Buckeye is the nation's fastest-growing city. But it doesn't have the water to keep it up (Phoenix: 2015, leases)

[marinezac]

Originally Posted by JGMotorsport64

And yet Phoenix is much more sustainable than Buckeye.

Yeah cause phoenix has an actual water supply, Buckeye does not.

[apple92680]

Originally Posted by marinezac

City leaders once dreamed of being bigger than Phoenix, but there’s a massive roadblock in the way.

Buckeye doesn’t have the water to keep growing at this rate.

No 100-year assured water supply. A minuscule Colorado River allocation that shrinks annually. A near total reliance on finite groundwater. A legal workaround to it all that faces growing scrutiny.

Despite that, developers are eager to build — the city boomed from nearly 6,700 residents in 2000 to an estimated 81,624 in 2019, according to the Arizona Office of Economic Opportunity. Projections show nearly a half-million residents by 2055. City leaders tout projections further out that top 1.8 million residents.

Does anyone else find it mind-boggling and quite frankly, IDIOTIC, that a single suburb should have 1.8 million residents????

The fact that they're even entertaining that idea is just nuts!

I mean, really, is the intent here to just sprawl all of the way out to Blythe and down to Yuma, just to say you can???

[Thomasaz]

Buckeye is in a bad situation, similar to most of Pinal County, on the other side of Phoenix, but don't upset the people on this forum. Half of them are realtors selling suckers homes in those places.

[marinezac]

Originally Posted by apple92680

Does anyone else find it mind-boggling and quite frankly, IDIOTIC, that a single suburb should have 1.8 million residents????

The fact that they're even entertaining that idea is just nuts!

I mean, really, is the intent here to just sprawl all of the way out to Blythe and down to Yuma, just to say you can???

That number will never happen, but the fact they have planned it out is insane, would be almost the same size as phoenix. We are getting back into the insane predictions of growth we saw prior to the housing bubble burst. I remember they said by 2025 they would have housing growth all the way out to Florence Junction to the east along the 60.

[Willy702]

If desert cities took the coastal city perspective, they would just set up zones of development allowed in the metro area and tells cities on the fringes like Buckeye sorry but here's our footprint and how much development we can sustain. Such a limit would finally create real limitations in population growth which would for a long time drive up housing prices and demand for everything inside that zone. Its funny how everyone knee jerk reacts to a potential water shortage as a reason not to live somewhere, but its actually a pretty compelling case to get in sooner, create more infill development and prevent erosion of quality of life. If a resident can't just go buy the latest and greatest home 40 miles from the center of town, they have a reason to move into a less attractive place and invest in it. I know you'll get the activists saying it isn't fair to the poor, but hey that's how the free market works. Until such backbone is found, the problems never end. Over time technology and wiser heads find ways to cut down on water usage potentially allowing for controlled levels of new permits.

[T. Damon]

Originally Posted by marinezac

Mike Ingram looks at raw desert west of the White Tank Mountains, some 40 miles west of Phoenix, where brush clings to brown soil and cactuses stretch toward blue sky, and envisions tens of thousands of homes.

It doesn't have a big tax base to help pay for new water.
The water Buckeye does have is poor quality and needs expensive treatment.
It has to compete against other Valley cities — with deeper pockets — that are looking to stick their straws in the same buckets of water.

If you didn’t write this you should cite this.

[corydon]

Glad we moved away from buckeye when we did. Seen the truckstop coming in, BK and so on. Conveniently, the news paper didn't get delivered when you could object. Corrupt cowtown.

[Californiaguy2007]

Even I was wondering the same thing,but I guess the city leaders in Buckeye are highly motivated to turn Buckeye into a Mini-Phoenix from what it looks like,because that's hyper-growth for a small town like Buckeye to grow to over 1.8 Million residents within that short time frame

Originally Posted by apple92680

Does anyone else find it mind-boggling and quite frankly, IDIOTIC, that a single suburb should have 1.8 million residents????

The fact that they're even entertaining that idea is just nuts!

I mean, really, is the intent here to just sprawl all of the way out to Blythe and down to Yuma, just to say you can???

[tijlover]

I see that you drop 200 feet in elevation to 869 in Buckeye, from Phoenix at 1069? A bit hotter!

[Prickly Pear]

Originally Posted by Willy702

If desert cities took the coastal city perspective, they would just set up zones of development allowed in the metro area and tells cities on the fringes like Buckeye sorry but here's our footprint and how much development we can sustain. Such a limit would finally create real limitations in population growth which would for a long time drive up housing prices and demand for everything inside that zone. Its funny how everyone knee jerk reacts to a potential water shortage as a reason not to live somewhere, but its actually a pretty compelling case to get in sooner, create more infill development and prevent erosion of quality of life. If a resident can't just go buy the latest and greatest home 40 miles from the center of town, they have a reason to move into a less attractive place and invest in it. I know you'll get the activists saying it isn't fair to the poor, but hey that's how the free market works. Until such backbone is found, the problems never end. Over time technology and wiser heads find ways to cut down on water usage potentially allowing for controlled levels of new permits.

Urban growth boundaries were made illegal by the Arizona State Government, why they chose to stick their nose in municipal business is beyond me. I wish we had a UGB.