Plans to build condominiums near Continental Ranch are stalled while Marana officials and the project's developers wrangle over what to do with ancient Hohokam burial sites discovered on the property.
Town officials and developers agree that the location contains artifacts that need to be protected before the condos can be built.
The developers say they've already done enough work to remove artifacts and human remains from the property, but town officials disagree.
Town archaeologist Su Benaron said the firm hired to conduct an initial survey of the area over the summer didn't do an adequate job of searching for burial sites, according to town letters and e-mails.
The company also failed to dig deep enough to find all archaeological features, Benaron said.
An independent archaeological firm hired by the town of Marana later confirmed Benaron's findings.
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But the archaeological firm originally hired by the developers counters that it did all the digging required by state law and that the town is being unreasonable.
The town won't approve construction of the project until all the burial sites have been removed and another survey has been conducted.
As a compromise, Town Attorney Frank Cassidy proposed that the developer pay the town $235,000 for another archaeology firm to complete the work deemed necessary by the town.
But the settlement was voted down 4-3 last week by the Marana Town Council, leaving both sides back at the same impasse.
Richard M. Rollman, a Tucson attorney who represents the developers, wouldn't comment on what his clients plan to do next but said they want to resolve the matter quickly.
Councilman Tim Escobedo, who voted against the settlement, said the developers had not done the required work as outlined by state law.
"Why should the town pay for their mistakes?" he said.
The site of the planned development could have been part of a Hohokam village that was populated between 550 and 900, according to town archaeology reports.
The developer's archaeologist found three burial sites during its survey, but a two-day search by archaeologists hired by Marana found 24 burial sites, the town's report said.
The town paid Desert Archaeology $5,000 to strip the land after disagreeing with the findings of the developers' archaeologist report.
Desert Archaeology's findings and report cost about $30,000, but it's not clear who will foot that bill, Cassidy said in an e-mail.
The town will probably end up paying $10,000, and the remainder of the bill will be paid by the developers.
The Hohokam burials were some of the most elaborate ever uncovered in Arizona and indicate that the site was once a cemetery, Desert's report said.
The area also features several cremation sites, possible pit houses and roasting pits used for cooking.
In an interview last week, Cassidy said the survey done on behalf of the town shows that the developers didn't do enough to find and remove burial sites.
"It's clear how much work was done at first," he said. "It proves that the archaeologist didn't do the work right."
The report prepared by Desert Archaeology said the first survey dug down only to a fraction of the depth it was supposed to.
The first survey also avoided certain areas in which burial sites were present — digging in areas in which it wouldn't find any artifacts, the report said.
In a response to Desert's report, the initial survey group, Aztlan Archaeology of Tucson, argues that it didn't dig in certain areas because there wasn't any evidence that anything was buried there.
Besides proposing to pay for another survey and burial removal, Marana officials also have recommended arbitration.
Each side would select an archaeologist to survey the site and assess what needs to be done, according to a Sept. 29 letter from Cassidy.
