Huge new housing developments planned for Surprise
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Illustration: Lindsey Bailey/Axios
Nearly 2,400 new homes could be coming to one of the Valley's major growth corridors in Surprise.
Why it matters: The Phoenix metro area is suffering from a housing shortage, which has driven up home prices and contributed to increasing homelessness.
State of play: The Surprise City Council on Tuesday approved rezoning requests for two plots of land in the Sun Valley Parkway corridor for a housing development called Buena Vista Ranch.
- One is on 422 acres at 227th Avenue and Pinnacle Peak Road. The project by Buena Vista Holdings is projected to have 1,401 housing units, according to documents.
- The other is on 160 acres at 231st Avenue and Deer Valley Road, from RVi Planning & Landscape Architecture, and it could have as many as 960 units.
- Most of the residential zoning would permit single-family homes, duplexes and triplexes.
Yes, but: It's likely to be years before any homes are built in Buena Vista Ranch because another housing project, Surprise Foothills, needs to be completed first.
The developments will be on "territory in the vicinity" of Luke Air Force Base and will experience about 170 flyovers daily, the Air Force informed the city.
- The housing density of the projects is limited by their proximity to the base.
- Luke noise restrictions also require a nearby parcel to be zoned for employment use, and it's currently designated for industrial use.
- But city staff told the public that it's not currently an ideal location for industrial use and is likely to "remain vacant for a long time" until road networks to the north are improved.
The big picture: There have been about 14,000 homes built in Surprise over the past five years, per city staff.