By Laurie Coe, Scottsdale resident | Guest Commentary
An open house for an apartment project was held Monday evening outside in a parking lot. The thermostat in my car, parked under cover, was 115 degrees.
Would any normal person have a meeting outdoors in summer here?
I attended because I am opposed to any more apartment construction around Shea and 92nd Street.
Why was this allowed? We all know how many of us leave town during these hot months. Was it intended to discourage citizens from showing up?
“Is this city government so determined to force growth, density, congestion, heat island affects and all the other negatives of high density that they have forgotten why people moved here in the first place? The city of Scottsdale whether by design or by ignorance has a broken, cancer ridden, outreach process. This needs to be fixed.” Local business owner
We are at a crossroad election. There are only two candidates running who have proven track records of not kowtowing to manipulative developers. Kathy Littlefield and Barry Graham. Solange Whitehead is an incumbent who has rubber stamped every project outside of the boundaries in our city ordinances.
The entire state of Arizona is facing critical water shortages. Every candidate running for state office has addressed the fact that we live in a desert and our water resources are limited, how much should we have to beg our city council to stop adding more apartments into the pipeline of already over 10,000 units?
How much do we have to beg our elected officials to stop lying about height and density variances?
Residents of Scottsdale do not want to urbanize our sweet hometown, and yet the council allows open houses like Monday night’s to qualify for community outreach.
When you cast your ballot for city council, be careful of candidates that are relying on a political party for their support, bear in mind that issues regarding the growth of our city are not political.
The system is corrupt. Developers make more money building up and not out. Many developers are not local. They bring their plans to the City Planning and Zoning department. Once the city employees package the new project to make it somehow fit, they send it to the planning commission. This commission was created to bring citizen input regarding the variance. The commission then sends the project to the council for approval.
We recently had two openings on this commission, the council had some formidable applicants to consider, but they chose a person with marketing experience with Mayo, and the current city planner for Tempe. The council has shown zero respect for differing viewpoints and information.
Kathy Littlefield was the only councilmember to attend the open house on Monday. One member of the Planning Commission, Pam Carter and Barry Graham (both running for Council) also attended. Kathy tripped in the parking lot and was unable to get up off the parking lot ground. We had all gathered for a 5:30 meeting. By 5:45 p.m., paramedics arrived, and I was so hot I had to leave before the presentation.
The system in Scottsdale is clearly broken. Impugning the character of people for not wanting Scottsdale urbanized is the only way pro high-rise development officials use to shove thoughtless development down our throats. These open houses are just ticking a box to say it was done. We are not experiencing fair civil discourse. Please pay attention before it is too late.
