By Sam Kmack | Arizona Republic
Tempe’s $2.1 billion development project with the Arizona Coyotes has spiraled into legal frenzy over the past two weeks, with Phoenix filing a lawsuit to stop the project and the Coyotes responding with a countersuit.
Documents and interviews suggest Tempe may have been able to avoid the chaos.
The conflict has perplexed onlookers and insiders alike. On the surface, it appears to have revived a settled dispute over whether the Coyotes’ 2,000 planned apartments are too close to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport. That issue was addressed in a 1994 agreement meant to spare Tempe residents from loud plane noise and to protect the airport from noise-related lawsuits.
The crux of the current dispute is that Phoenix believes the 1994 deal bans all housing, but Tempe contends that apartments are allowed. It fueled a year of inter-city fighting that abruptly ended in November when Sky Harbor announced it would not “wholeheartedly oppose” the project because the Coyotes had offered Phoenix a slew of new legal protections.
But Phoenix and Tempe still needed to come to their own agreement before the dispute could be put to bed. In exchange for its support of the Coyotes project, Phoenix wanted Tempe to make commitments that would protect the growth of Sky Harbor, but the terms ended up being more sweeping than Tempe could abide.
