Valley Landowners Facing End of Era

     Arizona's farming heritage is fading. In its place are homes and schools and shopping centers that fill up as fast as the paint dries.
     Some farmers in the path of urban growth say they have little choice but to sell to developers ready to plant houses in place of crops. 
     That's why some of the region's pioneering farm families literally are losing ground to urban development. 
     Nearly 100 years ago, James Oliver Power started the Power farming dynasty in the East Valley. 
     Soon, it will be a grandson bearing the same name who, because of a changing economy and enticing offers from developers, will end the era of Power family farms. 
     Throughout Maricopa County, land where crops or cattle were grown for generations is sprouting houses and shopping centers. In far north Scottsdale, what was a cattle spread called Carefree Ranch today is Desert Mountain, a luxury golf community. 
     In Glendale, third-generation farmer Bill [Jack, mother Doris] Tolmachoff* sees himself as the last of his family to work the West Valley land along with cousins Ephram E. Tolmachoff, David J. Tolmachoff, and Paul P. Popoff. The family business was started by his grandfather, William Tolmachoff, in 1912 in Arizona the late 1800s.
     Twenty years ago, the extended Tolmachoff family owned, were buying and rented as much as about 2,000 acres. Today, after his relatives sold selling most of their his land to developers, the younger Tolmachoff owns 20 acres and leases 450 more.
     The march of urban growth across the Valley is why James Power's grandson Jim has mixed feelings when he goes walking in his East Valley cotton fields. Farming is the Power family heritage, dating to the early 1900s. But developers planting homes nearby are the family's future. 
     At its peak, the Power family totaled more than 2,000 acres and employed as many as 500 workers. 
     Today, just a few miles north of the Power family's land is the right of way for a freeway. 
"The family farms throughout the western states are becoming an endangered species," said David Iwanski, executive vice president of the Agri-Business Council of Arizona. 
     Valley farmers still put in long days growing and harvesting crops, milking cows or operating egg ranches, but those days are numbered. The land their families have owned or managed since the early 1900s is giving way to residential and commercial development. 
     Each year, about 5,000 acres of productive farmland in the Valley is sold to residential, commercial or industrial developers, Iwanski said. 
     Power, 50, isn't surprised by those numbers. He said he and his family realized in the 1980s that, while it means parting with their heritage, they inevitably would sell their land to developers. 
Power said his family's farming history started with his grandfather, who had eight sons and five daughters. Two of the sons died in their teens. 
     Today, with the growth of the family tree, grandson Jim Power has 98 first cousins. In the early 1980s, as the Power families kept growing, developers started making offers to buy the Power land. 
     "It was apparent the pie could not be divided, nor could it sustain that many other family groups," Power said. 
     As the family expanded away from farming into other careers, Power opted to stay on the farm. He likely will be the one to close the business. 
     "I'm ending up being the person who gets to sweep the last sweep and turn out the light and lock the door," he said. 
     Today, Power still is growing cotton and other crops, but next door on former Power family land are new homes under construction. They are part of Power Ranch, a master-planned development at Power and Queen Creek roads. 
     Overseeing the work is developer John Graham, president of Sunbelt Holdings. 
     Already open next to Power Ranch is Trilogy at Power Ranch, an active-adult community that is a joint venture of Sunbelt and Shea Communities. 
     Recognizing the significance of the Power family history in the region, Graham designed permanent display space in the Power Ranch information center for Power family photographs and a narrative of the family history. 
     Conversion of farms or ranches to homes hardly is new in the Valley. Park Central Mall in central Phoenix was built on the site of a dairy. Much of the Arcadia area in east Phoenix was citrus groves. 
     Also gone are the cattle feed lots near 48th and Washington streets that gave The Stockyards Restaurant its name. 
     And in north Scottsdale, the luxury-gated community of Desert Mountain was developed on what was Carefree Ranch, an 8,000-acre cattle ranch that was sold to developers in the mid-1970s. 
     Carefree Ranch's last foreman was Arkley "Lee" Mullinax Sr., 60, who is retired in Arkansas. 
Mullinax was surprised when he learned the land on which he supervised the cattle operation nearly 30 years ago is being sold in lots of an acre or more, starting at $700,000. 
     "I rode fence lines: I checked the cattle and kept good watch on things and made sure they had adequate water back up in the canyons," Mullinax said. 
     Today, the hills of the former Carefree Ranch are dotted not with cattle but with seven-figure houses surrounding five Jack Nicklaus golf courses. 
     Across the Valley, urban expansion is forcing families such as the Powers and the Tolmachoffs to either sell their land and move farther out, or get out of the business, said Robert McGee, president of Southwestern Business Financing Corp. 
     "They keep going farther out and the rest of us keep catching up to them," McGee said "As long as we grow, we're going to take over farm land." 

Arizona — Farm to Family Directory 

Maricopa County