Oro Valley Will Get a Ballot Drop Box at the Public Library

Oro Valley Will Get a Ballot Drop Box at the Public Library

Early voters in Oro Valley will have a ballot drop box at the town's public library this fall. The Town Council voted 7-0 on Aug. 12 to approve a license agreement with the Pima County Recorder's Office, which is covering the roughly $7,000 cost. The box — one of seven planned countywide — opens with early voting Oct. 7 and closes at 7 p.m. on Election Day, Nov. 3.

The council also gave staff the go-ahead on a traffic signal for Rancho Vistoso Boulevard at the planned Sprouts shopping center, approved up to $62,500 in tourism marketing support for Westward Look Resort, and lifted a 26-year-old signage color restriction at an Oracle Road plaza.

Ballot Drop Box

The drop box was originally slated for routine approval with no discussion. But after a resident wrote to the town with security concerns, the council took the item up separately — and Pima County Recorder Gabriella Cázares-Kelly came in person to answer questions. She described a box bolted into concrete, with a waterproof sloped entry, a narrow opening to prevent contamination, anti-pry door jambs, and two unique star-shaped keys required for retrieval. A security camera monitoring the box is planned, though not watched in real time — footage would be available if an incident required review. Installation costs are also covered by the county, after an earlier request to the town was rescinded.

The library will get the extra-large model, which holds 5,594 ballots according to the Recorder's Office presentation. Cázares-Kelly noted that more than 74% of Pima County's approximately 680,000 active registered voters participate in early voting.

One council member raised concern that the agreement language said a camera "if" installed rather than committing to one. Cázares-Kelly said the intention is to have cameras at all drop boxes and that the phrasing reflected an unresolved question about whether the infrastructure would tie into town or county systems. A council member said the town's preference would be that Pima County own the footage, given the public-records obligations that come with town ownership.

Rancho Vistoso Boulevard Traffic Signal

The council agreed — by informal consensus rather than a vote — to keep moving on a traffic signal for Rancho Vistoso Boulevard. The signal would go where the Safeway plaza's entrance meets the planned main access for the Sprouts center, which developer W.M. Grace Companies is marketing as Vistoso Marketplace. Staff recommended that location over an alternative at Woodburne Avenue. Public Works Director Paul Keesler told the council a signal at that location is already warranted independent of any development, citing a 1.14 accident-per-million-vehicles ratio at the current unsignalized intersection. He said the First and Main intersection inside the Oracle Road shopping corridor — the closest comparable — has a ratio of 0.2 accidents per million vehicles over ten years of operation.

Keesler said traffic modeling shows the signal location works through the development now contemplated — Sprouts, a potential assisted-living project on the adjacent parcel known as 5U, and partial buildout of Rancho Vistoso 7I West — but that full commercial buildout of 7I West would eventually require widening Tangerine Road to dual southbound left-turn lanes, a project he put at $3 million to $4 million. The town has roughly $650,000 in impact fees set aside for the signal itself and intends to fold the Tangerine widening into future impact fee schedules so that development pays for it.

Vice Mayor Melanie Barrett voiced concern that approving the signal now would draw down impact fees before the Tangerine widening cost is secured, and called for a broader policy discussion on how the town weighs return on investment when developers ask for public infrastructure. She also questioned whether the ring road behind Safeway — which she said appeared too narrow for two cars to pass — can serve as one leg of a full signalized intersection, and objected to leaving any fix dependent on a future rezoning of the 5U parcel.

Keesler acknowledged the geometry is not ideal, and said the town attorney would need to examine whether a safety nexus exists to require ring-road improvements if 5U develops commercially without needing council approval.

The center's tenant lineup is not settled: nothing beyond Sprouts has been filed or confirmed, though a Chick-fil-A was floated at the meeting — a resident asked about it as a proposed tenant, and one council member said it had been discussed and "would be great."

Westward Look Resort Marketing Agreement

The council voted 7-0 to approve a one-year services agreement with Westward Look Resort LLC under which the resort can receive up to $62,500 from the town's Explore Oro Valley destination management budget to co-fund trade show attendance, group-booking incentive credits, and familiarization trips targeting meetings, conventions, corporate events, and sporting tournaments. Town Manager Jeff Wilkins said an identical agreement with a second resort — identified in discussion as Hilton El Conquistador — had not yet been returned signed; the total annual budget for both agreements is $125,000.

Westward Look's representative told the council the resort had already sent a sales manager to an Anthony Travel conference in Atlanta to test the promotional concept. He described Anthony Travel as a firm that handles travel for 85% of the Big 12 Conference — the University of Arizona's league — and that also works in sports tournaments. All incentive payments, he said, would be tied to actualized room nights rather than paid in advance. Barrett cautioned against the resort coming to rely on the town funding as a baseline, and asked that the agreement remain supplemental to the resort's existing marketing budget. The agreement is for one year and requires council approval to renew; Town Attorney Steven Zraick confirmed there is no automatic renewal provision.

Signage Condition Removed for Oracle Road Development

The council voted 7-0 to approve Ordinance No. (O)26-12, removing a year-2000 rezoning condition that required all signage at the 14-acre Linda Vista Plaza at Oracle Road and Linda Vista Boulevard to be copper patina in color. Town planning staff said the condition was common practice at the time but has since been removed at every other similarly restricted development in Oro Valley as businesses sought parity with the town's current sign code, which allows a broad array of colors. The applicant, identified as the Pain Institute of Southern Arizona, is nearing completion of a new facility on the property.

Also discussed:

• Three residents spoke during call to audience about Oro Valley's participation in the Flock license-plate-reader network, citing contract terminations or investigations in Pinal County, Chandler, Goodyear, Tempe, and Apache Junction over alleged misuse; speakers called for council review of audit logs and data-sharing agreements
• Staff presented an update on OV's Path Forward, the town's proposed 10-year general plan, which is set for a public vote Nov. 3 as Proposition 431; a marketing video was screened publicly for the first time
• Town Manager Jeff Wilkins previewed a new annual community report tracking metrics across seven strategic focus areas, including 94 new businesses, 90,409 parks program participants, and a 4,477-member Community Recreation Center membership