Deal: Scottsdale, Phoenix sweetheart deal for Papago Park raises questions
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By J. Arthur Deal
From time to time one encounters something so bizarre and suspicious that it cannot go unnoticed, or unopposed.
I refer to the deal between the City of Phoenix, the City of Scottsdale and the Giants baseball club relating to the facility at the northern portion of Papago Park.
What is being done is unbelievable and how they are doing it is disconcerting. In simple terms they are taking a part of Papago Park --- the most historic public land in Arizona --- and turning it into a private facility for a team worth three billion dollars.
The officials of Scottsdale and Phoenix have come up with a sweat-heart deal that can, at best, the described as “shady” and “shoddy.”
They have given public land --- deeded to Phoenix with the stipulation that the land is to be used as a park or for purposes of public convenience --- to a corporation building an enclosed private facility, which, according to the lease (Article 23.21) “will quietly have and enjoy the facility during the term hereof, without hindrance by Phoenix or any person claiming an interest in the facility”?
This is but one of many problems with this contractual monstrosity inflicted on Papago park and the people of Arizona.
Here are others:
The Giants are building way beyond the stipulated area in the sublease;
The rent is chickenfeed ($5,000 a month);
It is tax-free chickenfeed (it is supposedly a “governmental activity” per Article 2.6 in the lease);
The sublease makes Scottsdale primarily liable for all covenants and liabilities in the lease (to the possible detriment of the people and taxpayers of Scottsdale);
The sublease alludes to and authorizes unspecified pathways to unknown “improvements” (less park);
Both the lease and sublease include the 2010 Papago Park Master Plan as “permitted encumbrances”, without identifying these or saying how would they be exercised and by whom;
The deed of transfer from Arizona to Phoenix explicitly identifies permitted leases as being for Phoenix, Tempe, the Army, Zoo, Botanical, SRP and the highway dept. (no mention of the Giants)
All deeds, covenants and contracts signed by Phoenix state “The grantee is hereby prohibited from selling or transferring or attempting to sell or transfer Papago Park” and that if “attempts to transfer title or control over the lands to another (or) the lands have been devoted to a use other than that for which the lands were conveyed” the title would revert to the United States Words like these mean nothing to some people.
Finally, there is no apparent reason for Scottsdale to be part of this love triangle; Phoenix could have very well leased the area to the Giants without the inert presence of Scottsdale and the surreptitious aspects that characterize this operation.
The problem is much deeper and goes far beyond the current work at the baseball facility given to the Giants. The three parties in this nefarious ménage à trois operation --- and particularly the two government entities that have a civic duty to their citizens --- have chosen once again to ignore the very vocal desire of the public to preserve public natural habitat.
This encroachment and devastation are always done in the name of “progress,” a word coined by special interests and developers to justify their actions.
Worse yet, this has been going on for years in Papago Park and will continue to go on unless the public and conscientious officials do something.
Every year we see a fence being moved, a path turned into cement, a road being built, a parking lot being added, a facility being expanded, special arrangements with favored entities, and so on --- all in the name of progress, all of which mean less desert habitat, less park.
On a final note, it is interesting to note the difference between public actions regarding established preserves (Phoenix Mountain and Tempe Papago) and the attitude of City of Phoenix and Scottsdale officials toward Papago Park.
By popular ballot measure these initiatives enacted laws saying that all “native plant and animal communities [must be maintained] in their natural state” and “no land within any City Mountain Preserve…shall be sold, traded, alienated, redesignated, leased, or otherwise deleted or removed from the Mountain Preserve except by approval of a majority of electors voting thereon.”
Contrast the rigid protection enacted by public vote for the preserves with the lackadaisical, over-indulgent attitude of city officials towards Papago Park, the most visited in the Metropolitan area.
Papago Park is not seen as a park, but as a resource to be used. I may be wrong, but I can almost picture the city sitting around a table with private interests and cutting up a cake shaped like Papago Park, piece by piece, to the merriment of all. The cake is not even expensive; one can get 40 acres for five grand a month.
A petition was submitted to the Scottsdale Council with these issues, on Feb 11. They must respond in 30 days according to the City Charter.
They have the option to respond that they prefer not to respond. I hope they don’t do that because the problem is not going away.
Please see “Friends of Papago Park” on Facebook for updates and how you can help.
Editor’s Note: J. Arthur Deal is a third generation native of Arizona.
