By Tony Davis | Arizona Daily Star
The Andrada Ranch between the Empire and Santa Rita Mountains southeast of Tucson is like the Old West. The Schutz property in the Tortolita Mountains northwest of Tucson is like Saguaro National Park — West.
But these two parcels also have plenty in common. Their owners would love to sell them to Pima County as open space but the county lacks money to buy. They’re going on the private market and could be developed if sold. Yet in today’s still-depressed real estate market, they’ve had trouble attracting private buyers.
They’re hardly the only such open lands in limbo. Owners of one or two such parcels ask county officials each month if they’d be interested in buying, says Nicole Fyffe, executive assistant to Pima County Administrator Chuck Huckelberry. So many such properties exist that “I don’t even know where to start” identifying them, Fyffe says.
