Pinal County supervisors approved industrial zoning for 4,695.89 acres of Arizona State Trust land north of Florence on Sept. 30. The vote clears a land-use step toward a state auction; it does not transfer the property, name a buyer or set a sale date. Pinal Post reported that the Arizona State Land Department plans to offer the land for an industrial campus after approvals are finalized.
The zoning allows industry with limits on specific uses
The county approved a Comprehensive Plan designation of “Special District,” changed the zoning from General Rural to I-3 industrial, and adopted a Planned Area Development overlay with site-specific rules, according to Pinal Post’s account. The overlay bars a standalone data center: data-center functions are allowed only to support the main business on the property, not to provide storage or processing services to outside users. It also bars standalone solar and battery-storage projects, while allowing solar to serve facilities on the site.
The practical requirements would also shape development. Pinal Post reported that the site is vacant, under grazing leases and without a sewer connection, so an employer would need to handle wastewater on-site with a septic system. The conditions require Skyline Drive to extend east to State Route 79 and call for at least two public-road access points.
Earlier industrial activity and separate road work offer context, not a project commitment
Pinal County has previously been selected for a major industrial project: the Daily Independent reported that Lucid Motors and Gov. Doug Ducey announced Casa Grande as the site of a separate electric-car manufacturing operation. That precedent shows another company chose a Pinal County location, but says nothing about who might bid on or occupy the Florence-area land.
There is also separate transportation work in the corridor. An Arizona Department of Transportation bulletin said a roundabout at the SR 79/79B intersection in Florence had been added to the agency’s five-year construction program with federal highway safety funding. That project is not evidence that the Skyline Drive extension required for this site is funded or complete.
Before the supervisors’ vote, the Planning and Zoning Commission recommended approval by 7-2 on each item, KTAR News reported. The zoning decision defines what could be built, subject to its conditions; the state auction, a buyer and the parcel’s eventual use remain unresolved.
