Settlement, Growth, and Water Security for Southwest Cities - Design with the Desert: Conservation and Sustainable Development - page 458

aggressive seeker of corporate firms by creating a favorable business climate for large
defense and aerospace firms to relocate. Phoenix's geographic location about midpoint
between the major manufacturing centers of Chicago and southern California made the
city attractive to cost conscious firms. The first major player in the Phoenix market was
Motorola. By 1960, the corporation had three major plants in the valley with over 5000
employees. 12 Phoenix boosters had a well-coordinated team of leaders that actively sought
out clean, high technology companies over all other southwestern cities. The result of the
booster efforts created a diverse industry and technology manufacturing that formed a
diverse economy that was unparalleled in the region. Tables 26.4 and 26.5 demonstrate the
difference in manufacturing and wholesale sales in region. It is clear to see that Phoenix
outpaces all other cities in scale of goods produced.
26.10 Settlement and Growth
After WWII, the growth rate of southwestern cities accelerated rapidly. The low cost of
land, favorable business climate, and warm weather were factors that drew people to settle
in these Sunbelt cities. One of the catalysts for the suburban postwar boom was a Phoenix
developer named Del Webb. His visionary low-cost developments provided affordable
houses to people in search of good clean housing stock in the desert. A Webb legendary
development in Sun City to the west of Phoenix was a monumental success in market-
ing his active retirement community. His developments sold as quickly as they could be
built. 13 Low-density suburban development was the driving force of most southwestern
cities. New development began to spring up on the fringes of the cities. The race to develop
new land on the edge of the urban center continued to expand the urban limits of cities,
sometimes with adverse consequences for the existing residents.
Annexation is the primary means that cities acquire lands to expand the urban bound-
aries. Annexation in Arizona only requires 51% of the landowners to be annexed to agree
to the measures. Phoenix adopted aggressive annexation planning strategies starting in
the 1960s, which led to a rapid expansion of the urbanized boundaries in all directions. 14
In New Mexico, annexation can be carried out by petition and arbitration through the
Roswell Law, which allows any city to annex an area by resolution if the area borders the
city on two sides. Albuquerque's aggressive use of annexation to acquire land prompted
the state legislature to pass a law to halt any future annexation by the city unless it had
100% approval by the landowners. 15 Figures 26.13 and 26.14 show the rapid and exponen-
tial growth in land area and population of southwestern cities, particularly after the 1960s.
Alternatives to low-density sprawl have been proposed by various groups, including
growth boundaries and targeted incentives for development and transportation alterna-
tives, but the free market forces won out in the Southwest to comprehensive policies on
growth (see Chapter 14).
Phoenix continued an aggressive annexation policy to expand the boundaries of the
city. Development continued at such a rapid pace it neglected essential areas deep within
the urban core of the city. Even by the 1950s, a pattern of decline in the Central Business
District was observed. As urban development was pushed to the fringe, parcels of urban
land remained vacant in the city center. Recent efforts by the City of Phoenix to work with
Arizona State University to develop a Capital Center university in the downtown area