After a contentious battle at the legislature and a signature by Gov. Katie Hobbs to create a legal carve-out, those opposed to law enforcement technology company Axon’s planned massive headquarters and housing project are looking at all their options — including asking Arizona voters to repeal the new law. But whether that 2026 ballot measure happens remains to be seen. “We’re not prepared to say which way we are going to go yet,” Bob Littlefield, a former Scottsdale City Councilman who has been at the head of efforts to lead a local referendum vote against the project, told the Arizona Mirror. “We are going to keep our options open.” GET THE MORNING HEADLINES. Littlefield is part of a group called Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions, or TAAZE for short, which led the charge to gather signatures to hold a referendum on the project in Scottsdale. The Arizona Constitution gives residents the right to refer matters to the ballot . Axon came to the Capitol in 2025 aiming to bar voters in every city and town in Arizona from being able to challenge zoning and development decisions, like the one TAAZE mounted in Scottsdale. But when that bill failed to garner enough support, the company and its allies pivoted instead to merely stripping away the right of Scottsdale voters to challenge the police weapons manufacturer’s HQ project near Hayden Road and the Loop 101. In addition to the firm’s international headquarters, the project will include a luxury hotel and roughly 1,900 apartments, some of which will be offered to Axon employees at a discounted cost. Last month, Gov. Katie Hobbs gave Axon what it wanted, signing into law the legislation that cancels the referendum vote. “I think this is pretty clear: These guys want their apartments, they don’t care what Scottsdale residents think,” Littlefield said. “They made it pretty clear who they are and what they’re going to do, so I think it is up to us to do whatever we can to thwart that.” TAAZE has now filed paperwork with the Secretary of State’s Office for a statewide referendum on that legislation. But Littlefield said it is just one option that his group is looking at pursuing. “We believe we have the law on our side. We believe this bill is a special interest (gift), which is illegal,” Littlefield said. The opposition group is likely to file a legal challenge soon, and TAAZE is also supportive of l egal steps being taken by the City of Scottsdale , which opposed the bill, as well. “We think we can beat this in court,” he said. The new law says that any municipality with between 200,000 and 500,000 residents — Scottsdale had 241,000 residents in the 2020 census — must “allow hotel use and multifamily residential housing” for land zoned like the Axon parcel “without requiring any type of application that will require a public hearing” if certain criteria is met. If the statewide referendum is to happen, TAAZE would need to gather 127,975 signatures in order to qualify for the 2026 ballot. But it cannot begin doing so until the legislative session ends — and it must collect all the signatures within 90 days. Littlefield said he is confident that the group will be able to meet that challenge, if needed, though it won’t be easy to go head-to-head against an opponent worth over $50 billion. “In Scottsdale, TAAZE was able to use dark money to hide the source of the funds that paid for more than 90 percent of the signatures they gathered,” Axon spokesman David Leibowitz said in a statement to the Arizona Mirror. “Since that won’t be the case at the state level, we look forward to seeing who’s funding their campaign. Especially given that a statewide signature effort will likely cost more than $2 million.” Leibowitz added that Axon will “vigorously defend” the project, which the company says will create “5,500 jobs” and have “more than $4 billion in economic impact.” Local activists, backed by a signature-gathering effort linked to a California labor union , gathered more than 25,000 signatures to send the rezoning decision made by a lame-duck city council — the votes for the project came from councilors who had been voted out of office — to the ballot in a voter referendum , which must happen by November 2026. Littlefield shot back at Leibowitz’s remarks, citing their own campaign finance reports . “You can see our campaign finance report, all our stuff is disclosed,” Littlefield said. “Axon’s been lying their way through this, and to call us liars? That’s kind of hilarious actually.” The sponsor of the Axon legislation, Rep. Tony Rivero, R-Peoria, did not respond to requests for comment. YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
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