TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- A neighborhood near the University of Arizona is becoming the first in the area to prepare a design manual to guide future development.

An ordinance approved recently by the Tucson City Council allows the creation of such guidelines for certain neighborhoods.

Feldman Neighborhood would like to limit the impact of student housing in the area. Neighbors say the challenges include developers who buy and demolish houses, then build outsized structures that are rented to groups of students.

The neighborhood now has motor courts and apartment buildings, but there are also streets of single-family homes, some dating to 1900, that are part of Tucson's historic fabric.

Karolyn Kendrick, who moved to her brick Craftsman home in the Feldman Neighborhood in 1990, said neighbors hope the design manual that's adopted will have some teeth.

"We want to protect this neighborhood," she said. "It's really on the bubble."

The ordinance was approved as Tucson tries to juggle bringing denser housing close to the university area without ruining the flavor of streets lined with brick Craftsman bungalows and Spanish Revival adobe homes already recognized in a federal historic district.

The need for "densification" along transit corridors in the city was Mayor Bob Walkup's concern when the City Council voted to allow neighborhoods, beginning with Feldman's and Jefferson Park northeast of it, to create design manuals.

Walkup voted for the enabling ordinance only after Councilwoman Karin Uhlich offered a motion to begin the process of creating zones along transit corridors that would allow more density for students and others who want to live in walkable areas along transit routes.

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Information from: Arizona Daily Star, http://www.azstarnet.com

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