There is also one other sure-fire way to tell truth from spin --- if someone resorts to personal attacks and insults against their opponents you can be sure they know they cannot win the argument on the merits of their position.”
Bob Littlefield, Scottsdale resident and former City Councilman
By Bob Littlefield
On Dec. 4 the City Council majority, on a narrow 4-3 vote, approved the massive Southbridge II project in Old Town.
Immediately the surrounding merchants, whose businesses will be negatively impacted by this project, launched a petition drive to refer this approval to the ballot so this issue can be decided by Scottsdale voters.
I support this referendum effort. Southbridge II is too tall, too dense, has too little open space, encroaches on public space, and construction will make surrounding shops inaccessible to their customers for years, thus putting them out of business.
The opposition to the referendum drive has generated a lot of misinformation about the project. Personal insults and accusations of lying are flying like mosquitoes in summer. So, who is a concerned voter to believe?
One way to uncover the truth is to examine the official city documents regarding this project. All of them are available on the web for anyone to access.
So, let’s examine some of the claims made by the opponents of the petition drive and compare them to the corresponding official city documents.
The first bogus claim made by the opponents of the petition drive is that by unanimously approving the Old Town Area Character Plan on July 2, 2018 the City Council granted developers an automatic right to 150-foot building heights and other exemptions.
But if you go to the actual City Council report at https://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/Asset74949.aspx you will see that bonuses such as “increased floor area, greater density, greater height, transfer of development rights, and/or street/alley abandonment” are not automatic, they are only supposed to be granted in return for the developer adding extra public benefits to their project, which this project does not offer.
The truth about the details of this project can be found in the City Council report for this project, which can be viewed at https://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/Asset79974.aspx.
This is the legal document which spells out specifically what the City Council majority approved. Most revealing is the matrix on page 11 which details the extreme exceptions given to this project in the areas of building height maximum, density; minimum setback for buildings adjacent to public streets, except alleys, building location; and setback and stepback standards.
Even worse, the last paragraph on that page notes the project will increase traffic from 3,360 weekday daily trips to 8,414 weekday daily trips, an increase of 5,054 trips! Traffic in Scottsdale’s downtown is already bad, a 150% increase will only make it worse.
Another bogus claim is that the developer has a relocation plan for businesses which will be negatively impacted by the years of construction and street closures that both city staff and the developer admit would be required to complete this project.
But if you read the City Council report for this project no relocation plan is included.
The developer’s attorney did send a letter to the City Manager (which you can read at https://bit.ly/2rYsHW9) describing a supposed “Tenant Relocation and Support Plan” which in reality only gives some of the tenants the “option” to rent out retail spaces in the new buildings once they are built.
It does not address the time gap for the many years of construction (during which these businesses will be out of business), nor how much higher the new rents will be. Also, this proposal only covers some (not all) of the existing Southbridge tenants and none of the merchants in the surrounding area whose businesses will be negatively impacted (or even put out of business) by this project.
Even as weak as it is this “plan” is not legally binding because it was not stipulated in the City Council action that approved this project.
There is also one other sure-fire way to tell truth from spin --- if someone resorts to personal attacks and insults against their opponents you can be sure they know they cannot win the argument on the merits of their position.
Bottom line, this project is bad for Scottsdale. Please visit standupforoldtownscottsdale.com/ for more information and to find out how you can sign the referendum petition to put this issue in the hands of Scottsdale voters.
Editor’s Note: Bob Littlefield is a former three-term Scottsdale City Councilman. He can be reached by email at mailto:bob@boblittlefield.com.
