The Scottsdale City Council reluctantly passed ordinances on Monday to comply with new state housing laws, but they made tweaks to limit the effects of the legislation.
In 2023, the Legislature passed a handful of bipartisan housing bills into law.
One law requires a fraction of commercial and mixed use buildings be used for housing.
The other expands residents’ ability to build accessory dwelling units on their properties like casitas.
Now that it’s time for municipalities to implement the housing laws, there have been some snags in the process.
Opponents of the law like Councilmember Barry Graham say the laws violate local control.
“I think this is an attack. This legislation was an attack on communities like Scottsdale. And it's, you know, many of us up here have found it disturbing,” Vice Mayor Barry Graham said.
“This bill is probably my least favorite since 1487, and the short-term rental law. This is an assault on our local control and our neighborhoods,” Councilmember Solange Whitehead said — referring to the Legislature’s actions limiting municipalities’ ability to regulate short-term rentals like Airbnb and Vrbo.
“I hear from residents on a regular basis demanding further regulation of STR nuisance party houses. The new state law promoting ADUs, also allows for the proliferation for STRs in ADUs, which will result in amplifying STR challenges throughout Scottsdale. For this reason, I continue to advocate to limit the proliferation of these units in Scottsdale to the greatest extent possible,” Scottsdale Mayor David Ortega said in a text in late September.
On the other side; Republican Rep. Leo Biasiucci (R-Lake Havasu City) warned the city in a statement that it is violating the housing laws by making broad exceptions, limiting eligible buildings and tacking on extra criteria.
“HB2297 and HB2720 was legislation we introduced last session to help alleviate the housing crises in Arizona,” Biasiucci is quoted in the statement. “With the city’s passing of the ordinance, Scottsdale is now in violation of the laws passed in HB2297 and in HB2720. We are hopeful the City of Scottsdale will use the next 30 days to cure the violation.”
There seems to be some disagreement between Biasiucci and Scottsdale about how to interpret the “adaptive reuse law.” The language of the law says it requires “not more than 10%” of commercial and mixed use buildings to be used for housing.
Scottsdale mandated that only 1% of the building space go to housing, but Biasiucci said that’s a misinterpretation.
“The city has proposed limiting eligible buildings to 1% of commercial, office, or mixed-use structures for conversion to multifamily use. This contradicts the statute, which explicitly allows for 10% of buildings to qualify under the bill’s objective standards,” Biasiucci wrote in a letter to the City Council on Sunday.
