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March 10, 2000/3 Adar II 5760, Vol. 52, No.27
Growth key issue in Scottsdale elections
CHRIS GARIFO
Staff Writer
Concern over growth is likely to be on the minds of many Scottsdale voters who head to the polls Tuesday, March 14, to select a new mayor and fill three City Council seats.
Voters will choose from a field of four mayoral and eight council candidates, including Tom Silverman, a member of Temple Beth Israel whose family first moved to Scottsdale in 1953.
Silverman, co-owner and general manager of the Chaparral Suites Hotel Scottsdale, says he decided to run because of a growing disenchantment with the direction Scottsdale was taking, especially in the area of growth.
"Let me just say I'm not a no-growth person, I realize you have to have some growth," Silverman says. "But I feel like we don't have a handle on what is going on."
Silverman says developers too often are being able to obtain zoning changes to increase the densities in their projects.
"Everybody has a right to develop what they're zoned for," Silverman says. "But they don't have a right to come in and expect to get increases in densities; and I feel like that's happening far too often."
That's a complaint echoed by other candidates, such as Steve Partridge, the 29-year-old director of the Arizona Business Connection, who says that "we should be very careful about making changes" to the city's general plan.
Ned O'Hearn, a 51-year-old real-estate coordinator, shares concerns about Scottsdale's growth. O'Hearn was out of town, but his wife, Carol, says that O'Hearn believes "in planning for (growth) and that it has to be in character with the neighborhood where it's going in."
Richard Thomas, the sole council incumbent in the race, says most of the candidates are making too much out of the growth issue.
"My belief is that we have just been through about two decades of the most unprecedented growth any of us could ever imagine would happen to this community," the 56-year-old owner of Adam's Rib says. "The reality is that we're pretty much through that growth."
Thomas says a foundation has been set that includes open space and areas of land preservation and that population density in the city has decreased.
He says nearly 70 percent of the city has been built and the mission now is to ensure that the final 30 percent "is going to be built with sensitivity to what already exists here, that more concern should be about how it fits in with the things that are here already, the architectural concerns and the types of uses that are being applied for."
Candidate Vickie Owen, a 32-year-old community activist, says that, besides concerns over growth, the problems of neighborhood deterioration also have to be addressed.
Owen worries that city revenue is being unfairly apportioned. For example, she says, 15 percent of Scottsdale's population resides in the northern 95 square miles of the city, but that area gets 50 percent to 60 percent of the city's revenue.
Scottsdale architect David Ortega says he wants to develop more accountability and responsiveness in city government.
The 46-year-old council candidate says the city administration pushed the voter-defeated downtown canal project, designed to breathe new life into the failed Galleria, despite the fact that its owners owed $1.4 million in back taxes.
"That (canal) project would have leveled 60 existing small businesses," Ortega says. "Those businesses do pay their taxes."
Candidate Barbara Espinosa, a 62-year-old businesswoman, also is pushing for greater responsibility in government.
"The first responsibility (of government) is to the citizens and to the taxpayers' money," says Espinosa, who was chairman of Save Old Scottsdale, an activist group that helped defeat the Galleria canals project.
City Council candidate Brian Webber was unavailable for comment.
Transportation and traffic are also high on the lists of issues for candidates. Ortega, Partridge and Thomas agree it's important that the Pima Freeway portion of Loop 101 be completed right away. Partridge and Thomas say the city needs a bond issue to provide $250 million to $300 million for unfunded transportation projects.
Ortega and Espinosa have complained about the city's inability to straighten Scottsdale Road at the Galleria. Ortega says that situation causes traffic to be constricted there and prevents properties on Stetson Drive from being opened up for private investment.
The four candidates hoping to replace Sam Campana as Scottsdale's mayor share many of the same concerns as the council candidates.
Merlin Gindlesperger, 68 and semi-retired from the plumbing business, says the city administration has allowed zoning changes to be made too easily.
"One of the ways that we can limit growth is to be more prudent about how we deal with the general plan and don't just up-zone in order to increase density," he says.
Ross Dean, the 59-year-old owner of several small businesses, says growth in Scottsdale could cap out at 250,000 to 280,000 residents and that build-out will be achieved around 2020 or 2030.
Dean says 10 percent to 20 percent of the city's budget comes from growth and a problem facing Scottsdale is how to maintain the same level of services and amenities residents receive when that money no longer becomes available.
Mark Bristow, a 40-year-old heating and air-conditioning contractor, says city government needs to keep Scottsdale as "The West's Most Western Town," which city leaders abandoned in favor of a move toward urbanization.
"I want to restore or return to the 'West's Most Western Town' concept and use that as our theme for development," he says.
Bristow says the city should use one-way streets and ring roads as a means to improve traffic flow and direct it away from neighborhoods. He also wants to see developers pay more impact fees to establish roads, especially north of Frank Lloyd Wright Boulevard.
City Councilwoman Mary Manross, who is giving up her seat to run for mayor, worries about the "dissension and divisiveness" that Scottsdale has faced over the past few years.
Manross points to four areas that the city's leadership will have to deal with: revitalization/redevelopment of the community, improved traffic flow, land preservation and the pace of growth.
Polling places throughout Scottsdale will be open from 6 a.m. to 7 p.m. For information on where to vote, call the city's Election Central, 480-312-7844.
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