Council approves parking rates for garage and surface parking

The city’s Uptown parking plan is circling the block.

The Sedona City Council voted 5-1 at its Tuesday, Aug. 25, meeting to move a residential permit parking program forward, with Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella opposed and Councilwoman Melissa Dunn absent.

Council also unanimously set maximum parking rates for the Uptown meters, the parking garage and the Sacajawea Plaza surface lot — the framework for a future in which all public parking in Uptown has a fee.

However, none of the changes from Aug. 25 will take effect soon because the Uptown parking garage is not anticipated to open until December or January. City staffers said they want to monitor Uptown for at least six months afterward.

Deputy City Manager Andy Dickey said “it’s our intention” to bring the residential parking program back to the council for final approval.

The permit program would let the city restrict on-street parking to registered residents and their guests, to be implemented later “if future conditions indicate that restrictions and/or enforcement are needed,” according to the Parking Work Group’s letter of support in the council packet.

Once implemented, all non-resident street parking in the affected areas of Uptown will be prohibited, requiring visitors and non-residents to use the Uptown parking garage or public or private parking lots instead.

The residential permit parking program would cover three blocks in Uptown, Van Deren, Price and Smith roads, bounded by Schnebly Road on the north and Forest Road on the south.

Six conditions would trigger the plan, any one of which could be enough: Emergency access or public safety being compromised, spillover parking from the garage onto residential streets, resident feedback, parking use and occupancy data, a recommendation from the Parking Work Group or direction from the council.

The city is still deciding if the permits will be physical placards or a digital database, and specifically how residents will enroll vehicles in the program, but either way Sedona Police Department staffers will enforce the program using mobile license plate readers.

“Sedona’s parking management system is not ‘Flock-like; and is not connected to any law-enforcement network,” the city posted to social media Wednesday, Aug. 26. “The City Council, in a public meeting, reviewed the use of license plate recognition technology on Jan. 27, 2026. They approved a specific data governance policy that limits the technology to parking purposes and prohibits law enforcement, investigative, or surveillance use and sharing with outside agencies.”

Employee Parking

The maximum parking rate for the garage and City Lot 5 will be $2.50 an hour, with peak season rates of $3.50 in the March-May and September-November peak. On-street meter parking on State Route 89A and Jordan Road will run $4 an hour with a three-hour limit, or $5 in peak season. The fees will be in place from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and there will be no parking from midnight to 5 a.m.

“Any other examples we have [when] our fee schedule is set and we actually implement something lower?” Councilman Pete Furman asked, though City Manager Anette Spickard was unable to provide an example.

The employee parking proposal stalled when the council tabled it to hear the fee ordinances and later returned to the item without adopting it. The council also rejected a recommended $25 annual fee from the Parking Work Group to join a new parking advisory group and instructed Spickard to work with the Parking Work Group on a revised employee parking plan to reduce the financial burden on employees in Uptown and avoid a gift clause problem.

The proposed plan was seeking free parking for carpools of two or more employees who register with the city, $2 a day for an employee’s single-occupancy vehicle in Uptown and a $25 monthly pass for employees.

“The proposed program identifies approximately 205 potential employee parking spaces,” the council packet reads. “Of these, approximately 104 spaces are drawn from the city’s public parking inventory … and not already identified as employee parking only,” approximately 16.5% of the city’s current public parking inventory. “Existing employee parking spaces reserved for Sacajawea and Matterhorn [21 spaces] are not included in this total.”

“I’m sorry, I don’t mean to belittle anybody, but $2 a day — when I heard that, ‘Oh my gosh, who could have a problem with $2 a day?'” Councilwoman Charlotte Hosseini said. “It seemed so minimal, and granted, everything goes up over time, and you can get nickeled-and-dimed over many things. But if it’s really a problem, and free is the answer, let’s work on trying to make it free.”

Hosseini also requested a future agenda item to discuss a potential policy to waive parking fees during special events such as the St. Patrick’s Parade.

Other Council News

Sedona City Council’s next meeting is on Tuesday, Sept. 8, where it is scheduled for another marathon session:

■ Yavapai County discussing its proposed sales tax hike to fund the Yavapai College Jail District that voters will decide on Tuesday, Nov. 3 ballot

■ A council vote on whether to approve an extension for the Village at Saddlerock Crossing

■ Possible adoption of the Sedona Balanced Housing Strategy

■ a possible building code update

■ winter tourism marketing

■ city spending on athletic field improvements and security enhancements at Sedona Red Rock High School.

The city of Sedona will hold a Community Conversation public meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 9, the Community Library Sedona, 3250 White Bear Road to talk about Fire Safe Sedona and emergency preparedness and from 4 to 5:30 p.m. and a brainstorming session for a possible recreation center from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m.