(The following article by Tom Beal was posted on the Arizona Daily Star website on November 30.)
TUCSON, Ariz. — The Pinal County Board of Supervisors opted for jobs over scenery Wednesday, voting 3-0 to change the county’s comprehensive land-use plan and clear the way for a railroad switching yard in view of Picacho Peak State Park.
“I know it’s going to be, to some extent, an eyesore,” said Supervisors’ Chairman Lionel Ruiz, reached by phone in his Florence office shortly after the vote.
But Ruiz said the Union Pacific facility, slated for a 2-mile-long swath of state land east of Interstate 10 between Red Rock and Picacho Peak, will bring jobs to a county often criticized as a highway-clogging bedroom community whose residents must commute south to Pima or north to Maricopa County for work.
Pinal County is adding residents at the fastest clip in the state and attracting commercial activity to support that growth, Ruiz said, but its economy rests on a “two-legged stool” without job growth. “I think, based on the comments I heard today, it’s going to give us that third leg,” he said.
Ruiz said he envisions industrial parks adjacent to the rail yard.
Residents of the area, environmentalists and state park officials had urged the board to turn down or delay Union Pacific’s push to buy 1,500 acres of state land. “We asked them to say ‘no’ and they didn’t,” said Ken Travous, executive director of Arizona State Parks.
Travous said the sketchy plans he has seen give him no confidence that the yard will be at least three miles from Picacho Peak.
“If you look at the map, the northern part of it is directly across the interstate from the park,” he said. “It’s still not a site-specific plan.”
Union Pacific plans to ask the State Land Department to auction the land it needs, a procedure the state is required to follow in order to maximize revenue from state trust lands to benefit education.
Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis said the county’s approval is an important first step in a multiyear path toward development of the yard. “We have several more processes to go,” he said, “but this vote of support is evidence of the need for continued expansion of freight service in the area to support the growth.”
Residents, who have formed a group called “Save the Peak,” said they now hope to move the switching yard north.
Some large landowners nearer the community of Picacho are offering land for sale, said Michael Wirth, co-owner of the Picacho Peak RV Resort, just outside the park’s boundary.
Wirth said his group is also considering a petition drive to subject the supervisors’ vote to a referendum.
Union Pacific’s Davis said the railroad has spent several years “exploring and looking up and down the line” to find enough land, close to its existing tracks, where a rail yard wouldn’t interfere with canals, hospitals, schools and homes.
“The Red Rock area is the best location,” he said.