What's Happening in Local Land Use

Real estate is—and will always be—a local business. The direction of our built environment is driven not by big decisions in Washington but by thousands of little decisions made every month by city councils and planning boards.

So we’ve partnered with ReZone on a new quarterly feature capturing the most notable, impactful, and unique local land use decisions made over the past 90 days. The decisions offer a lens into where urban America is heading—and, just as importantly, where it’s not.

Today, we dive deep into some of the most compelling ordinances, plans, and policy updates shaping the real estate landscape. These decisions cover everything from inclusionary zoning and office revitalization efforts to sweeping citywide adoption of Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs).

Hello “Halo Vista”

As you know, we at Thesis Driven are always interested in new cities. While Halo Vista isn’t exactly a new city—it’s part of the Phoenix metro area—it comes pretty close.

The city of Phoenix recently approved a development agreement for public infrastructure for the expansive, mixed-use Halo Vista project. Spanning roughly 2,300 acres around the new TSMC semiconductor facility, Halo Vista promises millions of square feet of industrial, tech, retail, and residential space.

A conceptual plan of Halo Vista. The big white boxes near the center are TSMC’s new chip fab.

Mack Real Estate Group provided the only bid at the Arizona State Land Department (ASLD) auction and acquired 2,340.53 acres for the minimum bid of $56,280,000 earleir this year. According to early estimates, the development will include 12 million sqft of industrial, 3.5 million sqft of flex-tech/office, 500k sqft of retail, and over 9,000 MF units. Once completely built-out, Halo Vista is anticipated to generate 62,000 jobs.

Decision details