The fiscal impact of this IGA is $15,000 per year for the next four years, totaling $60,000. The 2023 amount will be funded from the current Development Services Department budget. Future year amounts will be included in the budget as appropriate. The IGA contains commitment from each Party to make an equal, annual contribution to MAG to partially reimburse MAG for the cost of the Ambassador’s Total Compensation. In addition to Goodyear, the parties to this agreement include the Cities of Avondale, Buckeye, Mesa, Phoenix, Tempe, Gila River Indian Community, Maricopa County, Salt River Pima Maricopa Indian Community, and Salt River Project. MAG will serve as a fiscal agent to receive and process the funding, as well as federal or other funding sources in support of the Ambassador as needed or recommended by the Rio Advisory Board. |
The original plan for the Rio Salado Project was developed in 1966 under the direction of James Elmore, Dean of the University College of Architecture at Arizona State University, and was published in a community report in 1969. Valley Forward (now known as Arizona Forward) joined with the Rio Salado Project Committee in 1976 and developed a master plan for the Rio Salado Project which proposed the redevelopment of approximately 40 miles of the Rio Salado as it traversed metropolitan Phoenix, Tempe and Mesa. In 1980 legislation was passed which allowed creation of the Rio Salado Development District which was tasked with rallying support and preparing the strategic framework plan for the revitalization, funding and implementation of the Rio Salado Project. The Rio Salado Master Plan was presented to the public in 1982. Since then, some of the Valley’s cities and communities have taken action to improve the Rio Salado and its watershed by developing parks, bike paths, bridges, habitat restoration, flood management and associated river enhancements. The Rio Salado has also undergone a number of significant projects related to flood control, water treatment, environmental quality, ecological restoration and public open space amenities, including the El Rio Watercourse Master Plan, Tres Rios Habitat Restoration and Wetlands, Rio Salado Oeste, Rio Salado Phoenix, Rio Salado Tempe, Rio Salado Mesa and Tempe Town Lake. Some of these projects and improvements have had a positive effect on tourism, employment, housing, the tax base, art and culture, recreation, economic development and wetland and riparian rehabilitation, yet the Rio Salado remains significantly underdeveloped given its economic potential. U.S. Senator John McCain has championed and catalyzed the charge to complete the Rio Salado Project and, with the Assistance of Arizona State University, establish a working group to promote the project and assist in the overall planning, review and approval process for the project. The Rio Salado Project is now envisioned to extend over 45 miles along the river’s corridor and up to a mile wide through Maricopa County and span the City of Buckeye, City of Goodyear, Gila River Indian Community, City of Avondale, City of Phoenix, City of Tempe, Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, and the City of Mesa. These communities believe that the Rio Salado Project has the potential to be the focus of a grand vision for civic identity - an iconic landmark for the Valley - which will promote and provide significant economic, recreational and water conservation value. On March 26, 2018, the City of Godyear City Council authorized the Mayor to execute the Statement of Intent for the Rio Salado Project. On March 30, 2018, the City of Buckeye, the City of Goodyear, the Gila River Indian Community, the City of Avondale, the City of Phoenix, the City of Tempe, the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, the City of Mesa, Maricopa County, Arizona, and the Salt River Project Agricultural Improvement and Power District entered into a Statement of Intent (“SOI”) for the Rio Salado Project, which is now known as Rio Reimagined. The SOI describes the purposes of RIO and the signing parties’ commitments to pursuing specified goals and themes related to river revitalization for the Rio Salado. It has been the desire of these communities, along with Arizona State University and other stakeholder groups, such as landowners, developers, non-profit organizations, utilities & services, and federal entities, and the greater public, to unite and create a cooperative public-private relationship, and to organize, design and implement the Rio Salado Project to its fullest economic, recreational and water conservation capacities. Besides promoting the basic themes of economic development, transformation of a neglected river environment into a recreational haven, and water recharge, conservation and flood control, the participants in the Statement of Intent (SOI) agreed to work together cooperatively to form a Rio Salado Authority to develop plans and pursue funding opportunities and facilitate development of projects consistent with these themes and goals. On September 1, 2020, the U.S. Government designated RIO as an Urban Waters Federal Partnership location. |