Pima County is getting ready to buy its 10th ranch with open-space bonds, and it’s a biggie.
The Board of Supervisors will vote next month on whether to spend $18.5 million to buy 4,135 acres of the historic, centuries-old Sopori Ranch near Amado.
A look at this purchase and Pima County’s larger ranch-buying spree:
Sopori Ranch has more than 10,000 acres, straddling the border between Pima and Santa Cruz counties.
The proposed purchase covers 4,000 acres in Pima County, west of Interstate 19 and along both sides of Arivaca Road.
It would not include 8,830 acres in Santa Cruz County, where current ranch owners First United Realty of Phoenix plan 6,000 homes. That plan is being challenged by a citizens’ initiative to overturn a successful rezoning of the Santa Cruz County land, which goes before that county’s voters on Nov. 4.
People are also reading…
Read more about the ranch and the reason the county wants to purchase the land in Monday's Star.
