Following a Dec. 18 discussion between the Sedona City Council and the Governing Board of the Sedona Fire District, the city plans to move forward with selling its currently-vacant property at 401 Jordan Road to SFD for the construction of a new Uptown fire station rather than building housing on the site.
SFD Chief Ed Mezulis summarized the previous joint meeting between the two bodies as having involved “whittling down opportunities to 401 Jordan Road and the potential acquisition of properties adjacent to the current Station 4.”
“Further review, some preliminary conversations with contractors and architects, looking at increased traffic with the parking garage and the throughway on Forest Road, we’re still in a position where 401 Jordan is really a good option for us,” Mezulis said. “Further cementing that is the fact that one of the adjacent property owners is steadfast in his resolve that he has no interest whatsoever in selling his property. So it would really create an environment where if we were to go the route of attempting to acquire it, it would add years and dollars to our process that we don’t believe we have.”
“It gives us better access out of the station,” SFD Board Clerk Corrie Cooperman said. “It increases our response time a bit because we don’t have to stop and have some of our staff hold back the pedestrian traffic or also deal with the cars coming down Forest Road.”
“Our cost in building definitely decreases compared to pretty much anywhere else,” Cooperman added.
“One certainty is that we have to maintain ownership of a part of that property for that tower,” Mezulis said with regard to the future use of the existing Station 4. “I think it’s pretty clear that we’re not going to find a spot in Uptown to build another tower. Ever. We also have some grandfathered FCC communications agreements that, from what I understand, would be null and void if we attempted to move the tower because of its legacy placement. That being said, it makes the property less desirable.”
He proposed that SFD could eventually relocate its IT department from Station 8, at 6701 W. SR 89A, near Sedona Shadows outside the city limits, to the former Station 4 property. “The building that’s not the fire station — we refer to it as the annex — it was purpose-built by Coconino County as the first jail in town. It is a good space for our IT division,” Mezulis said. “The annex would be beautified … in alignment with the Uptown character ideas … and then the station would follow suit after the new station is constructed.”
“With an RF tower and what space would remain on that property, I don’t see it being viable for multi-use housing,” Mezulis added. “If anything, somebody may get the firehouse brew pub or something … I don’t see a true added value to really getting aggressive with attempting to commercialize it.”
“Your desire is to buy the 401 Jordan property, you’re not looking to the hope that we would want to do a land swap or any other way, you would like to obtain 401 Jordan from the city and build a firehouse there,” Fultz summarized.
“That is correct,” Mezulis said. “I think the cleanest would be to just get the property.”
“I think it should be clean and simple,” Vice Mayor Holli Ploog said in support of the proposal. “We have some property we’ve been looking at in another location. We could acquire that property with the proceeds from the sale.”
“I like the simple sale approach,” Councilman Derek Pfaff said. “Avoid condemnation, avoid all the complications.”
Mayor Scott Jablow, Councilwoman Melissa Dunn and Fultz stated they supported selling the Jordan Road site to SFD, while Councilman Pete Furman expressed concern that the city could “potentially be losing potentially tax-generating property in town.”
“We’ve had very limited conversations with our staff about the implications,” Furman said, and asked for more staff analysis.
“I’m not sure what other analysis there is,” Dunn said.
“Unless staff tells me there’s an undiscovered gold mine on that property, I don’t know that they’re going to tell us anything that’s going to change our minds,” Pfaff said.
The packet for the December council priority retreat noted that the housing department was considering a proposal from an unspecified local developer to develop the Jordan Road parcel with 5,000 square feet of retail space and 46 units of affordable housing.
“We’re looking at six to eight months of planning, and getting in the weeds … find somebody to take that vault out, it’s a whole process,” Mezulis said about the potential timeframe for construction. “This time next year, hopefully we’d be digging … we have a fair amount of cash flow to support these capital projects.”
He also said that “the more vocal” residents of Uptown with whom he had spoken had approved of the relocation.
The council vote on the sale of the property and the required public hearing is currently planned for Feb. 11.
