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Scottsdale has approved Axon's plan for housing and restaurants. Some residents aren't happy with it

Axon’s headquarters in Scottsdale
Axon
Axon’s headquarters in Scottsdale

The Scottsdale City Council has approved a development plan for Axon. The Taser maker wants to build a new headquarters in north Scottsdale, but the project would also include housing, a hotel and restaurants. It’s been controversial, with some residents expressing concern about traffic and density, among other worries.

Corina Vanek, a development reporter at The Arizona Republic, joined The Show to talk about the project and the opposition to it is.

Full conversation

MARK BRODIE: Corina, good morning.

CORINA VANEK: Good morning. Thanks for having me.

BRODIE: Thanks for being here. So what exactly does this development plan entail?

VANEK: So you did a good job summing it up. It includes Axon's world headquarters, as well as the more controversial part, which is about 1,900 apartments, about 425 hotel rooms, and 7 restaurants. The real crux of the controversy was those apartments.

BRODIE: Why does Axon want all of that other stuff right next to its headquarters?

VANEK: Good question. So when I spoke with the CEO Rick Smith, he pointed to a lot of other companies and cities around the country about wanting to have kind of synergy around their campuses, giving their employees options to live near where they work, giving people a place to stay if they come to Axon for a conference or for a meeting. They can stay close to the campus. They don't have to get an Uber and places for employees to eat before, after or during lunch so that they can easily walk to.

BRODIE: OK, so this plan, as I mentioned, was controversial, and it was even more controversial before some changes made, right? Like what, what did Axon originally want to do and how has that been kind of scaled back?

VANEK: Exactly. So the major scale that came on the apartment side, there were, at first, about 2,400 apartments proposed in there, but that does account for a change that was made. Now it's about 1,900, but there is another 365 units that will be for-sale condos. So the unit count didn't drop completely that much. There was a change to be some of these units to be for sale instead of for rent.

BRODIE: But it seems like at least for some residents, the changes didn't really placate them, right? Like it sounds like there was still a decent amount of anger and frustration and consternation when the City Council approved this.

VANEK: There absolutely was. And for some residents, they did acknowledge they liked the changes, they appreciated some effort, but that it really didn't get to what they had been asking for. And the major thing that they had been asking for was a very large reduction in density. When I spoke to the HOA president for the HOA that's next to the site, she was asking for 500 apartments compared to almost 2,000 that they're actually proposing.

BRODIE: Yeah, that's a really big difference of opinion there.

VANEK: Yes, and so it's safe to say that even with the change to the plan, there wasn't a meeting of the minds there.

BRODIE: OK, so one of the other things that some residents were complaining about is the fact that this was approved when it was, meaning that it's just a couple of months before a new City Council will be taking office, one that presumably will be maybe less enthusiastic about projects like this. Is that a fair assessment?

VANEK: Yes, definitely a fair assessment, and I think it's, it's really telling that you do have a future council member who is going to take her seat in January, speaking at the meeting, saying that residents had talked to her asking her how she could stop apartments when she doesn't get a vote in something like this, which comes right before her term will begin.

BRODIE: What, like what do residents say, maybe they didn't say much to you about this, but I'm curious what, you know, obviously the valley has a shortage of housing. What did residents say about how they think Scottsdale can build new places for people to live when they have concerns about apartments? They have concerns about density, that kind of thing.

VANEK: They have a lot of concerns about density in apartments, and I would say generally and trying not to paint with a broad brush, but there is a very anti-apartment sentiment. You can see that in the election results for the Scottsdale City Council. Like I said, the HOA president of the neighboring HOA did say they could deal with some apartments, just about a quarter of the amount proposed.

So I think that maybe there is some acknowledgement that we could find a place with, you know, lower density, there could be some kind of happy medium there, but certainly not to the degree that's been proposed here.

BRODIE: OK, so what is the timeline now? Like when will ground be broken? When might all this stuff be built?

VANEK: So obviously with the approval yesterday, they're OK to start moving ahead with some things. They have agreed to a phasing plan that will start with the Axon World headquarters, the actual commercial building where Axon will be based. And that first phase will also include the hotel and about 230 of the apartment units.

The second phase, which would begin in 2027, would be the condo units and another 260 apartment units. And then there'd be two more phases in 2028 and 2029 to bring about the remaining apartment units and those restaurants.

BRODIE: Is it possible that given the new City Council that some of those later phases might be adjusted or not happen?

VANEK: Adjusted could be possible. The zoning decision made by a council is a legal agreement, so without a major, major change in something that Axon is proposing, it wouldn't be very possible for a council to go back and reverse a decision, a decision by a previous council. There is a, you know, a legal sentiment to that.

But It's common for these proposals that happen in phases to have to go back through like a design review process, or the permitting process with the city. So it's possible then that there could be some tweaks or some asks that happened throughout those years as things progress and change that could maybe not significantly change the project, but they could change it, particularly on a design or a scheduling look.

KJZZ's The Show transcripts are created on deadline. This text is edited for length and clarity, and may not be in its final form. The authoritative record of KJZZ's programming is the audio record.

Mark Brodie is a co-host of The Show, KJZZ’s locally produced news magazine. Since starting at KJZZ in 2002, Brodie has been a host, reporter and producer, including several years covering the Arizona Legislature, based at the Capitol.
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