Just outside of Queen Creek town limits lies the greater San Tan area, which has remained, since anyone in the area can remember, a collection of communities sprinkled throughout unincorporated Pinal County.

But that may be changing if Pinal County Supervisor Bryan Martyn has his way.

"Obviously we are talking about bringing this community together," Supervisor Martyn said of his efforts to brand the greater San Tan area. "We are trying to come up with a name, but the community will decide what they are going to be called."

Supervisor Martyn represents District 2 of Pinal County, which, among other areas, encompasses the greater San Tan area, Apache Junction and Gold Canyon.

The 80,000 residents of the area inhabit housing subdivisions known as San Tan, the greater San Tan area, Johnson Ranch, Hunt Highway, San Tan Heights, Copper Basin, Pecan Creek, Skyline and Little Mexico.

Two names that have been suggested by Supervisor Martyn — which he says came through a public naming process using the input of various homeowner associations throughout the area — are Bella Vista and the San Tan Vistas.

"Everyone in the community can see the San Tan (Mountains), but this is not my decision, it is their decision," he said. "The reason, the impudence, the rush to the decision, is the changing of the ZIP codes."

According to Queen Creek Independent archives, many central Arizona residents will be asked to make a one-digit change to their addresses’ ZIP Codes starting on Wednesday, July 1.

The new "851" ZIP Code will cover an area totaling just under 5,000 square miles, from Apache Junction at the north, to Red Rock in the south, Maricopa to the west and Winkelman to the east.

"We want to do the name and the number at the same time," Supervisor Martyn said of the anticipated ZIP Code change effecting the San Tan area. "The most important thing is to have something to have the community come together."

Libby Corral of the Copper Basin area, who is executive director of the Copper Basin YMCA and San Tan Chamber of Commerce president, agrees naming the various communities as a whole is the first step to bringing the area together.

"I have been out there since the community was started out there," she said in a phone interview of her long-standing residence in unincorporated Pinal County. "We feel that naming the community and giving it an identity would be a great thing."

Although Ms. Corral says she is uncertain if naming the outlying communities is a first step toward incorporation she did say it is being talked about.

"I don’t think it is bad, I think it is a good decision. We want to think about the idea, and get community support," she said. "The YMCA and the chamber will support whatever the community wants."

According to Arizona Revised Statute 9-101, incorporation is defined, in part, as:

"When two-thirds of the qualified electors residing in a community containing a population of 1,500 or more inhabitants or in a community within 10 miles of the boundary of a national park or monument that contains a population of 500 or more persons petition the board of supervisors, setting forth the metes and bounds of the community, and the name under which the petitioners desire to be incorporated, and praying for the incorporation of the community into a city or town, and the board is satisfied that two-thirds of the qualified electors residing in the community have signed the petition, it shall, by an order entered of record, declare the community incorporated as a city or town."

But what the community wants as a whole has yet to be determined, says Trisha Castillo of the Greater San Tan area.

"My main focus is that the community needs to be the ones that need to decide what happens in the area," she said in a phone interview. "We are the ones who live here and who need to make it work."

Ms. Castillo says talking with HOA representatives is a good start, but is not an accurate measure of the general public, since often HOA meetings are sparsely attended.

"I personally think that it is his idea, but I don’t think he is getting out and talking to the community as a whole." she said of Supervisor Martyn’s outreach efforts. "We don’t want things done to us. We want to have a voice because, after all, it is our future."

Ms. Castillo says you can’t talk branding without the idea of incorporation being mentioned in the conversation.

"I think if it is impossible to define it as a name without it becoming connected to incorporation," she explained. "All we are right now is a bunch of rooftops; we have no economic development."

Ms. Castillo says Supervisor Martyn’s push for incorporation is because there is no money in county government to provide for services 80,000 people expect.

"Obviously his push is going to be for incorporation," she explained. "We are an expense — the county got us this way — but pushing this on us, that just doesn’t work."

Supervisor Martyn says the county is not giving anyone in the area the level of service he or her deserves and most importantly are not offered a voice in local, regional and statewide governments.

"I believe that incorporation is in the best interests for the communities," he said. "At 80,000 citizens, that is not the democratic model. This is their chance to get some representation."

Although Supervisor Martyn hopes to have the issue of incorporation on the 2010 November general ballot, he said "we are in the beginning of this process."

Supervisor Martyn says he has been in talks with the town of Queen Creek and Florence for possible border lines of the San Tan region — if and when it — opts to incorporate itself.

"It is always good for folks to have close local control of what is going on around them," said Queen Creek Councilman John Wootten in response to the question of incorporation. "That effort, to create a city there, has to take into account the issues of the first attempt."