New rules to restrict development of minidorms near the University of Arizona were put off for another week by the City Council on Tuesday, and they may never be passed the way neighborhood residents want.
The council voted 6-0 Tuesday to delay new design rules for Feldman's Neighborhood, northwest of the UA. Feldman's is the first of several neighborhoods to come forward with design standards that limit the development of minidorms.
In addition, Councilwoman Karin Uhlich proposed a last-minute compromise that would allow developers to build more intensive developments along the main streets around Feldman's - East Speedway, North Euclid Avenue and North Park Avenue. The compromise, which will come back to the council for consideration next week, would speed up rezonings by four to six months.
Uhlich's compromise would also make the new rules end after only two years. After announcing the compromise Uhlich was booed, jeered and questioned by the roughly 60 residents who turned out to the support the new design rules for Feldman's.
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Mayor Bob Walkup admonished the crowd and said he couldn't allow more disrespectful behavior.
Because of protest from nearby landowners, the council needs six of its seven members to vote to create the new design rules for Feldman's. Uhlich said there were not enough votes.
Walkup credited Uhlich for saving the Feldman's design rules with her compromise.
But Councilwoman Nina Trasoff criticized minidorm developers and the council for the last-minute changes to the rules.
"I resent the position I've been put into tonight," she said, adding that trying to change three years of work at the last minute annoyed and frustrated her "to no end."
Trasoff said she found it "unconscionable" that neither her office nor representatives from Feldman's were involved in the last-minute discussions to add more intensive development along the transportation corridors in the neighborhood.
The council unanimously approved a neighborhood-preservation zoning overlay in August 2007. It immediately allowed 22 neighborhoods around the UA that are either designated historic or are eligible for historic designation to "opt in" to the pilot overlay program and begin creating a preservation zone tailored for their neighborhood.
Feldman's was the first to do so.
But developers of the minidorms warned that the city is risking a lawsuit under Proposition 207, a state ballot initiative passed in 2006 requiring governments to compensate landowners if land-use rules lower their property values.
The city has lost two lawsuits having to do with Prop. 207 - one in which a new demolition law was struck down by the courts and another in which a judge ruled the city may have to pay damages to minidorm developer Michael Goodman for the negative impact to Goodman's property values.
Trasoff said the minidorms are ruining the community fabric of the area and called Goodman's actions there "disgusting beyond words."
Diana Lett, vice president of Feldman's neighborhood, said she was disturbed by the last-minute compromise to allow for more intensive developments and the sunset of the new rules in two years. Lett said the more intensive development will make it easy to tear down historic structures in Feldman's - adding that the area's oldest homes are all along the main streets.
"Under the guise of enacting neighborhood preservation you are encouraging neighborhood destruction," Lett said. "We are disturbed by this bait and switch."