The site of the former Biddle Outdoor Center nursery at Soldier Pass Road in West Sedona, vacant for years, may finally see development after the Sedona City Council voted 4-3 on Sept. 24 to approve a zone change and a development agreement for the planned Village at Saddlerock Crossing hotel and residential project.

Saddlerock Crossing is the latest lodging development planned for the site since James Biddle’s original proposal in 1984 for a 100-room hotel with 60 casitas on just under 10 acres.

The current proposal, by the Baney family, calls for a 100-room hotel and 46 workforce apartments on 6.4 acres. The zone change was previously approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission in a 4-2 vote on Feb. 17. City staff had recommended denial on the grounds of lack of compliance with Land Development Code criteria. At the time, the plans called for 110 hotel rooms and 40 apartments, with half of the latter designated as workforce housing. Council deferred its decision for six months pending additional community outreach by the developer.

Planning Manager Cari Meyer said that staff’s assessment had not changed as a result of modifications made by the developers.

“They believe that they have addressed a number of those comments,” Meyer said. “Looking through their resubmitted plans, they had not.”

“We submitted a complete updated set of plans on July 31,” Baney Corporation attorney Benjamin Tate said. “There are some inconsistencies in those plans that need to be addressed that your own community development director said are small enough that they can be addressed through the permit review process. If these were substantive differences … I can’t imagine that that is a statement they would make.”

Councilman Brian Fultz noted that the final public meeting held by the developers to take comments to be incorporated into the plans was three weeks after city staff’s deadline for the plans to be submitted.

“It was essentially an impossible situation,” Fultz said.

Adjustments for Neighbors

Following the council’s March deferral of the project, Tate said, the Baneys held five public meetings attended by approximately 35% of neighbors, which, “for a neighborhood that has as many out-of-town mailing addresses as the Saddle Rock neighborhood does, that’s a pretty extraordinary rate of participation.”

Tate explained that after receiving community comment suggesting they compete with short-term rentals by offering comparable amenities, 20 of the rooms were redesigned as 10 self-contained suites, which “brings people that are visiting out of the neighborhoods and into hotels, which is where they should be.”

Other changes made in response to community comments included increased screening, the elimination of balcony hot tubs, removal of bike racks, the removal of a sidewalk and the addition of sustainability commitments and a dog park.

The 46 apartments will be restricted to “income-qualified workforce housing” for a minimum of 50 years or as long as the property is operated as a hotel. Leases will be for a minimum of 90 days and “every other unit that becomes available, we are giving priority to … somebody who is a Sedona resident who is either employed or has a valid offer of employment,” Tate said.

Tenants parking on public streets in the Saddle Rock neighborhood will be considered to be in breach of their lease. Personal property, including barbecues, may not be kept on balconies, amplified music will be prohibited and quiet hours will be imposed from 9 p.m. to 8 a.m. Dogs other than service animals will be prohibited in the residential units, although the Oxford-managed hotel will be pet-friendly.

As a result of the workforce housing component, Tate said the Baney Corporation estimated “an anticipated net loss of $7 million” over the next 25 years, while the value of that component to Sedona would be around $24 million.

When council raised questions about concerns over balconies overlooking the Saddlerock neighborhood, Tate replied, “Categorically no … there are no balconies that face south.”

Trip Reduction

Tate also presented the results of four different traffic modeling scenarios if the property were developed under by-right commercial zoning, which would range from around 6,000 average daily trips if 15% of the property were occupied to 14,474 daily trips if 60% of the property were developed. Estimated traffic for the Saddlerock Crossing project is 1,374 trips over a 24-hour period.

“Simply by rezoning this property … there is an actual tangible public benefit in terms of trip reduction,” Tate said.

Public Split

Public comment on the proposed rezoning split down the middle.

“I think they did an outstanding effort of listening to the comments and trying to resolve them,” neighbor Larry Jackson said.

Neighbor Mike Vitek said the zoning change would contradict council’s previous calls for more multi-family housing and criticized the Baneys’ $25,000 contribution to the Sedona Historical Society for Cook’s Cemetery maintenance.

“I would ask the city council to please not let perfect be the enemy of the great,” neighbor Howard Kipnis said. “This project appears to us to check all the boxes.”

“They did a great job of reaching out and talking with people, but I didn’t feel that it was an attempt to bring the community together,” neighbor Alan Sirotkin said.

“They’ve listened to the community and they’ve done a lot of outreach,” neighbor Carol Rizzi said. “More so is the affordable housing. This is what I’ve heard Sedona asking for for 25 years.”

“This project I think is gonna help our neighborhood,” Tom Carter said.

“They want to be our neighbors. They’re jumping through these hoops,” Carter continued. “It seems like you’re putting a lot of obstacles up.”

Council Comments

“We haven’t built one unit,” Councilwoman Jessica Williamson said. “Here we have a chance to have 46 affordable units … I don’t think that’s no community benefit.”

Councilman Pete Furman said a hotel would be preferable to more STRs and called the idea of requiring developments to provide housing for all employees “dangerous, ill-conceived.”

“It’s expensive in Sedona because people like us moved here,” Furman said. “The price of housing has gone up because of us.”

“There’s a lot to be said for 46 units,” Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella said.

“Privately-owned land will be developed,” Fultz said. He estimated that since some apartments will be occupied by more than one person, the project’s 46 units will potentially accommodate between 55 and 69 residents.

“Those incremental people could be the ones serving you at the restaurant,” Fultz said.

“There’s no guarantee that anything else developed there will be multi-family residential,” Councilwoman Melissa Dunn said, and 46 units would be “more than any other commercial property has or has offered,” while STR townhomes or market-rate apartments would create even more traffic.

Mayor Scott Jablow admitted the Baneys’ outreach was ultimately “textbook” and “really impressive,” but argued that the project should be denied.

Council voted 4-3 to approve the zone change and the development agreement, with Dunn, Fultz, Furman and Williamson in support and Jablow, Kinsella and Ploog opposed.