Prescott Valley, Arizona, has long been a haven for nature lovers and mountain bikers, according to Skyler Barton, assistant to the town manager, so Arizona municipalities collaborated to conserve it.

The area is typically around 15 degrees cooler than Phoenix. “People want to be in the outdoors here,” Barton said.

From 1,500 people after incorporation in 1978, the town is now home to more than 50,000.

As the town began developing, the community also began keeping an eye out for ways to preserve space for its wildlife, including the pronghorn antelope, a beloved local fixture, according to Barton. The town found an opportunity for that conservation with Glassford Hill — 2,284 acres of diverse landscape that sits between Prescott Valley and its sister city, Prescott.

The 2023 purchase of the land, now on its way to becoming Glassford Dells Regional Park, was a collaborative effort involving the town, city, county and state, all of which helped to foot the $6,255,000 price tag. The project’s successful outcome earned it a 2024 American City & County Crown Communities Award, as an example of what municipalities can achieve when working together.

The Intergovernmental Agreement Between Arizona Municipalities

Ideas for preserving Glassford Hill for passive public recreation began in the late 1990s, but it wasn’t until 2022 that Prescott Valley, the city of Prescott and Yavapai County would join forces to attempt to acquire the land, signing an intergovernmental agreement to establish a cost sharing mechanism and ensure equitable participation and transparency. The agreement reserved 1,317 acres for Prescott Valley and 967 acres for Prescott.

“There’s always competition between municipalities when it comes to open space,” Barton said. “But we as municipalities could very well not be the highest bidder when it came to just getting the land. There was the value and auction aspect of it.”

Representatives from all parties began meeting to craft the vision for the project. The municipalities also began looking for funding at the state level to purchase the land, eventually securing $3.5 million from Arizona’s 2023-2024 state budget.

“It just seemed like the stars aligned,” Barton said.

Read the full article about conserving land in Arizona by Ryan Kushner at Smart Cities Dive.