What about this “Eminent Domain” Ballot Initiative? Would it be a benefit to Carefree residents?
Soon, the same group of north Boulders residents opposed to the water storage reservoir being located in the utility easement of the Boulders open space will be introducing an “Eminent Domain” Initiative to Carefree voters. They will first request your signature on a petition to get it on the ballot, and then for your vote to enact it in the next General Election in the fall of 2022.
Upon closer examination, this Initiative is built around a seemingly positive idea but it is yet another approach of these same people to generate support for not having the water storage reservoir located in the utility easement in the Boulders.
Let’s examine the individual components of this initiative, and their impact upon Carefree residents not living in the Boulders.
This initiative, if enacted, would “prohibit use of eminent domain to develop privately owned land designated open space/recreation in the current General Plan.” Privately owned open space in Carefree is approximately 10% of the total acreage. It includes the Desert Forest Golf Club and the open space in the Boulders. Property zoned in this manner limits access to owners/members.
The next provision in the proposed Initiative is that the “Measure is retroactive to January 1, 2021.” In order to meet the water consolidation project completion target of December, 2022, construction of the water storage reservoir planned for the Boulders open space would need to start almost immediately and be completed before this initiative could be voted upon. Thus, they included a provision to make it retroactive to January 1, 2021, to include the reservoir property in the Boulders in this prohibition. This provision would not impact any other property or project in Carefree.
But the proposed initiative doesn’t just stop there. It continues: “Property condemned between January 1, 2021 and effective date must be offered for sale back to original owner at price paid plus interest. If repurchased, Town must restore property to condition at condemnation at town’s expense.” In practical terms, what this means is that, if passed, this initiative would require the Town to pay an estimated $1 million to remove the new water reservoir costing $2.5 million which it had just built, purchase other land (likely zoned residential) for the new site at an estimated cost of $300,000 and then re-build a replacement reservoir at the new location for an additional estimated $2.5 million. This would incur additional costs of at least $6.3 million, all of which would be re-billed in rates to all Carefree Water rate payers, 15% of whom live in the Boulders and 85% of whom live elsewhere in Carefree.
While cloaked in the umbrella of protecting individual rights and limiting government intrusion, this Initiative would actually produce quite the opposite result. If passed, it would necessitate the destruction and removal of an integral piece of new utility equipment (a water storage reservoir located in an unused open space property, buried underground and landscaped over) required for the benefit of all Carefree residents and force the rebuilding of a new reservoir at another location at considerable cost. Then, after all of that, the costs of this folly would be passed on to all Carefree water system users through higher monthly water rates, with 85% of these people not living in the Boulders.
All of this would be only to fulfill the selfish demands of a few north Boulders residents while offering no benefits to the rest of Carefree water system users. How can that make sense for the vast majority of Carefree residents?
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