TUCSON, Ariz. — The 202 acres that was once the former Vistoso Golf Course is ready for a new life and is one step closer to becoming an Oro Valley staple again. The finalized payment of the property by The Conservation Fund was completed in February.
Now, The Conservation Fund is leading efforts to clean up the preserve by moving the brush five feet back from path and clearing out the invasive plant species. The Conservation Fund's Mike Ford said this property is now completely protect from any further development with a document called a conservation easement.
"We want to make sure that this can never be used for anything other than an open space and preserve," he said. "So we put a conservation easement which will be held by the conservation fund or by a qualified third party to ensure that it’s never developed and for anything other than an open space and park.”
The Conservation Fund will then give the property to the Town of Oro Valley on or around July 1st. Ford said from negotiating with the former owners to working with Pima County, it was certainly a complicated purchase.
“We openly were able to buy it at fair market value as declared by a bonafide appraisal so that was the first challenge," he said. "I’ve been doing this for 24 years for the fund and I can safely say that I've put more work into this transaction than any other project for the past 24 years.”
Mayor Joe Winfield said the easement was key to keeping it safe and the town can already start to enjoy the land.
"This was important to the conservation fund the residents and important to us as a council to ensure that this property moving forward will remain as open space in perpetuity,” Winfield said.
About 6.3 acres of parking and the former golf course's clubhouse was sold to a local developer. Community activist Rosa Dailey first contacted Ford to help with the property back in 2020. Since then, she said it's been a journey to protect this land and the community certainly came together to help.
"It went through this journey," she said. "It became a golf course it became prime real estate and now it’s going to back to what it was. I mean, this was indigenous land at one point.”
The community rallied together to raise about $1.8 million to help buy the property. And Dailey said now there's always a steady stream of people using the path.
"I’m excited to see this come alive with people," she said. "I mean, this was a golf course for many years but now, people from all walks of life can enjoy this.”
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