FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, February 3, 2025

Natural Resources Committee Chair Revives "Ag-to-Urban" Bill
to Save Water & Lower Housing Prices
PHOENIX, ARIZONA— After Governor Katie Hobbs' irresponsible veto last year of a bipartisan bill aimed at addressing Arizona's housing shortage while also conserving water, Natural Resources Committee Chair T.J. Shope is reviving the "Ag-to-Urban" bill to help Arizonans afford a home and safeguard our most precious resource.
Also known as SB 1611, this legislation introduced today provides solutions to Arizona's most pressing issues, groundwater protection and skyrocketing home prices due to low supply. The bill allows farmers to sell their land and water rights to developers who will in turn build for-sale housing to meet the needs of Arizona's growing population.
Single-family housing in Arizona currently uses less water than agriculture. In fact, our state uses the same amount of water today with 7.5 million people living here, as it did in 1957 with only 1.5 million people. This growth, along with the tax dollars from it, have supported the creation of innovated tools for efficient water management over the past several decades.
In 2022, the Arizona Department of Housing estimated a shortage of 270,000 housing units statewide. This lack of supply is a driving force behind rising prices. Over the past five years, the average median home sale price in Arizona has increased more than 50% and currently sits near $450,000, preventing many working-class Arizonans and young families from achieving their American dream of homeownership.
There are currently more than 400,000 acres of irrigated farmland in the Phoenix, Pinal, and Pima Active Management Areas that could participate in the ag-to-urban program, if signed into law. If half of this farmland is transformed into housing, more than a million homes could be built. This increased supply would effectively lower home prices in Arizona and save water.
"The Governor's reckless moratorium on homebuilding in two of the most booming areas of the Valley, combined with last year's veto of the bipartisan Ag-to-Urban bill, have only exacerbated the crisis of housing affordability for hardworking Arizonans and have done nothing to conserve water," said Chairman Shope. "This innovative and commonsense approach to saving water, while opening up homebuilding to bring prices down, has gone through rigorous stakeholder meetings last year through this year, with more than 80 Republican and Democrat voices from around the state at the table. This program is the right move to help secure Arizona's water future for generations to come, while also supporting the homebuilding needed to serve the massive growth Arizona is experiencing and provide our hardworking citizens the opportunity to achieve their American dream of homeownership. I'm looking forward to this bill passing out of the Legislature and the Governor not making the same mistake twice by signing this into law."
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For more information, contact:
Kim Quintero
Director of Communications | Arizona State Senate Republican Caucus
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