To start: Inform Vail AZ has never claimed or acted as a legal representative of any area or any neighborhood. We simply are here to better inform our community and give a voice to those that are being ignored by those that want to change Vail into a commercially controlled community.
A predated July 11, 2023 Board of Supervisors Memorandum written by Pima County Administrator Jan Lesher has been released. Included in the documentation attached to this memorandum is the official incorporation map IVA is going to use for their incorporation push. We are glad to see that not included in that map is Academy Village and Rincon Desert Estates, two HOA regulated communities who requested to be excluded from the incorporation effort. However, included in the map is the rural community who came together to request the same as those two HOAs.
This post will examine IVAs documented reasoning for this disrespect of the rural community that includes many pre Del Lago residents who helped build and shape Vail into what it is today. While reading this post, keep in mind that on May 9th, the IVA President assured a member of Inform Vail AZ that Incorporate Vail Arizona (IVA) was tracking opt-out requests neighborhood by neighborhood.
For everyone’s disclosure, IVA claims it “used consistent methodology for evaluating each request”.
For the two HOA controlled communities that were granted exclusion:
The following is the explanation given for not honoring their word for the rural community. Maybe it is a lack of understanding that every community does not have an HOA. The bold lettering indicates the false information presented by Incorporate Vail Arizona.
"Inform Vail submitted a request to exclude an area from incorporation that lies between Rocking K to the north and Del Lago to the south and is bounded on the west by Tewa Trails and on the east by First Mesa Trail. While there are several residents in this area that have individually requested exclusion, none of the neighborhoods in this area submitted a formal request for exclusion. Inform Vail is an informal community organization and does not have the legal standing to represent this area or its neighborhoods. Furthermore, Inform Vail has not presented IVA with any resident surveys or other documentation that indicates the majority of residents in the area want to be excluded."
Inform Vail submitted - This request was submitted by a private resident in the area, not Inform Vail. The attached photos show submittal of the exclusion request by the rural resident directly to IVA through their Contact Us page on IVA’s website. The rural resident submitted the request twice to IVA as the first was never confirmed, nor was the second. Like the Rincon Desert Estates HOA request that was also presented to us, Inform Vail AZ merely forwarded the request to Pima County personnel also including IVA President David Hook on the email for his awareness (this email is attached).
Several residents - Nearly 150 properties (not just 6) in this rural community submitted their signed requests for exclusion from incorporation. The property owners speak for themselves. A majority of them spoke but were ignored by IVA.
None of the neighborhoods in this area submitted a formal request for exclusion- There are no active HOAs is this long established rural community. There are no defined “neighborhoods”. The property owners and residents speak for themselves. A majority from this area spoke and requested exclusion. There is signed documentation. This signed documentation was submitted to IVA and Pima County. Each of these submissions was confirmed received by IVA.
Inform Vail has not presented IVA with any resident survey or other documentation that indicates the majority of residents in the area want to be excluded - Inform Vail worked with the rural residents in this community collecting signatures. Every form received was submitted. In the bullet point above this section, IVA admitted that they received 951 individual letters. Attached is a photo showing the nearly 150 signed, submitted forms that IVA received from this rural community (top page is a confirmation receipt). IVA confirmed receipt of every single form submitted from Inform Vail AZ.
As for IVA’s last bullet point concerning our alternative map submittal, IVA knows full well that a massive residential/commercial project near I-10 and the 83 was approved by Pima County’s Design Review Committee this past January. How could they not? An IVA board member voted in favor of this increased development and it is documented that their "YES" vote influenced the vote of others on the committee. The development of this area would give IVA their needed population numbers. The approved project can found at https://informvailaz.com/vailcrossingspdf.
These incorrect and outright misleading statements should be a great concern for all in this community. How many chances do we give IVA? They continue to mislead our community. IVAs pursuit to change our community from a residential based community into a commercially controlled "economic powerhouse" will come at great costs to all residents if incorporation is successful.
What further documentation did IVA need from one of Vail’s pre-Del Lago rural communities? IVA seemingly reached out to the HOAs for further information about their opt-out requests. Inform Vail AZ asked the rural resident who submitted the opt-out request if they were approached by IVA. IVA did not reach out to them for further information. Academy Village’s exclusion was granted with an anonymous online survey. Rincon Desert Estates was granted by polling merely six of the 27 properties. These long time rural Vail residents who went door to door and provided IVA with signed forms from every single residence requesting exclusion. The rural community seemingly provided more documentation than the two HOA controlled communities.
Does this seem like IVA used consistent methodology for evaluating each request?
More importantly, is this a sign of things to come for non-HOA neighborhoods if Vail incorporates?