CASCABEL — A proposed residential community would mean big business for Benson but the people living north along the San Pedro River in Cascabelwant none of it.
The Villages at Vigneto, sited just south of Benson, would potentially boost the population of the small town of 5,000 people to over 70,000 in the space of 20 to 25 years. The development has come under fire for the potential damage it could cause to the water resources of the area, chiefly to the San Pedro River and the habitats that rely on it. For the people living north of the city like Anna Lands and Alex Binford-Walsh, it means so much more than that.
“We are really going to get squeezed,” said Lands. “The people from there are going to want to come here.”
The area around Cascabel is very rural, with views of the east side of the Rincon Mountains and the rustle of cottonwood trees that demarcate the flow of the San Pedro, the last undammed river in the state of Arizona.
That river flow is spotty at best – only flowing continuously after a heavy rain during monsoon season. It’s famous for being home to hundreds of species of birds and animals. It serves as a sort of highway for migratory birds traveling north or south, as well as a watering point for movements east and west.
“Compared to what this valley used to be like, sure we are protected but this whole place has been destroyed,” Binford-Walsh said. “We lost the jaguars, the ocelots the coatimundis, the otters, the beavers, the muskrats, the grizzly bears, the mountain lions, the wolves.”
Whether or not the development would actually damage the river system near Cascabel is an open question. Hydrologic studies (some of which were done by University of Arizona hydrologists) point to the upper and lower basins being separate. Regardless, it is the river that comes first and foremost in regards to issues people have with the development.
“There’s so much traffic around the area,” Binford-Walsh said. “The only way to have a healthy river is to have a whole healthy river, you know? That’s the only way we will have the jaguar.”
Currently, the road to Cascabel becomes dirt after a couple dozen miles out from Benson. It is a popular location for using off-road vehicles, with clubs across Southern Arizona visiting the spot.
“The best part of a dirt road is that nobody cuts through here, Binford-Walsh said. “They’d want to pave the road eventually. Almost definitely.”
While Binford-Walsh and Lands are some of the more vocal members of the Cascabel community on the issue, there have been residents at Benson city council meetings who spoke on the issue.
“I can’t speak for everyone in Cascabel,” Lands said. “I think it’s fair to say that there’s a fair number of people who don’t think about the development. Others may think ‘Oh it’s a terrible thing,’ but it’s not their way to get actively involved.”
Benson has approved the master plan for the Villages at Vigneto, but the project has been halted by the Army Corps of Engineers in regards to the water permit.
“You’ve got a wide spectrum of people in the middle and that’s what you have to take into consideration whenever you’re talking to everyone, because you’re not going to be able to please everyone,” Benson City Councilman David Lambert said.
This development would be a great boon to the city of Benson, which doubles in population during the winter months when snowbirds stay in the many recreational vehicles parks around town. The Villages at Vigneto would catapult Benson to the largest city in Cochise County.
“The benefits are the growth of the area,” Lambert said. “Benson has been kind of stalemated for several years on growth. Our tax base will start to grow, rapidly.”
Those outside of the benefits, like Lands and Binford-Walsh, don’t see that growth as a plus – as it can come with unintended consequences.
“One of the beautiful things, one of the excellent things about this area is the dark night sky,” Lands said. “It’s already threatened. The motto around here is [The Villages at Vigneto] are a done deal until it gets stopped.”
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Erik Kolsrud is a reporter for Arizona Sonora News, a service from the School of Journalism with the University of Arizona. Contact him at ekolsrud@email.arizona.edu
If the San Pedro River ceases to flow, it will be everyone’s loss.
Since I moved out to Cascabel, AZ, this beautiful area has changed but not for the better. Too many people and too much road paving. The Villages of Vigneto will destroy the remaining beauty of the area and bring crime plus ugly urban sprawl. We as Americans need to focus more on how we can help others and less on how we can profit off of others.
As a Cascabel resident for over 16 years, I have noticed that in addition to the large animals described in the article, there has been a major loss of bats and many of the migratory and other birds unique to the area. It has been a heartbreaking loss….
This is a beautiful and unique place in 21 century America….
I too wish to see it preserved and put a halt to major development. Since our water comes from the San Pedro which runs south to north, development in
Sierra Vista has already impacted our water levels. More growth in this fragile water ecosystem would cause great hardship to many of us who would need to dig deeper, costly wells.
I add my voice to those calling to the stop of development
There is only one San Pedro River and it is worth more than all the developments in the whole state.
I realize that Benson is licking its lips over the benefits of this potential development but something this concentrated will develop its own mini town facilities. I am sure that Benson will benefit to some extent. However, the loss to the river is enormous – this part of the river in Cascabel is very unique, offers visitors the pleasures of seeing an ecosystem relatively unstressed. How can we teach our children and grandchildren about the value of wilderness if it becomes so limited? Each time I head home from a necessary trip to Tucson I can feel my whole system relax as I drive deeper into the valley and let go of the city stress. It is here for all to visit and enjoy the peace. Vigneto will result in region-wide destruction to say nothing of the loss of the water table.
Kudos to everyone who resists the destruction of the last remaining intact natural desert river ecosystem in Arizona. We already know what happens when massive stick-and-stucco sprawl invades a desert river valley, with its strip malls, connector highways, artificial lakes, and rapidly dropping water table. Don’t write the last chapters of “How the West Was Lost”.
The landscape will change. The culture will change. The resources, particularly our fragile watershed, will be stretched beyond their capacity to serve us; beyond their capacity to support the varied and abundant native wildlife. If it is built, it cannot be unbuilt. What it obscures, what it destroys, will not return. It will be a mistake that cannot be undone, and what this place is today will one day be unremembered, because in only a generation or two there will be no one remaining who has a memory of it before the damn thing was built.
This development may bring money to Benson, but it will also destroy it. Currently Benson is a small charming community and it’s easy to see why so many snowbirds flock there. But once the Villages at Vigneto go in Benson will become just another cookie cutter cluster of strip malls, box stores, and fast food restaurants. Little intact towns like Benson are an endangered part of the Arizona landscape and should be protected and cherished for all they have to offer.