While all  the different versions distributed by Pinal County have the same date, August 27, 2001 -- leading the unsuspecting to believe that there is but one draft plan -- the differences between the various versions are significant.

Some versions of Pinal's draft Comprehensive Plan call for a completely new land use category called "Sustainable Community" and describe the new category in terms taken from the promotional literature for the Willow Springs project -- apparently taking a cue from the advertisement promoting the project, paid for by county supervisor Lionel D. Ruiz.  

In these versions of Pinal's plan, the only land in Pinal County that is designated as a "Sustainable Community" is the Willow Springs project. 

In other versions, the category of "Sustainable Community" is completely absent -- and the existing town of Oracle (population: 3,500) is shown to be the same land use category as the proposed Willow Springs project, which will house over 80,000 people if built. 

Some versions the land use map shows the Willow Springs project sprawling over several hundred acres of state trust land. 

In other versions, the usurping of state trust land by Pinal for the Willow Springs project has been minimized but not eliminated.

All versions are consistent in planning to import over 117,000 people to a small area in Pinal County called "Area 4B," however.

Another similarity among the different versions is that none of them contain a Water Resources Element demonstrating that there sufficient water to support the massive population increase authorized by Pinal's Comprehensive Plan.

State law requires that Pinal's Comprehensive Plan contain an analysis showing that there is enough water to support the population growth authorized by the plan. 

At a meeting on Pinal's Comprehensive Plan held in Oracle on Sept. 5  it was pointed out to Dennis Cady, director of Pinal's Planning and Development department, that even though his plan proposed a massive population increase in Pinal County, his plan had completely failed to show that there was sufficient water to sustain the "planned" population. 

Cady, the architect of  Pinal's Comprehensive Plan, then announced that there would be a "special" meeting to review the draft Water Resource Element of the Plan with residents of the San Manuel Area on Oct. 3.  

Cady also said that a copy of the draft Water Resources Element would be deposited at the Oracle Courthouse by Sept. 26 so that local residents could review it prior to the Oct. 3 meeting.

Unfortunately, other residents of the county will not be able to get an early copy of the Water Resources Element for review, nor is Pinal County planning to have a special meeting to review the issue of a sufficient water supply with them.

Instead, the other several hundred thousand residents of Pinal County will have to wait until the Public hearing Oct. 11 -- where the Pinal Commissioners will recommend that the plan be adopted --  before they will be able to see the Pinal's plan to sustain the enormous population increase and sustain them by depleting the county's scarce groundwater  resources.

To help end the confusion created by distributing several different copies of the Pinal Comprehensive Plan and to allow all residents to easily access the current Water Resources Element of the plan, a Pinal resident has requested that Dennis Cady publish the Water Resources Element of the Pinal Comprehensive Plan for public review on the Pinal County web site. 

As of this writing, Pinal County has consistently refused to publish the several drafts of the Pinal Comprehensive Plan via the world wide web preferring to hand out different versions, all with the same revision date, at meetings called by Pinal County. 

Pinal County has now hired hydrology consultants to perform the analysis that will prove that the various versions of the draft plan to import 117,000 people is founded in science.

The resident also requested that Cady name the consultants that have been hired by the county to show that there is sufficient water to support the massive population increase already authorized by his plan.

As of this writing, Pinal County has refused to divulge the identity of the consultants Pinal County hired to do the analysis showing there is sufficient water to support the massive population increase called for by the various versions of the draft plan.  However, public records show that Stantec Inc., hired by Pinal County to help in the writing of the Pinal Comprehensive Plan, is also employed by the promoters of the Willow Springs to help with water-related matters for their project.

The email to Cady follows.

So . .. do you think Cady will answer the email, or just keep shuffling the shells around and shouting out to the rubes, "Find the pea and win a bundle!" 

Your guess is as good as mine.

Any response from Cady to this email will be published on PoisonedWells.com

If you are expecting a substantive answer, don't hold your breath.