Corona plaza: a wary welcome

It'll be convenient, most agree, but some residents worry about the traffic and impact on the local market that has served residents for more than 20 years.

Pat Suhocki is among those glad to hear that the Stanley Group, which developed Santa Rita Ranch and an adjacent golf course, now intends to build a grocery store and retail complex at the southeast corner of South Houghton and East Sahuarita roads.

"I do like the idea, particularly with the gas cost these days," Suhocki said. "I know it'll cause more traffic and all, but we've got to get more services out here."

The traffic that the 100,000-square-foot shopping center would generate worries Sandy Whitehouse, president of the Santa Rita Foothills Community Association.

A county project to rebuild the Houghton-Sahuarita intersection, scheduled to be completed at the end of next year, will reduce congestion, Whitehouse acknowledged. But she said, "Then we'll have a state-of-the-art intersection that is going to feed traffic onto two crowded two-lane roads."

Increased traffic also concerns Margaret Steuer, whose subdivision is near the Houghton-Sahuarita intersection.

"We moved out here 12 years ago for the quiet, and less traffic, and we got used to having our kids play around the street without worrying about it," she said.

"My personal opinion is, I don't like it," said Steuer, principal of Corona Foothills Middle School at 16705 S. Houghton Road, one of two schools about a half-mile south of the intersection.

"I'd rather drive the 15 miles up the road to Fry's in Rita Ranch rather than have a store here in our community."

Annexation a concern

Whitehouse also worries that the shopping plaza will attract the attention of Tucson city officials who have long eyed Corona as ripe for annexation.

And she's afraid the new shopping complex will endanger the Roadrunner Market, the convenience store that has long served as a sort of community center on a corner at the intersection.

"It's like the old cracker barrel — people like to gather there," Whitehouse said. "That's where you go to find out what's going on. People go there and drink coffee and talk with their neighbors."

Mike Stewart, who has owned the Roadrunner for 22 years, is concerned about what will happen to his business once the grocery-retail plaza is built. He declined to say any more about it last week.

Whitehouse said she and many others hope Stewart and the Stanley Group can come to some agreement that would allow the Roadrunner to remain in business.

Eric Abrams, Stanley Group vice president, said company officials "have not made any overtures" to Stewart. But"I'd certainly be willing to talk to him."

"We certainly appreciate the fact that he's done a good job of serving the area," Abrams said. "Maybe there's a way we could create a niche for the store."

Company officials want to build the shopping plaza on the southeast corner of the Houghton-Sahuarita intersection "because that's the only corner that's commercially owned and commercially zoned," Abrams said.

Many details of the project are still being worked out, he added.

Aiming toward 2009

Abrams said if all goes as planned, he'd like to open the shopping plaza in 2009 — sooner, if possible.

The proposal is slowly making its way through the county system. Arlen Colton, county planning director, said his office is awaiting the second draft of the development plan.

The development plan for the project submitted by the Stanley Group doesn't require rezoning, so the project will be handled administratively and won't go to the county Planning and Zoning Commission or Board of Supervisors, Colton said.

He couldn't estimate when the county Development Services department would complete work on the plan.

Meanwhile, Abrams said, his staff is continuing to seek a commitment from a major grocery chain, which would be the plaza's major tenant.

"I would think that we'll have a letter of intent within the next six months," he said last week.

The plaza also would include a bank, a fast-food restaurant and a sit-down restaurant.

Because of growth throughout the area, the time is ripe to build the plaza, Abrams said.

"We recognized some commercial amenities would be needed there," he said. "It's certainly a much better situation to have amenities and a grocery store nearby, so people won't have to drive long distances to do shopping."

The Stanley Group has been responsible for much of Corona's growth. It's the developer of Santa Rita Ranch, an 1,100-home subdivision east of the Houghton-Sahuarita intersection and the adjacent golf course.

"Right now, there are about 3,500 households in the area," Abrams said. Projections call for 500 to 600 homes to be built in each of the next several years.

"So it's not inconceivable that there will 7,000, 8,000 homes in the greater Corona de Tucson area over the next few years," Abrams said.

It's like the old cracker barrel — people like to gather there. That's where you go to find out what's going on. People go there and drink coffee and talk with their neighbors.

Sandy Whitehouse

Santa Rita Foothills group president