A paperwork transfer between school districts could clear the way for Maricopa’s next campus on the city’s far east side.
Maricopa Unified School District’s governing board last night approved a document shifting control of a long-standing developer agreement for a possible school site in the Arden Trails housing development. The action does not involve a land sale or purchase. Instead, it moves a 2004 school-site donation agreement from the Casa Grande Elementary School District to MUSD as part of a boundary adjustment between the two systems approved last month.
The agreement identifies a roughly 12-acre parcel within the Arden Trails development as a potential school site. Any actual construction would require additional reviews and a future vote by the governing board.
Arden Trails, formerly known as Hartman Ranch, spans about 308 acres at Steen and Anderson Roads in southeast Maricopa. The city approved rezoning in 2023 for up to 1,318 single-family homes and an estimated 4,300 residents. Phoenix-based Terra West Development plans to build the neighborhood in 12 phases, with the potential school parcel marked on the 2023 plan under Casa Grande’s jurisdiction at the time.
It sits about a mile southeast of Desert Sunrise High School, which became Maricopa’s easternmost and southernmost campus when it opened in 2022.
The boundary change approved this fall by Casa Grande and Pinal County detaches about 2,660 acres from the Casa Grande Elementary and Union High School Districts and annexes the land into MUSD to align with Desert Sunrise’s service area.
No buildings, debt or bond obligations transfer with the territory. The adjustment is expected to be finalized before Nov. 1, in time for next year’s property-tax cycle.
