San Luis council OKs 2nd phase of subdivision
Developer: Approval marks trend of growth in area
SAN LUIS, Ariz. — Developer Nieves Riedel says she believes this city is becoming one of the fastest growing in the state.
Riedel bases that opinion on the housing demand fueling several residential subdivisions she has begun or has plans to begin.
The San Luis City Council on Wednesday voted unanimously to approve the second phase of the Santa Cecilia subdivision she is developing on the city’s east side.
The second phase will consist of 168 residential lots on 33 acres west of 20th Avenue, between Araceli and County 24th streets. Riedel said ground leveling and other preliminary development work in the second phase could begin as soon as March.
Meanwhile, home construction in Santa Cecilia’s first phase on an adjacent parcel is just a couple of weeks away, she said. Approval of the second phase brings to 331 the number of lots in the subdivision.
“I think it’s great that this subdivision has advanced so rapidly, and that has been because there was no controversy, and because in the area where the project will be, there are other developments.”
Riedel saw a previous development of hers, Las Quintas II, stall owing to concerns raised by homeowners in existing neighborhoods nearby that the new subdivision would create congestion. Riedel finally secured council approval of Las Quintas II a year ago, having submitted an amended traffic plan for the development that resolved those issues.
Riedel said construction is under way on 11 homes in Las Quintas II, reflecting what she said is a demand for a residential lot on the east side of San Luis, where the city’s future growth is anticipated to occur.
Riedel and the Comite de Bienestar, a nonprofit housing cooperative, were the city’s two leading developers prior to the recession, which brought construction activity to a halt in 2008 and 2009.
She said development of the second phases of Las Quintas and Santa Cecelia, along with resumption of work by Comite in its 9A subdivision, reflect a post-recession rebound in the local construction industry. The 9A subdivision is adjacent to Santa Cecelia.
Riedel has refiled her rezoning request to the city to develop Esperanza Estates, a subdivision of townhouses on the south side of Main Canal and between 6th and 8th avenues, on the north side of San Luis.
The developer previously withdrew the request in response to concerns of neighbors that Esperanza would create traffic congestion. Riedel at the time said opposition to the subdvision was prompted in part by her plans to donate one lot in the development for a domestic violence shelter – a charge denied by opponents who said their only issue of the heavier traffic.
Riedel said she still plans to reserve a lot in Esperanza for a shelter that the South Yuma County Coalition Against Domestic Violence wants to build.