It was déjà vu for city staff and Sedona Planning and Zoning Commission.
On Tuesday, May 18, the commission heard similar presentations from staff and the Arizona Water Company, which is seeking a Conditional Use Permit to place a 1.5-million gallon tank at 55 Bell Rock Trail, near the intersection of State Route 179 and Mallard Drive.
The item was back before the commission as a result of an order by the Coconino County Superior Court to express in more detail findings described in the Sedona Land Development Code to support a permit.
A lengthy motion, approved unanimously, included all of the commission’s required findings directly into the record, including details of how the project meets each finding. The application has not changed and none of the conditions changed since the previous approval/
So, the motion was to clarify the basis for decisions made in 2018 to satisfy the court order to “remand this matter to the Commission and Council to explain their factual and legal basis for their decisions approving the subject CUP, to include reference to the applicable LDC provisions that they considered and based their decisions upon.”
The matter will also go again before the Sedona City Council, but a date has yet to be set.
Despite filing a lawsuit, Vincent McGeary was not at the meeting. He instead had one of his neighbors read a letter into the record. In it he alleges that there was no legal basis to hold the hearing and that the commission may “only act within the authority granted to it under the laws of Sedona and Arizona.”
The following day, City Attorney Kurt Christianson addressed McGeary’s claim.
“The commission could not explain its reasoning for granting the CUP outside of a public hearing,” he said. “The court remanded the case to the council and commission to make further findings. The only way for the commission to comply with the court’s order was to hold a public meeting on the conditional user permit.
“We made it a public hearing so that notices would go out to the neighbors and other interested parties. Nothing in state law or the Land Development Code prevents the P&Z Commission from holding public hearings on any issue it wants to. Public hearings are considered more burdensome, so that’s not standard practice, but we felt it was appropriate in this case.”
Looking Back
Two years ago the Sedona City Council approved a Conditional Use Permit to construct a 1.5- million-gallon water tank. McGeary’s lawsuit put the project on hold.
By the 4-1 vote, the commission approved a permit in October 2018 for a mostly subterranean water tank and booster pump station to provide water to the properties along the State Route 179 corridor.
McGeary filed an appeal.
In January 2019, Sedona City Council heard the appeal and by a unanimous vote, upheld P&Z’s decision, thus denying McGeary’s appeal.
McGeary argued that the scale of the proposed water tank as presented by the applicant was “industrial,” with a “chemical storage and feed system” that was not appropriate in a residential neighborhood.
McGeary then filed a special action complaint in the Coconino County Superior Court in which he alleged that the commission and council decisions were “arbitrary, capricious or contrary to law.”
Nearly two years later the Superior Court judge found that there was insufficient information in the record of the Commission and Council proceedings from which to draw any conclusion as to the legal sufficiency of the commission and council’s actions.
In his filing, McGeary stated he will be impacted by the construction of the tank, including increased traffic, noise and dust caused by excavation and construction activities. In addition, he stated he feels he will be impacted due to the elimination of residential buildable lots in the area and in the form of diminution in property value during the construction and thereafter.
A 2018 city staff report states that this site is zoned residential and is surrounded by residential-zoned properties, which conditionally permits public utility and public service substations, water tanks and pumping plants. Arizona Water Co. took into account the surrounding residential development when creating and designing the proposed water tank and booster facility on the site.
“The proposal meets or exceeds the minimum setbacks and addresses the 2 feet of additional height through alternate standards,” the report states.
Company representatives have said that a water resource master plan concluded that the east Sedona area needs additional storage capacity in order to make sure the community is reliably and adequately served for both resident and commercial use, as well as meeting requirements set by the Sedona Fire District. Since that 2018 meeting, Arizona Water Co. has added 60 additional customers to its system, which has included homes and hotels.
It will take an estimated three to four months to excavate the dirt and rock in order to build the underground tank. This will equate to 1,200 to 1,500 trips to take the rock to an undetermined location. The entire project could take up to 18 months.
Arizona Water Co. has said that it wants to be as good of neighbors as possible, which is why, unlike all their other tanks in Sedona, they chose to place this one underground with a house-like appearance above. It also said it will mitigate noise during construction and blasting, reduce dust and repair any damage to roads that may occur. As for drainage, the company will install retention basins and a manhole to help reduce the flow of water during heavy storms.
