Tucson’s history is filled with development battles like those at West 36th Street and South La Chola Boulevard, which ended in February 2022. At that time, the city council approved a hard-fought zoning change on the 60-acre lot, allowing 137 homes. It will be built there, preserving half of the land as open space.

That development struggle is now making a public comeback in the Democratic primary campaign for a seat in the First District.Mayor Regina Romero also contributed Her Friday June 23rd Weekly Email Explain and defend development approval. City Councilman Steve Kozaczyk discussed the matter in an op-ed in The Star on June 18.

This is good for voters. I think this incident nicely illustrates an important difference between the incumbent candidate Lane Santa Cruz and his challenger Miguel Ortega.

So I think of Santa Cruz as a kind of YIMBY. It stands for “Yes In My Back Yard” and was adopted by those seeking more urban development to address the city’s top priority: the home price crisis. It’s a relatively recent phrase. This could mean Tucson Democrats cooperating with developers in ways they haven’t done much before.

And I think of Ortega as a kind of NIMBY. Of course, this is short for the old phrase “Not In My Back Yard”, often used to refer to people who stand in the way of development. In that case, Ortega said he would have voted against the city-approved plan in response to protests by neighbors. And when such protests occur, it is more typical of local Democratic traditions.

Of course, neither of them fully embraces these labels, but at least in this case I think they’re appropriate.

The city annexed the area south of Tumamok Hill and Jeolla High School in 1979. As part of the annexation, the city preserved county parcels, permitting more than 36,000 square feet, or just over eight-tenths of an acre. Tweaking the zoning allowed him to place two housing units on each lot, with mobile homes there.

For years, neighbors have been working to potentially preserve the land surrounding Henry “Hank” Oyama Elementary School, located at the corner of 36th and La Choya Streets. The Westside Neighborhood Association was established in 2005 to protect the land from planned development.

“It would pretty much ruin the aesthetics and quality of life in our neighborhood,” association organizer Scott Archer told The Star that year.

When a new proposal by property owner Buena Vista Properties 2000 was brought up in 2020, the reaction of neighbors was much the same.

“We’re on the edge of Tucson,” said Abreeza Zegir, who until recently served as president of the neighborhood association. “We wanted this to be a desert park.

They described the area as semi-rural to the north and west and Kennedy Park to the south. Only her 1960s development, the Enchanted Hills neighborhood, across La Choya from this lot, is relatively densely developed.

So at the very least, if the desired vacant lot wasn’t available, many neighbors hoped the city would keep the parcels approved after annexation, keep the lots wide, and spread out their homes.

Santa Cruz said he listened to neighbors’ requests for vacant lots and tried to balance them with the plans of the owners and the needs of the community. Attorney Keri Silvin, who represented the owner, suggested various configurations, including building an apartment complex south of the Enchanted Hills Wash.

The deal ultimately resulted in leaving the southern half of the site as open space, promoting development of 137 units in the densely packed northern half, and preserving 14 units as affordable housing.

The question, Mr. Santa Cruz said, is “how do we encourage housing because we have a housing crisis and we need housing for people and we need large open spaces.”

This applies to the broader theme of my first term as City Councilman, which is to encourage more housing construction. The city of Santa Cruz was probably the primary city councilor who pushed the passing of a new ordinance to allow more guest houses to be built in people’s yards under the city’s new “adjunct housing lot” district.

“Short supply is what drives home prices so high,” Santa Cruz said on Tuesday. “Many of us, myself included, cannot afford to buy a home. must be prepared.”

Santa Cruz doesn’t call itself YIMBY, but that’s YIMBY logic. And this is what I have repeatedly argued in my columns. Simply put, we need to act faster and provide more housing for all.

But Ortega argued that Santa Cruz violated a key principle in reaching the deal: they didn’t listen.

“La Jolla and Issue 36 are the many issues where Lane doesn’t listen to people, doesn’t represent voters, and basically follows Lane’s ideology before actually representing voters in the borough. one of them,” he told me on Monday.

“Residents made it clear to Lane through a few meetings, emails and phone calls that they didn’t want the status to be lifted, and[Santa Cruz]did it anyway,” Ortega said. .

Ortega said he would have pushed for an extension by voting no. He would not have accepted the vacant land in the southern half of the site as a concession, as development would have been expensive anyway. In short, he argued that Santa Cruz offered too much to developers, an accusation often made against YIMBY, and even accepted campaign donations from Sylvin.

Ortega may not be NIMBY at heart, but in this case, he says, he would have heard neighbors say, “Not in my backyard.”

And that’s a pretty obvious difference for First District Democrats to consider when they pick up their ballots next month.