There's a new push to incorporate San Tan Valley. What's changed since the last attempt
Voters may get a chance to decide in 2024 whether San Tan Valley, Pinal County's largest unincorporated community, will become a municipality.
A group of San Tan Valley residents has formed a committee, STV Inc. 2024, to petition for the county area to incorporate, according to an April 12 notice of intent delivered to the Pinal County Board of Supervisors.
During a Wednesday meeting, a member of the group told supervisors that organizers intend to speak with neighbors in the community and nearby cities to obtain feedback and develop plans.
Tyler Hudgins, one of the residents behind the effort, said the boundaries of the proposed municipality remain undetermined. He said residents seek incorporation to secure localized control over tax dollars and address issues such as "water, transportation and development."
As an unincorporated area, San Tan Valley is dependent on county government and services, so the board currently determines how those problems are tackled. But the community has boomed as housing prices have soared in metro Phoenix, and residents and county officials have long expressed concerns that it's outgrown its roads, services and unincorporated status. It has a rapidly growing population of about 100,000, per the U.S. Census Bureau.
That entire San Tan Valley population may not be within the final boundaries of the incorporation bid. Still, it's likely that the community would become Pinal County's largest city if it were to incorporate. Currently, the city of Maricopa holds that title, with a population of about 60,000.
Two potential paths to incorporation
Hudgins stressed that the incorporation process is still in early stages, calling the committee "exploratory."
The group is currently arranging meetings with officials from Queen Creek, Florence, Mesa and Apache Junction, he said.
As the group meets with neighbors and stakeholders, Hudgins and other members will work to develop proposed boundaries, create a budget and plan out services for the potential municipality. Once a formal plan has been put together, the committee may seek incorporation via a county supervisors vote or by an election of San Tan Valley voters.
Incorporation by county supervisors would require committee organizers to produce signatures of two-thirds of the registered voters within the boundaries of the area. Incorporation via a direct election requires only 10% of registered voters to sign.
The group's notice of intent states that the committee will endeavor to place the initiative on the November 2024 ballot and "allow the community to determine the future of San Tan Valley."
In that case, the incorporators will need to submit their signatures to county supervisors, who will tally up the number of valid ones. If the group reaches the 10% threshold, the board will greenlight the election and voters within the boundaries of the proposed municipality will choose whether to incorporate.
A history of failed incorporation attempts
Previous incorporation efforts in San Tan Valley have crashed and burned before making it onto voters' ballots.
The most recent, in 2018, was hamstrung when the developer of Encanterra announced it would not give permission for that community to be included in the proposed municipality. At that time, state law dictated that the incorporation process required organizers to notify developers and homeowner associations individually. Any entity not notified could opt out of the proposed boundaries and potentially kill the incorporation effort.
That provision was changed last year, and now, incorporators must notify all parties by getting their efforts on a meeting agenda of the county Board of Supervisors six months in advance. Entities may still opt out, but they can no longer kill the incorporation effort.
Other bids to incorporate San Tan Valley faced opposition from nearby cities. State law previously allowed an existing city or town within six miles of a proposed incorporation to block it, a provision that was removed in 2017.
In the meantime, the unincorporated community's neighboring municipalities have annexed chunks of the area into their boundaries.
Sasha Hupka covers Maricopa County, Pinal County and regional issues for The Arizona Republic. Do you have thoughts on San Tan Valley incorporating? Reach her at sasha.hupka@arizonarepublic.com. Follow her on Twitter: @SashaHupka.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Will San Tan Valley become a city? Voters may decide on incorporation
