Vision and Guiding Principles

The vision and guiding principles serve as the foundation for the Plan and represent the desires of our community.

Guiding Principles:

Uphold community safety as the top value: priority:

• Maintain a low crime rate
• Support and promote school safety
• Improve traffic, bicycle, and pedestrian safety, especially at major intersections
• Maintain a highly visible, community-engaged, and fully staffed police force with quick response times
• Develop and promote crime prevention programs
• Prepare for natural disasters

Maintain the community’s unique character:

• Maintain a friendly, kind, and neighborly town feel
• Create and attract community gathering opportunities and spaces
• Support arts and culture
• Foster a community that welcomes a diverse population
• Strive to keep a quiet and peaceful atmosphere

Keep OV a friendly community that supports a diverse range of ages, interests, and backgrounds:

• Foster more activities and entertainment options
• Meet the needs and interests of children, youth, families, adults, and an aging population
• Promote high-quality schools and educational opportunities

Grow and maintain OV’s outdoor and recreational opportunities:

• Increase opportunities and improve the user experience at park and recreation facilities, especially during the hot summer months
• Provide accessible recreational options for all ages and abilities
• Support a variety of sports and activities
• Expand biking, hiking, walking, running, and equestrian trails and connectivity

Uphold the scenic beauty and natural environment as a top priority:

• Conserve the natural desert and mountain views
• Protect significant native vegetation, especially heritage saguaros and established ironwood trees
• Maintain and create wildlife corridors
• Expand open space conservation areas
• Prioritize environmental resource conservation and restoration when considering development

Incorporate strategies for sustainability:

• Promote waste reduction and recycling programs to increase community participation
• Encourage the use of solar and energy efficient technology
• Reduce the heat island effect through landscaping, building materials, and design
• Reduce carbon emissions by encouraging the use of electric vehicles, public transit, & other low-carbon emitting transportation options

Ensure water availability:

• Continue planning for a reliable water future
• Increase community awareness of the importance of water conservation
• Expand water conservation programs, opportunities, and requirements
• Reduce the use of drinking water for irrigation
• Support the use of reclaimed water to augment drinking water supplies

Maintain financial stability:

• Manage and administer the Town’s budget to meet the community’s needs
• Anticipate increasing service and infrastructure needs and costs
• Plan for revenue impacts as land for development becomes scarce
• Diversify and increase revenue sources

Grow the number of high-quality employment opportunities:

• Diversify the type of industries and job opportunities
• Attract employers who offer high-paying jobs
• Attract and retain workers by promoting quality schools, housing, parks, and things to do
• Foster entrepreneurship
• Expand research and development, bioscience, and emerging tech industries

Foster a broad range of shopping, entertainment, events, and dining options:

• Fill empty storefronts and redevelop existing buildings
• Increase customer base to retain and attract new businesses
• Attract and support more local businesses
• Increase tourism to support OV’s resorts, hotels, and businesses

Maintain good roads, manage traffic flow, and encourage a variety of transportation options:

• Proactively keep roads in good condition
• Increase the efficiency of all signalized intersections
• Reduce vehicle miles traveled between housing, shopping, and employment areas
• Increase public transportation options
• Increase safety and connectivity for pedestrians and cyclists
• Improve the transportation system to support all users

Strive for a diverse mix of housing options:

• Foster the development of a variety of housing types and price ranges to increase attainable housing options for workers, seniors, and families
• Balance the desire for single-family homes with the need for townhomes, condos, and patio homes
• Limit construction of new high-density apartment communities to selective areas with access to shops, services, facilities, and major roadways.

Balance OV’s unique suburban environment with thoughtful development that improves the community:

• Strategically manage growth and redevelopment to increase opportunities to live, work, shop, dine, and play
• Increase community, social, and cultural opportunities by seeking well-designed gathering areas
• Diversify employment and housing options
• Attract and retain more restaurants and retail
• Maintain a well-planned and cohesive design of the built environment that complements the natural environment, dark skies, and OV’s unique character
• Town Council approved: Limit height to no more than 3 stories and protect views.
• Resident Working Group recommendation: Limit height and bulk to ensure neighborhood compatibility and protect views.
• Staff recommendation to balance both:
  • Protect mountain views:
    • Honor the community’s preference for 1-2 story buildings and acceptance for 3-story buildings on appropriate sites
    • Limit building heights to no more than 3 stories for residential uses and facilities, like senior care
    • Create effective transitions between varying building heights
    • Mitigate the appearance of building scale and bulk through design