However, more recently, we have become extremely concerned that the City of Scottsdale acting through the Planning Commission and the City Council has abrogated its responsibility to exert reasonable and appropriate control over the development process and has allowed certain developers to obtain General Plan amendments and rezoning that are not in the best interests of the City, its taxpayers and the residents of the neighborhoods most directly affected by those actions.

Specifically, we cite the City’s recent approval of the Sereno Canyon development which includes 397 proposed units (and potentially hundreds more under the revised zoning), including a proposed commercial resort in the shadow of the Scottsdale voter approved and taxpayer financed McDowell Sonoran Preserve, and the current applications by Taylor Morrison, the Cavalliere family and Greasewood Flat to permit 462 homes (and potentially hundreds more under the requested zoning change) and a commercial entertainment facility just east of Sereno Canyon, surrounded on three sides by the Preserve. Both Sereno Canyon and the proposed Taylor Morrison/Cavalliere/Greasewood Flat developments are within less than one mile of our home. The Sereno Canyon development would not have been permitted to exist under the Scottsdale General Plan, the Dynamite Foothills Character Area Plan and prior zoning without the acquiescence of the Scottsdale Planning Commission and the Scottsdale City Council, nor do the proposed Taylor Morrison/Cavalliere/Greasewood Flat developments currently comply with those regulatory structures that were previously adopted by Scottsdale voters and their elected representatives in order to protect residents against inappropriate development.

As individual residents, we lack the resources to submit objections in a format equivalent to the voluminous professionally produced and legally crafted Taylor Morrison/Cavalliere/Greasewood Flat applications. However, we are able to voice our strenuous objections to these applications and their false assumptions and conclusions. Our substantive concerns regarding these applications are shared by many of our neighbors.

The Scottsdale General Plan Guiding Principles provide, in part, that developments must preserve neighborhood character, and that changes in neighborhoods must harmonize with existing neighborhood character, by enhancing neighborhoods’ defining features and ensuring their long-term attractiveness and economic integrity. We respectfully submit that the Taylor Morrison/Cavalliere/Greasewood Flat applications fail to comply with those requirements in material respects by directly and significantly adversely affecting the neighborhoods adjacent to the proposed developments, including our community.

In particular, the Taylor Morrison/Cavalliere/Greasewood Flat proposals would dramatically degrade our current neighborhood living environment by funneling a developer estimated 764 additional daily vehicle trips through our established neighborhood. (Note that this is the developer’s estimate of additional daily vehicle trips in and out of the development, however we believe that it grossly underestimates the total volume of additional traffic that these proposed developments will generate.) When added to the developer estimated 2,352 daily vehicle trips from the Sereno Canyon development, the combined developments would generate a developer estimated 3116 additional daily vehicle trips through our residential neighborhood on roads that were not intended for, nor constructed to handle, such traffic, including Happy Valley Road. These traffic estimates do not take into account the large number of heavy construction vehicles that can be expected for the next several years while these developments are built out. Suitable non-residential access roadways to these proposed developments currently do not exist and have not been advanced by these applicants. The direct of result of approving the Taylor Morrison/Cavalliere/Greasewood Flat proposals will be a severe increase in vehicle generated congestion, air pollution, noise pollution and light pollution of the night sky. In addition, the proposed Cavalliere Flat entertainment complex will become an attraction nuisance, as numerous cars and noisy motorcycles will migrate from the present Greasewood Flat location to the proposed new one at all hours of the day and night, and generate significant air, noise and light pollution on its own, while severely degrading our current living environment. It is clear that these applications would impose quantifiable environmental and economic damage to the hundreds of residents who purchased homes and whose families live in these neighborhoods in reliance on the prior existing zoning and character of the area.

In addition, we believe that the approval of these applications would be a gross disservice to the efforts of the Scottsdale’s residents who have worked tirelessly over many years, provided their votes of approval and paid their property taxes to acquire and preserve the pristine McDowell Sonoran Preserve for all of Scottsdale’s residents. The requested General Plan amendments and rezoning would impose fundamental and irreversible changes to these sites and result in significant negative impacts to the Preserve, wildlife and adjacent residential areas.

In summary, the Taylor Morrison/Cavalliere/Greasewood Flat proposals will not preserve or harmonize with our current neighborhood character, will not enhance our neighborhood’s defining features, and will not ensure the long term attractiveness and economic integrity of our community. To the contrary, these proposals are guaranteed to significantly reduce the livability, environment and value of the neighborhoods affected thereby.

For the foregoing substantive reasons, we respectfully urge all Scottsdale residents to tell the Scottsdale Planning Commission and the City Council to reject these Taylor Morrison/Cavalliere/Greasewood Flat applications. As we have seen all too often in the past, if Scottsdale’s residents do not mobilize to voice their strong objections to these applications, the developers with their slickly prepared proposals and powerful attorneys will again have their way with the City Council to the profound detriment of the affected communities.