Master planned Communities -Verrado, AZ

I took my three youngest of my five children to Verrado on a Sunday afternoon. We are ready to see the differences in this community as one like the neighborhoods I am used to. How different can it be? Interpreting the landscape from the Interstate 10 freeway, you would think that there is nothing to be had in the vast desert beyond the big sign for Verrado. Just looks like desert and nothing but dirt until you reach the first master planned intersection. In background, it is important to note that I am familiar with Verrado. My cousin lived in the lofts and taught at the middle school during the first few years of the inception of this place. She worked at the one and only coffee shop on main street as well in the early 2000's. Well, since that time that coffee shop has closed and this free standing new building has been erected. This is a visitor's center and coffee shop in one. We were greeted at the door by a nice lady wearing a Verrado t shirt and name tag. The wall had many pamphlets and home brochures from the various home builders of Verrado. This place was a mixture of rustic decoration and Seattle style coffee house. There were bookcases and many places to sit in stylish chairs and seating. I received a map into this Dreamworld in which there are many amenities such as a lush gold course, water park and another being built. Once driving into the tangled web of streets, we became instantly confused that the communities were lined with “natural desert” that removed the desert and replanted it with their favorite versions of the desert. The plant life on the parameters are carefully selected desert vegetation that melts into their standard of what the pleasing desert looks like, noticeable is the missing desert that was already there before their development. So they removed the desert to replant the desert? But before you can really be concerned with that detail, you are immediately head on in trees, lots of unnatural, planted trees. The first set of model homes were nearly one on top of the other. Their doors measured about ten feet from each other. Yet the price of one of these homes runs $209,000.00 with only standard features and not upgraded carpeting and kitchens as shown. That's pretty high for the smallest house offered in Verrado is this prices which is $almost $40,000.00 more than the median sales price for homes in Phoenix AZ for Dec 14 to Mar 15 was $170,000 (Trulia,2015). The HOA fee to live in Verrado is $145 per month added to that steep house price. The amenities are not for public use, only the residents. The parks are OK to use if you are not from Verrado, but realistically, the only park usable by non residents is the one main park that is not in the circles directly in front of the homes.

There are many walls. It is not completely inaccessible to all but it is nearly impossible to get in or out but through the north or south roads in. I had to use GPS to get around and I've already been there. There is a dizzy disorientation with hills and big trees. The feeling is so much more secluded than just a gated place. You could not physically see beyond this place. You did not know what time it was or anything other the little small town Americana of Verrado and everything seemed just slightly miniaturized. What is supposed to be a smaller town feel of community was a bit suffocating to me. It was charming, but it was too close. Couldn't they afford bigger houses? Bigger store? It is completely tight places to create false unity.

I understand a feeling of living in another world that is differently constructed for those that are not happy with the current Phoenix vernacular. But my question for this is whether or not Verrado is now the vernacular for the Phoenix area? The home builders of DMB say they are trying to continue with the Buckeye charm. Is this what was intended for Buckeye? It all was very fake. We thought of this as the ind of Dreamworld where it is your house, but it could be anywhere, especially in the Midwest in the mid-century, but not in Phoenix-Arizona in 2015.