James, Thank you for your interest in Friends of the Scenic Drive. The City of Scottsdale has not announced its dates for city-wide cleanups yet. My guess is that the first one will be in mid-to-late October. I just checked the city’s website and no dates are posted. It is early. The program’s coordinator is Bruce Wall at 480-312-7898. They send out an e-newsletter re: cleanup dates and we post them on this site. Not last year, but in previous years Friends has also held cleanups other than those on the city-wide dates but we have not decided if and when we will have additional dates. It’s based on need and the city has been deploying additional crews. We really would like to have the city’s dates before we announce our schedule.

I will follow-up with the Phoenix Coordinator regarding participation in that program. As you probably know the original Desert Foothills Drive was 13 miles in length, 6 1/2 miles on Scottsdale Road (Happy Valley – Carefree Highway) and 6 1/2 miles on Cave Creek Road (Power line corridor north of Pinnacle Peak to Carefree Hwy). About 25 years ago I met with the Tatum Ranch HOA and Phoenix representatives regarding restoring and enhancing the drive in Phoenix. It was true then and its true now, we would need the support of Phoenix property owners along Cave Creek Road to be effective in terms of ensuring that the Scenic Drive remains scenic (enhancement projects, etc. and doing cleanups. Currently, we do cover Scottsdale Road from Jomax to Happy Valley. The land on the west side of the road is State Trust Land under the jurisdiction of Phoenix. However, the roadside is under the jurisdiction of Scottsdale and Phoenix also has the same Scenic Corridor setbacks as Scottsdale. Personally, I would love to see Cave Creek Road become part of the Scenic Drive again but it will require a long-term commitment on the part of the City of Phoenix and its residents that live along Cave Creek Road. A lot of development has alreay taken place, especially toward the south.

Thank again,

Les Conklin
Friends of the Scenic Drive

I have a suggestion

I would like your group to join the City of Phoenix Adopt-A-Street program. This program is reopened under the City of Phoenix Adopt-A-Street Coordinator Terry McAvoy.

Here is the link: https://fb.watch/5Q2M6UsAjL/

Phoenix Adopt-A-Street signup page: https://www.phoenix.gov/streets/adopt-a-street-program?fbclid=IwAR0U40Dg8NbwP1SkGuw0uqio3vUC2jg0C5ICFKQ6AccmH3yaLkm26ppwSCk

If you have any questions or comments, please email me back!

Kind Regards,

James Deibler