The East Valley Goes East

I read this article in the AZ Republic this morning, and found myself saying, “Huh? This sounds interesting, but I feel like there must be a lot of underlying information that I don’t have or understand. And who are these people and groups, really?” So, as I often do, I went to the Mister and asked him for an explanation. As usual, he had a pretty good grasp on those unreported facts, and on who the players are. So I’m going to pass it on; if you find the issues of land development boring, feel free to skip this post and wait for something more Morrison Ranch-specific. If you want a slightly better understanding of some of these issues, go read the article in full, and then come back and I’ll share my (or, actually the Mister’s) thoughts.

The first thing that caught my eye was the reference to the Morrison Institute for Public Policy. This is an Institute (think tank) given it’s initial funding for creation by the Mister’s parents back in the 1980’s; it has an affiliation with one of the colleges at ASU, and it’s purpose is to study public policy issues that affect the State of Arizona, or the local areas of the state. Sometimes they come up with the subject of study themselves, and sometimes, someone hires them, as in this case. Our family really has had nothing to do with the Institute, other than getting it going (and thus the name); we don’t have any input into the studies or their conclusions. (Although I DID once get a copy – no charge - of one of their studies on the Tax System In Arizona – it was fascinating) So, that’s who the Morrison Institute is, in this context.

As for this expanse of land called the Superstition Vistas, it goes from the south edge of Apache Junction to a little bit north of Florence. That’s the first we’d heard it given that name, but it makes sense. The Mister used to farm some ground in Florence, and his comment was that you could see the Superstitions from there just as well as from Gilbert, and they looked pretty much the same. And unlike most of the trust land in Arizona, this is in one very large piece. Most trust land is broken up into small bites, 60 acres here, 200 acres there. The trust land is required, by the state constitution, to be used for education. Period. And furthermore, it must be sold for the “highest and best use” and the proceeds then fund education throughout the state. This may, in part, be one reason why our state legislators seem to be a bit stingy with the tax revenues for education: there is so much trust land, worth so much money, and it can never ever be used for any other purpose; why not let the trust land proceeds fund education and move the other revenues to other areas? So there would also be some incentive to go ahead and sell this land to get the funds for education, but it would be sold for development, which would require schools, which would require some of those funds, and well, you can see how that loop gets going.

The other interesting factor in this is that this is Pinal County. So the Board of Supervisors in Pinal County would like to see this land developed, because it will bring revenue and prestige to Pinal County. They wouldn’t mind so much if it became part of Apache Junction (since AJ is in Pinal County), but they don’t want it to be part of Mesa, because that is Maricopa County. And Queen Creek, the other bordering town, ends up as the baby brother in all this, too small to really exert much influence one way or another, and ultimately having to “go along” with the big boys.

Another player is the Superstition Area Land Trust. These are people who want to see the foothills of the Superstitions preserved in their present state, and includes everyone from ranchers to hikers to conservationists. They are going to try to broker their support for the development of the flatlands in return for guarantees that no development will happen in the foothills.

There isn’t too much in this article about the Sierra Club viewpoint, but they generally don’t want any growth anywhere, so from the one quote provided, it appears that this would be a troubling arrangement to them even if it did provide funding for education.

So there’s some background for this subject for me and you for the next time it comes up in the newspaper; these things usually are full of politics, money, principles of every stripe, and varied opinions. But it’s always better to form one’s opinions with more facts, not less.