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Red Gap Ranch Buy Vote Delayed
© Arizona Daily Sun 11/2/2005
By Rachel Peterson, Arizona Daily Sun Staff Reporter
 Red Gap Ranch is located in the Diablo Canyon Rural Planning Area. Click on map for larger image. |
An ordinance that would finalize the purchase of Red Gap Ranch for $7.9 million has been postponed, though the due-diligence period for the purchase agreement is ongoing.
Flagstaff City Council will revisit the ordinance at its Nov. 15 meeting.
If it's approved, the public will still have sufficient time to pull a referendum before escrow closes Dec. 20 on the property located 40 miles east of Flagstaff that consists of 8,500 deeded acres and 15,000 acres of state land with grazing leases, said Councilwoman Kara Kelty, before requesting the item be tabled.
If the purchase is withdrawn after that date, the city of Flagstaff loses its $100,000 earnest money.
Kelty told Red Gap Ranch owner David Leyvas: "We have the added responsibility -- and that can be awkward-- of having a silent partner, which is the public. It's not enough for us to say to the public, 'Trust us. We know how it's going to work out.'"
All other council members except Councilman Joe Haughey supported delaying the vote to allow the public more comment time, and to possibly receive a long-awaited water study from the Bureau of Reclamation to take into consideration first.
"We dealt with this almost a year ago," Haughey said. "If there's any issue, we've probably had due diligence already."
Council turned down the original proposal at $15 million last December.
Councilman Art Babbott, who two weeks ago voted in support of the purchase, said he's less supportive as time passes and more questions arise surrounding the viability of pumping at the location, and potential damage to the Chevron and Clear Creek ecosystems from extracting the water.
"The more I go into the Red Gap purchase, I find I don't have fewer questions, I have more," he said. "I do feel like we're rushing into this."
At the meeting, several citizens also spoke in opposition to the purchase.
Andy Bessler said he opposed the purchase of water rights in the name of a "culture of conservation" that has been touted by Gov. Janet Napolitano. After spending $7.5 million just for acquisition, city staff have reported that, in today's dollars, it would cost up to $140 million to access and transport that water via pipeline to Flagstaff, which isn't prudent, he said.
"Water is life. We all know this," Bessler said. "However, I think we need to remember we can't be greedy. There are a lot of ways that we can get our needs met without having to buy rights from a Phoenix developer."
Others spoke on behalf of Bar-T-Bar Ranch and Diablo Trust, which also is in negotiations with the city for selling its water rights.
Ranch owner Bob Prosser has said he'd rather have the negotiations handled side-by-side with water studies in hand, than separately as the city currently is doing.
Norm Wallen said the city allegedly has denied Bar-T-Bar the same process of presenting to the council and has "behaved unfairly" with the transaction.
Council members said this doesn't preclude Bar-T-Bar from future negotiations, presuming there are sufficient funds remaining in the $15 million bond approved for acquiring water rights.
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