Nearly three weeks after the Sedona City Council forwarded its recommendations to U.S. Rep. Anne Kirkpatrick [D-District 1] on the National Scenic Area, the congresswoman has yet to decide on the bill’s final language or verbalize any thoughts regarding the desires of the city.
“The congresswoman is still reviewing the comments and suggestions received from the Sedona City Council on the initial draft of the bill, along with those from other interested stakeholders and community members,” said Kirkpatrick’s Washington, D.C., press secretary Joe Katz.
Calls to the congresswoman’s Coconino County office were not returned.
Katz said Kirkpatrick is reviewing what other organizations want. Those entities include the U.S. Forest Service, the Sedona-Red Rock Scenic Area Coalition, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Phoenix and the Sedona Verde Valley Association of Realtors.
He said the groups gave feedback on the draft legislation and want to move forward with the National Scenic Area designation for the red rock area.
No date has been decided on when the congresswoman will draft or submit the final bill.
In January, her staff will meet with various stakeholders to discuss comments and decide how and when to move forward.
City Manager Tim Ernster said Sedona is in a holding pattern since it has no idea what the congresswoman is thinking. He also said there has been no contact with her or her staff since receiving a thank you letter after she received the council’s recommendations. The recommendations were sent to Kirkpatrick’s office Nov. 30.
However, the City Council told her in its recommendations it was not in favor of the NSA designation but gave her its list only in case she decided to go forward.
In Kirkpatrick’s letter to the city, her staff wrote that by circulating a discussion draft of this bill, Kirkpatrick hoped to provide the community an opportunity to review the actual legislative language.
“We understand this is not final but we hope this will generate
a discussion about the
intended and any unintended consequences of potential legislation from the many stakeholders that have an opinion on this proposed scenic designation for the Sedona area. Please keep in mind, the draft bill you reviewed has not been introduced and the next step is getting general and, more helpful, specific suggestions or edits to the actual language itself,” her staff wrote back to the city after receiving its recommendations.
Keep Sedona Beautiful called its submitted draft legislation to Kirkpatrick a critical step in creating an NSA designation.
Spokesman Seth Scott said the 10-year movement to preserve federal land near Sedona through a National Scenic Area designation took a critical step forward with the draft legislation recommendations to Kirkpatrick.
Scott said he is confident the congresswoman will look favorably at its recommendations because the group stayed within the parameters of what she seeks. However, her press secretary said everything is still under review.
Steve DeVol, president of Keep Sedona Beautiful, said its group sent its recommendations to the congresswoman Dec. 1. Its main focus is to keep Sedona as it is and prevent land trades to developers.
“It’s all about jobs,” he said, mentioning tourists come to the community for the open spaces and scenic areas, which DeVol thinks drives its economic base.
Kirkpatrick has said she was going to introduce legislation to secure designation and prevent land trades in the surrounding Coconino National Forest.
Michael Maresh can be reached at 282-7795, ext. 125, or e-mail mmaresh@larsonnewspapers.com
