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Whats up with these neighborhoods you see with alot of water in there backyards? You see them everywhere in Arizona and Florida so they help cool down the weather? or is it all for looks?
It's all for looks. One near my neck of the woods turned an empty clay pit (the area used to be a brickworks) into a lake by filling it with water from a nearby river, turning an expensive obstacle into an amenity.
I don't know about Arizona, but at least here in Michigan, a lot of the suburban areas used to be swamp lands. There's a few "drained" man-made lakes where it's just a huge pit but during heavy rains it fills up with rainwater and drainage overflow. Most of the homes, particularly Sterling Heights, Warren, anywhere near Utica, and all areas northward from there, have sump pumps that are constantly pushing water out of the foundations.
So my guess is that, for man-made lakes, it was just easier to push water into certain areas of the subdivision rather than to try and drain it all away while it'll just get filled again by rainwater. Also, waterfront property could also bump up the prices a bit (but I'd assume not as much as a natural lake).
Would they really need so many storm water retention ponds though? Around here, there's just one or two per subdivision, like here: Brampton, ON, Canada - Google Maps
Would they really need so many storm water retention ponds though? Around here, there's just one or two per subdivision, like here: Brampton, ON, Canada - Google Maps
Guess it depends on how saturated the groundwater typically is. In your link, there looks to be a creek in the area so it wouldn't be surprising if the area used to be naturally swampy/wetlands.
I went to look at Phoenix on google maps and it seems to be the similar case as well. Even though they're in the desert, it looks like there used to be water that flowed through the developed areas.
It probably wasn't swampy per se, but probably enough water in the ground to saturate it in order for the developers to do that within the subdivisions.
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