Developers Carpeting Arizona’s Verde Valley With Homes, Golf, People

When Ken and Nancy Brungraber left Wisconsin for a warmer climate two decades ago, they didn’t want to live in a big city like Phoenix. They settled in Cottonwood, a one-stoplight town nestled in north-central Arizona’s Verde Valley.

But like Phoenix, 90 miles to the south, Cottonwood grew. McDonald’s and Wal-Mart and their competitors sprang up, along with subdivisions and clouds of dust from new roads built to accommodate the heavier traffic.

So a few years ago the Brungrabers fled to tiny Cornville, an unincorporated village a short drive east of Cottonwood. There the couple hoped to live out their years on their peaceful 55-acre spread.

But these days Cornville’s tranquillity is interrupted by the roar of bulldozers carving out roads and hundreds of home sites at Verde Santa Fe, a master-planned community for people 55 and older sprouting on 1,100 rolling acres along Cornville Road.

“It’s hard,” said Nancy Brungraber, who works as a waitress in Sedona--a town that also has experienced rapid growth. “You move to a small community and you want to keep it small, but then something like this happens.”

Across the Verde Valley, once-sleepy towns like Cottonwood, Clarkdale, Camp Verde, McGuireville, Bridgeport and Cornville are experiencing unprecedented growth. Newcomers are moving in, many of them retirees drawn by favorable year-round weather, a rural setting that’s still close to Phoenix, and relatively affordable housing in developments built by prominent names like Del Webb Corp. and Brookfield Communities Inc.

But with the growth come worries about worsening traffic and increased demands on infrastructure, including roads, water, sewer and other utilities.

And as big a concern to many longtime residents is the transformation of the high-desert landscape. Thousands of stucco homes with tile roofs--a familiar sight in the lower desert but looking a bit out of place at this 3,000-foot elevation--are rising in rows where cattle once grazed and hawks hunted mice.

Joanne McKeever, who has lived in Cornville for 10 years and in the Verde Valley for 20, doesn’t oppose growth. “The growth is inevitable,” she says.

But McKeever is furious about the manicured golf course down the road at Verde Santa Fe, which contrasts sharply with the native vegetation.

“I think it’s ugly, I think it’s an eyesore,” said McKeever, a clerk at the Cornville Market. “It’s sad that people want to put green grass in the desert. I’d rather see the open range there and cattle than people driving around in golf carts.”

Broker Bob Murray says a big selling point for homes at Brookfield Communities’ Verde Santa Fe --which start at $120,000--is the upper desert’s moderate summers, mild winters and wide-open spaces. And the splendid sunsets over Mingus Mountain, featuring the twinkling lights of the mountainside community of Jerome, don’t hurt either.

“People don’t want to live in Phoenix because it’s too hot, and they decide Flagstaff is too cold. So they come here,” Murray said.

And the flow of new residents to the Verde Valley isn’t expected to abate anytime soon. State officials are actively recruiting seniors of means to retire to Arizona, touting the small-town friendliness and amenities in communities like Cottonwood.

With its retail and medical services, Cottonwood, population 6,900, is a hub of activity and growth. The town is growing at an annual rate of 5% to 6%, while some neighboring communities are expanding at twice that rate.

Most Cottonwood residents and city officials have embraced growth, Cottonwood City Manager Brian Mickelsen said. But he acknowledges that the town is experiencing its share of growing pains.

Cottonwood’s first waste-water treatment plant, built in 1990, was expected to reach capacity in 2007. But the influx of new residents means the plant will be outdated long before then; an expansion is to begin next year.

Crime rates have held steady or actually dropped, but complaints about traffic congestion have skyrocketed.

“Compared to Phoenix, we don’t have a traffic problem,” Mickelsen said. “But up here it’s reaching the level of unacceptable and causing some people to question the amount of growth and the growth patterns.”

Mickelsen said two factors likely will prevent the Verde Valley, home to about 40,000 people, from getting dramatically bigger.

One is water. State officials have threatened to slap restrictions on future development unless Yavapai County communities stop pumping out more ground water than they return to aquifers.

The abundance of state and federal land that rings many valley communities also could limit growth.

“There’s going to be pressure to avoid sprawling into public lands, which is going to put pressure on to develop more inside our communities,” Mickelsen said.

Alan Kempner, a Cornville resident since 1971 and owner of the town’s lone market, has mixed feelings about all the growth.

He worries about children crossing busier streets, but on the other hand, more people mean more business for his store, which houses the only post office for miles.

“We hope to remodel and become irresistible,” he said.