Related articles:

Saving Tumamoc

Other articles by Erica Meltzer:

County staff in $100K club up 87% since 2006Supervisors fret about Kino money, to file brief in Phoenix garage casePima weighs new, less-complicated system of building feesPima plans to buy 4 parcels for open spacePima County set to spend $12.8 million on land purchases Major data firm drops plan for S. Ariz. site amid power concerns Firm's input on Kino Hospital shushed Off-road track at center of Court of Appeals challenge Gate near river is cut, restored County gets role in Rosemont mine study

Trades/Construction
RANCHO RESORT
MAINTANANCE POSITION Health Care
Sierra Tucson
Eating Disorders Program Coordinator General
A1 Communications
Cable Techs

Pima County will hold a public hearing on its plan to try to buy part of Tumamoc Hill after hearing from concerned conservationists and neighborhood activists.

Earlier this month, the county asked the State Land Department to put up for auction 320 acres of trust land west of the Desert Lab and the widely used walking trail.

County officials hope to take advantage of the downturn in the housing market and avoid competition for the ecologically and historically significant site west of Downtown. If the county succeeds, it will permanently preserve the land as open space.

But going to auction also carries the risk a developer or investment group could outbid the county.

"It's frightening, because how can you be sure you'll win?" said Diana Rhoades, a consultant with the Sonoran Institute who has pushed for state-trust-land reform.

Richard Elias, chairman of the Board of Supervisors, said he heard so much concern from residents that he decided to hold hearings on the idea, even though he first supported going to auction.

Elias said he still leans toward that option, but he wants to hold a full debate before he makes up his mind.

"I'd rather be open about the risks. I want to hear from both sides," he said. "Tumamoc is too important not to have that conversation."

Local officials have tried for more than a decade to preserve the 320 acres of state-trust land on the west side of Tumamoc Hill, east of Greasewood Road and north of Starr Pass Boulevard. It lies just west of the University of Arizona's Desert Laboratory and includes some of the century-old study plots used by researchers, but not the walking road used by many West Side residents.

In 1997, voters approved $1.8 million in bonds to buy the site, but two attempts at state-trust-land reform that would have made a purchase possible failed.

Under current law, the State Land Department must sell state trust land at public auction to maximize profit for local schools and other beneficiaries.

There are several factors driving the county to go to auction now:

● The county is eligible for state matching funds through the Growing Smarter program that may be used up by other jurisdictions if it waits.

● Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., does not want to move forward with federal land-swap legislation that would preserve land owned by Diamond Ventures in the Cienega Corridor unless Tumamoc also is preserved.

● The slow housing market has reduced interest from developers in buying large tracts for residential development. Phoenix has bought several pieces of state trust land in recent months and faced no competition.

The State Land Department asked for a formal resolution from the Pima County Board of Supervisors supporting going to auction. The supervisors also need to approve changes to the bond ordinance to transfer money from other projects to Tumamoc Hill. With state matching funds, the county will have $10 million to $12 million available for the purchase.

That discussion is to take place at the board's Nov. 6 meeting, providing an opportunity for members of the public to voice their concerns.

Rhoades said many environmentalists distrust the State Land Department because of the mining leases it has granted on other sensitive parcels, such as Davidson Canyon. They also remember the case of Painted Hills, another site in the Tucson Mountain foothills that voters approved for purchase.

That site was bought by a Dallas-based pension fund and will be developed with 260 homes.

Mac Hudson, president of the Menlo Park Neighborhood Association, which includes Tumamoc Hill, said people he talks to are concerned. Talking with county officials has calmed his fears somewhat.

"I went from being very worried, very concerned, to cautiously optimistic," Hudson said. "A developer at any time over the years could have applied to put it to auction, and a developer has not. That tells me that developers, at least in this community, understand how that's seen."

Nicole Fyffe, executive assistant to County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry, said the Land Department has promised to cancel the auction if the county decides the market conditions aren't favorable or an appraisal comes back much higher than what the county has available.

The site also may present many obstacles to development. In a letter to the Land Department, Huckelberry laid out several factors he wants considered in the appraisal and disclosed to all potential bidders.

He estimated it would cost $8.7 million to properly close a 1960s-era landfill on the site. There also are several hundred Tohono O'odham burials. State and federal regulations require careful excavation and reburial, which could cost $3 million to $5 million.

Kinder Morgan also has two pipelines through the site, one carrying gasoline and the other jet fuel.

But just as the site has constraints to development, the county faces constraints to its bidding power. Once the supervisors set a maximum price they are willing to pay, a developer would only need to outbid them by $1.

"They can only bid close to the appraised value," Rhoades said. "They need to see if they can actually afford it. Can they beat a developer at auction? That's the question."

Rhoades and Hudson both said the county needs to have a backup plan.

"They can't just go into an auction and assume nobody would show up," Hudson said.

Jay Hogan, an Oro Valley resident who worked on state trust land reform in Alaska in the 1990s, said he thinks the county is doing the right thing by taking advantage of the slow housing market. If a developer were to buy the property, even that might have a silver lining, he said.

"If it works, great," he said. "If it doesn't, it will really serve as an example of why we really need to do something about state trust land."

Richard Elias, chairman of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, says now may be the right time to save Tumamoc Hill. Opinion