The term was coined by architect Paolo Soleri, who posited that a completed arcology would provide
space for a variety of residential, commercial, and agricultural facilities while minimizing individual human environmental impact.
Belmont is not the first"smart city" project in Arizona, where Arcosanti, a community of artists and professionals who merge architecture and ecology in a project, is located in
the middle of the desert experimental created decades ago by the Italian Paulo Soleri.