The city of Sedona wants residents and visitors to know that its ongoing Sedona in Motion Transportation Plan isn’t simply limited to improving the way people get around town in vehicles.
The city will hold a public meeting Thursday, Feb. 6, from 5 to 7 p.m. at City Hall Council Chambers to hear from residents about potential walking and biking routes such as sidewalks, pathways and bike lanes.
This is part of the city’s Get Outside [GO] Sedona Plan to make walking and biking in Sedona a safe, enjoyable experience with convenient connections between destinations.
City staff created a map of refined, potential pedestrian and bicycle improvements based on feedback from the GO Sedona Work Group, comprised of Sedona residents from a variety of neighborhoods; Wikimapping, an online, interactive map that allowed everyone to suggest routes and denote problem spots; and focus groups to get more detailed input on walking and biking issues.
“We’ve sorted through hundreds of route suggestions and comments submitted through this year-long planning process, and we’re ready to take the narrowed down map of potential routes to the public,” Senior Planner Cynthia Lovely said.
Resident surveys have shown that increasing the walkability and bikeability of Sedona is at the top of the list of what residents would like the city to invest in, staff said.
This also reflects in the goals of the voter-approved Sedona Community Plan, which included encouraging active and healthy lifestyles, improving community connections, walkability and better traffic flow.
The city’s Transportation Master Plan also called out walking and biking improvements to help address traffic congestion in Sedona. The GO Sedona Plan will provide the details of what, where and how to make it happen.
One of the goals of the GO program is to improve connectivity and mobility to:
- Reduce traffic by increasing the number of people walking and biking instead of driving.
- Connect community destination points with safe and convenient routes for walking and biking.
- Ensure that residents can walk or ride from their neighborhood to city parks and National Forest system trails.
- Provide an equitable distribution of trailhead parking throughout the city to reduce impacts of trailhead parking on any one location.
- Improve connectivity and provide shortcuts for walking and biking, especially in areas that are lacking in street connectivity.
Lauren Browne, the city’s communications and public relations manager, said with the input from the open house on Feb. 6, Lovely will refine the improvements that will make the cut to be mapped out in the GO Plan. This plan will identify where all the improvements should be made in the next 10 years and identify the priority projects.
“Currently there are four shared use paths under design, plus other bike/ped improvements around town, which is really exciting,” Browne said. “We’ve heard for a long time that improved bikabilty and walkability is a top priority for residents, and with SIM, we’re bringing that to life with these projects.”
City Hall Council Chambers is at 102 Roadrunner Dr. Those who cannot make it to the meeting may submit comments through the website at sedonaaz.gov/go or call Lovely at 203-5035.
