Arizona Seeks Ways to Control Sprawl

Developers and other business interests breathed a sigh of relief this week when environmentalists canceled a petition drive to put a restrictive plan to control urban growth on the November ballot.

But business groups say they won’t withdraw their support for Growing Smarter, a less restrictive growth-management plan that will appear on the statewide ballot, now that the competing initiative has collapsed.

The reason: The growth issue is not going away in Arizona, the nation’s second fastest-growing state, where polls show strong support for curbs on urban sprawl.

The Sierra Club and other supporters announced Tuesday they couldn’t collect enough signatures by the July 2 deadline to get the initiative on the ballot. But environmentalists promise to bring their proposal back in 2000 and ask voters to approve growth boundaries for cities and require developers to pay the full cost of public services in their new projects.

“If they hadn’t said that, there might have been a weakening of the nerve,” said Steve Betts, a lawyer who helped draft Growing Smarter. If Growing Smarter doesn’t get approved and prove successful, voters might be attracted to the environmentalists’ proposal, he said.

“We recognize that’s a battle that may have to be fought in the future,” agreed Tom Simplot, assistant director of the Home Builders of Central Arizona. That group was a major player during the Legislature’s consideration of Growing Smarter during the regular session, which ended in May.

The ballot measure would provide $20 million annually for 11 years in new state spending for open space preservation and prohibit the state from requiring cities to adopt growth boundaries.

Gov. Jane Hull, a prime supporter of Growing Smarter, on Friday held a ceremonial signing for a bill enacted by the Legislature to augment the ballot measure.

The bill will create a 15-member state commission on planning and development issues and require local governments to strengthen their growth plans, including having developers pay “fair share” impact fees for new government services.

The bill also mandates that rezonings conform to local governments’ plans on land use, bolsters property owners’ protections from rezonings that restrict the property’s use and requires the Land Department to designate state trust land that could be preserved as open space instead of sold to developers.

Environmentalists said Tuesday when they dropped their initiative that they would oppose Growing Smarter. They criticized its “downzoning” protections and the prohibition against growth boundaries.

Mrs. Hull called the Growing Smarter bill a balanced approach to the growth issue. “This is our home. This is our state, and we will keep it beautiful.”

She actually signed the bill before the June 3 deadline, but Friday’s event at a cactus-studded mountain park served as a pep rally for Growing Smarter’s supporters. Those included conservationists drooling for the open-space money.

“We’re already looking for it,” said Patricia Ann “P.A.” Seitts, executive director of a conservation group active in Cave Creek and Carefree on the northern fringe of the Phoenix area.

A prime focus of open-space preservation areas under Growing Smarter would be acquisition of state trust lands given the state by the federal government with statehood in 1912 to benefit public education.

That land is located across the state and includes large holdings in and around urban areas. It often is sold to developers, with the proceeds helping to pay for schools.

“Unless we get some action, we could have some trailers going in next to the [Superstition Mountains] wilderness,” said Anne Coe, chairman of a group seeking to preserve open space in an area just ahead of housing development marching eastward from the Phoenix suburbs of Mesa and Apache Junction.

“We want to be [successful] before the bulldozers arrive.”