Hidden Valley and Thunderbird Farms residents saw a glimmer of hope in their fight against housing developers yesterday.  

After hearing more than a dozen locals speak against the proposed Rio Blanco Ranch subdivision and county staff listing their “concerns,” the Pinal County Planning and Zoning Commission voted 8-1 to deny rezoning and planned area development requests.  

The staff said they also received 110 letters and emails in opposition to the proposed development. 

“We’re all very happy,” said Dean Ashbaucher, whose Quail Run Way home is within eyeshot of where Rio Blanco Ranch would have been built. “I moved there because it’s a horse property neighborhood and right now I’m looking out at alfalfa fields. I’d rather have that than houses that could be two stories high.” 

Tia Bass, his neighbor, said she hoped others were encouraged by the sound rejection.  

“A lot of my neighbors and community members feel they don’t have a voice and feel like county officials aren’t listening. Well, I think today very much so proves they are listening, and they are on the side of the community members,” she told InMaricopa. 

About Rio Blanco Ranch 

The area for the proposed Rio Blanco Ranch sits on nearly 600 acres of farmland at the southwest corner of Amarillo Valley and Val Vista Roads. Part of the property was zoned for a master planned community in 2009, accommodating approximately 3½ homes per acre. 

This was still the case during a February 2024 open house that Scottsdale’s Rose Law Group held on behalf of the landowners and CVL Consultants. But the plan changed last month when Hidden Valley residents learned of a rezoning request, sending them scrambling to study a 2,300-page document and speak up about what concerned them inside.  

The new request from Rose Law Group, who represented CVL Consultants and the landowners, showed they wanted to rezone the area to accommodate significantly smaller lot sizes. Most proposed were just 40 to 45 feet wide, significantly smaller than county requirements.  

This combined with 13 other yet-to-be-built single-family home subdivisions had locals worried the area could quickly become overpopulated and ruin the current agrarian ambience of the area.  

Residents said they would prefer the area to stick with ranch-style lots. 

“We understand growth is necessary in the area, but we want to honor the equestrian lifestyle,” Bass said. “We’re just asking them to honor the one home per 1.25 acres that the area is demanding. There’s not a community anywhere in Maricopa like this.” 

Even county staff echoed these sentiments.  

During the discussion, Pinal County Senior Planner Patrick Roberts said staff had concerns over road infrastructure supporting traffic along Louis Johnson Drive and Amarillo Valley Road, as well as the small lot sizes.  

“Staff has identified a concern regarding the proposed lot width and has requested including housing units with greater variety of lot widths to provide diverse housing options,” he said.  

He also pointed to the mass letters of opposition, most of which highlighted concerns about losing the rural character of the area, as well as impacts to wildlife, traffic congestion and water resources.  

Commissioners for the most part agreed, saying they believed this would result in dwelling unit numbers they “couldn’t determine at this time” or that it could lead to higher density housing “somewhere else.” 

Celebrating a minor victory 

Ultimately, that resulted in commissioners voting a recommendation to deny the request. 

“We’re making wholesale changes to this thing that we’re not comfortable with,” said Chairman Morris Mennenga. “We’re making a lot of changes that’s going to change the entire layout of this subdivision for lots and stuff.” 

Bass was among a handful of locals silently cheering after the vote.  

“We’re very, very happy that the zoning commission chose to deny this,” she said. “I think that they saw that this was not organized and it wasn’t community forward.” 

Ashbaucher said a win like this made him and his neighbors eager for when the issue is presented at an upcoming Board of Supervisors meeting. 

“We can only be hopeful at this point,” he said. “We’ve had our say and we’re very fortunate to have this meeting, to have so many people talk against it and for the vote. I think that really made an impression.” 

The next step, Bass said, was to prepare for the matter to move forward to the Board of Supervisors.  

“The big thing with that is send in the emails. Everybody can write an email,” she said. “Let’s show up and shape our community. We can’t complain about these high-density houses if we aren’t speaking up to what we actually want instead.