Cave Creek to begin purchase of 4,005 acres of open space

By Jeff Wendt
Mail

Residents of Cave Creek want the beautiful images of open space surrounding the town to be preserved.

The Cave Creek Town Council agreed with the residents of the town on Tuesday, Jan. 27, when it unanimously approved the report present by the 15-member Ad Hoc Committee on Open Space, and moved forward with plans to purchase 4,005 acres of open space currently owned by the Arizona State Land Trust.

The town will have to wait 4 to 6 weeks for a land appraisal to be done, so the council can decide what financing options to use to purchase the land.

The 4,005 acres was zoned as open space conservation and open space recreation in 2009 by the Arizona State Land Department, when the parcel was annexed and the rezoning of the land occurred.

The town has until Oct. 28, 2030, to purchase at least 160 acres of open space. In the 2025 fiscal year budget, the town set aside $2.5 million to purchase state lands.

“The members of the ad hoc committee are extremely passionate and eager to start promoting, marketing, and fundraising,” said Ad Hoc Committee Chairman Steve LaMar.

The committee broke down into three groups: communications and outreach, financing, and evaluation and prioritization.

The communications and outreach group developed a project logo as well as materials that can be used to explain the project and to promote what needs to be done to complete the project.

“The outreach and communications people really did a wonderful job,” LaMar said. “They created all of these communication suggestions. They created lanyards for everybody. I think the badges and the overall look is very professional, and if you see it, it really kind of fits Cave Creek very well.”

As for financing of the project, the committee believed the goal was to get between $10.6 million and $13.6 million to purchase the remaining land.

“I’m telling you, this land will sell itself,” LaMar said “We’re not here to put any pressure on you. You’ve given us all the wonderful support, and we are happy that you have appointed us.

“I will quote Carol Perry, who was at our last meeting, who’s been around this town a long time and has been involved a lot and as a local artist,” LaMar added. “She said, ‘This being on this committee and working with you all to get this done is my proudest moment being a citizen of Cave Creek.’”

As for the evaluation and prioritization committee, the committee developed a chart of what they thought were most important parcels to go after first if money became an issue.

“If we really analyze this correctly in forming the strategic plan, just examining really closely the interest on each parcel,” LaMar said. “Now we have prioritized these, and that’s why we have a graph.”

LaMar said the committee did its best to evaluate each parcel and believe all have value to the town.

“This was the best we could do to evaluate them and it was fairly difficult because in actuality,” LaMar concluded, “and I think I speak for the whole group there isn’t a parcel that wouldn’t if that doesn’t needed to be preserved and would be a great asset to this town and the people of this town.”

Vice Mayor Kathryn Royer made the motion to approve the report, to dissolve the committee, direct staff to request a valuation on the parcels, to prepare a memorandum of understanding with the Desert Foothills Land Trust to help secure financial donations for the purchases, and to direct staff to proceed with the State Land Department to initiate an auction to purchase high priority parcels with the accrued town funding.

“There’s no doubt that the mayor and I and the rest of this town council support this project in its entirety,” Royer said. “I think that you (the committee) have done an outstanding job in helping us make these recommendations to get the job done.

“I would like to see action take place as quickly as possible,” Royer added. “Therefore, we created the last addition to the motions. We want to use the funding that we have in place to purchase the property and then hopefully that will jump start others to also give.”

Councilmember Cynthia Driskell piggy-backed off of Royer in support of the measure.

“This preservation of the Sonoran Desert is really our historic roots, and it’s the quality of our life here, and it gives us that unique opportunity to truly enjoy our outdoors in so many fun ways,” Driskell said. “I know I’ve enjoyed it. So many here on council have and residents and members of the task force likewise enjoy every part of our community.

“So, this is a unique opportunity for us to move forward with due diligence along the way because I’m sure we’ll hit some ruts as we go along the trail to making these purchases,” Driskell added, “but it’s a great opportunity and we look forward to supporting it.”

Councilmember Tom Augherton wanted to ensure the plan was to acquire all the land by the end of the calendar year.

“The State Land Department this month may not be the State Land Department next January,” Augherton said. “So it’s great that $2.5 million is going to acquire some land sooner than later, and the council’s not meeting this summer. If something is not done before summer analysis and come back to the council and offer it for consideration, we may just lose the ultimate window to do the full purchase.”

Mayor Robert Morris thanked the committee for its work.

“I want to thank the committee members. This is some of the best work I’ve seen done,” Morris said. “It was done with a massive number of people on the committee, but it really is good and the enthusiasm is overwhelming. The enthusiasm is something that you don’t see often in the dry work that we do here. And the next step is to keep that enthusiasm going and get the rest of the community enthusiastic about doing this and to pass that on.”

Jeff Wendt
Reporter | Phoenix/Cave Creek

jwendt@iniusa.org

Meet Jeff
Jeff Wendt started at Independent Newsmedia in January 2023, after 25 years working for Gannett and The Arizona Republic. Started as a high school sports scoretaker, worked up to reporting high school sports and then became an associate high school sports editor in 2002. Also worked in the Design Studio as a copy editor.

Community: Jeff serves on the Board of Elders at his local church.

Education: Arizona State University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Journalism and Mass Communication

Random fact: Attended Game 2 of the 2001 World Series.

Hobbies: Playing video games (yes still the kid in me), watching reality TV, playing poker.