By David Iversen | inMaricopa
Nights are peaceful south of city limits. There’s little noise outside of the distant horse whinny. You can see a lot of stars, as long as you’re looking away from the lights of Maricopa.
In that darkness, a group of Hidden Valley and Thunderbird Farms residents met at the Thunderbird Farms Fire Hall to hear Pinal County’s plight: The county needs space for new affordable homes, and it’s looking at the open desert in Hidden Valley as part of the solution.
Heather Patel, Pinal County’s grants manager, led the presentation with consultant Martina Kuehl. The two explained that the county faces a shortfall of roughly 500 affordable homes, both rentals and starter homes, for working families and lower-income residents. Officials are trying to decide if some of the bare desert owned land in Hidden Valley would be a good fit to develop to fill that need.
