Posse Grounds Park may have a new look in the near future. But first, the city of Sedona is seeking the public’s input to see what those changes may look like.
In February, the Sedona Parks and Recreation Department evaluated the parks with an outside consultant. Staff gathered various stakeholders who use the park on a regular basis including those who regularly play pickleball and tennis; planners of some of the city’s larger events; users of the skate park, dog park and mountain bike skill park; as well as youth sports and others on what they’d like to see.
“Basically, the park is ready for an update, is what it comes down to,” Parks and Recreation Manager Steve Richardson said.
During that evaluation process, the city hosted a three-day charrette in which anyone could come in and give their thoughts on the master plan. Then COVID-19 hit and the city put plans on hold. Now, however, they’re picking things back up and the city will soon be putting out an online survey. Staff will be asking residents to choose one of four proposed options for what the park may look like in the future as well as any extra amenities they’d like to see. That survey is expected to be made public after the first of the year.
“The goal of the survey is to get a baseline option that we can start from,” Richardson said. “From there we will create a master plan for Posse Grounds. We want to see which option the community likes best, keeping in mind that with additional amenities comes additional costs. There will also be a section in the survey for folks to give additional thoughts. ”
The survey is broken into four options that came from those meetings in the beginning of the year. Richardson said because there are many moving parts, right now there are no price tags associated with the options.
The four concepts vary in terms of the additional amenities and thus the price.
■ Concept A calls for additional pickleball courts, an accessible walking loop, a possible children’s garden and modifications to the basketball courts, fitness trail, group ramada and turf at the dog park.
■ Concept B calls for a permanent 14,000-square-foot pavilion for events like Sedona Wine Fest and Oktoberfest, pickleball courts, additional parking, better connectivity within the park, open turf event space and the children’s garden. Modifications would be made to the current basketball and pickleball courts and fitness trail.
■ Concept C includes the same elements of the previous option but a different configuration.
■ Concept D includes the biggest change, which is a proposed recreation center that could be up to 40,000 square feet but Richardson said realistically it would be along the lines of 25,000 to 30,000 square feet.
One of the commonalities among the four options is that one of the two softball/baseball fields will be eliminated and used in other ways including for the proposed pavilion or rec center. As a result of eliminating one of the ball fields, the city will not need to buy any additional land for any of the options.
“These options are not set in stone,” Richardson said. “Just because it’s the option you see does not mean it absolutely has to be like this. The park has morphed into an event space and we’re seeing some of our sports fields no longer being used as much as they were 10 or 20 years ago. It’s a matter of how can the park be better utilized by the community?”
Once the survey is complete and staff draft a plan, it will be presented to the Sedona City Council, possibly as early as spring. If any projects move forward there will first be a design phase, which could take several months to complete. So realistically, Richardson said that the first shovel would go into the ground no sooner than Fiscal Year 2022-23.
