DISCOVERY CENTER, GATEWAY TO THE MCDOWELLS

The Discovery center is planned on the land the city is buying from Toll Brothers, located at Thompson's Peak Parkway and Bell Road. It is just north of McDowell Mountain Ranch, east of
Wingate Ranch and south of Silverleaf. This is the piece of land the city is paying Toll Brothers some $82 million, when Toll paid some $60 million for this land and another bigger piece. They are building Wingate Ranch on the other piece. They basically got the land for Wingate Ranch for FREE, but are charging up to $1.5 million dollars for the production homes they are building on the site.
Ideas for the discovery center will be available for the public view and input. Please enjoy the article below from the AZ Republic.

Discovery center plan goes public
by Lesley Wright - Jun. 9, 2008 12:06 PMThe Arizona Republic
SCOTTSDALE - Scottsdale residents will get their first look this week at a consultant's study of the Desert Discovery Center proposed for the Gateway entrance to the McDowell Sonoran Preserve.
Scottsdale officials matched private funds for the $73,000 study to survey residents and tourists and evaluate support and ideas for the center.
The initial idea first floated in 1998 but was pushed aside for economic reasons. It got new life last year when the city acquired 400 acres of land for the Gateway entrance into the preserve at Bell Road and Thompson Peak Parkway.

The $15-million Discover Center concept includes an interpretive center, a café, a concierge to coordinate hikes and horseback rides and two amphitheaters.
That is where agreement about the center ends.
Tourism officials, enthusiastic about the center's eco-tourism potential, would like to see a "wow factor," with high-tech exhibits such as a virtual recreation of a monsoon storm.
Environmentalists want the mountains to be the primary draw, with the discovery center serving as a low-key educational center.
Political tensions escalated recently when the non-profit McDowell Sonoran Conservancy proposed taking over management of the project from the city.