Over 11,000 more homes might come to Buckeye.
The City of Buckeye Planning and Zoning Commission unanimously approved a proposal to rezone nearly 2,700 acres from an almost 4,000-acre master-planned community, Elianto, to create another new master-planned community called The Cascades.
The area for the community currently sits in mostly undeveloped land near the intersection of Sun Valley Parkway and Thomas Road, west of the White Tank Mountains. The only developed area is Tartesso, another master planned community that has been under construction for several years. Tartesso sits west of Sun Valley Parkway.
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The Sept. 22 vote from the planning and zoning commission sends the two-part proposal to the Buckeye City Council for final decision, which could happen on Oct. 6. City councils typically uphold the recommendations of their planning commissions.
There are currently more than 30 approved master-planned communities with “developer pitching more ideas daily” for the city of Buckeye, according to the Buckeye Valley Chamber of Commerce. The city consistently ranked as one of the fastest-growing cities in the country, according to the Buckeye Chamber of Commerce
When construction of these communities is completed, there are expected to be over 240,000 homes, according to the City of Buckeye 2040 General Plan. The city could be home to a population of more than 1,000,000 people within the next 20 years, according to the Chamber of Commerce.
The first proposal sought to remove nearly 2,771 acres that were originally part of Elianto.
The second proposal sought to rezone the large swath of land east of Sun Valley Parkway to create The Cascades, which would have about 11,600 homes and 30 to 155 acres of nonresidential development, according to the proposal.
The Cascades plans to offer a variety of housing options, including single-family homes, townhomes, and apartments.
The master-planned community would also have commercial and mixed-use areas that could potentially have schools, office spaces, businesses, parks and recreational amenities.
The Cascade project will be supplied by groundwater and a portion of it has been awarded a state certificates of a 100-year assured water supply, city spokesperson John O’Halloran said in a statement.
The Cascade Planned Area Development planning documents stated there was a possibility for data centers to built in specific areas.
William E. Lally, an attorney with Tiffany & Bosco P.A. who represented the property owners during the meeting, said the proposal added extra stipulations that required approval planning and zoning commission and the City Council before any data centers are built on The Cascades.
The potential data centers would be allowed in a “very very small area” of the community and the developers added extra criteria for it to meet before they would bring it back to the commission, Lally said during the meeting.
The community would be broken up into five villages and each village would set aside about 18% of the land for parks, according to the proposal documents and Lally.
The proposals were well received overall by the commission. Two of the commissioners, Rebecca Puppe and Gina Ragsdale, said they “dissent” with the idea of data centers in the community, but they supported the community overall.
Reporting by David Ulloa Jr, Arizona Republic
