P& D director calls special meeting with San Manuel area residents to get input on water planning 
By J.C. Huntington
Posted to PoisonedWells.com September 7, 2001

Dennis Cady, Pinal County Planning and Development Director

Dennis Cady, Pinal’s Planning and Development department director, said he would call a special meeting with San Manuel area residents to get their input on the Water Resource Element of the proposed Pinal County Comprehensive Plan.

According to Cady, the meeting will be October 3 in San Manuel and will present the Water Resources Element of the Pinal Comprehensive plan to the public for the first time.

Cady announced the special meeting on water resources Sept. 5 when he met with Area 4B residents in Oracle and made copies of the draft Pinal Comprehensive Plan available to them. 

A number of Oracle residents were upset to find that Pinal's draft Comprehensive Plan proposes to authorize over 29,000 acres of Area 4B for development before the county has determined whether or not there is sufficient water to support the estimated 117,000 people the developments would bring to the Area 4B.

The Pinal Comprehensive Plan has segmented Pinal into 5 planning areas, with Area 4B covering the communities of SaddleBrook, Oracle, San Manuel, and Mammoth. 

Cady did not indicate that meetings with residents in the other areas of Pinal County on the water supply issue were planned. 

Title 11, Section 821 of the Arizona Revised Statutes mandates that the Pinal Comprehensive Plan includes an analysis showing how the future growth projected by the plan can be sustained by physically available water supply.

The draft version of Pinal's Comprehensive Plan does not have a section describing the Water Resource Element.

The plan does have sections addressing land use and transportation, also required by state law, and has added another section called the Natural Environment Element. State law does not require a Natural Environment Element in the Comprehensive Plan.

Apparently Pinal Planning and Development thought that the Natural Environment Element was a higher priority than the Water Resources Element, as the draft plan devotes over 8 pages to the Natural Environment Element section and zero pages to the Water Resources Element.

The draft version of the Pinal Comprehensive Plan says that "the planning process is structured to emphasize public involvement," and the Pinal County web site has on-line questionnaires allowing residents to provide input to the plan as well as printable versions of the questionnaires (http://www.co.pinal.az.us/PlanDev/PDCP/CPInfo.html).

While Pinal's questionnaires address the state-mandated elements of land use and transportation, as well as the additional Natural Environment Element, the questionnaires do not mention the state mandated Water Resources Element of the plan.

During a meeting to gather public input on Pinal's Comprehensive Plan held July 18 in Oracle, Cady was asked why Pinal's questionnaires did not allow residents to express their concerns regarding an adequate water supply. 

Cady said that the omission was the result of a "clerical error," and suggested that the questioner make a note of the omission on his questionnaire then mail it in.

Seven weeks later, the questionnaires are unchanged.  As of this writing, the questionnaires still do not mention the state-mandated Water Resources Element of Pinal's Comprehensive Plan.

The fact that Pinal's questionnaires disallow resident input on water resources hasn't stopped Pinal residents from expressing their concern over the impact of massive development on their water supply, however.

On August 29 Cady told The Florence Reminder that meetings with residents on the Comprehensive Plan, held throughout Pinal County over the last few months, disclosed that residents were very concerned about the impact massive development on their water supply. 

"People are questioning whether the water is available for the developments," said Cady. 

Cady's Pinal County Planning and Development department has published their schedule to complete the Pinal Comprehensive Plan on the Pinal web site (http://co.pinal.az.us/PlanDev/PDCP/schedule.html). 

The schedule shows a three phased approach to adopting the Comprehensive Plan. 

The purpose of the first two phases was to obtain public input. 

According to the schedule, the public input phase ended yesterday. 

The purpose of the third and final phase of the schedule is adoption of the plan, currently scheduled to complete Dec. 19.

Unless the structure of Pinal's schedule is changed, the Oct. 3 San Manuel meeting to obtain public input on the Water Resources Element of the Comprehensive, will fall in the adoption phase of the schedule.

If Cady decides that non-Area 4B residents should also be allowed to see and comment on the draft Water Resources Element before the final public hearing with the Planning and Zoning Commission, those meetings would also fall into the adoption phase of the project, unless the schedule is restructured.

The schedule does not show the Oct. 3 San Manuel meeting.

According to the Pinal County web site, the final public hearing with the Planning and Zoning commission is currently scheduled for Oct. 11 seven days after Cady will make the critical Water Resources Element of his plan available to residents in the San Manuel area.