Will the city of Sedona have any say in the Sedona Airport’s new events venue? That’s what the Sedona City Council would like to know as well.
At their last meeting, the council discussed their letter to the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors, urging them to consider the city’s position when it comes to nonaeronautical businesses at Sedona Airport.
“The letter is being written by our attorney and our zoning administrator, who have the authority to request to the Board of Supervisors that they reconsider the lease agreement or at least reconsider their approach to what approvals would be required by this new development and honor the city’s jurisdiction in those matters,” City Manager Karen Osburn said.
According to this letter, which was posted to the city’s website, there has been no “island” in the city’s legal boundary that gives the county sole jurisdiction of businesses surrounding and on the airport mesa since the city’s incorporation in 1988.
This is separate from the state case law that gives the county regulatory power over governmental activities, such as aviation at the airport.
Council members also argued that although there was no written agreement in the past giving the city the right for jurisdiction of these businesses at the airport, there was a precedent set by Sky Ranch Lodge, a lessee at the airport, when the Sedona City Council held public hearings and subsequently approved a major Community Plan amendment for the hotel’s expansion in October 2012.
“Anybody who has followed me either up here prior to [this] knows how strongly I feel about public notification and the ability for the public to be able to speak,” Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella said. “By not going through the city’s zoning process cuts out the residents. And I think it’s really important that residents within our city are going to look at our city and not understand that this is something that is sort of a tug of war between the county and the city at the moment.”
The city’s letter has four key points that involve the venue’s Community Facilities zoning, lack of a Conditional Use Permit, insufficiency of the airport road to cater to an event venue, and noise complaints that are dealt with by the city.
Currently, the Sedona Police Department responds to calls at the airport and surrounding businesses, which the city believes is another reason for the city to be involved in the venue’s approval process.
The 6,400 square feet of “fully updated and modernized event space” will also include two acres of outdoor gathering space and eventually will house a chef-developed restaurant. The lease, negotiated in August, will be for 25 years with three five-year renewals.
“It’s about authority. It’s about our jurisdiction,” Councilwoman Holli Ploog said. “I think we have to assert our authority and I think we have to assert it until we can’t anymore.”
Council members encouraged residents of Sedona to attend the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors’ meeting on March 2 in Prescott to voice their concerns.
