More about where we live in San Pedro Valley...

Another of those "Back in the good ol' days" stories...

Sometime in the 1980s a group of RVers, who were coincidentally members of Escapees RV Club, a national organization, wanted a place to stay in Southeast Arizona. They found a 40 acre property available in San Pedro Valley inside the southeast city limits of Benson, Arizona. The property is ideally situated to provide stunning views of the San Pedro Valley. They put together a deal to buy it using funds provided by these Escapees members and worked out details based upon preceding groups of Escapees who had successfully done the same thing in other parts of the country.

Lots of planning went into it to minimize long-term tax and maintenance costs. Their plan was to operate as a co-operative RV facility meaning the members would own, operate and maintain the enterprise themselves. They named it SKP Saguaro Co-op RV Park. 

SKP Saguaro Co-op in Benson, AZ

A new corporation was formed and registered with the state of Arizona as a 'not-for-profit corporation'. A not-for-profit corporation is different than a non-profit in that it can accumulate cash if needs be for future improvements or planned expenses; a non-profit, on the pother hand, has to net $0 each year- essentially a 'hand-to-mouth' existence.

The plan was that people could buy into the new co-op by acquiring a life time lease on a lot. Minimal improvements are allowed such as a concrete pad to park the RV and even a small building of 288 sq ft or less to be used for any purpose except for as a living space. "Not a living space" is understood to mean you can't sleep in that building for any extended time. The 'small building' was dubbed a casita- the Spanish word for 'a small house'. If you wanted to leave the park you had to return the lease to the park. Planned cost growth is integrated into the leasehold- the value of the lot increases by 1% per year.

They found some like-minded folks willing to put up a few thousand $$, they did all the legal prep and got permits from the city/county/state for a layout done by a local surveyor creating a plan for the park: mostly individual lots but also provision for an office building, a 'maintenance" building, and - the showplace- a Clubhouse for park events. It was a minimum-cost effort with as much work as possible done by the investors.

The San Pedro Valley, satellite view

SKP Saguaro Co-op- park map including dry camping

Once the city & county approved the plans and permits were issued the land was graded and electrical power, water and sewer were installed to each lot. All power lines are buried, but in those early days aluminum wire was used for the power lines. Like the rest of the US, those aluminum power lines have since been replaced with copper wire. 

The park initially had it's own well for water. Then the local water district banned pumping domestic water from your own well and required all users to connect to city water. Which is a good thing: the city's water is treated!

The park pays the bill for all water & electrical power, then the office manager figures out what each leaseholder must pay based upon meter readings for electric power at each site plus equal distribution of cost among all lots for water (there are no water meters on individual lots). 

If a leaseholder is out of the park for awhile (we are RVers after all!), there is no charge for utilities during that absence. Additionally each leaseholder has the option to put their lot in 'the rental pool' so that visitors to the park can have an improved site to rent on a daily, weekly or monthly basis. All the income is used to offset recurring leasehold costs of those in the 'rental pool' up to a maximum of 50% of the annual M&O's for the lot.

The current cost of a lifetime lease is based upon the original cost of the land plus value escalation. We have been leaseholders since 2013. As of 2024 the lot valuation has increased about 50%. The value of the lease is escalated based on a fixed calculation which presumes property will always increase in value (I think it's 2% per year plus the shared value of fixed asset added to the park). Any improvements such as a concrete pad, walkways, casita or patio are included in the valuation. By way of example...

In 2013 when we got our lot (we were #228 on the 'hot list'- a record at the time). Lot 154 was a nice lot with the ugliest casita I could imagine. It was April 2013 and we were in Santa Fe to get the house ready for sale. Then a better choice came up and (since leaseholders have priority) we transferred from Lot 154 to Lot 265. That meant we had $$ tied up on 2 lots. By September, however, we had our $$ back from Lot 154. 

In 2013 a bare lot was valued at just under $10,000. The existing casita on Lot 265 added about $27,000. Everything was based on actual cost plus the 2% value increase. All improvements are inspected before a transfer to a new leaseholder to ensure they are maintained. The departing leaseholder has repair/replacement cost deducted from the final check.

After the preliminary work was done for the original park they held a drawing for assigning the lots to leaseholders: earliest participants got first dibs on down to the most recent investors. All work for future improvements would be done by the residents unless there were legal restrictions which dictated a licensed contractor.

Roads & lots were initially graded dirt. One of the earliest improvements (paid for by a 'special assessment') was to pave the roads. Local codes require that the lots use gravel covering to ensure rainfall is absorbed and will migrate to the water table. The total square footage of concrete is limited. All the lots had pea-gravel surfacing (that has since been changed to 1" gravel because of cost). Lawns are not permitted and decorative plantings utilizing desert plants like cactus are encouraged to maximize water conservation.

Somewhere along the line additional property became available and 20 acres on the North side of the park were added in about 1988. That addition is where our Lot 265 is located. To accommodate the addition of an RV storage area the new streets and lots are laid out at a small angle to the original park.

The San Pedro Valley shares it's name with the river which flows North out of Mexico. In its southern extremes much of the water is subsurface passing thru a sand bed which is as deep as 2,500 ft. In some locations where the sand is slightly lower the water may be visible on the surface. Water is more visible in the northern end of the San Pedro River during monsoon season which occurs from about 1 July thru about the end of September.

Water is precious in Arizona. The land along the San Pedro River is used principally for ranching and to some extent for farming- notably in St David and Pomerene where a few artesian wells still supply water; Both towns were founded by Mormons in the 1800s.

Beyond the river there is not a lot to recommend the San Pedro Valley with only 3 notable population centers-

• Benson
• St David
• Tombstone
  
• Sierra Vista (home for Fort Huachuca
  

Sierra Vista is the largest population center in the San Pedro Valley thanks to the presence of Fort Huachuca (wah-CHU-kah)- a US Army base and former US Cavalry fort. St David is a small farming town founded by the Mormons in mid-1840s. Current population is about 1.200. Tombstone has about the same polulation but it also has thousands of visitors annually who come to see where Wyatt Earp and his deputies had the gunfight at the OK Corral in 1881.

And then there's Benson, a rail town of about 5,000 year round residents. These days Benson is also adjacent to I-10 but in the 1800s it was a stop on the Butterfield Stage route. The nearest large town to Benson is Tucson which has a population approaching 1,000,000 and coincidentally is home to University of Arizona.