The opponents of the Jordan Lofts project on Jordan Road thought they won a victory last week, but it appears to be either pyrrhic or the harbinger of the opponents’ worst-case scenario.
After several months of planning, Flagstaff-based Miramonte Homes had earned tentative approval for the major Sedona Community Plan amendment from the Sedona Planning & Zoning Commission for an 84-unit apartment complex, with 10 units, 12%, being classified for workers earning under $15 per hour — basically most of the retail and restaurant workers in Uptown. Jordan Lofts would put 36 units on the 2.1-acre western parcel and 48 units on the 4.4-acre eastern parcel.
This was just for the Community Plan amendment. If that was approved, the actual project is a new, separate public process.
Before the plan amendment got to council, Miramonte announced it was pulling out. Unfortunately for opponents, the letter of supposed “victory” being circulated on social media was not from Miramonte, but a basic notification email from Sedona Senior Planner Mike Raber. But he was only discussing the amendment process.
Opponents mistakenly and prematurely announced that the entire project was dead, which is not the case. Likewise, Sedona City Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella mistakenly told her supporters, “Just wanted you to know that Miramonte has pulled out of its Jordan Road proposal. They saw the writing on the wall and have withdrawn their application. They realized that, based on comments from the city, they would not be able to get the zoning change they would need. So, the proposal is dead ….”
Again, this was just the amendment process, not the whole project.
Thanks to Raber’s accurate but narrowly focused email and Kinsella’s mistaken interpretation and premature celebration, opponents of Jordan Lofts believe Miramonte had given up completely, was pulling up stakes and the vacant parcels would remain vacant until the tombs emptied at the End of Days.
However, that is not what Miramonte Homes is doing, nor is that what it told the city. Back in June, attorney Whitney Cunningham, representing the developer, said his clients plan to purchase the land regardless of the outcome of the zone change request.
That hasn’t changed.
Citing YouTube videos and Facebook posts filled with inaccurate information tainting the process and dooming the fairness of the plan amendment to succeed or fail on the merits, Miramonte ended its request for a plan amendment, but not its plans to build.
The fallback is likely far worse than even the fictional Jordan Lofts of YouTube. An apartment complex on the 2.1-acre western parcel is still good to go, but the 4.53 acres on the east are where things get interesting and potentially nasty.
“Time and again the neighbors indicated to Miramonte their preference to have the property developed under the current zoning designations. Miramonte will proceed now to do just that,” the letter reads.
Miramonte called the opponents’ bluff and they’re holding pip cards. Under current zoning, Miramonte could build up to nine giant homes explicitly to be used as huge vacation rentals, and there is little the city can do to prevent it because that’s the current, legal zoning.
For the rest of us living in other parts of Sedona, the failure of the multi-family housing complex bodes a dark future for reasonable housing and for developments in general because the letter also states, “In both private and public statements, members of the city’s council and zoning commission have expressed reservations about the pending application to the point that it seems clear Miramonte’s project will not be approved in an economically viable form.”
Council is ostensibly supposed to be unbiased, but council members couldn’t help but tell their followers there was “no way” Miramonte would get approval because “we’ll stop them”? You didn’t think your assurances to your Facebook friends wouldn’t get shared elsewhere?
Well done, council. Perhaps they’ll name the nine rentals after the seven council members.
“We’re inviting 75 of our best friends to our wedding at the Kinsella Estate off Jordan Road (next to Ploog Pavilion)! XOXOXO!”
So now, rather than having a semblance of control over a project, Sedona residents could now get massive vacation rentals elsewhere because Sedona City Council members couldn’t keep their yaps shut on social media.
Throughout the city, no developer will consider workforce housing because the city of Sedona can’t be trusted and can’t be fair. They’ve seen how council doomed Jordan Lofts so they’ll just build legal vacation rentals rather than workforce housing because council will sink any housing project at the pier. Council played dirty, so no developer has any incentive whatsoever to play nice.
The only future affording housing in Sedona will be at the cemetery and council members put the nails in the coffin. Were your Facebook “likes” worth it?
Christopher Fox Graham
Managing Editor
