Yavapai County is about to begin construction of a new $40,000 “no parking” zone along Dry Creek Road. Construction is expected to take place between Monday, April 15, and Friday, May 10. Road crews will be working between 7 a.m. and 4 p.m., during which time traffic along Dry Creek Road will be reduced to one lane with traffic delays up to 15 minutes.
“Historically, the roadside shoulders of Dry Creek Road have been used as makeshift parking areas that the public uses to access sights and trails in the vicinity, which creates safety hazards with the public limiting the shoulder and walking adjacent to or in the roadway lanes,” the March 20 Yavapai County Board of Supervisors agenda claimed.
“There have been numerous discussions between the Coconino National Forest, Yavapai County and the city of Sedona on how best to eliminate the roadside parking in this area.”
“The project goal is to mitigate the uncontrolled [and] unsafe roadside parking and the destruction of vegetation on Coconino Forest,” Yavapai County spokesman David McAtee wrote in a recent email. “The project will encompass approximately ½ mile of Dry Creek Road from the Sedona city limits north to the intersection of Boynton Pass Road and Long Canyon Road. There will be a ‘chain and post barrier’ installed from the city limits north approximately 900 feet on both sides of the roadway and ‘no parking’ signs installed on both sides of the roadway every 150 feet for the next 2,600 feet to the end of the project.”
McAtee said the section of road chosen for the latest round of parking closures was selected because it is the closest area to the Girdner Trailhead and because the area is flat enough to allow vehicles to drive off the pavement without damage. “No parking signs alone will not deter them from still utilizing it,” McAtee said.
The Forest Service authorized the construction in February and the Board of Supervisors approved it on March 20. Enforcement of the zone will “likely” be carried out by the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office. There are currently no plans to construct additional parking areas either along Dry Creek or Boynton Canyon Road after the construction of the no parking zone to accommodate the hikers and other visitors displaced by the parking closure.
“It’s something that [YCSO] and Public Works talks about pretty often,” McAtee said. “This has been something that homeowners have complained about, spoken to their [county] board members, talked to the sheriff [and] presented this case as an immediate need. So that’s why they’re taking action on it, and I’m sure there will be other [parking space] projects down the road.”
How the closure may cause new parking issues elsewhere in the area is unknown.
“The hope is that it will help in general that area,” McAtee said. “Now, obviously, people will go there and discover that they can’t park there any longer and find somewhere else to park. It may discourage others from going altogether. … People can go there as long as they can get there. Where they end up parking we don’t know, but we’ll deal with that issue as it comes up.”
Acting District Ranger Alex Schlueter said that visitor displacement and where people will ultimately park will be the Forest Service’s main concern following construction.
“Our hope is that more folks [will] use the shuttle system,” Schlueter said. “But we don’t know if that’s how it’ll work out. It’s a kind of hope for the best, prepare for the worst. We’ll be monitoring that and seeing what displacement is caused and where folks end up going.”
During a recent county open house at the Sedona Public Library, county road manager Verl Cook said that message boards will be used to alert motorists about the start of work at the beginning of the month.
“We have to wait till after spring break because it would have been a nightmare. It’s still going to be a nightmare,” Cook said.
