St. John Vianney Catholic Parish announced its plan to build 200,000 square feet of additions to the church’s 15 acre West Sedona property across three projects.

The three projects include a new building for St. Vincent de Paul services, low-income housing units and a retreat center for pilgrims.
Almost 80 people crowded into St. John Vianney Catholic Church during a public information session on Thursday, Aug. 21, most of whom were concerned about the low-income housing aspect.
In the public input section of the information session, resident Lou Harper said he doesn’t want anything besides religious purposes on church property.

“They took my Catholic High School and they turned it into low income housing back East,” Harper said. “Now, it was a small town — 60,000 people — that is now the worst part of the city, and they’re having a problem now cleaning it up. And it was a, ‘Oh, wonderful idea’ from the church, but it didn’t turn out right, and every place that I’ve seen hasn’t turned out right.”
Among those not wanting this project on church property, other attendees were concerned with the apartments’ effects on the community surrounding the church.

“We’re across the street,” neighbor Sondra Brunone said. “We can’t even get out of the front gate for about 50% of the year. We can’t even exit the front gate of our house because the traffic was so backed up on 89A, so if you add that much work traffic, … plus all of the people who are going to be coming and going, who are [the] pilgrims and [those] who work at the site, and whatever else is involved here … that’s going to really impact the number of cars that are coming back and forth.”

Trevor Korsten, a Flagstaff-based attorney who practices estate planning, real estate and business law, said the city declared a housing crisis in December.

“In the most recent housing study by the city of Sedona — which I think was in 2020 — the city estimated that they were short about 1,200 units of workforce housing,” he said. “This makes an impact for those people that need housing.”

The units would be built with funding from Catholic Charities and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits.

“To receive LIHTC credits, you have to provide housing for people from 30% to 60% of AMI, which is area median income,” said Doug McCord, the principal director of design for the architectural resource team. “So everyone here will be working. Everyone here will be paying rent. And as an example, 60% AMI for a family of four in Sedona is $54,000 a year.”

The city passed a community plan in March 2024, which outlined several places it aimed to serve as a guide for community development in certain areas around Sedona. The area around Soldier Pass Road, where the church is, was one of them.

St. John Vianney Father Ignatius Mazanowski said the parish started the conversation with Catholic Charities about this project about 15 months ago. He said he’s seen some successful projects like this one from the Diocese of Phoenix.

Resident Suzanne Hughes said she used to drive an hour and a half to and from work, sometimes being there as early as 6:30 a.m. six or seven days a week. She said she largely afforded it because her husband’s job paid well.

“Without him, I couldn’t have taken that job,” she said. “I could not have afforded the car, the insurance, the gas, the repairs, the tires, the oil changes, the new brakes because I was driving in traffic in Sacramento.”

She said low-income housing projects are needed in the city, so our teachers, nurses, doctors and grocery store clerks don’t need to do what she did just to work in Sedona.

“How many of you see a doctor here in town?” she asked. “How many of you pick up the phone and dial 911, and want a response? And you want a response from somebody who’s fresh, you don’t want a response from somebody who’s driven an hour and a half down from Flagstaff in the winter. You want somebody who’s fresh and capable of dealing with whatever it is.”

St Vincent de Paul, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit run through the church, currently offers many services for people in need, including a food pantry on Thursday mornings. This project also includes a new building for its services at the church. The last section of the project is a retreat center and lodging.

Retreat centers “are very much connected to the Catholic tradition,” Mazanowski said. “There’s retreat centers like this one all over the country.”

The center would include counselling for mental health as well as lodging and hermitages for those who want to retreat in more seclusion than others.

The mental health counseling would include two counselors for the retreat center and for people being helped through St. Vincent de Paul.
“There’s an outreach program throughout the diocese called Mental Health First-Aid, and we want to promote that program,” Mazanowski said. “The program has come to Sedona before … but we want to have that mental health component, and part of the reason for that actually is potentially to help people that St. Vincent de Paul is serving right now.”

During the public information session, Mazanowski said the cost for the apartments could be upward of $20 million and the cost for the rest of the project could cost up to $50 million. Initially, Mazanowski guessed $80 million, but after several questions from the crowd, he amended it.

The money involved isn’t yet set in stone, Director of Parish and Chapel Initiatives Rae-Me Leroy said. The church will have a better idea of the funding once Map courtesy of St. John Vianney Catholic Parish St. John Vianney Catholic Parish announced its plan to build 200,000 square feet of additions to the church’s 15-acre West Sedona property, which would include a new building for St. Vincent de Paul food pantry and services, they have the approval by the city.

“This part of the process is the rezoning application,” Leroy said. “Once this is approved, then the next step will be getting into the development and architecture.”

The project’s application online lists ways in which the architecture of the project could impact the natural beauty of Sedona, the lease and how these buildings could be sunk into the earth slightly to have as low profile possible, which was one of the goals of the 2024 low-income housing units and a retreat center for Catholic pilgrims. The rezoning application would need to be approved by the city before the project could begin.

The St. Vincent de Paul addition and retreat center had less public pushback than the affordable housing, and several people asked to clarify whether the project could be done just without the housing. While no concrete plans for building these projects have been revealed, Mazanowski said the parish would have more details after the rezoning application is discussed by the city.

The St. Vincent de Paul The rezoning would help the church construct all three projects, but is only required for the apartments, Korsten said. The other projects could hypothetically be done with a special-use permit.