Phoenix as Everycity: A Closer Look at Sprawl in the Desert - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 262

FIGURE 14.7
Bicycling around Phoenix can offer an alternative to commuting by automobile, but bikes must share the wide
streets with fast-paced traffic.
Regional planning needs to extend to open space preservation as well. Pima County (in
southern Arizona) is attempting to plan preservation on a regional level via the Sonoran
Desert Conservation Plan. This plan identifies important habitat for wildlife, areas for
preservation, wildlife corridors, and also where development is appropriate. MAG has put
together a decent and relatively comprehensive regional open space plan, but there has
been no follow through or implementation of the proposal. It looks good on paper but will
never be implemented without some regional guidance.
Preservation in many communities in the west also means identifying ways to protect
state trust lands. These are the lands granted to states at statehood to generate revenues for
the trust beneficiaries—primarily the public schools. Protecting key lands is a challenge as
the mandate is to maximize revenue. That often can mean development, at least in the short
term. Phoenix, Tucson, and Flagstaff all have state trust lands around their urban fringes.
To adequately preserve these areas, a constitutional amendment is required, a change in
Arizona's enabling act, and leadership and the political will from elected officials.
14.6 Conclusion
Communities should be encouraged to do a better job of recovering the costs of growth
and to limit the burden of those who can least afford it with the costs of paying for sprawl
development. There should be different levels of impact fees depending on where the
development is located, and communities should consider waiving them altogether in