Being that Uptown is often the busiest part of Sedona, it only makes sense that there are more moving parts when looking at making improvements in the future.

The Sedona Planning and Zoning Commission spent two and a half hours discussing the draft Uptown Community Focus Area on Tuesday, April 6.

The public will have an additional two weeks to review and comment on the draft plan before it again comes back before the commission on Tuesday, April 20. At that meeting, representatives from the city’s public works depart­ment will be on hand to answer several questions the commissioners had during the April 6 meeting.

The Community Plan’s goals include improving traffic flow, walkability, housing diversity and envi­ronmental stewardship and the CFA plan looks at how those goals can be achieved in Uptown.

According to the Sedona Community Plan, a CFA is a location where the city will play an active plan­ning role to implement the community’s vision. With participation from property owners, neighbors and stakeholders, the city will develop a plan, including any necessary rezoning, for adoption by the Sedona City Council. In all, the city has designated 13 CFAs.

Included in the CFA is the creation of streets designed and managed for the safety of all users, abil­ities and modes of travel. This includes driving, walking, biking or taking public transit.

“Accommodating all users — cars and people walking or biking can contribute to better traffic flow,” the report states.

Forest Road and Jordan Road have space to be improved to safely accom­modate all users. There are no sidewalks on the majority of Forest Road despite the fact that there is public parking on both sides of the street, the draft states. There are sidewalks on the west side of Jordan Road, but the sidewalk on the east side ends at Schnebly Road.

Although it is outside the CFA boundaries, extending sidewalks the length of Jordan will encourage employees and other resi­dents to walk in Uptown.

The draft goes on to state that people are more likely to walk if it is safe, convenient and comfort­able. Improvements to both streets need to be inte­grated with the construc­tion of future projects. The city is planning the Forest Road extension and a new 262-spot parking garage on Forest Road. On Jordan Road, the city expects future development of private property. All of these projects will need to integrate bicycle, pedes­trian and transit needs.

“This area, for me, is one of the largest chal­lenges,” Commissioner Pete Furman said of Forest Road. “I’m thinking about the future parking there and the Forest Road exten­sion. And, I’m thinking about the conflict between pedestrians, vehicles and bicycles.”

The CFA focuses greatly on walkability and connec­tivity and while it includes improvements to sidewalks, lighting, creek walk and bike lanes, Primary Planner Cynthia Lovely, who gave the presentation, said one item received more feed­back than all the rest.

“We had a lot of people asking whatever happened to the idea of a pedestrian bridge,” Lovely said. “The idea is still out there. It’s in the Transportation Master Plan. It’s my understanding they [city leaders] wanted time to evaluate the latest improvements [to Uptown] and then revisit the idea of a pedestrian bridge.”

Lovely said the consensus is that the most logical location for a pedestrian bridge to cross State Route 89A would be outside Wayside Chapel where an elevator has already been built.

Something else that is being looked at is the possi­bility of making Wilson and Smith roads one-way, as is Van Deren Street. The commission also discussed the possibility of elimi­nating on-street parking for all three roads to improve traffic flow and pedes­trian safety. Those narrow streets are part of the city’s first residential subdivi­sion, platted in 1948.

“I would really hope the city considers elimi­nating on-street parking on those three streets, “Vice Chairwoman Charlotte Hosseini said. “I think it would help a lot.”

Chairwoman Kathy Levin agreed that by elimi­nating on-street parking it would improve traffic flow and pedestrian safety. But, she asked staff to see how many residents of those streets rely upon on-street parking if their homes have no parking alterna­tives such as a driveway or garage.

“When you have cars on both sides of the road, there is no hope for a sidewalk,” Commissioner Kali Gajewski added. “Pedestrians are in the middle of the road and have nowhere to go.”

To review the draft and submit questions or comments, go to sedonaaz.gov/planuptown.