On Dec. 12, Sedona City Council heard city staff’s plans to adopt new building and land use codes, as well as updates on Housing Department staff’s attempts to encourage the creation of housing via methods that did not involve code modifications.

Council previously voted on Dec. 10 to increase development impact fees by an estimated 106% to 139%.

2024 International Building Code

Community Development Director Steve Mertes informed the council that staff is planning to request adoption of the latest version of the International Code Council’s codes late in 2025. Sedona currently uses the 2018 version of the International Building Code and related codes; the update would replace it with the 2024 IBC. The new codes are being prepared for local adoption in collaboration with both the other municipalities in the Verde Valley and the Yavapai Contractor’s Association.

“They have a representative sitting in with this committee,” Mertes said of the contractors.

Mertes also mentioned that staff are planning additional updates to the city’s Land Development Code, and that his department is considering adopting landscaping requirements for fire safety.

Councilman Brian Fultz asked if code enforcement staff were working on eliminating code requirements “that binds us to approve stuff the community doesn’t want.”

Mertes replied that it was in process.

Councilman Pete Furman suggested it might be time for the city to consider “form-based building,” an alternative approach to zoning codes, which City Manager Anette Spickard described as “a design standard sort of approach. You don’t care what the activity is within the building, it’s all about the exterior look.”

However, Spickard added, “I just don’t see how there’s any way to implement one in the next year and a half.”

She said that the LDC updates would be staff’s priority and that the creation of an Uptown Community Focus Area should be revisited because “we were so close to being done with that process.”

“We were not comfortable with that CFA,” Vice Mayor Holli Ploog said. “It’s not close to being done.”

Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella compared the creation of new CFAs to “overtaking aspirin,” while Councilwoman Melissa Dunn urged staff to codify as many elements of the building and development review process as possible so that institutional knowledge doesn’t end when staffers leave city employment.

Housing

“The city has taken a lot of strides to address housing,” Housing Manager Jeanne Frieder said. “I am actually excited to share the following discussion and updates.”

Frieder said that the city’s down payment assistance program, which offers a loan of up to $40,000 to homebuyers, has been used for seven home purchases over a two-year period.

“We have not had a lot of traction in this program for certain reasons, mainly that the incentive program does not bridge the gap to what a property could earn as a short-term rental,” Frieder said of the city’s Rent Local program, which offers STR owners a payment of between $3,000 and $10,000 to convert their units to longterm rentals. Frieder told the council that they had 11 homes in that program.

As for the city’s deed restriction program, which invites residents to place a 50-year restriction on their properties to prevent their future use as STRs, Frieder said that it “has gleaned 13 deed restrictions since its inception last year.”

The city’s request for proposals for a developer to complete the Sunset Lofts project, initiated in 2021, closed on Dec. 12. Frieder said the city had received seven proposals.

“I know we keep saying it’s soon, it’s soon, but it really is soon this time,” Frieder said of the Villas on Shelby project, initiated in 2023. “They’re going to be submitting for their building permits … before the end of December … as soon as they get building permits approved, they can be ready to put the shovel in the ground.”

During the discussion, Vice Mayor Holli Ploog referred to the cost of “real affordable housing” as being “$800 and something for an apartment.”

“Can we make available to [visitors] the opportunity to donate to a fund that could help with building affordable housing?” Fultz asked. “There isn’t any legal reason why we couldn’t do that, right?”

City Attorney Kurt Christianson replied that there was not.

Homelessness

Councilman Derek Pfaff proposed an alternative to the housing department’s previous effort to rent rooms at local hotels to provide emergency cold weather shelter for the homeless.

“Why aren’t we looking at the [Sedona Posse Grounds] Hub or the space over at Posse Grounds Park?” Pfaff asked. “I don’t see why the police department needs to be opening its lobby. We have space … if we have space we can use, why aren’t we using it?”

“We are talking about emergency situations. We’re talking about human beings,” Pfaff continued.

“We would need to have staff there,” Dunn said. “You’d want that staff trained … you’d want to make sure our property is safe.”