Conservation-minded development opens Sunday at Patagonia
By Jim Lamb, Green Valley News

A new housing development at Patagonia has set aside 95 percent of its land for conservation and plans land and watershed restoration.

Conservation Properties Inc. launches the new development, Three Canyons, Sunday at the site. It’s northeast of Patagonia between mileposts 22 and 23 on State Route 83.

Conservation Properties has created a permanent conservation easement of 995 acres that will be overseen by the conservation organization Sonoran Institute. The company also plans to preserve another 653 acres
that will be under the direction of the Three Canyons homeowners ’ association.

Altogether, the development encompasses 1,760 acres. Plans by owners David Parsons and Denny Hubbell call for 198 single-family houses. Parsons said property buyers will probably build houses ranging from $800,000 up to $2 million.

The owners and people from Patagonia have also created La Semilla, an independent Community Stewardship Organization to “ensure that land use meets conservation best practices,” according to a press release.

Heading La Semilla will be naturalist Jeffrey Cooper who headed the Nature Conservancy’s Patagonia-Sonoita Creek Preserve for 13 years.

La Semilla recently awarded $24,600 to the Patagonia Regional Community Foundation. Owners Parsons and Hubbell plan to make the award annually said the news release.

Three Canyons also will spend $3 million for a water improvement district, “the first of its kind in Santa Cruz County,” said the developers. The company said many developments provide no oversight on water use, allowing individual owners to operate their own, unregulated wells.

Luther Probst, the Sonoran Institute’s executive director, said the easement “meets and exceeds the intentions of the area’s comprehensive plan.”

Mary Dahl, Santa Cruz County director of community development, said, “The setaside of open space for Three Canyons goes well beyond our expectations, let alone our requirements.” County specifications would have permitted 412 houses there.

Speakers at the 1 p.m. ceremonies are John Shepard, associate director of programs for the Sonoran Institute, and Sonja Macys, executive director of the Tucson Audubon Society.

Conservation Properties principal Hubbell said the “conservation easement signifies our commitment to the land as well as to the community.” Principal Parsons said “our intention in placing this conservation easement is to create real, long-term value” for the residents.

The events start at 11 a.m., with the principals and others available for talks and speakers at 1 p.m. There will be interpretative nature walks on the land from noon to 2 p.m.

For more information, call 888-828-9122 or go to www.threecanyons.com.