By Howard Fischer
Mail | X: @azcapmedia

PHOENIX — Bet you can’t guess which Arizona city grew faster, percentage-wise last year than any other.

In fact, unless you’re familiar with the area, you may not be able point to that 6-square-mile community on a map.

It’s Tolleson.

And not by a little.

New figures Thursday from the U.S. Census Bureau show the community grew by nearly 30% between 2023 and 2024. Only Colorado City on the border with Utah came close.

For pretty much everywhere else — particularly outside the two major metropolitan areas — the year-over-year change was a percentage point or less. And 28 communities lost residents.

Overall, the state grew an average of 1.3% during the period. And the lion’s share of that is people migrating here from elsewhere.

There is no breakdown of where the new residents of each of the state’s 91 cities are coming from. But the Census Bureau report shows where they settle when they get here.

Much of what is in the report is no surprise.

For years, many inner cities are built up and land costs are high. Now what used to be the suburbs are finding themselves in the same position.

Even Chandler appears to have reached a plateau, showing a small annual population drop.

That leaves what could be called the exurbs, the places on the fringes where land is still available — even if it means longer commutes.

In the Phoenix area, that has meant sprawl on the edges.

Queen Creek grew the fastest as 8.1%. After that are the Pinal County communities of Casa Grande at 7.7%, Maricopa at 7.4%, Apache Junction at 7.2% and even Coolidge at 7.1%.

To accommodate that growth, the state is extending State Route 24 further into the county and planning a new north-south corridor as State Route 505 plus a yet-to-be designed east-west corridor. Then there’s the widening of Interstate 10 south of Chandler to handle more traffic.

There’s also growth west and north of the Phoenix area, led by Goodyear with a 5.4% annual population increase, Surprise at 5.3% and Buckeye at 4.5%.
All that compares with a 1% growth rate in Phoenix.

In Pima County, Tucson added fewer than, 4,100 new residents between 2023 and 2024, just enough to clock in a 0.7%. That compares with a 6.0% year-over-year increase in Marana and 2.5% in Sahuarita.

Farther out, Benson added 1.9% to its population.

That leaves the question of how Tolleson, a landlocked community on the west edge of Phoenix, managed to outpace everyone else.

City Manager Reyes Medrano Jr. there’s a good reason for this.

“Retail is our primary economic development goal,’’ he said. “It really is our only economic development goal.”

But it doesn’t just happen.

“You need more rooftops to attract the retail that we’re looking for,” Medrano said.

For example, he said, there have been a lot of “boutique” retail stores springing up along 99th Avenue. That, said Medrano, is the result of moves to locate three new multifamily developments in the same area. Plus the city converted an old extended-stay hotel to apartments — residents there are counted by the Census Bureau — and added a new apartment complex on McDowell Road on the city’s northern edge.

Medrano said the goal is to hit 10,000 to get a supermarket.

“The grocers have told us they want at least 10,000 people within a walking mile,” he said. And, given the geographic size of the community, he said, pretty much the entire residential area is within a walking mile.

But Medrano said that at 9,353 — the official Census figure as of July 1, 2024 — he may “round up” to 10,000 and make his pitch now.