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Volume 30 • Number 21 May 24, 2023
The Voice of Marana, Oro Valley and Northwest Tucson
www.explorernews.com
Summer Survival Guide Slow down, stay cool | Special section
OV undertakes housing study
Inside
This Week
BY DAVE PERRY
A
Tucson Local Media Contributor
3.3 to 10 acres. Savanna and her dad Ben approached the town staff, wrote a letter to the Oro Valley Planning & Zoning Commission, then appeared before P&Z on May 2 to request a change in the allowances. The commission has agreed to begin the process of a potential zoning code amendment.
comprehensive study of Oro Valley’s housing inventory and future needs is “definitely a sign of a community that’s maturing,” Town Planning Manager Bayer Vella said he believes. “We’ve been in the adolescent phase, with a lot of very fast growth” in the last 25 years, said Vella, who has worked for town government since 1999. “We’re starting to enter a period of refinement. There’s not much land left, and it’s important for the town to be strategic on what we might do with it,” he said. The long-anticipated housing study is under way. Its public introduction is a series of surveys concerning housing. The surveys, to be completed by residents, people who work in Oro Valley, and owners of businesses within the community, are open online through May 31 (see related story). When tabulated, results of those surveys will be shared with the Planning and Zon-
see CHICKENS page 4
see STUDY page 6
SPORTS .................... 24 Hometown hitter returns to Chase Field Savanna Randall, 9, holds a package of range-free eggs in front of the egg case at Safeway in Oro Valley's Rancho Vistoso community. She’d like to raise chickens at home for their farm-fresh eggs, but current Oro Valley code doesn't allow it. (Dave Perry/Contributor)
Savanna wants to raise chickens BY DAVE PERRY
HEALTH .................... 26 20% of the U.S. suffers from chronic pain CHOW..............................................8 SPORTS ........................................ 23 HOROSCOPE/CROSSWORD.......27 WORSHIP/CLASSIFIEDS ........... 28 MLS #22309611
S
Tucson Local Media Contributor
avanna Randall, age 9, is seeking legal permission to raise chickens, and maybe a few miniature goats, on her family’s 1-acre piece of land in Oro Valley. Currently, Oro Valley’s zoning code says “no.” Farm animals may be kept only in two Oro Valley zoning districts, with minimum lot sizes of
$473,000
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$499,000 4BD/3BA+ DEN (2,533 SQ FT) HOME AT DOVE MOUNTAIN.
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