On radio talk shows and in newspapers' letter columns, citizens are attributing pollution and traffic problems to excessive population growth and the yearly migration of wintertime vacationers from outside the state. And leaders of the building industry are complaining of what they call ''developer-bashing.
As if they were unrolling an endless carpet of new homes, shopping centers, office buildings and highways, developers are pushing into the cactus- and sagebrush-covered desert surrounding Phoenix and nearby communities at a pace that is a wonder to behold. County's Population Explosion. Since the mid's, the boundaries of Phoenix have grown from 17 square miles to more than The population of Maricopa County, which includes the suburbs of Tempe, Mesa and Scottsdale, has grown in the same period from less than , to almost two million people.
About , of them live in Phoenix, now the nation's ninth-largest city. Each day the county's population grows by an average of more than new residents, not counting many thousands of vacationers from other states and Canada who, drawn by the warm climate, take up temporary residence here each winter.
As the county's population and physical size expand, more motorists are driving farther from their homes to jobs and other destinations, creating not only increasingly severe traffic congestion but what the Environmental Protection Agency has described as one of the nation's most serious automobile-caused problems of urban air pollution.
The sky above Phoenix, once so pristine that physicians sent patients suffering from respiratory ailments here to improve their health, is often stained a muddy brown color and contains such high levels of carbon monoxide and particulate matter that it is deemed unhealthy. Phoenix over the last decade has adopted a master zoning plan calling for the organization of the city into eight ''urban villages'' and a downtown core.
The plan envisions that most residents would live and work in the same ''village. Although the city can boast of a few successes in accomplishing this plan, urban planning experts say that Phoenix, for the most part, is developing the same kind of topography as Los Angeles: a city with a weak downtown district surrounded by miles of low-density sprawl poorly served by public transportation, oriented to the automobile and the freeway and requiring workers to commute long distances.
They attribute the pattern largely to the political influence of developers, who have often found it more profitable to develop cheaper land at the fringes of the city. Although achieving rapid expansion has been a goal - some would say a religion - of government and business leaders here for decades, there are increasing indications that many are now becoming concerned that the growth of the past has produced problems that have diminished the quality of life here.
Local Chambers of Commerce have warned that the region's air pollution problems must be reduced or they will drive business and industry away. University of Arizona researchers conducted a survey that indicated that many local business leaders were already so concerned with the deteriorating quality of life that they would consider moving. Asserting that they have failed to comply with Federal clean air standards, the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest has sued the Environmental Protection Agency and the City of Phoenix in an effort to force them to require parking restrictions, mandatory use of car pools or other steps to reduce automobile pollution.
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Markets Market Indexes. Stock Research Top Stocks. Economy U. Economic Charts. States by Population U. Phoenix Metro Area Population Chart and table of population level and growth rate for the Phoenix metro area from to United Nations population projections are also included through the year The current metro area population of Phoenix in is 4,, , a 1. The metro area population of Phoenix in was 4,, , a 1. The metro area population of Phoenix in was 4,, , a 2. Download Historical Data Save as Image.
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