Sonoran Preserve's history, future

Another block of the future Phoenix Sonoran Preserve has been purchased, but its completion remains far off.

Jim Burke, assistant director of the Phoenix Parks and Recreation Department, has been around since the city first began to consider whether to set aside land in the far northern reaches of town. That was in 1987.

More than 20 years later, a solid start has been made in acquiring land for the preserve.

QUESTION: What is the history of the Sonoran Preserve, so far?

ANSWER: In 1987, the first general plan for the area was developed, and it called for future preserves. In 1993, we got serious and started to formulate what it might look like. We spent the next five years doing field work and studies, looking at infrastructure needs and other matters. The City Council approved the plan in 1998, and we funded it in 1999. We have gotten a lot done since then.

Q: Where exactly does the preserve stand?

A: Once we knew what land we wanted, we divided it into four major priorities. The first priority's purchases have been completed. Those were the mountains south of Carefree Highway in the Dynamite Mountain Ranch area (along Interstate 17 between Happy Valley Road and Carefree Highway). The second priority started with Monday's purchase of the mountains that run across Carefree Highway. We now have 4,512 acres of the 21,500 acres we want to set aside.

Q: When will land purchases be finished?

A: I don't know. I hope it is finished before the new Parks and Preserves Initiative expires in 30 years. We originally hoped it would take 20 years, but 10 years already has passed.

Q: Will this preserve be just like the Phoenix Mountains Preserve?

A: It should have better connectivity to the Tonto National Forest to the north, and the edge treatments should make it seem less walled off. Instead of just mountains, we also are purchasing wash corridors and land that connects the washes and the mountains.

Q: When will amenities go in, trailheads, restrooms and the like?

A: That is one of the questions we will be asking at a series of public meetings this summer. Details of how we will spend our money need to be worked out. We hope to submit a five-year plan to the council in September.

What's next

Phoenix this week 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, 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 in the area of 19th Avenue and Dixileta Drive.

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.

Chris Ewell, a City of Phoenix landscape architect, walks through the desert while planning a trail route along the future Sonoran Boulevard.