28,000 Homes Planned for Desert Southeast of Tucson

Adriana Brocius reports on a master planned community called Vigneto, permitted but the subject of litigation in the city of Benson, just east of Tucson in Arizona.

"Phoenix-based development company El Dorado Holdings plans to build a 28,000-home community south of Benson. In August, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reissued a Clean Water Act permit for the project, giving developers the green light to begin building," according to Brocious.

Six environmental groups—the Lower San Pedro Watershed Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, Maricopa Audubon Society, Tucson Audubon Society, and Cascabel Conservation Association—have filed legal challenges to the project, on the grounds that federal agencies didn't do sufficient analysis of the environmental impacts on the San Pedro River and local groundwater supplies.

"The development will house an estimated 70,000 people," according to Brocious. "Benson is now home to about 5,000 people."