Nearly two decades ago desert preserve advocates in both Fountain Hills and Scottsdale envisioned that preserve areas in both communities would be contiguous.

That vision became a reality last week when the City of Scottsdale was the lone bidder for 2,365 acres of State Trust Land that had been a gap between the two desert preserve areas in both communities.

The land is all within the Scottsdale city limits and encompasses an area that includes the “twin peaks” or “pyramid peaks” that dominate the western horizon of Fountain Hills.

Fountain Hills McDowell Mountain Preserve Commission Chairman Bill Meyers had raised concerns that this property could be developed.

Scottsdale now has 30,000 acres of Sonoran Desert Preserve within its city limits.

The new land abuts the Fountain Hills boundary on the west and clears the way for efforts to build a connecting trail between the Sunrise Trail in Scottsdale and the Western Loop Trail on the Fountain Hills side. Construction on this link trail is expected to start soon, according to Steve Fleming of the Sonoran Conservancy of Fountain Hills.

“Our borders are unbroken,” Fleming said. “This is the best news we have had in a long time.

“Roy Kinsey (a founder of the Fountain Hills conservancy and former McDowell Mountain Preservation Commission member) and Scottsdale’s Chet Andrews envisioned this in 1995, now it is reality.”

Scottsdale bid $21.3 million for the property, which will be partially offset by an $8 million Growing Smarter grant from the State of Arizona.

Caption:

The peaks that dominate the western horizon of Fountain Hills are now part of the Scottsdale desert preserve.