Desert Hills is named after the foothills situated in the area, such as those found in
Cave Creek Regional Park and the
Phoenix Sonoran Preserve, which are directly adjacent to the community. The modern community of Desert Hills began to take shape in 1955, when a
land development corporation purchased 4,280 acres of the Sam Joy Ranch approximately 16 miles north of the
Phoenix city limit and subdivided it into 10 acre lots for sale. In 2017, residents formed a committee to investigate the feasibility of making Desert Hills and the neighboring community of
New River into an incorporated
municipality. A campaign supporting such an incorporation aimed to collect the signatures of ten percent of the community's registered voters needed to force a ballot measure in November 2019. The
Arizona State Land Department expressed opposition to the incorporation effort in April 2019, noting that nearly half of the land which would make up the proposed municipality was
state trust land and expressing a concern that the proposed municipality would not be able to independently provide necessary municipal services. In June 2019, it was reported that the campaign had failed to win the necessary approval of the City of Phoenix to permit a vote on the issue of incorporation. In 2024, the Arizona State Land Department's plan to auction 6,400 acres of state trust land in Desert Hills became a topic of debate during Town Council elections in neighboring
Cave Creek, with some candidates expressing concerns that new development in the area would increase strain on the Desert Hills aquifer. A referendum to purchase and append the area into a protected municipal park in Cave Creek was proposed to safeguard the aquifer. ==Geography==