Maricopa annexes 313 industrially zoned acres

In two specially called back-to-back meetings, the Maricopa Planning & Zoning Commission and City Council Monday annexed 313 acres of county industrially zoned land that includes the shuttered Waste Management landfill.

The move will give Maricopa about five square miles of employment-producing property, something necessary to creating jobs for local residents and allowing the city to become more than a bedroom community, according to Planning Director Amy Haberbosch.

Zoning and uses of the land will not change, which means the landfill could reopen when demand stipulates. Doug Jordan, an attorney representing Waste Management, which also operates the Butterfield Station in Mobile 8 miles away, did not say if and when that might occur. He did not know the remaining capacity. The property once known as Browning Ferris Industries of Pinal County, after multiple ownership and naming changes, now goes under the moniker of Sierra Estrella Landfill.

The annexation process began about 2 ½ years ago over concerns about higher density residential zoning requests to the county in the area that did not comply with Maricopa’s master plan, Haberbosch said. Initially, the area being considered for annexation included many large-lot rural properties, but the city received scores of protests from residents who did not want to be in the city – at least that soon. Eventually, those areas were removed from the annexation.

The city also gave assurances to an area farmer that it would be allowed to continue operating as it historically has.

Industrially zoned land is necessary for cities to have a place set aside for economic development. New and rapidly growing Arizona cities historically have seen home builders develop first, followed by retail and finally industrial uses. If early uses eat up available land for job-producing industries to set up, a higher percentage of residents have to drive elsewhere to jobs. That tends to lessen community connection, reduces the potential property tax base, contributes to rush hour traffic jams and makes for less than complete communities.

“We have to be self-sustaining,” she said after the planning meeting. “We have to have employment.”

Jordan of Waste Management told P&Z commissioners that it would be decades before anyone knows what use the landfill might serve. Because it takes years of settling, no structures could be built on top of it. Federal regulation also restricts introducing water, which further limits use. But there is a golf course on a closed and covered landfill in Phoenix, so there are opportunities for popular uses after the landfill is closed, covered and settled.

Property around the landfill is buildable, Jordan said, and Waste Management is comfortable with fulfilling previous agreements, including those that called for sport fields around the site.

Delia Carlyle, chairwoman of the Ak-Chin Indian Community, said her government first learned of the annexation vote Monday morning, and it has issues involving the area that have not been resolved. The meeting notice came Friday, but tribal offices were closed.

“This is the first time we’ve heard of this,” she said.

Vice Mayor Brent Murphree assured Carlyle that the annexation did not speak to any specific development, and that Maricopa’s annexation merely cut the number of jurisdictions with influence over the development from three to two – cutting out the county.

Councilman Edward Farrell asked Haberbosch if the Ak-Chin Community was notified, and she said every land owner within 300 feet was contacted, and there was a sign posted on the site.

“They were on the list,” she said.

Three of the sections border the Community, she said, and there have been incidents of cut fences, trespassing and ATV damage to the area designed not only for preservation but also for burial sites.

Both Murphree and Carlyle said the two jurisdictions should meet to talk about legal and other issues in such areas of mutual interests.