Italian Developer Stilo has agreed be served by the Tusayan Sanitary District as part of its Pre- Annexation Development Agreement (PADA) with the Town of Tusayan. That request should have been formally made nearly a decade ago, 180 days after the PADA was approved.

There was no formal documentation of such a request. The U.S. Forest Service and the Town expressed concern about that as Stilo seeks access to Forest Service roads to facilitate its massive development project that includes thousands of new homes and more than two million square feet of commercial space.

At the November 17th Town Council meeting, a delegation from Stilo went on the record as saying they wish to be served by the Tusayan Sanitary District. Attorney Dawn Meidinger representing Stilo said, “We had some conversations with the Tusayan Sanitary District and their counsel. We talked about what we can do in terms of working together now because we don’t yet have detailed plans that would facilitate entering into a wholesale main extension agreement and all of those things we need to do. But we can work on terms and conditions that we can say when the time comes, we want to be served by the district and annexed by the districts and we will go through the steps to figure out what is appropriate relative to service.”

Now that Stilo is finally following the rules after so many years, the Town agreed to work on a joint letter with Stilo answering questions posed by the Forest Service as part of the application process to get access to Forest Service Roads.

Sill unresolved is the Town’s position that Stilo owes Tusayan more than a million dollars in expenses incurred by past administrations to facilitate Forest Service approval.

Stilo has refused to reimburse Tusayan for those funds which are primarily fees to lawyers and lobbyists. Mayor Clarinda Vail and the current Town Council terminated the lawyer lobbyist contracts after Vail took office.

The dispute over those funds will not impact the joint letter to the Forest Service.