You wouldn’t know about Arizona’s recently imposed limits on housing development by driving through Queen Creek. Banners wave on the fronts of spacious model homes inviting buyers to come look. Construction crews are busy erecting whole new neighborhoods.
On a recent morning, Paul Gardner, Queen Creek’s utility services director, stopped by one of the town’s newest master-planned communities.
“In Queen Creek we probably have a dozen subdivisions similar to this at similar phases, and we’re averaging somewhere between 1,200 to 1,500 homes a year of new move-ins,” Gardner said.
Queen Creek is the fastest-growing city in Arizona and the 14th fastest-growing city in the nation, according to U.S. census data. In his nearly 40-year career managing water in the town, Gardner has witnessed that boom firsthand.
“In 1985, we had 500 customers, today we have close to 40,000 customers, so it’s been tremendous growth,” Gardner said. “You just do the mad rush to make sure you have enough facilities, make sure you have enough water, and that you’re going to be able to meet the growth that you know is coming,”
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Below, Hydrologist Brad Udall has insights on climate and “Hot droughts”.
“Why didn’t anybody tell us this might happen?!”
One of the ironies in all of this is having disparaged the accuracy of the climate models for 25 years, conservative farmers are now relying on them to get a sense of what the future holds for their irrigation supply.
Farmers, car sellers, insurance execs, construction heads, fossil fuel owners & employees… so many more.