Will Scottsdale's City Council oppose the Coyotes arena project? It depends

Scottsdale City Council members share some of their mayor's concerns about the Arizona Coyotes' plan to build an arena in northeast Phoenix near their city's border, but none is even close to being as strongly opposed to the development as the city's top official was earlier this week.

The proposed project is for about 100 acres of land near Loop 101 and Scottsdale Road, on the Phoenix side of the Phoenix-Scottsdale city line. The NHL franchise wants to turn it into a $3 billion entertainment district with restaurants, stores and apartments, as well as a 17,000-seat professional hockey arena.

The Coyotes hope to buy the property from the Arizona State Land Department at auction in June. The starting bid will be nearly $70 million. The NHL franchise declined to comment for this report.

Scottsdale Mayor David Ortega made headlines on Monday for bashing the project in a public letter. He wrote, “The prospect of a rookie developer attempting to buy (the land) with absolutely no infrastructure on the Phoenix side of the 101/Scottsdale Road intersection at the doorstep of Scottsdale is not feasible or welcome."

Scottsdale long opposed to Coyotes: Arizona Coyotes have honed in on 6 Phoenix-area locations. Here are the most and least likely

Ortega dramatically changed his tone in a second letter shared with journalists on Tuesday, indicating that he's OK with the development as long as its main access point faces Phoenix in order to keep traffic out of Scottsdale. The state had already required whoever buys the property to build up the intersection Ortega had in mind, however.

The mayor's shift raised questions about what exactly the city's position is on the project. The Arizona Republic interviewed Councilmembers Tom Durham, Betty Janik, Kathy Littlefield and Barry Graham about where they stand. Councilmembers Solange Whitehead and Tammy Caputi were not immediately available for comment.

Each of the four councilmembers said they were concerned about the potential issues Ortega raised, but none felt the current plan was detailed enough to warrant all-out opposition at this point. They pointed out that Scottsdale has no control over the project and said they could work with Phoenix, the Coyotes and the state to mitigate any issues.

"I'm nervous about it for a lot of reasons. The infrastructure issues are big: water, traffic, how all of that would be handled. I haven't studied it very closely and how it's going to impact neighborhoods," said Durham. "That's always a big concern of mine, putting big projects like that near neighborhoods."

Durham raised the possibility of the Coyotes' development wanting to use Scottsdale's water. That would likely cause a major issue given the city's feud over water sharing with an unincorporated community called Rio Verde Foothills last year. There aren't any indications that the Coyotes want to do that, however.

"I think all of us will be skeptical unless we try to hear more about the details," Durham said. "We're really at the very beginning of this."

Like Ortega, the councilmember did take issue with the Coyotes' failure to ask Scottsdale for input when they were putting together the project design even though there was "no legal obligation to do so." Durham said, "We're their neighbors, so it would have been nice to consult us. It's going to impact us."

Janik was the most optimistic about the project, but she said, "Certainly, there are some obstacles that need to be overcome." She pointed to traffic as her biggest concern and echoed Ortega's point about building the project's main access point at 64th Street and Loop 101, rather than further east at Scottsdale Road and Loop 101.

"They're (building out that intersection) anyways, so I'm sure that that would be part of the plan," said Janik, who also suggested that the Coyotes build the parking garages on the west side of the development to boost sales at the on-site businesses and avoid driving traffic into Scottsdale.

"In general, I think that it can be a very nice project to broaden all the different aspects of our Valley in terms of sports and entertainment," Janik added. "I think that most of the objections can be overcome."

Graham and Littlefield are the two most development-skeptical members of Scottsdale's City Council. The former didn't want to comment on the proposed Coyotes project because it's so far from being finalized, saying he was taking a "wait and see" approach but did have some concerns about possible traffic impacts on Scottsdale.

Littlefield was the most strongly opposed councilmember to the Coyotes project of all the candidates interviewed. However, she explained that Scottsdale has virtually no control over whether the project gets built.

"I don't think the citizens of Scottsdale are particularly enthused because of the traffic and the lights and the noise," Littlefield said. "It's going to impact us, probably fairly dramatically. But it's not in Scottsdale. The land is in Phoenix, so we have no vote whether or not Phoenix approves it or not."

Like her colleagues, Littlefield said that her concerns could be mitigated if the Coyotes take steps to reduce traffic impacts on Scottsdale. She suggested building parking garages on the west side of the development rather than the east as one possible solution, similar to Janik's idea.

"It just depends on working with these folks and seeing if we can't come up with something that is mutually, if not liked, sustainable."

Republic reporters Jenna Ortiz and Stacey Barchenger contributed to this article.

Reporter Sam Kmack covers Tempe, Scottsdale and Chandler. Follow him on X @KmackSam or reach him at sam.kmack@arizonarepublic.com.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Will Scottsdale fight the Coyotes project? Here's what officials said