Scottsdale candidate weighs in

KEVIN OSTERMAN

Scottsdale mayoral and city council elections take place on March 9. Jewish News asked candidates to respond to two questions: (1) How will you address the high levels of traffic congestion on Scottsdale's main thoroughfares? (2) How will you balance rapid growth and development with the need to protect desert open space? Other candidates responses appeared in the issues of Feb. 20 and 27.

Traffic congestion: Our first step in relieving and preventing traffic congestion will be to follow the Scottsdale master transportation plan. By enhancing our mass transit to include buses, shuttles and the downtown trolley, and by providing incentives to Scottsdale businesses to stagger work hours, implement compressed work schedules and encourage telecommuting we can save millions of dollars and relieve congestion on our 1,100-mile road system.

Preserving desert open spaces: This is a challenging Scottsdale mission that the majority of our residents want to see accomplished. While taking steps to protect lands within the McDowell Sonoran Preserve, we must protect and preserve land within Scottsdale's boundaries that has been set aside in past development agreements. I believe that the proposed 0.15 percent sales tax is absolutely necessary if we are to accomplish our goal to preserve land within the McDowell Sonoran Preserve boundaries.

Kevin Osterman is a former planning commissioner, member of the Citizen Budget and Bond Committee and lieutenant colonel in the Arizona National Guard.

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