By Michael Clancy, The Republic | azcentral.com
More than 20 years ago, DC Ranch was conceived as a model Scottsdale community.
In an announcement in March 1993, DMB, a leading Valley developer, said it had reached a tentative agreement with the Kemper Marley family to shepherd the creation of the 8,300-acre community. Marley, a liquor distributor and rancher, died in 1990.
At the time, a DMB executive foresaw up to 8,400 homes, golf courses, two resorts and about 900,000 square feet of office and commercial space. The developer would set aside land for education, from elementary to high school. There would be a city library.
Not a lot of that came to pass. The project has 3,700 acres today, the rest sold or donated to the city for the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. No resort was ever built. Land for the high school and library were returned to the developer. Just 2,600 homes were constructed, less than one-third of the number originally foreseen.
What remained, however, has become one of the city’s most desirable places to live.
