Protecting Southern Arizona’s unique landscape has long been a value many in the community share.
“Open-space conservation is the common ground between the environmental community and the business community,” said Steve Huffman, governmental affairs director for the Tucson Association of Realtors.
TAR has endorsed all seven bond propositions before voters in November. The county has proposed an $815.7 million borrowing plan that covers roadway improvements, economic development, tourism promotion, parks facilities, public health and open space protection.
One of the costliest items included in the $112 million Prop. 430 is $95 million for the purchase of an estimated 20,000 acres of open space.
Huffman said the Realtors support the plan because it would further the county’s goal of getting a federal Endangered Species Act permit.
As the county acquires land seen as important or critical habitat it creates a mitigation bank thereby offsetting other areas for future development.
Huffman said the absence of a federal permit and mitigation bank would subject every proposed development to individual challenges and lawsuits under the Endangered Species Act, as was frequently the case in 1990s and early 2000s in the battles over the pygmy owl.
“As a real consequence of that it became clear to the real estate community that we would be affected on a daily basis by the Endangered Species Act,” Huffman said.
Joe Boogaart, with Taxpayers Against Pima Bonds, said he doesn’t think more land acquisitions would serve the community at this point, even if the county gets the federal permits it wants.
“Even though you may have that set-aside land, somebody could still tie it up in litigation for years,” Boogaart said.
He also questioned whether the county needed to purchase more open space for mitigation purposes, noting it already owns more than 175,000 acres.
“It doesn’t seem productive to be spending money on things that won’t create growth,” Boogaart said, citing the county’s slow recovery from the 2008 recession.
Another project listed in Prop. 430 is a $2.5 million plan to help fund restoration work at Mission San Xavier del Bac.
“This has really been a citizens initiative,” said Miles Green with Patronato San Xavier, a nonprofit group dedicated to preservation of the mission.
Green said the county funding would add to the $3 million the group plans to raise on its own.
The funding would pay for restoration work on the east tower of the mission.
Green said attempts to preserve the tower done in the 1950s were flawed, using concrete to resurface the exterior.
When the concrete cracked it allowed water to seep inside to the adobe blocks beneath the surface.
He said the planned restoration efforts would mimic the original construction methods, using a lime wash made of cactus juice to resurface the mission walls.
“It’s a very complicated restoration process,” Green said. “The additional bond money would really help.”
He also notes the place of historical significance the mission holds for the region as the site of the first European settlement in the area
Over the years, Patronato San Xavier has raised more than $11 million for preservation and restoration work at the mission, including a multi-year project to restore the altar area and interior artwork.
“It’s probably saved the interior from what would have destruction,” Green said.
