State Trust Land
Many states in the West hold acres of land in trusts. The states are required to give any money gained from selling the land to public education. Read the passages below to determine how Phoenix has managed its trust lands.
Passage One
The state constitution requires that the trust lands, part of the 11 million acres Arizona gained at statehood from the federal government, be managed to maximize their benefit to the state’s schools. . . . Arizona retains more than 90 percent of its original grant, including the vast majority of the acres it controls near the Phoenix urbanized area. Relatively few parcels have been sold to developers.
The Urban Land Management Act of 1981 also has limited sales of state trust land for development. . . . To date, the State Land Department has sold off just 7,446 acres of land near all of the state’s cities. The net effect is that the state now retains a reservoir of more than 200,000 acres of vacant land around metropolitan Phoenix, much of it just to the north of the current urban fringe.
Source: Morrison Institute for Public Policy. “Hits and Misses: Fast Growth in Metropolitan Phoenix." September 2000. http://www.asu.edu/copp/morrison/
Passage Two
The State Land Department was castigated for disposing of land too early and too cheaply; criticized for not preserving enough land as open space in its developments; accused of furthering sprawl and low quality development; blamed for not being aggressive enough cashing in on the real estate boom to thereby help the school children; investigated for being too cozy with developers; . . . . It has often seemed as if the Department could do nothing right.
Source: Gammage, Grady and Jonathan Fink. “The Phoenix Experiment.” March 1, 2004. http://west.stanford.edu/events/edge_conference/metrowestsouthwest.html
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Questions:
1. Why might the state be tempted to sell its land to developers?
2. What would justify such a sale?
3. Why might people want to prevent the state from selling its land to developers?
4. Based on the second passage, it appears that many people have a stake in how the state manages its trust land. The quote does not mention who has been critical of the State Land Department; it only states what those criticisms have been. Read the passage carefully and try to determine who has criticized the state.
