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Cochise County supervisors ask state to reconsider 30-year lease of ~160 acres near Sierra Vista and urge sale instead
Summary
At a March 24 work session, Supervisor Melody Laneisby urged the governor and the Arizona State Land Department to offer roughly 160 acres east of Sierra Vista for sale rather than a 30-year lease for a solar project, citing potential long-term tax revenue losses and neighborhood impacts; the board asked staff to draft a letter and place it on the April 7 agenda for review.
Supervisor Melody Laneisby told the Cochise County Board of Supervisors at a March 24 work session that the Arizona State Land Department has posted notice for a commercial lease of roughly 160 acres east of Sierra Vista for a solar generating facility and urged county leaders to ask the governor and the land department to offer the parcel for sale instead of a 30-year lease.
The supervisors discussed why the state may be pursuing a 30-year lease — speakers said the timetable appears driven by an effort to secure federal solar subsidies — and raised financial and community concerns. Laneisby and other participants said a 30-year fixed annual payment would lock in a relatively small, inflation-eroding stream of revenue to the state trust and deprive local taxing jurisdictions of the larger, long-term benefits that would come if the land were sold and placed on the property tax rolls.
Under discussion was an estimated lease valuation of about $6.8 million over 30 years; an initial…
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