Every weekday morning and night, the roads in and out of Oro Valley swell with commuters heading south for work and funneling back toward Oro Valley before sunset. It’s the rhythm of a bedroom community that's tied tightly to the rest of the region’s economy.
For all of Oro Valley’s polished amenities and growing tech corridor, it remains a suburb at its core.
Roughly 80% of its population works outside the town’s roughly 35-square-mile footprint. There may be plenty of rocket scientists calling Oro Valley home, but there’s only one Raytheon campus — and it sits about 20 miles away.
The commute runs both ways. About 80% of the people working in Oro Valley drive in from neighboring communities, reinforcing how dependent the town is on regional transportation links rather than purely local roads.
Those stats come from Oro Valley Town Manager Jeff Wilkins, who says the town’s economic future depends on keeping people — and traffic — moving across jurisdictional lines. Next month’s RTA Next election will help the broader network that feeds Oro Valley keep pace with growth across Southern Arizona.
A key example is the planned Tangerine Road improvements, including a grade-separated crossing over Interstate 10 and the Union Pacific Railroad tracks. Local leaders say that project could reshape how easily residents travel between Oro Valley, Marana and Phoenix — if voters approve Propositions 418 and 419.
Last summer, when Oro Valley officials prioritized which projects to submit for RTA Next, they leaned heavily into proposals with regional impact rather than purely neighborhood upgrades.
A closer look at what is on the ballot for Oro Valley residents, both inside the town limits and in nearby jurisdictions.
One example is the $26 million Shannon Road roadway improvement, which would expand the section between Lambert Lane and Tangerine Road to three lanes in each direction, with new pedestrian and bicycle improvements.
Oracle Road — also known as State Route 77 — remains under state control, and local officials have long pushed the Arizona Department of Transportation to invest more heavily in the corridor. That tug-of-war between local expectations and state priorities has shaped Oro Valley’s transportation planning for years.
The town gets calls about Oracle Road all the time, and while the town works closely with ADOT, Wilkins says the town-versus-state divide means they struggle to sync traffic lights, much less get the state to take seriously repaving sections of the busy corridor.
But then again, the quest to get Interstate 10 widened between Tucson and Phoenix has been a decades-long process, and we’re still waiting for the state to finish the last 29-mile stretch — often referred to as the I-10 Wild Horse Pass Corridor Project — which is expected to wrap up in 2029.
Put it another way — we’ll have a new president before the route from the Old Pueblo to Phoenix will be three lanes in each direction.
Oro Valley was largely spared from projects being cancelled or delayed by revenue shortfalls in the Regional Transportation Authority over the last twenty years, although Wilkins said some projects were re-engineered from the initial plans with an eye on keeping project costs down.
For example, a planned pedestrian bridge could be replaced with a crosswalk with a pedestrian-activated traffic beacon that stops traffic. 1
The handful of major roadway improvements planned for Oro Valley are straightforward — the $170 million in transportation projects could be complete in a few years if voters back RTA Next in March.
If voters reject it, those Oro Valley projects could take decades to complete, given the entire town budget for this fiscal year is approximately $152 million.
And that isn’t the only issue. Public transit — especially the dial-a-ride service for the aging Oro Valley community — would be gutted if RTA Next fails.
The town generates roughly 60,000 calls per month to dial-a-ride, which takes disabled residents to doctor’s appointments, the grocery store and other essential destinations — trips that could not be replicated by taking the bus, which already has limited service inside the town limits.
“For those that are transit dependent, (paratransit) really creates a level of freedom for them, a low level of independence,” Wilkins said.
Again, it is unclear how much the town could put toward transit if the twin propositions fail next month. But it is clear that if voters reject RTA Next, services would be scaled back starting as early as this summer.
Your ballot for RTA Next should have hit your mailbox by now. But if not, you have until Friday to request a ballot from the Pima County Recorder’s Office.
Curious about the intersection of RTA Next and where you live? We’ve covered what Propositions 418 and 419 mean for those living in Tucson, Pima County and Marana. We also put out a RTA Next Voter Guide last Friday and sat down with the opponents of RTA Next here.
In a recent Phoenix Business Journal op-ed, First Things First CEO Melinda Gulick and RIESTER CEO Tim Riester argue that investing in child care is essential to Arizona’s economic future. As the state continues to diversify and attract new industries, they warn that limited access to affordable, high-quality child care threatens workforce growth and long-term attainment goals.
The authors connect early learning directly to the Achieve60AZ goal, noting that children who attend strong early education programs are more likely to graduate, enroll in college, and complete credentials. They also emphasize the immediate economic impact that expanding child care access could have by significantly increasing workforce participation, boosting GDP, and strengthening Arizona’s talent pipeline.
With attainment currently lagging at 49%, Gulick and Riester argue that child care is not a luxury but a foundational workforce strategy.
Read the full article in the Phoenix Business Journal to learn more.
Voting centers in the crosshairs: The state House approved a bill that would get rid of the voting centers that are widely used in Pima County, KJZZ’s Camryn Sanchez reports. But lawmakers won’t be the ones who decide whether you’re only allowed to vote at your precinct. HCR2016 from Tucson-area Republican Rep. Rachel Keshel is a ballot measure that would go before voters. The vast majority of county election directors in Arizona oppose the measure and Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoed a similar bill last year, which is likely why Keshel is trying to send it directly to voters.
Taking another crack at it: GOP state lawmakers are trying again to force Tucson to stop holding its elections in odd-numbered years, per Capitol scribe Howie Fischer. The Senate Judiciary and Elections Committee approved SCR1027 on a party-line vote. The bill from Republican Sen. JD Mesnard would put a measure on the ballot asking voters to require every city, town and school district in Arizona to hold elections in even-numbered years. Lawmakers have tried to get charter cities like Tucson to hold their elections on the same day as state and federal elections for more than a decade. Each time, they’ve been swatted down by voters or judges.
Keeping the cap in place: Casitas in Tucson could have been a lot bigger if state lawmakers had signed off on a bill from Republican Khyl Powell, per Capitol Media Services’ Bob Christie. The House Appropriations Committee voted down Powell’s bill by one vote on Monday. If HB4028 had become law, the cap of 1,000 square feet for casitas enshrined in a 2024 law, which made city councils scramble to update their zoning codes, would have been removed.
Do you know who would pore through zoning changes if HB2048 became law? We would! Support local journalistic nerdery by clicking this button.
Dodging bullets: The violence that erupted in Mexico after a cartel leader was killed has largely spared Sonora, the Mexican state just across the border from Arizona, Nina Kravinsky reports for KJZZ. But other states haven’t been so lucky. Cartel members blocked roads and burned buildings after the Mexican Army killed Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, AKA “El Mencho,” on Sunday.
Southern Arizona safari: Sahuarita could soon be home to giraffes, rhinos, gazelles and other imperiled species, the Arizona Daily Star’s Henry Brean reports. The Phoenix Zoo is planning to open a conservation safari park on about 1,100 acres of vacant land owned by the Freeport-McMoRan mining company.
“We’re going to have a really great drive-through wildlife experience for the public,” Norberto “Bert” Castro, president and CEO of the Arizona Center for Nature Conservation, said.
Who you bring to the annual State of the Union address as a member of Congress is, by its nature, a political statement — sometimes subtle, sometimes not.
We wrote Monday that Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva skipped President Donald Trump’s address, and gave her guest ticket to Democratic Congresswoman Ilhan Omar, who brought Mubashir Khalif Hussen, a U.S. citizen who was violently detained by federal immigration agents last December in Minneapolis.
Congressman Juan Ciscomani brought a rancher from Safford, Ben Menges, president of the Graham County Farm Bureau. Among his concerns are cattle losses tied to the federally protected Mexican gray wolf, which has been listed as endangered since 1976.
Grijalva’s guest highlighted a problem critics say stems from current federal immigration policies that are at the heart of the partial federal shutdown.
Ciscomani’s spotlighted a fight over a species presidents of both parties have largely left untouched for nearly 50 years.
We’ll also point out that Arizona has a law on the books allowing ranchers to be reimbursed for cattle killed by predators. The Arizona Livestock Loss Board paid out $52,000 for 50 claims in 2025.
1 This is not an example specific to Oro Valley, just an example of how planners can cut costs while still trying to meet the underlying needs of a busy, pedestrian-heavy intersection.