Sedona’s average parking use is below available capacity, engineering consultants from Kimley-Horn told the Sedona City Council during the Wednesday, Aug. 9, update on the progress of the Sedona in Motion program, based on preliminary results of the new public parking study the firm conducted.

Director of Public Works Kurt Harris also updated the council on the status of in-progress projects, including the proposed Brewer Road roundabout, which is at 90% design completion.

Deputy City Manager Andy Dickey projected that council will be able to approve a contract for the new roundabout in the autumn.

As for the State Route 179 pedestrian underpass west of the Schnebly Road roundabout, “we’re moving along,” Harris said. “We ran into the permit issue with [the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality]. ADEQ gave us false information about a 14-day versus a 30-day, so that’s creating some delays. We’re working with [J.] Banicki [Construction] to do some alternative work, which is permeable grout injection.”

The underpass project is currently requiring the services of four arborists.

Harris also noted that construction on the Forest Road extension project is expected to resume in October. “We’re still working out the utility conflicts,” Harris said. “The blasting will probably happen about a month or so after they start moving dirt in there.”

He added that Fann Contracting, the city’s contractor for the project, has been remaining on standby to resume work at no additional charge.

Park Right Over There

Kimley-Horn planner Jeremiah Simpson presented the preliminary findings of the city’s Uptown parking survey.

Final results are expected to be ready in time for the city’s next SIM open house, scheduled for Sept. 7.

The study area included 978 public parking spaces. Average monthly use of parking was 76.5%, peaking at 88.3% in October and 88.1% in April, while minimum utilization was 55% in January.

These results would put the average number of available spaces at 230 and the minimum number at 114.

Kimley-Horn’s latest surveys, conducted over three separate weekends in March and June, showed fairly similar results to one another in spite of the difference in visitation between those weekends. Average Uptown public parking utilization, including abnormally high usage of 84% on Sunday, March 12, during spring break, was 38% at 9 a.m. Use rose to an average of 82% at noon and 3 p.m. and dropped to 62% at 6 p.m. Maximum use was 90.3% at 3 p.m. on March 12. The minimum number of available public spaces on March 12 was 95.

Average utilization of all parking within the study area, which included non-public parking at Tlaquepaque, was 38% at 9 a.m., 66% at noon, 69% at 3 p.m. and 55% at 6 p.m.

“When parking gets to be over a certain threshold, people have trouble finding those parking stalls, and so there can be excess vehicular circulation as they look for parking,” Simpson said. “Best practice is to maintain what’s called an effective supply cushion … Typically, we would want our design day to utilize around 85% of the available public parking capacity, leaving about 15% open for circulation of vehicles. We’re right about there.”

“That means we have a 15% surplus, generally, under normal conditions,” Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella said.

“If you look at the all parking study area, you never reach 85%,” Vice Mayor Holli Ploog agreed. “There’s plenty of capacity, or plenty of parking capacity, in the all parking.”

The Kimley-Horn study also considered multiple scenarios for future changes in parking demand. At a 2.4% annual growth rate, demand for Uptown public parking was predicted to exceed the number of available spaces in 2032, while at a 3.2% growth rate, demand was predicted to exceed supply in 2030.

Councilman Brian Fultz said that his immediate reaction to the growth projection was “no way we will have that kind of growth over 10 years.”

Possible development of the city lot at 401 Jordan Road was estimated to reduce the number of available parking spaces by 54. Development of the city lots at Sacajawea Plaza and the Matterhorn Hotel would further reduce parking by an estimated 62 spaces.

The only scenario considered that involved a decrease in parking demand rather than supply was a possible 7% reduction over 10 years as a result of an expanded transit program and tourism demarketing efforts.

Consolidation

“One of the key things that we’re looking at is consolidation,” Dickey said. “We’re trying to reduce trips throughout Uptown and connection to transit. So the more we spread out parking, the more difficult it is to connect to things like transit and reduce those unnecessary trips.”

“People keep talking about transit, and I get transit should be a part of this component,” Mayor Scott Jablow asked Simpson. “Where do you anticipate transit helping [visitors] to stop and shop in our small stores? Maybe they don’t want to plan on walking in Uptown for the day … how would transit help them? Help our businesses?”

“I don’t have a great answer to that,” Simpson said.

“There have been suggestions that if we only were to locate parking far outside of Uptown, at the entry points, [State Route] 179, Western Gateway, that then people could leave their cars there and then they could ride transit and get to Uptown and shop and eat and recreate,” City Manager Karen Osburn said. “I recall that 50% were going through. If 50% of the visitors that want to stop in Uptown and grab lunch, or do some shopping, before they continue on to recreate in Oak Creek Canyon or go to Flagstaff or visit the Grand Canyon, they’re not going to be served by leaving their vehicle on 179 or at Western Gateway and then taking transit back and then getting their vehicle.”

“Myself and many of the shopkeepers in Uptown have discussed it,” Jablow said. “I feel that they’re not being considered here.”

SIM Open House

With the next SIM open house planned for Sept. 7, council members and staff discussed their approach to the public at past events.

“We had a public open house before we put a stop to the garage,” Ploog said. “Karen [Osburn] said the other day it was really successful, because it stopped the project, which is what the people wanted. But I didn’t think it was successful in communicating to people what our goal was, to educate them. I don’t think they were educated.”

“We were selling the garage at that Hub meeting,” Ploog added. “We were selling the plan.”

By contrast, Ploog felt that the April 19 community plan meeting on housing was very successful.

“I actually see those meetings as being completely the flip of what you’re suggesting,” Osburn said. “We were trying to sell housing at that [community plan] meeting.”

“I thought that the housing meeting was the sales meeting,” Kinsella agreed.

“Was housing a sales pitch? It was. For good reason,” Jablow said.

“People without having some sort of direction of what’s already assumed where we are, a timeline, a framework, it’s not as productive,” Kinsella said.