After spending years planning for the Uptown Parking Garage on Forest Road, the Sedona City Council agreed to postpone the project after city staff recommended looking into the public’s concerns about the construction project, currently estimated to cost $16 million.
“This [public] meeting revealed a lot of consternation from the community and … from yourself and from councilor-elects about the fact that the analysis that was completed before things have changed and there may not be sufficient data, information, analysis or justification to move forward,” City Manager Karen Osburn said. “With that said … we believe this is a good project in a good location for all the reasons that you see laid out in the agenda. However, if the community and the council are not yet comfortable with moving this project forward, it deserves another look.”
According to city staff, as the project design is now 90% complete and waiting to go to bid on a construction contract, this is the time to pause and collect additional data and analysis if the council wishes to do so.
The garage plan includes a single-story main parking area, with an additional below-grade section, that would contain around 260 parking spots, 10 of which would be equipped with electric charging stations. Integrating it into the city’s overall transit plans, project engineers and designers anticipated construction to begin early next year and be completed by the summer of 2024.
Since the project was proposed, the city facilitated many public outreach opportunities through meetings and surveys.
At the council meeting on Sept. 8, a large volume of public feedback included requests to put the project “on hold” until the city could further address transit operations, induced parking demand, evacuation studies and updated traffic analysis, among other factors.
On top of postponing the project, the city will also be reevaluating the location of the garage and its overall design.
“I’m not opposed to the studies, but I think it’s going to be an exercise in politics that is going to cost us more in the long run,” Councilman Tom Lamkin said.
When the garage was first looked at years ago, the original anticipated cost was about $11 million. After evaluating designs and bringing on additional engineers, as well as adjusting for inflation and soaring material costs, the construction cost is currently estimated to be around $16 million, with a maximum project bid that sits at $18 million.
“Certainly, the escalating cost has sort of given another reason to do some new analysis and revisiting. So, we would like to expedite that as much as we can, understanding that it’s more of a long-range planning type effort versus a project management or engineering endeavor,” Osburn said.
The city will continue with other planned improvements in the area, including increased walkability and additional projects, even if the garage project is postponed longer or completely discarded.
“I can’t think of a time when waiting and bidding out a year later has resulted in a cheaper price on a project,” Assistant City Manager and Public Works Director Andy Dickey said.
Despite the anticipated increase in price, the majority of council directed city staff to reevaluate public opinion, as well as cost measurements and the garage location.
“We will be prepared at the January retreat [to] have a plan for trying to get the new data collected in spring during our busy season and then an analysis completed before the end of this fiscal year where we could come back with some final recommendations,” Osburn said.
