By Roland Murphy for AZBEX
Scottsdale City Council delivered a mixed – but generally not surprising – bag of results for three highly publicized multifamily projects up for consideration at its Dec. 7 meeting.
The projects up for review were 94 Hundred Shea – The Village, Mercado Courtyards and 3202 Scottsdale (also known as Scottsdale 3200 North).
While 3202 Scottsdale managed to largely fly under the radar of opposition groups, the other two – both located adjacent to each other and near the HonorHealth Scottsdale Shea Medical Center – have been the targets of focused opposition and vitriol from both organized anti-development/anti-multifamily groups and their supporters on Council.
Standard complaints against all such projects include opposition to building heights and project density, potential traffic impacts, water infrastructure and supply concerns, and nebulous – but prominent – concerns about impacts to neighborhood and regional “character.”
Council did not have an opportunity to vote on Kaplan Management Company’s requests for a Minor General Plan Amendment and rezoning for 94 Hundred Shea, as the item was pulled from the agenda before the meeting.
Mercado Courtyards
Originally known as 92 Ironwood, Caliber Companies’ proposal for Mercado Courtyards has drawn significant opposition since its initial proposal was submitted. Multiple revisions and concessions had not satisfied opponents, and the request for a Minor General Plan Amendment and rezoning was denied on a 5-2 vote.
Forty-three people addressed Council concerning the project at the meeting, with 15 supporting and 28 opposing. Statements of support were also provided by HonorHealth and the Arizona Nurses Association.
In its report on the meeting, Scottsdale Progress quoted one local resident who invoked the underlying spirit of “character” by saying, “This city was built on hard-working, law-abiding people who saved and invested and moved here like myself and others. They worked all their life to come here. “Now we’re going to water down the area with apartment after apartment after apartment … If we’re going to improve Scottsdale, we want to bring in people from all over who are going to buy and have ownership in this city. They’ll follow the rules and laws and more than that they’ll take care of their area.”
Supporters, however, largely made of people interested in taking advantage of Caliber’s planned concessions for essential workers like teachers and emergency responders, praised the project, Caliber’s focus on workforce-attainable housing and the potential to actually live in the community they serve. It was noted, both in the meeting and by multifamily panelists at the Dec. 1 Scottsdale State of the Market Bisnow event, that when people can live near their workplace, traffic impacts are actually lessened, rather than worsened. (AZBEX, Dec. 6)
The multifamily development would also generate less traffic than the commercial uses some opponents express as a preference. Vice Mayor Tom Durham made the observation in his statements regarding the project, saying housing near the hospital would reduce traffic and air pollution. Councilmember Linda Milhaven pointed out the apartment complex would create fewer trips than the allowed office use currently in place for the site.
At the Bisnow event, Caliber’s President Jennifer Schrader referred to the Mercado project as a “labor of love” for her and said she and the company are committed to making it happen in some form.
At the Council meeting, Caliber CEO Chris Loeffler made a similar statement, saying the company has invested $20M in the location and will, eventually, build something there.
Caliber’s concessions and workforce-focused plans for the property included lease discounts of 10% for medical staff, teachers and emergency services personnel, with application fees waived, a 5% cap on lease renewals and no limit as to how many residents could take advantage of the program. There would also have been a dedication of 10% of the units to senior residents.
To address water infrastructure and supply concerns – which have increasingly become a focus of opposition despite actual availability and the fact that multifamily developments are among the most efficient types of development in terms of water consumption – Caliber provided a stipulation that it would not pull permits for the project until it provided the City with 525 acre-feet of water.
According to the Progress report, Mayor David Ortega called the stipulation “pretty inadequate.”
Intimidation of supporters by opponents has become increasingly common, according to the Bisnow panel. At the Council meeting, Member Betty Janik, herself an opponent of the proposal, admonished project opponents for sending Council threatening letters and communications saying, “They provoke violence, and we don’t need any more of that.”
Milhaven asked if this project didn’t happen, then what would? She said the likely future if the project were denied would be either an ongoing vacant site or, eventually, another four-story office building.
3202 Scottsdale
After much debate, Council eventually unanimously approved a rezoning request for 3202 Scottsdale, a project that was originally proposed as a 135-unit development that will replace an existing RV park on Scottsdale Road between Drinkwater and Blvd. and Earll Drive. A 4KSF flex office component was included in the plan.
Discussion at the meeting echoed the differences brought up at the Bisnow event between Mayor Ortega’s view of necessary project components and that of the multifamily panelists including Councilmember Tammy Caputi.
Ortega has long espoused a need for accompanying commercial and retail components to accompany multifamily projects. Caputi and others point out that Scottsdale is already overserved in terms of retail and mandating additional retail space in development just leads to first-floor vacancy.
Both at Bisnow and the Council meeting, Ortega stated his opposition to projects that are “100% apartments.” Independent Newsmedia’s report on the 3202 discussions quoted the mayor as saying, “In my opinion, it’s not acceptable to have 100% apartments in Old Town Scottsdale, especially on Scottsdale Road.”
The article quoted Caputi as rebutting with, “I don’t understand why we try to put commercial uses where they don’t work. This idea is that we’re just going to check a box and force an applicant to put a coffee shop or a dry cleaner in their lobby because that’s what we say it should be, and the market is not asking for it. I think that makes sure that the project fails.”
Milhaven agreed, saying, “If the market doesn’t call for commercial mandating, it just means we’re going to wind up with an empty storefront, which isn’t good for anybody.”
To make the proposal more palatable, developer Desert Troon Companies provided a compromise, doubling the commercial area to 8KSF and reducing the unit count to 121.
The Independent Newsmedia article quoted property owner Dan Smith expressing his frustration with the process. “We’re doing this project because we think Scottsdale wants it,” he said. “I want everyone to be happy. But I also don’t want to go on and on and on. And when I hear this – even doubling – I’ll agree tonight to double it. Now I’ll have to find a use. I’m not sure what that will be.”
The unanimous vote to approve followed shortly after Smith’s comments.
