this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2025
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Mildly Interesting
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But the article says
A city block is anywhere from 2-5 acres, so you're not far off, but it's 3-8 times bigger than your description makes it seem.
As a comparison, Union Square in SF is 2.6 acres, so Culdesac would be over 6 times the area of Union Square. That's definitely not a huge area, but in a place like Tempe it must feel like an oasis for those of us who hate suburban sprawl.
My hope is that places like this inspire more areas like this to be created when redeveloping. Anything that reduces suburban car-centric sprawls is good in my book. Even if just a little bit.
I guess to put it another way, the world seems a little bit better with this place in it instead of a 12 acre parking lot next to a 7 acre building, which is the kind of thing that exists all around my little town. We don't even have a downtown, just a highway with strip malls.
This development is specifically made so that necessities are within the community.
that 17 acres is being very generous, most of that land is dirt and has been for over a year with no signs of recent development. The actual useable area is a generous 6 acres and has none of the height from most downtown city blocks, the buildings are only three stories tall and mostly just residences. It's more an apartment complex with some corner stores