Is there about to be a land grab in Pima County?

Posted by AzBlueMeanie:

Back in the late 1990s, Tortolita and Casas Adobes attempted to incorporate as towns, despite the existence of Arizona law that prevented such incorporation because of the proximity to the City of Tucson, which had to give its approval. The courts later voided the incorporation attempts.

Tucson Mayor Bob Walkup was elected mayor for the first time in 1999 promising "mountain to mountain annexation" for the City of Tucson. Like so much of what Bob promised, it never happened.

Sen. Frank Antenori – who wants you to know he is from Vail, do not associate him with those dirty hippies from Tucson – wants to incorporate the town of Vail on the eastern edge of Tucson.

On Friday, Governor Jan Brewer signed Antenori's bill which is specifically targeted at Pima County.

SB 1333 modifies the statutes governing municipal incorporation and establishes time frames within which a prescribed distance of an incorporated city or town is declared an urbanized area.

Here is the House Summary transmitted to the governor. It stipulates that, "if a municipality causing an urbanized area to exist is in a county in which more than 60% but less than 65% of the population lives in an incorporated city or town and does not approve a petition requesting annexation of the area proposed for incorporation within 120 days of its presentation, the following applies within the provided time frames" of one to six years for a city or town having 5,000 or more persons in an urbanized area.

It also stipulates that, "through December 31, 2020, if the area proposed for incorporation has a population of 15,000 or more persons, is in a county in which more than 60% but less than 65% of the population lives in an incorporated city or town and has a governing board – including a planned community board of directors or a special district board – the Board shall proceed with the incorporation or annexation without a resolution by the city or town or a filed affidavit."

The City of Tucson will be reviewing this closely for a possible legal challenge, as it has done in the past. This bill is specifically targeted at Pima County, which makes it suspect.

It is an open question whether unincorporated urban areas of Pima County will seek to incorporate as towns. County residents' resistance to annexation into the City of Tucson is the same resistance to forming a town government of their own — they do not want another layer of government nor do they want to pay taxes to support it.

They are happy with the status quo which costs Pima County millions of dollars in state revenue sharing every year (it is only shared with incorporated municipalities). Of course, an alternative would be to amend the state revenue sharing formula. Doh!