About
Bosque Creek
Located in Tucson's historic Old Fort Lowell district, Bosque Creek comprises 72 single family homes shaded by magnificent old-growth mesquite trees and located just yards from The Chuck Huckleberry Loop, Tucson's amazing walking and biking path.
A spacious community pool and ramada nestled in a 13 acre privately owned habitat conservation area offer a unique oasis for homeowners and their guests to picnic and swim or amble along the easy pathways, birdwatch or just relax.
The History of Bosque Creek
By Charlie Boyd
In the early 1980s, Dr. and Mrs. Donald Hill sold their farm on East Fort Lowell Road to Cienega, a real estate development company. This land would eventually become the Hill Farm and Bosque Creek communities.
Hill Farm, located adjacent to Fort Lowell Road, was developed first. Cienega created the Hill Farm Lake by dredging around a small pond that existed on the site. They sold land around the lake and some additional lots nearby to the Atkins Company, a California developer. It began development in 1981 with construction of 20 homes, but sales were slow due to high mortgage interest rates at the time. The Akins Company went bankrupt in 1982.
About that same time, Cienega decided to move forward with construction of its own subdivision on the remaining land north of Hill Farm, calling the new development Bosque Creek.
(Meanwhile, another developer, the Doucette Company, acquired the remaining Hill Farm lots and completed the subdivision.)
Bosque Creek was to be a community of 86 “Zero-Lot-Line” or “Patio” homes, meaning one wall of the structure sits on the lot line of the adjacent property. Phase One began with four model homes at the entrance on Woodspring Drive. The models were very modern. One even included a casita separated from the main house. However, they did not sell well, and in 1985 Cienega began Phase Two with four new models. They were constructed on the opposite side of the subdivision, on Hill Farm Drive, and included a large two-story home with two bedrooms and a bathroom upstairs.
While the first phase of Bosque Creek was under construction, a significant event occurred that had a major impact on the development. In 1983, a major flood in the Rillito River just north of the subdivision destroyed some of the bank protection. This put 14 lots that were planned for development into the 100-year flood plain. Cienega could not build on those lots, so a compromise was reached with Pima County. (Both Hill Farm and Bosque Creek were in Pima County at that time.) The County purchased the land from Cienega and owns it to this day.
Cienega continued to develop Bosque Creek for several more years, but it too was struggling financially. It built “spec” homes on the last eight lots (meaning there were no buyers under contract) and went out of business in the late 1980s.
Today, Bosque Creek consists of 72 homes. Access to the community from Fort Lowell Road is via Willow Creek Dr to Woodspring Drive. The neighborhood has an access easement that was granted to it when the new neighborhood was formed. This is the only access point for the neighborhood. Originally there was to be a second entrance on Hill Farm Drive, but as a concession to the original homeowners in the Hill Farm community, who were upset with Bosque Creek’s design and lower home prices, that road was permanently closed at the dividing line between the two communities.