The Planning and Zoning Commission has canceled their last three meetings due to lack of current projects that are past their initial review process.
Since their last meeting on February 15, P&Z has yet to meet about any of the coding or construction of many of the upcoming projects and developments coming to the community in the next few months.
“It takes a lot of time and energy to conduct a multi-faceted review before a project is even ready to go to P&Z,” City of Sedona Associate Planner Katherine Herbert said. “We definitely have projects in the pipeline, but they are still in the review phase.”
According to city staff, the review process can be very lengthy with several re-submissions and review processes before it is considered compliant for the commission to be presented with it.
With upcoming projects like resorts and growing businesses, as well as more residential construction popping up, Planning and Zoning meetings are the next steps for any potential developer in Sedona.
The Sedona Life Center off of Schnebly Hill Road is one potential lodging facility that will be presented to the Planning and Zoning Commission when they are slated on the agenda. According to the project’s asset manager Ed Conway, they are re-doing their initial letter of intent for re-submission. After this is turned in, the city staff will schedule it onto the agenda for a conceptual review.
“We often get project plans that do not meet the regulations in our Land Development Code (LDC) and, therefore, we have to issue corrections to the developer or architect,” Herbert said. “For example, we do not want to send a project to P&Z that violates the LDC or that has building code or engineering issues. This can be a lengthy process.”
Although P&Z is a recommending commission that ultimately answers to the city council, it is still the pathway to being an approved project in the city.
Other projects come back to the commission multiple times after the conceptual review if plans change, as well as the comprehensive review before it is put before the city council for final project approval.
