Notices of claim against the Town of Marana totaling $16.9 million have been filed by the owners of two proposed northwest Marana development projects, Marana Mercantile and Uptown. The Marana Mercantile property is the vacant land on the north side of Marana Road just west of the Marana interchange. The Uptown property is the farm field immediately west of the Marana Mercantile property. The owners are willing to settle for a combined total of $12 million.
The claims relate to recent changes to the northwest Marana street plan.
Northwest Marana is served by two freeway interchanges—at Tangerine Road and Marana Road. Marana’s street plan creates an inner loop to serve northwest Marana, connecting the Marana Road interchange on the north to Tangerine Road interchange on the south. The Town has always desired for the inner loop to connect directly to Marana Road on the north, just as it connects directly to Tangerine Road on the south.
But when the Marana Mercantile and Uptown developments were approved in 2007, a traffic study predicted massive growth and population in far west Pima County and northwest Marana, leading the Town to adopt a plan that would direct all traffic from the Marana Interchange westward on Marana road, away from existing businesses and future downtown, and requiring left turn access to the inner loop.
Recent population and growth projections now make it feasible to implement the Town’s preferred direct inner loop connection to the Marana interchange. So in April 2015, the Town changed its street map to make the direct inner loop connection to the Marana interchange and draw traffic closer to existing and planned downtown Marana businesses.
Marana’s adopted roadway plan alignment gives dramatically improved access to the existing Sandario Road Business District and future Marana Main Street, and provides direct, continuous right-turn access onto Marana Road for traffic heading west to Marana Mercantile, Uptown, and beyond. The result is a safe, direct, and balanced distribution of regional traffic to future public amenities and destinations for the benefit of the entire community.
