Mayor and Council Approve Rio Vista Master Plan

Good news! At their meeting last night, Tucson Mayor and Council approved the Rio Vista Natural Resource Park master plan. This approval is the last hurdle for the master plan; now it goes into effect. Congratulations to Tucson Parks and Recreation — especially to project manager Tom Fisher — for a job well done. And sincere thanks to all of you for your role in reaching this milestone for the park.

A Lucy’s Warbler (Leiothlypis luciae) at Rio Vista. Photo credit: Scott Olmstead.

If you checked the master-plan documents posted to the Tucson Delivers website and to the agenda for the city council meeting and were disconcerted to see the “potential dog park” still on the map, please don’t worry. Outdated drafts of the master plan were accidentally uploaded to these pages. Friends of Rio Vista alerted Tucson Parks and Recreation and Ward 3 to the oversight, and the correct (November 2022) version (without the dog enclosure) was approved last night. Many thanks to Tucson Parks for their quick response to our messages.

With help from Rio Vista’s human community, the Rio Vista Conservation Project — Friends of Rio Vista’s collaboration with Tucson Parks — has protected and restored the park’s natural assets since 2019. Our work has been a foundation of the master plan’s recommendations. Please join us in making Paths to Habitat and other restoration activities successful!

P.S. Lucy’s Warblers are back in the park from their wintering grounds in Mexico! Listen for their lively songs in the mesquites.