By J. Graber | Daily Independent abridged
It was common for candidates and residents alike to claim there were over 15,000 apartments in the infamous “pipeline” earmarked for Scottsdale prior to the November 2024 election.
Various numbers from an array of time periods were bandied about to prove or disprove whatever point was being made at the time.
A new report from Scottsdale City Manager Greg Canton states there aren’t near as many apartments in the pipeline as people have claimed.
The report to Scottsdale City Council members states there are exactly 7,592 multi-family housing units – apartments and condominiums – at various stages of being built in Scottsdale.
That breaks down to:
- Active Cases (1,345 units) – development proposals that are seeking zoning entitlements or Development Review Board Approval;
- Approved (2,669 units) – projects that have Development Review Board approval, but have yet to submit final plans or pull construction permits; and,
- Under Construction (3,578 units) – projects that are currently under construction.
Those numbers do not include the 1,895 apartments and condos Axon is considering building as part of new world headquarters campus. The last city council approved the rezoning of the land for the multi-family units and the Arizona Legislature passed a bill allowing the construction when the rezoning was threatened by the a referendum by former City Councilman (and husband to current City Councilwoman Kathy Littlefield) Bob Littlefield.
“Since the last report in January 2025, 47 new units were approved through the entitlement process (Case 2-ZN-2024 Artessa),” the report states. “The majority of recent activity reflects DRB (Development Review Board) approvals (591 units across five project sites), previously approved DRB projects advancing into construction (1,074 units across seven project sites), and completed construction (314 units, from Case 3-DR-2021 Streetlights Residential).”
The lower numbers could be a direct result of Scottsdale’s slow growth over all.
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