The Ak-Chin Indian Community is nestled in the Santa Cruz Valley of Southern Arizona and encompasses 22,160 acres. Situated in northwestern Pinal County, the central portion of the Community is located five miles south of the City of Maricopa. State Route 347 runs north-south through the center of the Community, serving the Community, the City and the County. This roadway provides a direct route to Interstate 10 and the Phoenix metropolitan area, which is just 40 miles to the north. SR 347 also connects to Interstate 8 approximately 15 miles to the south. A second State facility, State Route 238 intersects the north end of the Community and provides east-west access to the City of Maricopa and SR 347 from the western edge of the Community. These regional facilities provide the Community with access to many needed services that are not available within the Community itself, including medical providers, shopping, and schools. Beyond the accessibility and mobility afforded by the State facilities, the Community is relatively landlocked served directly by only three rural roadways: Peters and Nall Road, Farrell Road and Ralston Road.

This planning project is to update the Ak-Chin Indian Communityís Long Range Transportation Plan. The study area is within the Community boundaries and adjacent Community-owned land. The principal focus of the project is to address the most critical transportation planning needs identified by the Community. This will include, but is not limited to a needs analysis and evaluation for all priority roadway corridors within the project area. The major transportation goals of the Community include: (1) Promote an effective, well-planned transportation system of roadways that establishes functional, safe, and durable streets; (2) Create ordinances, policies, or design guidelines that support the transportation plan; and (3) Provide for and encourage use of non-vehicle modes of transportation. The major product of the study will be a final report, which contains the updated Ak-Chin Indian Community Long Range Transportation Plan and a Plan for Improvements. Taking into consideration received input, the updated LRTP will span over five, ten and twenty year periods, incorporating both roadways and the multimodal needs of the Community.

Development of the Ak-Chin Indian Community Long Range Transportation Plan will be conducted according to a cooperative planning process involving stakeholders that include Community departmental staff, public agency staff, elected Community officials, and Community members. Throughout the study, information will be presented to and solicited from stakeholders through interviews and to the general public through public meetings and other means of communication.

This study will prepare an updated Tribal Long Range Transportation Plan and a strategic plan for improvements over five-, 10-, and 20-year periods, incorporating both roadway and multimodal needs. Some key focus areas of the Plan are road maintenance and safety programs, as well as improvement plans for bicycle, pedestrian, and transit systems. It also Identifies updates to the Tribal Transportation Inventory and functional classification systems will assist in expanding the level and types of funding available for transportation projects.

Enrollment in degree-granting institutions of higher education in Arizona as a percentage of the state’s population was about equal to the national average in 2003. The Arizona figure was higher than the national average at private for-profit institutions, slightly greater than the national average at public institutions, but considerably below average at private not-for-profit institutions. Total revenues and expenditures per student at Arizona institutions of higher education were far below the national averages in 2003, among the least in the nation. Among public institutions, Arizona’s higher education revenues and expenditures were not as far below average, but still ranked among the bottom 10 states in the nation.

The condition of Arizona’s infrastructure has a direct impact on economic productivity and quality of life. As economic competition expands domestically and globally, and as the knowledge economy evolves, the importance of a strong infrastructure increases. Education, in particular, is of growing importance. Arizona’s infrastructure challenges will require commitment and creativity to meet the needs and potential of 10 million people and to ensure a positive future for the state.

A landmark assessment of infrastructure needs in Arizona was produced by the L. William Seidman Research Institute in May 2008 for the Arizona Investment Council (AIC): "Infrastructure Needs and Funding Alternatives for Arizona: 2008-2032", that addressed infrastructure needs in four categories: energy, telecommunications, transportation, and water and wastewater. The information from the AIC report is a major input to the report that follows. Other types of infrastructure — most notably education, health care, and public safety — also are analyzed here to provide a more complete picture of infrastructure needs in Arizona. The goals of this report are to place Arizona’s infrastructure needs into national and historical contexts, to identify the changing conditions in infrastructure provision that make building Arizona’s infrastructure in the future a more problematic proposition than in the past, and to provide projections of the possible costs of providing infrastructure in Arizona over the next quarter century.

Fast Growth in Metropolitan Phoenix is the first product of a comprehensive effort to describe and analyze the region’s growth. The Brookings Institution Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy in Washington, D.C. presented the opportunity for this project to Morrison Institute for Public Policy. The story of growth in metropolitan Phoenix is a complicated, often surprising, tale. There is much to be proud of in the region. Yet there is also much to worry about, and much that needs to be done. Hits and Misses will have been successful if it becomes a catalyst for getting started.

An update to the Flagstaff Regional Plan 2030 (FRP30), to bring its Road Network Illustration (Map 25) into compliance with Arizona Revised Statute requirements and to resolve inconsistencies between Map 25 and parts of the Flagstaff City Code. This update does not alter the intent of FRP30; it is only concerned with correcting errors, removing legal vulnerability, and improving the readability of FRP30.