By including ranch lands as a landscape form worthy of protection and preservation, Pima County formalized its commitment to keep ranchers ranching as a way of achieving multiple community goals, including conserving natural and cultural resources, preserving open spaces, and defining urban form.

Drafted to facilitate discussion of implementation options. The concepts will assist in future planning and implementation discussions that take place as the Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan is finalized. A purchase of development rights program could assist in the funding of open space lands that contribute to the overall conservation reserve.

Provides an overview of Pima County's (1) natural, constructed and administrative form makers, (2) the origins and implementation of planning and zoning legislation and regulations, and (3) a decade-by-decade review of some of the major land use decisions made within Pima County since the 1920s.