Score one for Arizona voters.

It seems not even the Arizona Legislature is willing to strip us of our constitutional right to overrule our leaders when it comes to massive new developments.

Perhaps you’ve followed the showdown between Axon and Scottsdale – the one that spilled over to threaten the constitutional rights of every person in the state.

Long story short, Axon wants to consolidate its U.S. operations in Scottsdale and build a corporate campus at Hayden Road and Loop 101.

What did Axon plan for its Scottsdale headquarters?

In addition to a making its Tasers and police body cameras, Axon plans a 425-room hotel, seven restaurants and 1,900 apartments and condos … there, in a city that is being overrun with apartments.

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The rezoning was approved in mid-November, by a lame-duck City Council – one with a majority of its members on their way out in large part because voters are fed up with overdevelopment.

A Scottsdale citizens group, aided by more than $400,000 in donations from a Mesa-based dark money group, then launched a referendum to put the rezoning on hold until voters can decide whether they want yet another apartment complex.

Tyler Montague, the Republican consultant who runs the Public Integrity Alliance, wouldn’t disclose who donated just over $400,000 to fund the referendum.

“It’s people that are either mad about it because it’s a back door deal or feel like they were cheated out of a fair chance to compete for it (the state land Axon bought at auction),” he told me.

They aren’t alone.

Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions easily gathered then 15,353 signatures needed to put the project to a public vote.

A few weeks later, along came Senate Bill 1352.

Simply put, the bill would cancel the constitutional right of citizens to veto a rezoning decision.

How would Senate Bill 1352 affect voters rights?

This, by declaring that as of July 1, 2024, all rezonings are considered administrative — not legislative — and thus not referable to the ballot.

The retroactive bill would end Scottsdale voters’ right to decide whether they want the state’s largest apartment complex.

It also would end the right of citizens statewide to try to overturn rezoning decisions in their own cities.

If it becomes law, developers would own us all.

It breezed through two Senate committees earlier this month then mysteriously – or perhaps not so mysteriously once the public learned of it -- came up against a brick wall last week.

Senate President Warren Petersen told me the bill is dead.

“It doesn’t have the votes to pass,” he said on Saturday.

Of course, that could change as nothing is ever dead until the Legislature leaves town.

But I can’t imagine who – other than the bill’s sponsor, Sen. David Gowan of Sierra Vista – would be bold enough vote yes at this point and block their own citizens from having the final word in their own cities.

Naturally, Axon’s fingerprints are all over the bill.

Axon CEO Rick Smith called it “a critical piece of legislation” to “safeguard responsible economic development and protect against special interest groups weaponizing the referendum process.”

“To be blunt, a city of more than 240,000 residents should not see a transformative project killed because a special interest campaign paid petition circulators to gather less than 20,000 valid signatures,” Smith has said.

No, it shouldn’t.

But it should be put to a public vote, as the constitution requires.

I understand why Smith went running to the Legislature. He likely doesn’t relish the idea of selling a plan for more apartments to a city that is awash in them. Or the prospect of living in limbo for nearly two years.

Scottsdale City Council may put the issue on the ballot ... in 2026

The newly elected Scottsdale City Council appears poised to do an end run of its own around voters, waiting until the next general election — in November 2026 — to put the issue on the ballot.

By that time, Smith has said Axon will leave Arizona, taking thousands of good paying jobs and tens of millions in new state and local tax revenue with it.

By the time voters get the chance to decide the issue, there would be no issue to decide.

The Legislature should quit listening to developers and keep its hands off our constitutional rights.

And the Scottsdale City Council should put the issue to a public vote this year.

If Scottsdale is going to put a stun gun to Axon, the city's voters should be the ones to pull the trigger.

Reach Roberts at . Follow her on X (formerly Twitter) at @LaurieRobertsaz , on Threads at @LaurieRobertsaz and on BlueSky at @laurieroberts.bsky.social .

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