After two conceptual reviews, the Sedona Planning and Zoning Commission still questions The Oak Creek Resort’s building plans.
The proposed resort is an 80-room hotel, complete with 170 parking spaces, a restaurant, spa and meeting areas, built on 11.58 acres at 150 Schnebly Hill Drive. During its first review in December, the commission shared its concerns with the builder and owner.
After taking in many considerations from the Planning and Zoning Commission, the owner and developing company, California-based R.D. Olsen Development, presented revised plans for the resort.
“[R.D. Olson Develop-ment] felt that before they went forward and formulated the full comprehensive review, which requires full architectural plans, landscape plans and engineering reports, they wanted another chance to discuss this project. And they wanted to see — from what they heard last December — if they are headed in the right direction to address those comments,” city of Sedona Planning Manager Cari Meyer said.
At the first meeting, commissioners shared their concerns with floodways, the amount of buildings on the property, sustainability efforts and traffic issues.
“The applicant decided that they would prefer just to come straight to the Planning and Zoning Commission with what they currently have and to have a discussion about what changes they have made since that original conceptual,” Meyers said.
R.D. Olson Development Vice President Tony Wrzosek and President Bob Olson presented the new changes and plans to the commission. They were also joined by civil engineer Luke Sefton, of Sefton Engineering Consultants, architect Sam Beard, of Delawie, and landscape architect Richard Hubble, of Richard Hubble Landscapes.
The main changes to the plans made by the resort were based on the commissioners’ previous suggestions in December. With these in mind, the resort changed from many different tall buildings to four sections of clusters, based on designs from resorts in the Sedona area like Adobe Grand Villas and Alma de Sedona Inn. This would also decrease the resort’s room count from 92 to 80 guest rooms.
“We’ve scaled back in terms of height. We’ve scaled back in terms of the number of rooms. We’ve scaled back in building footprints,” Wrzosek said. “Some of our previous buildings did reach the 5,000-square-foot limit. But all of our buildings are now substantially lower than 5,000.”
Another major change addressed concerns with the floodway and the parking lot that sat within it. In the new plans, the parking lot is moved completely across the property, as not to disturb Oak Creek.
For the other major changes, the owners and developers committed their plans to assist with workforce housing and commuting, sustainable building methods like solar panels and increased walking trails and paths.
But these items of concern did not have any set plans.
The commission still did not approve the resort, as these are preliminary meetings and suggestions before the resort presents in front of Sedona City Council. The next step for the project will be a comprehensive review in a few months.
“ We n e e d e d t o understand better how you were responding to what was happening in December. You have outlined it very well,” Commission Chairwoman Kathy Levin said. “I’m going to look for more detail when you come back. And here’s what I’d like for you to do. In addition to answering all of these questions, especially those areas that a couple of commissioners feel that you fall flat on is, in your letter of intent, reference every single issue in the community in this plan and the Sedona community focus area plan so that you can discuss how you match it.”
For many of the commissioners, the sustainability, traffic and noise concerns still were not met. After this meeting, R.D. Olson Development will continue to meet with city staff to go through the official comprehensive review and future plans.
