Phoenix General Plan 1985-2000 Collection

Beginning in January 1974, the Mayor of Phoenix and the Phoenix City Council charged the City Planning Commission with the responsibility of presenting alternative urban forms and their implications. After an urban forms seminar for community leaders, the Commission appointed over 200 citizens to eight Urban Forms Directions Committees to study elements required in a general plan. From this activity came the urban village concept and in July 1979, the Phoenix Concept Plan 2000 was adopted. It defined the boundaries of nine Phoenix urban villages and instructed village planning committees to prepare 25-year concept plans with an interim plan for 1985. The nine villages included Deer Valley, Paradise Valley, North Mountain, Alhambra, Camelback East, Maryvale, Encanto, Central City, and South Mountain. On October 2, 1985, the Council repealed Phoenix Concept Plan 2000 and adopted Phoenix General Plan 1985-2000.

During 1983-1985, a joint City of Phoenix-Arizona State University Village Planning Program grant was in operation under the direction of Professor Elizabeth K. Burns of the ASU College of Architecture and Environmental Design. Graduate students from the college were assigned to the nine Village Planning Committees to aid in recordkeeping, meeting arrangements, recording minutes, and liaison work with the city and university. While this collection does not include documents beyond the 1980s, the concept of the Phoenix urban villages continues to remain important in the government's image of the Phoenix metropolitan area.