Illustrations by Gilbert ford

Thousands of saguaros uprooted.
Dozens of bighorn sheep killed. Rivers ravaged.
George H. Johnson holds three state records
that beg the same question:
Is he the worst developer in Arizona?

 If it’s three strikes, you’re out, then Scottsdale developer George H. Johnson has struck out, leading the league with the dubious distinction of one of Arizona’s most rogue developers.
It’s a pretty outrageous title in a state known for bad developers, but both state and federal officials say he stands above them all.
In December, the State of Arizona – where an unprecedented five state agencies were suing him – settled with Johnson for a record repayment for despoiling state land, damaging a southern Arizona river and creating havoc in one of America’s newest national monuments.
Although the settlement includes the caveat that Johnson makes no admission of liability, it also provides that he repay the state agencies $7 million. Earlier, the bulldozer company he hired, 3F Contracting Inc., agreed to settle for $5.05 million, making this $12.05 million settlement the largest civil environmental recovery by state agencies in the history of Arizona, officials say.
But this wasn’t the first time, or even the second, but the third time Johnson has made state history by paying the largest fines ever assessed against a developer. And his troubles aren’t over yet. The Environmental Protection Agency has a massive lawsuit against him that stands out for the enormity of what it charges he did to the Santa Cruz River.
Just what in the world did this developer do to bring such heavy weights down on his head?
In a blog he’s been writing for two years called The Johnson Report, Johnson asserts his innocence and contends officials have targeted him unfairly. He says Arizona media have portrayed him in a bad light, making him out to be a monster that he’s not. It’s “as if Atilla (sic) the Hun were let loose upon Arizona,” he writes.
Officials say developer George Johnson has done the most dastardly things to Arizona. They say he trespassed on state and federal land – including land in one of America’s newest national monuments – and bulldozed some 270 acres without permission. They call it “moonscaping,” saying his work “resembles the aftermath of a nuclear blast” or “looks like an unpaved parking lot.”
They say that without any of the required permits, he did the same thing to another 2,000 acres, which he first claimed to be “ranching” then said he was using it to build the state’s eighth largest city with some 67,000 homes for 175,000 people.
They say he caused “irreparable damage” to seven archeological sites on state trust lands owned by the people of Arizona, including more than one–third of a 110–acre Hohokam Village that was active from 750 to 1250 A.D.
They say he polluted and diverted the Santa Cruz River, wiping out a wetland area for the endangered pigmy owl and causing flooding on Indian land downstream.
They say he caused the injuries and deaths of at least 21 protected Arizona desert bighorn sheep in a bizarre attempt at farming that proved he didn’t know the difference between cattle pens and pens for much smaller goats (the sick animals escaped and invaded a national preserve, causing havoc in Arizona’s largest bighorn herd).