Northern Pima County development plan huge
15,900 homes would be built in 14 sq. miles
The State Land Department is planning for a 15,900-home development that could more than quadruple northern Pima County's population.
The department has prepared a draft Arroyo Grande plan outlining the elements of such a development. It would be big enough to house about 38,000 people, or almost as big as Oro Valley's population of 44,000.
The development would span 14 square miles bounded by Oro Valley on the south, Pinal County on the north, Oracle Road on the east and the Tortolita Mountains on the west.
It would bump against the unincorporated community of Catalina, which has about 8,900 residents. Oro Valley officials, who are interested in annexing this land, will get a state presentation on the plan Wednesday.
This will be the fourth big development project discussed for the Tucson area recently. In December, Santa Cruz County supervisors changed their land- use plan to accommodate 9,400 new homes in two projects in the Tubac area. Early this month, Phoenix developer Westcor announced that it would soon secure a permit to create a master plan for a "second city" on 12,000 additional acres of state land on the Southeast Side.
By the numbers A look at preliminary plans for Arroyo Grande:
15,900
Estimated number of homes that could be built
38,000
Number of people who might eventually live in the development
14
Size in square miles of the area, which borders Oro Valley and Catalina
68%
of the land would be preserved as open space
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