7/29/2008 9:28:00 PM Long history in incorporation battle Former CFV backers now on side in favor of incorporation vote
Early voting starting, registration deadline nearing
Coconino County citizens have until Monday, Aug. 4, to register for the Sept. 2 Primary Election, which includes the question of incorporation for Tusayan.
The Sept. 2 election is an "open" partisan primary, which means a voter registered with a recognized political party will receive the ballot for that party. If a voter has no party affiliation, or with an unrecognized political party, the voter must designate a political party when requesting an early ballot.
Registration forms are available at the Elections office, 110 E. Cherry Ave. in Flagstaff; and can also be downloaded online at the Web site, by clicking on "Print a Voter Registration Form" and returning the completed form to the Elections Office.
Registered voters who have moved, changed their name or wish to change their political party affiliation must re-register. Signed registration forms must be dated no later than Monday, Aug. 4 and received in the Elections office by Friday, Aug. 9.
Early voting begins tomorrow with ballots available Mondays-Thursdays from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. at the Grand Canyon School District Office, 1 Boulder St. Voters on the Permanent Early Voter list will automatically receive early ballots for every election in which they are eligible to vote. A voter must submit a written request to be added to the PEV list.
For more information, call Elections at 928-779-6589, or toll free 800-793-6181.
Calling their approach to development in Tusayan a decade ago "a mistake," the planners behind the Canyon Forest Village project are now supporting incorporation - a move that they successfully fought in 1994.
Developers Matteo Percassi and Franco Marsan of Stilo Corp. and Tom DePaolo who led the CFV effort, joined Citizens for Tusayan Incorporation Choice last Saturday for a barbecue where they were available to answer residents' questions and express their willingness to work with the community.
"We hope to have the opportunity to show the community what we are and who we are," said Percassi.
According to Clayann Cook, who serves on the pro-incorporation committee, about 50 residents showed up over the course of three hours to ask questions, fill out questionnaires and take a tour to look at a portion of acreage being offered to the community for housing.
Stilo Corp. owns about 250 acres across two inholdings within proposed incorporation boundaries on the Tusayan Ranger District. The Ten-X parcel east of Tusayan is 194 acres, and the Kotzin property, which is northwest of the airport, is 160 acres. Current zoning, which the county will not overturn, prohibits development of the land.
Stilo is a subsidiary of the Percassi Group, a major figure in the Italian retail and factory outlet development and management industry.
The company acquired the property more than 20 years ago and had offered it and several other inholdings totaling more than 2,000 acres in exchange for 272 acres to be zoned for development eight miles from the park entrance. The proposed project, Canyon Forest Village, was presented as a premier gateway hub for shopping, lodging, interpretive offerings, housing and transit into the park.
In 1994, the community first petitioned to have the question of incorporation put to a vote ballot as a way to take the decision-making out of the hands of the county, which supported CFV despite overwhelming local opposition. With fewer than the 1,500 residents required by law to incorporate, the community first had to push for special legislation that recognized their unique position in proximity to a national park. The developer successfully fought the incorporation vote on the grounds that the law applied only to Tusayan and was therefore unconstitutional.
The CFV project moved forward, gaining Forest Service and county approvals, as well as support of environmental groups like the Grand Canyon Trust. In 2000, opponents put the zoning question before county voters, who rejected it by a 2-1 margin, effectively overturning prior approvals and dooming the project.
In 2003, Tusayan community leaders were successful in getting a broader incorporation law passed and spent four years studying the implications of incorporation for the community. That process wrapped up last year with no recommendation one way or the other.
According to Best Western Grand Canyon Squire Hotel General Manager Greg Bryan, who served on the incorporation study task force and now heads the incorporation effort, when Tusayan business owner and Washington state resident Elling Halvorson approached him about getting the question on the ballot, he was skeptical. The possibility of housing changed his mind.
"I felt the depth of leadership (for town councils and boards) wasn't there," he said. "Then he said what if we were able to acquire a gift of acreage to provide housing. I just sat up in my chair."
That land - 40 acres - is the southernmost portion of the Kotzin parcel. As a deed-restricted gift to the town, it would be managed by a local housing authority. Bryan said the vision is for a combination of cost-controlled housing options not tied to employment, from rental apartments to single family homes, interspersed with community areas for parks and playgrounds and neighborhood commercial uses such as health care, day care, stores and auto repair shops. Funding to develop the land would come through the issue of municipal bonds, he said.
Incorporation opponents, however, say that none of this is guaranteed.
"These are all hypotheticals," said Clarinda Vail of Red Feather Lodge, who also served on the task force and now leads Vote NO on Incorporation: The Price is Not Right. "They're talking about improvements, but none of the financial implications."
She said that because the 40 acres is located in a flood plain cut through by Coconino Wash, development will be costly. Other costs she said haven't been studied include providing fire protection for an area that's more than double the current fire district and capital projects such as a town hall and other public buildings.
"In the last round of comments (to the incorporation task force), residents said that there are things that we have not studied," she said. "There was so much left to be done and we felt we were leaving that to the next group. We assumed that if someone would move forward on incorporation there would be another committee to follow up on the things that weren't studied."
Both sides will debate on Thursday, Aug. 7, at 6 p.m. at the Best Western Squire Inn. Justice of the Peace Bill Sutton of Williams will moderate.
The election is on Tuesday, Sept. 2, at the Grand Hotel in Tusayan. Monday, Aug. 4, is the deadline to register to vote. Visit for more information.
