Buckeye’s Planning and Zoning Commission voted on Sept. 22 to recommend approval of The Cascade. The project is a 2,771-acre master-planned community. It could bring as many as 11,600 homes to undeveloped desert near Sun Valley Parkway and Thomas Road. The recommendation now goes to the mayor and City Council for a final decision.
If you live in Tartesso or west Buckeye, here is how your corner of the Valley changes
Right now, the land north of Thomas Road between Sun Valley Parkway and the Turner Road alignment is open desert. If The Cascade builds out, that changes — but not overnight. Expect years of construction traffic on Sun Valley Parkway and Thomas Road before the first resident moves in. Those roads already carry commuters from Tartesso, the only developed community close to the site, and more trucks will add to that load.
Schools are the other immediate pressure point. The Cascade falls inside Saddle Mountain Unified School District, a K-12 district that served 3,265 students across six schools in 2025-26. Eleven thousand six hundred homes would eventually send far more kids into that system. The developer plans to start with an age-restricted, active-adult section. That choice puts less strain on schools in the short term. School sites have not been picked yet and will be set aside as each village plan advances.
For homeowners in Tartesso and across greater Buckeye, a large new supply of homes will increase resale competition over time. Buyers and renters looking for affordability in far west Valley master-planned communities may see more options emerge over the next decade. Buckeye already has more than 30 approved master-planned communities. The Buckeye Valley Chamber of Commerce has said the city could top one million residents within twenty years.
What the Planning and Zoning Commission actually approved on Sept. 22
The commission acted on two linked cases. Case PLZZ-26-0003 removes roughly 2,771 acres from the older Elianto Community Master Plan. Case PLZZ-25-0014 rezones that same land as The Cascade Planned Area Development. Both cases passed with a unanimous recommendation of approval.
That vote is not a green light to build. No construction, subdivision, or building permits flow from a commission recommendation alone. The mayor and City Council must still act on both cases before anything is official.
The commission attached 27 conditions to the recommendation. Two stand out. First, a master traffic-impact analysis must be completed before the City Council hearing. Second, applicable surface-water rights must be transferred to the city before any building permits are issued. Each village plan must also document the required water mains, wells, pump stations, storage, and wastewater facilities.
Where the site is and how it is laid out
The Cascade site is undeveloped desert near the White Tank Mountains. It sits generally north of Thomas Road and south of the Bethany Home Road alignment. It runs east of Sun Valley Parkway and west of the Turner Road alignment. The only built-out community nearby is Tartesso, which sits west of Sun Valley Parkway.
The plan organizes the community into six villages. At the center sits a park of at least 50 acres. Seven smaller “cascade parks” are distributed across the community. In total, the plan anticipates roughly 155 acres of parks. Each village must provide open space equal to at least 18 percent of its net area, connected by trails and drainage corridors.
Who owns the land and who is building it
Three entities own the property, according to the city staff report: Elianto LandValorem LP, CRG Thomas Road Partners LLC, and Ben-Horin Family Trust/SVP 360 LLLP. Mattamy Homes is the master developer.
ABLA Studio serves as both planning firm and landscape architect. Colliers Engineering & Design handles civil engineering. Tiffany & Bosco is the legal representative for the project.
The Elianto backstory: twenty-two years of dormant desert entitlements
Buckeye approved the Elianto Community Master Plan in 2004 for roughly 3,931 acres. City staff confirmed that no portion of Elianto ever developed in the twenty-two years between that approval and the Sept. 22 vote.
The Cascade carves out 2,771 of those acres and places them under a new framework. That still leaves about 1,104.6 acres inside the original Elianto plan, with capacity for as many as 5,649 additional homes under the existing entitlement. Elianto is not dead — it is just smaller.
The data-center question commissioners raised
Two commissioners — Rebecca Puppe and Gina Ragsdale — said they dissent with the idea of data centers being built inside The Cascade. Both still supported the overall project, so the recommendation was unanimous. The developer’s attorney told the commission that data centers are a permitted use under The Cascade’s guidelines. No specific data-center plan exists at this time.
Data centers have drawn scrutiny across the Phoenix Valley in recent years. For more on that debate, see our coverage of the Arizona data center backlash and the Arizona AG’s data center pause.
The City Council vote: what has to happen before anyone breaks ground
The commission’s recommendation moves both cases — PLZZ-26-0003 and PLZZ-25-0014 — to the Buckeye mayor and City Council for a final vote. That hearing had not occurred as of the Sept. 22 commission vote. The master traffic study required by the conditions must be finished before that hearing takes place.
After City Council approval, the developer must still submit individual village plans, subdivision plats, and building permits. Each step requires separate approval before any ground breaks. Given that the underlying Elianto plan sat untouched for twenty-two years after its own approval, timelines for The Cascade are uncertain. No organized resident opposition was reported at the Sept. 22 hearing, and commissioners praised the thoroughness of the plan.
For more on Buckeye’s commercial growth alongside its residential boom, see our look at new stores opening along I-10 and Verrado Way. You can also follow what is new at Verrado Marketplace.
Buckeye, Arizona at golden hour. The city has more than 30 approved master-planned communities and could surpass one million residents within twenty years, according to the Buckeye Valley Chamber of Commerce. (InsideTheValley.com)
