Tempe and Phoenix Metro Land Use at Stake as GOP Bill Targets State Solar Mapping Program

A Republican-led bill advancing through the Arizona Legislature would block the state Land Department from designating specific areas for solar development, pitting renewable energy interests against housing advocates in a fight over how 9.2 million acres of state trust land should be used.

HB 2975, sponsored by Rep. Ralph Heap, R-Mesa, passed the House on a party-line vote and now heads to the Senate. The measure would prohibit the Land Department from creating a solar-only scoring map and instead require the agency to produce comparable maps for residential development and mining.

The solar map controversy

The Arizona Land Department, operating under the administration of Gov. Katie Hobbs, released a map identifying state land parcels it considers most suitable for large-scale solar projects. The map uses color-coded scoring to highlight areas with the highest potential for utility-scale solar development.

Heap argues the map gives solar an unfair advantage over other land uses.

"By designating a map for solar, but not for other industries, the Hobbs administration is effectively declaring solar the preferred use of the land," Heap said.

The representative, who is also running for the Arizona Corporation Commission, told Capitol Media Services that the solar map singles out development near growing communities in the greater Phoenix area while offering no comparable scoring for housing or mining.

"This tilts the playing field towards one industry, risks lower value uses, and short-changes the funding our schools need," Heap said.

Housing advocates weigh in

Spencer Kamps, vice president of the Home Builders Association of Central Arizona, said the solar map functions as a presumptive highest and best use designation for renewable energy.

"In the absence of a similar map for other industries, some might say the solar map is serving functionally as a 'presumptive highest and best use map,' which gives solar a 'rebuttable presumption' of highest and best used in each part indicated in green," Kamps said in prepared comments.

Kamps pointed to large areas on the map that are color-coded as most suitable for solar. Many of those parcels sit on the edge of existing urban development around Phoenix, in Pinal County, and northwest and southeast of Tucson.

The governor's defense

Hobbs pushed back against the characterization that her administration is favoring solar over other uses. She told Capitol Media Services that the Land Department's sole guiding principle is maximizing financial returns for the state trust.

"The number one responsibility of State Land, and the constitutional obligation, is to get the highest value of land for the trust," Hobbs said.

The governor said the department does not pick winners or losers in energy policy.

"If the highest and best value of the land is renewable energy, that will be the case. If the highest and best use is housing, that will be the case. We're not sacrificing one for the other," Hobbs said.

She also noted that when the federal government limited approvals on federal lands, Arizona took the opposite approach by expediting approvals on state land.

Environmental groups oppose the bill

Sandy Bahr, director of the Grand Canyon Chapter of the Sierra Club, said HB 2975 singles out solar in a punitive way.

"It does not negate that very high responsibility of the state Land Department to determine what is the highest and best use and to maximize dollars for the trust. So I don't know why you would want to get rid of that," Bahr said.

Jodi Liggett, a lobbyist for Chispa Arizona, a program of the League of Conservation Voters, said the bill removes a useful planning tool and moves Arizona in the wrong direction.

The trust land backdrop

When Arizona became a state in 1912, the federal government granted the state approximately 10 million acres of land to be held in trust. About 9.2 million acres remain, with roughly 8 million acres designated to fund K-12 education.

The Land Department generates revenue through outright land sales, long-term leases for grazing and commercial development, mining rights, and solar and wind energy projects. All of these uses must satisfy the constitutional requirement that state lands be managed for their "highest and best use" to maximize financial returns for the trust.

What happens next

HB 2975 now awaits a vote in the Arizona Senate. If it passes, it would require the Land Department to abandon its solar scoring map and create equivalent maps for residential and mining development.

Heap said he is not opposed to solar development itself. He cited an 8,100-acre solar project planned near Florence Junction in Pinal County as an example of solar development that could conflict with housing growth.

"We say we want more housing. But definitely the solar would negatively impact a lot of growth in that area," Heap said.

The Pinal County Board of Supervisors unanimously rejected that project.