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Where will a growing economy get its water?

The optics of large lakefront homes built on fallowed farmland are glaring.

Todd Fitchette, Associate Editor

July 21, 2022

2 Min Read
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Upscale homes with man-made lakes are pushing out farms in Central Arizona’s Pinal County.Todd Fitchette

Did Maricopa, Ariz., not get the memo about the drought? That, and a few unprintable thoughts crossed my mind recently as I meandered through a new housing development on my way to a field day at the University of Arizona’s large research and Extension farm on the edge of town.

It’s technically not so much on the “edge” of town as Maricopa recently hop-scotched over the 2,100-acre facility. Houses now border three sides of the farm. Google maps hasn’t caught up to speed at which farmland there is being paved over.

My usual path to the farm was closed – the victim of road construction. Because of that, my maps app redirected me through an upscale neighborhood. Nice lakefront homes with manicured lawns, parks and water flowing down the curbs served as a slap in the face to nearby farmers forced to fallow farmland this year for lack of water.

More upscale lakefront homes continue to be built just west of the farm. I counted several man-made lakes on a return trip to the Extension center.

Maricopa’s growth comes as no surprise. Its ready access to Phoenix and all that a metropolitan area has to offer makes the area ripe for urban growth as a bedroom community. The optics of large lakefront homes built on fallowed farmland, however, are glaring. Many of these homes are marketed for over $600,000.

This flies in the face of the kind of careful urban planning that groups like American Farmland Trust endorse. An AFT spokesperson told me recently that they don’t oppose development. Rather, they’d like to see it happen in a manner that challenges the fewest acres of farms and ranches as possible.

This kind of over-the-top development is not uncommon. Undeveloped land near metropolitan areas is attractive to economic development directors with no perspective or common sense. I once heard a Silicon Valley economic development director comment in a meeting on “all that open space” on the western edge of the northern San Joaquin Valley. “We like to call that farmland,” I said to the chamber of commerce president sitting next to me.

Developers pitch a grand idea to city and county planning agencies. Cities in particular grant the projects because they see additional dollars to build their empires. Not wanting to be outdone by their city counterparts, county planning agencies fall prey to much the same pitches. The northern San Joaquin Valley of California is a great case study in this kind of unmitigated growth.

I’m told an acre of houses uses about the same water as an acre of farmland. During drought, that farmland can be fallowed, and water conserved. Fallowing houses is more problematic.

It seems that Arizona’s rapid growth and penchant for economic development, while laudable, continues to ignore the catastrophe that awaits the Colorado River system and aquifers by building homes and business parks without new, sustainable sources of water.

About the Author

Todd Fitchette

Associate Editor, Western Farm Press

Todd Fitchette, associate editor with Western Farm Press, spent much of his journalism career covering agriculture in California and the western United States. Aside from reporting about issues related to farm production, environmental regulations and legislative matters, he has extensive experience covering the dairy industry, western water issues and politics. His journalistic experience includes local daily and weekly newspapers, where he was recognized early in his career as an award-winning news photographer.

Fitchette is US Army veteran and a graduate of California State University, Chico. 

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