Vail, Arizona (KGUN) — Southeast of Tucson, Vail has been growing for decades.

KGUN has spoken with several Vail residents who agree that further growth is inevitable, while also wanting to preserve the community’s rural small-town feel and rich history.

Residents are divided on how best to protect their way of life. It is now better to do as an unincorporated Pima County community or as an incorporated town with its own government.

The Incorporation of Vail, Arizona (IVA) is the committee pushing to put this question on the ballot this November.

The IVA plans to file a petition with the Pima County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, including proposed town boundaries. This petition section is included near the bottom of this article.

The committee hopes the board will approve the petition and begin the process of collecting signatures.

If at least 10 percent of registered voters within designated town boundaries sign a petition, the issue will be put on the ballot and decided in this November’s election.

However, if signed by more than two-thirds of registered voters within the proposed incorporation boundary, Mr. Vail can take office. incorporated without election.

Voters rejected a final effort to incorporate Vail into the town in 2013.

Previous coverage:
• Should Vail be incorporated?
• Bale’s one-sided debacle: company founding article sparks controversy

local control

Proponents argue that incorporating Vail would give residents more control, rather than relying on Pima County leadership, funding and voters to make decisions in the Vail area.

“I really want residents to have more autonomy,” said Shannon Gel, a Vail resident and teacher at the Vail Unified School District.

“I have two little girls. I want my neighbors, not people from outside Vail, to support the decisions that shape this community.”

“We have one supervisor [Steve Christy] He has a very large district and a lot of people to take responsibility for,” said 17-year-old Stuart Katz, who lives in Vail. “We don’t have much control over what we want. People who can.”

“We want infrastructure, especially roads, that can handle the traffic of people moving to Vail,” he added. “And that’s really where we should be focusing when we start. But as long as we’re waiting for the county government, that’s not happening.”

Not everyone agrees with the idea, including Kathleen Faber. She has lived in Vail for the last 23 years, after previously living in Vail.

She and several other residents who oppose incorporation are part of a group called “Inform Vail, Arizona.”

“I think we need people, layers of government, not government, to control,” she said. “We have to go out and get the community more involved.”

Merged with Tucson?

IVA Chairman David Hook believes the city of Tucson will consider annexing the Vail area at some point, unless it becomes a town first.

“I look at it like Vail’s garden, and there are herds of animals coming to eat our garden,” he said. “And the only way to keep them from coming into our garden and eating them is to put a fence around our garden and say, ‘This is our garden.’ This is not your garden. 』

“It may not happen in a year, five years, 10 years. I mean you would think.”

Opponents believe these concerns are exaggerated, arguing that the costs of servicing annexed residential areas would deter Tucson from servicing them.

State Law It says more than half of the property owners representing more than half of the area’s appraised value must agree to annex an area.

Is Vail Ready to Incorporate?

Some feel that the process of incorporation has been rushed.

“IVA is trying to chew everything at once,” said Patti Woodbury, 39, who lives in Vail.

IVA conducted a 182-page “feasibility analysis” and posted it on its website. Describe the process of incorporation and the associated revenues and costs. This includes emails, charts, maps and other documents related to the incorporation process.

Ralph Schoenemann, who spent 29 years at Vail, criticized the analysis for not going into enough detail on budgeting.

“For example, in road maintenance and so on, there are total level figures. Now, what does that mean?” he said. is.

“The devil is in the details…if you want a viable city, you have to do your homework and do the level of detail you need.”

Hook challenges the idea.

“We did a feasibility study. The feasibility study showed that it was feasible,” he told KGUN. “To me, we are smart, nice, intelligent people. [in Arizona] I can’t understand why I can’t. ”

income and taxes

As an incorporated town, Vail will receive millions of dollars in shared tax revenue from the state.

It will also impose local taxes to cover the costs of contracting services and setting up its own. For example, IVA’s analysis anticipates that the newly incorporated Vail Corporation will begin contracting with the Pima County Sheriff’s Law Enforcement Services before establishing its own police department.

The analysis predicts that the city of Vail will start by creating its own sales tax rather than a property tax.

Still, some Vail residents fear they will pay more for nothing in return.

“So we’re going to use the services we already have now, and we’re going to pay a premium for them,” Woodbury said.

There are also concerns that rising costs of living in incorporated towns will force rural residents to make difficult decisions.

“We live in a poor neighborhood. It’s a very poor community,” said Diane Feldmeyer, 41, who lives in Vail. “Incorporation would encourage developers to enter and our company to exit. And where would the poor go?”

Kim Miller said the family settled in the area in the 1800s, first in Happy Valley and later in what is now Vail.

“We will be kicked out,” he said. “Fear of what they are going to do [with incorporation is to] push us outSo all these trailers are going to get out of here and move to 12 houses per acre [per acre]”

Proponents argue to the contrary that the town of Vail will curb development.

“Everyone who works in the city and runs the city is looking at it,” said Joy Tucker, a 14-year-old Vail resident. “Working with developers, working with companies that are trying to get in…and it’s controllable. You can grow in a very controlled, methodical way.”

“Looking back over my life, really good things take time,” said Mark Tate, who has also lived in Vail for 14 years. “It takes work. It takes practice, sometimes it takes a lot of blows and you have to get back up and do it. I think it’s well worth the effort for everyone at Vail.”

Others argue that the job won’t make Bale any better off.

“We have seen Vail grow, prosper and expand into what it is today without being incorporated,” said Jodi Miller, Kim’s wife who spent 24 years at Vail. rice field.

“We don’t see any need to change at this time.”

Petition and Proposed Boundaries

Residents opposed to annexation have suggested that the IVA start by annexing smaller, densely populated areas of Vail and then add surrounding areas.

But Hook says a feasibility analysis shows that the town would need an initial population of at least about 15,000 to be economically viable. About 20,000 people live in the greater Vail area.

State law requires that proposed town boundaries include at least 1,500 residents, or at least 500 residents within 16 miles of a national park.

A copy of the petition obtained by KGUN to be sent to the Oversight Board shows the boundaries of what would become the town of Vail.

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Opt out of appeals

There is friction between members of the community, some of the “Inform Vail” groups, and the IVA committee.

In a section of the June 29 petition, Hook summarizes various areas of the Vail community requesting an opt-out of incorporation.

In this section, although the Rincon Desert Estate community only surveyed 6 of the 27 nearby residences, the planning community of Locking K and the 2 of Academy Village and Rincon Desert Estate It states that two HOA communities have been excluded from the planned incorporation area. .

Additionally, this section adds:

“Inform Vail has submitted a request to exclude an area from incorporation…although there are several residents in this area who have individually requested exclusion, none of the neighborhoods in the area have formally submitted an exclusion request. No. Inform Vail is an informal community organization and has no legal status to represent the region or its neighbourhood.Furthermore, Inform Vail does not tell IVA that the majority of residents in the region The IVA is not required by law to exclude this area, and residents of these areas are not eligible for the November elections. They will be given the opportunity to vote for or against incorporation within.”

In an email to KGUN, community members opposed to incorporation challenged the content of the petition.

Members of this community claim that the neighborhood submitted exclusion requests in the same manner as Rincon Desert Estates, and was supported by more than half of the neighborhood’s 285 properties.

“Rincon Desert Estate submitted a request directly to Inform Vail AZ using the mailed form,” wrote a community member. “We forwarded it to the IVA and the county. A form signed by one of her HOA officials was sufficient, but a request signed by over 145 individuals would not be enough?”

“Property owners requesting exclusion have signed opt-out letters or lists documenting their wishes contrary to what the IVA stated in its letter to the Pima County Election Commissioner. The letter and roster were sent to IVA with supervisor Steve Christie and his staff,” they added.

Below is a reference portion of the IVA petition sent to the Pima County Board of Supervisors on July 11.

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