Axon’s plans for a major expansion to its planned corporate campus in north Scottsdale have hit a snag after an email from an anonymous whistleblower cast doubts on the plan’s legality.
Axon has a development agreement in place with the City of Scottsdale, and it looked as though the plan, which included more than 2,500 multifamily units, a hotel and retail space, would proceed in a fairly straightforward manner.
A rezoning request was scheduled to go before the Airport Advisory Commission on Sept. 20 but was removed from the agenda following a warning from the City Attorney after receiving the whistleblower complaint.
The whistleblower’s identity has not been made public, but he identifies himself as being a rival in real estate development marketing. The email claims Axon is attempting to circumvent the Arizona State Land Department process and “cheat the K-12 public education out of $125M and probably much more.”
The state constitution requires money from land purchases from the State Land Department to fund state functions, most notably K-12 education. Axon purchased 74 acres near Hayden and Loop 101 for its planned site.
The email noted an intergovernmental agreement between Scottsdale and the state, which was signed before Axon’s purchase, that stipulates residential land use is prohibited. Both the IGA and other documents apparently make note of this several times.
The message said, “This re-zoning request (sic) is ILLEGAL and should NOT even be (sic) processed by the City of Scottsdale as they agreed in a legally binding IGA not to do so.”
After receiving and reviewing the message, City Attorney Sherry Scott warned City Council and other officials that the allegation appeared to be valid and that ASLD would have to agree to amend the development agreement before the Axon rezoning request could be processed and finalized. At the time Scott sent her notice, she had not heard from ASLD.
Axon’s property is part of Crossroads East within the Scottsdale Airpark Area. Scottsdale and Arizona signed the Crossroads East Development Plan Amendment in 2018 to guide development on the then-ASLD property. Axon’s site appears to be prohibited from master-planned mixed-use development and from regional business and residential uses. It is zoned only for industrial or office.
Axon and Scottsdale entered into a $9.4M infrastructure reimbursement agreement in August 2020 to incentivize the company to remain in the city. Axon is required to build a minimum of 250KSF of commercial or manufacturing space and a payroll of at least $130M for any 12-month period within five years of the land auction.
Axon’s plan calls for a new corporate headquarters of approximately 400KSF, separate from the plan for the hotel, commercial and multifamily components. (Source)
