In a six-minute discussion, the Sedona City Council voted 5-2 on Jan. 14 to give final approval to city staff’s proposed doubling of development impact fees for new construction. The new fees will go into effect on Monday, March 31.

Vice Mayor Holli Ploog and Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella opposed the increased fees.

“This doesn’t do anything for individual homes,” Kinsella said. “We keep talking about needing homes developed at every level, from multifamily housing to single-family housing, at the top end of the financial spectrum to the lower end of the financial spectrum, and I think that moving forward with this sends the wrong message about what we’re trying to do to make housing affordable at every level.”

“I’ve opposed this from the beginning,” Ploog said. “We’re so afraid of short-term rentals that we’ve now clouded our vision so that every house that’s being developed, we assume is going to be a short-term rental … Now we’re really going to push single-family homeowners — we’re going to make it even more expensive to build a house in this town and we’re going to discourage people from moving here who want to live here.”

“We are already the highest in the county, and now we will be even higher,” Ploog added. “People will not want to live here — and we do have land for sale. People can build houses and live in them.”