“If you’re blue and you don’t know where to go to / Why don’t you go where fashion sits / Puttin’ on the Ritz”
By Phil Riske, managing editor
The Paradise Valley Town Council Thursday delayed a vote on the proposed 200-room Ritz-Carlton resort and rescheduled it for tonight. The delay resulted in an e-mail (seen below) to residents from the Ritz-Carlton to turn out Monday night in support of the project, which was approved 5-2 by the town’s planning commission, with Commissioners Richard Mahrle and Thomas Campbell dissenting.
The project would be located on a vacant, 105-acre property at North 68th Street and North Scottsdale Road, with East Indian Bend Road and East Lincoln Drive to the north and south, respectively.
One hundred twenty villas would border the resort’s eastern side.
A detached residential area north of the resort would have 66 lot, with one and and two-story condos
Also, 74 townhouse units are proposed southeast of the resort.
In October, most of the residents attending a public meeting supported the project. One resident, however, was concerned the proposal was too vague, and wanted to know how the property would impact traffic on Scottsdale Road, The Arizona Republic reported.
Under the proposal, construction would start this spring. The hotel, villas and northwestern and southwestern condos would be completed in 2017, while construction on the southeastern townhomes would go into 2018.
UPDATE: In a separate vote of 4-3, the town council approved the site plan with a direction to hear the development agreement at a meeting in January.
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Town Council fails to approve Ritz-Carlton — but they still have one more chance to do the right thing!
Thursday night the Paradise Valley Town Council chose to continue a vote on approving a new Ritz-Carlton for the community to a Monday evening hearing rather than approve it. It was a letdown for the overwhelming number of supporters that came to Town Hall, as well as the vast majority of town residents that have shown their support through letters, and at public meetings and community events for the past 11 months.
Time is running out to turn this project into a reality.
We hope the Town Council will move forward on Monday night because of the benefits it will create for Paradise Valley’s quality of life. We want to thank the leadership shown so far by Mayor Collins and Councilmembers Maria Syms and Mary Hamway. We have little doubt we can resolve remaining concerns for some, if not all, of the other councilmembers.
But we also need you to encourage them to listen to all of the support in the community — and listen to you — by emailing them right now at:
Vice Mayor Paul Dembow: pdembow@paradisevalleyaz.gov
Council Member Jerry Bien-Willner: jbienwillner@paradisevalleyaz.gov
Council Member David Sherf: dsherf@paradisevalleyaz.gov
Council Member Mark Stanton: mstanton@paradisevalleyaz.gov
Mayor Michael Collins: mcollins@paradisevalleyaz.gov
Council Member Mary Hamway: mhamway@paradisevalleyaz.gov
Council Member Maria Syms: msyms@paradisevalleyaz.gov
Thank you for all you have done and are doing to help turn the Ritz-Carlton Paradise Valley into a reality. We need you one last time — today — to let the Town Council know that failure should not be an option.
