Yuma growing suburbs: Somerton, San Luis populations up by more than 40 percent

Rising population rates in some of the county's smaller cities and towns is turning formerly isolated areas into virtual suburbs of the city of Yuma. "It's the overall expansion of the region," said Cliff O'Neill, Somerton city manager. "As we slowly grow together and the distance between Yuma and Somerton grows shorter ... we've become a bedroom community for Yuma."

New U.S. Census Bureau figures released today show the populations of San Luis, Ariz., and Somerton have grown by more than 40 percent over the past five years, between the counts in 2000 and 2006.

San Luis has grown by 47.33 percent, from 15,363 residents in 2000 to 22,634 in 2006, making it the fastest-growing city in the county. And city officials there say growth will only go up, with projections showing a population of 50,000 by 2012.

"We're going to double in population, at the most by 2012 but I think it will be more 2010 or 2011," said Lee Maness, San Luis city manager.

Maness added that they were trying to develop new opportunities in San Luis itself, such as the recently opened Advanced Call Center Technologies location and the new Wal-Mart.

Somerton has gone from 7,473 people to more than 10,000 - a 44.6 percent increase.

"We now have a real diversity of housing styles," O'Neill said. "There's all price ranges - $120,000 to $300,000 - which we didn't have in the past."

Meanwhile, the city of Yuma posted a steady growth rate of just over 12 percent.

These communities reflect the trend toward rapid suburban growth in Arizona as a whole.

Urban sprawl is translating into meteoric growth in the more distant suburbs surrounding Arizona's major metropolitan areas of Phoenix and Tucson.

Figures show triple-digit growth rates for several cities.

In fact, what was the tiny - and at the time - unincorporated community of Maricopa actually has grown by nearly 1,900 percent.

By contrast, Arizona's population increased by just 16.8 percent in the same period.

The statistics show that the communities that until now have been the suburbs of Phoenix and Tucson are filling up. In fact, both cities are growing slower than the statewide rate.

Other Arizona communities are showing that same pattern, as people seek to live farther away from the city.

Prescott is growing at less than half the rate of Prescott Valley. And the population of Williams is increasing faster than Flagstaff's.

But the real growth is occurring in the exurbs - the communities that until recently were largely just farmland.

Consider:

-Tempe managed to grow just under 7 percent since the beginning of the decade, with Mesa posting a 12.5 percent growth rate.

-Chandler, however, boosted its population by almost 36 percent, a move that helped it edge out Scottsdale as the state's fifth largest city. And Gilbert is up more than 73 percent. Farther out, though, Queen Creek is up 377 percent.

And the situation has gotten such that those who work in Phoenix are willing even to make the commute through the Gila River Indian Community each day to Maricopa, in Pinal County.

That community wasn't even incorporated when the Census Bureau did its decennial count in 2000. But the agency estimates that its

population ballooned from just about 1,500 at that time to more than 30,000 last July 1.

And that figure was nearly tripled from just a year before.

In southern Arizona, Tucson's population increased less than 6.5 percent since the beginning of the decade.

Oro Valley was up more than 22 percent, Marana posted a 116 percent increase, and the population of Sahuarita was boosted by more than 250 percent.

----

5-YEAR GROWTH RATES

Community / July 1, 2006 population / April 1, 2000 population / change / percent change

San Luis / 22,634 / 15,363 / 7,271 / 47.33

Somerton / 10,806 / 7,473 / 3,333 / 44.60

Yuma / 87,423 / 77,706 / 9,717 / 12.50

Wellton / 1,891 / 1,846 / 45 / 2.44

Maricopa / 30,518 / 1,538 / 28,980 / 1884.27

Queen Creek / 20,818 / 4,363 / 16,455 / 377.15

Buckeye / 29,615 / 9,355 / 20,260 / 216.57

Surprise / 85,914 / 30,918 / 54,996 / 177.88

Goodyear / 47,359 / 18,782 / 28,577 / 152.15

Gilbert / 191,517 / 110,158 / 81,359 / 73.86

Prescott Valley / 36,122 / 24,150 / 11,972 / 49.57

Litchfield Park / 5,514 / 3,810 / 1,704 / 44.72

Lake Havasu City / 56,355 / 41,938 / 14,417 / 34.38

Casa Grande / 34,554 / 25,974 / 8,580 / 33.03

Kingman / 27,271 / 20,907 / 6,364 / 30.44

Chino Valley / 10,503 / 8,138 / 2,365 / 29.06

Oro Valley / 39,308 / 32,143 / 7,165 / 22.29

Prescott / 41,528 / 34,049 / 7,479 / 21.97

Bullhead City / 40,225 / 33,769 / 6,456 / 19.12

Snowflake / 5,157 / 4,463 / 694 / 15.55

Phoenix / 1,512,986 / 1,321,672 / 191,314 / 14.48

Scottsdale / 231,127 / 202,625 / 28,502 / 14.07

Mesa / 447,541 / 397,807 / 49,734 / 12.50

Payson / 15,257 / 13,623 / 1,634 / 11.99

Sedona / 11,323 / 10,192 / 1,131 / 11.10

Flagstaff / 58,213 / 52,960 / 5,253 / 9.92

Wickenburg / 6,423 / 5,858 / 565 / 9.64

Tempe / 169,712 / 158,625 / 11,087 / 6.99

Tucson / 518,956 / 487,354 / 31,602 / 6.48

Source: U.S. Census Bureau