Dollars have downed a landmark bid to hold together
one of Arizona’s most scenic ranches.
This
spring, Arizona State Parks offered rancher Bob Sharp and his
sisters $9 million to preserve the family’s ranch in the lush San
Rafael Valley south of Tucson (HCN, 3/2/98). A conservation
easement would have given the state the development rights, while
the family would still own the land. The purchase would have been
the first of its kind in Arizona, and one of the largest ever in
the West.
But in July, the family nixed the deal
and put its 22,000-acre spread up for sale for $24 million. “Many
factors – corporate taxes, estate taxes and generational transfers’
went into the family’s decision to sell instead of conserve, Sharp
told the Arizona Daily Star.
State Parks Director
Ken Travous adds that the ranch’s standing as a corporation became
a sticking point. “Because the ranch is a corporation, the family
says they would get taxed at 75 or 80 percent on the deal,” Travous
says. “That’s a problem.”
Now, the Sharp’s
property, where the movie “Oklahoma” was filmed, looks likely to be
carved into ranchettes in Arizona’s hot rural subdivision market.
The episode could set back the use of conservation easements in
Arizona, says Luther Propst, head of the nonprofit Sonoran
Institute in Tucson, which had helped structure the deal. “This was
a very visible, special and big test, so if it doesn’t work, it
hurts.”
As the deal collapsed, several
environmentalists attacked the easement, saying it provided too
little public access, too little ecological monitoring and too much
grazing. “This is not a conservation easement like Parks says,”
said Jon Tate, head of the Western Gamebird Alliance in Tucson.
“It’s paying a rancher to do what he is disposed to do anyway.”
Arizona State Parks and the Arizona chapter of
The Nature Conservancy are both working to resurrect the deal.
“I’ve instructed my staff to put together a last and final offer
for an outright purchase (of the ranch),” says the state’s Travous.
“Remember: It’s not over till someone else buys the place.” – Mark
Muro
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Crash kills a conservation deal.
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