Planning Commission - November 13, 2024

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public hearing the city encourages your
interest and participation in the public
hearing process Planning Commission is
an Advisory Board to the city council on
land use and Zoning matters the meeting
agenda items are development
applications that require public
hearings the Planning Commission
considers the request and makes a
recommendation for approval or denial to
the city council the city council makes
the final decision for or against
approval of the
application the agenda it will consist
of the Roll Call minutes approval of
Prior meeting
continuances are for items that will not
be heard tonight withdrawals are for
items that have been withdrawn for any
further consideration consent agenda
items is for items not likely to require
a presentation or discussion all items
on the consent agenda may be voted on
together any commissioner may move any
item from the consent agenda to the
regular agenda then we'll have our
regular agenda which is where each item
is a presentation and a recommendation
by staff a presentation by the applicant
and public testimony after the applicant
will have the opportunity to respond to
the public testimony the Planning
Commission then discusses the cases and
votes then we'll have n action items
which is for items for discussion no
vote will be made by Planning
Commission citizens wishing to speak on
any agenda item may fill out a blue
speaker card which are up here at the
desk or if not willing to speak may fill
out a yellow comment card and turn it in
at the staff table before the agenda
item is to be discussed the chair will
call you by name when it is your turn to
speak when called come to the podium
state your name and address and then
begin
speaking groups wish ing to speak should
elect a spokesperson to represent the
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meeting your comment will be limited to
3 minutes for individual speakers with
one additional minute for each
additional individual present at the
meeting who has contributed their time
to a representative speaker up to a
maximum of 10 minutes please format your
speech to be accommodated within the
applicable time frame
given um so for tonight's meeting
there's overflow seating in the one
Civic Center building across the street
where the this meeting will also be
broadcast on the Scottdale video Network
you may also submit a blue request to
speak card or a yellow comment card to
City staff while in the one Civic Center
building speakers will be announced in
groups of three to allow time to make
their way to City Hall to speak for
convenience and timing presentations a
light system is installed on the podium
uh the light will be on will be green
for two minutes and yellow for one
minute please conclude your comments
when the red light appears thank you for
your interest in time now we'll begin
the meeting with a roll call
Vice chair young here commissioner
Gonzalez presid commissioner Kaminsky
here commissioner erell here
commissioner Joiner here commissioner
Scaro here all here thank you great
thank you um now we're on for public
comment is there any public comment Mr
Curtis uh Mr chairman no public comment
for non-agenda item great thank you and
then uh we'll move on to the
administrative
report thank you thank you Mr chairman
or vice chairman members of the Planning
Commission just wanted to draw your
attention to additional correspondence
regarding to tonight's um axon case
that's in front of you um and then
there's also one uh support letter for
the abandonment case uh on the consent
agenda then I wanted to uh also remind
you that for November we only have one
meeting in November and that's today and
our next uh scheduled meeting will be
December 11th
and we do have uh anticipated items for
December 11th that's all I have for
tonight thank you all right thank you Mr
Curtis um moving on we'll uh we've got
the approval of the meeting minutes for
October 23rd uh like to ask for an
approval of regular meeting minutes from
October 23rd so moved we got a motion
second and a second can we get a roll
call vote
please Vice chair young yes commissioner
Gonzalez yes commissioner Kaminsky yes
commissioner ell yes commissioner Joiner
yes commissioner scarbro yes motion
passes thank you great thank you all
right moving on to consent agenda are
there is there anybody that would like
to move any of the consent agenda items
to regular questions no all right so we
could probably then vote for both items
two and three um can I get a motion
please Vice chair I'll go ahead and make
a motion for recommendation of approval
to the city council for cases 2ab 2024
and 5ab 2024 for the staff recommended
stipulations after finding that the
proposed abandonments are consistent and
conform with the adop adopted General
plan thank you so we second motion and a
second roll call vote please Vice chair
young yes commissioner Gonzalez yes
commissioner Kaminsky yes commissioner
ell yes commissioner Joiner yes
commissioner Scaro yes motion passes
thank you all right thank you uh I
believe we have one recusal for regular
agenda um Mr Curtis I'm assuming we'll
hear both item four and five is one
presentation is that right yes uh Vice
chairman that's the plan thank you great
thank you
good evening Vice chair young and
members of the Planning Commission I'm
Terry Kilgore economic development
director for the city of Scottdale and
before we get into the land use details
that you're used to hearing about I
wanted to provide a little context of
why the proposal before you this evening
is important from an economic
development perspective in fact this
project began 5 years ago as an effort
from econom IC development to try to
retain a major employer within Scottdale
as you know there's been significant
media coverage and lots of discussion on
this topic and so we wanted to share a
perspective of why this is of value to
the community for
consideration so land use is built with
input a more wide range of stakeholders
but the reality is over time land use
changes to accommodate industry Trends
and New Visions for the use of land one
thing that this project does is align
with the Strategic vision outlined in
the general plan around Community
Prosperity from the goal of community
Prosperity the economic development
strategic plan focuses on the efforts to
attract and retain high quality jobs for
our community which this proposal does
it even brings a little bit of Tourism
which is baked into the general plan as
well strategically in the council
adopted Economic Development strategic
plan this proposal hits two of our six
major market segments technology and
corporate headquarters both of which are
challenging to attract and so as you
consider the use of this land I would
ask that you also consider the important
impact that this has on our economic
base there are currently
850 employees these are our neighbors
families and friends who emplo who are
employed by axon currently with an
additional 6 650 planned in the future
and honestly probably more than that
this is a unique company and that the
mission and values align with our
community values and focus on Public
Safety their their mission is to build
better tools for public safety through
technology and they serve over 18,000
Public Safety agencies in over 100
countries as well as the Departments of
defense and Veteran Affairs what we hear
from major employers looking at new site
locations is the importance of housing
proximate to their campuses this is true
across Industries but it's especially
true for Tech if you look at the modern
tech campuses being built by Google
Facebook apple and Microsoft they
frequently include apartments and hotels
adjacent to provide service to their
employees and customer base part of this
model brings in people both regionally
nationally and internationally for
training on Trends and Technology on
site what we know is that people
visiting Scottsdale increase the
likelihood that they consider Scottsdale
as a place to locate a business and our
brand awareness as an international
headquarters and hub for technology and
Innovation with that I appreciate your
the opportunity to provide you comments
and we'll turn it back to Taylor
Reynolds from longrange planning to
provide more
detail good evening Vice chair young
members of the commission I'm Taylor
Reynolds principal planner with
longrange planning and if I can get the
presentation
up I'm here to present
uh the minor Amendment uh minor General
plan Amendment portion of this request
this evening and then I will hand it
over to uh Greg Bloomberg who is also a
principal planner in in
planning so with that uh the subject
site is located on the south side of uh
the Loop 101 on the east side of Hayden
Road um as you can see the the
applicants request this evening is
within those yellow portions however uh
to the east is uh includes the overall
axon site which is a triangular portion
on the south side of the Loop
101 the applicant's request from a
general plan standpoint is from the
existing employment light industrial
office land use designation for 43 Acres
of the site to the mixed use
neighborhoods land use designation from
a general plan standpoint and that's
commensurate with the applicant's
request to include residential retail
and hotel use on this portion of the
site further the applicant is requesting
a not or a minor Amendment to the
greater Air Park character area plan
from employment or
EMP to Air Park mixed use residential or
am again commenor with that request for
residential retail and hotel
use in terms of the 2035 General plan we
have Amendment criteria that we look at
for any land use request from a general
plan
standpoint um uh in terms of the
applicant's request uh for for to amend
43 Acres from employment to mixed use
neighborhoods that exceeds the 15 acre
threshold for criteria 2 or the area of
change criteria and this would outline a
process for the applicant typically so
in this case typically this would be a
major Amendment from uh the general plan
standpoint however the applicant is
requesting and it is more thoroughly
defined in their narrative uh to be
processed under criteria 8 the
exceptions to the general plan Amendment
criteria in that they are within the
regional use overlay of the greater Air
Park area and Regional Regional uses as
defined by the general plan are
determined as already planned land uses
for this area the community and will be
processed as a minor
Amendment the regional use overlay
definition is outlined and defined
within the 2035 General plan and is
clear that a regional use use provides
flexibility for land uses that serve a
regional market these uses include but
are not limited to corporate office
Regional serving retail major medical
educational Campus Community Service
facilities tourism and destination
attractions most of those uses would be
within the overall axon campus that are
that would be part of this overall
request in determining whether proposed
land uses are Regional in nature the
city will uh consider consider various
factors including Regional draw
fulfilling Economic Development policies
that were discussed by
Terry uh good freeway access as well as
uh complementing the established
character for the area and I'll get to
those factors on the next slide but
again I'll remind the commission that
Regional uses within this Regional use
overlay uh are determined as already
planned land uses for this area and will
be processed as a minor Amendment as is
the case this evening
those Regional use factors that I
discussed on the previous slide that the
applicant checks most of those boxes and
they're outlined here and are outlined
in the applicant's narrative so in terms
of regional draw and enhancing the
employment core the applicant is stating
that the integration of supporting uses
such as residential retail and uh Hotel
will enhance axon's presence as a world
headquarters consolidating their
valleywide operations into a single
scota location the applicant has
intimated to us that they've outgrown
their current site and instead of having
Silo uh locations throughout the valley
they would rather have one specific
singular Scottdale location and I'll
remind the commi uh the commission that
axon is the third largest employer in
the greater air park eth within
Scottdale and the applicant has
projected that over 1500 employees would
be located at this location at
buildout in terms of Economic
Development policies Scott sales
Economic Development 5year strategic
plan promotes growing existing
Industries attracting new investment and
building talent that new investment
would uh show itself with the uh
residential retail and hotel uses
building Talent by allowing future uh
employees to also be residents on the
site and allow for conferences and
Public Safety Training events to all be
housed on
site it has the applicant site is has
freeway access as per those factors and
further the established character of the
area includes An approved development
plan of Crossroads East which is
inclusive of several other Regional
Employers in terms of regional employers
and Employers in and of themselves
within uh the greater Air Park staff
pulled information from the US Census in
terms of employment inflow outflow which
shows where employees uh are residing if
they're within the area of uh the
context area or they come from outside
of that area in terms of the greater Air
Park there are just over 56,000 total
employees today 99% of those uh come
into the air Park every day to work only
1% of those live and work within the
greater Air Park so expanding those
residential uses within this area will
not only uh help axon in terms of the
live work lifestyle that their employees
may want in the future but also other
Regional uh uh employers Within in the
area would be able to locate their
employees there as
well in terms of those General plan
Amendment exceptions that exception 8
that the applicant is
requesting uh I'd like to remind the
commission that the general plan is a
legally amendable document as per state
statutes and that this criteria should
be applied consistently and the criteria
means is is meant to be utilized to
provide flexibility to address unique
cases such as this axon case to line
with Scottsdale's Vision Values and
goals to that end 18 exceptions have
been requested uh via these uh Amendment
exceptions since 2000 the 2001 General
plan was in case and through the 2035
General plan which has been voted
ratified so with those 18 exceptions
shown on the right hand side of the
screen all of which have been in the
past approved by city council except for
one that was withdrawn and the other is
this is the one this evening which is
actually an active case so with that
I'll hand it over to GRE Greg Bloomberg
thank
you uh good evening Vice chair young and
Commissioners uh Greg Bloomberg uh
principal planner here to do the zoning
portion of land use and Zoning portion
of the
presentation uh so as you can see from
this graphic here the current zoning on
the proper on this portion of the
property is i1 PCD which is what the
axon location is also uh
zoned if this application is successful
the zoning will change to uh plan
Community District uh planed Air Park
Core Air Park mixed use residential
that's what all those acronyms stand for
so I'll give you some background and
summary of the request um these current
cases were submitted originally on uh
August 8th of
2023 and uh today is the first hearing
since that submitt so it's been in
process for approximately 15 months uh
lots of discussions meetings and uh
coordination during that time uh as
Taylor mentioned uh there's two requests
related to The General plan minor
Amendment to the general plan
2035 to change the uh land use
designation from employment to mixed use
neighborhoods and another minor
Amendment to the greater Air Park
character area plan uh from employment
to Air Park mixed use residential I just
mentioned the
rezone and one of the primary reasons
that the amendments are needed for this
project uh are to allow the residential
and Retail in this area because right
now it's designated as a employment
which restrict which does not allow
residential just as an informational uh
as uh B uh piece uh based on the number
of units that they're proposing for the
PCP portion of the site the residential
density calculates out to about 44
dwelling units per acre for 1965
units um in 2020 the applicant received
approval for a maximum height of 82 ft
for the on building that of course is
not changing that site's already
entitled and then 52 ft uh for all the
others at that time because the entire
site was Ian and those measurements are
exclusive of rooftop apperances
the the proposed maximum height for this
portion of the site again not including
the axon headquarters is 68 ft uh
exclusive of rooftop apperances and we
do have uh quite a bit of public comment
in support opposition for this
project So the plan Community District
allows uh applicants to amend
development standards for the PC
comparable zoning districts in this case
the comparable zoning district is the
PCP District Two amendments are proposed
uh one is to the uh maximum percentage
of ground floor that can be devoted to
residential floor area uh the the PCP
currently limits that to 50% the
applicant would like to increase that to
58% and then Building height in the PCP
district is uh the maximum height is
inclusive of rooftop apperance they want
to make that exclusive which is
consistent with their previous
entitlement for the Ian and no bonus
development standards are
proposed so since the initial proposal
came in 15 months ago uh there's been
several changes that I'll go through as
quickly as I can number of units has
been reduced from uh
2552 to
1,965 which is a 23%
reduction uh of those
365 are uh earmarked to be Condominiums
fee title The rest would be Apartments
so that's 1,600 Apartments as opposed to
the original
2552 uh axon way uh is going to be is
proposed to be realigned away from the
neighborhood to the South uh and I'll
get into that a little bit when I get to
the site plan and the existing Mayo
Union Hills road that runs along the
north portion or ABS the north portion
of the Stone Brook Community is proposed
to be preserved it was originally
proposed to be abandoned uh it would be
preserved and improved to provide access
to Hayden Road for the uh subdivision to
the South and also um it'll be used for
access to the fire station which is
currently under
construction uh the southernmost
building uh on the site plan uh was
originally proposed at 68 ft in height
uh the applicant has proposed to uh
reduce that southernmost building to 47
fet for most of it and stepping down uh
to 40 ft where it's closest to the
community uh the southernmost building
they are maintaining a 300t setback from
the south property line to the
southernmost
building uh the hotel was relocated to
the northeast corner of the far and East
northeast corner of the site and there's
enhanced connectivity between the axon
building and the mixed use buildings
strengthening the can campus
concept uh which was uh rather
important okay so this is the original
site plan that was proposed and I want
to draw your attention
to axon way right now this is the
alignment for axon way it comes it's
Stoops there's a roundabout in the
middle of the project and it comes South
and curves its way over to uh 80 the
existing um Mayo Boulevard and which
eventually dead ends here and there were
three roundabouts proposed at that time
and the connectivity between the axon
headquarters and the rest of the site
was not terribly strong so there was
some concern that
uh the campus idea was was not really
being um being uh met so we've had you
know plenty of discussions with the
applicant about that uh and this
roundabout here at 82 Street was a major
concern for for the neighbors to the
south from a traffic perspective uh so
fast
forward to today this is the current
site plan so you can see that axon way
now just goes straight and dip down
avoiding 82nd Street uh the roundabout
has been eliminated here so 82nd Street
essentially would dead end at this
location and continue
West uh this is that access point I was
talking about for the fire station and
the only roundabout would be at
Perimeter
Drive and um I'll get you a detail here
in just a second but this here was was
uh suggested by the applicant it is is a
um an enhanced connection between the
axon building and the PCP portion of the
site which I which is probably a rather
significant uh feature just to and you
know to really uh uh stress that this is
supposed to be a campus not just uh a
commercial building with a lot of
Apartments so here's a detail of that
Crossing there would be opportunities
for Gatherings there would be
opportunities for uh food truck trucks
uh but it's it's just a really strong
connection between the two projects that
uh would lens itself to that campus
setting
notion and then I would just for this on
this graphic I just wanted to clarify
the building Heights a little bit the
the 40 the 40 foot portion of the
southernmost
building uh is located right here and
then the rest of the building is 47 ft
and then all the buildings north of axon
way would be a maximum of 68 feet or
five
stories so in terms of our hearing
history on this the uh case did go
before the airport advisory Commission
on January 17th of this year there was a
recommendation of denial by unanimous
vote of 7 to Zer citing the number of
proposed residential units and the
incompatibility with airport
operations on January 24th uh the
Planning Commission did consider this
case uh was ultimately continued uh to
the 214 2024 hearing with a 6 to1 vote
to allow time for additional information
to be
compiled uh before the 214 hearing the
applicant requested an additional
continuance to a date to be determined
uh to allow for additional time to
address issues and concerns raised at
the 124 hearing
okay so that concludes my presentation
uh unless there are immediate questions
for me I will turn it over to the
applicant for their presentation thank
you Mr Bloomberg uh do we have any
questions at this point or
we sounds like we've got two questions
go ahead commissioner Joiner and then
commissioner Gonzalez chairman Greg uh
what is the status with the airport
Commission
uh Vice chair young and uh commissioner
Joiner um the applicant received a
recommendation for the number of there
was actually 1975 units proposed at that
time and they've got their
recommendation which is which is the
requirement that they have to have a
recommendation from the airport advisory
commission they're going along with that
recommendation they they've chosen not
to go back to the airport advisory
commission they do not have to go back
to the airport advisory commission thank
you
commissioner
Gonzalez thank you um that just
segmented to my question so the airport
commission actually really didn't
interfere with anything as far as height
or any kind of uh problems as far as the
airport uh uh restrictions involved it
was just merely that that they were
concerned a little bit about the density
and even that has changed since then
when they made the recommendation
Vice chair young commissioner Gonzalez
that's correct it's changed slightly it
was originally 1975 units now it's 1965
units and their biggest issue uh as with
anything close to the airport is
protecting the airport from residential
uses and so they were just concerned
about all the residential units being in
that airport influence area whether
they're rental or fee title didn't
really matter okay but they didn't have
any they didn't bring up any other
issues other than that particular my
election that was pretty much it very
good thank you
sir all right thank you I don't think
we've got any other questions at this
time uh Mr
Bloomberg um so now moving on um I
believe we'd like to see the applicant
um give us your presentation Mr
helenthal
good evening Mr chairman members of the
commission my name is Charles SE manle
it's good to be here again um we've
taken quite a bit of time to modify our
plan since our last hearing before you
I'd like to start by asking for a little
additional time not only is this a
pretty large case originally 77 Acres
we've also taken a lot of time to
address a number of comments from the
commission and from others in the
community I think it makes sense for us
to spend a little more time going over
some of those things sure about how much
more time would you think you'll need
I'd like 20 minutes total so additional
10 minutes but we probably wouldn't use
it all is that agreeable to everybody
all right well let's set the clock for
20 minutes and uh you're on thank you
I'd like to introduce you in just a
moment to Rick Smith who's the founder
and CEO of axon um he's going to lead
the first part of the presentation and
we're going to field questions together
our goal is to really spend time talking
about the goals for the campus and some
of the changes that we've made over time
Mr
Smith great thank you uh quick logistic
question how do I Advance my
slides just on the keyboard
or sorry just as a formality could we
get your name and address I'm sorry just
for the record yeah formalities trip me
up as does my wardrobe uh my name is
Rick Smith I'm the founder and CEO of
axon thank you and Scott still resident
and a Scott still resident yeah a long
time went to chaperel so uh
Commissioners it's a pleasure to be back
in front of you great to see many faces
I know and some of my new neighbors I'm
just meeting for the first time tonight
really excited to show you what we've
been working on uh and with that let's
let's roll into this um okay so many of
you know us we started out with the
taser uh I had two high school friends
who were shot and killed not very far
from here and I became fascinated with
gun violence as a technology problem if
we had Captain Kirk's phaser we wouldn't
shoot people with bullets anymore that
was the simple premise we started with
um as we rolled out the taser it was not
without controversy and there were
questions and concerns about are police
what are they doing with these are they
abusing people and that's a hard
question you can't just answer it in the
abstract and that's why we created body
cameras so we could record what police
were doing and protect good cops and
protect the public from bad cops from
there we got into the cloud software
business I knew nothing about software
when we got started uh but now today we
run a software service that has more
video content than YouTube and Netflix
combined because we store Millions uh of
cameras worth of video every day uh we
had a incar cameras we acquired a drone
company we on the leading tactical drone
company we partnered with the leading us
outdoor drone company we the largest
customer of HTC which is one of the
world leaders in in virtual reality
helping to train police better in VR uh
we acquired a company called fusus that
connects the community's cameras to the
police so if there's a critical incident
police can see what's happening in a
school if something terrible is
happening immediately and then we also
acquired the world leader in counter
drone technology so we have hundreds of
sensors across Ukraine uh where
obviously drones are one of the biggest
threats in the world right now we
protect the NFL stadiums Etc so uh it's
really been a pretty wild ride from a
garage in Tucson to now as of today we
have a $45 billion market cap and uh
we're excited and proud to be
headquartered here a HomeTown
Story the big change for the next 10
years is subtle one here we're now
adding Artificial Intelligence on top of
everything we're doing um and boy what
an exciting time to be alive the changes
in AI we can now write a police
officer's report for them in seconds uh
and literally save 25% of a police
officer's Duty day that they can go out
and do police work and that's just one
of many that we're rolling out so that
brings me to our campus um so the
purpose of this campus is really to
prepare us for the next phase of the
company um we're now in this wonderful
position we are trading Talent with
Amazon and Microsoft in Google uh and
the best tech companies in the world and
years ago we had to open Office in
Seattle because people told us Tech
Talent wouldn't come to Arizona um and
that was like a kind of like a knife uh
in my chest to hear that what do you
mean like Arizona is a fantastic place
and what we're competing with are uh
company or cities like Seattle but a
really good example for us is Austin
Texas and so we've been studying like
how did Austin go from a just sort of a
regular City to a tech hub
and a big part of this was the rise of
these mixed use campuses there are two
really big ones that were pretty
transformative the domain and Mueller um
and these were campuses that together
brought in Silicon Valley companies
apple has a huge headquarters there uh
you can go down the list Cisco Oracle
Tesla you know has now moved their
headquarters to Texas and so as we
really looked at this and when we think
about our recruiting we need to have a
diverse recruiting funnel but really the
most important part of our funnel is
people at the beginning of their career
uh Josh Isner put your hand up in the
front row we hired that kid right out of
college in 2008 he's now the president
of the company uh running the company
and we find you know if you get people
early in their career they can grow with
you and that's that's how great
companies are built and by the way we're
really proud of the jobs we've been
creating uh online you can look it up
the average job in Arizona pays $53,000
a year our average Target pay in Arizona
is$ 135,000
but we pay a lot of it in stock and our
Stock's been doing pretty well so people
are actually taking home quite a bit
more um and but if you compare that to
our Seattle Washington jobs there our
average salary our average Target pay is
306,000 so one thing for everybody if
you have young people in your life that
are going to school tell them to take
that computer coding class it is very
real that these tech jobs are the best
paying and they're an extremely high
demand and that's what we're going to
bring here and we think this campus can
be the Cornerstone not just for axon but
for a thriving Tech Community we had one
of our young men a little younger than
Josh who left the company he's now
running a near billion dollar Financial
Tech startup but he went back to Seattle
uh we want to keep those people in
Arizona we also want to bring a lot of
visitors uh we're building an event
center uh we project we'll bring at
least 20,000 visitors a year and this
will be the safest campus on Earth
because we'll be bringing folks like the
major City Chiefs of police the major
County Sheriffs uh the National
Organization of black law enforcement
and women in law enforcement we want to
become the epicenter of Public Safety
globally and hosted here now on our
campus itself uh the main feature is
really a prominade this is you know when
we talk about recruiting those kids in
the 20 to 35 age range they're not ready
to settle down and buy a house yet right
they're going into their first job many
of them are very environmentally focused
uh they don't want to have to get in the
car and drive to work every day um and
so really having a live workpl lifestyle
I mean these are what our competitors at
Google and Oracle and others are doing
this and so what we want to build is
really a wonderful campus uh that we
hope everybody who's our neighbors will
enjoy a place where you can you know not
only take your dog for a walk around the
corner but go get a great coffee or a
sit down dinner and so the idea is to
have two hotels we like to have seven
restaurants enough variety there's a
certain critical mass to keep these
communities thriving all right so this
is uh a look one of the satellite images
of the of the site and so there's Stone
Brook
uh here's our side up top and uh you
know over the last nine months or so
we've been collecting feedback and the
main thing we heard was a lot of concern
that like hey what is this going to do
moving this many people in here and the
concern was much of it about already
there's a concern about industrial
traffic that goes down the street by The
Neighborhood into places like this is
how you'd get Dax on today from Hayden
and what's going to happen if we start
really amplifying that traffic and
that's where I'm really proud of the
work that we've done with our Architects
and others to say okay rather than argue
about that problem is there a solution
and so what we've done is basically not
only are we going to eliminate our
corporate traffic industrial traffic but
let's actually cut off the existing
traffic and so we're proposing this burm
and extensive Landscaping so that it
would keep the residential streets
residential and the industrial traffic
would go over on the new axon way uh
really sort of sh sheltered and secured
from the neighborhood now as an
alternative
this is what the site is currently zoned
for if we were to build an industrial
Warehouse site or sell it to someone who
would industrialists operate on very
thin margins we can afford to do this
because we need this place to be
fantastic a place where people who could
afford to live anywhere to want to come
live here so we're going to invest in
that infrastructure and with that
experience um but this site you know the
natural thing to do would be to use the
existing city streets and that would be
exactly the problem I think everybody
was worried about we've also really
tried to extend uh the setbacks I
understand these are some of the largest
setbacks of their type in Scottdale so
we measured it in football fields 1.3
football fields to the closest building
two and a half over to our headquarters
so we've increased the setback we've
moved the hotel as well we heard that
the hotel uh you know the neighbors
would prefer not to have Hotel traffic
there and it made sense for it to be
closer to our building uh We've shifted
from just Apartments to adding
Condominiums uh We've reduced the
building Heights particularly that are
closest to the neighborhood
there was a concern about sound and so
we had a sound engineer I believe do the
analysis that this actually acts as a
big sound barrier between the freeway
and the neighborhood so I'll actually
reduce the sound energy by about 50% and
then we've had a a walking trail you can
see around the campus and a dog
park I think I should also mention here
there was some uh question about with
the state land Department uh this is
also a winning proposal for them we've
negotiated with the state so they will
also get additional funding uh if this
is
approved now phing oh yes and phasing uh
We've also uh had a proposal I think
Charles will give more detail where we'd
phase in some of these units at the time
of of the oh wait a minute I've got on
my phone hold on I can get that in the
record for us
um just take a moment to open my photos
so I get the exact numbers right and so
the idea on the phasing would be 231
units plus the hotel uh when the when we
pull permits on headquarters
365 Condominiums plus 262 units no
sooner than
2027 390 units in 2028 717 in
2029 uh so what one thing you know
people some people have asked me well
Rick why don't you guys wait and do this
later or why do you need this uh and
I'll quote my CFO I don't think she's
here my Chief Financial Officer who said
well once we do this if this doesn't
work why don't we build a building we
could resell there's not a big market
for you know these science fiction
inspired design so once we're here we're
here for the next 50 years uh this is a
what they call a one-way door and so we
really need to make sure we've set this
up for success to be able to have the
community grow with us all right uh I've
built this in VR by the way any of the
neighbors that would like to come and
actually see how this design would feel
from your neighborhood I can put you in
virtual reality and you can take a look
around it's a pretty pretty great way to
be able to experience things so it's an
open invitation uh so this is standing
on the corner uh and what you're seeing
here is the uh that burm area and we've
got traffic on the other side and our
proposal would be well actually rais the
BM up we're very open to input I
personally think we should block it so
you don't see any headlights and we'll
landscape it I'm a fan of the chain
mosqu trees they have in my neighborhood
we'd like to bring mature mosques in to
create a shield and what you're seeing
here is you don't even see the
Condominiums you would see a beautifully
landscaped uh Street and then preserve
The View Corridor to the right towards
the mountains
uh and again by what is currently zoned
for uh could be built a lot closer and
without a lot of these sort of privacy
preserving
upgrades uh there was a little talk
about this uh solar shade really excited
about this is something that connects
you know from our headquarters over to
the
campus and this is just a shot of the
prominade the the vibe we're trying to
achieve here think a little bit like
Scottsdale quarter but easily accessible
for both the housing units again uh
we're trying to make it so the neighbors
won't know where they are when they
don't want to know but a couple hundred
meter walk and you're in great
restaurants the alternative is something
I don't think anybody would ever walk to
go visit industrial sites are by their
nature industrial so quick summary of
the findings from this third party
analysis $38 billion of economic impact
over the next 10 years around 20
approaching 20,000 jobs around 13
billion of Labor income 2.3 billion in
tax revenues over the 10-year period And
if I go this is a bit of an ey chart the
thing that matters at the bottom here uh
our current economic impact I believe
this is over the next 10 years is to the
city is uh no it's annual I'm sorry
annual impact uh 21 million versus 87
million with the new plan and so with
that um we are I actually don't get
nervous normally when I present but uh I
am tonight this this is a big moment for
us uh we intend to bring thousands of
high-paying jobs here to Scottdale
create a Vibrant Community with new
local business opportunities uh this
walkable lifestyle campus we believe uh
that if between a quarter and half of
the residents live and work at axon
that's 500 to a thousand less cars that
are on the streets during Peak traffic
hours and actually went and calculated
myself today uh looking at this up that
that could be up to 7,500 metric tons of
CO2 that's not admitted because people
are walking instead of driving to work
so we think that offers a really
enhanced quality of of life for our
employees for our new residents and I
believe for our neighbors too we want to
make this something that you'll enjoy uh
when we're there for the Long Haul and
we think this can anchor long-term
economic growth uh it's actually in our
interest to lure more of these tech jobs
to Arizona because a rising tide raises
All Ships and as Scottsdale's reputation
Rises similar to Austin it makes it
easier for all of us to bring uh those
types of jobs and Technology here and so
with that my email is Rick axon.com
uh I'm always open to feedback and again
any of the neighbors that want to come
in and see I've met with some of your
neighbors just this week we had a great
session and I'd love to show you what
we're doing and certainly open to
feedback on landscaping and other ideas
for how we can make this a win for
everybody and so with that thank you for
your time uh I'm not sure what I'm
supposed to do next do I take questions
or uh well you got about almost six
minutes left we said we would try not to
use the time and okay for the most part
we haven't all right is there anything
else you'd like to add Mr just things I
know there are a number of speakers that
are going to have a chance to respond so
I think I would do most of the things
then Rick did mention a stipulation or a
condition that we're prepared to offer I
thought I would read that into the
record uh if that seems appropriate now
Mr chairman did you already give a copy
of that to staff I did and I can give
you copies now and not read it in the
record if that's acceptable okay yeah I
mean then we'll do that and we will um
certainly be present and prepared to
respond after people speak there was a
stipulation regarding the phasing that
the app wanted to introduce into the
report okay could we discuss that before
uh you want to discuss that absolutely
you want me to read it sure no I I uh
can I speak now or you want me wait yeah
okay feel free thank you um so you're
going to pull the last permit in
2029 not before we couldn't pull it
before that's right right not before um
you I'm just
thinking and this is just way it strikes
me I mean I'm thinking of the neighbors
you know you're going to be doing
construction um from now you know for
the next five six years because it's not
going to get done necessarily in
2029 um and I realize all the
construction won't be right next door to
the neighbors but still it's
construction uh then I also think of
your CFO and you mentioned
her how does she like the idea of paying
for the for the asset before you're
doing anything with it um does it need
to be 2029 can we at least shave a year
off of that I mean you know I know you
can't do everything in
2025 you can't do everything in 2025 and
26 but you've asked a number of
questions we start by saying I've been
in Scottdale a long time and I've even
been to the museum a few times and I
don't I don't know that there's been a
time in and in the history of anyone
that's alive in this room where there
hasn't been a lot of construction in
Scottsdale it's sort of part of the
growth of Scottdale um we certainly
would like to see that construction time
go over a shorter period of time having
said that I think we're trying to find
Happy mediums in terms of how much
growth happens how quickly and how
quickly we move uh in different parts of
the site we'd be happier to do it faster
I suppose we think it's a reasonable
compromise to go more slowly as as the
road and other improvements come in and
so you know we'll leave that to you it's
a stipulation that we offer it's more
stringent on us than than what we would
otherwise be required to do and we're
willing to do it would we rather do
something faster the answer is yes but
we're trying to find just as moving
moving the street was a sacrifice to us
in many ways and separates a big part of
the campus but we heard it was an
important thing to do and so we found a
way to do it lowering the buildings
closest to the neighbors and separating
them further or big sacrifices it's not
we want to do but we've tried to find
reasonable ways to move forward that
that make sense to everyone and that's
what we did in this
case does a a year I don't know how they
came up with the with the timeline but
does it make sense to knock a year off
of the uh pulling of
the last permit for a company that is
very based in science and and particular
measurements uh this was not one of
those uh they're they're reasonable
guesses and sure less time is better for
us but again again these are
stipulations or timelines that we'd be
willing to live
with okay I I guess I would like to see
it shortened up a bit uh I don't know
exactly how to do I mean you this is the
the you could not pull a permit until uh
January 1 I'm just P looking at the
numbers there January 1
2027 uh 28 so forth so maybe knock a
year does it make sense to knock a year
off of each one of those commissioner
just to be clear it's a certificate of
occupancy by January 1st of 2029 that
would be okay usable oh so it be done by
the goal would be that we could move
forward with planning okay we could do
some of the major infrastructure and we
would phase when the residential units
come
online does it makes okay then does it
make sense to knock a year off of
certificate of occupancy by a year does
that well maybe we get into the
deliberations of of that okay yeah those
details maybe after we get public
comment I understand okay yes so I would
like to make one comment of course about
the about the presentation very good
presentation very impressive but this is
the first time I've ever heard Austin
referred to as a regular City they post
signs saying Keep Austin Weird so I
don't think you can call it a regular
City but at any rate good keep in mind
it's from a man in a yellow
jacket good point thank you all right
thank you we'll be back for for red btle
unless you have other questions yeah is
there any other questions right now or I
think now is probably an appropriate
time to move on to public comment um it
looks like we have how many speakers 14
15 15 okay so as I mentioned at the
beginning of the meeting we're going to
call uh everybody in in groups of three
so if you can kind of get yourself
organized and ready to speak uh after
the second speaker um makes their
comment I'm going to call the next three
speakers so they can line up so we're
hoping to kind of keep this moving along
so we don't have a lot of delays with
nothing going on and I'm sure that uh
everybody's well you probably all want
to be here
tonight all right so I'll call the first
three speakers we've got uh and forgive
me DeLucia leor and then Charles Moore
and then Isaiah Fields who all appear to
be here in the city hall so if you could
come up and please state your name and
address and each of you has three
minutes uh why don't we go on the order
I've called you that kind of help us
keep track uh because there is so many
speakers so thank you thank you hi I'm
delu laor I live at
7426 East ston Drive um here in
Scottdale and um I'm all set right was
there anything else that's perfect
you're good so um I moved to Scottdale
about a year and a half ago it was a
couple of weeks before I started work
here at axon and it was just two months
after I graduated college uh I moved
across the country I was moving from
North Carolina it was a big deal for me
um but when I graduated I didn't really
know what I wanted to do or who I wanted
to be the one thing I knew for sure was
that I wanted to work for a company that
spent its time day in and a day out
making the world a better safer place I
wanted to work on systems that would
actually make a difference and I'm
really thankful that I found Axon
because they've allowed me to be able to
do that on a daily basis I didn't know
anyone when I moved out here uh I was
entirely alone but I did hear from a lot
of my friends at home a lot of my family
members that it was a wonderful place
and so that's what gave me the
opportunity to take the leap jump in
Miss leaport can I just ask that you
speak into the microphone I think when
you turn your head it's a little we we
got a um folks watching this on TV and
if you turn away absolutely W be able to
hear you thank you so the funny thing is
that to this day my friends and family
at home tell me how proud they are of me
which is wonderful but strange and you
don't really get that especially from
people you don't necessarily know um and
especially because they didn't know
necessarily how lonely it could be
especially in the beginning when you
move to a new place um but now I realize
that they were really proud of me
because uh I was allowing myself to jump
into a new community and a new culture
to separate myself from sorry from what
was uh comfortable and what I knew was
Secure and allow myself to fall in love
with a city that is thousands of miles
away from where I grew up I really
appreciate the opportunity that
Scottdale has given me to do that um I
don't know that I would have done that
if I didn't have the community built
into place which is this small cohort of
the leadership development program when
I started at axon and to this day I know
a lot of people who are early in their
career who did not get the opportunity
to experience that sense of community
because they did not necessarily have
that cohort right off the bad they did
not know where to live right away and
because of that I do believe they've
missed out on the community that we've
been able to build within the leadership
development program as a New Yorker and
as a recent college grad I like to walk
everywhere and that's really hard in a
lot of Arizona better in Oldtown but I
really value that I want to walk to work
so I don't have to drive I want to walk
to meet up with my friends many of whom
most of whom I met at work and I want to
walk to go pick up food when I can't
cook because I do love to cook um so
this campus would just enrich in my life
more it would make it a better Community
for me and I do believe that this is not
only what I want but it is what my peers
want thank you great thank you miss leor
all right Mr Charles Moore Hey Council
my name is Charlie Moore I live at 4111
North drinkwater Boulevard at the padium
down the street and good to go perfect
so yeah like I said I live at the plaum
and I moved to Scottsdale after actually
reading Rick's book the end of killing
which demonstrated to me that axon is a
mission and purpose-driven Company the
mission to protect life stood out to me
is an incredible opportunity in a
company I knew I wanted to work for
since moving here I've had an incredible
experience and really fallen in love
truly with the city of Scottsdale in the
five months that I've lived here since
then the weather has been a great change
after doing four years of cold winners
in Vermont and everything about
lifestyle has been such a great change
coming from San Francisco out here and
I've truly fallen in love with the city
Scottsville is absolutely somewhere that
I believe that I could remain for the
long term I see myself living here for a
while and when I look at this new
development the opportunity to work to
live to relax to build my own local
communities all in the same area with
the people I call friends who are my
fellow ldp cohorts it's an incredible
opportunity when I see the opportunity
to share the same spaces with those
people and build a life in the same
community
and down the line when I think about
where I want to live where I want to
work having this campus is a great draw
for me as I decide where I want to be
long term I think a lot of young
professionals my fellow ldps would agree
with that when people ask me how I ended
up in Scottsdale I always tell him
immediately I ended up here for my dream
job I saw it it stood off the page the
mission to protect life was critical
immediately I knew this was the place I
wanted to work I hope down the line when
people ask me why I decided to stay in
Scot sale I can say that not only did I
find my dream job but I found my dream
community and that's what I believe this
development is thank you very much thank
you Mr Moore um Mr Isaiah Fields is up
next I just want to call the next three
speakers after you so that would be
Jennifer Carston Susan McGary and Tamara
gulen great so Mr Fields Vice chair
young members of the commission I want
to thank you for your
time U my name is Isaiah Fields I'm the
chief legal officer at axon um I moved
to Scottsdale uh with my wife 20 years
ago from Maine we had a few thousand
dollar in a U-Haul um no jobs lined up
and over the past 20 years I've had the
privilege of uh building my family and
my career in Scottdale I'm a resident of
Windgate Ranch my wife and I have two
daughters uh one is at Notre Dame Prep
the other is at um uh um forgetting the
school that my daughter goes to uh coer
Ridge I apologize uh and um my wife is a
nurse practitioner who has a practice in
North Scottsdale and um you know I
joined axon 14 years ago and I started
as sort of a baby lawyer and I grew with
with the company and with Rick and and
with Josh Isner and a number of others
um and over the years uh found my way
into the chief legal officer role and
it's been just uh the absolute privilege
of of of my life to be part of such a
mission-driven company and it's been a
dream to be part of such just a vibrant
incredible community and one of the
things I've come to appreciate after 14
years and with some of the success we've
had is if I could just see a just a
quick show of hands of the colleagues
that are here today from axon um working
with just incredible incredible people
and the thing that I think is is the
biggest key to our success is attracting
and retaining top talent and I see this
campus as critical to our ability to do
that for all the reasons uh that you've
heard today and um you know the last
thing I want to emphasize here is
there's been a lot of focus on Tech
Talent uh I'd like to speak for legal
Talent uh our folks uh in the legal team
we've got you know lawyers and paral
leals and compliance professionals and
we're not bad people in spite of what a
lot of folks think so um it's not just
Tech Talent we've got Finance Prof
professionals legal professionals
skilled labor Engineers um working on
hardware and so uh this is really the
key to our next phase of growth and we
appreciate your your time and
consideration thank
you thank you Mr
Fields uh next up we have Miss Jennifer
Carson's and then Susan McGary is after
you you have three minutes hi good
evening Council my name is Jennifer
Carston my address is 18245
North Pima Scottdale um I'm fortunate
enough to live by the future campus in
current HQ I live right by in that ajs
where we all know and love and rely on
their IC teas in the summer um I joined
axon in 2022 after a health scare let me
re-evaluating what am I doing with my
life um and if me working as a lawyer in
private practice was truly serving this
world and making it a better place or if
all I was doing was billing by the
six-minute
increment I'm uh I realized it wasn't it
wasn't fulfilled so I left my Boutique
Scottdale off firm I was lucky enough to
join axon shortly
after currently I'm join Isaiah fields
on the law team where we oversee
procurement the buy side of the business
I couldn't be more thankful to be a part
of this company and to serve our mission
and what we do I'm even more proud to
call this company has reached almost
every corner of the globe that they
choose to call Scottsdale Arizona its
home at axon we protect lives that's our
mission full
stop Arizona is home to incredible
companies but I challenge you to think
of a company in Arizona or in the US
that stands for something as important
as that protecting life an axon joining
forces is one of our pillars by us
calling the Scottdale city of Scottdale
home that city is part of that mission
the city is also home to several acts on
employees myself s included these are
mothers these are fathers brothers
sisters friends all valued members of
this Scottsdale Community a vote for the
new campus means that axon can continue
to join forces with the city of
Scottdale and we can continue to be a
part of our mission to save lives and
make the world a better place with that
I'll yield the rest of my time great
thank you Miss
Carson uh Susan Miss Susan McGary is up
next and it looks like you had one
minute donated to you so you have four
minutes let's see if I can fill those
all
right my my name is Susan McGary I live
at
8074 East Teresa Drive in Scottdale
85255 I'm also very nervous you might
remember this from last time so um I
have um no fancy presentation just going
to use this Elmo thing hopefully
correctly I am the uh board president
for the Scottdale Stone Brook HOA did I
do that right
way okay so we are we are the
neighborhood that axen talks about where
are single family homes the neighborhood
was built not quite 30 years ago maybe
28 27 years
ago and when it was built there was
absolutely nothing else around us so
that part of North Scotsdale has grown
up around us and we haven't protested
about anything until now um but I do
want to make it clear
we have one and two story um fairly
small
homes we Face a very highly dense
development
here and our main objective is to
predict our home values obviously like
yours would be as
well our our issues are not with axen
and they never have been we need to make
that clear over and over again our issue
is the
density of the
project with the re sub midle by
aent the the re sub midle adequately
addresses many of our con concerns such
as the roads have been
realigned um so they're not going to
impact us as much as the first
plan um the roundabouts gone which was
going to impede a specific neighbor's
home setback distances as we understand
have been
increased landscaping's been
upgraded to help improve our privacy
which is another one of our big concerns
of course that goes right along Ong with
home
values the heights of the building or
buildings closest to us have been
reduced however we would like to see
them decreased even further to enhance
our privacy
and limit our visibility of the
development it's important to remember
that after the stories are accounted for
and a story can be 15
feet not not like 10 like they used to
be on top of a building is the
mechanical Penthouse and that can be
another story high so while I know this
pres this proposal asks for the
mechanical on top of the roofs to be
eliminated or not counted in the feet
high of the buildings I think it's real
important next to the neighborhood that
that's that be
considered this is what this is what
happened to us a couple of years
[Music]
ago we've shown this shown this picture
before this development is a Mark Taylor
apartment complex west of us across
Hayden Road this is our little
neighborhood right
here and you can see the three story
Mark Taylor development looms over those
backyards of those homes on that side of
our neighborhood there is no doubt that
that affects their property values and
that's exactly what we're trying to
avoid happening again
so now I got this all out of order hang
on a
minute we also
um are cons we're concerned with claims
that the density that axent is proposing
is similar to some other density or less
than in the area and we've been un
unable to identify any projects that fit
that bill what we find are
smaller less dense
projects um in particular again the San
artist even though it's too tall for us
it is roughly the same footprint as our
neighborhood in acreage and axen this is
net acreage um but the San artist
Apartments even though they look
dense have about one quarter the number
of apartments that axon is proposing on
the same size of land
Miss McGary yeah looks like we've uh run
through the four minutes but I'll I'll
let you wrap it up here if you can I get
my appreciate it thank summary page
um
sorry in any case we do appreciate the
revisions in the plan that consider our
concerns they didn't make it easy but
they did finally listen and we asked
moving forward that axent and the city
protect our property values Preserve our
community by limiting building Heights
and further evaluate traffic impacts
especially on Hayden Road and Princess
Road thanks for listening appreciate it
thank you all right um Miss Tamara gulen
is up next but I'm going to read the
next three speakers after Miss gulen
it's going to be Mr Jacob warts Mr Harry
Markley and Leslie
lurman Miss G
hi thank you my name is if you could
step up to the mic yeah there you go
thank you my name the monitor was going
to block me my name is Tamara golden I'm
a homeowner at 8077 East Teresa
85255 and I don't really have any
comments more of questions that haven't
been addressed in this meeting and the
others so I'll be really and I don't
expect answers and I'm happy to forward
these to Rick late at a later time
because you're not prepared maybe I
don't know the first question is why
exactly should the Planning Commission
look the other way on established zoning
regulations for this project what
justifies make an exemption here
especially when it directly impacts an
established neighborhood and its
residents second question if an axon
employee resides in one of your
apartments on your proposed campus and
later faces eviction do you see yourself
primarily as their employer or as their
landlord how does axon plan to navigate
the potential conflict between these two
dual
roles third question has axon released a
detailed business plan to the community
and Planning Commission if not could you
share what specific data supports the
need for this
expansion number four can you clarify
whether this project is primarily an
expansion of axon's security technology
business or if axon is now diversifying
into real estate and Commercial
development what will be the focus of
the
campus in the YouTube video that you
posted for our neighborhood there wasn't
any mention of how this expansion will
affect our neighborhood especially
during hight traffic events like the
Waste Management
Open could you elaborate on traffic
crowd control and security plans will
the proposed parking be adequate to
prevent overflow into our neighborhood
last year we had a lot of Riff Raff
parking in our neighborhood and cars
were towed has axon conducted a study on
how this campus might impact parking and
foot traffic in the nearby residential
areas what assessments have been done
regarding local infrastructure including
roads utilities emergency services to
ensure that they can support this type
of development without overburdening the
current system and the last question
with most police departments already
equipped with axon's core products like
body warn cameras and tasers what new
product line or Services is axon
developing that would require this
additional space which I think you
actually addressed that question but
those are my only questions and I'm
happy to forward those on if needed
great thank you I think after all the
public comment the applicant can respond
to those
questions all right thank you Miss gulen
um Mr Jacob
warts you've got three minutes how's it
going uh Jacob warts uh 4215 North drink
water
Boulevard um as a recent transplant from
New Jersey I chose to make Scot to my
new home because have axon and the
positive energy this company brings to
the area axon's commitment to Innovation
community and Public Safety is truly
inspiring and I believe that their
presence has already contributed
immensely to the local economy and
unique vibrant culture of Scott sale I
wholeheartedly support the construction
of their new campus as I know would only
strengthen Scott sel's appeal as the hub
for cuttingedge technology and skilled
Talent not only does axon attract High
Caliber
professionals but they also create job
opportunities that benefit local
residents and generate additional
support for local
businesses additionally axon's focus on
community engagement is unparalleled
their work their work extends Beyond
corporate goals impacting real lives and
communities through safer and smarter
Public Safety Solutions with a new
campus Axel will be better equipped to
expand their efforts engage with the
scotvale community on an even deeper
level and continue to contribute
positively toward City's growth and
reputation one thought I wanted to bring
up was a delucious point of walking um
it's going be a little Bragg andess for
two seconds um but as being in scoto um
since this March I started walking and I
found that I lost 85 pounds doing that
and bringing up this new Campus of
walking sounds pretty important to me I
don't know about other people but
walking is gonna be a really important
thing and having this new campus is
gonna be instrumental but I digress um I
saw as a young professional that trying
to go out of my comfort zone and join a
company who is super in inclusive in
creating a family for the community was
shown to be the best option for me as
someone who took a leap and relocated
here I see axon as a vital part of Scott
sales future and I strongly support this
campus's project I believe this will
create an ease and for new co-workers
who are trying to leave their nest and
be part of something new and
different I'm excited to watch Scout
sales Community continue to grow and
flourish with axon as a foundational
part of the community thank you for your
time and I yield
back thank you Mr WS
uh Mr Harry
Markley good evening Vice chair and uh
members of the commission my name is
Harry
Markley sorry it's a little short is uh
my name is Harry Markley I live at 6900
East Wildcat Drive I am a Scotto
resident um I'm a one of those few
people that was been in Arizona almost
my entire life uh raised in Phoenix I
got to Scottsdale as fast as I could um
I've been here for over 15 years um I am
a retired uh assistant chief from the
Phoenix Police Department and uh after
that I was the law enforcement senior
adviser for the Department of Commerce
the first net Authority um one of our
partners in uh both my previous jobs
City of Phoenix and for the first net
Authority Department of Commerce was
axon a valued partner I can only tell
you that uh I'm sure the city of scill
is facing some of the same challenges
the City of Phoenix is we have hundreds
of vacancies in our Police Department
hundreds and I think one of the great
equalizers for our officers that are on
a street is technology um the ability to
use body cameras the ability to use uh
less lethal items the ability to use
report riding things that make our jobs
more efficient the partnership with axon
and law enforcement has just been
incredible um City of Phoenix was was
the first major city to do full
deployment of the uh the um taser back
in the early 90s I believe it was um and
I was a part of that roll out for the
City of Phoenix so I know the value of
the partnership that they have with law
enforcement um I can tell you that this
campus wish it was in Phoenix it's not
but I live in Scottville now uh but I
can tell you that the value that it
brings to Public Safety um is tremendous
I think the ability for this company to
continue to grow uh and to innovate only
brings more safety and uh more
accountability also important for law
enforcement in the future so thank you
very
much Mr
uh next up we have Miss uh Leslie lurman
thank
you oh yeah uh the next three speakers
are going to be Kendall kajio
Nick vanh and will Sarah so if you could
get ready You' be next up after Miss
lurman go ahead good evening Vice chair
and Commissioners my name is lesie
lurman and uh sorry about the mask but I
haven't caught covid yet and trying not
to uh we have been homeowners in
stoneberg 2 for 22 years Although our
daughter who's a physician trained at
Mayo and her husband actually live there
now before I share my concerns about
this resoning request I want you to
understand that I support
axon its vision and its
growth I also want to thank city council
women Whitehead and janic for
negotiating Improvement to axon's
original plan on behalf of the
neighborhood I also want to congratulate
Rick and his entire team including Eric
Herz who talked in detail to us because
we're sitting next to him on on the
improvements to the plan and your vision
this is going to be a terrific
project but that does not change the
fact that it is too dense for our
neighborhood so you've made great
improvements to the plan and I think
that's going to help but despite the
concessions you've
made the density isn't appropriate for a
place that includes 174 single family
residential
homes I don't think this many apartments
are really necessary particularly with
the number of other apartments nearby
that are coming
online so I'm asking if you couldn't
substantially lower the number of units
that you're planning for the site I know
I represent many of the Stone Brook 2
residents when I say that we want to see
axon build this highquality campus and
continue to succeed and
grow but I'm requesting they don't do as
much damage to the neighborhood as this
number of units would thank you thank
you Miss
lurman uh next up is Kendall kagio
hello I'm Kendall Kio I am an employee
at axon and I a current Scottsdale
resident uh I actually was born and
raised in Scottdale and I absolutely
love this city uh I often joke a lot of
people move here that I've met through
college or through my job at axon and
they always ask me if you had to move
somewhere else where would you go my
answer has remained the same which is I
wouldn't I want to live here um so
seriously that when I went to apply to
colleges I actually only applied to ASU
and thank goodness I got in but I did
not want to leave Arizona I wanted to
stay here and when it came time to apply
to internships I took a similar approach
and I applied to every company I could
find in Scottdale because I wanted to
stay here and that's how I found axon I
started as an intern there and then
after graduating college I moved into
their leadership development program
which focused on developing young Talent
um and from there I've now been at the
company for 5 and a half years and I do
really feel like they have invested in
me and they have helped me grow and
given me great opportunities here so
much so that last year I actually was
able to purchase my first home in
Scottdale which again is the only place
I've ever wanted to live and I never
thought I'd do uh this so young and I'm
very thankful to axon that I've had that
opportunity and I would love to see axon
continue to give these opportunities to
others especially those in
Scottdale as mentioned by many of my
peers here as well the axon campus will
be very beneficial to us it will offer
great new amenities and great new
opportunities for us to continue to
build our culture like we've mentioned
things being walkable places that we can
gather and connect outside of work will
be a great help to us but additionally I
think that this is going to be a huge wi
for Scottdale as well and I think it's
only going to enhance the community and
bring new opportunity to this City
axon's Mission is truly inspiring and
the work that we do really matters and I
would love to see axon and the City of
Scottsdale continue to grow together
thank you thank
you and I apologize your last name uh
Nick vanh is I close Nick Van Hefty but
had you gotten it right you would have
been the first one in my entire life
very good yeah so thank you for your for
the effort there and thank you uh
Commissioners and vice chair for giving
me some time here this evening so my
name is Nick fan Hefty uh my wife Marill
and I live in Scottsdale Stone Brook to
and uh we have two daughters a
5-year-old and a one-year-old we've been
in the neighborhood since about 2019 we
love it and we'll likely never never
leave um we're very unique though in
that my wife works for axon she's been
there for four years so there's probably
nobody else in this room that's going to
offer the same uh same perspective that
uh that we
can and while we respect and appreciate
the concerns of our neighbors um we are
firmly uh in favor of the development as
it's designed today I think Rick and the
axon team would likely admit that
communication and collaboration early on
wasn't great right but as they say it's
not about the mistake that's made it's
about the reaction to it and uh axon's
reaction has been incredible they've
listened to us they've taken our
feedback and worked it into the plans
they've given us an opportunity to come
to the corporate office and see the new
plans and how it would impact our
neighborhood they've built a beautiful
campus that we can walk to you know
Scottsdale is wonderful but it's not the
most walkable city in the world right so
um I look forward to being being able to
have an opportunity to take my children
there for a cup of coffee or my wife on
a date which is really tough with little
ones um so I just want to share kind of
some perspective That's Unique um we
love the neighborhood we believe in Acts
on the mission of the organization It's
a Wonderful organization and I would
also say while we do have some you know
representation here from our HOA and we
get their perspective we're not the only
folks in the neighborhood that are
looking forward to this development
there are others that are just like us
that see accent as a valuable neighbor
and want them to be there long term
thank you very much for your
time thank you um will Sarah is up next
um the next three speakers after you
will be sunny kirtley Jordan greenslade
and Gia
sha good evening uh my name is Will
Sarah thank you Vice chair and
Commissioners for allowing me to speak
today I'm a Scott sale resident and one
of the newest owners in the Scottdale
Stone Brook 2
Community uh um I wanted to say that uh
I'm an army veteran and I worked in
Afghanistan for seven years as a
security contractor and actually used a
and equipment and devices thank you for
that but uh I know axon is a great
company they do great things for the
world but I believe they will continue
to do great things for the world uh
without the
rezoning I've uh presented myself here
to request that the Planning Commission
deny the request for rezoning I feel
that the number of residential units is
very high and will create a a large
density population density issue in the
area the fact that axon is referring to
the addition of almost 2,000 residential
units to their plan as a minor General
plan amendment is in my opinion absurd
when I heard that I almost Zapped myself
with one of Rick's tasers to see if I
was dreaming
the single family homeowners to the
South are concerned with the density
that the amendment would cause and I
humbly request that the Planning
Commission deny the resoning request
thank you for your
time thank you um Miss Sunny
ctly you're
up good evening
Commissioners my name is Sonic kurtley I
represent the cogs board of directors
cogs C of Greater go scotdale where at
all volunteer 18yearold group tracking
and watchdogging land
cases axon is certainly a welcome member
in our community we wish them all the
success you've already successful we do
support the concerns of the airport
Commission on their unanimous opposition
to it at that time they were very
concerned about the traffic the air
traffic pathway over top of the
residential and we also continue to
support the Stonebrook group as a
neighborhood concerned
we appreciate very much the attention
that axon has given to their requests
and we appreciate the change in the road
acts on way we appreciate the reduction
in height but the concern for the
density of the apartments is still there
uh the hotel sounds great we uh hope
that there's a way forward thank
you thank you Miss Curley uh Jordan
greenslade
is up
next good evening Vice chair
Commissioners thank you for the time so
my name is Jordan greenslade I'm here
representing a worker power Institute
which is a nonpartisan nonprofit that
focus on making sure that developers and
local governments are really responsive
to community and uh residents needs and
inputs so originally when this plan was
uh proposed osed a couple plans ago the
hotel was only going to be about a 100
rooms since then the plan has grown to
about over 400 rooms and despite a lot
of concerns by residents over the size
overall of this project it has continued
to
grow while Alexon is spoken a lot about
how a hotel will benefit their goals
it's a little unclear of how this will
benefit the residents that are going to
be most impacted by the the scope and
size of this project in addition as a
couple folks have already mentioned as
well the aviation advisor commission
voted 70 against this project at the
hearing the Commissioners raised
concerns that the development could
threaten the airport's long-term
viability by placing thousands of
residents within the flight path
residents have named many concerns from
the size of the project traffic water
use and I just ask that you listen to
the concerns of the folks that are going
to be most impacted by this by the by
this project the other thing that came
up that we're also interested in is you
know a lot of folks are aware of the
controversy around the amount of money
that was going to be go to the Arizona
state land trust and the sale of public
land we've heard assurances from the
applicant that taxpayers will be made
whole with the the increase in size of
this project and we're interested if
that would be made public and there
could be more transparency to make sure
that taxpayers are being fairly
compensated for the sale of precious
public
lands thank you great thank you
um looks like we've only got three more
speakers total uh G Sean is up next then
we have Lisa Cotler and then Alan
Cotler uh good evening Vice chair and
Commissioners my name is G shanata but I
go by Gaia for convenience and I live at
5607 East here of buen Lane here in
Scottdale I came to Arizona 11 years ago
to study law at ASU and I used to have
the notion that I needed to get out of
state if I wanted to be part of a
community that supported
Innovation growth and plentiful
opportunity however as I went through
law school and got to know the spirit of
the state and the City of Scottdale I
learned that our leaders were focused on
changing Arizona's image of being a
sleepy and stagnant place to to a place
of lively culture plentiful opportunity
and a robust future for its current and
future residents time and time again
this community has supported Innovative
in initiatives to retain High performers
and attract new talent to the state
Innovation is rarely comfortable it by
its definition is novel and forces us to
question whether we want to stay
stagnant or ho an exit exciting and
bountiful Road a vote in favor of axon's
proposed campus is a vote to fulfill the
promise this city and state has made to
its students young families and
residents that this city is invested in
cul in ating a community that has
plentiful opportunity will vote for
projects that will attract more jobs
resources and Innovation and each
resident's choice to come here and stay
here will not be in vain thank
you thank
you uh we have two speakers left Miss
Lisa Cotler and then Alan Cotler
thank you for letting me speak today um
I've heard some comments and and so
first I just want to say about Scott jel
being walkable and it is walkable and it
is ridable um I work for Honor health
and my I work right along the green belt
and the green belt goes all the way
through Scottdale from north of
Westworld all the way down to South
Scottsdale and in addition we have the
Scottsdale Trolley which provides
Transportation all throughout that
Corridor um Scottdale is also now in the
process of becoming a Blue Zone which is
um a project to help promote um health
and vitality and Longevity and so um
there are a lot of Opp um opportunities
for walking and in that Arena on the
subject of axon um I'm A scoto Stone
Brook 2 Resident have been living there
for over 26
years I'm here to voice my concerns over
the proposed resoning of the parcel of
land on the Southeast corner of Loop 101
and Hayden Road first and foremost this
land was zoned for light industrial
strictly prohibiting residential
development the owners of the other
three corners of this intersection have
abided by these zoning laws why should
this section be any different why would
one business owner deserve special
treatment I'd like to put some
perspective on this proposal and why the
rezoning request should be
denied number one expansion and growth
are positive aspects of any business and
benefits not only
businesses but its customers and the
community it serves however this
proposed expansion which includes
residential will not benefit the
community our community
Rick Smith and axon proposed a live work
play Community where his employees live
walking distance away from their
workplace but what high salaried
employee would want to live in an
apartment versus a luxury home and for
that matter what lower paid line
employee earning minimum wage could
afford Scottsdale rental
prices living on a campus where you work
is often referred to as a commune or a
cult I don't think that aligns with
Scottsdale's Vision character or
lifestyle number two let's put the
population density in perspective we
already have land zoned for residential
purposes and land is being utilized the
example most notably being the Scottdale
Road
Corridor axon is proposing a 10un
decrease
or. 5% decrease in density of their
apartment complex just north of this
costell Stonebrook 2 Community a
neighborhood of 170 single family homes
there are already multiple apartment
complexes in the area that are in
compliance with zoning laws and height
restrictions to preserve the scenic
views of The mcdal sorin Preserve this
proposed apartment complex is four
stories high and will add 4,000 to 6,000
more residents as most apartment
complexes have one two and three bedroom
units this area simply cannot support
the traffic nor the increased population
density from their proposed residential
Community this is the reason the airport
commission unanimous ously oppose the
resoning request I as a resident of scil
Stone Brook 2 am also strongly opposed
to the resoning request and urge you to
vote against approving this request
thank you for allowing me the
opportunity to voice my concerns thank
you Miss
CER uh Mr Allan Cotler you looks looks
like you're our last speaker
Alan Cutler 8108 East Michelle Drive
Scottdale so I live in Stone Brook too
and my question again is the zoning so
if
you change the Zoning for axon what's
going to happen the next developer comes
in they're going to want a changing of
the zoning and then the next developer
comes in they're going to come want hey
you did it for axon you can do it for us
then what's the point of zoning why even
have zoning
that's all I want to
say all right thank you Mr
CER um first of all I want to say thank
you for everybody that came to speak
tonight in favor and in opposition of
the case I Know It uh it's not always
the most comfortable thing to get up
there and speak at the podium but I
appreciate and we all appreciate your
points of view um Mr helal uh would you
like to respond to any other questions
or comments um
sure I would um I I'll keep it fairly
brief as you may have more conversations
with us as well um is it possible to put
our presentation back
up perfect thank you uh it as you sort
of alluded to it I think one of the nice
things about Scottsdale is everybody
loves Scottdale and I think that that's
true here as well and I'm grateful that
people have taken notice I think staff
did a great job at presenting the facts
so I'm not going to go all of over all
of them I think Greg pointed out in the
beginning where already a 23% reduction
in in density we've we've worked hard to
create a new road system that while
causes us some angst um I think one of
the things we've heard is it it is
appreciated by the neighbors so I'm glad
that we've done
that the awkward part about many of the
questions before everyone is that Stone
Brook although it may be built as single
family is it's multifam zoning and the
land that we're talking about here today
is in fact industrial zoning and as we
discussed earlier it could easily become
in fact has the right to become an
industrial facility which is most likely
going to be a fulfillment center um we
don't think that's the best use and so
we have worked hard to find a way to to
sort of work together to find a solution
that would allow us to build here that
would allow us to recruit the best
people in the world and I'm really proud
of the products we build I'm even proud
of of the people that work for axon that
come here and talk about what's
important to them
them we're we're biased of course and we
think we build the best technology in
the world and hopefully a lot of people
believe that and I appreciate uh some of
the folks from law enforcement who have
said that person and
writing but we make the best technology
in the world because we have the best
people in the world and in the end it's
that simple and we have to continue to
bring the best people and this is a tool
that we will use to bring the best
people to Scottsdale so that we can
continue to build the best technology to
continue to increase our offerings and
you know the the the world of law
enforcement always a bit is a bit Cat
and Mouse um we find out a solution and
and the criminals tend to find a new way
and we continue to find new technology
at axon that that makes law enforcement
certainly safer and certainly more
efficient and that's our goal in the end
and um we have a few things I want to
cover briefly
however the uh presentation seems stuck
there we
Goot yeah and I want to make sure it's
responding
first I think he's he's got the mouse
from the control Oz somewhere here is
helping me thank you I see there is no
curtain but it has the same practical
effect
uh briefly I do want to say a few things
here in terms of the street I think that
that our goal was and we heard about
Mark Taylor and you know Mark Taylor's
multif family next to multif family
although Hayden Road is in between it is
a much closer build it's one of the
reasons it's one of the things that we
heard is that the three-story building
Mark Taylor was too close which is why
we're significantly greater in distance
from Mark Taylor excuse me from the
neighborhood so the neighborhood
association I'm going to find I think if
this continues to
work an exhibit that will will show this
but the reason
we're 400 and some feet 420 feet from
from the neighbors wall is because we
heard that complaint we heard that Mark
Taylor was too close and so we took the
building that was a hotel and we made it
condos and we moved it far enough away
that from a visual angle you wouldn't
see it from a site angle you wouldn't
see it and and it's why it's much far
than Mark Taylor which is also three
stories our story our building is three
stories and then four stories and
doesn't get to five stories until you
get AC cross act on
way wonder if Oz could help me there we
go
um my
email oh it's going to be all way to the
end this okay we had it there
I I don't want to be labor the point
here you can tell how close you could be
if you were uh industrial and I think
that's a pretty big point that if we're
not able to build the campus what comes
is unfortunately a lot less
desirable we took that in mind and and
heard the comments about the street
about the building locations about the
building uses and created something that
was significant I don't know that I have
the actual exhibit that I was hoping for
all the way to
theend well I why don't you talk about
this yeah you take this and I'll take
the other after so um first I'd like to
say I really do appreciate all the kind
words uh not only from our employees but
from people that are exposing other
views so thank you and uh also I
appreciate that you know the
acknowledgement we've been listening
we're really trying to be good neighbors
um okay on the question of home values
this came up last time around and so I
wanted to look at this so we went out we
did a quick study on what happens when a
Tech campus comes to town um and so we
started looking at Apple's headquarters
in in copertino which was also a huge
project uh and the Orange Line shows you
the property values in Cupertino close
to Apple's headquarters the red line is
the control for the rest of California
and while California went up there's a
significant increase and in fact the
closer you get to Apple's headquarters
the more pronounced the increase in home
value is and you're right not
everybody's going to want to live in
apartments condos you met some of the
people who do like Jacob probably isn't
ready to buy a house yet but when those
people do become ready to buy a house
boy there's some really nice houses are
a nice walk from our campus that I think
there'll be tremendous demand if you
want to be able to walk to work and have
a pool in a house um same thing happened
in Redmond Washington when Microsoft
came to town uh now similarly we also
looked at what happens when industrial
use and in particular the most like the
fastest growing industrial use case
right now or distribution centers uh so
this is a study out of University of the
South that found when fulfillment
centers come in property values actually
get depressed and it's pretty obvious
because those super annoying backup
beeping sounds that you can't turn off
on an 18 wheeler all through the night
and pollution and other concerns so I
wanted to just take that one uh head on
I actually think your homes are a great
investment and we think will bring real
value to it um was this the other thing
you want to talk to this or me talk
to just wanted to make the point that
one of the things the neighbors asked
for was to be separated enough that they
wouldn't see the condos I I understand
why they don't like the Mark Taylor
Community although that was certainly
permitted under uh the zoning districts
in place at the time and and even today
um we moved intentionally far enough
away that that you wouldn't see based on
not only the distance but in our case
we've put significant rows of trees
there are trees behind the neighbors
there are are trees between axon and the
residential units and and there are
multiple rows of trees as you can see
through the landscape plan this is one
of the most heavily planted properties I
think that you will see for for some
time and and that's another point you
know there's an awful lot of landscaping
here way more than required by code and
when people say well it's too much I
think you have to look at what's on the
site this is ultimately one of the very
few actual mixed use sites in in
Scottsdale started out is over 77 Acres
a piece of that is streets those streets
now much to the neighbors suin go right
against the neighborhood we're moving
those streets but they're about the same
uh but this has real mixed use it has a
fire station it has Civic uses the water
facility it has research and development
it has office use it will have Hotel use
it will have residential use it will
have commercial use and all of those
things fit in part because it's a 77
site that's just a huge site and so I
think you can see from this piece that
we've we've taken time to understand
what they said what the neighbors said
and really tried to address it you've
had long presentations from staff you've
had you've given us extra time if there
are things specifically you'd like me to
address I'm happy to do it thanks Mr H
manle um I guess I'd like to open it up
to the commission now if you've got any
questions or comments that you'd like to
ask the applicant or
staff yes thank you sir
um just to clarify uh this is a question
for
Joe um the attorney
um I I'm I assume that you have I'm sure
that you've reviewed all of this
application and I I can't believe that
there's anything requested that is not
um something that's entitled by law
that okay the zoning request for a
change that's compliant with
um what's Allowed by law is that true I
mean there's there's no case
where we have said well we're going to
change this even though it doesn't
comply with the law is that fair to
say yes I would be fair to say there has
been determinations by City staff uh on
are you talking about whether this is a
major minor Amendment that's something
well or just even requesting a change I
mean okay it's not the original zoning
but um it's my understanding that by law
they are allowed to request a change to
zoning C certainly that they are allowed
to request a change of zoning from one
uh District to another yes and they
haven't gone outside of what's Allowed
by
law I'm not aware of them
uh making an application
uh that would be in violation of any uh
State Statute city ordinance
right thank
you thank you commissioner um
commissioner Scaro you have questions uh
thank you Vice chair uh for the
applicant uh if you could please uh
expand on the comments given to us by uh
I'm going to mess this up because my
handwriting is horrible uh Jordan green
slide I apologize if I messed that up
but
uh in terms of the state land trust can
you please uh provide some clarity on
what axon is doing in regards to that
sure we have been working with the state
land department and the city um I don't
think it's a surprise to anyone the city
agenda for next week is I believe public
and posted and the um agenda on Tuesday
night before the council will include
our case but it will also include a
modification of of the state and the
city's agreement and uh we have
agreed with the state that we would pay
additional funds to the state land
Department to compensate them for the
additional units that we're acquiring
and and that will be before the city
council in fact this Tuesday excuse me
next Tuesday at the same time the
council here's the
case could you also uh talk more about
the traffic impacts this project has uh
I think we have a real clear
understanding on how Mayo Boulevard is
being addressed and how you're uh
reducing the impact on the adjacent
residence but uh maybe you could please
speak to how axon Boulevard is is going
to be impacting traffic I can also Dan
you're um I don't know what your title
is these days you have several of them
at the moment but uh Dan is here as well
and I think it's probably best to have
him talk about some of it what I will
tell you is that the city will be worse
if we don't come in and build the
improvements but Dan do you mind
providing an answer and like a comment
on it
by the way the city of Scottsdale
traffic staff and AD do we've met
probably a dozen times or more since the
last meeting to find Solutions we we
tried very different routes we we came
to a version that we thought protected
the neighborhood as they had asked but
also improved the rest of Scottsdale as
well which is not an easy task because
in in some cases by helping the
neighbors you hurt everyone else and in
other other cases you hurt the neighbors
by helping everyone else and so we work
to find a street effort looking at at
many versions collaboratively that
really did both that gave the neighbors
the privacy in terms of a drive that
they had been asking for including
moving the traffic further away from
their neighborhood which happened
significantly and not causing problems
but in fact improving traffic for the
rest of the
city uh good evening Vice chair
Commissioners my name is uh danworth I
am the Public Works director for the
city of scale transportation group falls
into my department uh as Charles just
mentioned we've been working on uh
reviewing and improving their initial
traffic impact mitigation analysis or
tment report um for for some time now I
think we've gone through four uh comment
and uh resubmittal Cycles uh and are uh
very close to having uh something that
we're 100% comfortable with um we're
we're probably at 98 now and there's
there's a couple of places
where uh what they propose works but we
want to figure out if maybe we can work
better and those two places are at
Hayden and the 101 and Hayden and axon
uh Drive the old maale um and those
intersections both involve ADOT um
obviously the freeway is adot's
concerned and what happens at that
freeway interchange can affect what
happens at Hayden and and Aon way uh so
ADOT is a party of those discussions as
well uh which uh adds a little bit of
time and complexity that's why we
haven't totally nailed that down but
we're confident that we can uh what the
analysis does um looks at their external
their internal traffic impacts um most
you're going to care about the external
impacts we looked at impacts at seven
different intersections on Hayden
princess and perimeter uh and at two
freeway intersections the one I
mentioned at the Hayden Road and the 101
and then the other one that we looked at
was the uh
Pima princess
interchange um we looked at a future
year uh 2030 was the model year that we
used uh we had them build um uh results
a level of service analysis level of
service is a measure of delay at
intersections uh we had them do that for
the uh situation where they build their
project and the situation where they
don't build their project um for for
means of comparison um but both of those
situations uh involve uh taking existing
current traffic uh adding some traffic
uh almost an inflation Factor because
traffic increases regardless of of what
happens um so current traffic add some
traffic to account for increases and
then they added the effects of five
additional developments including uh
their own phase one U which is already
approved uh and uh the Optima um uh
development which is under construction
now to the West as well as three other
proposed developments in that crossroads
East area so they're accounting for the
traffic from all those other
developments the results of that study
at the seven intersections all of them
operate uh at acceptable levels of
service well within the city's standard
for the level of service that we look at
for our signalized intersections at the
two interchanges uh first the Pima
princess interchange um there's delays
at several of the approaches at the Pima
Prince interchange
uh but the differences between the build
and the no build scenario are negligible
uh it's far enough away and lacks direct
connections to the uh to the Exxon
proposed development uh that the
development really doesn't do anything
to the uh uh pimo princess interchange
the Hayden interchange uh there are
impacts U but with the proposed
mitigation and again we're looking at
making this even better but with the
mitigation that uh the the applicant
proposed uh we go from a future
condition without the project being
built uh where we have uh an F level of
service at U the westbound ramps onto
the freeway uh which is not acceptable
uh and uh their mitigation reduces that
to uh or or improves that to a d level
of service uh so the no build scenario
build scenario the build scenario if
they build their project it'll be better
uh and that's because as part of their
project uh we're stipulating that they
add capacity to hayen Road between axon
way and the freeway we're stipulating
that they make improvements to The
Interchange and to the uh intersection
at axon to get it to an acceptable level
of service uh and the improvements that
they're proposing add left turn capacity
which is the big uh approach that causes
problems um which which we feel will uh
will address that issue and give us a
better situation uh than if if we didn't
M those improvements so uh with that I
hope uh that wasn't too terribly
confusing I'd be happy not confusing
very informative I I appreciate very
much I assume there's been no study done
uh on this parcel should it be a
fulfillment center I assume that just
hasn't been done but could you
anecdotally speak to whether the traffic
would be worse or better or about the
same as an Exxon development here uh
you're correct that there's been no
analysis of that because we've not had
that proposed uh and the analysis is
generally done by the the applicant uh I
could make some very general
observations about it but uh obviously
there' be heavy truck traffic um but um
um I really can't give you any
details okay thank you uh Mr humle Mr
Smith uh could you please speak to the
ownership approach for the condos
apartments and restaurants as part of
this
campus sure uh you
know we're early on in the process and
we'll have to come back for each stage
first of all to be clear each building
that we want to do whether it's the
hotel or apartment building or the
condos will have to come back not to you
but through the the planning excuse me
the design review process for each of
those things and so there'll be a lot
more finality that will come in um we
will not we will not have a commune uh
to to make that point clear uh we will
partner with the appropriate people to
build things that work for us and work
for the community so they won't be axon
branded they won't be only axon
employees that would not make sense um
we want all of these things to be open
to the public for example the hotel when
we have conferences it's going to
probably be all of our people probably
won't be open for outside people in
those States but that's not different
than other hotels that block out things
for
conferences when we don't have
conferences those hotel rooms will be
available on the market just like
everyone else uh again for the first
building of uh residential um probably
the second building we're we're going to
be focused on making sure that our
employees have places that are going to
get priority um as we bring in
restaurants we're going to bring in
restaurants that prioritize what works
first for our employees and for the
campus they'll be open for others um and
some of those things probably require
some subsidy to make them successful but
that's an investment not only in the
campus but the people and and the
environment thank you uh you kind of led
to my next question and I think I have
the answer already but I'd like you to
explain it further but can you walk me
through all of the public accessible
amenities that you're offering it sounds
like restaurants people would have the
right to come in and use these
restaurants even if they're not aart
yeah absolutely it's a great question
fact we hope that that's the case we
hope we have outside people too um we
have a number of things that we've
designed specifically to amenities for
example there's a mile and a half
running track that goes around the
campus it didn't before that's one of
the things we heard we have a dog park
that will be open also for residents in
fact we intentionally moved it away from
from the residents originally thought it
might be nicer to have it closer but Jim
Smith who's here and Designs a lot of
parks reminded me that they may not want
to be close to a dog park so we moved
that away but it would also be open to
the residents the things that probably
won't be open to the residents are our
building our headquarters building and
the hotel on certain occasions but the
restaurants the the shops the walking
paths even the food trucks that will be
under the area connecting the two the
hotel and the office building those
things will all be open to the public
public okay I want to make that you were
saying residents and now public so all
scasa residents or any general public
would have access to these the the
running track the dog park the
restaurants that's right not just Stone
Brook anywhere in Scottdale that we
would expect people to come I think
Stone book probably makes the most sense
because people will be able to walk over
and we've included a walking path to
make it easier for them to do so um in
many communities now um people see
restaurants as amenity and I think that
would be the case here as well thank you
uh I like the idea that uh Mr Smith
proposed in terms of building a burm
between mayo and and axon to uh have
additional buffering with some mosquite
trees I I'll leave it to my learned
colleague here who's a landscape
architect if that's the the right call
but that sounds reasonable to me uh if
you could Mr humle can you please uh
walk me through the two requests uh the
50% Max for residential on the first
floor to 58% would you walk through that
one and then if you could uh follow that
also with why we're you're now asking
for an
exclusive a the building height
exclusive of uh rooftop apperances
that's right uh I'll try to take them
both at the same time uh the reduction
is really designed to to figure out how
we've got a lot
of it's a pretty unique mixed use
concept we we have office research and
Design manufacturing we have City uses
and we have residential uses part of the
reason for the density and the need for
the seven restaurants those things go
together if you don't have enough people
restaurants don't work businesses don't
survive without enough people and so we
tried to tried to figure out a couple of
things how to get critical mass how to
get walkable areas and and places where
people would really congregate and in
the end what we decided is the area I'm
pointing at the screen that doesn't help
you at all but the area walking from
from Axon uh West through building D
through the hotels uh and then into the
The Pedestrian area between buildings B
and C we've we've put a lot of our
resources in terms of walkable areas
there in other areas there isn't as much
opportunity for residential so we've
tried to find this mix as to where we
would want walkability and less
residential on the ground floor in
places where would want more walkability
on the ground floor and specifically
what we did was came up came up with a
site plan we figured out what that was
and then we we amended the standards
accordingly in discussions with Greg the
second question is is height um I think
part of the reason we we have um changed
height over time and and tried to work
through that is we really this was not
the site plan we came with originally we
moved the street significantly further
to the north and doing so we really work
to do two things to to help height as it
relates to the neighbors and further one
of the things that was brought up
earlier was the airport and we worked
with the airport uh Gary mcara the
director to lower the buildings that
were closest to the um to the airport
and to move them further away so that
had a dual goal of helping neighbors and
also helping the
airport great uh if you could also sort
of walk me through building E I
apologize I don't recall which citizen
had mentioned it but uh with the reduced
height on a portion of building e looks
Southern uh portion of that building
would be at a a lower level is that also
good is that part of the building also
looking for a building height exclusive
of rooftop perces or is that Building
height along that nor Southern portion
of e uh uh static height uh well build
so the the reduction uh the height
limitation is the height limitation but
in Building E we have done two things
things we've moved it to four stories
along axon way and then three stories in
the southern portion as I look at this
today you see a number two in a number
14 on the bottom that portion is three
stories the building further north is
four stories and so I I don't know if
we've addressed that specifically in the
application but obviously we're going to
want as as little as possible on the
rooftop of the three story because the
before story will see it 100% so if I'm
understanding correctly the the southern
half is three story the northern half of
building e south of of axon is four
story that's right and then once you go
past axon then you step up again to five
stories that's right so you already have
stepped down the buildings as it
approaches the residential absolutely
neighborhood intentionally okay uh and
then you you talked about the uh uh
airport area uh the airport advisory
commission we we know they're standing
you obviously made some changes here to
the C planed where the residential
buildings are and the height of of
building e has dropped or at least the
building height in that area has dropped
now it's a different product hotel or
residential versus hotel has any of that
been communicated to that advisory
commission or the city and has there
been any further communication uh in
regards to air traffic issues yeah my my
understanding I had Direct conversations
with the airport director and I so he
definitely knows about those things
whether he communicated with the
commission or not I don't know no that
would be beyond my purview but I know
the city has a consultant I know we
supplied information for the consultant
and the consultant thought that what we
were doing was better than what we had
done before in other words it was an
improvement for the
airport okay uh that's all the questions
I have for now I'll yield to the other
members sorry for taking so long thank
you um is there anybody else that would
like to
speak are we voting no we're open for
deliberation questions yes I do okay
commissioner
Joiner thank you very much and thank you
to the neighbors and to all the axon
employees that are here and to everybody
that's listening
online um to the gentleman that said why
do we have
zoning if we're going to change things
that are in the zoning and um I've been
involved in zoning and planning for over
20 years and I bet I've seen 10 cases
that were perfect so every case is a
tweak to get the best we can possibly
get out of the developer and add value
to the
city
um no one ever wants to have the land
the vacant land that's ajacent to their
home developed I know when my husband
and I built our home we had three acres
of open gorgeous desert and we actually
tried to buy it we couldn't we couldn't
afford it but it broke our heart when
somebody built on it but that's just the
way it is and um one thing that the
traffic gentleman didn't comment
is you always have to ask your question
if not this then what and they could
build a lot of uh Bays that are going to
have uh semi trcks coming and I do want
to remind everybody that on the corner
of Puma princess we have the Mac
currently under construction that is
going to have nothing but semis going in
and out and um so that is something that
everybody needs to
understand um I've seen this application
mature over the last two years and um
every time it has gotten better and I I
really commend axon and its staff and
the neighbors for being so open and
working and um it's always a negotiation
of what can we get versus what are they
willing to give and um I would tell you
that what they're giving is a tremendous
asset to the
city uh I've seen axon continue to tweak
their case as the neighbors have given
input and the citizens have given input
and city council I know city council has
been heavily involved in
this um last week I actually walked
along Mayo Boulevard all the way from
Hayden to the end where the road curves
all the houses that AB but that burm are
below grade so right now there is no
view from those windows to this land and
axon is proposing yet another burm that
will further uh protect that particular
row of
houses um I love the fact that there's
going to be on-site restaurants because
as we heard many of the employees talk
uh when I I am retired now but when I
worked I had to get in my car I had to
drive someplace to go get lunch if I
hadn't brought lunch and the fact that
the um employees and residents actually
are going to have the opportunity to
walk through a beautiful uh green area
to a restaurant hopefully a pizza
restaurant will be going in
there
um the hotel um last night city council
heard a case about Hotel parking and
traffic and I actually learned some
things because I found that many Hotel
residents actually come via Uber so
they're not bringing traffic in there
and this particular
Hotel uh is going to be used to bring in
people that are coming to axon for
training potentially buy their products
uh Institute their safety issues into
their various cities so those people are
going to come in an Uber they're not
going to they might rent a car or
whatever but that hotel is actually
going to generate less traffic than we
would think and that was supported last
night in city council by uh individuals
that talked about hotel parking and
traffic um a comment about home values
um 20 years ago I was the
planning uh chairman for the city of
Chandler when Intel came and and uh if
you guys aren't unhappy about axon you
should have seen what we dealt with when
Intel came in which was an industrial
area and it took us three years to
negotiate that and it was highly
contentious and I can tell you that I
called several of my realtor friends
that are still in Chandler down there
and um housing prices have gone up
300% there is unbelievable development
going in around there Intel has actually
increased the value of all the homes in
that area and the residents and the
employees that come in
there um the one thing that I've heard
that I I kind of am in uh agreement with
you I'm a little worried about the the
phasing because it when you phase
something that much you increase the
costs and um it
also uh length the time of construction
and there's no doubt about it
construction
adds drama to a neighborhood what you're
hoping for is that at the end that the
end result will be worth it I'm thrilled
Pima Road is finally done I complained
um mercifully while it was being done
but it's beautiful now so it's sort of
like
childbirth a lot of pain but it you
ultimately get something positive out of
it so um you know I hope going to work
with staff on that I don't know what the
other Commissioners think about that but
um I would I'm not a favor of the
phasing I think you should just build
the
place
um I think that's all my comments so
thank you thank you commissioner
Gonzalez thank you very much Mr Smith I
want to thank you for bringing this to
Scott
mhm this is an very important thing that
he's bringing here we're lucky that he's
from here he knows what it's like here
he's bringing something that most places
like atin all other cities would give
everything
for this is a driver an economic driver
the city of Scottsdale cannot determine
and not live solely on tourism ISM we
never can really really depend on that
totally we must have different
developments come in here and supplement
the income for the
city we've had the state dictate to us
what you know removing rental taxes the
state the city is losing money over this
kind of a situation we need these
economic drivers to be able to afford
the life lifestyle and the lives that we
want here in scoto that we expect and
really what we're paying
for so the other part of it is is that
knowing
developers if we if we look at this this
sort of development and see what it
really is a single use development a
single use user developer is so much
better than having a developer who is
driven by cost and pricing come into our
area and develop this site there's very
few companies that can afford to do
something like this and if you segmented
out to different developers you're going
to have a mishmash of different
complexes you're going to have mixed
juice you're going to have residential
you're going to have maybe even more
density than you that that he's bringing
forward now we have no way of knowing
what this really is going to look like
if we don't find a single user to
develop this area this is a
comprehensive put together development
that is not so price driven that they're
going to cut
Corners the other point of it is is that
because it's zoned industrial right
now if you do not look at some sort of
residential use or somebody who's going
to step up to do this then we're going
to be forced to looking at a bunch of
concrete tilt panel
boxes and I can tell you that does not
look well on your investment for your
property I am a realtor I'm also a
developer and I understand what drives
our prices in our marketing I also have
an appraisal company I know what the
values look like when you have these
type of situations
in the long run we're all going to
succeed in this if we're able to be able
to find a single use developer build
something and he not only is he building
it for himself but he's going to live in
this area he's going to be part of this
area and he's going to hear from the
city if he doesn't follow the rules so
I'm an admin supporter of this project
mainly because of those situations I can
understand the residents's question
and I understand what you know what
happens with the airport commission they
are they are uh looking out for
themselves which they are supposed to do
they protect the airport but as far as
development or anything else they really
don't understand nor do they have an
appreciation for what the rest of the
city has to do to protect itself so
therefore I'm in support of this project
because of those issues thank you
thank you uh commissioner ell you have
another question uh not a question
except when what are we going to talk
about the um the the U additional
stipulation to U phase in you you have
the floor okay um I appreciate uh
commissioner Joiner saying let's get rid
of them
entirely um
I would be in favor of that I think the
bill would not uh do we need to work
something out or do we just drop it well
uh me it's open for
discussion well two of us would like to
not have it at all sure well I mean that
could certainly be that could certainly
be a motion uh to be consider okay well
I'm not making a motion yet
I but I'm impressed you know I I
normally look at any major project like
this from you know using
um categories you know you know when you
first look at it you know that it's
going to conform to the general plan and
to um the law it doesn't come to us
unless it's been vetted by staff so you
know my question to Joe about you know
is this legal I just wanted to get that
out in the open that um there's nothing
underhanded about this nobody used that
word underhanded but it's just the idea
that okay the zoning is there but also
part of zoning is how you change it
negotiation negotiation but not
negotiation just between you and me but
within the law I mean there's there's
limits and they abide by that uh so I
look at it from the point of view as
Aesthetics amenities and
economics um Aesthetics we've talked
about um this will look good um
I say the heights are reasonable I
understand um they're it's higher than
what is there now at least South not
higher than what's there West um but
they're reasonable lots of open space
amenities uh this is a resident friendly
project we're going to have more
residents uh what can be more friendly
to Residents than to accommodate
residents um restaurants I notice
everybody says live work I don't I'm
German I'm from the Midwest it's work
live environment
uh and what that does it mitigates
traffic as has been said by others uh
economics you know there's more money
for schools and you and other things um
boost for local retail um the traffic
gets
better um I was beginning to hesitate
when um U Dan said we haven't approved
everything yet but he did
say I'm not putting words in your mouth
correct me if I am it's fine the way it
is but we can make it a little bit finer
um if we tweak it some more but it works
the way it is it's better than what it
is today it's better than what it would
be in the future if this didn't get
built um I forgotten now if the city had
to buy the land for the fire station at
Market or if they got it a little
cheaper um but I know that you know the
infrastructure that's being provided is
basically a subsidy to the city so
that's good we're you know we're getting
money off of that so to speak but some
might say that my Approach is just too
analytical and too rational uh perhaps
there's a broader way to look at it and
I I would interject that I appreciate
homeowners to the South
that say this isn't what we signed up
for um I can empathize and I probably
told this story before but I'm an old
man I get to tell stories over and over
again um my father built a house it was
a Southwestern Territorial and you think
what's so you unique about that this was
in Ohio he built a Southwestern
territorial house and um there's nothing
around it and
then they started putting in
subdivisions over there subdivisions
over there subdivisions back there over
here they got rid of the cornfield
eventually and put in uh uh retail and
and
warehouses um the impact on my father
was that okay there's a lot more asphalt
so there's a lot more rain that comes
down and has to run into the creek that
went right past our house and began
flooding so the state's answer was well
we're going to take your house level it
and put in a retention Pond
um but you know there was more of them
people in the subdivisions than there
were of you know my
father as commissioner Joiner has said
you know that stuff happens it it's not
fair but it happens so you know from a
personal experience I can empathize but
as I look back at
this I had just read what our mayor
elect had written in her acceptance um
statement two two questions that she put
in there will we build homes and
communities that organically grow
welcoming
neighborhoods and will we attract
businesses and Industry that add not
only jobs but also contribute to our
quality of
life and then I read a comment
from a public comment from a u Morgan
sin uh who sent this in he says over the
years I'm just going to excerpt some
pieces of it over the years I've
developed many favorites related to this
city whether it's the schools I attended
the parks I played in or at
axon um excuse me the businesses I
frequented in the past year I found the
new Ultimate favorite axon at axon I
found a sense of community that is
unmatched by any employer I've ever had
uh um skipping down a bit today I think
of Scottdale as my forever home I plan
to raise a family here buy a house and
build my career the new axon campus will
bring significant benefits to both
Scottdale and the surrounding Community
the axon campus will not only
boost um the local economy but also
provide job opportunities and help keep
axon deeply rooted in
Scottsdale when I think about the future
I find myself asking why would I ever
leave I can't wait to build my future
here in
Scottdale and that's what I see in this
project um not just the analytics but
this builds
Community it's a change in the community
but it still builds community so that's
why I support this
project thank you commissioner tell um
maybe just following up on a couple of
things that he mentioned about the the
phasing and I know we've got some
representatives from different
Departments of the city here from water
maybe Wastewater um to talk about you
know how that timing of that phasing
impacts the construction of these types
of phasing because I mean we understand
now that there's not the infrastructure
in place right now for this to be built
all at once um so so maybe we could have
somebody uh speak to that um that
subject if possible
while that's happening I might offer a
suggestion too we're willing to live
with this and if there if there's a
difference of opinion I suppose you
could recommend it with an opportunity
for staff to work with us more before we
get to council to see what is is a
possible outcome sure but we're
certainly willing to live with what
we've proposed
right well I would say infrastructure is
one thing I mean if you can't build the
infrastructure sure then you can't build
the project but this is an additional
incumbrance if you will uh to say well
regardless of how fast you can get the
sewers in or whatever we don't want you
occupying the property until you know
those dates so I would
say I would prefer to get rid of the
dates and let the the
construction uh dictate when you take
occupant or get permitted for
occupancy okay
commissioner young would you please
restate your question well I guess my
question is how does
the because I in the way I understand
there's probably a pump station that's
going to have to be constructed uh for
for delivery of water to the site um
there's also going to be Wastewater
concerns uh as far as infrastructure
with that I know those things don't
happen overnight um and things sometimes
take a little longer than expected uh
especially with these types of CIP
projects I'm just curious if there's any
relationship to the phasing timing
versus actual constructibility of of all
these different elements that are going
to be needed for the project yes
commissioner young my name is Scott Mars
I'm the director of engineering with
Scottdale water there is a relationship
however both Water and Sewer
infrastructure that's needed to support
All Phases of this project will be
designed and constructed early in those
phases okay thank you that answered my
question
question there any other comments or
questions Vice chair if I
may was the phasing your idea or was
that a
compromise uh how did the phasing come
up because that's something new it is it
is not our idea although to be clear
we're okay with it because we we will
build it in phases and when we have a
agreed with things we we stand by our
word you know would we like to build
faster sure will that be possible you
know I don't know and I think um one of
the positive things that has come out of
our continuance
is really detailed work with staff your
transportation staff but also your water
uh infrastructure staff that kind of
different parties within the city some
handle delivery and some handle removal
I suppose probably a less nice way to
say it
and and all those things sort of have to
work and as a project would normally
come about those things would happen
more particularly as we come forward
with the building for example we have a
435 room hotel and you know it could be
a little bit different it could be 430
rooms and and and you know those things
could change and so we'll have more
particulars as we move down the road and
I suppose there are some scenarios where
the city is prepared for the next phase
or the next two phases or the next three
phases in some scenarios where maybe
after the first phase they're not and so
I think we're open to having Dialogue on
on what the phasing will be because we
know there are additional conversations
to come and I think over the last
several months
um you you didn't see Dan and I up here
together at the last meeting but you did
this time uh that's progress well we've
just heard case after case at City
Council on how time added significant
cost to project there's no question we
would like to move faster I my my
personal feeling is I would like us to
take the phasing off and leave that up
to you and City staff to come up with
what works best for you so so we we have
made we've made the offer um we would be
willing to live with it would we prefer
it no I think at this point it makes
sense for us to leave it to the
commission to
decide okay whoever makes a motion first
is probably going to have some some
success then I would then I would like
to make a motion well before we do that
I just just want to make a few comments
um I let you all
speak um so we we've had you know a lot
of different points of view here and and
I said this before in other Planning
Commission meetings that you know a
person's home is is typically the single
largest investment they're going to make
in their life um that's near and dear to
them I would say from what I'm seeing
here with this application that this
company this is going to be one of their
single largest Investments that they're
going to make
also um there's been a lot of asks by
the neighbors and I think that axon has
been um you know I would say there was a
little bit of probably a stumble at the
first application and it got continued
and I think there was a lot of work
that's been done between now and then uh
I I think I know more about axon than
any other case that I've ever heard
before because it's gone on for so long
and um they were kind enough to host a a
tour of their facility that I went to
last week to really understand what it
is they do uh it's really an Innovative
company I was I was thoroughly impressed
with everything that I saw there um you
know there's been a a lot of hurdles
that you've had to go through the
neighbors had a a laundry list of things
that they'd like to see
changed I had Apartments built you know
a mile from my house Scottdale Road in
mcdal Scottdale and trot I thought oh my
goodness it's going to bring a crazy
amount of
traffic I I don't see the cars I don't
know where these people are if they're
all working from their Apartments but um
you know it's it's one of those thing
it's a perceived thing that with the
density you're going to get so much more
traffic so much more activity but you
know I understand that you know there's
going to be a a dynamic to this campus
that's going to be Central to this
campus that there is going to be
activity um with the the mixed juice the
restaurants the retail um the the the
dog park the walking trails the open
space there's there's so many um
interesting things that this this
project is is providing um to I would
say the the the localized area and and
Scottsdale as a whole I think it's a
wonderful company um so I guess with
that I would just like to say uh I
appreciate all the the the strides that
you've made uh I think this project has
come a long way I think it's much better
now than it was uh before um and and
with that I
will conclude my comments and entertain
a motion if there's no further
deliberation or
questions did did you have are we are we
at the point where we going to make a
motion sure okay sure um but I'll say
first that continuance that happened
last February that the newspaper said
because we demanded more information no
we just wanted to provide more time to
work things out between axon and
transportation and the water department
but at any rate okay make a motion am I
reading from the right
thing this is why I should never do this
does he need to address the time
extension first no it's not in here it's
not in there it's not in here he he can
make a motion and then he could make
stipulations with that motion or
amendments or so I would make a motion
for recommendation of approval to city
council for case 3 GP 2023 per the staff
recommended
stipulations after finding that the
proposed General plan amendment is
consistent and conforms with the adopted
General plan and the greater Air Park
plan I should roll in the other one as
well right you're a whole motion make a
motion for a recommendation of approval
to city council for case 13 ZN 2020
number two after after finding that the
PCD criteria have been and that have
been met and that the proposed zoning
distribu District map Amendment and
development plan are consistent and
conform with the adopted General plan
and the greater Air Park area plan I
second it all right we have a motion and
a second can I get a roll call vote
please Vice chair young yes commissioner
Gonzalez yes commissioner erel yes
commissioner Joiner yes commissioner
Scaro yes motion passes thank you right
thank you very much congatulations
all right we're at the end of our
meeting unless there's no further
business uh I'll entertain a motion for
so move
second we have a motion all in favor I
[Applause]
I e