A development in Arizona that bills itself as a ‘master-planned community’ leaves its residents in a food desert and desperate for them to open as much as a gas station.
Tartesso was originally announced as a development in Buckeye, Arizona in 2005 and currently has about 10,000 residents, many of whom agree that there are too few amenities.
The development is along the Sun Valley Parkway about 40 miles west of Phoenix, what was once known as the ‘Road to Nowhere’ and to some who live there, it can still feel like one.
A local said that they need to drive 15 minutes just to get to a grocery store or a gas station. Walmart is similarly 15 minutes away from the community, while Costco is 20 minutes away.
One resident pointed out that things in the neighborhood have improved but only because locals can now rely on food trucks that come to the area every day.
Residents say that they love how quiet the community is, away from the state’s largest city, Phoenix.
‘One of the attractive features of that neighborhood is that it’s away from all of the heavy industry that is really coming up at every corner in Phoenix,’ Terrell Hannah told AZ Central.
However, Hannah also needs to take their kids 25 minutes to school and 35-45 minutes to the air force base where he makes a living.
Martin Partida, a realtor who has lived in Tartesso since 2020, doesn’t understand why the neighborhood hasn’t been serviced when the rest of Buckeye has moved forward.
‘When we compare what we have to other communities that have been developed like Verrado, it just seems unbalanced. We’re not sure why it’s taking so long to get things moving out here,’ Partida said.
Partida’s biggest wish? A high school, as currently the schools in Tartesso only go as far as fifth grade.
He’s also hoping for some sort of recreational center.
Cameron James, who has lived in the neighborhood for 15 years, says he’s long ago accepted their fate.
‘You get used to it after about a year. I mean, we feel spoiled now because we have food trucks,’ James said.
Page Stein has no problem with people having to commute longer distances, believing it to be what young professionals should ‘have to do.’
What she wants is a coffee shop and more places for Tartesso’s younger residents to congregate.
‘Something where the students that get out of school can go hang out, so they don’t have to go straight home or hang out in the heat,’ Stein said.
The town, on its website, brags that it has ‘recreational amenities, neighborhood parks, greenbelts, and natural washes. A sweeping sports park features baseball diamonds, soccer fields, basketball, volleyball, tennis courts and ramadas.’
However, people like development principal Chris Barr understand the complaints and are working on fixing it, specifically trying to bring in grocers and gas stations.
The town has rezoned land from residential to industrial, stopping the building of 6,000 homes and potentially adding more jobs.
‘We just wanted to create some employment opportunities and really good-paying jobs for people in that region that don’t want to hop on the freeway and potentially have to leave the city of Buckeye to drive to and from their job every day,’ Barr said.
The goal is to attract more people and give them more jobs near their homes so that they can continue to bring commercial and retail to Tartesso, which has a goal of 100,000 residents.
He claims that the problem with many of the desired public works programs like a rec center and development in general were remnants of the late 2000s great recession.
‘They had a lot of rooftop projections that took a long time to materialize because the market got effectively shut down for a couple of years,’ Barr said.
There is at least one thing materializing, according to the city of Buckeye: a QuikTrip opening south of Tartesso.
QuikTrip is a chain of southwestern convenience stores with over 100 locations in Arizona.
‘While commercial development is currently thriving in the eastern parts of Buckeye, our growth trajectory is set to extend westward along Sun Valley Parkway. This will foster expansion and development in those areas,’ a statement from the city said.
There are also reports that a gas station will be built within a mile of the neighborhood. The closest fueling station is currently 10 miles away.
Barr believes that everything’s beginning to come to fruition in the tiny, isolated community.
‘I don’t think we’re quite there,’ Barr said. ‘But I believe activity breeds more activity.’