By Jen Fifield | Arizona Republic
A developer came up with a plan 15 years ago to get enough drinking water to an untouched swath of desert near Lake Pleasant for a massive neighborhood it wanted to build.
With 8,500 homes, space for a 35-acre resort, golf and winding trails, Lake Pleasant 5000 was billed as a place where the desert would be at your doorstep, and hailed as what would be one of the largest master-planned communities in Arizona.
The Great Recession brought those plans, and most development plans in the Phoenix area, to a grinding halt.
Now, as development picks up, and with water across the Valley in short supply, a West Valley city is making a grab for the water that Lake Pleasant 5000 thought it secured long ago.