Sabino Canyon for sale?

Senate bill lists popular federal land to sell … Big questions about Project Blue … And slow down when writing emails.

Some of Tucson’s favorite spaces — Sabino Canyon, parts of Mount Lemmon and Madera Canyon — could all be available for sale to the highest bidder as part of the current draft of President Donald Trump’s “big beautiful” budget bill.

One of the major changes the U.S. Senate is considering as it writes its version of the budget bill that the House passed a few weeks ago is a provision that would require the government to sell off between 2.2 and 3.3 million acres of federal land over the next five years.

The Wilderness Society, a non-profit dedicated to protecting natural areas and federal public lands, made a handy interactive map of the more than 250 million acres owned by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) that could go up for sale under the Senate version of the bill, including almost 15 million acres in Arizona.

The Wilderness Society has identified roughly 15 million acres in Arizona that could be sold off to the highest bidders.

One of the first to report on the proposal was Outside Magazine columnist Wes Siler, who interviewed Tracy Stone-Manning, the former director of the Bureau of Land Management for the Biden administration and current president of the Wilderness Society, about the numbers last week on his Substack.

“What Congress is doing is saying, ‘Hey, we need to pay for the tax cuts for the wealthy in this budget bill.’ So isn't it ironic that you give the wealthy tax cuts, and with that extra walking around money, they can go buy your public lands?” she told Siler.

The 15 million acres in Arizona that could be sold off are vital parts of the ecosystem providing the trees and fauna that help keep our air clean and undisturbed land which contains vast underground reservoirs of clean water, Siler told the Tucson Agenda.

It is also profitable. Grazing leases, royalties, and fees generate revenue for both the federal government and the state of Arizona. BLM-controlled lands in Arizona generated $931.4 million in 2023, with a third of that figure related to recreational activities.

The Senate budget proposal would sell at least 2.2 million acres of land mostly in the West, although the legislation would continue to sell off federal lands long after it met its “goal.” The increased sell-off of federal land would continue as long as there is interest in buying more land.

Wilderness Society had originally pegged the number of acres at just 120 million nationwide, including 2.5 million acres in Arizona. But yesterday, they revised that analysis based on the latest draft of the bill, doubling the number of acres across the country and increasing Arizona’s potential land for sale by roughly 600%.

A screenshot of the interactive map put together by the Wilderness Society definitely shows a section of Sabino Canyon and parts of Mount Lemmon.

The sale of land inside of or adjacent to Tribal land, like BLM-owned land next to Hohokam Middle School on Pascua Yaqui Tribal land would not be offered to the Tribe first, instead selling it at auction.

We don’t know yet whether that would mean Mark Zuckerberg would end up owning a parcel surrounded by Tribal land, or Elon Musk could buy up a chunk of Sabino Canyon, or whether local conservation groups could drum up enough money to preserve some of the most beautiful natural areas near Tucson.

And while Sabino Canyon, Madera Canyon and chunks of Mount Lemmon aren’t specifically mentioned in the documents, the maps from the Wilderness Society make it clear which plots of land are on the chopping block.

A final list of which lands would be sold would be determined by both agencies, but it’s not clear what kind of public input or oversight would be provided on the sales, Stone-Manning said.

“We're diving into the details, but what it looks like is (the president) directs the agency to sell off that land and there is no public process. And it happens quickly, and, like this proposal, behind closed doors,” she told Siler.

Not everyone is in love with the idea in Washington.

Tucson Republican Congressman Juan Ciscomani said he didn’t support that provision when it was part of the House bill (it was stripped out of the House version), and he’s closely monitoring the Senate version of the bill.

“Congressman Ciscomani was pleased to see the public land sale provisions stripped from the House version of the reconciliation bill prior to its passage. The bill is still being negotiated in the Senate and has not been finalized,” a spokesperson for Rep. Ciscomani told the Tucson Agenda.

Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego won’t support the sale of federal lands as part of the budget bill.

We reached out to Sen. Mark Kelly’s office, but they didn’t return our calls and emails.

We don’t know who wants to buy Sabino Canyon, but the potential to ruin a Tucson oasis is troubling. Keep Joe on the beat by upgrading your subscription today.

The big story out of Tuesday’s Pima County Board of Supervisor’s meeting will be “Project Blue” — a proposed data center that would be located on about 290 acres roughly a half mile south of I-10 between Harrison and Houghton Roads.

The property currently is owned by the county, but would be sold to Humphrey's Peak Properties LLC for roughly $21 million on behalf of the yet-unnamed private company that would then be annexed into the Tucson city limits to guarantee a long-term water supply for their thirsty servers.

While the Supervisors will be asked to rezone and sell the property today, there are a ton of questions about this proposal that County officials are unable to answer due to non-disclosure agreements they signed with this mystery company, including how TEP will power this massive energy-hungry enterprise.

Here is the land where the data center would be built.

While County officials have confirmed TEP has not requested any new class 1 permits for energy generation in the last year — which would take at least 12 to 18 months to get approval — the City of Tucson hasn’t answered how long it would take to extend reclaimed water lines by roughly 18 miles to feed the proposed data center.

One interesting detail wrapped in the land sale agreement is that the performance measures for Project Blue include 75 full-time employees with an average wage of $75,000 — a far cry from the 180 jobs the County has said they expect to create once the data farm is operating at full capacity.

Budget

The Supervisors will also hold a truth-in-taxation hearing this morning, the last step before raising property taxes as part of the county’s $1.7 billion budget for next year. The county estimates that increase will add roughly $30 to the average residential property tax bill.¹

Supervisors will also get a final report on the departmental budgets that are in the red for this fiscal year, including the Pima County Sheriff’s Department.

As we noted last week, Sheriff Chris Nanos warned he’s going to end the year millions of dollars in the hole — essentially saying supervisors simply didn’t give him enough.

Quick hits

• Supervisors will be asked to sign off on wastewater fee increases (about $1 a month) to pay for increased costs, as well as build new infrastructure. This includes long-term plans to build another water treatment plant on the city’s south side.

• South Tucson will contract directly with the Tucson Fire Department for structure-fire calls, and the County will help pay for a portion of the service. The full cost would be about $300,000 a year, but when your neighbor’s house is on fire, you don’t argue about the cost of your hose.

The Tucson City Council will finally take another swing at criminalizing people for sleeping in city washes — months after punting on the issue in a deadlocked 3–3 vote. As we’ve noted before, all eyes are on newcomer Rocque Perez, who’s expected to break the tie.

The timing isn’t a coincidence. The issue is back on the agenda after the city got its first Prop 312 claim last week.

That’s the voter-approved measure that requires cities to compensate property owners for losses they say stem from unenforced public nuisance laws — like bans on panhandling, illegal camping, or public urination.

Don’t expect a crackdown if the measure passes. According to an internal memo, the city “simply does not have the resources (including the personnel resources)” to respond to every violation of Prop 312. So… same status quo, but with less legal exposure.

Also on Tuesday’s agendas:

• A plan to “manage future customers whose water use may significantly exceed average consumption levels.” Expect the Council to carve out an exception for data centers as the city prepares to spend millions to deliver reclaimed water for Project Blue.

• Taking over structure-fire calls in South Tucson — for $25,000 a month.

• Redeveloping the Joel D. Valdez Library parcel downtown.

• Next steps on the RTA Next 20-year transportation extension, including whether to greenlight the current draft before it goes to voters next spring. The relationship with the city might have improved this week, as the PAG/RTA boards just hired former Tucson City Manager Mike Ortega as the new interim head of the organization.

• Beginning the search for a new city attorney, with Mike Rankin set to retire in a few months.

• Renewing Tucson Electric Power’s franchise agreement before it expires next year — another item that’ll need voter approval.

Sundt Construction — a company that could make a ton of money from helping to build the data center outlined in Pima County’s “Project Blue” — sent Pima County officials a letter expressing the company’s strong support for the project.

But they forgot to swap out the placeholder language before smashing “send.”

The two-page letter enthusiastically supported the proposal, even though County officials claimed they couldn’t answer basic questions about the project because they signed non-disclosure agreements.

But sure, the general contractor just has a feeling it’s a great idea.

1. Although that figure doesn’t include increased taxes because property valuations are constantly rising.