By Roland Murphy for AZBEX
The St. John Vianney Roman Catholic Parish in Sedona is planning a major expansion of its facility and has applied to the City for a rezoning and conditional use permit to allow the project to advance.
The 15.01-acre site currently houses a 25KSF church, a 1.5KSF St. Vincent de Paul food pantry and parking. The parish is requesting a rezoning from single-family residential to planned development district for its planned additional uses, which consist of:
- 95KSF of workforce affordable multifamily housing (60-84 units);
- A 50KSF mental health, healing and retreat center;
- A 35KSF pilgrims’ quarters facility with 70-96 units;
- A 25KSF sanctuary expansion;
- A 3.5KSF chapel/columbarium, and
- A conditional use permit to allow for continuing use of the food pantry.
Affordable Housing
SJV, as the parish refers to itself in the submitted narrative, plans to procure Low-Income Housing Tax Credit funding for the workforce affordable housing components. It notes, however, if it decides to eventually proceed without LIHTC approval, the units will still be targeted for households earning less than 120% of the Area Median Income.
The submitted prospective master site plan shows a total of 84 units, divided as 48 one-, 24 two- and 12 three-bedroom apartments.
The narrative says, “This housing component is designed exclusively as long-term, affordable, rental housing and not short-term lodging or vacation rentals. The housing portion of the project seeks to meet a specific need of the Sedona community by providing much-needed rental housing for local employees and full-time residents of the city. Apartments presently comprise only a small percentage of Sedona’s housing options, yet apartments offer greater housing diversity, affordability, and infill density than alternative options for development.”
Retreat Center, Pilgrims’ Quarters and Hermitages
The retreat center, which SVJ is referring to as Healing Hearts of Jesus and Mary Retreat Center, is planned as a space for individuals to withdraw, reflect and renew in a spiritual environment. In a supporting document, SVJ says, “The purpose of a retreat is to withdraw from the world, the business of life, life in a congested city, technology, and the cares and concerns of everyday life to refocus and seek a deeper and more intimate relationship with God. Retreat centers are often in locations that are known for their natural beauty.”
Most of the stays would last between one and 30 days, with weekend stays being the most common. The explanation stresses the center will not be considered a hotel, even though it provides short-term accommodations. “Hotels primarily provide people with a temporary place to sleep as they travel through or visit a city,” SVJ says. “In this sense, hotels have a specific function and purpose… To be more specific, while hotels have rooms, retreat centers have pilgrim’s quarters or small, simple, basic places to rest and sleep while on retreat.”
Other differences include: no TVs or entertainment amenities, no pets and no maid service. The pricing would also be significantly less than a hotel to make the facility as accessible as possible and to maximize its appeal to congregants of the more than 100 churches in the Catholic Diocese of Phoenix, which would comprise the core demographic.
Related to the pilgrims’ quarters are the hermitages. According to the narrative, “The hermitages consist of a single room while the pilgrims’ quarters are generally designed in more of a ‘dormitory’ layout (with) several rooms sharing a small common space.”
Parking
The total expansion would normally require a significant increase in the number of parking spaces on site. SJV reasons, however, many of the site’s users will make use of more than one component and is requesting an allowance to construct fewer spaces than the individual uses would require if considered separately.
The current church has 100 spaces. Taken altogether, the final plan would call for a total of 559 on the property. SVJ’s plan is requesting a total of 423.
Surrounding Uses and Circulation
The SVJ property is located between the West Highway 89A and Airport Road half loops, northeast of the intersection of State Route 89A and Soldiers Pass Road. Surrounding uses include National Forest Service land, two hotels, mixed-use zoned land and multifamily residential. The property is also close to a variety of commercial/retail outlets.
The narrative says, “The proposed mixed uses, including the affordable family housing provide a buffer between the lodging and commercial uses to the south, east and west, from the residential uses to the north of the Property. There will also be substantial open space along the northwestern portion of the Property, near the subdivision to the north, Casa Contenta. Further, the location of the Property provides walkability from the proposed on-site housing and pilgrim/hermitages quarters to the nearby commercial uses along State Route 89A. Finally, the Property location has proven to be a suitable location for the religious services offered by SJV and is suitable for expansion of such services.”
Timeline and Phasing
Once the rezoning is approved, SJV will request a development review, “at which point City Staff, Planning & Zoning and City Council will have an opportunity to review specific design and architectural details regarding the Site Improvements, which are not yet known or defined,” the narrative says.
The general phasing plan is made up of seven components:
- Updating the St. Vincent de Paul food pantry;
- Multifamily housing;
- Lower level of the Retreat Center;
- Upper level of the Retreat Center;
- 43 units of the Pilgrims and Hermitages;
- The remainder of the Pilgrims and Hermitages, and
- The Chapel.
During each phase, the necessary streets, utilities, landscaping, open areas and miscellaneous improvements will be addressed.
St. John Vianney Roman Catholic Parish is the owner. Architectural Resource Team is the design firm, with Sefton Engineering Consultants as the engineer. The project is represented by Aspey, Watkins & Diesel, PLLC. As of press time, no hearing dates have been scheduled.
SVJ has posted a project overview video on YouTube to inform the community about its plans and to solicit donations for the development.
