The Desert Place

We have been working hard on a new Morrison Ranch community. It's called The Desert Place at Morrison Ranch, and naming it was positively easy compared to naming our other communities. That's because we've always called it that. This is property situated in the city of Mesa, at Guadalupe and Sossaman, and we've farmed it over the years using water from private wells rather than the RWCD system. This water is much more expensive, therefore we tried to use the very minimal amount, therefore the crops didn't yield as much, and therefore it was dubbed "The Desert Place."

It seemed appropriate to keep this name for a similar reason: we don't have the option of using reclaimed water in Mesa. We intend to keep the tree-lined streets and the white two-rail fences, but we cannot put turf along the roads, as it is in the rest of Morrison Ranch. Below is a picture The Mister took in Higley Groves West along Prairie, showing the visual effect of the trees:





If you replace the turf, in your imagination, with ground cover and decomposed granite, it illustrates what Desert Place might look like after the trees have grown for a few years. In fact, The Mister used this picture in his presentation to Mesa's Planning and Zoning Board yesterday as he sought approval for the plan. Both Bias For Action and The Mister have been working on familiarizing the board with Morrison Ranch; even though we are neighbors with Mesa, the board wasn't aware of our defining characteristics, or our commitment to the communities.

Zoning meetings are always a little nerve-wracking, especially when introducing concepts for the first time. As you may suspect, this is not a normal Mesa community plan, and the introduction needs to be detailed and complete. Some folks have found the "story of Morrison Ranch" a little TOO detailed, as these guys get pretty passionate in their presentations. It was gratifying, therefore, to have some citizens - both those affected by the plan, and those not affected - stand up and say that this is a great project. These were not folks we'd met before, other than Keith Vaughan (Gilbert's Public Schools Director of Planning and Development) but one fellow said his daughter lives in Morrison Ranch in Gilbert and he was very impressed with the Mesa plan. Some university students were there to complete an academic assignment, and they, too, were very complimentary. And the Board agreed, because they passed the plan 6-0.

Next stop is the Mesa City Council meeting next month; that body then needs to approve the zoning and preliminary plat, and then we will start talking to homebuilders