PARADISE VALLEY – The Ritz-Carlton, Paradise Valley Resort project is scheduled for a council vote Thursday, but the project faces an uncertain future because of a threatened ballot referendum.
The Paradise Valley Town Council will consider the resort and housing planned on about 105 acres northwest of Scottsdale Road and Lincoln Drive.
Scottsdale-based Five Star Development wants to build the project, which includes a 225-room resort hotel, 15 one-acre home lots, 46 luxury detached residences, and 100 resort patio homes.
The council will discuss the project at a 5 p.m. work-study session and then hold a public hearing and consider the project at its 7 p.m. regular meeting. Both meetings take place at Paradise Valley Town Hall, 6401 E. Lincoln Drive.
“We’re looking forward to gaining the support of the council so we can move into the next phase of the project, which is preparing all our design drawings and construction documentation,” said David Schmid, Five Star’s vice president of development.
Schmid said if the project is approved, site work could begin in May, including the salvaging of native plants and setting up of a construction yard.
The Town Council is expected to vote in favor of the project Thursday, but a group called Preserve our Paradise, or POP, intends to launch a referendum drive.
POP is not opposed to the resort, but believes building homes on less than an acre constitutes high-density development.
POP would have 30 days from Thursday to collect 314 valid signatures. The number represents 10 percent of the electorate who voted in the town’s March 11 election.
If the signatures are declared valid, the earliest a referendum vote would be Nov. 4.
Meantime, the project would be in limbo and construction could not proceed until the referendum is decided.
Schmid remains optimistic and said it is “full steam ahead” for the project. On April 3, Five Star hosted an open house at St. Barnabas on the Desert Episcopal Church for the public to learn more about the plans.
“We had more than 70 people attend, which was a pretty good turnout. I was actually shocked on the upside with how many people attended. Probably 99 percent were supporters of the project,” Schmid said.
Five Star has established a Web site at www.rcpvluxury.com where those interested in purchasing a Ritz-Carlton home can sign up for more information.
More details will be added to the site once the town approves the project, Schmid said.
