Submitted by the Town of Cave Creek
While we watch in horror as wildfires destroy homes and property across Arizona and now New Mexico, Cave Creek’s new evacuation route on Arroyo Road becomes even more critical to the health, welfare, and safety of Cave Creek residents. According to Mayor Bob Morris, “Thankfully, we secured our own Cave Creek Fire Department to help protect us from floods, fire, and other emergencies, but Mother Nature can be deadly despite our best efforts. The Arroyo Road evacuation route is now available to hundreds of Cave Creek residents and those who live in portions of unincorporated Maricopa County who live north and northeast of School House Road.”
The lack of an east to west connection has been a problem for the Town for years. The need for such routes was part of the Town’s 2007 Transportation Master Plan. The Town was originally looking for a northern route that would provide a way for residents to get home (or out) during flooding events that make Spur Cross and School House Road impassable. Galloway Wash has only one bridged crossing and that is north of Stagecoach Village on Galloway Road. There was no connection from Galloway Road to serve the northern portions of our Town or the neighboring areas in Maricopa County.
The Town staff has not abandoned trying to get a southern connection. A Military Road bypass is still very much a consideration and is included in the Town’s Capital Improvement Program with a Fiscal Year 2027 timeline. The timeline for the southern route is tied to the dedication of a right of way necessary to complete the route alignment.
When the Town first started looking at a northern connection route, staff were looking at an extension of the Grapevine Road right of way west to Tanya Road and then to Ridgeway Drive. The Town did not have complete rights of way or easements that would allow for the road to be extended. In addition, the elevation difference and steep bank slopes would have made the roadway connections difficult along this alignment. Also, in looking at the potential route, the original intention of an alternate route to avoid drainage blocking the route was not something that we could depend on as a practical reason for the project. Once past Galloway Wash, there was still Rowe Wash, Grapevine Wash, Ocotillo Wash, Willow Springs Wash, and other wash crossings that could prevent traffic on our roadways due to large storm events and flows crossing the roadways.
The same sort of restrictions was also true for a possible connection to Highland Road. While eminent domain and condemnation of right of way is always a possibility, it has never been the “Cave Creek way” and was not considered in evaluating potential alternatives. Highland Road residents’ objections never occurred and therefore were not a reason the Town decided against this route.
Enter the Blue Sky Preserve development, one single family home on a large amount of land. The owner had purchased several properties and wanted to consolidate the properties and abandon some rights of way and easements that were along some of the old parcel lines and through the consolidated properties. The Town could not abandon right of way or easements without getting an appraisal or getting something of value in return. Over about a year, the Town had many discussions with the landowner’s representatives. The Town’s goal was still to achieve an east /west connection while the Blue Sky Preserve development wanted to consolidate their contiguous property. The trade for the 40 feet along the northern portion of their property south of the historic Arroyo Road alignment was conceived as a method that would meet both goals.
The trade of land was made at the November 18, 2019 Town Council meeting. The timeline was driven by the Blue Sky project, and while the Town had no intention of proceeding to build a connecting road at the time, staff were still looking at drainage issues as being the primary driver for such a connection. The crossings of Rowe Wash and Ocotillo Wash would limit the effectiveness of the Echo Canyon Road to Arroyo Road to Grapevine Road from a drainage perspective, and the overall length of the alignment would not serve well as a Town Core traffic congestion bypass. The Town now had an alignment that would work, however, other projects for the Town’s funds took precedence. The construction of the Arroyo Road bypass was low on the priority list.
The back-to-back fires of May 2020 quickly changed the Town’s perspectives. Cave Creek citizens expressed major concern during the event as they were trying to leave and remove their horses from the north and northeast portions of our Town. The Ocotillo fire had jumped Spur Cross Road and the ingress / egress on School House had been limited by both emergency vehicles and people trying to leave. Some of the residents were forced to go through gates and across private lands to get out to the east, away from the fires. Following the fires the Town started looking at the northern connection again, but not as a drainage or traffic congestion bypass, but as an emergency route for the northern and northeast residents of our community in the event of another fire emergency. The Arroyo Road project was added to the Capital Improvement Program (CIP) as a future project in 2021.
As the road was now a possibility, the Town needed to check all the rights of ways and easements that existed along the route. Staff performed extensive research into all the properties along Arroyo Road to find the existing access easements necessary to complete the roadway and ensure we had a continuous legal path on which to construct the road.
Once staff was certain that the new bypass could be constructed within rights of ways and easements controlled by the Town, the project was approved in the FY 2023- 2024 budget in June 2023. The Town held a public meeting on the roadway in July 2023. Door hangers about a public meeting were placed on the doors of the residents who would be affected. The meeting was held in the Town Council chambers and was well attended by those both opposed to and in support of the project.
Most of the construction for Arroyo Road was performed by the Town’s Public Works Department staff. The final portion of the route was constructed in April / May of this year. Once completed, the Town posted evacuation route signs to direct the residents to this new but not obvious route. Follow-up communications are forthcoming about the evacuation route to all residents.
Most of the property owners along the new portion of Arroyo Road took down their fences and connected to the new road before the Town had finished the project. The road is a marked improvement to the old Arroyo Road that was not maintained by the Town within the south 30 feet of the properties. The Town chose not to utilize any of the ingress/ egress easements along the northern portion of Arroyo Road. The construction of the road was contained entirely with the Town’s 40 feet of right of way obtained in the November 2019 trade with Blue Sky.
For further information about the new evacuation route, please contact Public Works Director Hal Marron at [email protected].
