San Tan Valley votes on town incorporation

If Prop 495 passes, San Tan Valley would become the largest area by population to incorporate in Arizona history.

SAN TAN VALLEY, Ariz. — People living in San Tan Valley will make a big decision about the future of their community in less than 24 hours.

Voters will decide if San Tan Valley should become a town or remain unincorporated in an election on Aug. 5.

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San Tan Valley, a growing community with over 100,000 people, is the largest unincorporated area in Arizona. 

“Leaps and bounds,” Christine Wilhelm, a San Tan Valley resident, said. “Everywhere I look, there’s a new neighborhood going up.”

A vote yes on Proposition 495 would make San Tan Valley a town, giving the community the ability to make big changes by creating a town council and implementing its own services.

“It’s really nothing new to us to see an area grow so big that they either decide to incorporate and then usually after many years, 10-20 years, they are able to then to build the funds to start their own fire department,” Rural Metro Fire Department Public Information Officer Shawn Gilleland said.

Rural Metro Fire provides service to all of San Tan Valley and Gilleland told 12News the election’s outcome won’t change that.

“If the vote for incorporation does pass, really nothing will change. Services will remain exactly the same,” Gilleland said.

As an unincorporated area, each home owner, business owner and HOA has the option to pay out of pocket for a Rural Metro Fire membership, similar to insurance.

Whereas, Gilleland said a town has the option to enter into a master contract that pays for fire services through other funding sources such as state shared revenue or taxes.

“If they incorporate and the master contract is put into place, anybody within those town boundaries would get those services and there would be no fee for service type of stuff,” Gilleland said.

Services including road maintenance and police enforcement would be created more immediately and are expected to cost millions of dollars.

None of the early voters 12News spoke with on Aug. 4 were against becoming a town, but some residents did raise concerns at a previous meeting on the topic.

“Adding bureaucracy,” one resident said.

“Taxes are going to go up. There is no doubt,” another resident said.

Those voting in favor told 12News San Tan Valley is ready to stand on its own.

“Incorporation brings more to the town we would become and it would be a lot more helpful for everyone that’s involved in this area to actually incorporate and to actually get some of the resources in some of the help we need in this area rather than relying on the neighboring cities and towns to provide for us almost,” Ryan Mitchell, a San Tan Valley resident, said.

Polls open at 6 a.m. on Aug. 5 and ballots must be returned by mail or dropped off at a drop box location no later than 7 p.m. Click here for a list of drop-off locations.

If Prop 495 passes, San Tan Valley would officially become a town next July, becoming the largest area by population to incorporate in the state’s history.

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