These letters appeared under “Your Views” in today’s Scottsdale Republic.
We must have rental ordinance
I agree with a recent letter to the editor on the need for a rental ordinance. Of all the ordinances Scottsdale has passed recently, this is one that is critical to maintaining neighborhoods.
With all the apartments and condos planned for the area and the issues that many older multifamily communities are experiencing, thanks in part to an influx of investor-owned properties, Scottsdale needs to be smarter than it was with the downtown entertainment district. Develop ordinances to address potential issues before you create the problem. Put the horse before the cart — just once.
I have heard that as the number of rentals increases, the older multifamily communities are trying to compete with newer properties. They are doing that by lowering rents and renting to anyone in an effort to keep the property filled with residents. This often leads to less than desirable living conditions, and many people I know are experiencing exactly that. I am not confident that the city will pass such an ordinance, because the multifamily housing lobby will gear up to fight it. We can’t allow that.
— Derrick Simms, Scottsdale
[As I have said many times, rents are a determined by supply-and-demand. If the City Council grants unwise deviations from our General Plan and zoning code to accommodate developers who want to build rentals, we drive down rents for all properties. Property values will follow, and the dominoes continue from there. JW.]
Court’s critical 1963 decision
Without a doubt, the most important event in the history of Arizona since it became a U.S. territory occurred June 3, 1963. On that date, just over 50 years ago, the U.S. Supreme Court decided the state of Arizona was entitled to use 2.8 million acre-feet of water per year from the mainstream of the Colorado River water. This led to approval of the Colorado River Basin Project Act, including federal government construction of the Central Arizona Project, on Sept. 30, 1968.
The CAP, which cost more than $4 billion to build and extends 336 miles across the desert to bring the Colorado River to Maricopa, Pinal and Pima counties, delivered its first water May 22, 1985. Since then, it has delivered more than 30 million acre-feet of surface water to its service area. Today’s Arizonans should give thanks to the many men and women who labored in the past and do today to bring this vital resource to us.
— Earl Zarbin, Phoenix [retired journalist and Arizona history author; Facebook]
[see also Colorado River Storage Project]