Arizonas Largest development

[MJLO]

The states' largest Development just got bigger

Buckeye's "Sun Valley" developments owners, bought the adjacent development, and are going to build them in tandem.

One thing that struck me is the planned 90,000 homes along with major retail and others. They aren't building a subdivision. They are building one of the nations 100 largest cities.

Is this kind of mega developement responsible? For the first 30 years of growth, Arizona underplanned and underestimated the magnitude of this population surge. I can't imagine that it will go on forever. I'd would be interesting to see this state with more than 8million people, and the Phoenix Metro area entering the ranks of the top ten metro centers. It's very possible, even likely that we could see something like that in the next 15 years. But is it healthy. Smart growth has started to happen in the core. But the are going to sprawl this valley one end to the other, and stretch those resources to the max.

[colin]

Well, people have to go somewhere, so development is a necessary evil (evil in my mind, at least), but it needs to be done responsibly through planning and control. Things like building retail, office space (so that not everyone commutes) and, particularly, leaving open space, seem very simple but can do so much for not only developing the land responsibly, but also improving the quality of life for the residents. Then there's also proactive things, like building schools before they're needed.

I think I saw signs for this the last time I was up there. When I came back from Prescott at Thanksgiving I took one of my favorite back roads. It's called "Wickenburg Road" in near Buckeye and "Vulture Mine Road" near Wickenburg. The development seemed pretty large, but that particular road was the western extent of it, and that's something like 40-50 miles from Downtown Phoenix.

Crazy.

[MJLO]

If it werent for the reservations, development would definately connect Scottsdale and Mesa, and I-10 would be at least three lanes all the way to Casa Grande. It's only a matter of time before AJ, and the extreme west valley turn in to the hot spots.