is low and will draw a different class of home owners to the area and cause crime to rise, graffiti is already o the rise and will get worse. For what more tax money? 'The schools will be overloaded with the high density housing and the need for more money from our taxes to build new schools and hire more teachers is eminent.

They give us nothing except police coverage, no sewers,no water, no garbage pick up no fire protection, we have to pay for all of that on top of taxes.......What was once a great place to buy a house is now going to be a crowded scum neighborhood with most homes ending up as rentals in years to come.

If you are thinking of moving to AZ DO NOT SELECT MARANA. they care nothing about the people that have spent life saving for a life style. The fact that they will change zoning to make developers millions at the expense of the current homeowners is nothing less than criminal.

It is a major failure of local government gone bad. Grass root government is as corrupt as the national government........

Where one I believed in justice and local government, Marana has shown itself to be less than honorable...The mayor is hell bent on placing as many roofs in as small an area as he can and has made it known.... he does not give a crap about any of the current homeowners, just want tax money..

Last knight as soon as i walked in they had a unformed armed police officer sit right behind me.. guess they are afraid of me because of my passion.

Marana sucks

Town of Marana SUCKS Unfriendly to homeowners

We  purchased a home in a rural area of Marana to enjoy the pristine desert. I reviewed the zoning around the property and it was one home on one acre. This was acceptable so I spent almost 3/4 of a million dollars on my home. The area was equine friendly and has small ranches, sand side roads and low traffic.

During the housing crash, much of the open land was purchased by land developers at bargain prices. No problem it is zoned one acre per house right......  WRONG. A new four lane high way was cut through the desert and the TOWN wants roofs to pay the way to a larger government.

Now right near my house the town has allowed 250 homes to be built on 6000 sf lots. CLUSTER high density low cost housing in an area of pristine Sonora desert. It will be bulldozed and two story cluster homes built on top of each other, EVERY adjoining neighbor opposed the zoning change. We spoke at several meetings and the Commissioners did not care about anything we had to say, We pleaded to leave it as is zoned and as they advertised it on their website.

The developers purchased the land knowing the zoning was one acre per home, now they wanted to change the zoning to gain huge profits and the town agreed. They spoke as if they worked for the developer. Absolutely no concern for the home  owners who have committed hundreds of thousands of dollars to live in a rural area.. a the town plan and the zoning laws showed.

Oh they let us speak for three minutes and many did, all in opposition except one and he lived a long way from the development in the city of Tucson, still do not know what that was about......

If you are thinking of moving, please do not consider the town of Marana, they only care for developers and money for the town to become a Phoenix like community...... stacked on top of each other.

The do not observe the zoning they set or the low density housing they set for an area... they will change the game after the fact at the drop of a pin for a developer with money.... screw the people already there that relied on their zoning maps.....

If I could get what I paid for my house I would leave in a second !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Marana Town Government are criminals in my opinion.. as they have stolen value of my investment with their zoning changes for developers.....

God save the USA