There may be some confusion thanks to the selling efforts of Pulte Homes. For a dozen years visitors and residents have entered Sun City Festival off Sun Valley Parkway at the entrance of Festival Ranch. The ranch is made of two parts; to the left is the age restricted Sun City Festival and to the right is a non-age restricted Festival Foothills. The design is simple. Have a place for retiring seniors and right next door a family neighborhood for children and grand children. About a month ago things changed.

As you drive toward Festival from the east or west on Sun Valley Parkway you approach two entrances. On the north is our familiar entrance to Festival Ranch as described above but to the south is an entrance only to Sun City Festival. Huh?

The age-restricted community is expanding. It’s a well planned expansion from its current size of about 2800 homes to it’s completed size of 7200. The next phase of the expansion is taking place on the south side of the parkway next to the White Tank Mountains. A new sales center and 14 models opened just a few weeks ago and apparently wherever the sales center is so too, according to Pulte Homes, is Sun City Festival. Never mind the reality that most of Festival exists on the other side.

This misdirection is made clear by the U-turn signs posted along the main entrance to Sun City Festival and Festival Foothills. Apparently the good people at Pulte want visitors to believe Sun City Festival is only the newly developing side where they are selling new construction homes. Do not be confused. Most of Sun City Festival including the Sage Recreation Center, Copper Canyon Golf Club, the pickle ball and tennis courts, the softball field and all the arts and crafts are still located north of Sun Valley Parkway  entrance labeled as Festival Ranch. The only thing available on the new south side is the Pulte sales force, the model homes and acres of undeveloped lots.