The short version
Southbridge, the restaurant-and-condo block on the south bank of the Arizona Canal, was Fred Unger’s work. After his death in 2018 his son Carter proposed a second phase: about 10 acres west of Scottsdale Road, more than a million square feet of offices, shops, condominiums and a hotel, with buildings up to 150 feet. On December 4, 2019 the council approved it, 4 to 3.
Old Town property owners formed a committee the next day and gathered about 17,000 signatures in a month. The clerk certified them, and a judge threw out the developer’s challenge. Rather than face a November vote, Unger asked the council to undo its approval, and on April 7, 2020 the same four members did.
The approval
Unger pitched it as an economic engine: “It’s over a billion dollars of economic output. And then once the project is complete, we’re looking at $290 million of ongoing annual economic impact.” It included the sale of the city’s Rose Garden parking lot. Councilwoman Linda Milhaven argued that downtown needed “more people that live and work in the area,” and Virginia Korte that “by working together we can find the balance between preserving the charm of Old Town while continuing to make it more contemporary.” Mayor Jim Lane and Suzanne Klapp joined them. Vice Mayor Kathy Littlefield, Guy Phillips and Solange Whitehead voted no.
The referendum
The Committee for the Preservation of Old Town Scottsdale, formed by two neighboring property owners, filed with the city on December 5. Its chair warned the council that if it tried to kill the referendum “they’re going to hear from a lot of the citizens.” By the January 3 deadline it had turned in about 17,000 signatures; 11,930 valid ones were needed, and on January 31, 2020 the clerk found the petition sufficient. Unger sued. A Superior Court judge ruled for the committee, and Unger dropped his appeal: “We have made the decision to not pursue further legal actions.” Former councilman Bob Littlefield was an ally of the committee.
The repeal
Unger then asked for repeal, saying he had lost several properties in escrow. On April 7, 2020, in a meeting held by telephone early in the pandemic, Korte moved and Milhaven seconded a package that repealed the rezoning ordinance (Ordinance 4449) and, by Resolutions 11773 to 11776, the abandonments, the development agreement and the sale of the Rose Garden lot. It carried 4 to 3, the same split as in December. City Attorney Sherry Scott cited “an Arizona Attorney General opinion in 1982”: “when the subject matter of the referendum has been repealed, any vote on the measure would be without legal effect.”
The city’s transcript records both sides. Klapp: “I believe this is an actual win for the people who opposed this project.” Milhaven: “I think this is a very, very sad day for Scottsdale,” and “this referendum will have a chilling effect and dampen any investment in our downtown.” Against, Kathy Littlefield: “Over 17,500 citizens signed the petition in only 28 days,” and “I also believe it is very much illegal to do this under the Arizona constitution.” Phillips: “The idea that the same legislative body can undermine the referendum process is a trampling of voter rights … The law is the law.” Whitehead: “I’m not going to be the one to deny a public vote.” Bisnow also quoted Phillips asking what the difference would have been “if we would have just waited for it to fail in November.”
The fight made building height the question of the 2020 city election. Its history echoes the Canals of Scottsdale, the canal-front project voters killed in 1999. The 2010s politics chapter sets it beside the decade’s other fights.