Recently, the future of a vacant 40-acre parcel owned by the Arizona State Land Department has been a topic of discussion. This parcel of land is located adjacent to Cave Creek Road and immediately south of SkyRanch airport as shown in the below map. To clarify misunderstandings surrounding this property, please consider the following factual information.
- State Trust land is not considered public lands similar to a park or national forest. State Trust lands were conveyed to the State by the federal government upon statehood and must be held in a trust and sold for no less than appraised fair market value to generate revenue for its beneficiaries such as the State’s education system. The State Land Department recently intended to conduct an auction of this parcel, but this auction has now been cancelled.
- Over 22 years ago, the Town sought the possibility to purchase this land to create a Town park. The current Town’s General Plan recognizes this past effort and states the following within the Town’s Open Space Element of the General Plan:
“One of the tracts of land recommended for preservation was the approximately 40-acres parcel owned by the Arizona State Land Department, located at the southeast corner of Mule Train Road and Cave Creek Road. As a result of high land costs and reduced State and Federal grant funding, acquisition of this plot of land is now improbable. The property is currently zoned for single-family residential units, yet there are various strategies that may be used to preserve portions of this property for open space during the subdivision process” (page 50, Open Space Element, General Plan 2030).
- At a recent Town Council meeting, the Desert Foothills Land Trust gave a comprehensive presentation regarding their mission to preserve environmentally sensitive lands and their strategic approach to accomplish this mission. From a scale of 0 to 5 with zero being the least and 5 being the highest land preservation values, the local Desert Foothills Land Trust rated the State Trust Land. In accordance with this rating scale the majority of this property received the lowest possible score with the exception of a wash located on the southeast corner of the parcel.
- The lands within Carefree with the highest land preservation values are located on the far north side of Town. It is these locations where both the Town and the Desert Foothills Land Trust have and continue to partner to build a meaningful open space preserve for the Carefree community which protects significant archeological resources, migration routes of local wildlife, stands of hundreds of saguaros and significant riparian areas. To date, 150 acres have been acquired. Through property acquisition, donations, and easements, the vision is to create a Spur Cross like preservation area in the northern reaches of Carefree.
- The price attributed to acquisition of the State Trust land (about $7 million) could purchase hundreds of the highly environmentally sensitive areas in the north side of Carefree and create a meaning desert preserve within the Carefree community rather than 40-acres south of an airport and adjacent to an arterial street which does not contain significant preservation value.
Given these facts, as the current General Plan states and noted above, through the subdivision process of this low-density residentially zoned (Rural-70, which would allow for one home per 1.6 acres) parcel of State Trust land, there is still the possibility of the Town receiving dedicated open space during the subdivision platting process while at the same time focusing limited financial resources to those properties that have the highest preservation values within the community. The use of such an open space will depend on the collective wishes of the community, such as a park with supporting amenities.
If you would like more information regarding desert land preservation efforts, please review the Desert Foothills Land Trust website: www.dflt.org. Or please contact me at [email protected].
John Crane, Mayor Elect
Desert Foothills Land Trust Board member
