Superstition Vistas: Past, present and visions for the future
by Kelly Fisher and Mark Cowling | Tri-Valley Dispatch
Vacant desert land larger than Mesa, Chandler, Tempe and Gilbert combined still awaits groundbreaking after years of analysis and planning.
Dubbed Superstition Vistas, 175,000 unincorporated acres surrounded by both public and private land, has the potential to become a desirable place to live and work on the northeastern rim of Pinal County. It rests south of Apache Junction and Gold Canyon and north of Florence.
That’s a region — stretching all the way to the north end of Pima County — that stakeholders say will grow to 15 million in population by 2060, justifying the need to develop the wide-open space.
In fact, 2015 baseline projections from the Arizona Department of Administration’s Office of Employment and Population Statistics show a population of 417,000 in Pinal County specifically in 2016, all the way up to 1,035,523 in 2050.
But stakeholders are not willing to be so hasty, particularly after striking out in the past.
Developments surrounding Superstition Vistas left the area alone, only beginning to close in on the land around 1999, when the Johnson Ranch, Bella Vista Farms and other developments came closer.
