Life Center to Add Resort Component in Sedona

By Roland Murphy for AZBEX

The Sedona Creative Life Center may soon add a resort experience to its spiritual and educational offerings under a proposal currently before the City’s Community Development Department.

In the letter of intent, project representatives plan “to develop 23.61 acres with 101 lodging units, as well as meeting, therapy-health, dining, and out-door interactive and recreational elements for guests to enjoy the beauty of Sedona. The existing development includes the Sedona Creative Life Center, several residences, parking areas, and a Garden of Peace.”

The letter goes on to say, “The resort is tailored to draw a caliber of visitor that expects a full Sedona experience, tailored to local vernacular, natural amenities, and patronizing a wide range of businesses.”

Planned amenities include a therapy spa and restaurant space that will be open to both guests and the general public, as well as a 10KSF meeting and event center, a 4KSF celestial observatory with a lounge area, a 1.8KSF monastery and a “garden-to-table center.” The development will dedicate 40% of the total area to open space. Personal vehicles will not be allowed on the resort, which will implement an electric cart shuttle service for guests and staff.

Seven existing parcels would be merged into the existing SCLC parcel under the proposal. SCLC is requesting variances to the existing zoning to allow for custom development standards. It also points out the project will require flexibility in the existing building height and massing standards for the structures and subgrade parking.

The proposed lodging units will be a mix of 14 two-story residences, 50 outpost villas, 32 cabins and five two-story creekside villas. There also will be two or three workforce housing units on site and more at a remote location. The spa area will be a 10KSF multiuse facility, and both the spa and restaurant offerings will be available to both guests and the general public.

Construction and operation are intended to incorporate green building techniques for minimized impact and enhanced sustainability, including “Dark Sky” measures to minimize light pollution.

No hearing date had been set to review the proposal as of press time.

Sedona’s Recent Development History

The proposal adds itself in the mix of most popular project types for the area. Since 2016, there have been 16 private projects with construction valuations greater than $5M proposed for development in Sedona. All but two were hotels/resorts, multifamily housing, or a mix of the two. Those 14 projects had a combined estimated construction valuation of $261.3M.

As is common in wealthier communities – Sedona’s 2015-2019 median household income was $61,470, compared to $58,945 for the state as a whole – new project proposals frequently encounter vocal opposition from existing residents. Adding fuel to the NIMBY fire is Sedona’s expansive natural beauty, the preservation of which is often cited by opponents as a key factor in their concern.

Paradoxically, Sedona’s economy is dependent upon tourists looking to experience the area’s natural splendor. Visit Sedona, the official site of the Sedona Tourism Bureau, reports, “Ten-thousand jobs and more than $1B in annual economic impact are tied to Sedona’s tourism industry. Visitor-related activity generates 77% of Sedona’s sales tax collections and 54% of the tax-funded portion of the Sedona Fire District budget.”

The Sedona Chamber of Commerce reported 3.4 million visitors to the city in 2020, an increase of 5% from 2019. Because of the pandemic, overnight visits dropped 10% in 2020. However, with top-tier Sedona resorts in 2021 charging as much as $600/night in February and more that $750 in July, according to TripAdvisor, it is easy to see why hotel and resort developers have maintained such an appetite for the area.

Still, all those visitors impact traffic and congestion in the city, particularly near park trailheads. Due to the limited parking available on site, visitors often flow into surrounding neighborhoods, raising issues for residents. In November 2021, azfamily.com and other outlets reported on a proposal to consider instituting a shuttle service to bring visitors to and from popular area sites.

The City published a request for proposals “For the Site Selection Study for Transit Facilities” earlier this month aimed at, “Reducing the number of vehicles on area roadways during the busiest tourist seasons, and reducing the number of vehicles seeking parking at specific trailheads and other locations where parking to accommodate vehicles is lacking.” Proposals are due February 3rd.

Affordable Projects Face a Hard Road, But Changes May be Coming

Like Scottsdale to the south, the majority of people who work in Sedona cannot afford to live there. According to information from Elliot D. Pollack & Company, 22.7% of Sedona households pay more than 50% of their incomes in housing costs.

While the City acknowledges and has taken steps to examine its workforce affordable housing shortage, actual unit deliveries have proven scarce. No multifamily units of any price range were delivered in the city between 2007 and 2017.

Of the 14 hotel/multifamily/mixed projects listed in DATABEX, which total 1,601 rooms or living units, seven have had a workforce affordable housing component, totaling 285 units. One of those projects, Pinon Lofts (Formerly Pinon/89A Apartments), has completed, delivering 45 units.

Of the four projects proposed and canceled since 2016, each has had a workforce affordable component. Canceled projects had a total of 166 workforce affordable units as part of the proposals. That comes out to slightly more than 58% of the proposed workforce affordable housing units in the city in the past 5.5 years failing to launch.

An August 2021 article in Red Rock News detailed Miramonte Homes decision to scrap its original proposal for Jordan Lofts, which would have dedicated 11 of its planned 84 units as workforce affordable. The story quoted Charity Lee, land acquisition and development manager for Miramonte Homes, as saying, “Unfortunately, Miramonte has made the difficult decision to withdraw its application to build apartments. Robust opposition to Miramonte’s proposal was mounted by residents in the Jordan Road area, who organized Facebook pages and YouTube videos to stir up opposition.”

She added, “Miramonte laments that opponents’ information frequently included misstatements of fact. For example, vastly overstating the income needed to afford an apartment. But, it acknowledges that opposition served the purpose of undermining support for workforce housing.”

Regarding the existing zoning for low- and medium-density housing on the site, Lee went on to say, ““These are the uses called for in the city’s current zoning code, and time and again the neighbors indicated to Miramonte their preference to have the property developed under the current zoning designations. Miramonte will proceed now to do just that.”

Miramonte merely withdrew its request for a major community plan amendment, however, and has expressed it still intends to develop residential units on the site. A follow-up column in Red Rock News took note of Lee’s statement regarding developing under current zoning and offered up the possibility of developing large vacation rental homes on one portion of the site, which would be permitted as the zoning currently stands.

To be fair, Sedona leaders are well-aware of the workforce affordability problem and the City Council voted unanimously last July to approve a development agreement with the developer of Sunset Lofts, a 46-unit development currently in design/plan review for a 2.5-acre site on Sunset Drive near SR 89A.

Town staff and officials were seriously discussing housing diversity and workforce affordability at least as far back as 2017. In an August 22nd, 2017 open house to discuss amendments to the Sedona Community Plan, Senior Planner Mike Raber said, “Housing affordability is a high priority issue for the council and the city and one of the Community Plan’s goals is to encourage diverse and affordable housing options. The Community Plan’s density limit of 12 units per acre does not align very well with the higher densities needed to create these diverse and affordable options.”

The City has continued to explore the issue in the time since. Sedona accepted a housing needs assessment and affordable housing action plan from Elliot D. Pollack & Company in December 2020. Objectives named in the plan are:

• Encourage development of affordable housing units,
• Incentivize the inclusion of affordable units in developments,
• Increase resources to support affordable housing production, and
• Monitor the increase of demand and loss of affordable housing units.