Small town AF quickly grows bigger than Flagstaff

Phoenix police officer Lee Abril once laughed about how he would use a pencil to add new streets to his personal map of Ahwatukee Foothills. He needed to so he could find his way around when responding to calls.

That's how small Ahwatukee Foothills was, and how fast it grew three decades ago.

It was a tiny, isolated retirement community with a decent golf course and clubhouse at the Ahwatukee Country Club. In summer you could drive down the dirt road that was 48th Street south of Ray Road to a cornfield at Chandler Boulevard and buy fresh corn. And even after the signal was installed at 48th Street and Chandler Boulevard in 1993 and the streets were paved, you could still get corn in the summer, pumpkins in fall and a Christmas tree in winter in the field that would one day become home to Hooters and the Waffle House.

At Easter, the JCs would hold the annual Easter Parade down 48th Street that was a must attend for the young families and retirees that were moving into the area. In summer, real estate agent Chad Chadderton, and later the Chamber of Commerce, organized fireworks at the golf course for the community. At Christmas, homebuilder Del Webb, and later a volunteer group of residents, would string lights on Chandler Boulevard and the Festival of Lights was born.

On weekends, old-timers like Les Tenney, a World War II POW of the Japanese, and others would perform Broadway plays at the Ahwatukee Recreation Center. Joe LeChaix would write his "Hot Flashes" column in the once-a-week Ahwatukee News about the goings on in the tiny community that numbered just 2,172 in 1980, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

And then something happened.

People discovered the area that, in 1993, was officially re-named Ahwatukee Foothills.

Between 1980 and 1990 the population jumped to almost 31,000. Then, in the next five years it doubled to 62,519.

From 1990 to 1994 one out of every three residential building permits issued in the city of Phoenix was for a home or apartment in Ahwatukee Foothills.

But even as the area grew, it maintained, and still has, a small-town feel.

John McComish and his wife moved to Ahwatukee Foothills in 1989 from urban New Jersey.

"It was a lot more folksy (than New Jersey) but it was nice and exciting because people were moving in," McComish said.

While the area grew, exceeding the population of Flagstaff by 1995, it still managed to maintain its small-town feel.

McComish pointed to the Festival of Lights, Fourth of July fireworks and Easter Parade as examples of the community taking charge of its activities.

"They're all community events run by community groups," he said.

It was a community group, the Ahwatukee Foothills Crime Prevention Task Force with Mary Conant and Peggy Schaefer, that pushed for a beefed-up police presence in the area, finally culminating in the police substation now at Pecos Park Community Center.

And tying it all together was the Ahwatukee Foothills News that publicized fundraising drives for the Little League, advocated for more police and fire services and printed photos from the annual Easter Parade.

"Yeah, I think we helped Ahwatukee grow up," said Clay Schad, founder and publisher of the Ahwatukee Foothills News.

Contact writer: (480) 898-7914 or dmurphy@ahwatukee.com.