The city of Sedona is again seeking input as it delves deeper into its latest Community Focus Area.
Feedback from the Plan Uptown initiative will be folded by city staff into the Uptown Community Focus Area Plan, an addendum to the voter-approved Sedona Community Plan that serves as a guide for future development of the area.
The Community Plan goals include improving traffic flow, walkability, housing diversity and environmental stewardship, and the CFA plan looks at how those goals can be achieved in Uptown.
The first phase of public outreach included engaging with stakeholders, and in those conversations a potential vision emerged: Uptown as a community destination welcoming both residents and visitors, that is walkable with active and interesting streets, and public spaces that reflect the beauty of Sedona.
Plan Uptown is an interactive website where residents can see potential strategies, submit comments, ask questions and see what others are saying. This feedback will then be used to refine the ideas into a CFA plan that will be presented at Planning and Zoning Commission and City Council public hearings.
According to the Sedona Community Plan, a CFA is a location where the city will play a proactive planning role to implement the community’s vision. With participation from property owners, neighbors and stakeholders, the city will develop a plan, including any necessary rezoning, for adoption by the Sedona City Council.
Instead of the normal open houses the city hosts when gathering public input on a CFA, it is using new software that staff chose because of the pandemic.
“We were looking for new and different ways to get public feedback.” Senior Planner Cynthia Lovely said. “It is possible that this will be more successful than the traditional public meeting/open house. Sometimes very few people show up to those meetings. Not everyone is comfortable sharing their opinions at a meeting and some cannot make the meeting day or time.”
The city thought this format had potential because it used something similar for the “GO! Sedona Pathways Plan” by Wikimaps. That platform was also interactive, but it was map-based. It was very successful, and staff got a lot of good feedback, she said.
“The software has a lot more features that we have not tapped into yet,” Lovely said. “More projects and documents can be added, plus videos, maps, links, etc. There is a learning curve, so we will continue to enhance the site, especially as we see what is working or is not.”
In terms of feedback, the city wants to know what aspects of the concept plan people like or dislike and whether there are other ideas not listed on the website. They also want to know if there are specific issues not addressed that should be and if there is something confusing or difficult to understand.
“The concept plan will be the foundation for the CFA,” Lovely said. “The plan will be more comprehensive with more details. We will review this round of comments and may revise or add to the concepts presented here. Depending on comments and questions received, we may have a second round of information and feedback on more specific topics — all of which will inform the drafting of the plan.”
The next phase will be to post the draft plan and repeat the process of getting feedback on that. There will possibly be multiple drafts as it moves from the Sedona Planning and Zoning Commission to the Sedona City Council. The public will have opportunities to review and comment at each step.
If this format proves to be successful, Lovely said this format of public input may be used for future CFAs. The city has purchased a one-year subscription to the software with the option of extending that.
“We expect it will be used for a variety of other city projects,” she said, adding that Sustainability Coordinator McKenzie Jones is interested in using it to get input on the draft Climate Action Plan.
The Uptown CFA is expected to be completed no later than by the end of the year.
To review the draft and submit questions or comments, go to sedonaaz.gov/planuptown.
