The city of Sedona released the results of its fiscal year 2024 budget planning survey on March 1. The survey collected 682 responses from Sedona’s 9,684 residents.

The survey’s results included incomplete options on public opinion regarding the Sedona Cultural Park, as well as indicating residents’ continuing desire for certain traffic improvements and a lack of public interest in the city’s priorities for broadband and a green fleet transition.

Sedona Cultural Park

The survey’s lead question asked respondents to rank 11 possible options for the future development of the recently purchased Sedona Cultural Park in order of preference.

The options that the city provided from which respondents could choose included: Open space preservation, housing, commercial or business use, an art museum and others. Restoring and reopening the Frontiere Pavilion as a performance venue did not appear as an option.

“That survey,” Cultural Park architect Dan Jensvold said, shaking his head. “I went through that thing, and it is so calculated for their own reasons. It intentionally tried to push [the amphitheater] into the background.”

“At this time, the city’s intent is not to reopen the amphitheater, which is why that wasn’t included as an answer,” city communications manager Lauren Browne said.

Sedona’s elected officials stated at the time of the park’s purchase in November that public consultation would precede any decisions about the redevelopment of the property.

The survey results showed that of the available options, respondents ranked preserving the Cultural Park as open space as their highest priority. Open space preservation scored nearly twice as high in the survey’s rankings as the second most popular option, multi-family housing with rents based on median income.

Outdoor recreational uses, an indoor recreation center and duplex or cottage housing followed these in order of preference; all three had comparable levels of support. Building an art museum ranked eighth and a homeless shelter 11th.

Of the 185 written comments submitted in response to the “other” option for the Cultural Park question, 62 of these — 33% — called for the restoration of the park as a performing arts and music venue.

Additional suggestions by respondents included botanical or community gardens, an American Indian cultural village, a tiny home community, a biology research center, senior housing, a children’s museum, selling the property and making sure that no housing is built on the site.

The written responses to the city’s survey indicate a significant portion of residents would want a revised master plan for the Cultural Park that would combine reopening the Frontiere Pavilion with discreet housing and cultural venues allowing for the preservation of the majority of the park as open space.

“We need the city manager and the City Council people that don’t know what they’re talking about to back off and let the public think about this,” Jensvold said.

Street Connections

Sixty-nine percent of survey respondents told the city that they do not support additional street connections through their neighborhoods, as outlined in the city’s Sedona in Motion plan.

Among respondents who agreed that new connections are needed, the most popular choice by far was a bridge across Oak Creek, most likely between Verde Valley School Road and Red Rock Loop Road, to provide an alternate route between West Sedona and State Route 179, although this is outside Sedona city limits and jurisdiction.

Second in popularity was the suggestion to bypass the “Y” roundabout by connecting Uptown to West Sedona through the Coconino National Forest, which those surveyed suggested could be achieved by linking Jordan Road or Power Line Road with Soldier Pass Road.

One respondent, as a compromise, proposed a paved bike path along this route instead of a road for vehicular traffic. The survey also showed support for paving Schnebly Hill Road and linking it up to Interstate 17 to provide another alternate route.

During a Sedona in Motion update meeting on Dec. 7, Sedona Director of Public Works Andy Dickey said paving Schnebly Hill Road, bridging Oak Creek and bypassing Uptown would involve too many challenges and be too expensive to be implemented. Only a small portion of Schnebly Hill Road is within Sedona city limits and jurisdiction.

One respondent demanded that no new roads be built in Sedona, “especially with increasing crime,” although crime in Sedona has declined 59%, from 652 arrests in 2009 to 268 arrests in 2022.

Another respondent suggested a “double-decker road” to allow through traffic to bypass the roundabouts and a monorail “to take folks Uptown.”

Broadband

Although the survey informed residents that improving broadband access had already been identified as a priority by the city council, 55% of respondents indicated they did not support the city funding a broadband expansion program. Seventeen percent of those surveyed were in favor of the city committing $1 million to securing a private broadband service provider; 28% approved of committing $5 million to securing a private provider.

A followup question asked if residents would support spending $20 million or more to build a city-owned broadband utility if a private partnership could not be reached. Seventy-nine percent of respondents said no.

Homelessness

The survey obtained a number of overlapping responses regarding Sedonan’s attitudes toward the homeless. Thirty-one percent of respondents thought the city should provide a safe, legal place for the homeless to sleep, with basic necessities like toilets and showers, while 32% supported an indoor daytime resource center and 22% supported a full-service 24-hour shelter. Thirty-three percent reported being in favor of transitional supportive housing. Forty-nine percent rejected all of the above options.

Sustainability

Survey respondents ranked open space and creek preservation as their top priority for receiving city funding, followed by water conservation and education. Residents were less likely to support funding pursuit of renewable energy, food security or waste diversion.

Creating a charging infrastructure for electric vehicles and reducing emissions from city vehicles and buildings were ranked last.

Public Comment

General comments left by survey respondents ranged from “the city should not be involving itself in any of this” to “forcefully discourage private vehicle transportation.”

Numerous respondents showed strong hostility toward the homeless, with one calling for panhandling to be outlawed and another demanding, “Get rid of the hobos and bums.”

Another objected to charity on the ground that it encourages “a non-productive lifestyle.”

“The full truth is that the city is so grossly mismanaged, and the priorities listed here are completely divorced from what this town actually needs,” one respondent summarized. “You all have no real long-term vision, which is to be expected from a council full of retirees. Worse, none of you seem to understand what makes Sedona so special. To you, it’s simply a beautiful place to retire and vacation, and your policies reflect that outlook.”

“Sedona is a small town,” another wrote. “We do not need to operate under the idea that we need to do all that the big cities/towns are doing — because we do not.”

“You need to reduce the size of Sedona city government,” a third said. “It is ridiculous.”