FUTURE
“All the other ones are annexed because that’s how they achieve first-class police and fire services and obviously the water and sewer,” Craig said. He said people who move into that subdivision, called Zanjero Trails, are not required to sign a pre-annexation agreement. Craig stated Buckeye only solicits pre- annexation agreements for commercial or non- residential developments. “Developers would want it because they could make sure their investors have assurance,” Craig said. All are welcome Craig emphasized Buckeye doesn’t charge a fee for annexation. In Phoenix, the annexation fee is three cents per 4 square feet of land area being annexed. “We really want to take away the burden of the administrative side of getting through annexation, which involves hiring a land surveyor or an engineer to help you to draw plans.” Craig said. “Really, it’s in the best interest of a growing community to support those that want to tie into the systems and contribute to what’s happening in the community. To that effect, when someone does come in with the annexation proposal, one of the first things we ask is, ‘Well, have you asked any neighbors?’” There’s an economy of scale for people seeking annexation. More people on board means more cost-sharing when it’s time to hire an engineer or land surveyor. “Often there’s folks that may be neutral or supportive of it, but it’s cost prohibitive for them,” Craig said. “One of the things that we try to do is lower that entry burden for annexation into Buckeye.”
BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE SOME LAND? Buckeye is the biggest city in Arizona. But wait — it gets bigger
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White Tank Mountains
BY KYLIE WERNER
W HEN BUCKEYE WAS INCORPORATED in 1929, the entire town was two-thirds of a square mile. Buckeye has since become the largest city in Arizona geographically, with 640 square miles of land in its planning area. But not every square mile is created equally. The city has made vital gains over the years through annexations. Buckeye, which was given its city status in 2014, acquired the land for the Interstate 10 freeway in 1981, Sun City Festival in 1991 and Verrado in 1999, all through annexation. It’s a process According to Brian Craig, development services director for the city of Buckeye, the process of annexing land is largely governed by the state. Private property annexations require two actions by the city council, whereas right- of-way annexations from Maricopa County to the city are quick and easy. “State statute does require you to hold a no-action public hearing to invite those with concerns to come speak about annexation,” Craig said, “and then within the next 30 days you typically would have a second public hearing for the final action.” Currently, the city has an annexed area of 396 square miles, meaning some 244 square miles are left up for grabs. “For a lot of those annexations, we’re not competing with other jurisdictions, like our neighbors Goodyear or Surprise. Annexations within that planning area are a lot cleaner,” Craig said. “We’re lucky we have our western boundary sort of unburdened by being adjacent to other communities. But still annexing outside that boundary takes more steps in the process for Buckeye, and it’s not easy.”
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Craig noted Buckeye historically dismissed contested annexations in favor of landowners who want to be annexed. Living on island time Jason Rovey owns a county island on the eastern boundary of Buckeye near Jackrabbit Trail and Yuma Road. The county island is a nearly 1,000-acre farm that has been in Rovey’s family for half a century after his parents bought it in 1973 when Buckeye was nothing more than a main street in a sea of agriculture. Rovey said he has no doubt his land will be annexed one day. “Someday, this farm will not be a farm, and someday when that happens it will most likely be houses. And when that happens, it’s most likely the developer would want to have services provided by Buckeye,” he said. Rovey noted as a farmer until the time when the land goes to a developer, it is in his best interest to not be annexed by the city as he doesn’t have to follow the ordinances Buckeye imposes. “Say I want to build a hay barn to cover hay,” Rovey said. “If I’m in the county, the county zoning code has specific language that as long as you’re agriculture, you do what you want. You can build a barn, they don’t care, you just go build it. If I was annexed in Buckeye, I would need engineering drawings and a lot more expenses and approvals.” Puzzle pieces Craig said in September there were two county islands that would probably be annexed this decade. One is just west of downtown at Maricopa County Road 85 and Fourth Street, an area quickly becoming attractive to investors and developers.
“I’d expect a lot of downtown will start filling in those puzzle pieces and become annexed,” Craig said. Indeed, Buckeye looks like an unfinished jigsaw puzzle today — dozens of enclaves and exclaves create a bizarre shape that’s 46 miles north to south but just a quarter-mile wide at some points. The second area is around State Route 85 just south of I-10. A lot of it, according to Craig, used to be in the county jurisdiction and little by little, projects, investors and developers came in and bought up those plats, turning the area into an important employment corridor for Buckeye. “That’ll be the second area where we’ll probably see annexations over the next year or so,” Craig said. “As projects become more granular, and they start to develop development plans and site plans.” Buckeye also has a lot of microsubdivisions or “infill,” as Craig called them — projects coming south of I-10 and west of SR 85 that are smaller than 100 lots. Along the Sun Valley Parkway corridor, north of I-10, are where the city’s larger master-planned communities. “Obviously, the big one is Teravalis, and they expect to be cutting the ribbon on some model homes by this time next year,” Craig said. A propensity for density Darrel Kuiper, who owns a piece of annexed land off East Monroe Avenue next to the Buckeye Butcher that he farms, has been watching his neighbors get annexed one by one for years. “There’s a development that’s pretty ... affordable,” Kuiper said of one of his new neighbors. “It’s high density and that’s not the vision that I like for historic Buckeye.” There is one master-planned subdivision in unincorporated Maricopa County, the only such neighborhood in Buckeye’s planning area, west of Perryville near Canyon View High School.
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