The proposed plan to have 600 mobile home sites and an additional 50 RV spaces outside city limits has been withdrawn.
Yavapai County Senior Planner Tammy DeWitt confirmed that Equity LifeStyle Properties with-drew its application for the project in an email to the county on the evening of Monday, Feb. 4.
“That’s pretty much all the email states,” she said.
“So, this means the project is no longer moving forward.”
DeWitt, along with other county officials, said they have never seen this kind of community support, either for or against a project. In this case, more than 300 people turned out to show their opposition during the Jan. 17 Yavapai County Planning and Zoning Commission meeting.
In that meeting, the commission voted 9-0 to not recommend the project to the Yavapai County Board of Supervisors, which was set to hear the matter on Feb. 20.
“It was nice to see that the developer listened to the voice of the people and commission and withdrew their application,” Yavapai County District 3 Supervisor Randy Garrison said.
He praised the efforts of the opposition group, which he said was well-orchestrated and cohesive. But he also said the fact that the commission was unanimous spoke volumes.
“I think the handwriting was on the wall,” Garrison said.
He added that the fact is, development is coming to the county. Because of that, he said he hopes in the future the public puts the same type of energy it gave to opposing this project into to going out and finding the type of development it would like to see in the future.
The biggest concerns of those opposed included traffic, no city services, character of the neighborhood, impact on the environment and view shed, workforce housing, age restrictions, ingress/egress during emergencies, density, fire concerns, flooding, lot size and decrease in neighboring property values — to name just a few.
“The applicant has done a great job in promoting this but I don’t see any support,” Commissioner Curtis Linder said during the Jan. 17 meeting.
“When we have a rezoning request, that’s the challenge for any applicant — to get that support. I was born here and this is my district and I have never seen this much opposition.”
While 300 people turned out for the meeting, that number paled in comparison to the number of emails and letters the county received in opposition over the last few months. DeWitt estimated the county received nearly 3,000 in all.
“I knew there would be a lot of opposition but this exceeded anything I could have imagined,” she said.
The development, adjacent to Sedona Pines and Sedona Shadows, proposed to rezone from its current zoning of residential single-family to planned area development. As proposed, this would have been a 55-and-older development. Under the current zoning 89 total homes could be built on the land. ELS owns and manages nearly 200 manufactured home and RV parks across the nation, including Sedona Shadows.
Residents would have owned the manufactured home but would have leased the land on which it sat for around $1,000 a month. The proposed development is located on the site of the former El Rojo Grande Ranch, which is approximately 2½ miles west of Sedona’s jurisdictional boundary. The county requested input from the city on the project earlier this fall with Sedona City Council and staff expressing its opposition.John Black, who has helped lead the charge against the project, said he and the others were excited about the news.
“All I can say is — it’s over,” he said.
“It’s the people of Sedona and the Verde Valley who made this happen. I have to think this is the beginning of something where the people speak out about how they would like to see development in the future.”
