Sedona’s Planning and Zoning Commission approved the city’s pilot park and ride for transit at the Church of the Red Rocks. And it only took three and a half hours to do it.
“Initially since there is a process that we can do to use [the parking lot] the proposal was to do it for a year plus at spring break time,” City Planning Manager Cari Meyer said. “We will see if it works, see what changes need to be made and see if this is a viable option moving forward.”
The commission approved the conditional use permit with the understanding that active enforcement and management will be placed at the parking lot by the city.
“I’m reluctant to consider a pilot project because we don’t consider pilots or tests with conditional use permits,” Commission Chairwoman Kathy Levin said. “We either grant it, grant it with conditions, or we deny it. So this is a very different request being made of us.”
The trailhead shuttle, scheduled to be operational this March, is the city’s solution for the increasing traffic issues in the city. And while the commission stated its support of the transit services, commissioners believed the staff did not have the adequate data to be presenting anything more than a pilot project.
The parking lot, located at bottom of 54 Bowstring Drive property, was built when the church initially believed their congregation would be bigger. But after 61 years in the Sedona area, the 300-member church realized they would not need the lot. In April 2021, the city approached the church about purchasing the lot as the transit service’s State Route 179 park and ride.
As discussions continued with the church, transit staff came back with a lease-to-buy option, in order to study the success of the trailhead shuttle, as well as the park and ride.
“In general I think if this doesn’t work out, and the CUP expires then we wouldn’t renew it and the transit people would have to look at other options,” Meyer said.
According to staff reports, the city looked for other options that would house one location for both West Sedona and central Sedona’s park and ride for the trailhead shuttle. When none were identified, the church’s lot seemed the most practical for decreasing traffic for the shuttles.
Previously, city staff made it clear that without the approval of the church lot’s CUP, the shuttle would have to cut off its State Route 179 services, specifically to Cathedral Rock. City Manager Karen Osburn said the U.S. Forest Service has so far been supportive of closing parking lots at Back O’ Beyond and Solder Pass during the shuttle’s peak hours.
If approved by the Coconino National Forest, those two trailhead parking lots would be closed Thursday through Sunday as soon as the trailhead shuttles are operational.
Many other neighbors from Bowstring Drive and the adjacent streets relayed their concerns with the project to the commission during the public hearing portion. The main point reiterated was that this particular project would not help traffic issues, but instead move traffic to the Bowstring Drive area.
“It’s hard for me to understand why the city wants to transfer the traffic problem from one neighborhood to another neighborhood, which in my opinion really does not solve the traffic problem,” said William Francis, a resident on Sheath Drive.
“I spent three years trying to find a house that we loved in a neighborhood that was quiet that had no trail access,” said Mike Micalski, a Bowstring Drive resident. “Now the problem is getting dumped on us.”
The city will be working to build bathrooms, proper signage and trash disposal at the site for visitors to use. The lot will be able to hold roughly 60 spots.
The CUP will end on June 30, 2023. If the city wishes to purchase the property to continue with the park and ride, the CUP would still expire but the land zoning would need to be changed.
