Sun City, AZ

Sun City's modern story starts with a crowd: when the Del E. Webb Development Company opened five model homes on January 1, 1960, more than 100,000 people visited during the first weekend. The project became a template for large active-adult developments, and the present census-designated place northwest of Phoenix had 39,931 residents in 2020. Sun City remains unincorporated, so its operating structure differs from that of a municipality. Recreation Centers of Sun City, or RCSC, is a private nonprofit corporation rather than a homeowners association. Deeded property owners pay its annual assessment whether or not they occupy the property or use the facilities, and not every resident is an RCSC member cardholder. The separate Sun City Home Owners Association and condominium associations enforce residential deed restrictions. For cardholders, daily activity is distributed across a large shared network.

ATTRCarptrash, aka Einar E Kvaran / CC BY-SA 4.0

RCSC's February 2026 guide lists eight recreation centers and eight golf courses, along with two bowling centers, the open-air Sun Bowl amphitheater, a dog park, and 33-acre Viewpoint Lake. Members and their guests can fish there from dawn to dusk or borrow paddleboats and rowboats; clubs also use facilities for arts, crafts, music, dance, exercise, cards, games, and sports. The same guide counted 125 chartered clubs, including groups devoted to stained glass, weaving, ceramics, quilting, lapidary, woodworking, photography, and gardening. The 11,600-square-foot Sun City Library operates inside Bell Recreation Center, where county library service includes computers, Wi-Fi, memory kits, a seed library, puzzles, and circulating ukuleles. Maricopa County took over library operations in 2009, following a private library that had occupied the building since 1972.