2/8/2005 12:10:00 AM WV groups join in land-use plan effort
Courier/Les Stukenberg Mary Beth Hrin passes out general information and fliers to Connie Oium as members of the Williamson Valley Corridor Plan Steering Committee meet at the Hassyampa Inn Monday morning.
Part of the reason the work never progressed was because of a new statewide "Growing Smarter" law that required counties and municipalities to revise their general land-use plans. Yavapai County officials focused on the county plan for years and put work on community plans aside until it was finished in 2003. The Williamson Valley Concerned Citizens as well as the newer Williamson Valley Residents for Responsible Growth both have sanctioned the new Williamson Valley Corridor Plan Steering Committee and have members on it. The two groups agreed in writing not to oppose the controversial convenience store at the corner of Williamson Valley and Outer Loop roads. The corridor currently has no commercial development. The Yavapai County Board of Supervisors approved the store's permit on Jan. 3, the first meeting in 16 years in which Gheral Brownlow was no longer a supervisor. Brownlow had stated that he would oppose any commercial development until a corridor plan was ready. Although both corridor groups said in writing that they would prefer to have a corridor plan before rezoning occurred for commercial use, they also said they would not voice their objections during the county public hearings on the convenience store. They explained that they weren't speaking at the hearings because they want to focus on the corridor plan and demonstrate unity. Members of both groups joined in a press conference Monday at the Hassayampa Inn in Prescott to further display their unity. "Everybody's gotten behind everybody," said Jim Lockwood, co-founder of the Residents for Responsible Growth that originally formed to take a strong stand against the convenience store. "We're in total accord. There's no dissention or fighting or anything." That includes the Hunt family that just received the permit for the convenience store, committee members said. In fact, the committee's members include Cindy Hunt McCrae, a fifth-generation resident of the corridor. McCrae said she wanted to be on the committee because "it's my community, it's my home and it's my future." The Hunt family trust also donated money for the survey mailings, said committee member Gayle Higgs, who has been a corridor resident since 1968 when the county just paved Williamson Valley Road. Dudley Knapp, who co-founded the Williamson Valley Concerned Citizens back in 1995, was the driving force behind creation of the 10-member steering committee to spearhead the plan. "It's the most dynamic group of people I've ever worked with in my life," Knapp said. "Diversity provides for stability," added committee member Dick Clark, a retired biology professor who has lived along the corridor since 1998. The committee chair is Walter Burcham, who lived in the Williamson Valley area for 17 years. Although he is no longer a resident of the immediate area, he served for years on the county planning commission. It will be good to have a neutral, non-partisan chair, Williamson Valley Concerned Citizens President Gary Acosta said. "We have a very ambitious time frame," Burcham said of the four-month schedule for the draft corridor plan.
