The Sedona City Council voted to adopt the final draft of the 2024 Sedona Community Plan on Tuesday, March 26.

The plan, which is required by Arizona Revised Statutes §9- 461.05, lays out city staff and council’s goals and visions for the coming decade and will inform future changes to the city’s land development code. The plan is not an operations plan and does not include proposed timeframes for many of the initiatives outlined in the document, such as creating online platforms and a number of public works projects.

Principal Planner Cynthia Lovely said that the plan will be expanded with a short executive summary and translated into Spanish, which she anticipates completing within the next month.

“We will be adding in an appendix, which will just be kind of a supplement on the website, and that will include things like references, glossary, it will also have a master list of all of the policies and actions,” Lovely said. “[As well as] updating our website, both the Plan Sedona as well as the city site. We also have to update our GIS viewer, so that if a property owner goes into the city’s GIS website, and they click on their parcel, you can pull up a bunch of information like zoning, but you’ll also be able to see what your future land use designation is … because [with] the community plan one of the key elements is the future land use map.”

The city’s land development code will be updated during the 2025 fiscal year, and Lovely said those updates will be influenced by the community plan’s expanded emphasis on mixed-use development, which Lovely said was “elevating the importance of housing.”

The plan also includes Policy 3.2 that continues the small grants program, “adding to the criteria the importance of building a sense of community.” City small grants funding for community organizations will increase from $200,000  to $350,000 next year with a minimum of 40% going to the arts.

Arts & Culture

Policy 3.10 in the new community plan requires that the city “expand the city’s arts and culture programs and partnerships.” Arts and Culture Specialist Nancy Lattanzi said that no such new programs are in the works.

“Currently I oversee the City Hall Art Rotation program, where I typically exhibit two artists for each four-month cycle in the council chambers and Vultee Conference Room,” Lattanzi said. “Sales are encouraged and the artist receives full commission. Going forward, depending on quantity and availability of work, there are times I may exhibit more artists in one four-month cycle. Future plans are to utilize the buildings at the Ranger Station Park as shared community space. The hopes are to expand the City Hall Art Rotation program featuring additional exhibits at this property. [The] horse sculpture ‘Stormy Bay,’ created by Dixie Jewett, is the first sculpture to be installed and purchased at the Ranger Station Park. There are plans to acquire additional sculptures for this property as we accrue funds over time.”

Parks and Recreation Manager Josh Frewin said that artisans could be allowed to sell their work through art exhibits at the site beginning in the spring of next year.

The final draft of the community plan also calls for the development of a new master plan for the Sedona Cultural Park that “will accommodate a variety of housing types, sizes and cost,” eliminating the 2013 plan’s requirement for the site to be developed as a performance venue. The new plan refers to the location as “site of [a] former amphitheater,” although the amphitheater does in fact still physically exist.

An additional project at the Sedona Cultural Park called for in the plan is an improved Girdner trailhead that incorporates transit, parking and information.

“If people have questions … [PlanSedona.com] is still up and available, and there’s a comment form so people have questions,” Lovely said. “That same Plan Sedona site will be used for our Cultural Park planning as well.”