The town may be within a few weeks of hearing from the Arizona State Land Department on a plan for the approximately 1,300 acres of state-owned trust land within Fountain Hills, according to Town Manager Grady Miller.

Miller said staff has been in contact with State Land officials and they are reporting they are near completion of a land use plan for the property. Town officials expect to meet with State Land representatives within a few weeks.

“We will have an internal meeting with key staff to go over the land use plan,” Miller said. “[We] will encourage the agency to sell the land as one large package or parcel to a master developer rather than smaller parcels with multiple developers.”

The town annexed the land prior to the original auction on the property in 2006. The land was purchased by the Ellman Companies and that sale fell through last year and the parcel was returned to the Land Department.

The town had an approved development agreement with Ellman that allowed for 1,200 to 1,500 residential housing units. A small portion of the property near Fountain Hills Boulevard and McDowell Mountain Road, across from the Middle School, was designated for commercial.

At this time it is unknown what a new plan might look like.