Activists force referendum 

Second Oracle rezoning heads for vote

Pinal County residents will vote on two big Oracle developments next year, now that the county government has verified that activists turned in enough signatures to force a vote on the 8,500-home Willow Springs Ranch. 

Today, county officials said they had concluded that 4,537 of 5,857 signatures - about 77 percent - that the Pinal Citizens for Sustainable Communities turned in early this month are valid. That's based on a check of 293 randomly chosen signatures. 

The citizens group is fighting landowner Anam Inc. in its request for a rezoning to build 8,500 homes and a golf course on 7 square miles northeast of Oracle Junction in the Black Mountains. That would be the first phase of a 25,000 to 28,000-home subdivision that would spread over nearly 30 square miles of prickly pear, mesquite and saguaro-filled desert east of Arizona 79 and north of Arizona 77. 

A spokesman for the project's developer, the Remington group, said the company may go to court to try to overturn the county's election certification. If it sues, the company would argue that the activists turned in their signatures two weeks later than they should have, under the law. "We'll definitely have a statement ready for release Tuesday or Wednesday," developer Alex Argueta said. 

County officials, however, have told the petition group that it submitted the signatures in time, in early July. 

To get signatures, residents spent 30 days of what spokeswoman Mary Ellen Kazda called "hot, hard work." They walked door-to-door and stood in front of stores to obtain signatures. 

They gathered signatures in Oracle, and in 110-degree and up June heat in Coolidge, Casa Grande, Apache Junction, Dudleyville, Winkelman and San Manuel, Kazda said. 

If it survives a legal challenge, the referendum will make the November 2002 ballot. 

The Oracle activists had previously secured enough signatures to force Robson Communities' 6,000-home Saddlebrooke Ranch northwest of Oracle Junction onto the November 2002 ballot as well. 

A third referendum drive stopped the 3,900-home Rancho Coronado project just north of Arizona 77 a year ago. 

* Contact Tony Davis at 807-7790 or verdin@azstarnet.com.