PHX Renews started as a vision of Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton in his first State of the City address in March 2012. Roughly 42% of land in Phoenix is vacant, much of it in the urban core. PHX Renews hopes to address this by utilizing some vacant land to the community’s benefit on a temporary basis. While vacant lots in cities like Chicago, Boston and Philadelphia are typically 25 x 125 feet, they can be acres in Phoenix. And while the cities mentioned receive more than 40 inches of rain per year, Phoenix receives 8 inches per year. Many vacant lots are “off the grid”, meaning no power or water, so how do we do something meaningful on these lots without these services available?