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Waterview plan still won’t float with planners
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Waterview at Scottsdale developers failed to impress city planners with a scaled-back hotel and condominium project proposal, which is still deemed too massive for the downtown neighborhood.
Scottsdale principal planner Mac Cummins, in a Nov. 14 letter to owners Scottsdale Canal Development LLC, reiterated many of his concerns found in his original Sept. 10 response to the project. Those include that Waterview remains too massive, has infrastructure challenges, discourages pedestrian access, and involves the move of a Salt River Project electrical substation.
For the first time, Scottsdale is also requesting that a third-party consultant review and comment on health and safety matters related to the substation, which the developers hope to move from the Scottsdale and Camelback roads intersection to east of the project into an established neighborhood. SRP and the developer have said there are no risks to the surrounding neighborhoods, but nearby homeowners are protesting and claiming there are.
In last week’s letter, Cummins was responding to modifications submitted by Waterview in October that included more open space and walkways and some architectural changes designed to alter the “canyon” effect along the canal.
“I think it’s fair to say that they did not make the type of changes that the staff was looking for in our comments to them,” Cummins said. “We think they have some significant challenges based on their current proposal.”
Waterview is proposing to build four 72-foot buildings and two 65-foot buildings along the south side of the Arizona Canal and north side of Camelback Road, east of Scottsdale Road. The plans include about 200 hotel rooms, 146 condo units and 18 single-family homes, along with restaurants, bars and other high-end hotel amenities.
Mark Madkour, a Scottsdale Canal Development principal, said most of the issues can be modified.
“None that we are reviewing do we find insurmountable or unable to be addressed,” said Madkour, who calls the plans an evolving process.
No hearing dates have been set.
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