The proposal for an 85 acre commercial development along Route 69 saw its first run before the town government on Thursday night at the Planning and Zoning commission's July 6th meeting.  Known as the Agua Fria Center, this plan has gone largely unnoticed by the residents of Dewey-Humboldt.  Two meetings with the public had been held by Dennis Roberts, the developer, one before the Dewey-Humboldt Community Organization and one before a small handful of neighboring residents.

  Mr. Roberts gave a polished presentation before the Planning and Zoning commission, rich with illustrations, specifications and conceptual drawings but notably lacking in other areas such as traffic impact, build-out time, sewage treatment choices and effects, and any kind of an environmental report.

  The Agua Fria Center would contain primarily high-end outlet malls and business center resources for local professionals with future plans for a senior care facility, medical center and a hotel, but it's the outlet malls that would be the economic engine of the site and that drew scrutiny by the comission.  Doyle Wiste demonstrated simple math showing that the projected income of the outlet malls would demand an extraordinary number of cars per day to bring in that much money.  Mr. Roberts countered, explaining that the average purchase at these outlets would be relatively high, reducing traffic possibly by an order of magnitude.  Yet one has to wonder where those high paying customers are going to come from every day.

  Some parts of the development's concept are well thought out such as plans to harvest rain water and the use of various "green" building and energy saving strategies, but the lack of reports and studies are sure to bring on more questions about feasibility.

  Three members of the community spoke to the commission regarding the Agua Fria Center, one seeking clarification about architecture and the second voicing a list of concerns from added congestion to the lack data regarding the local impact of a sewage facility, as yet unselected.

  The evening was punctuated by an appearance by former mayor Tom Hintze who spoke in support of the plan simply on the claim that Dewey-Humboldt needs to move forward and promised that he would be very vocal on this issue now that he is no longer mayor.

  Whether or not the Agua Fria Center plan makes its way into reality, the question raised by some after the meeting was, "Will it even get off the ground?"  Opinions differ on whether or not the vision of a non-Arizonan developer is suitable or feasible within the model of a small Arizona town.