The city of Sedona’s $250,000 transportation master plan recently hit the half-year mark but still has another six months to go before its projected completion date.

In the meantime, representatives from the Phoenix firm of Kimley-Horn will give the Sedona City Council a second update on their progress at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 9, at City Hall.

“During the update the consultant will review what has been done in the first six months of the master planning process, including sharing some preliminary findings; will allow the council an opportunity to ask questions; and will discuss next steps including future public outreach efforts,” Assistant City Manager Karen Osburn said.

She said the city has been encouraged by the response so far to an online survey in which those taking it can prioritize what they would like to see done to help solve the traffic problem. They can also leave written suggestions.

The survey, which went live on Tuesday, Oct. 25, had been completed more than 1,200 times in less than six days. It will be up until Tuesday, Nov. 15. The survey can be accessed from the city’s homepage at sedonaaz.gov or by visiting SedonaInMotion.metroquest.com.

“The city has tried in recent years to conduct various online surveys on different topics, with little success,” she said. “Knowing that, we made extra efforts to distribute the transportation survey to as many people as possible. But even given those efforts, we were very surprised to have had over 1,200 responses in the first week. That tells me that there is tremendous interest in this topic and that our residents have a strong desire to be engaged in this effort.”

Some survey aspects already completed include:

• Cameras were placed throughout the city to capture traffic counts and turning movements at major intersections along State Routes 89A and 179.
• A Technical Advisory Committee has been formed which consists of city staff as well as representatives from ADOT, Coconino and Yavapai counties, and Verde Lynx. This group meets periodically throughout the study period to evaluate and provide feedback on items such as data collection, public outreach and proposed alternatives.
• Previous plans and studies have been reviewed by Kimley-Horn, and a summary memorandum has been sent to the advisory committee to identify which existing recommendations merit further consideration.
• Stakeholder interviews were conducted with a wide variety of organizations including Sedona Chamber of Commerce, Sedona Lodging Council, Uptown Parking Advisory Group, ADOT, U.S. Forest Service, Sedona Main Street Program, Jeep/trolley companies, and various business owners, consultants and community representatives.
• Origin-destination data has been collected that provides information about vehicle movements into and out of Sedona, as well as internal movements within the city. This helps differentiate between residents, commuters, day-trippers and overnight visitors.
• Kimley-Horn has nearly completed an assessment of current and future conditions while summarizing issues identified through review of previous plans and studies, stakeholder interviews and analysis of population and development trends, current travel patterns, traffic operations, traffic safety, public parking facilities, bicycle and pedestrian facilities and public transit.
• Workshops were held in early October, where experts were brought in to discuss potential strategies, projects and new ideas.