The Oro Valley Town Council last week accepted the long-anticipated master plan that will guide the redevelopment of Steam Pump Ranch on North Oracle Road.
In a 6-0 vote, the council signaled a move forward on the roughly $8 million project on the former ranch and stagecoach stop dating to the 1870s. Mayor Paul Loomis was absent.
"We really have a jewel here that is unusual," said Dick Eggerding, president of the Oro Valley Historical Society.
Restoring the ranch structures will give the town and its residents a chance to showcase the property's uniqueness, he said. "We have an opportunity to save a legacy for future generations to understand."
Eggerding was a member of the community task force that, with town-hired consultant Poster Frost Associates Inc., worked for months to create the master plan. The process also included considerable public input. Nonetheless, Eggerding said, many Oro Valley residents still don't know a lot about the ranch, its history and the town's plans for it. He said the ranch can easily go unnoticed on Oracle, between First Avenue and Tangerine Road.
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To that extent, Eggerding and other members of the historical society are working to organize a speakers bureau that will promote Steam Pump Ranch.
"Once it's stabilized, we would like to do some tours on a limited basis," Eggerding said.
Bill Adler, who represented the town's Planning and Zoning Commission on the task force, said the speakers bureau will work to educate residents about the project.
"There's a need to get information out about Steam Pump Ranch . . . the need really is to understand the cost — and the cost is substantial," Adler said.
Town officials are hoping that a county bond election could generate some funding for the project in 2009. Town Manager David Andrews also earmarked $914,000 for the ranch in his 2008-09 recommended budget.
It is important that residents understand the project is long-term, and that the town probably will bear a hefty part of the costs, Adler said.
The town cannot rely on county bond money that may or may not be passed or cover all the costs, he said. The responsibility for the stewardship and the restoration of the ranch lies with the town, he said.
"People need to recognize that and understand that in the future they're going to be asked to assess themselves in one form or another for the cost of not only rehabilitating the property, but maintaining it and operating it as a tourist park," Adler said.
Scott Nelson, Oro Valley's special-projects coordinator, said the town is pursuing state grant money for emergency stabilization work on some of the structures.
The first phase would probably be done by the end of 2009, he said. The second phase is scheduled to be finished in early 2012, according to the master plan. The project's final phase has not been determined.
Did you know
The Steam Pump Ranch dates to the 1870s, when European immigrants George Pusch and John Zellweger established it as a ranch and stagecoach stop on North Oracle Road between First Avenue and Tangerine Road. John Procter, the Pioneer Hotel owner, bought the property from George Pusch's son in 1933.
