new planned scottsdale community is response to growth

With its population seeing a double-digit increase in the last decade, the demand for residential space in Scottsdale continues unabated.

In just the last seven years, more than 38,000 people have moved into the southwestern Arizona city, accounting for a current population of just over 255,000.

Now, Shea Homes, headquartered in Walnut, California but with offices in Scottsdale, is responding to that growth with the development of a master-planned community on the north side of the city. 

The project, with an initial 51 homes, will go up near the intersection of Ranch Gate Road and 128th Street and will see houses ranging in size from 2,800 square feet to just under 4,000 square feet.

Those homes will go up on around 35 currently vacant acres of land near the 30,000-acre McDowell Sonoran Preserve.

The 51 homes are expected to be only a portion of what will ultimately be a larger community footprint of 443 homes spread out over a total of 462 acres.

According to city documents, the planned community will be built with an emphasis on open space: “Significant hillside, washes, and boulder areas in the development will be preserved in Natural Area Open Space tracts.”

Those tracts are so designed by the City of Scottsdale as land that must be preserved in its natural state, remaining free of any obstruction.

As envisioned, the project will see homes built in semi-circular neighborhood patterns, with an emphasis on both open and walking space.

Work on the first homes in what is being called Storyrock is expected to begin late next summer.

By Garry Boulard

---