Some residents want North Valley community to become its own town
Apr 9, 2019, 4:15 AM | Updated: 9:53 am
(Facebook Photo)
PHOENIX — Some residents of a North Valley community with a population of about 15,000 known as New River-Desert Hills want it to become its own town.
“We started researching municipal incorporations back in 2017, and after doing a lot of research, we think that it can solve the problems that we face in our area,” Laurie Ricci, president of the New River-Desert Hills Incorporation Committee, told KTAR News 92.3 FM on Monday.
She said the community hopes to gain autonomy and have more of a say in what goes on with the area’s land.
“Some of the issues are, for example, we’ve lost 25% of our area to other municipalities by annexation in the past 20 years, and the county is passive towards annexation,” Ricci said.
“So a lot of our area will get annexed by another municipality, then it will be promptly be rezoned to a higher density.”
But others argue that the move would mean worse conditions for residents.
Mary Gee, a 20-year resident, said that incorporating will “change the area terribly,” including raising taxes that will force seniors to move.
“The (pro-incorporation) group says if we incorporate we will be able to control growth. We all know you can’t stop growth. They say this will help with the water situation. That has already been addressed,” Gee said.
“Many, many New River and Desert Hills residents feel as I do. I do not want more taxes, more rules and regulations, and more government!”
Ricci said the community is typically zoned at one home per acre, while a proposed development in the area that was shot down would have been zoned at five homes per acre.
“If we were able to incorporate, we would have a central body that would be able to act on behalf of our citizens,” Ricci said.
“We’re 15,000 people and unfortunately we’re just a group of homeowners that are inside of a larger area that’s Maricopa County.”
According to the group’s Facebook page, members want to preserve the area’s “rural lifestyle” and prevent urban sprawl from encroaching into the community.
The committee has officially sent the request to Phoenix, Peoria and Scottsdale to gain permission to incorporate.
The group also needs to collect signatures from 10% of registered voters in the area to put the measure on the November ballot.
Ricci said this effort has been going on for three decades, but they’ve never been able to bring issue to a vote.