TAAAZE Preparing New Lawsuit To Fight Outrageous Scottsdale Approval Of 1,200 Unit Multi-Family Housing Project
(SCOTTSDALE, Ariz) TAAAZE (Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions) has sent a demand letter to the City of Scottsdale, a first step toward likely litigation challenging a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between Axon and the City of Scottsdale purporting to allow Axon to build a 1,200-unit housing project near Hayden and the 101 in Scottsdale.
TAAAZE’s legal team at Coppersmith Brockelman PLC believes the MOU is illegal and invalid. The demand letter sent to the city on December 8th states in part:
“The MOU is just the latest in Axon’s ongoing effort to railroad this unwanted project over public opposition through anti-democratic, backdoor dealing.”
In a 4 to 3 vote, the Scottsdale City Council approved the MOU as an administrative act to bypass a possible challenge at the ballot box and the public hearings required before enacting a zoning ordinance.
The demand letter claims the council’s decision cannot be classified as an administrative act, and “a brief review of many of the MOU’s own provisions makes clear that they are indeed legislative and can only be enacted via zoning ordinance.”
TAAAZE is still pursuing a lawsuit against Senate Bill1543 also known as the “Axon Bill” which requires cities of a certain size to approve residential projects on “international headquarters.” It’s a bill designed for Axon and Axon alone. If TAAAZE succeeds in that litigation, it would also have the effect of invalidating the MOU.
In December 2024 TAAAZE submitted nearly 27 thousand signatures to challenge a previous lame duck council decision to approve nearly 1,900 apartments.
The Demand Letter says the whole process under which the City Council approved the MOU earlier this year was horribly flawed, and that “we shouldn’t lose sight of how it came to be approved, with the Mayor calling a recess of a public meeting to have a private conversation with Axon’s representative (who told TAAAZE’s attorney to “[g]et the (expletive) out of here,” no less) before announcing that a deal had been reached.”
TAAAZE Chairman and former Scottsdale City Councilman Bob Littlefield said, “Axon has engaged in backroom dealing, bullying, and buying influence. We are not going to let them get away with it and hopefully the courts will agree.”
To learn more about TAAAZE go to www.ProtectOurScottsdale.com