Homebuilders are unsure how effective Arizona’s “ag-to-urban” water program will be, but say they plan to get on board when it goes into effect on Sept. 26 even though they have doubts about its future effectiveness.
The program, a complex initiative that seeks to increase housing development while conserving groundwater in the state embodied in Senate Bill 1611, was signed by Gov. Katie Hobbs on June 30.
“I think you’re going to have a slow build to it increasing [residential] development,” said Don Barrineau, Phoenix division president for Canadian builder Mattamy Homes. “It’s going to take some time for development, for deals that qualify, meet the criteria and are currently agricultural, to get zoned and moved through that process.”
An ag-to-urban program has been pitched for years in discussions regarding Arizona’s water, an ever-relevant topic amid drought and delicate supply, given that housing uses less water than agriculture.
