State Affordability Infrastructure Districts

What If You Didn‘t Need City Hall’s Permission to Finance Your Infrastructure?

Since 1988, Arizona developers and homebuilders have been stuck financing public infrastructure at the pace of city, town, and county approval. As of now, that’s no longer the case. The recent passage of HB 2999 created the State Affordability Infrastructure District (SAID), a financing tool that lets investors, developers, and homebuilders finance eligible public improvements on their own timeline rather than a jurisdiction’s.

What Is a State Affordability Infrastructure District (SAID)?

A State Affordability Infrastructure District is established through the Arizona Finance Authority rather than a city, town, or county. It is governed by the landowners themselves, not a municipal board, which keeps decision-making authority with the developers and investors funding the project rather than a local government body.

How a SAID Works

Here’s what makes it work:

  • No City/Town or County approval required
  • Three-member landowner district governance board
  • Ability to use special assessment, general obligation, and/or revenue bonds
  • Approximate timing to establish a SAID: 3–4 months

Why This Changes Underwriting

Both paths begin at the same point, the day a petition is filed. One path, without a SAID, fades into an unknown, undefined timeline that depends on jurisdictional approval. The other path, with a SAID, moves through formation order, election and feasibility report, and feasibility approval, reaching bond issuance in as few as 110 days.

It’s the kind of change that alters how you underwrite a deal. A financing structure that used to depend on a jurisdiction’s approval calendar now depends on the district’s own governance board instead, which shortens the runway between land acquisition and infrastructure financing. For developers weighing a project’s capital stack, that difference in timing and control is not a minor procedural detail. It changes when a project can move, who gets to decide, and how much certainty you can build into your underwriting from day one.

If you want the fuller history of how Arizona arrived at this point, including two decades of prior attempts, see our full breakdown of the State Affordability Infrastructure District legislation.

To set up your meeting to discuss how SAID will benefit your project, contact: