Phoenix has filed a lawsuit over the housing component of the Tempe Entertainment District, which includes an arena for the Arizona Coyotes.

“The Phoenix Aviation Department does not object to a sports arena, restaurants, shops and other compatible uses related to the proposed Tempe Entertainment District," Chad Makovsky, Phoenix director of aviation services, said Tuesday, March, 28.

“Today's action is about ensuring Tempe lives up to its commitments to protecting our state's largest economic engine – Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport, the more than 57,000 employees and 44 million annual travelers who depend on the airport, and the communities surrounding the airport who depend on the long-standing agreement between our two cities."

The Tempe Entertainment District is planned for 46 acres on city-owned land west of Town Lake.

Tempe voters are to vote during a special election on May 16 whether to move the project forward.

Phoenix officials said in a release they have worked with Tempe for more than a year to resolve a dispute “over planned residential developments in a high-noise corridor directly under” the airport’s flight path.

Phoenix is suing Tempe in Maricopa County Superior Court for breach of contract and is asking the court to rescind Tempe’s recent zoning and land-use changes. It wants to “prohibit future residential uses in an area that the Federal Aviation Administration says is incompatible with residential development,” the release stated.

Tempe Wins, a group that supports the project, sent a release to media outlets, stating the Phoenix complaint "represents new heights of hypocrisy, citing sports venues and residential areas in dowtown and near the airport.

Phoenix officials said the city has tried “numerous times” over the past year to resolve disagreements with Tempe and avoid litigation.

“After more than a year of meetings and negotiations, we are disappointed that these efforts did not resolve the dispute." Makovsky said.

“Of course, Phoenix remains open, even during this litigation, to a solution.

We’d like to invite our readers to submit their civil comments, pro or con, on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org.