ScottsdaleAZ.Gov

State Parks Board OKs $3.25 million matching grant for preserve land

  Sept. 14, 2009

  Contact: Pat Dodds, public affairs officer, 480-312-2336

  STATE PARKS BOARD APPROVES $3.25 MILLION GRANT
  FOR SCOTTSDALE PRESERVE LAND

The Arizona State Parks Board has approved a $3.25 million matching grant to Scottsdale to acquire about 400 acres of state trust land for the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

Scottsdale hopes to purchase the property from the State Land Department later this year or in early 2010. No date has been set to auction the property, which has an estimated value of about $6.5 million.

The acreage, part of the McDowell Mountains, lies between the alignments of Deer Valley Road and Pinnacle Peak Road on the north and south, and between the 104th and 112th street alignments on the west and east. Scottsdale has already acquired or protected more than 11,000 acres and has a long-range goal to expand the preserve to about 36,000 acres, nearly a third of the city’s land area.

The city is funding land purchases from the proceeds of two dedicated sales taxes approved by voters in 1995 and 2004.

The parks board on Sept. 11 unanimously approved the Scottsdale application for a Growing Smarter State Trust Land Acquisition Grant. Using the grant funds for a portion of the purchase will mean that more of the city’s dedicated sales tax dollars will be available for future purchases.