With Uptown parking spots generating $50,000 to $300,000 a year, Sedona is moving forward on a plan to build 104 more spaces.
Sedona City Council gave staff the go-ahead Tuesday, July 22, to get the ball rolling on a proposed 104-space parking lot in the south side of Uptown.
Councilman Dan Surber was absent.
By Alison Ecklund
Larson Newspapers
With Uptown parking spots generating $50,000 to $300,000 a year, Sedona is moving forward on a plan to build 104 more spaces.
Sedona City Council gave staff the go-ahead Tuesday, July 22, to get the ball rolling on a proposed 104-space parking lot in the south side of Uptown.
Councilman Dan Surber was absent.
The motion, passed 6-0, directed staff to proceed with an expedited rezoning plan of the five Uptown properties
in conjunction with a financing plan with the property
owners.
Last October, Van Deren Road property owners Tom Gilomen and Tom Johnson offered to sell their properties, located between Forest Road and Mesquite Avenue, so the city could build a public parking lot on their five lots.
One lot is zoned Multi-Family Residential. The other four are Office/Professional.
In return for selling his land, Gilomen requested to transfer the development rights of the approximately 6,000 square feet of office space to be demolished to his Commercial-zoned properties in Uptown.
One obstacle is that transferring development rights requires a city ordinance, which Sedona doesn’t have, City Attorney Mike Goimarac said.
Regardless of whether Gilomen will be able to transfer his Office/Professional zoning to his Commercial-zoned buildings in Uptown, all he wanted council to do was approve the Van Deren lots for a parking lot.
“The basic question is, does it make sense to put a parking lot on these five parcels, and, if so, we’ll get a zone change,” he said. “Then I’ll drum up support from fellow property owners to pay for it.”
If the city won’t approve rezoning the lots to Parking, financing doesn’t even matter, Gilomen said.
“The biggest problem is going to be getting City Council for rezoning. Then, the question will be who’s going to pay for it,” Gilomen told council.
City staff told council that a special improvement district would be established to fund the project — probably made up of businesses in the area that would benefit from the extra parking.
Taxes collected from this district would pay for the land and the construction of the lot, but staff had not yet done a thorough investigation on establishing it, Director of Community Development John O’Brien said.
Al Spector, owner of Amara Resort & Spa, L’Auberge de Sedona, Sedona Center and the Sinagua Plaza in Uptown, told council he was willing to be included in the special improvement district.
“My view is that if Tom [Gilomen] can add parking anywhere in Uptown, then everyone in Uptown benefits,” Spector said. “Don’t think that Tom [Gilomen] is a lone wolf here. He’s not.”
Other issues staff presented to council included impact on the neighbors; preserving the historic character of the neighborhood; and making sidewalks from the lot to Jordan Road compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.
The soonest the lots could be rezoned would be by the end of this year, O’Brien said. A neighborhood meeting to discuss rezoning the lots is planned for September; the issue will go to Planning and Zoning by October and to City Council in December.
Alison Ecklund can be reached at 282-7795, Ext. 125, or e-mail aecklund@larsonnewspapers.com
