As development pushes to the flanks of downtown, look for nearby neighborhoods to raise objections to the taller buildings that developers want to put up.
Opposition has surfaced on two downtown redevelopment plans submitted to the city at the end of July:
• A condominium project at the Orchidtree Apartments site, 68th Street and Camelback Road. • The Waterview at Scottsdale, a hotel and condo combination northeast of 73rd Street and Camelback.
And there are rumblings over the height of a planned Scottsdale Waterfront hotel.
Tom Giller, who lives in the Whitwood neighborhood, southwest of the Waterfront, said he expects strong opposition to a proposed six-story hotel at the Waterfront and five-story condos on the 10-acre Orchidtree site.
"We’re getting it from both sides," Giller said of the two projects.
Area overshadowed
Whitwood is a 50-year-old neighborhood between 68th Street and the Arizona Canal, north of Indian School Road. It has spacious, irrigated lots and ranch-style houses that seem unchanged by time.
"You feel like you’re in the country here," said Giller as he surveyed the neighborhood, a stone’s throw across the canal from the Fifth Avenue shopping district.
A six-story Waterfront hotel would overshadow the neighborhood and guests would look down into the Whitwood neighborhood and two 30-year-old condo complexes: Villa d’ Este and Villa Adrian, he said.
Back to drawing board
Councilman Wayne Ecton said he wants the developer, Starwood Development LLC, to revise its plans so the hotel does not "obliterate" the view for neighbors.
"It’s really great-looking if you don’t consider what it does to the neighborhood," Ecton said of the hotel planThe proposed 1 Hotel, a new luxury, environmentally friendly brand, would include at least 150 rooms. The first 1 Hotel broke ground in June in Seattle and should be completed in about two years.
In Scottsdale, neighbors say the city agreed to limit the hotel to three stories after area residents went along with plans to build two 13-story condo towers at Scottsdale Waterfront.
Kroy Ekblaw, Scottsdale executive assistant of strategic projects, said the City Council approved a plan in 2003 that limits the hotel height to 36 feet along Goldwater Boulevard, but it could rise to 85 feet along Marshall Way.
5-story condos
Neighbors also are making noise about the 65-foot height of the Orchidtree project proposed by Scottsdale-based International Capital Partners.
They fear that a secondary driveway for the project could funnel traffic into their neighborhood, said Giller, who manages downtown commercial property.
Attorney John Berry, representing International Capital Partners, said that two-story condos on the southern edge of the project would be a buffer between the single-family homes and the taller condo buildings.
"A lot of folks are pleased with what we’re doing," Berry said, adding that the three-story Orchidtree Apartments "have seen better days."
Berry, who also is representing Waterview at Scottsdale, said the neighborhood northeast of Camelback and 73rd Street would benefit from redevelopment of aging apartments along the Arizona Canal.
Waterview would include a hotel of up to 72 feet and 65-foot condos. The developer, Scottsdale Canal Development LLC, plans to bury the power lines and move a Salt River Project electrical substation to the north end of its 11.5-acre site.
That proposal has angered adjacent resident Helen Cooner, who fears that electromagnetic radiation from the substation would be a health hazard to the neighborhood.
"Everybody gets rich, but this is a risk to our health and devalues our property," said Cooner, an alternative-medicine practitioner.
Zoning attorney Berry said the substation would be screened to look like the other buildings in the Waterview complex.
It will be much better to look at than the "crack houses" that have plagued the neighborhood, he said.
Waterview would bring a luxury hotel, restaurants and walking paths to the area. The developer plans to add a landscaped path along the Arizona Canal and two bridges that would link the project with the Safari Drive condos to the west.
Cooner has no objection to the Waterview project itself, but said it is inhumane to move a substation close to residents.
"If it could happen in our neighborhood, it could happen anywhere," she said.
Peter Corbett
http://www.azcentral.com/abgnews/articles/0809abg-condoprotests0809.html
