In the latest story that has had more twists than the average-long running soap opera, a citizens group in Scottsdale has decided to go to court to challenge the construction of a new headquarters campus for the Axon taser company.
The company, which has an international reputation for its line of weapons and technology products for law enforcement and the military, has been laying the groundwork to develop a multi-use campus that would include a 400,000-square-foot corporate office, as well as up to 1,900 multifamily residential units.
The $1.3 billion project, which would go up at Hayden Road and Loop 101, was ready for a groundbreaking in early 2024 before a citizens group effort secured enough signatures on a petition to take it to a public ballot.
At that point Axon chief executive officer Rick Smith said he was contemplating building the campus in another city, remarking, “Uncertainty caused by this referendum forces us to confront a tougher reality: we can’t allow political games to put our mission or our team at risk.”
In response, the Arizona State Legislature approved a bill making it possible for any city with a population between 200,000 and 500,000 to allow for mixed-use projects to go up without needing an official application in any area zoned for light industrial use. According to the most recent Census Bureau figures, Scottdale’s population is just under 250,000.
After that action at the statehouse, some Scottsdale officials said they were contemplating challenging the new law in court. But now that members of the Scottsdale City Council have decided to forego such action, at least for the present, the group Taxpayers Against Awful Apartment Zoning Exemptions has stepped into the breach.
Their lawsuit, said Alexis Danneman, an attorney who is representing the action, is centered on the “right of Arizona voters to hold referenda and vote directly on legislation passed by their city council, but with which they disagree.”
In a statement, Danneman added that the lawsuit is also challenging the Arizona Legislature’s action, arguing that state law prohibits “so called ‘special laws’ like the Axon bill that confer special privileges and benefits on a specific company or group.”
The lawsuit, a motion for preliminary injunction, has been filed in Superior Court of Arizona of Maricopa County.
September 30, 2025
By Garry Boulard
Photo courtesy ad by Axon Company
