Oro Valley Town Talk: Outdoors in the OV
Published on August 20, 2024
By Mayor Joe Winfield
There’s something you should know about me: I love the outdoors.
When I was 13, some trees around our church froze because of an especially hard frost. Over a 12-month period, I replaced many of those trees and nursed others back to health. During that process, I met Jim Wheat, the owner of a local nursery. Jim was a landscape architect, and he inspired me to pursue a career in landscape architecture. Which I did.
In the course of my education, I was introduced to public practice through an internship with the Coronado National Forest and later with the National Park Service, who eventually hired me. I had the pleasure of serving as a landscape architect in several of our country’s nationals parks, coast-to-coast. When my wife Mariann and I moved to the area in 1996, I opened an office called the Rivers, Trails and Conservation Assistance Program, a small program within the National Park Service that advocates and assists community-based conservation work. For 20 years, I worked with communities across the state of Arizona to conserve special places, and to provide recreational opportunities.
In addition to my faith and my family, my life’s work has been focused on creating and preserving outdoor spaces for people to enjoy. My career has prepared me and broadened my understanding of the value these special places add to a community, which is why, as your mayor, I have been a strong advocate for them.
It’s important to understand that a quality parks and recreation system requires substantial investments. To that end, the Town has made some strategic funding decisions in recent years to bring our recreational vision to fruition. Chief among them was acquiring a $25 million parks and recreation bond through a 2.3% interest loan, and broadening the use of the half-cent sales tax, which was previously restricted to just the Community Center, to include all Oro Valley parks and recreation amenities.
With this new funding strategy, the Town has been able to:
- Build out most of Naranja Park, including a splash pad, skate park, pump track for bicycles, two new multi-purpose fields, four pickleball courts, more than 440 new parking spaces, as well as key infrastructure upgrades to the power, water and irrigation systems throughout the park.
- Replacement of the irrigation systems at both of the Town’s 18-hole golf courses at El Conquistador Golf.
- Reconfiguration and expansion of the Community Center parking lot, increasing capacity by 40%.
- Renovation of the tennis and pickleball courts at the Community Center, including the construction of four new pickleball courts.
- With additional funding from the Regional Transportation Authority, expansion of the Town’s multi-use path system by constructing new segments on La Cañada Drive and Naranja Drive.
As part of the Town’s Capital Improvement Program, the Community Center elevator and entryway project is well underway, with an estimated completion date just after the holidays. The new elevator and entryway will improve universal access to this very popular facility, ensuring that residents of all ages and abilities can enjoy a better experience.
And while there are several smaller program and facility enhancements, such as the addition of disc golf to the Town’s recreational offerings, one of the projects I’m most proud of during my time as your mayor is the 202-acre Vistoso Trails Nature Preserve.
The thoughtful stewardship of this land as open space in perpetuity was only possible because of the collective efforts of Preserve Vistoso and hundreds of generous residents, The Conservation Fund, Ross Rulney, Jonathan Rothschild, and Town staff. (In case you hadn’t heard, those generous residents donated nearly $1.8 million to help acquire the property. Talk about a team effort!)
Council recently allocated $2 million in the FY 24/25 budget to help advance revegetation efforts, repurpose the pond area to blend with the surrounding Sonoran Desert, and improve the pathways and other issues at the preserve.
Vistoso Trails Nature Preserve physically connects 17 Oro Valley neighborhoods. It is a place where residents and visitors from all walks of life can observe and experience the flora and fauna of the Sonoran Desert. It is a space where users can focus on their wellness—both body and mind.
The Preserve is a capstone for me, and it is one of our Town’s legacies—something to be cherished for generations to come.
The past six years have been an exceptional time of growth and maturation for Oro Valley’s outdoor amenities. And here’s why that’s a really big deal.
On a recent evening visit to Naranja Park with my wife, Mariann, the fields were just filled with young people, with families on the sidelines, and everyone was visiting and chatting. Our parks, trails, courts and golf courses are places where people connect not only with their own family and friends, but also with the community at large. They are joyful places that provide a wonderful opportunity for engagement, fellowship and community building.
Just as important as social connection is our physical health and mental wellbeing. The Town’s recreational amenities and programs provide spaces for residents of all ages to take care of their physical and mental health. I’ve even been known to head out for a hike or a walk when things get a little challenging and I need to relieve some stress.
Creating and preserving outdoor recreation spaces for all to enjoy has been a lifelong passion of mine. The fact that I now have the privilege of continuing that work as your mayor has been one of the great pleasures of my time in office thus far.
If you’ve never taken advantage of our community’s many opportunities for outdoor recreation, then please consider this a personal invitation to enjoy the beauty of the Sonoran Desert while taking care of your personal health and wellbeing. You’ll even have a chance to meet some new neighbors and friends with similar interests. I hope to see you out there, OV!