Fountain Hills may finally be starting to shake off some of the housing doldrums from the Great Recession – MCO Properties has begun construction on its long-awaited Adero Canyon subdivision, according to MCO President Jeremy Hall.

Hall noted that the town has issued all of its permits to begin work on infrastructure, and the paperwork is done to record the new revised plats on the property.

The first thing to do was have a landscape salvage crew move in to preserve much of the desert plant life growing in the way of the development. Those plants will be reused in landscaping the project.

Nearly two years ago Hall and town officials had a frank discussion regarding the future of the housing market – not just in Fountain Hills, but in a larger scale. They came up with a plan to revise the approved plan for Adero Canyon from its all custom home lots to add town houses and semi-custom housing. There is also a multi-family/hotel element associated with the CopperWynd Resort adjacent to the property.

Hall said late in 2013 that the proposed change was spurred by the town’s desire to access its mountain preserve trailhead area at the northwest end of Adero Canyon, as well as a need to diversify the developer’s housing products.

“Economic conditions and consumer demand have changed over the past 15 years since the original land plan was conceived,” Hall said.

“Custom homeowners are building smaller homes, semi-custom demand is gaining momentum and low-maintenance attached product is surging as the aging baby boomers grow in number and downsize to a product that suits a more active lifestyle.”

MCO proposed the changes to the master plan for the project approved by the town more than a decade ago, which included 171 custom-home lots on the 431 acres. The developer asked that the plan be modified to include an 80-acre Planned Area Development (PAD).

The PAD includes 31 semi-custom home lots, 44 townhouse sites and 120 multi-family or resort/hotel units.

The remainder of the Adero Canyon parcel consists of 118 custom home lots and 30 semi-custom lots. This totals 343 housing units.

Luxury homebuilder Toll Brothers will build the 61 semi-custom homes. Those are expected to range in size from 3,200 to 5,000 square feet. They anticipate an opening date of late 2016 or early 2017 for these homes.

Access to the McDowell Mountains from Eagle Ridge Drive and Hidden Hills is closed to hikers and bikers during construction.