I am going to highlight a couple of bits from the opinion...
In a region growing as rapidly as Pima County, the town of Marana and private developers may be breaking new ground in a partnership agreement that demonstrates how major road-construction projects can be built without state funds.
A group of private developers agreed to finance roughly $40 million to design and build a major interchange at Interstate 10 north of the existing Tangerine Road exit. The new exit and accompanying loop road will provide access to a huge retail and commercial development planned for the area.
State money for such projects is scarce because construction costs have increased and too many road projects are competing for attention from the Arizona Department of Transportation's finite budget.
(my emphasis)
My guess is Marana has a similar financial situation that Kingman has. No ability to fund needed infrastructure projects as needed, and maybe a community of voters that don't necessarily like to vote to increase their bills they pay to the government (i.e. taxes).
I'm now aware of development agreement projects in various stages throughout Arizona that include the communities of Marana, Gilbert, Queen Creek, and Lake Havasu City. I bet there are others... and if you know of any more please add them in the comments.
Here is more from the Daily Star...
Some critics will see Marana's decision as a needless subsidy of private development. The land along Interstate 10 is extremely valuable for retail trade, they will say, and businesses would be attracted to it with or without help from the town.
While there is some truth to that, it ignores a fundamental fact of life in Marana. A former agricultural town that's rapidly developing into a suburb of Tucson, Marana has 34,000 people, all of whom demand services but want no part of a property tax.
The town lives and dies on the strength of impact fees for new construction, and sales taxes. The huge development along I-10 near Tangerine Road, which will be much larger than the Arizona Pavilions shopping center at Cortaro Road and I-10, is expected to generate around $3 million a year in sales taxes.
The town gets to keep 100 percent of those sales taxes after its part of the infrastructure cost is paid off, in 15 years, Reuwsaat said.
For a town that's heavily dependent on sales taxes, making an accommodation for a new development that will include a large outdoor mall, possibly two hotels and an autoplex on some 1,500 acres is a wise long-term investment. By investing a portion of its sales taxes toward repaying the infrastructure costs today, it speeds up construction of a badly needed interchange at I-10 and opens a new cash flow to the town's general fund. Sales tax dollars are the blood in Marana's veins.
Wow... how amazingly similar the situation there as the one we face here in Kingman, uncanny.
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