e-Edition

Flagstaff Weather

Comments?

Rate this story

Email this story

Print this story

Supes want Walnut Canyon buffer study

The board hopes to block housing development near the national monument

By CYNDY COLE
Sun Staff Reporter
Thursday, December 04, 2008

Seven years after the community debated what should happen with the federal lands surrounding Walnut Canyon National Monument, county supervisors are hopeful for a long-awaited plan that might put the area permanently off-limits to housing development.

The Coconino County Board of Supervisors tentatively plans to ask Congress for a study outlining what should or could be done with 30,818 acres -- more than 48 square miles -- of mostly U.S. Forest Service land surrounding the national monument. The area in question includes Fisher Point and runs from near the Flagstaff airport to Lower Lake Mary and east of the existing monument.

It could potentially be used for housing, in the case of a Forest Service land swap.

Supervisors hope to use whatever report is written to press for some sort of protection that won't allow development.

Options could include expanding the national monument, which was a contentious proposal in 2002.

"Let's run this thing. Let's give it a shot," said Coconino County Supervisor Liz Archuleta, speaking of the new U.S. Congress and incoming U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Flagstaff. "This is the best shot we've had. There, frankly, wasn't political will in the past."

The county has been asking for such a study for years, but outgoing U.S. Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Flagstaff, was not very supportive, Chairwoman Deb Hill said.

"What is working for us, however, is the economy is so poor that no developers are putting pressure on the land," Supervisor Carl Taylor said.

This is the time of year the county makes lobbying priorities at the state and federal level.

Other priorities the supervisors identified, but have yet to vote on, included:

About $13 million for a study of whether a multimillion-dollar pipeline should be constructed to carry water from the Colorado River to the Navajo Nation and possibly beyond.

Money for jobs programs.

Funding to buy new buses and pay for highway construction.

Asking that Forest Service budgets for fighting wildfires be separated from budgets to thin forests, to promote forest thinning.

Allowing the state to intercept federal income tax returns to pay for court fees and to pay restitution to victims in court cases.

Requiring businesses, such as Xanterra in Grand Canyon National Park, to pay a total of millions in fees to do business in the county, following a series of court cases where the businesses were no longer required to pay property taxes because they leased public land or space.

Federal bills promoting development of alternative energy or biomass.

Further resolutions asking that federal lands surrounding the Grand Canyon be put off-limits to uranium mining.

Cyndy Cole can be reached at 913-8607 or at ccole@azdailysun.com.

---

»Subscribe to the Arizona Daily Sun

---

---

---

---

Print this story

Email this story

Return to Local