Lincoln Drive. On February 25th the Town began work in front of the Smoke Tree Resort to install a sidewalk from Quail Run Road east to the Lincoln Medical Plaza. The final surface course of rubberized asphalt from Mockingbird Lane to the eastern Town limit is currently scheduled for April of 2021.

Below: Lincoln Drive looking west toward Quail Run Road/Palmeraie Boulevard, 2/9/2021

Mockingbird Lane. The west half of Mockingbird Lane improvements are ongoing and include new storm drain, curb and gutter, sidewalk, raised medians, and landscaping. Paving will be scheduled in phases starting mid-March.

Below: Indian Bend Road, looking west from Town Limits, 2/9/2021

Indian Bend Road. Paving along the north half of Indian Bend Road is scheduled for next week with striping, utility adjustments and landscape restoration to follow. Traffic lanes in each direction from Mockingbird Lane to Palmeraie Boulevard are currently scheduled to be open for travel on or before March 19th.

Below: Mockingbird Lane, looking north toward Indian Bend Road, 2/9/2021

In its latest Arizona Innovation Connection, the Arizona Commerce Authority reported the following good news:

Arizona led the nation with the highest personal income growth rate at 8.5% in Q2 2020, according to a new report from the Pew Charitable Trusts. Our state’s gains significantly outpaced the national average of 5.9%.

Tech salaries in Phoenix are among the fastest growing in the nation, according to a new report from Dice.com. Salaries in the city increased by 7.6% to an average of $95,514, outpacing the national average of 3.6%.

More than 325,000 new Arizona jobs are projected to be created by the spring of 2022, according to a new report by the ACA’s Office of Economic Opportunity. This represents a 5.5% annualized growth rate.

Lucid Motors announced it will become a publicly traded company through a merger with CCIV, a deal that values the combined company at $24 billion. Lucid’s luxury electric sedan, the Lucid Air, will be manufactured in Casa Grande.

There are two bills before the Arizona Legislature this session. The Town of Paradise Valley supports House Bill 2481 (or HB 2481) which was introduced by Representative John Kavanagh (R - District 23).

HB 2481 modifies the list of regulations that counties and municipalities are authorized to impose on vacation rentals or short-terms rentals to include requiring the owner of a vacation rental or short-term rental to license or register with the county or municipality, and restricting the occupancy of a vacation rental or short-term rental to the lesser of the occupancy limit of the county or municipality or 2 adults per bedroom plus 2 additional adults.

Further, vacation rentals and short-term rentals cannot advertise to exceed the occupancy limit of the dwelling or for any nonresidential use. Counties and municipalities are authorized to impose a civil penalty for each day a property is in violation of this advertisement prohibition. An online lodging operator that falsifies information to an online lodging marketplace is guilty of a petty offense.

A county or municipality cannot prohibit the operation of a vacation rental or short-term rental based solely on its status as a vacation rental or short-term rental if the owner of the vacation rental or short-term rental, as of May 1, 2021, has a valid transaction privilege tax license, and as of June 2, 2021, has provided the owner's or the owner's designee's contact information to the county or municipality in which the vacation rental or short-term rental is located, if required by ordinance.

The Arizona League of Cities and Towns is currently working on additional amendments aimed to give local jurisdictions the ability to adopt reasonable zoning regulations. The amendments would be considered by the Committee of the Whole.

This bill was introduced by Senator J.D. Mesnard (R - District 17) and is supported by the short-term rental industry. SB 1379 allows a City or Town to adopt and enforce ordinances, related to public health and safety, traffic control and nuisance related to noise, protection of welfare, nuisance in same manner as other homes. Restricts the maximum number of adult occupants at any one time to no more than 2/bedroom up to 4 bedrooms plus 2 per 1,000 sf over 3,000 sf of home. In PV, this occupancy could allow 14 in a 6,000SF house and 32 guests in a 15,000 home.

The Town of Paradise Valley opposes this bill as it does not go far enough to protect the rights of our residents. Further, the short-term rental industry plans to eliminate the occupancy standards in the bill making the occupancy have NO RESTRICTION as is currently allowed by the State. This bill is awaiting Committee of the Whole in the Senate.

View and Share Arizona Short-term Rentals: A Call for Reform of SB 1350

In case you missed it, you can still view the video produced by the Town which details the seriousness of the short-term rental problem.

We encourage you to share this video with friends and family via email or social media. The more we can spread the word, the better!

Click on the image to the right to view. You can use this link to share on social media: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQQ1e69fDcg&feature=youtu.be

This week, ADHS announced the launch of a new state vaccination site at Chandler Gilbert Community College. This will transition the site, successfully operated by Dignity Health in partnership with Maricopa County, maintaining high volume vaccination capacity in the East Valley of Maricopa County.

The site will be operated by Arizona Department of Health Services in partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Maricopa Community College District, and Walgreens.

Appointments at the site will open for registration at 9 A.M. on Monday, March 1st through https://podvaccine.azdhs.gov/ or by calling 1-844-542-8201.

A list and map of vaccination sites throughout Arizona with contact and registration information is available at azhealth.gov/findvaccine and is routinely updated as new vaccination sites are added.

After peaking in early to mid-January, new cases have continued to decline. Yesterday, the number of new Arizona cases was below 1,000 for the first time since November 2020. Here are today's COVID-19 statistics from the Arizona Department of Health Services (click on the image to go to the website):

The following statistics are for Maricopa County from the Maricopa County Public Health Department (click on image to be taken to the website):

The Town Council took the following actions at last night’s meeting.

On Wednesday, March 3, the PVPD with partner with the IRS to present our residents tips on avoiding IRS and Tax scams. The discussion will focus on scams that have surfaced as a result of COVID-19. Please join us on Wednesday morning at 7:30 a.m. at this Zoom link.

This week Officer Jake Arcamo transitioned to Phase 3 of the 4-phase Field Training Officer (FTO) program. Officer Arcamo is doing very well; he's comfortable making traffic stops, has excellent people skills, and has done well with officer safety searches.

In addition, he is quickly learning our computer systems. He worked in IT before being a police officer, a background that is an asset to him and to the Department.

March 3rd - Coffee with a Cop, 7:30 am via Zoom

March 2nd - Planning Commission, 6:00 pm via Zoom Canceled

March 3rd - Board of Adjustment, 5:30 pm via Zoom Canceled

March 10th - Hillside Building Committee, 8:00 am via Zoom

March 11th - Town Council, 6:00 pm via Zoom