Today, the Scottsdale City Council will be at a crossroads with a critical vote; it will decide if it will proceed with litigation against newly-created state law that stole our ability to determine our own fates.
You may remember how Axon decided to circumvent your desire and the desires of the over 25,000 voters who wanted to bring their apartment megacomplex plans to a public vote. As a further reminder, in its desire to shoehorn its plans into the city however it could, it lobbied state lawmakers to take away your ability to bring any gargantuan, inappropriate, ugly, or otherwise undesired project to a public vote.
So now, lawmakers will be deciding whether or not they want to fight for your rights…for your ability to decide your own fates instead of allowing corporations to decide your fate for you. So let’s take a look at what a lack of a fight might mean for them, because extensive polling on Axon’s plans has been done in the not-so-distant past.
So what did the polling say?
- 2% of respondents oppose the proposed zoning change to enable Axon’s hotel, restaurants, and large apartment complex—more than double the support at 29.1%
- 6% are strongly opposed, indicating a deep and committed level of dissent among nearly half of the voters
- Amongst the most dominant and important voting bloc in Scottsdale, Republicans over age 55, opposition intensifies; 74.5% are strongly opposed, compared to just 15.7% who are strongly in favor.
- The share of undecided or neutral respondents is only 5.6%, meaning that voters know exactly how they feel about this subject
- When presented with the most robust arguments from each side of the argument, 62.3% said that the anti-apartment megacomplex statement aligned with their views
- When asked to consider the number of apartments built in Scottsdale in recent years, 59% of voters believed that there has been too much new apartment construction, while only 8% thought that there has been too little (and Axon’s plans would make for the biggest apartment complex by new units IN STATE HISTORY)
In the recent past Scottsdale voters have used the referendum process to upend 15-story buildings in Old Town and unwanted buildings in the McDowell Sonoran Preserve. For any councilmember not to sue and protect those constitutional rights now would be sickening…all for the sake of the largest apartment complex in city and state history.
Rarely have decisions been so cut and dry. Choose wisely, city councilors.