Master-Planned Community Keeps Sustainability, Costs in Mind

A new master-planned community is opening in the heart of Queen Creek.
Taylor Morrison Home debuted its newest master-planned community, Legado, with the model opening of Legado Landmark Collection on Saturday, Nov. 7. The community offers homebuyers quick access to a variety of shopping, dining, entertainment and outdoor recreation options.
“This part of Queen Creek is a natural fit for our next community as it is situated near Queen Creek’s Marketplace and Queen Creek District, which is perfect for families,” said Brad Schoenberg, Phoenix Division President at Taylor Morrison.
For Shannon Francoeur, vice president of land acquisition and development at Scottsdale-based Taylor Morrison, Legado is especially close to her heart.
“I’ll start off by saying I have been a resident of Queen Creek since 2004,” she said. “I live right across from Legado and I’ve been eyeballing that property my whole career.”
Originally, Ms. Francoeur said, Legado was brokered by one of the largest brokers in the Phoenix metro. And Taylor Morrison was not chosen as the builder.
“It was a very competitive bid, and we actually were not successful in getting the property to start,” she said. “Another homebuilder was able to open escrow originally, but they ended up not being able to get it to the finish line and so they came back and asked Taylor Morrison if they were still interested and we jumped on it.”
With homes priced from the low $400,000s, Legado Landmark Collection offers six floor plans, with one- and two-story home designs ranging from 1,955 to 3,491 square feet with three to six bedrooms, two to four baths and finished three-car garages.
“I feel like Legado is unique in that it offers four distinct product types all within close proximity to each other, and I really envision multiple generations of families relocating to Legado so that grandparents can be close to grandkids, so that parents can be close to their aging parents and help take care of them,” Ms. Francoeur said.
While Queen Creek is growing, Ms. Francoeur said home prices right now are rising because of low supply and increasing costs.
“I feel like affordability is going to be a problem in the Phoenix [metro area] in the next couple of years to come and we’ll just have to see how that works out,” she said. “But luckily, interest rates are at the lowest they’ve ever been in history and so it makes homes, I think, a little bit more affordable.”

Legado offers a 1.75-acre catch-and-release fishing lake, splash pad, lighted cornhole, a half basketball court, nearby parks, walking/jogging paths connected to the Queen Creek wash system and more.
“Our main walking trail that runs through the center of Legado connects to the Queen Creek wash to the north and takes you right down into the heart of Queen Creek so you can get to Mansel Carter Oasis Park,” Ms. Francoeur said. “It also will take you to Founders Park, which is farther into the heart of Queen Creek. You can also take the wash to the west and you can get to the shopping center that’s on Power and Queen Creek roads. So, it’s just very well located.”
Taylor Morrison also has taken into account having a renewable water source to irrigate Legado’s open spaces that does not rely on groundwater. Recently, a controversy erupted over plans to sell Colorado River water to Queen Creek for development purposes. State legislators from the western Arizona are called foul, saying the river water is meant for their constituents’ agricultural businesses and not for Central Arizona housing development.
Under state law, developers in central Arizona must replenish groundwater used for their developments.
Taylor Morrison is bypassing that controversy through a lake it built to irrigate open spaces.
“The lake was sized so that it can irrigate all of the open space in Legado at full build-out, which is a huge benefit to homeowners,” Ms. Francoeur said. “When you’re irrigating open space off of potable water, that water rate increases significantly over time and can cause your HOA fees to go up, up, up. But we’re using a lake that is tied into the town of Queen Creek’s well system and so it’s not ground water.”
Taylor Morrison worked on the irrigation project with the Sossaman family of farmers and Paul Gardner, the head of Queen Creek’s water department.
“From a groundwater-use standpoint, using the town of Queen Creek’s well system is much more sustainable than tapping into the potable water system,” she said. “That was really predetermined by the Sossaman family. I can’t take any credit for that.”
Along with working on sustainable water resources, Taylor Morrison is a partner with the National Wildlife Federation to create communities that do not hurt the natural habitats of area plants and animals. Every Taylor Morrison community comes with a butterfly garden to help the Monarch butterfly.
“We’ve taken the Monarch pledge to just basically create these places that will assist the Monarch butterfly and their migration every year,” Ms. Francoeur said. “It’s been a really cool thing to be a part of just because it’s different and unique and it’s not complicated either. It’s just very simple.”
To schedule an appointment to check out Legado, call 480-346-1738. Homebuyers can also schedule a virtual home tour.