The City of Peoria wants a total of more than 8,300 acres of state-owned land in two separate areas for development to meet its goals.
City officials are working with the Arizona State Land Department to bring two locations in north Peoria to auction for potential development.
The first area is made up of nearly 1,600 acres along Loop 303 north of Happy Valley Road. The area is referred to as North Peoria Gateway.
The second segment comprises 6,700 acres along Lake Pleasant Parkway south of Loop 303 and reaching to State Route 74. This portion is referred to as the Peoria Innovation Core and includes 500 acres the City wants to purchase, potentially using around half the land to build a municipal airport. Officials intend to earmark $5M of the proposed Fiscal Year 2025 budget toward buying the land.
Peoria officials hope to use the Innovation Core to create what they call “an economic engine.” The City is hoping to capitalize on the swell of development in advanced manufacturing and technology firms located in metro Phoenix, particularly the West Valley, in recent years.
While the TSMC plant has been the predominant force leading that trend, Peoria has its own share of the momentum, most notably the $2B Amkor Semiconductor Packaging and Test Facility being built on 56 acres in the northern part of the city.
ASLD owns approximately 75% of the vacant land within Peoria’s city limits. The City has begun revisions to its 2040 General Plan to enable development in those desert areas and is working with ASLD to make them available. The updated plan is expected to be approved this September.
Peoria and ASLD are working with a joint consulting team to zone the 1,600 acres in North Peoria Gateway, which is expected to develop as a mix of commercial and residential uses. When that zoning is in place, probably by October, ASLD can move to auction parcels off to developers.
Peoria and ASLD are also working on a development agreement to oversee uses for the 6,700 acres in the Peoria Innovation Core. City officials hope to have details worked out in the next several weeks. (Source)