Tempe has filed a request for the Arizona Supreme Court to review a recent appeals court decision that would allow the fate of a $1.8 billion lakeside development to go before voters.

South Pier, a multi-use development, would be built on 12 acres on the south shore of Tempe Town Lake east of Rural Road. It would include seven buildings built in phases over 15 years, as well as an observation wheel, pedestrian bridge and public dock.

According to the city, the developer will pay the city market value for its land and has pledged to contribute approximately $10.1 million to off-site affordable housing in Tempe.

The city council unanimously approved the Development and Disposition Agreement one year ago.

However, a citizens’ group – Central Arizonans for a Sustainable Economy - collected signatures attempting to put the project on a ballot for voters to decide.

CASE contends the project lacked sufficient affordable housing, and Tempe residents did not have enough involvement in the process.

“Tempe declined to process the petition signatures because the city maintains the ordinance is not legislative in nature and therefore not referable to the ballot for a public vote,” city officials said in a release.

A lower court ruling on the matter led to the city and CASE seeking a decision from appellate judges, who recently said the matter could be presented to voters.

The appellate court stated the form of the advocacy group’s referendum petitions satisfied state law, and that the council’s DDA approval is able to be referred to the ballot for voter ratification or rejection.

Tempe announced Friday, Feb. 3, it would ask the Arizona Supreme Court to review the matter. The review request puts on hold the processing of petition signatures, city officials said.

Tempe Mayor Corey Woods said that the South Pier agreement provided “unprecedented public benefits to the city” in exchange for a government property lease excise tax abatement on the property.

Among the benefits, the city said, are: $10.1 million to the Tempe Coalition for Affordable Housing, which buys and builds permanently affordable housing in the city as part of Tempe’s Hometown for All Initiative; $2.5 million to the city’s transit fund; $250,000 for education; a fully developer-paid public pier valued at $10 million; and $2 million toward the construction of a public pedestrian bridge.

“The South Pier agreement was meticulously constructed to provide genuine public benefits to the city,” Woods said.

“Besides being an exciting asset to the people who live and work there, and to the wider community, it represents a tremendous opportunity for Tempe to make even more headway in building new places for people of all incomes to live and be part of our community,” Woods said.

“Through this development agreement, we would have the ability to secure many permanently affordable units within the city. That is transformative, sustainable progress.”

South Pier, however, is not an area where that type of housing would be built.

The land has two “sizeable annual assessments” that must be paid by property owners in order to contribute to maintaining Town Lake and surrounding park areas, city officials said.

“In similar Town Lake-area developments, those assessments are most often passed on by property owners to residential owners and renters, office renters and others on those properties,” the release stated. “This fact means that affordable units on the site are implausible, because of the burden the additional expense would place on residents within the affordable units.”

Woods cited the city’s recent $10.7 million purchase of the former Food City plaza on Apache Boulevard as an example of where Tempe is heading with affordable housing.

The plaza land, in combination with two neighboring parcels, is projected to include up to 400 units of mixed-income housing with an “affordable grocery store,” the city release stated, adding the housing would include affordable units that would be kept permanently affordable.