The Pinal County board of supervisors unanimously approved a land-use plan on Wednesday, Nov. 18 that will guide the county as it grows from a population of about 350,000 to a projected 6.1 million in the next 70 years. “State law requires counties to develop growth plans every 10 years that focus on land use for the next 10 to 15 years, but we decided to look at the county at build-out,” said Heather Murphy, spokeswoman for the county. Pinal County had already prepared a comprehensive plan back in 2000, but the hyper-growth that has occurred in the county from that point until 2006, made it necessary for a new plan. This plan focuses on employment and housing centers across the county, linking them together by multiple modes of transportation, including rail and freeway systems, as well as a regional airport. Some of these areas, which the county calls "activity centers," are plotted where little or no development has occurred. “Instead of waiting for a city to form and say 'OK, let's put transportation there,' we wanted to say 'OK, a center will be here in the future; let's put transportation there,'” Murphy said. The plan is the result of more than three years of public input, community meetings and consultations. “Thousands of people have their fingerprints on this document, including the youth of the county whom were involved in several meetings,” Murphy said. The plan includes blueprints for where Pinal County will develop transportation networks, housing, employment, commercial and industrial areas, and public facilities. In developing the section of the map that outlines the future for the city of Maricopa, the city submitted its general plan, a document similar to the comprehensive plan, and attended meetings to provide feedback to the county to ensure the vision for the city was kept in the design. In Maricopa, the plan lays out the location of an airport, employment centers and future housing. “We couldn’t please 100 percent of the peoples' desires with this plan, but we think we got a large majority,” Murphy said. Submitted map |