The battle over the 1,895 apartments security technology maker Axon plans to build as part of its new world headquarters in north Scottsdale may not be over yet.
The Arizona Senate passed Senate Bill 1543 April 15, which empowers the company to build the controversial apartments, and Gov. Katie Hobbs signed it into law three days later.
Specifically, the new law requires cities ranging in population of 200,000 to 500,000 to allow hotels and multi-family housing in areas zoned for light industrial use without a zoning hearing as long as it is located on a property that would contain an international headquarters.
That allows Axon to build all parts of its planned campus, thus keeping the company in Scottsdale.
But opponents of the new law say they are prepared to fight the new law in the courts.
Bob Littlefield, former Scottsdale City Councilman and founder of the Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions political action committee, is promising a lawsuit against the bill but wouldn’t say how fast it may come.
“I don’t want to reveal too much of our strategy to the other side but this thing doesn’t take effect until 90 days after the close of business at the Legislature, which is not exactly happening in a timely manner, so we have time,” said Littlefield, who is also the husband of current City Councilwoman Kathy Littlefield.
He also wouldn’t say on what grounds a lawsuit might be filed.
“We have lots of options right now, we’re just going to pick what we think is most effective,” Bob Littlefield said. “Basically we believe, our legal people believe, that there are several provisions of this bill that are unconstitutional.”
The past Scottsdale City Council approved Axon’s zoning request to allow the apartments in December. However, Bob Littlefield formed his PAC to fight the rezoning and force it to a referendum the very next day. He ultimately garnered over 26,000 signatures to force the referendum, which would have likely occurred in November 2026 because no one on the new city council had an appetite to spend taxpayer money on moving up the election sooner.
However, Axon founder and CEO Rick Smith has said he would not wait until November 2026 to settle the issue and would move the company out of state, probably to either Texas or Florida, and sought help from the Legislature for a quicker resolution.
Axon leaders originally threw their support behind Senate Bill 1352, which would have turned municipal and county rezoning actions into administrative moves rather then legislative ones, meaning they would not be subject to referendums, but when that ran into headwinds, they supported a strike everything amendment for Senate Bill 1543 and added the new language.
Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowsky did not return a call for comment for this story; however, she posted on X April 19 that she was disappointed Gov. Hobbs would sign the bill without first discussing it with any representatives from the City of Scottsdale.
“The city is evaluating all legal remedies in response,” she posted.
“We must protect the character of our community and our voters’ right to the legally obtained referendum process,” she continued.
In the meantime, Scottsdale City Councilman Barry Graham has also sworn, “the fight is not over.
“We’re looking at every legal option to protect Scottsdale residents and
Arizona from special legislation overreach that suppresses their voting rights,” Graham said in a text to the Daily Independent.
He could not name on what grounds a suit would be filed either.
“(It’s) premature to say, but likely multiple ones,” he said.
Axon leaders did not comment on all of the promises for lawsuits.
They want to build a new world headquarters campus on 76 acres near N. Hayden Road and the Loop 101, which would include a 401,085-square-foot world headquarters, condominiums, five five-story retail buildings, one three-story retail building and a 435-key hotel. It would also have seven restaurants on site.
The new campus is expected to create 5,500 new jobs with an average starting salary of $135,000. The campus is predicted to have a $3.5 billion annual economic impact on the area.
But the final piece of the campus is the apartments (which Axon originally proposed at 2,500 before negotiating down with Scottsdale leaders and area residents), and while many say they want Axon to stay, they don’t want the apartments.
Not everyone wants a legal fight with Axon though.
In an email to the Daily Independent, Scottsdale resident Jason Alexander is urging the city to accept the legislation and move on.
“The City has not sued the state over multiple issues of state law superseding city law with far greater negative impact - specifically, over short term rentals and (accessory dwelling units),” Alexander said.
“The City has approved Axon,” he continued. “Suing to stop a project we already approved tells investors again that they can not trust the business environment in our city and they should not do business with us.
“Finally, this council had an opportunity to avoid SB1543 entirely by putting Axon on the ballot in 2025. The Council refused to spend taxpayers dollars then, so why waste the dollars now? I’m certain this bill was carefully crafted to pass legal challenges.”
Other than the constitutionality of the bill, there will be other legal issues to hammer out. On of those is whether or not the city’s development agreement, which calls for Scottsdale to build certain infrastructure projects, such as roads, for the new campus.
“While the legislation anticipates development agreements needing to be modified, the city attorney’s office would need to evaluate how this does or doesn’t apply to this specific agreement,” Scottsdale spokeswoman Holly Peralta said in an email to the Daily Independent.
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