Desert Hills is an
unincorporated community
An unincorporated area is a parcel of land that is not governed by a local general-purpose municipal corporation. (At p. 178.) They may be governed or serviced by an encompassing unit (such as a county) or another branch of the state (such as th ...
located in
Maricopa County, in the
U.S. state of
Arizona
Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...
which forms the southern portion of the
New River census-designated place
A census-designated place (CDP) is a Place (United States Census Bureau), concentration of population defined by the United States Census Bureau for statistical purposes only.
CDPs have been used in each decennial census since 1980 as the counte ...
. The population of the community was estimated to be slightly below 3,000 residents as of 2019.
History
Desert Hills is named after the foothills situated in the area, such as those found in
Cave Creek Regional Park and the
Phoenix Sonoran Preserve, which are directly adjacent to the community. The modern community of Desert Hills began to take shape in 1955, when a
land development corporation purchased 4,280 acres of the Sam Joy Ranch approximately 16 miles north of the
Phoenix city limit and subdivided it into 10 acre lots for sale.
In 2017, residents formed a committee to investigate the feasibility of making Desert Hills and the neighboring community of
New River into an incorporated
municipality
A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate.
The term ''municipality' ...
. A campaign supporting such an incorporation aimed to collect the signatures of ten percent of the community's registered voters needed to force a ballot measure in November 2019.
The
Arizona State Land Department expressed opposition to the incorporation effort in April 2019, noting that nearly half of the land which would make up the proposed municipality was
state trust land and expressing a concern that the proposed municipality would not be able to independently provide necessary municipal services. In June 2019, it was reported that the campaign had failed to win the necessary approval of the City of Phoenix to permit a vote on the issue of incorporation.
In 2024, the Arizona State Land Department's plan to auction 6,400 acres of state trust land in Desert Hills became a topic of debate during Town Council elections in neighboring
Cave Creek, with some candidates expressing concerns that new development in the area would increase strain on the Desert Hills aquifer.
A referendum to purchase and append the area into a protected municipal park in Cave Creek was proposed to safeguard the aquifer.
Geography
The Desert Hills area is generally bounded by Desert Hills Drive to the north, 35th Avenue to the west, Dove Valley Road to the south, and 28th Street to the east. The community is bordered by the City of Phoenix to the south, the Town of Cave Creek to the east, and the community of
Anthem to the north. The area is predominantly rural in nature with large lot single family residential homes nestled between surrounding mountains and buttes.
Government
Desert Hills is served by
Deer Valley Unified School District.
Fire and emergency service is provided through the Daisy Mountain Fire District.
Many residents previously relied on water delivered by state-licensed water haulers from fire hydrants located in Phoenix. As of August 2018, water is hauled from a filling station operated by
Epcor.
References
External links
Maricopa County General Plan
{{authority control
Census-designated places in Maricopa County, Arizona
Census-designated places in Arizona
Populated places established in 1868
Phoenix metropolitan area