Surprise, from Sun City Grand!
It’s Friday morning and I’m in Surprise, Arizona – or more specifically in Sun City Grand. I’m sitting at my parent’s kitchen bar having a cup of coffee, literally a cup because “now that I’m retired, I just don’t drink that much coffee,” sorry Mom, I cannot relate. I’ll need a third coffee-pod before I’m close to caffeinated enough. Of course, they are still in bed, so my coffee consumption will go unnoticed.
As I wait for the temperature to rise a little before I head out for my morning run, I began to think about this neighborhood and this area – the collection of Sun City retirement communities in Surprise Arizona. Most planners are familiar with the Del Webb Master Planned Communities, or at least have heard about them. I’ve spent the last decade traveling here to visit my parents during the winter, and of course this year I made sure they were fully vaccinated before jumping on a plane. Every time I visit, I am fascinated by this place and the people that choose to retire here. Yesterday, I was on a long walk with my Mom winding through the neighborhood. She was my personal tour guide without intention - telling me about all the things and places that she loves about the community. We briefly stopped for a view across one of the golf courses (they don’t golf, bummer for me), walked down one of the main road arteries with perspective views to the mountain range, and she talked about an in-ground church with great theater productions (who knew she was into architecture?) All the while I could hear the passion in her voice about how this neighborhood had slowly become her new home.
I suppose this is what Del Webb envisioned when he first dreamt up this concept of a Master Planned Community for “Active Adults”. This morning I dug into some of the history of the Sun City communities to better understand the development and subsequently the demographic patterns, and it’s fascinating. First, Sun City was the first Master Planned Community in the nation and was platted in 1960. Webb’s vision was to create “a community for like-minded individuals” and to create a perpetual “week of Sundays.” As most people know, Sun City was conceptualized as the first retirement community for active adults and was intended to feel like a resort. Del Webb himself was even name the Times Person of the Year in 1962 for his innovative resort-like Master Planned Community concept. There are three communities here and Sun City was first – this I knew, but I remain perpetually confused about what and where each of these distinct communities start and end.
Sun City is the largest, with approximately 28,727 household units (WOW), the median age is 73 and the median year built of the homes is 1973 and it was first opened in 1960. Adjacent - and you guessed it west - of Sun City is Sun City West. It was planned about 15-years later and has approximately 18,471 households, median age of residents is 75.5, and the median year built is 1988. Finally, Sun City Grand (my current location) has about 7,988 household units, median age is 59 (young bucks), and median year built is 2002. Digging into the demographics could be its own blog, but at a high-level the median age of residents is clearly tied to when the community was platted as residents of roughly the same age all moved in at the same time and have continued to age-in-place. I can’t help but wonder, how fast, and with whom, will the neighborhoods backfill? And what impact, if any, will the aging of the community as a whole have on maintaining the community centers, community activities, golf courses, etc., that rely on ‘active adults’. What happens when they reach the age where they can no longer be ‘active.’ In a traditional neighborhood without age restrictions, we rely on turnover to occur as part of the lifecycle, but the lifecycle in these communities starts at a much later age so typical real estate trends don’t apply.
Aside from demographics what is most interesting to me are the physical development characteristics of the neighborhoods. The curvilinear roads were deliberately planned to dead-end and create loops to promote safety. The ‘sameness’ of all the homes makes it nearly impossible to an outsider to know what house my parents live in after I return from a run (sorry neighbors, I didn’t mean to interrupt). The commercial, retail and medical uses at the edges follow typical Euclidean zoning principles, despite the “innovative” resort-like vision for the Master Planned Community. While I may be skeptical that this an environment I would ever choose to retire, you can’t argue the popularity of this joint for the senior population – my parents included.
I’ll sign off with a picture from my morning run of my Mom’s favorite tree. Not a bad view. I guess I get some of the appeal.
-Jennifer