Gateway area: We love it when a plan comes together

This week’s decision by the Apache Junction City Council to contribute $80,000 to an ongoing study of the development for the future Superstition Vistas is the latest in series of encouraging signs that East Valley governments are maturing and accepting new leadership roles.

Not too long ago, East Valley municipalities were more likely to get locked into bitter disputes over land growth and economic development. The fights usually revolved around annexation, access to natural resources and business incentives. But the battle could spill over into a number of topics, disrupting regional planning efforts and generally waste taxpayer dollars.

There were exceptions, of course — but competition and not cooperation between governments has been a consistent theme.

Recent actions have been a pleasant departure from that theme, especially when it comes to Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport and the area of future development in northern Pinal County known as Superstition Vistas.

From the beginning, the Gateway airport has been a regional project involving multiple cities and the Gila River Indian Community. Years of patience and coordination is paying off as airport operations expand and expected private development around Gateway is starting to occur.

As for Superstition Vistas, a collection of cities and business organizations have come together to develop an overall vision for a vast area south of the Superstition Mountains that could bring another 1 million people to the East Valley. Apache Junction joins several other governments in contributing to a $1.6 million study that will attempt to answer key questions about transportation, compatible land uses and standards for taxpayer spending to support private development. In addition, Mesa is leading the creation of new regional planning group where governments can raise issues and concerns when they are considering development steps in a location that has a lot of government overlap.

East Valley officials need to be careful that they don’t try to substitute bureaucratic judgment for the creative energies and wisdom of private entrepreneurs and free markets. But it certainly makes for these governments to collaborate on issues clearly under their purviews rather than act in isolation or, even worse, work against each other.