Here's the beginning of an article about the Ronstadt Transit Center downtown (and also the Painted Hills area). It's exciting to think they might have a mixed-use development on the Ronstadt property that still retains its use as a transit hub, though I wish they would not have spent the money to fix it up if they're just going to change it again.
City plan keeps major bus hub downtown
PARCEL HAD BEEN FOCUS OF POSSIBLE PROPERTY TRANSFER
Darren DaRonco Arizona Daily Star
Supporters of the Ronstadt Transit Center can breathe a bit easier.
For months, city officials were negotiating a deal to cede the Ronstadt Center and up to two other downtown properties to the owners of a scenic 284-parcel in the Painted Hills as a way to block development there. The city would have then sold the Painted Hills parcel to Pima County for $3.6 million.
When word leaked about the discussions, bus riders and their advocates staged a rally to protest what they feared may have been a backroom deal to hand off a vital transit hub for commuters to monied interests.
Last Tuesday, the mayor and council allayed those fears when they directed the city staff to create a "development vision" for the transit center that will maintain it as a transit hub while allowing for some mixed-use development. Once the plans are complete, the city will put the project out to competitive bid.
The move essentially separates the Ronstadt Center from the discussions with the Dallas Police and Fire Employee Pension Fund, which owns the Painted Hills property, said Councilwoman Karin Uhlich, who drafted the motion.
"They may well be one of the interested respondents," Uhlich said. "But there are two parallel conversations going on in the community now" - one with the pension fund and the other on what to do with the Ronstadt Center.
She said the conversation on the transit center had been fruitless for too long.
Now's the time to redirect the discussion to include how to attract development that will make downtown more vibrant without compromising transit.
"Tucson's been stuck over a decade in this polarized dynamic ... with some folks saying we don't touch (Ronstadt) and others saying we do away with it completely," Uhlich said. "So it really is exciting to think how pedestrian and transit and other modes of transportation can come together in the downtown to create this mix of people and activities that make so many (other) downtowns great."