Panel agrees to ease rules for formation of cities, towns

Regional News

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A House panel agreed to ease the rules for when new cities and towns can be formed, a change in law that foes insist will harm the ability of existing communities to grow.

HB2088 would create an exemption from laws that give cities the power to veto any new nearby incorporations. That power extends out six miles for cities of at least 5,000 and three miles for smaller towns.

Rep. Eddie Farnsworth, R-Gilbert, is pushing the measure specifically to give the opportunity for residents of San Tan Valley in northeast Pinal County to decide if they want to incorporate. That effort has so far been blocked by Florence.

Alex Vidal, lobbyist for the League of Arizona Cities and Towns, defended that veto power, saying that buffer zone provides room to grow through annexation. He said what San Tan wants to do is incorporate right up to the border of Florence, effectively stopping its growth there.

But Vidal said this isn’t a strictly local fight. He said this change, if it gets signed into law, sets the stage for similar incorporations — and similar limits on expansion of existing cities and towns — throughout the state.

Vidal’s objections were not enough to keep the Committee from Local and International Affairs from approving it on a 4-3 margin.