The university's 503-acre "footprint" will shrink if the Arizona Board of Regents approves the UA's request to reduce the size of the south campus planning area.

In documents presented to the Arizona Board of Regents last week, the University of Arizona proposed realigning its campus boundaries south of East Sixth Street to give 26 acres back to the Rincon Heights neighborhood.

The proposal states that the realignment "will end 10 years of conflict between the neighborhood and the university."

"We think the university has a vested interest in strengthening the neighborhood south of Sixth Street," said Director of Economic Development Bruce Wright, who presented the proposal to the board.

David Duffy, director of UA's campus facilities and planning, said the idea behind the proposal is that the university's planning area is "getting smaller, not expanding."

One member of the neighborhood association, Marvin Feld, said the agreement represents a breakthrough in communications.

"We feel we have together done something good for the neighborhood and the university," he said.

With the university actively participating in improving the south campus area, Feld said, the Rincon Heights neighborhood will become a much better community.

According to the documents, the boundary realignment will give back areas on the south side of Sixth Street (bounded by North Campbell Avenue, North Park Avenue, East Eighth and East Seventh Streets), which the university and the board designated in 1967 for expansion.

The "10 years of conflict" began in 1985 when the Rincon Neighborhood Association was formed by residents of an area that overlapped the UA's planning boundary south of Sixth Street. The documents said the association "refused to acknowledge the designation and legitimacy of the (University Planning Area)."

Feld said that in the beginning the university had not listened to the association, but has now fully acknowledged its importance in the community.

"We've always lived with the kind of fear that the university has no limits to its appetite," Feld said.

The UA began a joint planning process with City Council Member Molly McKasson and representatives of the Rincon Heights Neighborhood Association in 1994, and reached the agreement presented to the board this month.

McKasson could not be reached for comment.

Three stipulations of the agreement call for the university to;

• Give back residential areas bounded by Park Avenue to the west, East Highland Avenue to the east, Eighth Street to the south and Seventh Street to the north;

• Give back residential areas bounded by Cherry Avenue to the west, Seventh Street to the south, Campbell Avenue to the east, Eighth Street to the south and Seventh Street to the north;

• Acquire a 10-acre residential area separated from the campus bounded by North Park Avenue to the west, Fremont Street to the east, Eighth Street to the north and Hughes Street on the south, which is one block south of Broadway.

Saundra Taylor, vice president for student affairs, said in an interview last week that the new site acquired by the university might be used to relocate Christopher City or for some other family housing.

Duffy said the university will reserve the land south of the Student Recreation Center to Eighth Street between Highland and Cherry avenues for possible development if the Rec Center does expand.

That land could be developed to include recreational facilities, a sports field and a 4,000-seat gym for holding sporting events. Duffy said the gym could be used for events such as volleyball and gymnastics, which draw smaller crowds and tend to get "los t" in the much larger McKale Center.

The agreement between the City of Tucson, the Rincon Heights Neighborhood Association and the UA is being considered by the regents, who will vote on the realignment issue.