Phoenix buys preserve land for $22.4 million

Phoenix has purchased another block of mountain preserve land, spending $22.4 million to pick up more than 800 acres between 19th and 27th avenues, north of Carefree Highway.

The purchase, which took place at an Arizona State Land Department Auction on Monday morning, begins a second phase of land additions to the Sonoran Preserve, which at completion will cover 21,500 acres of mountains, washes and connecting land in north Phoenix. Priority Two, as officials call it, will focus on land in the far northern reaches of town on the east side of Interstate 17.

Purchases of Priority One, consisting largely of mountains and washes south of Carefree Highway, ended last November, when the city purchased close to 950 acres of land in the area of 19th Avenue and Dixileta Drive.

Deputy City Manager Rick Naimark, who oversees the Phoenix Parks Department, made the winning - and the only - bid.

The money comes from the Phoenix Parks and Preserves Initiative and state Growing Smarter grant money.

The new preserve, if completed as planned, will dwarf the existing Phoenix Mountain Preserve, which runs across the city from Shaw Butte at 19th Avenue and Thunderbird to Camelback Mountain near the Paradise Valley city limit. That preserve sets aside 13,000 acres of mountaintops.