Loving the lifestyle

Catalina Foothills services Lodging: Make hotel reservations in Catalina Foothills. James S. Wood / Staff When you live in the Catalina Foothills, vast stretches of lush desert lie just to the north, in the Coronado National Forest. A variety of hiking trails beckon.

Foothills living has a lot going for it - desert beauty, wide-open spaces, gated security, excellent schools and shopping convenience.

By Raina Wagner
ARIZONA DAILY STAR

Welcome to the Santa Catalina Foothills. Where the Tucson Valley meets the mountains, where the Sonoran Desert climbs into the altitudes of the forest, where the Arizona sky meets desert floor.

And where so many Tucsonans find the lifestyle of their dreams.

"There is a lot of beauty to the desert," says Tim Harris, 34, a native Tucsonan who attended Sabino High School and has lived in the Catalina Foothills most of his life. "When you're actually in it and seeing the cactus blooming or the quail or javelina, you're in that beauty."

Harris, a Realtor for the past 11 years with Long Realty, also works in the Foothills, an area that stretches north from the Rillito River, Tanque Verde Wash and East Speedway, and east from North First Avenue, with only the Coronado National Forest as its northern and eastern boundaries. Regions in the Foothills include Pima Canyon, Ventana Canyon, Sabino Canyon, Redington Pass and the Tanque Verde Valley.

Throughout these areas, humans have put down their roots, enjoying suburban living on house lots that are typically more than an acre in size, with the convenience of the Tucson Valley just minutes away.

In fact, more and more of that convenience - grocery stores, retail shops, doctors' offices, dry cleaners, etc. - is in the Foothills as well.

Jon Hoffman, a Foothills dentist whose business, Bel Aire Dental Office, has been operating at East Sunrise Drive and North Craycroft Road since 1979, says businesses used to be a rarity in the hills.

"It was almost rural back then. Now it's more suburban," says Hoffman, who also lived in the Foothills for 25 years before recently moving back down into the valley.

Other early businesses included an animal hospital and an insurance agency, Hoffman says. He remembers that the prospect of putting a stop sign at Swan Road and East Sunrise caused a big controversy in 1981.

"They didn't want a stop sign there," he says, explaining that the intersection was just an open, implied four-way stop. "They thought it would impede traffic."

This is the same intersection that now hosts a supermarket, several fast-food restaurants, a bank and not a stop sign but a big ol' traffic light.

The latest major expansion in the Foothills is La Encantada, the upscale shopping center being completed now. The 258,000-square-foot center is scheduled to open in November.

Like many developments in the Foothills, La Encantada was controversial, with area residents expressing concerns about the increased traffic and the loss of the serenity and natural character of the Foothills. Harris thinks the development will be a good addition to the area.

The Harris family - Tim; wife, Jennifer; daughter, Emma, 3; and son, Ash, 18 months - lives within two miles of La Encantada.

"I love the idea of riding my bike to do my shopping and enjoying a cup of coffee and a bagel on a cool morning," Tim says.

Developments such as La Encantada cause controversy because land for commercial development is running out. In fact, housing lots are so scarce that people now buy older Foothills homes just for the land, tearing down the houses and starting new ones from scratch.

"People have been moving to the Foothills since the 1930s, and there's just no more land left," Harris says.

That scarcity of supply and the demand for homes in the area compute to a simple, well-known formula: supply down + demand up = prices high. Newer homes have an average selling price of more than $400,000.

What are Foothills residents paying for? Aside from the beautiful views, the large lots and the proximity to the open space of the Coronado National Forest, people are moving to the Foothills because of the excellent reputation of the Catalina Foothills Unified School District.

That district and the two others with schools in the Foothills serve about 10,000 students. Families with children make up 22 percent of the households in the Foothills, a percentage that is actually higher than Pima County's as a whole.

Residents also like the security of gated communities, a feature Harris says will make him more comfortable once his children are old enough to leave the back yard.

One drawback is the homogeneous nature of the Foothills. The area is about 94 percent Anglo, which doesn't paint a realistic picture of the ethnic breakdown of the American Southwest.

And though some may complain about the commute - depending on where in the Foothills you live, the drive to Downtown could take 30 to 45 minutes - Harris says it's an easy distance considering what he gains by living in the hills.

This University of Arizona alum would never want to stop coming into town, either - for UA games, visiting friends or going to a movie.

"I don't see where you'd ever be able to put a movie theater or a Home Depot" in the Foothills, he says with a laugh.

And that's just how Foothills residents want it.