City Councilwoman Thelda Williams is working with the Parks and Recreation Department to arrange Phoenix's purchase of about 90 acres of state trust land in the north Valley just west of Interstate 17 and north of Carefree Highway.

The city has already begun negotiating with the state and may be the sole bidder when the land is brought up at an auction, possibly as soon as this fall.

Williams sees the land, which encompasses the Pioneer Arizona Living History Village, better known as the Pioneer Living History Museum, as an ideal location for a police academy. OAS_AD('ArticleFlex_1')

Williams believes that academy needs to leave its current South Mountain location.

"It's too small, and now it has residential property all the way around it," she said. "We know that someday we've go to move it."

Pioneer Park, as the north Valley location would be called, would be "a very logical choice (for an academy), because the topography and hills would prevent residential encroachment," Williams said.

Despite the budget headaches Phoenix is enduring, its ability to buy the land is unaffected by its depleted revenues. The lion's share of the funds needed to buy the land would come from a bond measure approved by voters in 2006. It is not clear what price the land might command, but Parks and Recreation is preparing an estimate that may be ready by week's end. Competition for the land might be minimal or non-existent. Arizona's recent downward trend in land and property values has discouraged investors and speculators from pursuing state trust lands.

If and when the city and state make a deal, the biggest winner might be the north Valley arts scene. Williams hopes an opera house can be built in Pioneer Village that would far exceed the limited capacity of the small opera house on the museum grounds. State Rep. Sam Crump, R-Anthem, say he supports Phoenix's efforts to buy the land and possibly transform it into a center for the arts.

"There's really no large arts center in the north-central Valley," Crump said.

Crump has initiated conversations with the Arts Council of the North Valley about building an arts center in Pioneer Park. He says that once the land is sold to the city, he could play a more active role in advocating an expanded role for the arts.

Regardless of what else may sprout up around it, the living history village would remain at the heart of Pioneer Park. It is home to more original buildings from Arizona's territorial phase (1863-1912) than anywhere else in the state. Pioneer Arizona Foundation, which runs the village, leases the state trust land for about $40,000 a year, according to the foundation's vice president, Ken Smithee. Smithee says the foundation whole-heartedly supports Phoenix's potential purchase of the land because the city "will ensure (the village's) permanency as a public historic park."

Although bond funds will suffice only to purchase the village's land and not to upgrade its facilities, Phoenix is well positioned to repair and improve the village with a combination of corporate sponsorship and last month's vote to extend taxes raised for the benefit of the city's parks and preserves.

Smithee said the city's efforts would benefit not only the 30,000 visitors who stop by the village every year but future generations of Arizonans, too. He fears that without intervention, the state's heritage would be devoured by its ever-expanding freeways and subdivisions.

"The history of this state is rapidly being destroyed," Smithee said.