| Uncertain path forward for largest development ever proposed in Arizona. BUCKEYE, AZ. — The White Tank Mountains were the backdrop in October when senior executives of the Howard Hughes Corporation broke ground for Teravalis, the largest planned community ever proposed in Arizona. Hughes’ plan is to turn 37,000 acres of Sonoran Desert west of Phoenix, nearly 60 square miles, into 100,000 homes and 55 million square feet of commercial space where 300,000 people will live and 450,000 will work. Modeled after Irvine Ranch in California, the largest planned community in the United States, Teravalis is seen by local and state elected leaders as a crowning achievement in a booming real estate market. Jay Cross, the company’s president, assured gathered guests that Teravalis “will provide an exceptional quality of life and opportunities for growth.” But Teravalis also expresses the intensifying challenge in Arizona and four other fast-growing desert Southwest states to build huge mixed use residential projects in an era of water scarcity. Persistent dry conditions are driving up the cost of water and prompting more resistance from government and citizens to new development. Those trends, in turn, also are prompting innovations in community design and installation of expensive infrastructure to use less fresh water and recycle more wastewater. | 