Frederick: First, tell me about the plans for the land that was Young’s Farm.

Marinaccio: Well, the developer that bought the land, Monogram Development Services, has submitted plans in the form of two rezoning applications. The first one is a commercial area of approximately 28 acres located at the corner of Routes 169 and 69. They also have a plan for a residential rezoning all the rest of the Young’s Farm acreage, and so you’re looking at just under 300 acres that would be rezoned for residential. That was divided into other portions as well. Seventy-five homes would occupy a buffer zone of 15 acres just south of the commercial area, and the rest of the acreage would be populated with approximately 225 houses sitting on half acre lots, 0.8 acre lots, and a few houses on larger lots than that, from approximately two to four acres or so, there’s no exact measurements. However, you have to understand that most houses would be on half acre lots or 0.8 acre lots, and the houses on larger lots are owning lots of river bottom that really can’t be used.

Frederick: So where does the Town Council stand on this development issue?

Marinaccio: On the commercial development it voted four to three to approve the commercial re-zoning, but on the residential development it voted six to one against rezoning.

Frederick: So where do you stand on it?

Marinaccio: Well on both applications I voted “no.” On the commercial application I voted no for two reasons. First, I felt that 28 acres was much larger than they needed for what they were portraying as a quaint little marketplace. But the other problem, and this was much worse, was that Monogram did not submit any kind of a conceptual drawing for this, and so we really had no way of gaging what, exactly, was the intent for this land. My personal opinion is that they’re rezoning the land so that they could sell it.

Frederick: What about the residential area?

Marinaccio: I voted against the residential area for several reasons. First of all, I believe that one of the greatest assets that Dewey-Humboldt has is large lots. The other big issue I had with it was that the lot sizes being smaller and all that, I was hoping that Monogram was going to come to the table with a very good looking plan, something that was very, very special. I didn’t see Monogram going out of their way in any big fashion to make this anything special.

Frederick: So what do the majority of people of Dewey-Humboldt want?

Marinaccio: There was survey done in 1998 and another one done in 2004; both of these surveys indicated that the people of Dewey-Humboldt overwhelmingly valued the kind of lifestyle they already had, which is large lots, peace and quiet, nice views. In the last election—and in fact in any election so far in Dewey-Humboldt—the people that have run on a “keep it rural” platform, and have held to those values, have always done well.

Frederick: Would you tell us more about the proposed recall election aimed at removing you from office?

Marinaccio: What I think we have is a group of people who politically are in a minority; this includes two former mayors who both didn’t do very well and found themselves off of the Council one way or another. And it appears that you have a group that wants to see the Council changed out, and is aiming at removing those who don’t agree with them politically.

Frederick: Considering the rapid growth of tract housing in this state and throughout the American West, do you think that Dewey-Humboldt can really stay “Arizona’s Country Town?”

Marinaccio: Absolutely. But that's only if the people of Dewey-Humboldt want to do what it takes to keep it a country town.

Frederick: So do you have an overall vision for the Town of Dewey-Humboldt?

Marinaccio: The vision will come together through the General Plan survey. But there are other things that I would like to see. I would like to see Dewey-Humboldt become more independent in the way it uses water, more independent in the way that it uses energy, and more independent in the way that it looks at itself, as a viable community, one that has its own self-determination.

People that live in Dewey-Humboldt are proud of the town they live in. It might be little. There might not be a lot of us who live there by comparison to Prescott Valley, but we like what we have.

(Freelance writer Mark C. Frederick and Councilman Marinaccio are good friends. Mark lives in Wilhoit and you can reach him at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it .)