Council OKs housing project to replace City

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http://www.tucsoncitizen.com/local/1_16_02chris_city.html

Council OKs housing project at its former site

448 units at Fort Lowell and Columbus will replace City, razed

in 2000 because of mold problems.

BLAKE MORLOCK, Citizen Staff Writer

Jan. 16, 2002

A new housing development will rise from the site where a similar housing

project was razed two years ago.

City was a University of Arizona graduate housing project. The

new development will not be for students.

UA's City complex was torn down in 2000 because it was in poor

condition and infested with mold. More than 350 grad students and their

families were displaced.

The new, 448-unit project will be on the same 68-acre site, on the northwest

corner of North Columbus Boulevard and East Fort Lowell Road, but current

zoning allowed only 300 units. The developers, The DeGrazia Co. and KB

Homes, needed the council to approve the project. It did so in a unanimous

vote.

In February 2001, the university attempted to rezone the land without

presenting a formal development plan. The university decided not to pursue

this plan because of obvious council opposition.

The DeGrazia Co. bought the property for $8.5 million last June.

The DeGrazia Co. and KB Homes worked with neighbors in the area to reach a

compromise that stirred no formal protest.

Council member Carol West, who led the opposition to the university's

rezoning plan last year, applauded the company's effort.

" I really can't believe what a difference a year makes, " she said.