Help Us Make the Little "Boxes"

Disappear

On Saturday, May 11, we need your help to reduce the visual pollution caused by 120 little “boxes” along the Scenic Drive! You can help by donating your time and labor, or by making a donation to help pay for paint and supplies.

What pollution?

See for yourself, take a visual tour of the Scenic Drive (click on the pictures below to make them larger). These pictures show just a few of the utility boxes found along the northern part of Scottsdale Road.

The Little Box Tour

Box and Saguaro
Standing Tall and Standing Out
Gathering of Boxes, Near Redbird Road
Gathering of Boxes, near Jomax Road
Gathering of Boxes, near Lone Mountain Road
Gathering of Boxes, near Ashler Hills Road

The Big Box Lesson

Many people were upset when a “big box” home improvement store announced plans to build on land that borders the northern part of Scottsdale Road, the Scenic Drive. The retailer decided to build elsewhere when residents joined forces and worked to prevent something bad from happening.

Now Friends of the Scenic Drive is calling for residents to join forces, work together, and make something good happen with the “little boxes” along the Scenic Drive. The little boxes belong to APS, Cox Communications, QWest, Southwest Gas and other utility companies. As you've seen, the utility posts and boxes come in a variety of shapes, sizes and colors. Some are gray. Some are white. Some are tan. Individually they are not so bad, but the cumulative visual impact over the 6 ½ miles of roadside does a great deal to diminish the desert character of the entire area.

A Proven Solution

The goal is to reduce the visual impact of the utility boxes by painting them all using the same desert-sensitive color. We will use the same dark green color that was used by the City of Scottsdale for its traffic light poles/masts and railings along the Scenic Drive. When our project is completed, the gray box, the white box and the brown box, pictured here, will all be the same color as the traffic light pole in the background.

Utilities and City Support

The utility companies support this project and we have their permission to paint the boxes. They believe this project could very well set an example for other communities and representatives of the companies are working with us on project planning.

Mayor Mary Manross and the City of Scottsdale support this effort. The City of Scottsdale's Scenic Corridor Guidelines [Read More] recommend that this be done.

Volunteer Now!

Someone has stepped forward and donated the paint but to make this happen, we need volunteers to clean and paint the boxes and poles. Please don’t be shy. We need your help and with enough volunteers the work will be done very quickly. Then all of us and the visitors too, will benefit from a more scenic, Scenic Drive.

Email friends@scenicdrive.org to volunteer or request additional information about the project.

Donate Now!

You can also help by making a donation to Friends of the Scenic Drive. Your donation will be used to pay for paint and other supplies. To learn more about donating online, click "Donate Now" below.

Thank you!

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