Save Scottsdale

27/04/2025

https://www.kjzz.org/the-show/2025-04-21/diaz-and-roberts-expect-a-lawsuit-over-axon-bill-it-usurps-the-arizona-constitution

The "Axon" bill requires cities within a certain population range to allow multifamily housing and hotels on land zoned for light industrial use if located within the campus of an international headquarters.

18/04/2025

https://youtu.be/Zb-oRkc1zUI?si=svANUrbLYneKnK7s

16/04/2025

Dear Friends:

Ever since Axon unveiled their proposal to force the biggest apartment project (1900 units) ever in Arizona on the residents of Scottsdale they have spared no expense in their effort to bypass the opposition of Scottsdale residents to their project. After they failed to defeat our referendum petition drive, they moved to lobbying the State Legislature to get what they want. My sources at the legislature told me Axon hired 7 lobbyists, and their CEO and many of his executives were down at the legislature most every day pushing their cause, including at expensive surf and turf dinners. Representative Joseph Chaplik (who has been a true champion for Scottsdale residents fighting this bad Axon bill) actually said publicly, on the House floor, “When we let them come in here and talk to every one of these members which, I will admit, three or four of them have come to me and said they were essentially offered campaign funds if they vote yes, for their next election, by the company. … I’ve never seen something so scandalous in my five years here.”



Unfortunately, Axon got what they paid for and the bill neutering the rights of Scottsdale citizens to challenge bad decisions of their City Council passed both the House and the Senate. As columnist Laurie Roberts sarcastically but accurately noted, "After all, how dare Scottsdale’s residents think their constitutional right to have the final say on a massive rezoning project should trump the right of a well-connected developer to build the state’s largest apartment complex? This, in a city that already is being overrun with apartments?"



All that stands in the way of this bad bill being approved is the signature of the Governor. It would be helpful if you would communicate your opposition to this bad bill to her; you can do so at https://azgovernor.gov/office-arizona-governor/form/contact-governor-hobbs….



Even if the Governor does sign this bill the fight is not over. Our lawyers are convinced this bill contains many unconstitutional provisions and we intend to challenge it in the courts if it ultimately becomes law. Buckle up, the wild ride is not over!



One big lesson we learned was that Scottsdale City government needs to seriously bulk up its Government Relations (aka lobbying) efforts (subtle hint to newly minted City Manager Caton). While TAAAZE jumped on this bad bill as soon as it was introduced, the City only became officially engaged about a week ago. Several legislators claimed this told them that Scottsdale city government really didn't care much about this issue and those legislators used that supposed apathy as an excuse to vote for this bad bill.



We can't let this happen again! This will not be the last time the state legislature attempts to override the power of Scottsdale citizens to control our own destiny (remember Short Term Rentals), and we must be better prepared to defend our rights in the future!



I do want to thank those individual politicians who worked hard to protect the rights of Scottsdale citizens. Legislators Joseph Chaplik, Alex Kolodin and John Kavanagh worked hard to defeat this bad bill. All of your Councilmembers except Solange Whitehead (who, of course, voted for the Axon apartments in the first place) and Maryann McAllen personally went down to the Legislature to lobby against this bad bill, as did City Manager Greg Caton.

Things are moving fast, but I will try to keep everyone updated.


Former Councilman Bob Littlefield
Chairman, Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions (T.A.A.Z.E.)

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27/12/2024

FYI - A $42.25 million Old Town Scottsdale building sale is ground zero for the next massive office redevelopment project from Phoenix-based developer George Oliver Cos.
The 165,220-square-foot building at 7272 E. Indian School Road was sold Dec. 17 to 7272 Indian School Owner LLC, an entity tied to Denver-based private equity firm Ascentris, according to Tempe-based real estate database Vizzda LLC. A joint venture between Ascentris and George Oliver has spent more than $76 million over the past few months to acquire six contiguous acres in Old Town Scottsdale.

23/12/2024

22/12/2024

Media Alert: Saturday December 21st 12:30pm Petition Signatures will be delivered to Scottsdale City Hall. 26,000 Signatures -City Clerk's office..

Residents To Submit Stunning Number Of Signatures To Put What Appears To Be The Largest Apartment Entitlement In Arizona History On The Ballot Despite Axon Bullying Tactics
(Scottsdale, Ariz.) On Saturday December 21st at 12:30pm Scottsdale residents will submit more than 26,000 petition signatures to put a massive, unwanted and unneeded apartment project near Hayden and the 101 to a public vote. Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions, or TAAAZE will hand in the signatures and be available for interviews at 12:30pm Saturday December 21st at Scottsdale City Hall located at 3939 N Drinkwater Blvd. They will be joined by elected leaders who oppose this outrageous project.

In November, Axon convinced a lame duck Scottsdale City Council to rezone Axon’s land near Hayden and the 101 to include nearly 1900 multifamily units, in addition to its previously approved headquarters.

TAAAZE launched a petition drive and in a matter of weeks collected 26,000 signatures, well above the 15,000 City of Scottsdale says is required. If Axon gets its way, this would be the largest multi-family project, in terms of units, in Arizona history.

TAAAZE is only opposed to the massive apartment project. It has no issues with Axon’s plans to build its corporate headquarters which had already been approved.
Throughout the process Axon has been using strong arm intimidation tactics to keep people from signing petitions. The company hired a legion of “Petition Blockers” who have been harassing signers and circulators.

Who: TAAAZE
What: More than 26 thousand petition signatures submitted opposing massive Axon apartment complex in Scottsdale
When: Saturday December 21st at 12:30pm
Where: Scottsdale City Hall 3939 N Drinkwater Blvd.

20/12/2024

Petitions will be delivered to the City Clerk on Saturday.

09/12/2024

A group in Scottsdale is circulating a petition to bring the rezoning for Axon's proposed headquarters complex to a public vote. The Axon complex will includ...

06/12/2024

AN OPEN LETTER TO AXON CEO RICK SMITH FROM FORMER SCOTTSDALE CITY COUNCILMAN BOB LITTLEFIELD

CHAIRMAN, Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions (TAAAZE)

Dear Mr. Smith:

As you are no doubt aware thousands of Scottsdale residents from conservatives to liberals have come together to put the recent Scottsdale City Council approval, awarding Axon the largest apartment complex in Scottsdale history, to a public vote. What you may not be aware is that as of today, the halfway point of the 30 day period the Arizona constitution provides for challenging decisions by government, we have collected over 12,000 signatures from Scottsdale residents! The enthusiasm for our petitions is off the charts and growing.

Of course this is despite your abhorrent tactics of paying blockers to discourage city voters from signing our petitions at various places in the city. As a publicly traded company has your general counsel signed off on these tactics? Is your Board of Directors aware of them? They range from some of our circulators needing to call the police to protect themselves, to ongoing harassment to even one incident, documented by a circulator, in which they were spat upon and slugged. Is this the Axon way? Are you proud of the company and consultants you are paying to conduct such an abuse of democracy?

While you are answering those questions I hope you will answer a few others too . . .

*How and why did your President call the employer of Scottsdale Planning Commissioner Christian Serena after he opposed your application earlier this year? Was it to encourage his firing as was reported in the media earlier this year? If so, and I believe that did take place, then it was just a precursor to the behavior we are seeing now.

*This is your own rendering of your 1,900 unit apartment complex. You are really going to have a barracks and prison motif for the largest apartment project in city history?

*Why are so many apartments needed in this area when about 5,000 are already approved or under construction within 3 miles of this site?

*Isn’t the real reason you are asking for so many apartments is because the cost overruns on your new “Star Wars” corporate headquarters require such an extraordinary entitlement to help pay for it?

*Why don’t you just build your corporate headquarters as you promised to do in 2020? As conveyed above there are and will be plenty of housing options for your employees.

*Why are you threatening to leave to Atlanta or Seattle if you don’t get your 1,900 apartments? Is that all Scottsdale is worth to you? A source for enrichment rather than appreciation? If you really love Scottsdale, drop the ridiculous amount of apartments this community does not want or need.

*Why do you threaten neighbors with an industrial use if you don’t get your way? Only you can cause that to happen. And by the way, your threats of selling your property to such a user are specious since those uses will almost certainly require new zoning approvals which the newly elected and resident-friendly city council will not be inclined to approve.

*When are you going to pay the Arizona State Land Department approximately $150 million that are entitled to since you either misled or lied to them when you bought state land several years ago WITHOUT apartments as part of the mix? As you may know apartments in north Phoenix and north Scottsdale are selling for about $80,000 per unit. By failing to do so you are shortchanging students of our public schools who are the beneficiaries when state lands is sold.

Besides your company’s abhorrent and unsuccessful efforts to thwart our democratic rights you owe this community many more answers. There are just too many troubling actions and questions right now.

Despite your recent surge in your stock price there are just some things you can’t buy. We are one of them.

After we qualify this matter for the ballot we will wage a campaign as equally as spirited. And you do know that when you challenge our signatures – good luck with that – there is a strong legal chance and opinion that we only need less than half the amount the city is currently telling us we need, don’t you? But that’s likely to be irrelevant because we are going to post a number that blows away any requirement and underscores how upset the citizenry is with the abusrd approval of your massive apartment scheme by a lame duck council.

Thank you for your attention to these matters. You will be hearing more from us prior to our signature deadline of December 21st.

Paid for by Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions, with 0% from out-of-state contributors. Not affiliated with any candidate or candidate’s agent.