By Lindey Gemme | TriValley Central
With the city lacking a public works director after John Mitchell left the city last month, staff is trying to keep up with projects he was negotiating, including a regional transportation study with Pinal County, a PARA grant, and realignment of Sunshine Blvd.
Doug Hanson with the Pinal County Public Works Department, and County Senior Transportation Planner Andy Smith spoke to city council members during a special meeting last Tuesday about the city, and county’s, role in several area transportation studies.
Smith first gave an overview of transportation planning in the county. He explained that between 2003-2005, small area communities including Eloy were doing small area transportation studies, until they realized the growth was going to be a lot more intense than they thought. Instead, they started to move toward a regional plan instead of separate community SATS.
Together, Pinal, Pima and Maricopa counties have above average growth potential for 2050 in the entire state. Referring to a map with red lines indicating roads of significance for growth by 2050, Smith called “the big blood clot in central arizona, basically between Phoenix and Tucson,” has been identified as an emerging megatropolis. The Sun Corridor area will be one out of about 10 of these emerging metropolises in the entire nation.
“We’re kind of trying to establish where we [Pinal County] stand in all of this. So, we have all kinds of opportunities, but at the same time, we have a lot of transportation challenges that we need to resolve,” Smith said.
