The city of Sedona is in the early stages of hiring a firm to look at parking solutions in the Uptown area, which could include a long-talked-about public parking garage.
“Parking has been an issue for years in Uptown,” Assistant City Manager Karen Osburn said.
“Some of the strategies about management of parking — that were supposed to be implemented prior to looking at a parking garage study — have been done. These include wayfinding signage, additional surface lots for public parking through leases with the private sector and paid parking on Main Street. Yet, according to the merchants and property owners in Uptown, there’s still a need for additional parking.”
It was agreed upon more than 18 months ago that once the meters were installed, proceeds would remain in Uptown for specific projects. The total paid parking revenue collected in Fiscal Year 2017-18 [July 1, 2017 to June 30, 2018] was $564,669. The net to reinvest into Uptown — once the city’s expenses were considered — was $464,452. The net revenue through Oct. 31 for the current fiscal year is an additional $146,540.
The group of merchants making the decisions of how the revenue from the parking meters is to be spent decided to allocate $80,000 this year to hire a consultant with expertise in the area of parking garages.
The firm hired will look at both the need for a parking garage, the best location for it and how to make it aesthetically pleasing.
“We don’t want it to look like a traditional parking garage so we want them to offer us some design options,” Osburn said.
The city’s request for proposal states that in 2005 the city completed the Sedona Parking Management Study. This study was a comprehensive parking analysis that evaluated parking demand and behavior in the Uptown and Gallery Row corridor on State Route 179.
The study ultimately concluded that parking management in Sedona, especially in the Uptown area, should undergo a comprehensive overhaul. The study resulted in a new Uptown Parking Management Plan with nine parking recommendations. Little progress was made on implementing those recommendations until the Uptown Parking Management Plan was updated in 2012, the proposal states. The 2012 report validated the previous plan, and since that time significant progress has been made towards implementing the recommendations.
One of the longer-term recommendations, even in 2005 and again in 2012, was the need to expand parking capacity either through the creation of a mixed-use parking garage project in the Uptown district or the development of additional remote parking facilities connected by a circulator shuttle.
The Sedona in Motion project that will add an additional lane in Uptown to help with traffic congestion will eliminate up to 10 parking spaces along Main Street, which now has 101 spaces.
“When we were first doing the SIM and transportation master plan, it was agreed upon all along that we cannot lose parking along Main Street,” she said.
“It’s all about trade-offs. Yes, if we gave up the parking on Main Street we could move cars through. But, you then lose that buffering between highway traffic and pedestrians and then you start to change the character of Uptown. We want to do something to improve the flow but it doesn’t need to function like a highway.”
In terms of where a parking garage could be built, Osburn said all options will be explored.
“We’re going to try and look at everything,” she said. “It’s not like there is an abundance of vacant land in Uptown suited for this type of thing. We realize finding a location for a garage is going to be a challenge but right now everything is on the table.”
