Jefferson Park fears glut of mini-dorms

But without additional protection from the city and designation in the National Register of Historic Places, Schlanger fears his Jefferson Park neighborhood will be overrun by developers and college students.

His concerns center around mini-dorm builders, who have descended on his neighborhood, just north of the University of Arizona.

"Mini-dorms are massive in scale, and they shadow the houses around them," said Schlanger. "It's completely inappropriate to have 12 kids living next to you.

Although Jefferson Park has not yet been been approved for listing in the National Register of Historic Places, it could still receive the additional protection Schlanger and some of his neighbors want if its proposed neighborhood design manual is approved by the mayor and City Council. As a neighborhood preservation zone, Jefferson Park will follow in the footsteps of Feldman's Historic District, the first Tucson neighborhood to implement an overlay zone that puts additional requirements on new residential construction.

Those requirements include building in a fashion similar to that of your historic neighbors.

In an e-mail, Jim Mazzocco, planning administrator for the city of Tucson, said "a building in an NPZ does not have to be historically accurate like in a historic preservation zone. It can be modern architecture that can show it fits into the historic pattern of development in the neighborhood."

In other words, neighborhood preservation zones don't impede demolition as historic preservation zones do, but they do require a builder to design with size, scale and historic integrity in mind.

That's a point of contention for Jefferson Park developer Richard Studwell, who says the mayor and council's adoption of the 2007 neighborhood preservation zone ordinance is the latest technique the city has applied in its "anti-student movement."

"It's become a new ploy to use the term 'historic' to stop the building of student housing," said Studwell. "I don't consider a home that was built in the '50s or '60s to be historic."

Studwell says the ordinance was aimed at one developer, Michael Goodman, who is known for building high-density student housing in Jefferson Park and Feldman's Historic District, which is between East Lee Street and East Speedway, from North Park Avenue to North Stone Avenue.

Goodman did not respond to the Star's interview requests.

Under the Feldman's Neighborhood Design Manual, a builder is required to follow protocol if the project significantly alters the streetscape or requires a building permit.

Those steps include submitting a field survey of immediate historic properties, completing a neighborhood compatibility worksheet, considering privacy mitigation if the house is two stories tall, scheduling a conference with a design professional and amending building plans if necessary.

Clint Bolick, lead attorney at the Goldwater Institute, says it's likely developers in both Feldman's and Jefferson Park will file claims against the city because Feldman's Neighborhood Design Manual violates a voter-approved state law enacted in 2006.

Under Proposition 207, the government is required to reimburse landowners whose properties have lost value because of increased regulation.

In a chapter titled "Incentives," the manual details how the city will renounce certain restrictions - parking in an alleyway, including a driveway as part of the lot coverage calculation, reducing the side yard of a home and on-street parking - if the property owner signs a Proposition 207 waiver before construction begins.

"We (The Goldwater Institute) are very willing and prepared to represent those whose Proposition 207 rights have been violated," said Bolick.

But city Historic Preservation Officer Jonathan Mabry contends some developers fail to acknowledge property values increase when overlay zones such as neighborhood preservation zones are implemented.

And, as more mini-dorms are built in neighborhoods, "it's decreased their neighbors' property values," said Mabry.

Tucson Association of Realtors spokesman Colin Zimmerman says the city's implementation of the neighborhood preservation zone is flawed, but for different reasons.

"Not all of the single-family bungalows are going to make it," said Zimmerman. "We're going to have to densify some of these neighborhoods."

Did you know

The city of Tucson has six historic preservation zones: Armory Park, Barrio Historico, El Presidio, West University, Fort Lowell and San Xavier environs - the last approved in the 1980s. The zones, which must be agreed to by 51 percent of those living in the neighborhood, include requirements that a historic property cannot be destroyed unless the owner proves it is an economic hardship to repair or there's a safety issue.

The zones are among the 25 Tucson neighborhoods in the National Register of Historic Places.