Tempe election results: See who's winning in the initial tallies

Update: Tempe's final election tallies are in. Voters approve status quo candidates, growth plan.

Early unofficial results for Tempe's election show that incumbents Doreen Garlid, Randy Keating as well as Nikki Amberg are leading in the race for City Council and that the General Plan 2050 ballot initiative was winning easily.

County elections officials had only counted early mailed ballots by Tuesday night.

City Council candidates David Lucier and Hugo Tapia are nearly tied but are currently trailing the frontrunners by a sizable margin. The first tranche of results shows Lucier in fourth place, while Tapia is sitting in last.

Mayor Corey Woods ran unopposed and is expected to secure a second term. He was leading by around 16,000 votes over write-in candidates.

Local election results in Arizona are unofficial until local officials have tabulated and canvassed the results. It's unknown how many ballots remain to be counted.

"I could not be more thrilled. I was so nervous. It's been such a long nine months, but completely worth it," said Amberg, who is the only non-incumbent frontrunner. "I've had such a fantastic team and so many people helping me behind the scenes (and) in front of the scenes. It was a total team effort."

Woods has been one of the most outspoken proponents of General Plan 2050, which he saw as a necessary for the city to curb housing costs during his second term in office.

"I am very excited that the voters approved the general plan by a very wide margin this evening. It's a very strong showing that our residents are very progressive and very forward thinking," he said. "I think the plan really did a great job of (addressing) housing solutions for a growing population."

Tapia remained generally positive despite coming up short, saying "we gave it a good effort. For being a first time candidate, to get 15% of the vote, I'm happy with that. I'm happy with the fact that I met so many good people around town."

The school psychologist would have been the only Hispanic individual sitting on Tempe's City Council if he had been elected. He suspects his election day showing was driven by low Latino turnout, a lack of name recognition and being outspent by his pro-development opponents.

Lucier, the other limited development candidate on this year's ballot, echoed Tapia's point about being outspent. He told The Arizona Republic "it was money. We didn't have as much money as the other folks. They had lots of money, and they spent lots of money."

"We're, hugely disappointed (but) I think that there's still a big appetite for the the issues that we brought forward — transparency, homeless issue and affordable housing," the former Green Beret said. "(Those are) three big issues that, unfortunately, the opposition wanted to avoid."

Tuesday's election gave Tempe residents a last chance to decide the makeup of their city council and a the long-term blueprint or the city's future. Both became controversial as locals split over what kind of development they wanted and where.

The campaign became tenser than usual at certain public events as Lucier and the incumbents on the ballot traded jabs over their disparate views on development, with the newcomer contending that Tempe's current leadership has "lost its North Star" by becoming too friendly with private developers.

Tempe 1st, the group that successfully campaigned against the Arizona Coyotes' $2.1 billion project proposal last year, also took shots at certain candidates. The committee sent out numerous emails urging voters specifically not to reelect Keating, who was one of the biggest proponents of the Coyotes deal.

Incumbents like Keating argued Lucier, Tapia and Tempe 1st's claim that they could both increase housing affordability and limit development was contradictory. Woods painted opponents' claims about the General Plan 2050 as exaggerated.

Incumbent Councilmembers Keating and Garlid vied for a third and second term in office, respectively. A third council position is vacant because Councilmember Joel Navarro decided not to seek reelection after 16 years, opting to pursue a Maricopa County Board of Supervisors position.

Amberg, Lucier and Tapia are all newcomers to the political scene who have campaigned for months in hopes of either securing Navarro's vacated seat or ousting their incumbent competitors.

Voters also considered Proposition 478, which asked voters to approve a new city growth blueprint called General Plan 2050. After early returns, it led substantially.

Arizona election results: See all the winners in the March 12 election

General Plan 2050 is a long-term planning strategy that broadly spells out not just how pieces of land can be used, but also the community's vision for its transportation network, parks, civic buildings, public art, environmental sustainability and economic development.

State law requires cities to update their general plans every decade. City councils must approve them and present them to voters to be ratified, which is typically an innocuous process that residents don't give much attention.

But General Plan 2050 has become controversial because of the taller and denser developments it paves the way for in north Tempe and on some properties in the city's historically more suburban southern half.

Opponents of the plan such as Lucier have raised concerns about overdevelopment, increased traffic, environmental impacts and what they see as an urban encroachment into Tempe's single-family neighborhoods.

Not sure who to vote for in Tempe? Candidates' answers to our 10 questions may help

Meanwhile, proponents like Mayor Woods argue that the changes are non-intrusive to existing residents and will allow Tempe to increase its housing stock as the population grows, keeping housing costs reasonably affordable over the coming decades.

The Arizona Republic will update this article as more results are released.

Reporter Sam Kmack covers Tempe, Scottsdale and Chandler. Follow him on X @KmackSam or reach him at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Tempe election results: See who's winning in the initial tallies