By Joe Ferguson | Arizona Daily Star
No one is sharpening an ax to cut down thousands of acres of lush, green pecan groves that color the landscape along the Santa Cruz River in Sahuarita.
Monday night, however, the Sahuarita Planning and Zoning Commission will weigh in on plans to transform the pecan farm into a master-planned community with 1,900 acres set aside for homes, 1,100 acres for businesses and another 2,400 acres for planned mixed-use projects.
The local family that owns Farmers Investment Co. believes it could easily be a decade before a single tree falls to make way for new projects, but even then the company owns thousands of undeveloped acres in the community that are not part of day-to-day operations.
