Flagstaff Open Space Wins! (Back to Landscapes Program Index)
     

Victory!  On May 18, 2004, Flagstaff voters approved two bond measures that will provide $13 million for purchasing over 1,100 acres of key open space lands vulnerable to development. 

For the past eight years, the Grand Canyon Trust has participated in numerous community planning efforts that culminated in this election's open space bond questions.  These bond questions were developed in accord with the Flagstaff 2020 Vision Plan, the Flagstaff Area Open Spaces and Greenways Plan, and the Flagstaff Area Regional Land Use and Transportation Plan--all processes the Trust has been intimately involved in.

Grand Canyon Trust partnered with Friends of Flagstaff's Future to form Citizens for Open Space (chaired by GCT board member, Jim Babbitt) to advocate for the passing of these Flagstaff area open space bond measures.  The campaign team included the Trust’s recently hired Communication Director, Richard Mayol, a felicitous addition to the organization and an expert in campaigns. 

This election's victory takes a big step toward fulfilling the region's needed open space protection. 

Protecting Dry Lake, Forging A New Public-Private Partnership

Dry Lake with water in wetland. © by John Grahame/Friends of Dry Lake

Protecting natural habitat and open space around the San Francisco Peaks and Flagstaff is a priority action for the people living in this Arizona town, perched at 7,000 feet and a 90-mile drive from the Grand Canyon. In a remarkable cooperative venture, private landowners and environmentally concerned citizens have brokered a solution protecting private property rights while saving a special place — a place called Dry Lake.

Dry Lake includes a very unusual 60-acre ephemeral wetland within a volcanic crater located four miles southwest of Flagstaff. It is home to a wide variety of plants and animals and is frequented by elk.Two development partnerships, Flagstaff Ranch Golf Club and Flagstaff Ranch Development, own the land in and around the Dry Lake crater. Working to create a solution to prevent development in the crater, Grand Canyon Trust, with our community partners, approached both landowners with a proposal to move their development out of Dry Lake and away from the wetlands.

Facts About Saving Dry Lake:

• 247 acres purchased and protected forever
• $3.8 million campaign completed (to purchase the property)
• $2.5 million approved from Congress through the Land & Water Conservation Fund for Dry Lake
• $200,000 developer matching challenge, a dollar for dollar match for the project

Fall in Dry Lake Caldera © by Jason Reid

The development partnerships agreed to swap their parcels and move their developments out of the crater to adjacent, less fragile land. The Trust purchased Dry Lake for $3.8 million, keeping development out of the sensitive volcanic caldera. Dry Lake was transferred to the U.S. Forest Service in January 2002 (click here for details from the Trust press release archive).The County Planning and Zoning Commission, the County Board of Supervisors, Northern Arizona University, Friends of Dry Lake, The Nature Conservancy, and the Arboretum at Flagstaff joined the Grand Canyon Trust, the developers, and other members of the business community, and others, in supporting this effort, and making it happen!

In addition to viewing this as a community win, Dry Lake can also be seen as a model for getting things done. Everyone wins: The developers retained land for their plans, and the citizens of Flagstaff get Dry Lake protected for future generations.

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