Culdesac bill themselves as "the first post-car real estate developer", with a longterm goal "to retrofit American cities and end car ownership as we know it."

Building first in Phoenix AZ - the sprawlingest city in America - is either savvy or delusional https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/31/business/culdesac-tempe-phoenix-sprawl.html

Case for:

+ Fast-growing city
+ Light rail access to downtown
+ Development will have "grocery store, coffee shop, restaurant, co-working space", so "residents may never need to leave"
+ Increased remote work reduces commute need

& crucially:
+ AZ enables speculative planning

Case against:
- Slightly isolated location
- 17 acres is small to "never leave"
- One light rail line does not a functioning transit network make
- No mention of integrations with schools, healthcare etc

& crucially:
- It's 40C every day in the summer, no-one's walking anywhere.

? Does big-ass masterplanning work ?

Interesting thread from a planner arguing it's the only way US experimentation with urban form happens

& that Culdesac will "nudge future urban design toward walkability in a way that public design regulations can't" https://twitter.com/mnolangray/status/1324410157724393473