Council of governments for greater Phoenix, United States
MAG's Logo
Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG) is a Council of Governments (COG) that serves as the regional agency for the greater Maricopa region in Arizona, United States. This includes the Phoenix area and the neighboring urbanized area in Pinal County, containing the Town of Florence and City of Maricopa. When MAG was formed in 1967, the elected officials recognized the need for long-range planning and policy development on a regional scale. They realized that many issues such as transportation, air quality and human services affected residents beyond the borders of their individual jurisdictions.
MAG is the designated Metropolitan planning organization (MPO) for transportation planning in the Maricopa County region. Additionally, beginning in 1973, MAG was also designated by the Governor of the State of Arizona to serve as the principal planning agency for the region in a number of other areas, including air quality, water quality and solid waste management. In addition, through an Executive Order from the Governor, MAG develops population estimates and projections for the region.
Purpose
MAG consists of all of Maricopa County and the cities, towns, and Indian reservations in the county. Apache Junction, while being located mostly in Pinal County is represented in MAG, as well as other cities that extend into neighboring counties.
MAG is based on the principle that cities, towns, counties, and Native American Communities should exercise the basic initiative and leadership and should have the primary responsibility for addressing those local problems and needs which require action on an area-wide or regional basis.
The Articles of Incorporation for MAG state that the association was formed to do the following:
Provide a forum for discussion and study of regional problems of mutual interest to the governments in the region.
Ensure, through cooperation and the pooling of common resources, maximum efficiency and economy in governmental operations, which will provide every citizen with the utmost value for every dollar.
Identify and comprehensively plan for the solution of regional problems requiring multicity, town and county cooperation.
Facilitate agreements among the governmental units for specific projects or other interrelated developmental actions or for the adoption of common policies with respect to problems that are common to its members.
Attain the greatest degree of intergovernmental cooperation possible in order to prepare for future growth and development of the region.
Regional Council
The Regional Council is the governing and policy-making body for the organization and is composed of elected officials appointed by each MAG member agency. For most members, the city or town mayor serves as the Regional Council representative. The chairs of the Boards of Supervisors represent Maricopa and Pinal Counties on the Regional Council. The State Transportation Board members for Maricopa County represent the Arizona Department of Transportation (ADOT). The three Native American Communities are represented by their governor or president.
Member Agencies
MAG is a Council of Governments that represents 27 cities and towns, three Native American Indian Communities, Maricopa County, and portions of Pinal County. Members include representatives from the incorporated cities and towns in Maricopa County as well as the City of Maricopa, Town of Florence, Maricopa County, Pinal County, Gila River Indian Community, Salt River Pima–Maricopa Indian Community, Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, and the Arizona Department of Transportation..
Maricopa County is in the south-central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. As of the 2020 census, the county's population was 4,420,568, making it the state's most populous county, and the fourth-most populous in the United States. It contains about 62% of Arizona's population, making Arizona one of the most centralized states in the nation. The county seat is Phoenix, the state capital and fifth-most populous city in the United States.
Pinal County is in the central part of the U.S. state of Arizona. According to the 2020 U.S. Census, the population of the county was 425,264, making it Arizona's third-most populous county. The county seat is Florence. The county was founded in 1875.
Maricopa is a city in the Gila River Valley in Pinal County, Arizona, United States. With 58,125 residents as of 2020, Maricopa is the largest incorporated municipality in Pinal County which forms part of the Phoenix metropolitan area.
The Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) is an Indian reservation in the U.S. state of Arizona, lying adjacent to the south side of the city of Phoenix, within the Phoenix Metropolitan Area in Pinal and Maricopa counties. Gila River Indian Reservation was established in 1859, and the Gila River Indian Community formally established by Congress in 1939. The community is home for members of both the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and the Pee-Posh (Maricopa) tribes.
The Pima are a group of Native Americans living in an area consisting of what is now central and southern Arizona, as well as northwestern Mexico in the states of Sonora and Chihuahua. The majority population of the two current bands of the Akimel O'odham in the United States are based in two reservations: the Keli Akimel Oʼodham on the Gila River Indian Community (GRIC) and the On'k Akimel O'odham on the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community (SRPMIC).
Native Americans have inhabited what is now Arizona for thousands of years. It remains a state with one of the largest percentages of Native Americans in the United States, and has the second largest total Native American population of any state. In addition, the majority of the Navajo Nation, the largest Native American reservation in the US, and the entire Tohono O'odham Nation, the second largest, are located in Arizona. Over a quarter of the area of the state is reservation land.
Gila River Indian Reservation was a reservation established in 1859 by the United States government in New Mexico Territory, to set aside the lands of the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and the Piipaash (Maricopa) people along the Gila River, in what is now Pinal County, Arizona. The self-government of the reservation as the Gila River Indian Community was established by Congress in 1939.
The Sierra Estrella is a mountain range located southwest of Phoenix, Arizona. Much of the range falls within the Gila River Indian Reservation, but 14,400 acres (5,800 ha) of BLM land is protected as the Sierra Estrella Wilderness.
Arizona State Route 202 or Loop 202 is a semi-beltway rimming around the eastern and southern areas of the Phoenix metropolitan area in central Arizona. It traverses the eastern end and the southern end of the city of Phoenix, in addition to the cities of Tempe, Mesa, Chandler, and Gilbert, and is a vital route in the metropolitan area freeway system. Loop 202 has three officially designated sections along its route; the Red Mountain Freeway, the SanTan Freeway, and the Congressman Ed Pastor Freeway, previously named the South Mountain Freeway. The Red Mountain Freeway runs from the Mini Stack Interchange with Interstate 10 (I-10) and State Route 51 (SR 51) in Phoenix to the SuperRedTan Interchange with U.S. Route 60 in Mesa. The SanTan Freeway runs from there to an interchange with Interstate 10 (I-10) in Chandler. The Congressman Ed Pastor Freeway runs from there to I-10 in western Phoenix.
The Yavapai are a Native American tribe in Arizona. Historically, the Yavapai – literally “people of the sun” – were divided into four geographical bands who identified as separate, independent peoples: the Ɖo:lkabaya, or Western Yavapai; the Yavbe', or Northwestern Yavapai; the Guwevkabaya, or Southeastern Yavapai; and the Wi:pukba, or Northeastern Yavapai – Verde Valley Yavapai.
The metropolitan area of Phoenix in the U.S. state of Arizona contains one of the nation's largest and fastest-growing freeway systems, boasting over 1,405 lane miles (2,261 km) as of 2005.
The Fort McDowell Yavapai Nation, formerly the Fort McDowell Mohave-Apache Community of the Fort McDowell Indian Reservation, is a federally recognized tribe and Indian reservation in Maricopa County, Arizona about 23 miles (37 km) northeast of Phoenix.
The East Valley Partnership is a regional coalition of community, business, educational and government leaders whose goal is to provide leadership and support in specific areas of focus, thereby improving business and quality of life in the region.
Pima Villages, sometimes mistakenly called the Pimos Villages in the 19th century, were the Akimel O’odham (Pima) and Pee-Posh (Maricopa) villages in what is now the Gila River Indian Community in Pinal County, Arizona. First, recorded by Spanish explorers in the late 17th century as living on the south side of the Gila River, they were included in the Viceroyalty of New Spain, then in Provincias of Sonora, Ostimuri y Sinaloa or New Navarre to 1823. Then from 1824 to 1830, they were part of the Estado de Occidente of Mexico and from September 1830 they were part of the state of Sonora. These were the Pima villages encountered by American fur trappers, traders, soldiers and travelers along the middle Gila River from 1830s into the later 19th century. The Mexican Cession following the Mexican American War left them part of Mexico. The 1853 Gadsden Purchase made their lands part of the United States, Territory of New Mexico. During the American Civil War, they became part of the Territory of Arizona.
El Llano, Spanish for "the plain or open space" or Buen Llano, "good plain", one of the 19th century Pima Villages, was located along the south side of the Gila River, between Sweetwater and Sacaton, in what is now the Gila River Indian Community in Pinal County, Arizona.
Agua Raiz, Spanish for "Water root" as named in the 1860 Census, it was one of the 19th century Pima Villages, located along the Gila River, near the modern site of Sacate Village, Arizona in what is now the Gila River Indian Community in Pinal County, Arizona.
There is a current proposal to bring commuter rail service to the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area.
Levi Ruggles (1824–1889) known as the "Father of Florence, Arizona" was a soldier and pioneer who founded the town of Florence, Arizona.
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