Arizona Land Sales, Commercial Real Estate Appraisals,
and Private, Confidential Counseling, & Appraisals;
Arizona, U.S.A., and International
...Swango Real Estate Counseling & Valuation  ~ Real Estate Matters ® ~
"Don't Ever Under Estimate The Value " ®

By Tony Davis
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
August 24, 2003    

Developers, public officials and environmentalists disagree on whether removing federal protection of the pygmy owl will lower land and housing prices by opening up Northwest Side land to tract housing. But they do agree that the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan will stay even if the federal endangered listing of the pygmy owl goes.

"I think the home builders would like us to believe this action puts everything to sleep," said County Supervisor Dan Eckstrom. "I don't think it does. People are concerned about open space and habitat. If there isn't something to protect it, the development goes unchecked."

It's unanimously accepted that the 1997 listing of the owl triggered Pima County into proposing a million-acre reserve that could become the largest local land conservation plan in the United States.  

Now developers say land and home prices could drop without the owl listed as endangered. Environmentalists and county officials foresee little change. Last week, at a press conference discussing its victory in the federal appeals court case concerning the owl listing, Southern Arizona Home Builders Association President Edward Taczanowsky said he hoped that if the owl listing goes away, it will open up enough Northwest Side land to make housing production quicker and more efficient. That could brake spiraling land prices that have played a big role in raising the average price of new homes to more than $200,000, developers say.

"If you have a market the size of Tucson you open 500 acres up, it's not enough to make a difference," said Chris Sheafe, an owner of the Southeast Side development Rancho del Lago. "But if you suddenly open up 5,000 acres, it would make a considerable difference.'' Landowners will make more profit if more homes are built on Northwest Side properties, but buyers won't see much benefit, County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry said. "They're paying $200,000 for a house on a 5,000- to 6,000-square- foot lot right now."

The county's decline in affordable housing has far more problems than the pygmy owl, said Susan Shobe deputy director of the Coalition for Sonoran Desert Protection. For one, construction workers and lots of other county residents generally make lower wages than counterparts elsewhere, she said. She cited a 2000 Pima County survey that Pima, unlike many other counties with similar growth pressures, had few or no requirements for developers to set aside part of their projects as affordable housing.

Sheafe, Tucson Association of Realtors senior vice president Patty Richardson and Realtor Bill Arnold agreed that the Sonoran plan push will continue with or without the owl. Richardson said the conservation plan could get scaled back. Arnold disagreed. A clue to how much land is at stake comes from written comments concerning a federal proposal to designate 1.2 million acres of Southern Arizona as prime owl habitat. The files contain letters from 10 prospective Northwest Side developers of 6,152 acres zoned for high and low densities.

There's little chance that the removal of the owl's endangered status will immediately bring back the large-scale rezonings of Northwest Side ironwood-saguaro forest land from the 1980s and 1990s, developers and officials said. The opening of owl habitat and lowering of prices most likely would come on land already zoned for higher density housing. Last December, Marana downzoned two major developments in that area: Hartman Hills, from 2,692 to 431 homes on 431 acres, and Tangerine Hills, from 596 to 196 homes on 196 acres.

But home builder Peter Aronoff said Marana's policies in that area may become less restrictive because it has a history of being more supportive of development than the county. Aronoff pointed out that Marana has been allowing cluster development in the owl areas more than Pima County has.

Without owl protection, higher density housing will lower land prices for individual home lots, developers generally say. Housing prices there, and maybe countywide, could drop, said Aronoff, president of A.F. Sterling Homes. Aronoff added, however, that removing pygmy owl protection alone won't lower land prices. That would take concerted effort by Pima County and the state to open up land and provide infrastructure for development on the South and Southeast Sides, he said.

But Susan Scherrer, supervisor of the County Assessor 's Office land section, predicted land and housing prices will at least stay put without owl protection, because Northwest Side desert is very attractive.

"It will always have a good price. I just don't see it going down, at least not in the short term. At most, maybe it wouldn't push up as high as fast.''  

* Contact Tony Davis at 807-7790 or verdin@azstarnet.com. 

Back To News Articles