Former mayor’s plans for land are OK’d
Supervisors approve small project, but complications arise
A former mayor of San Luis won approval to develop three two-acre lots out of a former five-lot subdivision from the Yuma County Board of Supervisors on Monday, but ran into a couple of big surprises for such a small project.
Homebuilder Guillermina Fuentes is trying to develop three lots out of a straight row of five, along County 17th Street at the southeast corner of Avenue A. But there are two lots separating her three, under different ownership. She had reluctantly agreed to meet a requirement to chip-seal the portion of County 17th Street, the access which runs along the north side of all five so all would have access to Avenue A.
But she didn’t know until being told at the meeting that she would need to get permission from the owners of the other two lots, since that part of the street is no longer a county right-of-way.
“We’re trying to comply with whatever the county’s asking us,” she said. “So this is the latest thing that they have in front of us, because we didn’t know that we had to get their permission. The thing that you do when you reverted it is you’re trying to help us do whatever we’re stuck with after buying those
parcels because of the disclosure that was not provided to us.”
The properties are about three miles south of Yuma and four miles east of Somerton. All five were involved in a case that was in front of the board last June, because a previous owner who’d rezoned the property years before did not fulfill a requirement to chip-seal an access road for the five properties along County 17th Street at the southeast corner of Avenue A, and didn’t disclose the requirement when selling them off.
This effectively left the new owners unable to do anything with the land, because the previous zoning which allowed 2-acre lots wasn’t fully vested.
Fuentes owned and already had buyers for the two lots farthest from Avenue A and wanted to move ahead, so she and the owner of the property on the corner requested a rezoning of the properties back to the Suburban Site Built-2 acre minimum designation it was supposed to have when they were purchased.
The owners of the two properties in the middle have not responded to any previous notices about the zoning case, so the board added a condition which said she would not be required to chip-seal the road in front of those parcels if the owners did not give her permission to within the next 30 days.
After that issue appeared to be ironed out, a property owner from across County 17th Street, Kathy Reeves, brought up the lot on Avenue A, which has a large puddle of water because old irrigation pipes leak whenever that line is used.
Since Fuentes is being required to chipseal County 17th, Reeves asked, “Is it going to be the property of the county to fix it when the irrigation pipe is busted, and undermines all of your chip sealing?” She had believed it was still a county-owned road, since she’s occasionally seen county machines grading it.
“Otra vez, otra vez — surprise surprise. And I am surprised,” she said, asking if it was also her responsibility to maintain those pipes.
Board Chairman and District 3 Supervisor Tony Reyes said the pipes are the responsibility of Unit B Irrigation and Drainage, but the responsibilities that go with being in an irrigation district are one of many factors some new homeowners don’t understand when they come into an unincorporated area.
Reyes said, “I think people bought out there because it’s county living and they think it’s going to be enjoyable, but they don’t realize the irrigation district is going to be calling you at 11 o’clock telling them you get water at 1 o’clock, and you need to clear everything out or you’re going to flood somebody else,” potentially damaging a neighbor’s home or property.
He also said he’s encouraged by the amount of development happening throughout the Yuma Mesa area, with new homes coming in and new ones being fixed up. However, the issues faced by many out there don’t make it easy to do, he added. Also Monday, the board approved: • Signing up for a “silver” sponsorship in the governor’s office’s Arizona-Mexico Commission, at an annual cost of $3,600. This provides four memberships, complementary registrations and other benefits. Membership in the Border Trade Alliance will be considered in next year’s budget process.
• Rezoning two 10-acre strips of land from Rural Area-10 acre minimum to Suburban Site Built-2 acre minimum to permit development of five homes, at County 13th Street and the alignment of Avenue 4 1/4 E and at the northeast corner of County 14 3/4 Street and Avenue 4 1/2 E, both near Yuma.
• A lease/purchase of two new Caterpillar motor graders by the Public Works Department from Empire Southwest of Yuma for $432,652.