On May 15th, the Pinal County Planning Commission will hold a study session at 9:30 am to receive a progress report on the Pinal County Comprehensive Plan update. The Comprehensive Plan is a tool to meet the needs of the citizens by effectively planning for new development. The update of the Plan is a process to help the citizens create land use goals for the County. This update process started in October of 2006, when the Board of Supervisors hired the Morrison Institute to lay the foundation for the program by challenging the County to think about Pinal in new ways.
In February of 2007, a team of experts led by the community planning firm Partners for Strategic Action, PSA, was hired to work with Pinal citizens & landowners to develop a long term Vision that serves as the foundation for a Comprehensive Plan update. PSA is an Arizona-based firm established in 1992, & has won professional awards for their planning & public involvement projects every year since 1994. The successful planning process to date has included over 2500 people from throughout the County. Pinal County ’s goal is to complete the process in November 2008.
Arizona continues to grow, & much of this growth over the next 30 years will occur in Pinal County. The County is located in the heart of what is becoming known as the Sun Corridor Megapolitan. A Megapolitan is a large urban area, which is often composed of a number of large cites, sometimes located in a number of states. Ten Megapolitans have been identified in the United States by demographers where the majority of future growth is anticipated. The Sun Corridor is one of the fastest growing of these, & could eventually stretch from Prescott in the north to Sierra Vista in the south. To help manage this projected growth, the citizens who participated in the Comprehensive Plan update process created a vision with seven important components that focus on: Preserving Open Spaces, Getting Around & Attracting Living Wage Jobs. The new Draft Plan will address the vision.
Preserving Open Spaces
Throughout this process, the protection of open spaces was of utmost importance to Pinal citizens. To address this goal, the County amended the Comprehensive Plan last year to include a new Open Space & Trails Plan. That Plan shows large swaths of mountainous land set aside as open space as well as regional parks, wildlife corridors & trails throughout the County. The new Draft Plan strengthens this commitment by making open space an essential part of the overall land use planning effort.
Getting Around
One of the major concerns of Pinal citizens is how they will be able to travel when future growth occurs. Maricopa County grew very rapidly from the 1950’s through the 1990’s. Their transportation system was strained until they started to build freeways in the 1980’s. Maricopa County was able to use local, State, & Federal money to build their freeway network. For a variety of reasons, many of these same funding sources may not be available to Pinal County. The transportation system built here must be able to accommodate future growth safely & efficiently.
The new Draft Plan shows a proposed network of freeways & parkways, & a variety of transit options including commuter rail. By anticipating these transportation needs now, the Cities, Towns & County can begin to secure the land needed to build the effective transportation system of the future. Much of this land can be secured through the development approval process, which could save taxpayers millions of dollars.
Attracting Living Wage Jobs
Living wage jobs provide the kind of pay that provides a comfortable lifestyle where families’ needs are met. Over & over again our citizens have said that they want to be sure that these jobs will be available in Pinal for their children & grandchildren. According to 2000 US Census figures & 2007 data developed by the Central Arizona Association of Governments, Pinal County currently has only 160 jobs per 1,000 residents & this number has dropped from 200 per 1,000 only seven years ago. By contrast, Maricopa & Pima Counties both have over 500 jobs per 1,000 residents. While it is true that some jobs naturally follow population growth, these jobs are often in retail & typically offer lower wages.
Places that want to attract living wage jobs will set aside land which is well suited for employment. The City of Chandler is a good example of this type of forward thinking: they set aside lands very early in their history to attract the high paying jobs they have today. These jobs have helped to create a very strong economy in Chandler & amenities for their residents.
The new Draft Plan shows many new job centers. Some are located along the planned north-south freeway which will link Mesa with Florence & Coolidge before connecting to I-10. There are also job centers planned throughout the County, typically in areas with good existing & planned transportation access. The locations with good existing access will allow jobs to be created immediately, long before the north-south freeway is built.
There have been some claims recently that the new Draft Plan is a “no growth plan”. A close examination of the Plan shows that it accommodates growth while addressing the issues raised by the citizens of Pinal County. The Plan offers a variety of housing types & densities so that people in all stages of life will be able to find homes here. The Plan also contains a transportation plan that builds on the County’s multi-year planning efforts as well as the efforts of the many of the cities and towns in Pinal County. Perhaps most importantly, the Plan contains activity centers which will provide the employment opportunities that Pinal citizens have demanded. These centers are located throughout the County, & most of them have access to the transportation they need to develop whenever the market is right.
A Forum Series has been scheduled to discuss important aspects of the plans. They are all being held at the Central Arizona College, Signal Peak Campus, Gloria R. Sheldon University Center, Room T 116 in Coolidge from 6 pm to 8 pm. A panel of experts will discuss the following topics.
May 15th: Multimodal Circulation
May 22nd: Economic Development
May 29th: Water
June 5th: Sustainability