(Disclosure: Rose Law Group represents Highgate.)
By MacKenzie Brower | YourValley
After a lengthy study and discussion on parking, the Scottsdale Plaza Resort’s request for a permit amendment to proceed with redevelopment has been unanimously recommended for approval by the Paradise Valley Planning Commission.
The council will discuss the commission’s recommendation on Thursday, May 11, followed by a vote on the special use permit amendment request later this year.
There was no public comment received at the Planning Commission’s meeting May 2.
At the meeting, the commission discussed parking capacity at length, which was a main concern expressed at the meeting prior in April.
The traffic engineers and representatives from Rose Law Group, Highgate and HKS Development were in attendance to answer questions directly. Rose Law Group submitted the development application on behalf of the resort owner Highgate.
Scottsdale Plaza Resort is proposed with 571 parking spaces — 483 surface and 88 underground — with extra onsite parking capacity of 656 spaces through its valet management plan.
For atypical events, it has also made an offsite parking agreement with Millennium McCormick Scottsdale and McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park.
According to both traffic engineers — Cole Smith with Kimley-Horn hired by the town and Paul Basha with Summit Land Management hired by the resort — the parking analysis is compliant with professional standards.
Jordan Rose with Rose Law Group addressed most of the commission’s concerns about parking.
She said it’s within Highgate’s interest to not underpark the resort, which is spending a lot of money on underground parking to enhance the site, and the proposal is comparable to the Ritz-Carlton project.
According to Rose, 62% of the resort’s parking is currently unused, over one third of employees don’t park vehicles and the resort is focused on in-house conferences where 80% of guests fly by plane.
Rose also shared that a survey of 19 Scottsdale hotels was conducted, showing 53% of guests use rideshare or taxi, 23% rent a car and 76% don’t have a car parked on site.
