It’s been a BIG week for Miracle Valley and demolition has been officially halted! Your signed notice petitions hand delivered to the county along with our teams tireless efforts have together effected change!

Watch my video update on what has transpired and what this means moving forward…

This is a temporary pause while I finalize consulting with the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) regarding the historic significance of A. A. Allen and how that pertains to the historic value of the Miracle Valley property he established which had been slated for demolition.

Once this consult has been completed, SHPO will give a verdict to the Cochise County Board of Supervisors responsible for the property. We believe that the documentation we’ll provide to SHPO (on top of what Cochise County have furnished them with) will enable them to see this property qualifies under the historic landmark criteria guidelines set out by the National Register of Historic Places (part of the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service).

Right now this consultation is going on because there is a possibility the property may meet the criteria for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places. Should the SHPO officer declare this property does appear to meet the criteria, this would continue the full requirement of a statute which governs how the Cochise County staff and Board of Supervisors must “exercise caution” when stewarding and selling historic properties.

This set of statues regarding this process are rarely seen or used and we are dedicated to helping Cochise County through the process of careful stewardship of this property regarding these rarely called on statutes which must be adhered to. We’ve offered to purchase the property to help them with this careful stewardship process which is so rarely done that the board, attorney and staff overlooked this completely legal solution which may need to be called upon for them to “exercise caution” as they move toward selling the property. We don’t expect anyone to bend laws (quite the opposite!). Our attorney’s and their attorney’s are navigating all of this now they’re being made aware of these highly unusual statues which are critical to this special circumstance we all find ourselves in with this property.

We appreciate how dedicated the Board of Supervisors and County Administrator have been to doing right by this historic property and appreciate Dan Coxworth standing down on demolition efforts at this time. Everyone in the county has been incredibly helpful and we appreciate your continued support is sharing your concerns with respect as we all navigate this.

Pray with us for SHPO in the coming days that they would determine that the property appears to meet historical significance criteria. This would mean it will officially be illegal for any buildings on the property to be demolished, as well as it being required that they sell the property with care.

After this determination another Board of Supervisors Work Session will be set for discussion on how to proceed regarding the future of the property. Keep in mind that decisions have to made under gavel with vote at Board Meetings and a Work Session would be for County Staff and Board members to inform one another and discuss the property.

If this historical determination is made for the property, this would trigger an 8-9 month process going from Arizona State, all the way to the national board for the National Register of Historic Places. The Cochise County Board of Supervisors would be able to pull out of this process by selling the property with caution at any point in that process, at which point it would be up to the future owner of the property to determine if they’d like to continue with the process or not.

We’re here to serve and support this community with real solutions and that goes beyond simply sharing concerns or helping to halt demolition. We’re hopeful that our organization will be the successful new owners of the property and we appreciate your support. As I said in my morning speech on Tuesday, May 9th, my great-grandparents helped this community thrive in the past, members of the Allen family can be trusted again.

For more information on how the Tuesday meetings went, you can read the Sierra Vista Herald Review newspaper article. Not all information is fully accurate, but it’s a great documentation of events overall: https://www.myheraldreview.com/news/cochise_county/demolition-work-halted-in-miracle-valley/article_043610dc-ef72-11ed-ace4-b764b3df9aac.html

*Photos credit to Herald Review.