Skip to main content
search
CommercialNewsResidential

Scottsdale City Council OKs Fewer Dwelling Units for Mixed-Use Project in Old Town

By December 15, 2022January 17th, 2023No Comments

Development of 3200 North, a mixed-use project within the Historic Old Town District, will move forward — avoiding a potential delay in the process.

The Scottsdale City Council in its Dec. 7 meeting unanimously approved the development plan and standards, but not before reviewing an acceptable approach for what constitutes “mixed use.”

Mayor David Ortega initially said he couldn’t support the project in its form that called for 4,000 square feet of commercial zoning in the mostly residential project anchored by — at first — a 135-unit affordable housing apartment complex. He called the proportion of commercial zoning on site “inadequate in terms of a mixed use.”

Ortega asked about delaying the scheduled vote to further study what he saw as an inadequate amount of commercial space to justify the mixed-use identifier, and even started looking into future dates from the dais to revisit the issue possibly as late as February.

Fellow council members disagreed with a commercial zone mandate for the future property.

“I don’t understand why we try to put commercial uses where they don’t work,” Councilwoman Tammy Caputi said. “This idea that we’re just going to check a box and force an applicant to put a coffee shop or a dry cleaners in there in their lobby because that’s what we say it should be, and the market is not asking for it. I think that makes sure that the project fails.”

Councilmember Linda Milhaven echoed Caputi’s perspective.

“If the market doesn’t call for commercial mandating, it just means we’re going to wind up with an empty storefront, which isn’t good for anybody,” Milhaven said.

The idea of delaying the project brought Desert Troon President and owner Dan Smith from the audience to the podium. He stipulated that he would double the commercial zoning to 8,000 square feet and, in order to both accommodate the new commercial and to address the density, reduce the number of dwelling units to 121.

“We’re doing this project because we think Scottsdale wants it,” a visibly frustrated Smith said. “I want everyone to be happy. But I also don’t want to go on and on and on. And when I hear this — even doubling — I’ll agree tonight to double it. Now I’ll have to find a use. I’m not sure what that will be.”

Smith said he has lived and worked in and around Scottsdale for 40 years, and he’d prefer to avoid anymore delays and “just vote on it.”

The ordinance approving the zoning district map amendment was indeed voted on — and unanimously approved — moments later, complete with Smith’s new stipulations.

Read More (subscriber content)
Some stories may only appear as partial reprints because of publisher restrictions.


Related: Scottsdale’s State of the Multifamily Market