By J. Graber
Mail | X: @AzNewsmedia

Scottsdale Mayor Lisa Borowsky told a crowd of about 200 people who attended her first town hall meeting May 29 she wants a new parking study done before the city puts up any more new parking garages in Old Town.

“I hope we are going to research the need for parking in Old Town,” Borowsky said. “A lot of people think we need parking. The last parking study, we discovered, was in 2015, which preceded ride share and many other options that people have today. I, for one, would like to see an updated parking study before we do a lot more of building any parking garages moving forward because we have outdated material.”

The comment was made in response to a question about when city manager Greg Caton plans to finish a study of the citizens’ petition requesting the mayor be given more time to find a new location for the future garage earmarked for First Street and Brown Avenue.

The city had planned to do a parking study in 2024, but that was called off because the cost was deemed at the time to be too prohibitive.

Then, after considerable public debate, the previous city council approved the location of the parking garage in July 2024, but from the beginning the location had its critics.

Then-mayor David Ortega immediately bemoaned a “monstrosity” going up right in front of the Old Spanish Mission, while others cried foul because the location is exactly where the Scottsdale Farmers Market is located.

Borowsky, who took office in January, then asked the council during its Feb. 11 meeting to hold off on approving a $1.6 million design contract with Chasse Building Team for 30 days so she could possibly find a new location, but that was denied by a 5-2 vote.

Citizens then spoke against the location of the garage during the council’s March 18 meeting, and a group of citizens presented the council during its May 20 meeting a petition with several thousand signatures on it asking the council to give Borowsky the 30 days she requested in order to find a different location. However, rather than agendizing the request, the council remitted the request to Caton to come up with a report on the petition at an unspecified date in the future.

Many at the May 29 town hall meeting were upset with the whole situation.
One woman in the crowd said she got an email from one of the city council members claiming 70% of Scottsdale’s voters supported the location of the garage but after she researched it, the raw number was about 200 who supported it.

“That’s not 70%,” she said to a chuckle from many in the room.

Roughly 70% of the voters in the 2019 bond election, which contained money for the garage, approved the request.

The woman said there are thousands of residents opposing the garage and asked Borowsky what she could do to be sure they were heard.

“I have been up to bat three times on this issue and unfortunately struck out so I will continue to do everything I can,” Borowsky said. “Personally after that last council meeting, it was so different, the experience reported by other council members in terms of feedback that I actually had a member of my staff go back and count through the emails I received pro and con. We had 92 emails against (the garage) and two for it. I don’t know why the disparity is there in the input from residents, but I have not met one person who is for the garage.”

Please send your comments to AzOpinions@iniusa.org. We are committed to publishing a wide variety of reader opinions, as long as they meet our Civility Guidelines. J. Graber can be reached at jgraber@iniusa.org.