By Bob Littlefield
Axon’s Apartment Plans
Dear Friends:
At last night’s Scottsdale City Council meeting the pro-Axon majority – Mayor Borowsky and Councilmembers Kwasman, Whitehead and McAllen – totally sold out to Axon at the expense of Scottsdale residents. They gave Axon everything they wanted, and more!
Here are the highlights (I should say lowlights) of last night’s votes:
- Axon was gifted 600 and apartments and 600 condos (which can be turned into Short Term Rentals)
- Axon was relieved of some of the requirements to provide water for their development (I guess that drought thing is over, then?)
- Axon will be allowed to self-certify their compliance with applicable codes and standards, a privilege never before granted to any developer in Scottsdale’s history.
- Worst of all, residents will not get to vote on any of this! Your City Council majority has turned Axon into a city inside a city, and we will have no voice in what happens there!
There was an item on the last night’s agenda to have the city join the TAAAZE lawsuit to reverse the “Axon bill” which nullified the right of referendum for Scottsdale residents. Every time this item was voted on in the past it was defeated by the pro-Axon majority. Last night it passed, but with so many amendments it will never take effect. So don’t let Borowsky, Kwasman, Whitehead and McAllen gaslight you into believing they voted to have the city join the TAAAZE lawsuit – they didn’t! If we at TAAAZE win our lawsuit we can reverse some of last night’s bad decisions, which is no doubt why Borowsky and her allies attached so many poison pill conditions to the City’s participation in it.
TAAAZE is still committed to reversing the “Axon bill” and are exploring our legal options to do so, starting immediately. And I personally am 100% committed to that goal!
One irony here; in the last city election, every pro-apartment incumbent Councilmember who was up for re-election was dumped by the voters, and that was for voting for projects much smaller and less intense than this one! Something to consider when you cast your vote in the 2026 City Council election!
Former Councilman Bob Littlefield
Chairman, Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions (TAAAZE)