Kettenbach development

Pima County Design Review Committee (DRC) Endorses Cluster Option for Madera Development.
From the Green Valley News and Sun

June 22, 2007

story by Tim Hull [abbreviated for the web]

The DRC has given conceptual approval to a 280-home cluster-style development near the entrance to Madera Canyon.

After a marathon hearing Thursday afternoon, the county's DRC unanimously agreed that a cluster is the best option for the development of about 2,000 acres of rare desert grasslands one mile from the mouth of the world-renowned sky island canyon east of Green Valley.

The committee stopped short of giving the controversial project, which if built will be the first lage-scale development on the bajada stretching out west from the Santa Rita Mountains, full approval. It called instead for developer Mike Kettenbach and his partners to return with more details as to the eventual design and color of the homes in the near future.

In the meantime, the committee will write to Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry expressing its conceptual approval in an effort to expedite other aspects of the project.

The cluster option faced vocal opposition from the FOMC and others who see the developemnt style - which would cluster most of the 280 homes on a small portion of the property while leaving more than 80 percent as open space - as a kind of Trojan Horse, allowing the developers to build more homes on the property than its underlying rural zoning would allow for.

  Hammers won't be swinging anytime soon, however, Kettenbach must apply for and receive a permit to run a private wastewater treatment facility on the property, and  must also get a Aquifer Protection Permit from the state. Both processes, running concurrently, will likely take 18 - 24 months.

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