Photo via Pinal County
By Justin Mathews | Pinal Post
On April 1, 2026, the San Tan Valley Town Council heard a presentation on transportation improvements and funding from Chris Wanamaker, who was transitioning from his role as Pinal County Engineer to become San Tan Valley’s new Public Works Director. The presentation covered roads, development, growth, what the town can require of developers, and how infrastructure improvements are funded. No council action was taken.
Why Road Improvements Have Not Kept Up with Growth in San Tan Valley
Several causes were identified during the presentation.
The county’s regional transportation plan dates to 2008 — nearly 20 years old. It covered only major arterial roadways on a two-mile grid at a county-wide scale, leaving out many of the roads residents use daily. Wanamaker noted the plan lacked sufficient detail and that adherence to it was inconsistently applied.
“The impact fees that are in place are about 50% of what they probably should have been,” Wanamaker said. “That was just the decision the county made at the time. And that’s what they are right now. So we haven’t collected enough money to actually cover the true impact of growth.”
In some cases, development agreements may have resulted in reduced fees or no fees at all. “There are things out there, like development agreements, for example, that the county has entered into with developers that have limited the amount of fees they pay or perhaps made it so they don’t pay any fees,” Wanamaker told the council. “There are developments that have not paid impact fees because they made these agreements with the county. And they’re still in effect.”
