bullhead city officials want to revive its oldest neighborhood

An effort is underway to bring back to life an area of Bullhead City, Arizona populated with smaller one-story houses and businesses, as well as a number of vacant lots.

City officials have been meeting with area residents, soliciting ideas for the revival of what is officially called Old Bullhead City.

That section of the current city is where most residents lived during the construction of the nearby Davis Dam in the 1940s and early 1950s.

But in 1984, after the communities of Holiday Shores and Riviera opted to incorporate into one entity with Bullhead, the original neighborhood became known as Old Bullhead.

Now city officials are looking into ways of spurring new commercial development and construction in Old Bullhood. There is talk of new streetscaping, as well as updating zoning laws to allow for new multi-family and single-family construction.

This summer, the Phoenix-based Matrix Design Group published a study looking at Old Bullhead’s potential and concluded that the area would be well served with the construction of a series of pocket parks.

Other suggestions in the study, which was called Old Bullhead City—Visionary Summary Report, recommended that the city adopt an official redevelopment area plan, as well as both alignment and design alternatives for Arizona State Route 95, the main north to south thoroughfare for Old Bullhead.

City officials have said that they plan to solicit more public input on the redevelopment of Old Bullhead before any action is taken.

By Garry Boulard

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