/ Modified jan 30, 2015 2:25 p.m.

Tucson City Council Discusses Proposal to Develop Empty Schools

Plan Would Offer Incentives to Developers of Closed Schools

TUSD empty school video thumb 2

Listen

Several former schools in the Tucson Unified School District currently sit empty and city leaders want to see those buildings reused.

Tucson City Council members today discussed moving forward with a proposal to offer incentives to developers of former TUSD schools sites.

Tucson Unified School District has closed 19 schools since 2010 due to budget cuts or population changes.

Most of those buildings are leased or reused by TUSD for other purposes. Tucson Mayor Jonathan Rothschild said he wants to prevent blight and vandalism in neighborhoods where schools have been shuttered.

“I know we all believe schools are community assets, but a closed school is a liability," Rothschild said. "Its within everyone’s interest to see these properties returned to productive use as housing, community centers, or schools. We want to work with Tucson Unified School District to get this done.”

Council members voted to present a plan to TUSD’s governing board to make it faster and easier for developers to build on TUSD school sites. After that, the council could vote on a final version of the proposal.

By posting comments, you agree to our
AZPM encourages comments, but comments that contain profanity, unrelated information, threats, libel, defamatory statements, obscenities, pornography or that violate the law are not allowed. Comments that promote commercial products or services are not allowed. Comments in violation of this policy will be removed. Continued posting of comments that violate this policy will result in the commenter being banned from the site.

By submitting your comments, you hereby give AZPM the right to post your comments and potentially use them in any other form of media operated by this institution.
AZPM is a service of the University of Arizona and our broadcast stations are licensed to the Arizona Board of Regents who hold the trademarks for Arizona Public Media and AZPM. We respectfully acknowledge the University of Arizona is on the land and territories of Indigenous peoples.
The University of Arizona