Peoria planning staff outline master plan for 7,200-acre 'Peoria Innovation Corps,' schedule PCD application for December

Planning staff briefed the Peoria Planning and Zoning Commission on Nov. 20 on the Peoria Innovation Corps (PIC), a large master‑planning and entitlement effort intended to create a job center in North Peoria and position roughly 7,200 acres of state land for phased auction and development.

Planning Director Hawkes told commissioners the city has been working with the State Land Department and has obtained a certificate of purchase for about 834 acres within the area. Hawkes said the goal is to drive local employment so fewer residents must commute: "approximately 80% of our labor force outcommutes," he said, and the PIC is intended to provide an economic engine to change that pattern.

The staff presentation described the PIC footprint as about 7,208 acres (roughly 11.3 square miles), entirely within Peoria and east of the Agua Fria River. Staff divided the area into three planning "cores": Core 1 (about 1,900 acres south of Loop 303) with residential transition areas adjacent to Pleasant Valley and West Wing Mountain; Core 2 (the city’s 834‑acre purchase) anchored by the Amcor employment site below a bluff; and Core 3 (about…