Reimagining and Reemerging

The Arizona Salt River is neither high in salinity nor navigable by boat (mostly). However, what it lacks in general everyday usefulness, its importance is integral to the ecosystem services of the region and play a key role in the delicate balance of the biodiversity of the Sonoran as a whole.

The Hohokam peoples, the first known inhabitants of Tempe and ancestors to the modern Akimel and Tonoho O’odham Tribe, were masters of desert living and canal building. At some point between the death of Christ and the fall of the Roman Empire, utilizing these specific skillsets, the Hohokam completed the manmade efforts to harness the Salt River in Phoenix-Tempe area. Through the development of this critical waterway and thoughtful conservation and agricultural practices, the Salt River provided the Hohokam community with a means to dominate the region for over a millennium. 

The Salt River has since provided a means of sustenance, trade, and culture for the communities that occupy its banks. The same remains true today. The residents of Tempe and the surrounding metropolitan areas have continued this tradition by literally building upon, reinforcing, and expanding these early river systems to accommodate the exploding population into what we see (and don’t see) today, specifically as it relates to the section of the River which runs from the Tanto National Forest to the Trace Rios Confluence.

Upon the building of the Roosevelt Dam upstream in 1911 for purposes of water retention and agricultural irrigation control, the flow of water to the lower reaches of the Salt River began to slowly decline. By the late 1930s, nearly all the water from the Salt River had been diverted for various uses, resulting in sand and gravel mining operations occupying the then barren land. The River channel narrowed significantly and vegetation diminished. Phoenix and surrounding cities allowed the river and the land adjacent to the flood plain to be zoned for development and citizens built homes and businesses on the land. When flood waters thereafter reclaimed the channel, devastation ensued.

Despite decades of neglect and purposeful water diversion, serious efforts to solve the growing problem the Salt River had become faced opposition at every turn. The “5 Cs of Arizona”, that is Copper, Cattle, Cotton, Citrus, and Climate, were very much still the powerhouse industries in which Arizona policy worked around.

If forward-thinking interventions to revitalize the Salt River had not been introduced, Arizona’s cash crops would have killed the state before the state’s centennial.

In 1966, ASU’s Architecture program and the city of Tempe first conceived the ideas for what we now know as Rio Salado. Their goal was to create a plan to revitalize the Salt River basin. The ecological devastation that the damming efforts brought left an unsightly barren scar through the center of the Phoenix metropolitan area. As development in ther area continued, the man-made problem that was the barren basin could no longer go unaccounted for. Besides the growing need for flood control, as is the case for most projects in Phoenix, the vision of the project organizers was guided by a principle that has been driving the development of Phoenix for the past 150 years: Attracting residents and visitors to the area to promote economic growth. 

The Rio Salado project, as proposed, stretched nearly 6 miles long. Project designers broke from trending practices of the 1960’s and approached the Rio Salado project with an emphasis on ecological principles. Most of this proposal was originally rejected by voters. Tempe, however, accepted the proposal. The city continued to work with designers, multidisciplinary teams, as well as both state and federal politicians for nearly 3 decades before creating what we now know as Tempe Town lake. Through the Rio Salado Plan, the City of Tempe had four distinct goals: (1) “strive to make Tempe a more beautiful and unique city,” (2) “develop a multi-modal circulation system,” (3) “diversify and stabilize the city’s economic base,” and (4) “promote infill development that creates long-term compatibility and stability.” (p. 24-25 of Rio Salado Plan). 

Although extensively planned, the aesthetic and ecological liberties taken have come with unforeseen consequences. For several reasons and in many ways The Rio Salado project’s opponents were justified in their reluctance to jump headfirst into such a plan without further scrutiny. Concerns of access, inequity, and flood control were major concerns. Furthermore, the realities and practicalities of the water scarcity problem, a chronic obstacle for development in Phoenix, was still not yet fully accounted for or understood in the initial proposal of projects like Tempe Town Lake. 

Even as the publication of Carr, Lynch Associates’ Development Alternatives as well as their Feasibility Report acknowledged ecological pitfalls and oversights, the Economic impact report published shortly thereafter was compelling enough to push the project forward and in a economically-driven direction rather than the original ecologically-sound intent. Despite considerable objections still, Tempe Town Lake, the flagship feature of the Rio Salado proposal, broke ground in 1997 and was complete by 2000.

By 2006, the site was dubbed “the most popular tourist attraction in Arizona” as it played host to regular concerts, sporting events and cultural events.

However, after 20 years, 2 catastrophic, unplanned dam breaches, the project faces scrutiny once more. It was slowly appearing that, ironically, the measures taken to stop destructive industries from destroying Arizona, were in fact slowly destroying Arizona. 

Just as we built upon the infrastructure of those that came before us, the Rio Reimagined or Rio 2.0 seeks to improve and support the current and future life that will rely upon the Salt River in a way that is sustainable and resilient to the dynamics of the changing climate as well as a changing demographic. Rio Reimagined is the next phase in the life and development of the Rio Salado. Picking up where Rio 1.0 left off and correcting its deficiencies, Rio Reimagined takes a holistic approach to the Rio Salado in ways early planners were not able to conceive.

With access, equity and community engagement in mind, Rio Reimagined is at forefront of a growing trend of largescale “greenway” urban recreational park projects adopted by several other US mega cites that are also situated on major waterways.

At 55-miles-long, The Rio Reimagined project is the second longest and oldest (if we were to consider Rio Salado phase one) project of its kind in the United States and incorporates the revitalization of several key Salt River corridors and riparian areas.

The legacy of industrial development and negligent pollution practices is still evident along the proposed Rio corridor. Reimagining the zoning of this area, recognizing opportunities for Brownfield redevelopment projects to accommodate the growing community as well as create new green corridors to reconnect greater populations of the community back to the river.

In the face of further dwindling water resources, a more water- conscious public and private sector are becoming more informed as to how the projects along the Salt River have impacted not just our local communities but also our regional ecosystem services. 

Besides the key issues of sustainability, one of the major criticisms of the Rio Salado 1.0 project was that issues of inequity, key community engagement initiatives, and stakeholder goals were not fully considered.

Projects of this scale and magnitude require not just multidisciplinary teams and political cooperation, but extensive community input as well. Engaging with stakeholders is a log-term, multi- faceted process that requires multiple means and channels of communication about measurable outcomes and roadmaps to accountability. A sustainable legacy requires unanimous community buy-in. This commitment to stakeholder engagement is at the forefront of the vision for Rio Reimagined. 

Rio Reimagined is positioned to impact Phoenix's most vulnerable populations

Greater community integration and engagement in planning can lead to greater community impacts. Areas currently situated along the Rio Salado Corridor are currently some of the most at risk populations for adverse heat in the region.

It is only through stakeholder engagement, in fact, that the future of the Phoenix metropolitan area and projects like Rio Reimagined can be assured. The next 100 years in the Salt River Valley are to be markedly different than the previous 100. A booming economy driven by technological innovation, the aerospace industry and manufacturing fields are the new life blood of the Salt River Valley and the residents of it. The shift in integral industries also reflects a shift in attitude towards the socio ecological effects we have influence over. Water once allocated for agriculture, mining, and irresponsible private and commercial landscape preferences are still obstacles to sustainable and resilient water management practices.

Though community engagement as well as policy reform advocacy, attention to and responsibility for these harmful practices and policies can be placed directly at the feet of the individual stakeholders and steps to change can be taken from both the bottom-up and the top-down.

Building on the foundations of an ancient watershed system that has supported life in the Salt River Basin for thousands of years, The Rio Salado project, and more recently, the Rio Reimagined project, are river revitalization projects with the goal of reconnecting life in the basin to the river once more. The metamorphosis from Salt River to Rio Salado to Rio Reimagined not only marks distinctly different developmental stages of the river itself but is also a metamorphosis of cultural ideological shifts in attitudes towards the Salt River Basin. Today, the future of the river and region’s water supply is uncertain. What is certain, however, is a growing need for recognition that the condition of the Salt River is very much a reflection of the community that it supports and vis versa. Through community engagement and a multi-faceted, multi- channeled approach, the goals set forth by the Rio Reimagined project can be met and surpassed in ways nobody could have ever even imagined (or reimagined).