Progress Made in Acquiring Woodland Lake Park

Securing the 583-acre Woodland Lake Park (WLP) parcel has been a top Town of Pinetop-Lakeside strategic management goal for over 25 years.  Since June 2007, the WLP Acquisition Task Force has pursued strategies detailed in the 2007 University of Arizona Woodland Lake Park Tract Master Plan to make sustained progress toward securing WLP. The completed “acquisition checklist” includes:

• Engaged the Trust for Public Lands to assist the Town, a nationally-acclaimed organization dedicated to helping communities preserve open space and parkland.
• Completed a comprehensive Feasibility Study of financial options available to the Town to fund the acquisition of the developed park.
• Task Force developed a consensus strategy including raising the Town’s general sales tax and extending the existing restaurant and bar tax.  It also recommended that the Town work with Congress to allow the Blue Ridge School District to acquire the 40-acre Big Springs Environmental Study Area.
• Conducted an independent public opinion survey, contacting nearly half the Town’s households, finding that 77% supported the Task Force strategy. A separate survey found 73% of business owners supported the strategy.
• Obtained an appraisal – in July 2009, the Save Our Park obtained a “market analysis” establishing a baseline cost to acquire WLP. The 98-acre developed park was appraised at $6 million.
• Town Council recognizes initiative effort – In October 2009, the Town Council unanimously passed a Resolution 09-1072 in support of the Task Force’s multifaceted strategy, though no action to implement the strategy’s funding measures was taken. A citizen’s group began an initiative effort to acquire WLP, and in late-October 2010, submitted petitions with over 800 signatures, or nearly a third of the Town’s registered voters.  Due to technicalities, the Town could not accept the petitions, but the Town Council directed the Task Force to develop an ordinance. 
• Funding ordinances passed by Town Council –  On February 3, 2011, the Town Council passed two ordinances that will be voted upon in a mail ballot in August 2011. One extends the existing restaurant and bar tax at the current rate, and the other increases the sales tax by four-tenths of a percent (or two cents on a $5 purchase.)
• Began environmental analysis required by the Forest Service.

Save Our Park, Inc. is a 501c3 non-profit established to help the town with the acquisition.