I love everything about that area. Santa Cruz as well.
Discussion
Me too. I am biased since I was born in Tucson. And I have lived all over AZ. But I think it is magical down here. This is still the wild west. I am desert crature through and through.
Cochise county is the best for building for me as well. They have opt out permits so you can do mostly what you want. Although we haven't even done that because we are so well hidden.
As long as you have a water source down there you are golden.
Working on rain water collection. We live on a giant hill is there is a ton to collect when It rains just need storage. Also collection from solar panels once I get them. Mounted properly. For now, we have a neighbor a few miles away that trucks a lot of water in and helps us out. We only use 300 gallons a month currently.