The CAPER report represents a collaborative effort between the Arizona Department of Housing and the Arizona Department of Economic Security. This document outlines the State’s affordable housing and community development resources, their methods of distribution, geographic funding objectives, and actions by the State to meet those objectives during the past fiscal year.

Given the inevitable transportation changes associated with impending growth in Pinal County, there was a need for a method to assess how corresponding emissions changes might affect PM10 and Ozone concentrations in the county and at the monitor sites. The overall objective of the project was to develop methods or models that could be used in Pinal County to adequately address air pollution issues in the County.

This report and the accompanying Geographic Information System (GIS) datasets summarize the results of the workshop held in Florence, Arizona in 2010. At this workshop, stakeholders representing a broad range of organizations and interests identified and mapped the locations of important wildlife linkages across Pinal County. This report provides background information on the importance and benefits of conserving wildlife linkages for both people and wildlife in Pinal County and describes the methods used during stakeholder workshops and in developing the accompanying GIS products. It includes a series of maps generated from the digitized stakeholder data that depict the general locations of wildlife linkages and potential barriers to wildlife movement within Pinal County. The maps are followed by tables with descriptive information about the habitat areas each linkage connects, the species each linkage serves, and known threats and potential conservation opportunities associated with each linkage.

Housing plays a major role in the United States and Arizona economies. It is estimated that the housing industry accounts for one-fifth of our nation’s Gross Domestic Product. Despite the economic importance of housing, Arizona did not have a comprehensive approach or strategy for dealing with housing policy issues. In 1994, a Housing Summit addressed increasing concerns about the cost of housing. Participants from across the state met to discuss growing housing needs. A major outcome of the summit was the formation of the Affordable Housing Task Force, designed to review the state’s housing market and suggest ways the state could address housing affordability. Its principal recommendation was the creation of a permanent body that would focus attention on workable housing solutions. The Arizona Housing Commission was created by Executive Order in 1996 to serve as an advisory body to the Governor, the Legislature and the Arizona Department of Commerce, which is the primary agency currently responsible for housing programs. In 1997, the passage of House Bill 2011 formally established the Commission in statute.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires all government entities receiving federal low-income housing and community development funds to prepare an Annual Action Plan. This is a one-year plan to address the low-income housing and community development needs in the state of Arizona, with a special focus on serving the small cities and rural areas of the state. It consolidates the planning, application, and funding requirements for several programs funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development: Community Development Block Grant; HOME Investment Partnerships Program; Emergency Solutions Grant; and Housing Opportunities for Persons with AIDS. The federal and state-funded housing and community development projects and programs described within the Action Plan are administered and implemented by ADOH, the Arizona Department of Economic Security, units of local or regional government, or non-profit agencies.

This report describes the development of base and future socioeconomic estimates for the Pinal Corridor Planning Model, developed by ADOT to support the evaluation of potential new highway corridors in Northern Pinal County. This section presents a summary of the methodology, data sources used, and historical trends in population and employment growth. The following two sections present the base and future year methods and resulting estimates of population and employment.

In September 2004, ADOT awarded a contract for the Pinal County Corridors Definition Study to Kimley-Horn and Associates. The scope of the Pinal County Corridors Definition Study included the following activities:
* Confirm the need for the East Valley and the North-South corridors;
* Define planning-level corridor definition alternatives;
* Perform a technical assessment of engineering, environmental, and land use compatibility constraints opportunities for the planning-level corridor definition alternatives;
* Identify to the extent possible, feasible and preferred planning-level corridor definitions on the basis of the technical evaluation;
* Document planning-level costs of corridor development (including studies, design, construction, and right-of-way costs) for the preferred corridor definitions.

The Pinal County Corridors Definition Study resulted in sufficient detail to provide a basis for the future establishment of geometric roadway alignments and corridor design concepts, the preservation of right-of-way, and the identification of required environmental clearance studies.

The historical range of the ferruginous pygmy-owl included areas of southern Arizona, southern Texas extending south along both coasts in Mexico, through Central America into the southernmost population in Argentina. However, over the past 150 years urban and agricultural expansion within the United States has reduced its population to a few isolated pockets of uncertain stability.

Pima County contracted with Arizona Game and Fish Department to conduct telemetry analysis and gather information that would lead to effective conservation and recovery initiatives for the cactus ferruginous pygmy-owl. During 1997, banded birds were monitored. Beginning in 1998 and during 1999, pygmy-owls were radio-marked with backpack transmitters and followed on foot or by vehicle.