After rezoning over 11 square miles of Pinal County to allow construction of over 50,000 dwelling units since last November, Pinal County officials are asking citizens for input to a county wide comprehensive plan to provide a framework to address growth for Pinal County. 

       According to Pinal County Comprehensive Plan General Information, published on the Pinal County web site June 27, a Comprehensive Plan is necessary to "provide sustainable communities within the county." This same document also argues for a plan by saying, "the future will come, and local officials will make decisions about it whether or not they plan." 

       The push for a comprehensive plan began less than 5 weeks after the Pinal Board of Supervisors rezoned over 4,600 acres for the South Village of Willow Springs without any sort of comprehensive plan for the area and in spite of at least 13 violations of the Pinal Zoning Ordinance.

Map of the 6 Areas (click for larger view)

       To facilitate public input to the plan, the county has been broken into 6 areas, each of which will be represented by a Citizens Task Force.

       The job of each task force is to conduct a series of meetings with the public and then carry this information back to the Pinal Planning & Zoning Department for input to the Comprehensive Plan.

       The area covering Oracle, SaddleBrooke, San Manuel, Mammoth and Dudleyville is designated "Area 4B." 

       The Growing Smarter Plus statute stipulates the appointment of at least nine citizens for each task force.

       As of this writing the Area 4B task force does not conform to this statute as supervisor Lionel D. Ruiz appointed only 7 members, as follows: 

Jo Buttery of San Manuel. Buttery is a real estate broker for Your Broker Connection, in San Manuel.
Dawn Doubek of SaddleBrooke. Doubek is a real estate agent with the firm of Vicki L. Cox and Associates of Tucson.  Vicki L. Cox & Associates have handled all private land sales to Robson Communities, Inc. for Robson's SaddleBrooke development.
Art Verdugo of Mammoth, formerly with Broken Hill Properties.
Charlie Clark of Oracle, retired.
Gene Osborne of San Manuel, Director, Quality Energy Management Systems
Ann Woodin of Oracle, author.
Dave Collingwood of SaddleBrooke, retired. 

       By the same token, the residents of Area 4B  need to understand of the views of each task force member appointed by Ruiz to represent them in the planning process. 

       To that end, the following questions need to be asked of each member of the Area 4B task force at the upcoming public meetings.

1. Given that Pinal Planning & Zoning says a comprehensive plan is necessary for "rational choices" and to provide "sustainable communities," do you believe it is proper that 7 square miles of Pinal was rezoned for the South Village without any Comprehensive Plan for that area?

2. Do you believe it is proper the board of supervisors approved the rezoning for the South Village, in the face at least 13 violations of the Pinal Zoning Ordinance by the applicant, Anam, Inc.?

3. Did you sign or collect signatures for the referendum to allow Pinal voters to directly decide if the rezoning for the South Village was in the best interests of the county?  If you supported the referendum, please explain why you believe it a good idea to allow voters to decide this issue at the polls.  If you did not support the referendum, please explain why.

Some of the violations of the Pinal Zoning Ordinance by Anam, Inc. may be accessed by clicking HERE.

Pinal County Comprehensive Plan General Information and other information on the Comprehensive Plan, may be accessed at the Pinal County Web site by clicking HERE.   You will need Adobe Reader to view the document.  A free copy of Adobe Reader may be obtained by clicking HERE.

In the event the document no longer exists on the Pinal County web site, a copy of the document may be accessed by clicking HERE.