OV council knows it must define problem

Proposed changes to four Oro Valley volunteer boards, among them the controversial Development Review Board, may go forward.

Before a development project gets off the ground in Oro Valley, it must get approval from the citizen-led Development Review Board.

The community discussion about the future of Oro Valley's Development Review Board continued last week.

Marana chamber sets golf, spa date Sept. 23

Oro Valley continues to move forward on a proposal to eliminate the development review board.

Hiremath is a disciple of special interests

Prison labor works fine in Florence

On May 18, Oro Valley voters decide between Dr. Satish Hiremath and Mike Zinkin in the race for a four-year mayoral term. Candidate responses to questions from The Explorer are published here. Some were edited for length.

The Oro Valley Town Council voted unanimously on April 7 to ask town staffers for more details and a plan to implement changes to the town's development review process.

An agenda item on the April 7 Oro Valley Town Council meeting would discuss the possible elimination of a layer of bureaucracy in the town's development process.

The Explorer asked Oro Valley town council candidates eight questions. Here are the final four question and answers. Responses were edited for length.

Satish Hiremath

Citing the contentious resignation of Town Manager David Andrews, a candidate for the Oro Valley Town Council now says he plans to run for mayor.

Letters to the editor published in the July 29, 2009, edition of The Explorer.

What's the difference between beige and tan? Not much, the Oro Valley Town Council decided on July 15.

The Town of Oro Valley has several openings for volunteer service.

The possibility of the Oro Valley Town Council doing away with the current volunteer selection system and replacing it with a “buddy” system is alarming, though not surprising.

February 1, 2006 - Conny Culver said she believes a balance between preservation and growth is the key to Oro Valley's future. Her initiative and dedication during her two years on the Oro Valley town council have already made a real difference, she said.

Compiled from stories published in 2005

July 13, 2005 - A longtime Oro Valley volunteer was removed from one of the town's boards last week after he repeatedly spoke out against the development of a large shopping center that is being planned at Tangerine and Oracle roads near his home.

Over the last five months the candidates running for the Oro Valley Town Council have been asked every conceivable question about every issue affecting the town. The Northwest EXPLORER wants Oro Valley voters to make informed decisions May 18. Instead of adding further to his cacophony of querying on issues, we have decided to ask the 10 candidates in the run off election questions that will reveal more about how the candidates make their decisions rather than what they've decided about town issues. We asked each candidate two hypothetical scenarios dealing with land use and economic development. We have drafted these scenarios to have a sense of reality to them but made them sufficiently vague so that no reader could mistake them for being real. The candidates were limited to 1,000 words total to answer the two scenarios.

4-year candidates

The tab for Oro Valley's next General Plan continues to climb. At its March 17 meeting, the town council heard a brief summary of outreach efforts to explore the reasons for the plan's defeat in a special election last fall. It then unanimously relegated future work on the plan to a study session sometime in April.