Town of Marana Colonia Certification process

Throughout my time here at the Town of Marana, I have been helping the Department of Community Development prepare a colonia certification application for the nieghborhoods of Adonis, Berry Acres, Honea Heighs, Marana Estates, Marana Vista Estates, Price Lane, and Yoem Pueblo/Sandario. It has been a long process that included collecting surveys from the residents and compiling data on housing conditions and income statuses. The neighborhoods were very much involved in the process, having held several meetings with the Town to discuss the implications of colonia recertification, and helping to collect surveys from their fellow neighbors.

According to the United States Code, a colonia is defined as follows:

1. It is in the state of Arizona, California, New Mexico, or Texas
2. Is within 150 miles of the US- Mexico border, with the exception of metropolitan areas exceeding one million people
3. On the basis of objective criteria, lacks adequate sewage systems and lacks safe and sanitary housing
4. Existed as a colonia before November 28, 1990.

T. Vanhess, director of Community Development, gave me a copy of the application to see what the finished product looked like. Reading through the application, I learned a lot about the nieghborhoods I had been working with for the past two months:

In the 1980's, the US Department of Housing and Urban Development designed Marana as a colonia, which gave the council an opportunity to define by resolution the priority areas for support. Colonia status of those areas allowed the area to receive funding for sewer conveyance lines, street lights, and public parks. Much of the challenges faced by the colonias are with insufficient drainage and flooding issues, aging structures,

The application includes maps of the colonias from different years, letters of correspondence from various parties (including the Town and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality), inspection reports for wastewater, and e-mails, as well as fundamental needs of the nieghborhood. This ranges from lack of potable water, to a certain percentage of housing in need of substantial repair.

Something interesting I found were that some of the colonias (specifical Honea Heights and Marana Estates) were originally built by the military to house officers assigned to the Marana Air Field during World War II. Marana Vista Estates is home to several generations of families that have carried their place of residence down to their children and even great grand children. These neighborhoods carry a lot of significant Marana history.

Hopefully the application gets approved and we can get funding to these neighborhoods to help improve their infrastructure.