GRANT ROAD COALITION, Tuesday, April 24, 6pm, WARD III office.

     Discuss:  Linear Park to Santa Rita, Condemned houses, Campbell/Grant Development.

Joan Hall: 990--8054 or e-mail [email protected]. for more information about how the Jefferson Park Green Committee can help you plant your trees.

Image perhaps difficult to see?  It highlights the 9 city owned properties on the north side of Grant across from Jefferson Park. Several were acquired in 1991 for the Grant Road Widening and they have  been vacant and neglected.  They belong to the city.  A recent TPD survey found 5 of the 7 residential buildings harbored vagrants and a burglary stash.  Our neighbors SAMOS and, yes, Jefferson Park have experienced an uptick in burglaries. SAMOS and Jefferson Park brought the situation to the attention of WARD III.  Matt Kopec of WARD III reports:

     " At 1647 E. Grant Rd, the City has received bids to fix up the property and will decide very soon whether to demolish the house or fix it up to the point of being able to rent it. The rest of the proprieties with structures on them should be evaluated and assessed with bids in the next two weeks. For all of the city-owned lots (with structures and vacant lots) a City contracted landscaping company will clean up weeds and trash on all the properties.  This should happen in the next week.   At the Samos meeting last night I was alerted to trash (mattresses, couches, etc) in the alley between Spring St and Grant Rd. I have asked the Environmental Services Department to clean up the alley of this debris, I told them my goal was as soon as possible on this one."

      This writer wonders why mitigating the effects of the empty buildings purchased by the city is not a matter of protocol.  Why do residents have to experience burglaries, do the detective work, report the incidents, then lobby the city to do what it should have done initially?  It is poor planning and disrespectful of urban neighborhoods. One wonders the cost for every TPD call and every code enforcement visit.

(J. Daniels)

Two homes on the 1500 block of Waverly will be scheduled for demolition.  Demolitions of historic properties can be done without comment from the neighborhood.  There are two adjacent properties involved,  and the plan is for a mini subdivision of the two lots into 5 separate lots of 7000 square feet.  Currently these abandoned houses show evidence of vagrants living on the property while the developer awaits the city's permission to demolish.  Jefferson Park has requested that the developer clean the graffiti, sleeping bags, etc.  Note that the demolition of these properties will subtract 2 contributing properties from the historic inventory and replace them with 5 non-contributing properties.  Jefferson Park must retain 50% contributing properties in order for it to remain an historic district.

The JPNA long ago created a "Land Use Committee".  That group spearheaded the Neighborhood Preservation Zone for Jefferson Park.  There are only two neighborhoods in Tucson that have this protection - Feldman's and JP.  That committee got the R-1 zoning redefined to exclude mini-dorms and all Tucson neighborhoods benefited. Today it continues to meet to review and give input to the city on proposals for remodels and building in Jefferson Park.  It is not anti-building.  It helps neighbors understand and retain the contributing status of their properties. To see the processes for that committee, find a link to the historic nomination, and find a list of the contributing properties by address go to the Jefferson Park web-site under the "Building in JP" tab: http://www.jeffersonpark.info/building-in-jp.html.

High rise Student Housing continues to raise the ire of neighborhoods.  Another project affecting other urban neighborhoods - Sam Hughes and Miramonte is proposed by local developer  Ross Rulney.  Read the wildcat article that presents the options for these neighborhoods and the demands of the developer.  See the Wild cat Article and read the informative links found at:

http://www.wildcat.arizona.edu/article/2018/04/n-student-housing-developer

This newsletter has featured images which document the history of the Jefferson Park neighborhood.  The Friends of Jefferson Park, Inc will continue to research and seek photos from private sources that illustrate the deep historic and cultural ties of this neighborhood.  The Jefferson Park website has a slide show of some of the images collected so far.    http://www.jeffersonpark.info/history.html

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