Local opinion: Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan marks 25 years of compromise

As a real estate developer and 49-year resident of Pima County, I am happy to take part in the 25th anniversary celebration of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan (SDCP).

I was a member of the original SDCP working committee. Although the committee was supposed to be broad-based, I clearly remember the real estate/business community being outnumbered by the environmentalists. Back then, we were affectionately referred to as the “regulated community” and the environmentalists as the “Birkenstock crowd”.

During the ’80s and ’90s, environmental regulations and various federal permits placed a heavy burden on both the private sector and public sector when it came to developing projects and constructing public infrastructure.

To address the logjam and competing concerns, the County initiated a process to create a Habitat Conservation Plan. Its aim was to protect the natural resources that define our community while providing the regulatory certainty necessary to allow responsible development that is critical to the community and economic vitality. Initiation of the plan had overwhelming support from the then-current Pima County Board of Supervisors, which included Sharon Bronson, Dan Eckstrom, Raul Grijalva, Ray Carroll and Mike Boyd. Chuck Huckelberry, Pima County Administrator, and Maeveen Behan took the lead at the staff level.

The Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan made sweeping changes to land use patterns in unincorporated Pima County and proposed lofty conservation goals, including major acquisitions of sensitive land.

It was divisive at times! Nobody got everything they wanted. But the environmental community did better than we did.

The real win for the development community was the County’s Section 10 permit, which was finalized just 10 years ago.

What once took months of work by planners, engineers, environmental consultants and lawyers to obtain various County, State and Federal permits can now be accomplished using the County Section 10 permit.

At Diamond Ventures, we have learned to work within the constraints of the plan and its regulations. We go to great lengths to preserve natural vegetation and open space corridors. These natural amenities sell!

This year, we celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan as a groundbreaking achievement. However, we must also recognize that plans should not remain static; site conditions may be different from what existed at the time the plan was originally codified. Going forward, the plan should be administered with a certain degree of flexibility to ensure the SDCP’s continued success for the next 25 years.