Scottsdale readies new focus to bring General Plan update before voters

Our existing General Plan was adopted by council in 2001 and ratified by voters in 2002. Our first attempt at updating our General Plan was at the 10-year market --- council did adopt that plan, but it was not ratified by voters in 2012.”

Long Range Planning Director Erin Perreault

By Melissa Rosequist
Twitter: @mrosequist_

City officials are starting the municipal process for a General Plan election update in November 2021, which will mark nearly 20 years since an encompassing plan for Scottsdale has been approved by voters.

On Nov. 12, Scottsdale City Council unanimously approved a resolution adopting a non-major amendment to the city’s General Plan 2001 to add state-statute-required content for continued compliance with Arizona Revised Statues.

The action is Phase 1 of a two-phased General Plan update process. The second phase will begin in 2020 with a complete plan update via a citizen advisory committee, a city staff report states. The target election date for Phase 2 voter ratification of an updated plan is November 2021.

Since previous attempts to update the General Plan have been denied at the ballot, Scottsdale is still operating under its 2001 guide.

Long Range Planning Director Erin Perreault gave Scottsdale City Council a presentation prior to its unanimous vote. Ms. Perreault explained the proposed two-phase action has been presented to the community, and unanimously approved by Planning Commission.

“Arizona requires communities to have a General Plan and have specific content in that plan. They are effective for up to 10 years, at which time they are required to be updated,” Ms. Perreault said.

“Our existing General Plan was adopted by council in 2001 and ratified by voters in 2002. Our first attempt at updating our General Plan was at the 10-year market --- council did adopt that plan, but it was not ratified by voters in 2012.”

Ms. Perreault did not go into details about what prevented voters from approving the plan, but she did say Scottsdale wasn’t the only city to deny a General Plan update.

A third attempt to update the General Plan followed, but was not adopted by council or brought to voters for approval.

The state-required content to add to the General Plan 2001 includes a “Conservation, Rehabilitation and Redevelopment” element, a “Neighborhood Preservation and Revitalization” element, an energy element, a bicycling element and updated demographics, mapping and graphics content.

“When looking at adding these two new elements, we discovered from a staff standpoint that we should be looking at possibly re-doing our neighborhoods element completely because there’s neighborhood content in the new element being proposed, and an existing element we already have,” she said. “There would be a lot of redundancy.”

In addition, city staff looked at the state requirement for having a separate bicycle element.

“We do not have a separate bicycling element and certainly bicycling has become very important to this community,” she explained.

There have also been other updates, which the council has approved since 2001, that need to be added to the General Plan as well. Ms. Perreault says elements staff are proposing to add were created by a former task force in years past while attempting to create a new General Plan --- one that never came to fruition.

“The reason we’re not re-creating the wheel here is because that was a citizen task force that created that content,” she said. “Not only did 25 [task force] members create it, but we took it out citywide and vetted it with the community, and vetted it with all boards and commissions at that time.”

Overall, the proposal includes removing existing neighborhoods content that was in the 2001 plan, and replace it with both state statute-required elements that were drafted during a 2035 General Plan process; a new energy element; and a standalone bicycling element.

“What we’re not proposing is to touch anything else in the 2001 General Plan in particular; we’re not proposing to touch the land-use matrix --- it’s important to a lot of community members, which determines how we do major and non-major amendment processes.”

While presenting the updating information out in the community, Ms. Perreault says there were two misconceptions staff heard: Having a two-phased approach to avoid a public vote; and operating without a General Plan.

“...Which isn’t the case. Per state statute, we’re supposed to operate under the existing General Plan until we have a new one in place,” she said.

The current General Plan

Scottsdale’s General Plan was adopted in 2001 and ratified by voters in 2002.

The plan defines the community’s goals for growth, development, character, mobility and a variety of other community aspects.

In March 2012, after three years of public input, the Scottsdale City Council sent an updated 2011 General Plan to the voters. However, the measure was defeated 52% to 48% and thus, the 2001 General Plan remains in effect until the city adopts and ratifies a new plan.

In January 2013, the City Council again provided staff with direction on the public outreach, drafting and adoption/ratification timing associated with the process to update the Scottsdale General Plan, the city staff report states.

Council unanimously directed staff to establish a citizen task force to oversee the drafting of a new plan.

Following a task force drafting a new plan, and various council study sessions, City Council discussed community, board and commission comments received about the draft 2035 plan.

Council then directed staff to continue public discussions to identify potential compromises to the plan that would be brought back for review.

Public outreach on the draft plan continued through January 2016, and a number of less substantive changes, along with larger, more substantive changes to the plan were suggested at a small, citizen group meeting.

During the fall of 2016, public input was collected regarding changes to the Rural Neighborhood land use category, however, ultimately the City Council did not support the suggested changes.

Staff was directed to bring back an updated 2001 General Plan that incorporates all state mandated content, any necessary changes to the plan to update it to existing community conditions and the community-created Art and Culture Element created as part of the General Plan 2035 process.