By Elemer Magaziner
(January 3, 2014)
Around the time the City began to update Sedona’s community plan about three years ago, Mayor Rob Adams authored an article in the Red Rock News. He said in effect that we live in a world class environment and that what we need is a world class city to match. Although at odds with the presumption of a “world class” anything, I took his underlying message to heart: we must look for the ingredients of Sedona’s future in the community’s relationship to the place it occupies.
The City Council had appointed eleven residents to sit on a Citizens Steering Committee, with the aim of assuring a plan genuinely driven by the citizens’ vision. I joined the Committee, thrilled with the prospect of engaging Sedona’s residents in the discovery of those ingredients. Read more→
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17 Comments
As chairman of the Planning & Zoning Commission at the time the first Sedona Community Plan was adopted over 20 years ago after conducting 33 public hearings before that Commission, none of which by the way, lasted for less than 3 hours, I think I am in a rather unique position to appreciate Elmer’s very unique and insightful observations about the current efforts to update our community Plan. I have followed the current effort from a distance and all along was ill at ease with how it was progressing. Until I read Elmer’s letter to the editor I couldn’t really put my finger on why. It is precisely his perspective that pin points the weakness in the Plan as now proposed for public vote in the near future.
I really hope that it is not too late to revisit the plan and accommodate a more articulated vision for our community’s future.
Thank you Dick!
A quality of life vision could most likely work even if it’s not officially part of the Plan. It could be a representative for the voice of the public during the implementation of the Plan.
Hello All,
All we need to do is start a public campaign to vote “NO” on the current plan. If we vote it down it would need to be redone, right?
Am I missing something?
This is fantastic. Thank you for sharing.
As a community member- I see myself and my friends on the outskirts of the community rather than an established portion of it. We are the people who will work the jobs necessary to carry out the dreams of the entitled in this community- and you are the person giving voice to all of us.
Thank you for that Sir!
Another option, albeit the more severe option, is to vote “NO” on the current version of the plan. Revisions will then be mandatory.
Perhaps, it seems a daunting task to continue, as I am sure many (including City staff) who have already put forth much effort have become tired. Let’s somehow catch our “second wind” and continue work to create a plan that will complement the community’s vision as a whole. It is possible! It will require more thoughtful consideration and, yes, more effort.
A “quality of life vision” is also a viable alternative, but wouldn’t it be amazing if the official community plan reflected the vision instead!
Thank you Elemere, for your continued efforts rallying for our community’s unrepresented vision of the future.
Thanks to Elemer. I’m also a member of the citizen’s advisory committee for the community plan, and I share his concern.
The proposed plan reached the final council/public review meetings without even the words family, health, safety, human welfare or human services described anywhere in the dozens of pages. The words were added but the fulfillment of these civic responsibilities is still unplanned. We need to continue work on the “heart”.
This plan involves itself with the responsibilities of environmental stewardship (and land use) above all else. But, there is still an opportunity to consider more fully the present and future needs of the people and community. It’s just not a priority of this plan yet.
The council majority recently voted to dismiss art, culture, parks, recreation, housing (and history too, but for a last minute reprieve) from formal, meaningful representation when it eliminated commissions. There is scant mention of these quality of life considerations in the plan, and currently no citizen commission protecting these civic values.
The proposed community plan has emerged as an “outline”. There are few specifics and few legal imperatives. I think it can be best appreciated as “the beginning”. Opportunity remains to ENRICH this sketch of what our community might be…by appreciating our humanity.
Opening the dialog to the citizen’s vision of a thriving , healthy, supportive community is still possible.
We can create an opportunity to to honor people’s needs with attention to services, safety and quality of life. This will enrich the community and the plan. We can add a “heart” to these bones.
As Elemer Magaziner has said very well, the people’s wants, needs, and expectations are yet to be defined or appreciated. We can still build our foundation on our people’s desire for a community that supports them, above all else.
Hello All,
All we need to do is start a public campaign to vote “NO” on the current plan. If we vote it down it would need to be redone, right?
Am I missing something?
I don’t think you are missing anything. My letter says we need to collect additional information which will be required during implementation of the plan – which is a gentler step than starting over, and may be more palatable.
Jeffrey is spot on about the need to start a campaign to vote “NO.” Listening to legitimate public concerns is not City Hall’s M.O. unless there’s countervailing action.
Old news but relevant: Voters in Scottsdale shot down its new Plan in the city’s March 2012 election. Critics of the plan said it catered to special interests and threatened Scottsdale’s character. One Councilman even felt that “The city needs more time to develop a resident-friendly document.”
According to the August 4, 2013 edition of the ARIZONA REPUBLIC, “A new draft plan, if adopted by the council, could go before Scottsdale voters in November 2014 at the earliest.”
The REPUBLIC also mentions how a General Plan [i.e., Community Plan] “lists goals and policies that guide a city’s development and character for 10 to 20 years.” If it’s asking too much to redo the proposed Sedona Community Plan update, then I think the 2002 Sedona Community Plan should remain in effect for several more years.
Thank you, Elemer, for an excellent letter, and I agree with you that additional information should be given by citizens during implementation of the plan. This is a work-in-progress document that took a long time with a lot of effort to prepare. Trying to shoot it down will confuse a lot of people and turn them away from the process. Best to continue building the solution.
Exactly, Barry.
Allowing the work-in-progress to continue while minimizing any collateral damage is the goal.
Dear Elemer,
I continue to be impressed with your sense of diplomacy, tact, and leadership. Well written and well said. I recall when we last conversed on this very topic and thought to myself, “The public needs to know. He and so many volunteers worked so hard to capture the voice of the community and the plan runs contrary.”
I was very happy to help in the effort to engage members of the Hispanic community who are often overlooked in these activities due to the timing of the events and/or language.
If you need me again, in any capacity, please know that you can count on me again. It has been said that to capture a city, you must capture the hearts of the people. I am happy to help you if you need.
Warmly and sincerely,
Natalia Molina
I would love to capture, and make public, what is in the hearts of all segments in our community. Perhaps, with your help, the Hispanic community will lead the way.
Ask them not what they wish the City to provide, but give them complete permission to dream what their lives in Sedona could become.
I hold no doubt that, given such permission, what they say will be awe-inspiring.
While I missed the initiation of this process 3 years ago I have had the instructive pleasure and intellectual stimulation of ‘catching up’ on it the last 4-6 months. Through my passion for the arts, education and social well-being for all, I have met many very different, energetic, caring and highly, intelligent thoughtful citizens of Sedona. Thank you to Elemer, Judy, Natalia and others whose input I have read/heard.
With that variety of experiences and passion comes debate and willingness to explore and delve deeply into what makes a community a healthy, long-term nesting place for a thriving, flexible living that can meet the unseen future. Quality of Life refers to more than roads and bike paths – it includes an attitude, a set of values and opportunity for expression of the individual in a collective environment.
I believe that the word Vision is a big, maybe scary word/concept, perhaps a difficult one for many to truly wrestle with and embrace. Being the nebulous intangible it is – easier to leap to quantitative ‘doing lists’ – it is precisely the piece that should be explored, free of other expectations, pre-supposed values or needs, opening the doors to imagination and creative list making.
The practice of the creative arts with its emphasis on getting out of ones head and into the heart is a fine place to start and even to go back to the lists and re-imagine them. A process that opens the door to ideas, insights, conversation and freedom of expression that is not intellectually, academically would bring much to bridge the space between the Visioning and the Doing.
I agree that given the amount work and energy on the Plan thus far, it’d be counterproductive to throw the baby out with the bathwater but what about if we give it a bigger tub? Release it upstream and see where it goes and what happens.
Elemer Magaziner is one of the brightest and most creative people I have ever met. His comments cut to the heart of the problem with this plan and all our previous community plans. So the question is what to do now?
I agree with Elemer’s conclusion that voting no to this ‘plan’ is a bad idea. A no vote will not guarantee a better plan being put before us because people are tired of working on it. Instead of dumping this plan I ask (and perhaps you may want to as well) that our government promise that, if we adopt it, a committee will be promptly appointed to address the concerns Elemer has raised and how about making Elemer the chair of that committee?
When that committee is done with its work then our community should be asked to vote to prioritize the specific goals recommended – keeping the number of goals to be voted on reasonable).
Once that vote is taken our city government would then be expected to do all in its power to achieve as many of these goals as it can in 10 years, with a focus on the highest citizen priority goals.
As Elemer clearly understands, this is supposed to be a community driven plan so lets make it that.
Paul
Thank you Elemer for illuminating the elephant in the room that has become the “norm” far too long…This letter shouldn’t be pushed aside as one person’s opinion, it points to the root of the problem, a problem plaguing our great nation right now…(you could say it’s a global epidemic…) Sedona has a great potential to take the courageous steps and lead by example, giving Now the community to the children (for the People) where vision’s have the ground to be made and a path towards true happiness for All it’s people can be seen…..
A community without it’s Heart rots from the inside out…We have witnessed this on every level. Will Sedona of all places pretend the Heart doesn’t Matter….?
It is important for the future of Sedona that our decision makers see the vision, see the sacredness of this place where we live and envision the responsibilities and possibilities that have heart. Citizens’ visions for life in Sedona need to guide the Community Plan towards this goal. This is not just another place for home and business. We are but temporary tenants in this most magnificent place, and our vision should rise to meet its special nature.