Planning for Scottsdale’s Future

Scottsdale has always prided itself in being forward-thinking and innovative. We have always had a strong program of planning, with attention paid to design and development quality. Over the past twenty years, this proud tradition has eroded. We now lack focused plans and policy to address the unique character and needs of areas such as the Airpark, south Scottsdale and the central parts of the city. Our downtown plan is twenty years old.

Almost three years ago, I started pushing for creating a citywide set of village/area plans for Scottsdale. Now, the area planning process is underway. The idea behind the area planning approach endorsed by Council was born from the “village plans” adopted in Phoenix – bringing citizens, business community members and others to collaborate in drafting the plans, staying together after plan adoption to play a role in implementation.

Scottsdale’s area plans

Scottsdale lacks up-to-date, long-range planning tools. The City Council is making significant decisions about Scottsdale’s future without clear, area-specific policy to guide it. The general plan offers broad-brush concepts and must be updated during the next City Council term. We need more detailed area plans that set policy and priorities for each unique part of Scottsdale. These plans will form the foundation for Scottsdale’s next General Plan

I proposed, shortly after election to my first term in 2004, that Scottsdale prepare plans similar to the village plans, to cover the entire city. It took almost two years to get this process underway, starting with the Downtown plan. Area plans for the Airpark and Southern Scottsdale are now also being prepared.

This is a good start, but I’m concerned that the process being used has diverged sharply from direction given by City Council. Staff was directed to implement a citizen-driven planning process, similar to that used for the village plans in Phoenix. This has not been done.

The first results of the process used are now embodied in the draft Downtown Plan. This is a very high-altitude policy plan that creates an appropriate vision for Downtown but fails to identify and address important issues. It does not give City Council and staff the focused direction and tools needed to maintain our momentum and make informed decisions. We need issue analysis, design character direction, neighborhood transition guidelines, downtown street character studies, a system of public open space and much, much more.

I hope that during review of the draft plan, the battleship can be turned and we can get back to the Council’s original intention in authorizing this and other area plans. We need some form of ongoing citizen and business community involvement, not occasional focus groups. The planning process should be as much about establishing two-way communication and learning as about getting to policy. If this can be achieved, the resulting plan will truly reflect Scottsdale’s creative vision, will be broadly supported and have a life beyond its adoption.