General plan meetings allow public feedback
September 10, 2009
by Jake Harris
PEORIA, Ariz. – The Peoria City Council moved closer to approving a major amendment to the city’s General Plan that seeks to create jobs and improve infrastructure at an open house held Tuesday night.
Changes include alterations to water resource, education and economic development programs and a focus on job creation in the industries of alternative energy and public transportation, such as the Grand Avenue Rail project, said Adam Pruett, a senior planner with the Peoria Community Development and Planning Department.
“One of the things we’re looking at is commuter train systems,” said Palo Verde district Representative Ron Aames, who has advocated such a system in Peoria for more than two years.
The proposed trains will operate on pre-existing tracks that run along Grand Avenue from Downtown Phoenix to Surprise, Aames said. Eventually, the route will extend to Wickenburg, he said.
Aames represents Peoria in the Grand Coalition, the organization in charge of the project, which includes representatives from many Northwest Valley cities as well as the City of Phoenix and the Arizona Department of Transportation.
The rail is “important for creating jobs throughout the whole Northwest Valley,” Aames said. “It is also important for mobility across the Northwest Valley and into the urban core with higher speeds and less congestion.”
The proposed trains will travel at a high speed, approximately 50 mph, compared with METRO light rail’s 20, Aames said.
View Peoria Commuter Trains in a larger map
Total construction costs are still being worked out but are estimated to be around half as much as the light rail because the tracks are pre-existing, and the trains could be up and running in as few as five years, Aames said.
The coalition is working with Arizona Congressman Trent Franks to secure federal funding, which typically matches local funding for the construction of similar commuter trains, Aames said.
Local funding likely will be tied to a county-wide sales tax increase that is similar to the 2004 voter-approved Proposition 400, which allocated money for Valley freeway improvements and other transportation upgrades, Aames said.
Other transportation projects mentioned in the Peoria plan include the completion of Loop 303, which will remain unchanged from previous projections and will intersect with Interstate 10 in 2013, Pruett said.
Another long-term goal is the creation of jobs in the medical and high technology industries—employment it deems “high wage,” or jobs that pay higher than the country average, according to a draft of the amendment.
By 2030, Peoria aims to have a “…one-to-one ratio between the City’s workforce population and jobs,” according to the draft.
In addition to annual revisions, Peoria’s General Plan requires by law a major General Plan Amendment and re-ratification by the city council every 10 years. The public then votes on the revised plan.
“It’s a living document,” Pruett said. The plan is updated frequently to reflect the community’s needs and offers a broad scope of goals as well as suggestions to help achieve its objectives, Pruett said.
The sixth and final open house for public comment on the amendment will be held Monday, Sept. 21 at Peoria City Hall. The plan will then go to the city council for consideration before ending up on the ballot in August 2010.