Residents in rural areas included in the City of Surprise’s planning area are expressing growing concern about a master-planned rail hub proposal from BNSF and a number of planned residential developments also proposed for the greater region.
Worries range from impacts to the long-standing character of the area to increased traffic to strain on the overall infrastructure.
The two primary drivers accelerating the pace of proposed development are BNSF’s planned rail and logistics center and the residential and supporting services demand generated by the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company plant under construction in north Phoenix.
In a virtual neighborhood meeting earlier this month, BNSF explained its new center could ultimately make up 30MSF of industrial development and an intermodal facility to transfer cargo to and from trains and trucks. The site area is roughly 4,000 acres, and one-time construction impacts are estimated at $1.5B.
BNSF says it is nearly at capacity at its Phoenix facilities and the site near Surprise is the ideal location for expansion. An in-person meeting was scheduled for earlier this week to further explain the proposal.
Residents Fear Scale, Impacts of Planned Developments
Large housing communities from Landsea Homes and Pulte Homes have already been developed in the outlying areas of Surprise, and five new single-family master plans are under consideration by Maricopa County. If they advance, several will be annexed into Surprise for services and infrastructure and could total as many as 17,600 new homes spread over almost 4,300 acres.
Resident opposition has begun to formalize. A September meeting drew nearly 200 residents. Worries over density, safety, infrastructure, wildlife and water supplies topped the list of concerns. The Arizona Department of Water Resources has sent deficiency letters regarding assured water supplies to two residential builders whose projects are dependent on groundwater.
In addition to the basic water needs every resident must deal with, many of the existing residences have livestock to consider and fear potential caps on the size of their ranching operations.
One petition in opposition to rezoning and citing concerns about water use, density, land use and pollution has garnered almost 1,000 signatures to date. More than 600 opposition letters have been generated and 1,370 in person signatures have been collected.
Keep Us Rural LLC, an opposition group formed to support rural area preservation, was registered with the Arizona Corporation Commission in September. (Source)