A Southern California developer is looking to build a hotel on Schnebly Hill Road and is currently in the early stages of seeking approval from the city of Sedona.

The proposal calls for the project — which is currently being called Oak Creek Resort — to offer 92 rooms as well as other amenities. It is currently in the first conceptual review process.

According to Cynthia Lovely, the city’s principal planner, the zoning of the property is now Oak Creek Heritage District, formerly RS-10 [small lot single-family residential]. This is the first proposal submitted under this new zoning district.

“The goal of the district is to offer an alternative to small, cookie-cutter subdivisions that could have been used as vacation rentals,” Lovely said. “Projects under OC must align with the Schnebly Community Focus Area plan and the Land Development Code development standards specific to this district. In a nutshell, intent is to preserve the Oak Creek floodway and riparian area with sycamore trees, open space and viewsheds. To make this possible, buildings need to be clustered/concentrated.”

Emails to the developers seeking comment on the project were not returned by press time.

In their letter of intent to the city, the developer, RD Olson Development of Newport Beach, Calif., wrote, “Our vision for the Oak Creek Resort is to develop this stunning 11.58-acre site into a boutique hotel for guests to enjoy the multi-seasonal beauty of the Sedona area and the unique character and identity of the Schnebly community. The goal is to create a serene environment where guests and locals can refresh, revive and reconnect.”

The proposed design has 92 guest rooms, a 4,500- square-foot restaurant on two levels, a spa with eight treatment rooms and approximately 3,900 total square feet of meeting space with the largest room being 2,700 square feet.

The letter states the developers plan to abide by the development guidelines within the Schnebly Community Focus Area Plan by breaking down the size of the resort by having different sized guestroom buildings and to create clusters of buildings. These clusters have both guest rooms and public buildings such as the restaurant, check-in building and the spa.

“This created smaller zones within the resort for guests to gather and enjoy a variety of environments and views,” it states. “We also reduced the density of the site struc­tures as you move north along Schnebly Hill Road and transition from the commercial uses near the turn-around to the purely residential uses within the neighborhood.”

This is done by use of three-story structures adjacent to the creek and in the southern part of the site, then transi­tioning to two-story and single-story structures closer to the road and the north end of the property. The road also rises as it travels north and allows for the views to remain open over the tops of the shorter structures.

“We are expanding the open space along the road into our site to soften the impact of the overall development,” the letter states. “Within the site … the structures are as close to natural grade as possible to limit the ground plane disturbance, which helps maintain the larger and native planting.”