Four years ago Chino Valley citizens decided they didn’t want “progress” in the form of a private airstrip on a nearby 1,100-acre parcel owned by Perkins Ranch, Inc. And especially not if Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University flight students used the airstrip for incessant “touch-and-go” landings. Though deterred by public opposition, the airstrip hasn't gone away; instead, like those eager flight students in their blue and white airplanes, the airstrip has come around again for yet another approach.
ERAU withdrew its interest after the private airstrip plan failed to fly with Chino Valley residents in 2003, when the Town of Chino Valley formally denied the Perkins Ranch request to rezone 3,840 acres of the 8,300-acre ranch because of Perkins’ failure to provide a list of non-conforming uses and a development plan. But they said the rancher-cum-developer, Tom Perkins, Sr., could reapply if he corrected his paperwork deficiencies.

What airstrip?

Perkins Ranch soon tried to land the airstrip again, but from a different approach. In August 2005, apparently believing that a 2001 pre-annexation agreement with the Town  “grandfathered” his right to construct an airstrip, Perkins hired a contractor to compact, grade, and blade an airstrip on Sections 13 and 14 without approved rezoning or a conditional use permit. Within a month the Town filed for a restraining order and an injunction against Perkins Ranch in Yavapai County Superior Court, which held hearings in October.
The Perkins Ranch entitlement to airstrip construction appeared to rest on a claim that the ranch was merely “improving” an already existent airstrip. The hearing examined Perkins’ airport application to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA); Perkins had checked the box labeled “Establishment or activation” of an airport, and left “Alteration” unchecked. The application also lists “zero” as the monthly number of landings as of July 5, 2005. The FAA application is apparently inconsistent with claims of of a preexisting airstrip. Aerial photos of the area show no trace of any preexisting airstrip construction, and Kelly Levine, the Perkins’ widowed daughter-in-law and major shareholder of Perkins Ranch, Inc., testified there was no airstrip nor any planes landing on Sections 13 and 14.

Perkins Ranch neighbor Betty Wells, who's lived on Perkinsville Road since 1952, later supported Kelly Levine’s 2005 testimony. Wells said she traveled the Chino backcountry with her father, who worked as a trail guard and pumped water for a sheep association. “A livestock trail wound through area ranches and [national] forest land toward town,” she said, sweeping her hand across the peaceful landscape. “There just wasn’t any airstrip.”
But, Wells said, a few aircraft have landed in the area. “My husband’s cousin landed on the road a couple of times to bring us supplies when Granite Creek flooded,” she recalled. “Two men landed on Narrow Gauge Road and drove into Chino and robbed the old Valley National Bank once.”

The hearing documented the unpopularity of the airstrip proposal with Chino Valley residents. Mayor Fann’s testimony included public dismay about the project and her conflicting personal belief that “the future of Chino Valley will have some sort of municipal airport . . .”

Fann testified that she suggested to the Perkins that Sections 23, 24, and 25 might be a more appropriate location for an airstrip. She also cautioned the Perkins about forging ahead with the project, warning that “even if [the airstrip] received a 7-0 in-favor vote from the [P&Z] commission and a 7-0 in-favor vote from the [town] council . . . I guarantee you every one of us would get recalled and there would be a referendum that would be filed the next day rejecting our vote . . .”

Airpark plus

Perkins Ranch and the Town of Chino Valley reached a resolution, resulting in the ranch setting up a third approach and hoping for a smooth landing. Perkins Ranch applied for rezoning for development by January 2007, but word was slow in reaching a public already disapproving of Perkins' past touch & go's.
Perkins Ranch attorney David Ward followed to a “T” Chino Valley P&Z Ordinance #45 requiring landowners within 300 feet of the Perkins’ property be notified: no one lives that close, so there was no notification necessary. In May 2007, the ranch notified landowners within 1,000 feet of Perkins’ property. Word of the new proposal finally filtered around Chino Valley four months after the initial zoning request and the issue inevitably took flight again. Mayor Fann was mum on the new proposal -  later blaming  P&Z processes that precede publicizing zoning requests - until she fielded airpark questions on her July 12, 2007 radio program.

No longer called a private airstrip, the proposal now is for a “private airpark with public usage.”  Perkins Ranch attorneys say the ambitious three-phase, 20-year plan “fulfills the stated purpose of the Chino Valley Special Development Area (SDA), ” although the SDA doesn't specify an airport. “SDA” is a Chino Valley 2003 General Plan land-use designation for low-density residential housing coupled with commercial development. “General areas allocated along Perkinsville Road, along the eastern boundary of the Town and to the East of the Granite Creek floodplain have been designated as Special Development Areas for future job centers,” the General Plan reads.
Opponents expect the airpark to draw around itself more commercial and light industrial businesses like those seen at the Prescott airport. But they also fear an influx of heavy manufacturing plants, feed lots, automobile salvage yards, quarries and mines and associated batch plants, concrete plants, slaughterhouses, refineries, outdoor storage yards and junkyards and vehicle motor sports facilities.

A wing and a prayer

Today, this scenic SDA has only scattered residential occupants, one of the last pronghorn herds in the area and natural aviators - a population of threatened bald eagles that nest along the Verde River.
Garchen Buddhist Institute, an exquisitely quiet 75-acre retreat facility, sits on a ridge overlooking the unfinished dirt airstrip. When I recently spoke with the Institute’s spiritual leader, Garchen Rinpoche, a Tibetan lama known internationally for his gentle humor and compassion, he seemed to have little worldly concern as he sat cross-legged on the floor of the facility’s stupa, a shrine symbolizing the Buddha’s enlightened mind.
Garchen Rinpoche emphasized community dialog, cooperation and a spiritual outlook. “When I face an issue, I pray and recite mantra,” he said, whirling his ever-present Tibetan prayer wheel. “I encourage people to use prayer before making decisions.”

(Kate Robinson is a substitute teacher living in Chino Valley, a student at Garchen Institute and a member of the Professional Writers of Prescott. Contact her at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .)

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