Scottsdale City Council OKs triple-digit heights at Fashion Square Mall

PHOENIX — The Scottsdale City Council has consented to a request from developers that could add towers as high as 150 feet at Fashion Square Mall.

The council approved rezoning amendments at its meeting Tuesday night.

Buildings over 60 feet high in Scottsdale have to have special council approval.

Mall owner Macerich announced plans to renovate the mall in December 2016. The city’s Development Review Board recommended approval that same month.

Early changes included residences, more restaurants, plans for a hotel and office space.

It was enough for some homeowners in the neighborhood to become worried. A collection of residents calling itself the SFS Mall Oversight Group submitted a petition protesting the expansion in July.

Revision by the Arizona State Legislature to rezoning protests — HB 2116 — changed that effort.

Among the new pieces: the number of neighbors required in a legal protest.

Bob Griffith, who belongs to the group, told the council during the public comments portion of the meeting, the project “discouraged downtown dwellers” and was “smothering overdevelopment on a … scale that is off-putting.”

Others at the meeting, including former Scottsdale City Council member Betty Drake, were more positive.

“When an opportunity for Fashion Square comes along, they need to be able to say ‘yes’ right now. Not ‘yes’ after we go through a two-year process of amending the entitlements. The opportunity will pop like a balloon.”

The mall opened in 1961. The overhaul was expected to get underway in September.

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