From the June 16, 2001 edition of the AJ News http://www.ajnews.com/

Pinal County Supervisors Under Fire Over Zoning Approval

By Lanie Bethka

The News

Pinal County Supervisor Sandie Smith

FLORENCE- The Pinal County Board of Supervisors have been challenged over a zoning change and the subsequent approval of a planned development for a master-planned community in southern Pinal County.

Opponents say the Board did not have statutory authority to approve a rezoning PAD for the area because Pinal County had failed to develop a County Comprehensive Plan as required by state statute derived from the Growing Smarter Proposition adopted in 1999 and the Growing Smarter Plus Proposition which was adopted in 2000.

Pinal County residents in the Oracle area have protested the zoning change and the planned community of Willow Springs. They formed an organization called the Pinal Citizens for Sustainable Communities, Inc., and have hired a Tucson attorney, Anne Graham-Bergin, to formally request the Pinal County Board of Supervisors to rescind the zoning change.

However, officials say there is some question about the vaguely written statute covering the county portion of the law. According to an area attorney, who works with cities, towns and counties, the statute governing counties is very clear that once a county has developed a comprehensive plan, it must update that plan every ten years. It is vague about when a county must first adopt such a plan.

According to sources in Pinal County government, The News learned that Pinal County does have several comprehensive area plans which all contain the same goals and objectives but no county-wide general plan has been adopted.

The question of whether the state statute has been violated remains up in the air.

Meanwhile, opponents of the Willow Springs South Village, planned by Anam, Inc., have begun a petition drive to put the issue to the voters in a special referendum election.

Mary Ellen Kazda, of Oracle, speaking for the Pinal Citizens for Sustainable Communities, Inc., said the group has until July 2, 2001, to gather a minimum of 3030 valid voter signatures.

Opponents to the development have been running advertisements in area newspapers, accusing Pinal County Supervisors of approving the Anam rezoning despite 13 alleged violations of the Pinal County's zoning ordinance.

District 2 Supervisor Sandie Smith told the News that Pinal County Deputy County Attorney William McLean is researching the issues and will respond as soon as he has an answer. Smith said, "As far as I know, we have done nothing wrong."

District 1 Supervisor Lionel Ruiz told the News, "Our legal advisor is the County Attorney's Office. They are part of the development process from start to finish. If the county attorneys believed there were any violations, they would tell us immediately so we could avoid violations."

Click HERE to read a listing of some of the violations in Anam's rezoning request.