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Construction on Vistoso Memorial Chapel is under way in the wake of legal action by residents who opposed a crematorium at 2285 E. Rancho Vistoso Blvd.
Jim Davis / Arizona Daily Star
The story so far
Here's a timeline of some events leading up to the most recent court ruling:
• January 2006 — Planning and Zoning Director Sarah More decides that a crematorium is permitted in the zoning code for the site.
• Sept. 19, 2006 — The Oro Valley Development Review Board unanimously approves the development plan for Vistoso Memorial Chapel, 2285 E. Rancho Vistoso Blvd.
• Oct. 19, 2006 — The deadline for anyone to appeal the board's decision, according to a later Superior Court decision.
• Nov. 1, 2006 —The Town Council unanimously approves the development plan.
• Feb. 22 — A group of residents, including Larry and Brenda Ryan and Gregory D. Santoro, attempts to appeal More's zoning-code interpretation for the site to the town's Board of Adjustment. The town refuses that appeal.
• March 8 — The residents try to appeal her decision to the town's Development Review Board. The town also refuses that appeal.
• April 9 — The issue goes to Superior Court for the first time. Santoro and the Ryans want the court to force the town to hold an administrative board hearing on their appeal. At this hearing, the judge temporarily restricts Oro Valley from issuing any building permits for the project except for a grading permit.
• April 17 — Douglas Harpold and family, who are building and own Vistoso Memorial Chapel, become officially involved in the case via an application to intervene filed by their attorneys.
• May 10 — The judge rules that the residents filed their appeal to the town too late.
• May 18 — The Harpolds file for their legal fees to be paid by the Ryans and Santoro.
• June 25 — A Superior Court judge rules that they do not have to pay the Harpolds' attorney's fees, which amounted to around $25,000, but do have to pay $185 in court costs.

Northwest

Crematorium must pay legal fees

By Danielle Sottosanti
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 07.05.2007
A group of Oro Valley residents who went to court opposing the development of a Rancho Vistoso funeral chapel and crematorium do not have to pay the business owners' attorney's fees, a Superior Court judge decided last week.
The Harpold family, which is building Vistoso Memorial Chapel at 2285 E. Rancho Vistoso Blvd., sought some $25,000 in legal fees from the residents who have been trying to fight the development.
"We went through all the proper channels and then had to defend ourselves in court," said Douglas Harpold.
Judge John F. Kelly awarded $185 in court costs but not the attorney fees, said Tom Parsons, one of the Stubbs & Schubart attorneys who represented Harpold Real Estate and Vistoso Memorial Chapel. "Of course, we abide by the judge's decision," he said.
The residents — Gregory D. Santoro and Larry and Brenda Ryan — earlier this year took the town of Oro Valley to court to try to compel a town administrative board to hear their appeals.
They had tried multiple times to appeal the town's decision that a crematorium is a permitted use in the Rancho Vistoso site's zoning. But the town refused the appeals each time, citing a lack of administrative remedies open to them.
The residents filed their appeals four months too late, Kelly said in May, and he dismissed the case.
Only the town of Oro Valley was a defendant in the lawsuit, but the Harpolds entered the suit as intervenors, since their business was at the center of the controversy.
After the first case ended, the Harpolds sued the residents for their legal fees.
But Kelly, ruling from the bench, said the residents do not have to pay.
"In terms of the ruling regarding the attorney fees, we definitely agree" with the judge's decision, said Katharina Richter, who represented Santoro and the Ryans in both cases.
● Contact reporter Danielle Sottosanti at 618-1922 or at dsottosanti@azstarnet.com.
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