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QCVillager
Member
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Posted: Thu May 1st, 2008 03:31 pm |
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Superstition Vistas: The future is now
Charles Backus, retired provost of Arizona State University Polytechnic, is chairman of the Superstition Vistas Steering Committee. Sandie Smith is a longtime member of the Pinal County Board of Supervisors.
The East Valley Partnership and the Pinal Partnership have teamed up with Salt River Project to constructively address the future of the far East Valley and northern Pinal County.
We started by pulling together a team of stakeholders to help guide a comprehensive plan for the development of Superstition Vistas, an area of the state that is expected to bring in nearly 1 million people to northern Pinal County by 2060. Roughly the size of Mesa, Chandler, Tempe and Gilbert combined, the Superstition Vistas land, totaling about 175,000 acres, presents an unparalleled opportunity for utilizing the most innovative and thoughtful land use strategies.
The 275 square miles of Superstition Vistas land stretches from the Superstition Mountains Wilderness Area south to Florence and from the Pinal County line on the west to east of Florence Junction. The planning process is expected to take 18 to 24 months to complete and cost $1.65 million.
A national team of planning experts will include significant public involvement in the planning process. The objective is to frame a strategy for sustainable development looking at population, transportation, housing opportunities, air quality, flood control and drainage, urban living trends, water resources and other issues — all forces that will shape the future of Superstition Vistas.
Another challenge in the quest to ensure this vast region’s future is to make certain that plans are compatible and used. The East Valley and northern Pinal County have lots of plans. There’s the Pinal County Comprehensive Plan, the comprehensive plans from Queen Creek, Florence and Apache Junction, the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport Master Plan and the Mesa Gateway Strategic Development Plan. In addition, there are plans under way for the redevelopment of the Mesa Proving Grounds after General Motors leaves.
The challenge is to make the plans work together. It will also be a challenge to ensure these plans don’t go the way of earlier plans, which often sat on shelves in dark places, gathering dust.
SRP, the EVP and Pinal Partnership are planning a special event Thursday that will present a peek into the future; the event is titled “The Future of our Region — Promises and Perils of the East Valley and Northern Pinal County.” John Fregonese, one of the Superstition Vistas consultants who is best known for the Portland Metro 2040 Growth Plan and Envision Utah, will take participants on a simulated, 3-D helicopter flyover of what the region might look like as the area approaches buildout a few decades from now.
Following Fregonese’s presentation, three panelists whose companies are actively involved in planning the future of the region will explore the planning process further.
Officially, there is a line in the sand that separates Maricopa and Pinal counties. Realistically, traffic congestion, air pollution, sustainability, water resources and flood control know no boundaries. Eastern Maricopa County and northern Pinal County must work together if we’re going to successfully manage the growth that we know is a part of our future.
If you’d like to be part of the process of planning for our future, we invite you to join us Thursday. The event starts at 11:30 a.m. at the Arizona Grand Resort (formerly the Pointe Hilton at South Mountain). Cost for EVP and Pinal Partnership members is $55. Non-members may attend for $65. The fee includes lunch. Reservations can be made online at www.evpaz.org/thefutureofourregion.php. Seating is limited.
We want to thank the East Valley Tribune for being the media sponsor for this event. We hope you’ll join us. If you can’t, we’re sure there will be other opportunities for you to work with us to ensure that we do a better job of planning for the future than was done planning for today.
CHARLES BACKUS SANDIE SMITH
COMMENTARY
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