Look out, Red Rock — Marana's got you in its sights.
While town officials insist they have no plans to annex the Pinal County community, the town is including Red Rock in its general planning area as part of the town's general plan update.
If the town took over Red Rock, it would be within a stone's throw of Picacho in the heart of Arizona's growing "Sun Corridor," the area along Interstate 10 between Phoenix and Tucson slated for massive residential development in the coming years.
Already the town has annexed into Pinal east of I-10, but the planning area represents a larger footprint in the county that includes Pinal Air Park and miles of flat land with the potential for thousands of new homes.
The planning area is just that, said Town Manager Mike Reuwsaat, and shouldn't be thought of as Marana's future town limits.
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"It's more about securing and protecting areas around the town than annexation," he said.
The planning area would outline land uses that would regulate where residential, commercial and industrial development occur. It includes Red Rock and areas west of the community, extending south to Pinal Air Park.
The town is targeting the area in an effort to head off certain types of development along the Pinal-Pima county lines that might be incompatible with each other.
For example, it wouldn't make sense to build a residential development in northern Marana near Pinal Air Park, where commercial jetliners land daily, Reuwsaat said.
By working with Pinal County officials — who are updating their comprehensive plan — Marana leaders hope to plan out areas for residential and commercial growth that are compatible with the town's plans.
If that happens, Reuwsaat said, there would be no reason for the town to grow into Red Rock. "If we can, through proper planning, regulate it, why annex it?" he said.
Pinal officials want to work with Marana to make sure that proper planning occurs on both sides of the county line, said Jerry Stabley, Pinal's deputy planning director.
Besides making sure homes don't go up near airports, it's important to plan for employment and commercial centers along I-10 and near Pinal Air Park, Stabley said. Those types of decisions will affect people living on both sides of the county line, he said.
Working with Marana is "important so that we can create the kind of environment in Pinal County that people will enjoy living in," Stabley said.
While Reuwsaat maintains that the town has no plans to annex into Pinal, he said that if annexing a development or commercial strip across county lines would be to Marana's benefit, it could happen.
In March the town annexed 440 acres into Pinal County on the east side of I-10.
The land, which made Marana the first Pima County municipality to cross into Pinal, is part of an upscale residential community called the Villages of Tortolita.
The 1,780-acre development is planned to have a mix of 6,500 townhomes, apartments and houses combined with mixed-use commercial areas.
In total the development will run from above the county line south to the Marana Road-I-10 interchange.
If an opportunity similar to the Villages of Tortolita came up again, the town would consider annexing, Reuwsaat said. But the annexation would have to benefit the town, he said.
"It has to be the right circumstances," Reuwsaat said.
Stabley said he couldn't predict whether Marana would continue to annex into Pinal. The county, however, is actively encouraging municipalities in Pinal to annex because cities and town are better equipped to plan and make land-use decisions, he said.
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