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City council scheduled to discuss future of Benedictine Monastery, surrounding proposed developments

Posted at 4:38 AM, Dec 18, 2018
and last updated 2018-12-18 13:34:49-05

TUCSON, Ariz. - The city council is scheduled to continue the discussion on the future of the Benedictine Monastery and the surrounding proposed developments.

Back in November, the planning commission met to discuss the plan for the proposed developments around the monastery, specifically the height of some of those developments.

RELATED: Planning Commission deadlocks on monastery plan

The planning commission decided to leave the decision up to the city as to whether they would modify the developers plans.

Over the past few months, neighbors and the developer came to a few agreements when it came to the monastery including preserving the monastery, keeping it open for public use, and making the surrounding proposed developments into apartments instead of student housing.

"Through meetings with the neighbors and the developers we've come up with four pretty significant deal points. Number one, the monastery will be preserved, number two it will not be student housing, number three there will be a public use of the monastery and number four we've significantly reduced the massing from where we started," said Steve Kozachik, the council member for Ward 6, which the monastery is in.

Now, the issue lies within possibly amending the agreement that was reached, specifically when it comes to the height of the proposed developments.

"There were two really big points of contention from the start, the size and demolition of the monastery. Demolition is off the table, we took care of that a few months ago, now we're talking about size," said Kozachik.

In an original proposal, the developer, Ross Rulney expressed he wanted the proposed developments to be roughly seven stories high, which neighbors said no to.

RELATED: The future of the monastery is still in the developer's hands

The property on the east side of the Benedictine Monastery and the height of the proposed development that would be located there has been the biggest issue for neighbors.

The developer, Rulney, planned on that development being four stories high, but neighbors felt that was to high.

RELATED: Council to discuss the fate of Benedictine Monastery.

The proposed height in the previous agreement is what the city council will be discussing during Tuesday's meeting.

The city council meeting is scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m.