Tucson council shores up desert protection plan

Developers hoping to skirt the environmental protections of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan by being annexed by the City of Tucson are out of luck, after the Tucson city council voted unanimously to apply the conservation plan’s regulations to all county land annexed by the city.

Previously, when Tucson annexed county land, the protections of the SDCP were dropped in the process.

That had led some developers to pull for annexation for just that reason, according Ward 5 Councilman Steve Leal, who gave me the lowdown on the situation.

“Apparently, there were a whole lot of developers who wanted to annex into the city just to escape the Sonoran conservation plan,” he tells me. “It seemed to me that if we didn’t do anything, in a matter of time, this amazing plan would disappear.”

The city’s new water policy – which essentially puts the kibosh on outside developments hooking up to Tucson’s water supply – has created additional pressure for annexation. Leal estimates that up to 150,000 acres could eventually be swallowed up by the city.

Thanks to the council’s move, those annexed acres will keep their current environmental protections.

Good work, council.

John Collins Rudolf