Photo Source: City of Scottsdale YouTube channel
Mayor Dave Ortega recently had his State of the City address, done via Zoom and available for viewing on YouTube. Generally an avenue to brag about accomplishments and talk about initiatives for the future, it’s often a way to get insight into the priorities of the Mayor. So how about this one? For those who don’t want to watch the Mayor for half an hour, we’ve got you covered.
Much of the address was dedicated to defining what the city is, with the refrain that the Mayor came back to about a dozen times, “That’s who we are”. Collaborative if a bit folksy, a positive front contrasted against some behind-the-scenes tension on Council. Indeed, the vast majority of the address was positive by nature.
There were the typical floutings of success that are normal with every “State of the” address around the nation. Ortega announced that “we’re all past ready to be done with Covid” and essentially announced the end of Covid. While he certainly didn’t stop the virus himself, his leadership during the pandemic struck a good balance between too cautious and too reckless. Of course, there was also the mention of the anti-discrimination ordinance passed through Council, as well as the successful passing of the Scottsdale General Plan 2035, both the types of wins that are perfect fodder for “State of” addresses.
There were indications of what issues will be important in the future. The one that stuck out to us was water conservation, indicating that future cuts will likely be inevitable going forward. There was also the announcement of the Scottsdale Civic Center unveil, which will be showcased in the next SotC address and will include an amphitheater and looks as though it will be rather impressive.
However, the 1,000 pound elephant in the room is development, which the Mayor addressed at length. He started out by saying that “citing extremes is not constructive”; although some would consider him to be at one extreme, but we agree with his statement in theory. He called out an Arizona Multifamily Association proposal last year for over 50,000 new units in Scottsdale (and tied the water issue into that anecdote); while it’s easy to see that as extreme, many of the proposed developments in the city don’t come close to that. Regarding the proposed bill in the state legislature that would strip away zoning rights for cities, he said that he would “vigorously fight any bill that circumvents local control”.
In a notable signal to future developers, he mentioned that 25 units per acre is now considered “high density” as per the Scottsdale General Plan, which he said “must be respected”. In a more ambiguous statement related to development and the Old Town Character Plan, he said that he would be “sensitive to adjusting gradual height transitions and reducing or eliminating bonuses”.
So as per normal, this State of the City address was like many others, with a significant amount of touting successes and a few future priorities. That said, there were a few nuggets of insight as to the future of development in Scottsdale, and it will be worth it for developers to take note if they will be lobbying for his vote going forward.