> with retail and industrial zones to provide employment.
That's the real trick. Building a new community is a two sided market: you either have to convince companies to go there without a local labor supply or people to go there without jobs.
Historically it's been both simultaneously. People decide to settle somewhere, open up a farm or retail business or perhaps a manufacturing operation to service others who have moved there, and it snowballs.
But as others point out, water may be the limiting factor. I have to believe, though, that there are vast swatches of the country that are close by to rivers or other water supplies, that are economically feasible to settle, and there should be a way to get these going, perhaps by unlocking federal land, selling it cheaply to low income folks (many of whom will turn around and sell it to real estate sharks for a quick buck, but perhaps enough will actually want to live there).
That's the real trick. Building a new community is a two sided market: you either have to convince companies to go there without a local labor supply or people to go there without jobs.