County officials provide updates on Pinal County Comprehensive Plan

City council received an update on the Pinal County Comprehensive Plan at Tuesday’s meeting.

County Planning Director Jerry Stabley reminded council members and the audience that Pinal County is the size of Connecticut. By 2010 its population is anticipated to be 10 million people.

The Comprehensive Plan is a proactive approach to “economic development and growth management,” according to Stabley. “Over 3,000 county residents have had an opportunity to provide their input in a series of workshops and forums,” he noted.

Areas addressed by the plan include: open spaces and places, sense of community, economic sustainability, quality educational opportunities, healthy and happy residents, mobility and connectivity as well as environmental stewardship.

Speaking before the Pinal Partnership, Board of Supervisors Chairman David Snider updated those participants on the County’s Comprehensive Plan.

“Without reservation,” Chairman Snider announced, “I can say the response by Pinal County residents and stakeholder groups was tremendous. We have received over 50 letters from various groups and interests from across the county and central Arizona.”

The Pinal County Comprehensive Plan update process has involved thousands of county residents and stakeholders from throughout the state to help shape Pinal County’s future. The 60-day review period for the first draft of the plan closed last week. The common element shared by all the respondents was their desire to make Pinal County the best it can be. They also showed a strong level of trust that their comments would be taken very seriously.

“We want to make sure people have a chance to review the comments from those who voiced their opinion,” Chairman Snider said. “The county will be creating a page on the project website that will show all the comments received by the Comprehensive Plan committee. The second draft of the plan will be modified based on those comments.”

The second draft of the Comprehensive Plan will be available on October 17. Citizens and stakeholders will then have another 60 days to comment on the second draft. Public meetings and hearings on the Comprehensive Plan will resume after the end of the holiday season in January.

This change will not impact the major plan amendments, which have been requested by individual property owners. They will still follow the Comprehensive Plan Amendment Schedule shown on the Pinal County website www.pinalcountyaz.gov within the Planning and Development portion of that website.

The first draft of the Pinal County Comprehensive Plan is still available on the project website www.PinalCountyPlan.com. To receive information about upcoming events, please sign up on that website.

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