Those looking for a parking place in Uptown may have more options by next summer.
City of Sedona staff gave their quarterly update on the Sedona in Motion transportation projects during the Sedona City Council meeting Tuesday, Sept. 23. The $23 million Uptown Parking Garage’s 270 parking spaces is slated for completion in May. Its opening is tied to the launch of several other parking and transportation projects, including a Residential Parking Program on Price Road, Van Deren Road, Wilson Road and Smith Street, with the southern boundary at Forest Road and the northern boundary at Schnebly Road.
“We’re looking at about 123 spaces on [the project streets] that would transition to permit only for the residents that reside in those areas to protect residents’ access to the streets and to their property,” Transit Administrator Amber Wagner said. “Our outreach is underway. We’ve done direct mailers, door-to-door engagement and short term rental property owners and property management outreach. We are modeling it after the Rim Shadows permit program [approved in 2017] and the precedent that was implemented due to neighborhood impacts, due to visitor spillover.”
Visitors will lose the 70 parking spaces in Lot 1 with the construction of the Sedona Fire District’s new station on the site. Lot 2 on Van Deren Road was a free parking lot but the site owner has moved to a fee model.
“Lot 8, which is across from the parking garage, will be sold by [SFD and] that had 23 spots,” Wagner said.
Council has also directed staff to look at expanding the Residential Parking Program to the west and north, potentially to capture the overflow parking from the commercial district into residences, according to Public Works Director Kurt Harris, however there is currently no timeline for that.
“We’ll be working with enforcement to monitor that,” Harris subsequently said. “[But] it’s a wait and see what’s the effect. This all ties in the longer big plan.
“Uptown has the Community Focus Area, and that’s going to be part of building physical barriers to landscape, road improvements, road directional, way finding signs to create a vibrant commercial district and then protect residential areas through vegetation, structures [and] land improvements To guide the visitor to stay out of the residential areas.”
The Residential Parking Program is estimated to cost $126,000, according to the city website. It also notes “the project includes the design and possible construction to convert Smith Road, Wilson Road and Van Deren Road to one-way streets between Forest Road and Schnebly Road in order to improve parking supply and safety.”
Residents will receive placards for street parking; however, details for temporary visitors and service vehicles are still being worked out. How enforcement will function is also under discussion, though staff have considered booting illegally parked vehicles.
In October staff will be developing three service alternatives for the feasibility of a fixed Uptown circulator bus that would connect Uptown to Hillside Shopping Center and Tlaquepaque. While staff cited a Sept. 18 public visioning workshop at the Posse Grounds Hub and stakeholder meetings at a local business, Councilwoman Kathy Kinsella said attendance at those meetings has been low.
“I’m concerned about the public response and input,” Kinsella said. “I was at the vision workshop at Posse Grounds, and it was not well attended … if you took away anybody who was connected to the city … that left two members of the public.”
Kinsella stated she would like the city to start paid advertising for public information sessions.
The final report for the Uptown Circulator study is anticipated in January.
“This fall, we will be testing the technology in one of our municipal areas, lots or one of our identified areas to look at occupancy monitoring and way finding,” Wagner said, explaining the city’s technology pilot program. “The goals for this overall parking management system would be integrated with our garage, and it would cut down on circulation, and it would make parking easier for visitors and allow for dynamic pricing and parking demand. The full rollout of this technology [will] come in winter and spring of 2026 right when the garage opens.”
The annual cost of the parking garage is anticipated to “be anywhere from $68,000 to $136,000,” according to the city website. The payment structure is to be determined but the cost to break even is $2 an hour to pay for maintenance, operations and debt service, and “at $2.50 an hour, the garage would generate about $200,000 to $370,000 [annually] in surplus,” Wagner said, and noted the fee structure will be finalized and implemented in the spring.
How employee parking in Uptown will work has not yet been determined and staff have discussed developing a leased lot for employees or parking garage vouchers or permit solutions that the city views to not be its responsibility.
“The city’s role would only be to support and coordinate, and that we’d be looking for a business champion, or businesses we would not directly manage it,” Wagner said.
“We’re hoping the Chamber [of Commerce] or the Business Alliance in Uptown will nominate someone, and then we’ve been directed by council to work with that coalition or parking group,” Harris said. “We’ll probably have a parking Advisory Committee of businesses to help them facilitate employee parking and get the businesses to collaborate. As council has said, that’s really the businesses’ responsibility and not the city’s responsibility.”
