Published: October 11, 2024, updated November 19, 2024
After a presentation by TBOSC, the Rio Nuevo Board of Directors voted to remove all mentions of development of the Chuk Shon / Tucson Birthplace / ‘A’ Mountain site from their Master Plan, and to bring their Master Plan in alignment with the Menlo Park & Barrio Sin Nombre Neighborhood Plan which calls for “the preservation of Tucson’s Birthplace (“A” Mountain closed landfill) as open space and pursue its designation as an Urban Wildlife Refuge.”
Rio Nuevo’s final vote to adopt the modified Master Plan took place at their regular board meeting on Tuesday, November 19th. The motion passed unanimously.
On Tuesday, Oct. 8, the Rio Nuevo board, current “owners” of the 28 acre Chuk Shon / Birthplace site, met at the Tucson Convention Center to revise their 2025-2035 Master Plan. Based on the last two years of intensive community organizing and preliminary conversations over the summer, TBOSC was invited to present on our collective efforts, which was an invitation we gladly accepted, since Rio Nuevo’s Master Plan draft released earlier this year included unsubstantiated claims about the “toxicity” of the site and also called the area their “largest development opportunity.”
Ahead of the Oct. 8 meeting, Kylie Walzak, President of the Menlo Park Neighborhood Association, provided the Board with a copy of the draft Neighborhood Plan for Barrio Sin Nombre and Menlo Park. This plan has been in development for over 5 years, received extensive public comment this past summer, and is expected to be approved by Mayor and Council in early 2025. The plan includes calls for:
Policy 1.2.2 Continue to pursue designating Tucson’s Birthplace (the “A” Mountain closed landfill) in collaboration with adjoining Neighborhood Associations as a permanent open space which:
- Protects the natural and environmental features of “A” Mountain/Sentinel Peak Park and the Santa Cruz River riparian areas from development;
Policy 6.1.1 Continue to advocate for the preservation of Tucson’s Birthplace (“A” Mountain closed landfill) as open space and pursue its designation as an Urban Wildlife Refuge.
Policy 6.1.3 Advocate for the preparation of an environmental quality study on “A” Mountain Landfill and timely reporting to the affected neighborhoods.
At the meeting Tuesday afternoon our own TBOSC Organizing Council member Logan Phillips spoke to the board. Logan emphasized TBOSC’s willingness to collaborate with Rio Nuevo on permanent open space solutions for the land. He pointed out that all available scientific evidence shows no negative impact of the 60 year-old landfill on water quality, nor on animal and human health.
Provided to the board was a 2024 report prepared by Tucson Water for the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality (excerpt here), which includes data from intensive water quality monitoring throughout 2023, when “the groundwater table has likely inundated the A-mountain landfill” (Page 22). Results show no EPA contaminants of concern being leached from the landfill into the river nor water table. This is consistent including over 25 years of water quality testing data from wells surrounding the long-closed landfill, which has been analyzed by TBOSC’s Chuck Graf, hydrologist and retired ADEQ landfill expert.
Logan also updated the board on the efforts of the coalition working towards the Santa Cruz River National Urban Wildlife Refuge, highlighting the possibility of the Birthplace site being included in the Refuge once designated. TBOSC made the case for this earlier this summer in the Landscape Conservation Design document submitted to the US Fish and Wildlife Service and formally accepted last month. Logan made the point that Tucson Mayor and Council would be unanimously passing a resolution put forward by Ward 1 Council Member Lane Santa Cruz and Ward 3 Council Member Kevin Dahl calling on Department of Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to designate the Refuge later Tuesday evening. (Read the entire Resolution here).
Earlier, TBOSC was invited by Chairman Austin Nunez to present this same information to the District Council of the San Xavier District of the Tohono O’odham Nation. At the October 1st District Council meeting, Ángel Breault, Rebecca Perez, Maxie Adler and Logan Phillips spoke and took questions from the Council. Afterwords, Chairman Nunez reaffirmed the Council’s longtime support of TBOSC’s open space efforts, specifically calling for a Sonoran desert park at the Chuk Shon / Birthplace site.
Back at the Oct. 8 Rio Nuevo meeting, in line with TBOSC’s earlier Position Statement on the question of dig-and-dump remediation, Logan pointed out the folly of the idea of spending over $30 million on such a project when there is no documented harm being done by the landfilled which closed in 1963 and has been capped numerous times. Remediation would be necessary for building on the site, however, due to the possibility of subsidence as the landfill continues to decompose. Rio Nuevo Board Member Corky Poster made the point that because of this high cost barrier for development, the parcel would likely assess as having a value of $0, if not a negative value, and thus cautioned the Board against thinking Rio Nuevo stood to make money on any eventual sale of the property.
Board member Sharayah Jimenez pointed out the importance of flexibility, proposing that there is a financial support role for Rio Nuevo to play in addressing the future needs of the site, in alignment with open space / refuge uses.
The Rio Nuevo Board, particularly Chairman Fletcher McCusker, sees indemnification for Rio Nuevo against potential legal risk posed by the former landfill as being critical for a change in ownership. This was discussed by the Board and their attorneys, and Logan pointed out that the site’s inclusion in the Refuge could come about in a variety of ways, including fee title ownership by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, or a co-management agreement between USFWS and a community land trust controlled by neighbors and Tohono O’odham community members.
Logan closed his comments by saying:
“Rio Nuevo has the chance to turn what has been an ongoing monkey on [its] back to a real victory for the Board, for Mayor & Council, for our neighbors on the Westside to see this land permanently protected as the jewel that it is. There’s over 4,000 years of history on site, as the Draft Master Plan points out, we could say that there’s another 10,000 years beyond that of human occupation in the area, I would hope that we would not be blinded by the 9 years of the landfill, as important and consequential as those 9 years may be. As a coalition we’ve done a lot of work into not limiting ourselves to only look at this site [in terms of a landfill], understanding that there is redemption for wounds in our community, and we can do right here, in this place.”
Board Member Edmund Marquez was first to respond by saying “We at Rio Nuevo… have the greater good perspective… we want the Westside to be happy with the land that’s there. I personally would love to see something happen there, and if it’s a wildlife corridor, excellent… I would love to have a conversation about us selling it.”
Victor Rivera of the Barrio Sin Nombre Neighborhood Association spoke with the Board on how long Barrio Sin Nombre has been working towards these goals, and the importance of centering the Barrio in decision making. In his remarks, TBOSC Organizing Council member and longtime barrio-neighborhood advocate Raul Ramirez reinforced TBOSC’s alignment with the wishes of Westside residents.
Following this discussion, Corky Poster made a motion to strike all references to development from the final version of the Master Plan. The motion passed unanimously. Fletcher McCusker then said to the board “I would suggest to you that the timing is right, if you so chose, to embrace the inevitable, and our Board approve, the utilization of that land consistent with the Menlo Park [and Barrio Sin Nombre] Neighborhood Plan. … I make the motion that the Rio Nuevo Board endorse and align our objectives on the A-mountain landfill with those prescribed in the Menlo Park [and Barrio Sin Nombre] Neighborhood Plan.”
At this point Board Member Chris Sheafe attempted to amend the motion to draw a hard line against Rio Nuevo spending any funds to support open space objectives. The amendment was rejected by McCusker with the comment “we may still be on the hook for remediation” and a vote was called. McCusker’s motion also passed unanimously and the room erupted in applause, particularly from TBOSC Organizing Council members in attendance: Maxie Adler, Katya Peterson, Bill Du Pont and Diana Hadley, who have been core to the organzing efforts alongside others including Señora Josefina Cárdenas, Ángel Breault, Anthony Nelson, Maegan Lopez, Melani Martinez, Rebecca Perez and Robert Villa.
This isn’t the end of the story. In fact, it’s just the beginning. What this week does show us is that the era of fighting over commercial development proposals for Tucson’s Birthplace is over. In this new era we will continue to organize for permanent open space protection of this sacred land, centering the wishes of Tohono O’odham community members and our Westside neighbors. There’s a lot of work to do, and we need many hands to do it––please get involved!
Very soon TBOSC will be announcing a series of information sharing and community collaboration meetings where we’ll discuss all of the points above and many more! Stay tuned!