SAN TAN VALLEY, Ariz. — A group of San Tan Valley residents is pushing to have voters decide whether the large Pinal County community should be incorporated as a city.
After previous attempts to incorporate failed to gain traction, a new committee, STV Inc. 2024, has notified Pinal County it will again try to have the community recognized as a municipality.
In a letter sent last month, the incorporation committee said it will spend the next few months collecting feedback from voters on how San Tan Valley's city boundaries could be drawn if a referendum proved to be successful.
"Our hopes are that these efforts will achieve our intention of placing this initiative on the November 2024 ballot and allow the community to determine the future of San Tan Valley," the letter states.
As an unincorporated area, San Tan Valley must rely on the county to provide several public services and the community doesn't have a council of elected representatives to make decisions.
"We desire to see local control over state-shared revenue funds and address issues like water, transportation, and development," Tyler Hudgins, one of the committee's members, told the Pinal County Board of Supervisors last week.
One of the first attempts to incorporate San Tan Valley was thwarted by the Town of Florence in 2004 after the town's council voted against the proposal, according to the East Valley Tribune.
In recent years, lawmakers have revised Arizona's laws to remove the power for cities to block the incorporation efforts of neighboring communities.
The most recent census data shows San Tan Valley has nearly 100,000 residents, which could make it the biggest city in Pinal County if the community was to incorporate.
The incorporation committee intends to hold neighborhood meetings in the near future to boost awareness about the benefits of incorporating San Tan Valley.
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