Jefferson Park Neighborhood

Our garden tour on April 15th attracted over 200 people who toured 12 homes in JP.  In addition to the open houses, there were also a flea market, rain barrels for sale, and a tent full of info tables from local environmental nonprofits.  We garnered a grand total of $4620.50.  There were several hundred volunteer hours in this project – organizers, ticket sellers, set up and wrap up volunteers, hosts, and docents. Thank you to everyone - you make Jefferson Park proud!!! Special thanks go to Friends of Jefferson Park for their organizing talents, Joan Daniels in particular, to Louie and Joannie Werthmuller for hosting the after party, the International School, and to all the homeowners who volunteered their time and opened their beautiful and interesting homes to the rest of us.  We are indeed a special neighborhood!

We have a balance of around $50,000 to pay to our hardworking lawyer, and we need your help. All residential neighborhoods have benefited from our legal action, and we are grateful for the financial and moral support that we have received so far. If you haven’t contributed to the effort, please help us out – we’ve spent lots of money and lots of hours on this effort. Please send checks made out to “JPNA” to our new Treasurer, Steve Prendergast, 1815 E. Waverly St, Tucson, AZ 85719. Please include your address on your check so we can thank you! Or, use our PayPal button on this homepage. 

Neighbors from lots of central neighborhoods came out to support the Group Dwelling Code Amendment at Mayor and Council meeting on Feb 15. M&C voted unanimously to approve the Group Dwelling Code Amendment! Not only that, Mayor Rothschild and Councilmember Uhlich publically thanked Jefferson Park Neighborhood and its supporters for achieving this milestone, which gets the City off the hook for ignoring these illegal structures in our residential zones. Councilmember Karin Uhlich noted in her Jan. 27^th newsletter: “Our progress on this would not have been possible without the tireless and smart leadership of residents in core City neighborhoods (most notably Jefferson Park, with help and support from others throughout central Tucson).” JP rocks!

What Does the Group Dwelling Code Amendment Mean for Central Neighborhoods?

The Code Amendment stipulates that buildings on R-1 lots may not house more than 4 unrelated occupants, and in R-2, not more than 4 unrelated occupants per structure on an R-2 lot. It went into effect on Feb 15, 2012, so any building plans must conform to this amendment. Those buildings that were used for group dwellings (aka “mini-dorms”) prior to this date are now conditionally “grandfathered” in. But they may lose this grandfathering if they are a nuisance (example: 2 red tags within a 2 year period). The JPNA Board will be monitoring the group dwellings in JP, and will be teaching our neighbors how this procedure works. 

Welcome to Jefferson Park Neighborhood, Tucson, AZ. Jefferson Park dates back to the late 1890’s growing out of a land claim under the Homestead Act of 1862. A young single German woman, by the name of Anna Stattelman, built the original homestead around 1898 on the corner of what is now Santa Rita Avenue and Linden Street. She subsequently married a mine inspector named Lester and became Annie Lester—hence one of the street names in the neighborhood. The Neighborhood is named after the Jefferson Park School which is in turn named after the original name of Speedway—Jefferson Street. Jefferson Park was registered as a neighborhood with the city of Tucson in July of 1994.