Lawyer to advocate for initiative to block housing at Western Gateway

The Sedona Cultural Park ballot initiative is heading to court.

The Save Sedona Committee Political Action Committee, which is seeking to bar future housing development at the Western Gateway through Proposition 403, announced Friday, April 10, it has secured pro bono legal representation, from the Arizona Center for Law in the Public Interest, ahead of an initial hearing in Yavapai County Superior Court after deadline at 11:30 a.m., Monday, April 13, in the Prescott courthouse.

“This center has long defended Arizonans’ constitutional rights to use the initiative and referenda processes against government attempts to curtail direct democracy. Here, that is exactly what the city of Sedona is trying to do: limit the people’s ability to have a meaningful voice in the future of the Sedona Cultural Park,” ACLPI staff attorney Nick Ansel wrote in a press release.

Prop 403, which would preserve the cultural park site as a public park for public purposes, cleared a key threshold when about 1,400 residents signed its initiative petitions, which were submitted to the city on March 19.

Twelve days later, on March 31, the city filed suit to block certification of the initiative and keep it off the ballot.

“The nonprofit firm stepped in to defend the constitutional rights of Sedona voters at no cost,” SSC PAC Treasurer Bill Noonan said. “In contrast, the city is spending taxpayer dollars to prevent residents from having a voice at the ballot box.”

The city, represented by the Phoenix-based Herrera Arellano law firm, argues that Arizona law prohibits residents from changing zoning rules through ballot initiatives. The city’s legal position is that Prop. 403 “is an attempt to rezone land via the initiative process separate from the LDC — something Arizona courts have long categorically prohibited.

“Because the legislature has delegated zoning powers only to the governing body of an incorporated city through the designated planning and zoning process, local electors lack the power to conduct zoning by initiative,” the complaint for declaratory and injunctive relief states.

“But ballot measures have been used by residents in other cities to protect public land for public purposes,” Noonan said. “Just last year in Prescott, Arizona, they had Prop 484 on the ballot, and 84% of voters there were able to protect 2,740 acres of city-owned land as open space in perpetuity — basically forever. I think the difference there was that residents started an initiative petition, and the city realized that there was a lot of support for protecting public land for public purposes, and so they assisted the residents in putting the measure on the ballot. In contrast, Sedona has sued to stop the residents of Sedona from voting on preserving a city-owned property as a public park.”

Noonan added that one of the goals is to establish legal precedent in Arizona, “to make it clear that Arizona residents can use ballot measures and initiatives to protect public land for public purposes, irrespective of the zoning cases that were cited by the city.”

The proposition could potentially appear on the July primary ballot, which will also feature races for three Sedona City Council seats and mayor.