Kerry Fehr-Snyder
The Arizona Republic
Jun. 18, 2008 12:00 AM

Planning for Superstition Vistas, a massive housing and development project that could bring 1 million residents to Pinal County, will require equally massive cooperation between business and government leaders, according to Utah-based consultant.
The 275-square-mile area, which touches the southeastern tip of Mesa, will develop as either a self-sustaining community or another far-flung bedroom community, said Robert Grow, founding chairman of Envision Utah. Grow’s urban-planning group considers how regions can be built as sustainable centers that reduce the need to drive to jobs, shopping and entertainment venues.

Speaking earlier this month at the annual meeting of the East Valley Partnership, a business and political consortium, Grow called Superstition Vistas an “unprecedented opportunity” because the area is one of the few parcels of its size owned by a single entity. The State Land Department owns all 275 square miles but has postponed auctioning the land until the market rebounds.

“Planners would think they’d died and gone to heaven with the opportunity to plan something like this, and I’m one of them,” he said.

Grow, who founded the group in 1997, said developers have a chance to create a “worldwide example of what growth could be” while improving the Phoenix-Tucson metropolitan region and elevating it to a “super region.”

He predicted that 75 percent of the growth in the next 50 to 100 years will go into these superregions. They include the Las Vegas area, Albuquerque, and parts of Florida.

Grow said the growth needs to be managed to occur in transportation corridors rather than spill out concentrically in typical urban sprawl fashion.

“If you look out 50 years, only about 40 percent of what you’ll see is what’s here now,” he said. “You really are a region at crossroads.”

Grow predicted the following trends are coming:

• Population growth.

• Baby Boomers and smaller household sizes.

• Soaring energy prices.

• Soaring food costs, which is leading to food shortages.

• Global warming.

Grow said the national debate needs to focus on what is sustainability in economical and social terms. The goal is to create polycentric employment, housing, shopping and entertainment centers. “Bringing destinations to you will be one of the most important things needed to reduce energy consumption,” he said.