CityStories / City Profiles / Medium Cities / Scottsdale, Arizona

To relieve the pressure of increasing sprawl on this desert habitat, in 1995 city leaders and residents voted to protect one-third of city land, creating the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, an open-space initiative that will be one of the country's largest urban preserves. It has managed public access and will maintain a wildlife corridor that is key to the survival of many local species; it is also intended to connect residents with the ecological and cultural heritage of the area.

The city is largely known for tourism, which is the principal economic engine in the community. To keep up 23 of its golf courses in an arid climate, the city reclaims wastewater and with treatment returns it to irrigation quality, which the golf courses then purchase to receive through the Reclaimed Water Delivery System. All new golf courses must provide their own renewable surface water supply.

Frank Lloyd Wright set his stamp on Scottsdale with the building of his winter home, Taliesin West. So it's not surprising that the city should become a center for green building and the first in the country to adopt a LEED gold certification standard for all new city buildings. Through its voluntary Green Building Program, more than one-third of new single-family homes built in Scottsdale met energy and environmental standards to qualify for green building permits in 2005 and 2006, and the requirements will be updated in 2009. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation at Taliesin West houses an educational facility for organic architecture that is open to the public.