By June, Big Park Resident
A Concerned Citizen living in Unincorporated Yavapai County by choice
(August 29, 2018)
Recently, people have been working very hard behind the scenes, trying to find a new way to look at an “emotional” subject. They want to look at it “scientifically”. OK, scientifically, Red Rock Crossing is an extremely environmentally sensitive area.
Who are these people working very hard behind the scenes?
City of Sedona
County Supervisor Garrison
Yavapai County
ADOT
Keep Sedona Moving-A couple of guys from the Village, not sure? They have an email, no website, no information on who they are. They have been showing up at local meetings with Supervisor Garrison. That is pretty impressive.
They are approaching the city of Sedona’s self inflicted major traffic problem from the Big Park, Red Rock loop side and the city of Sedona is so interested in having us participate they are paying for the stamps to send a survey to our residents in unincorporated Yavapai County to include Big Park, a designated place that includes Little Park, the Village of Oak Creek, Lee Mountain, etc. and Red Rock loop area. The survey is slated for October.
I am not sure who is designing this survey which can tend be slanted towards a desired outcome, hopefully not The Red Rock News and hopefully not Big Park Regional Coordinating Council.
Wait a minute, hold on, we do not have a traffic problem here in Big Park except the backed up 179 going to the City of Sedona. The traffic source is the “Y” and a pedestrian crossing so people can enjoy Tlaq North.
Here is the kicker, if the bridge goes in from a scientific angle, Supervisor Garrison has already said we can’t expect all of unincorporated Yavapai County to foot the bill, so we have to decide how we would pay for it? Why would Big Park and Red Rock loop be expected to foot a dime of the cost? Come back and talk when you have a grant in hand. Big Park does not have a traffic problem.
There is bridge back in that area but only the chosen are allowed to use it. The Fire Department has been granted passage and now school buses.
This proposed alternate route crossing will divert the city of Sedona’s traffic problem into our neighborhoods. There is no gain for outlying communities. There will just be traffic traveling to the city of Sedona and out.
As far as the hospital angle, the residents of Big Park have a better chance of survival going right to Verde Valley Medical Center in Cottonwood rather than making a pit stop in Sedona at a cost of about $1000.00, only then to be sent to Cottonwood anyway.
Why should we run a major traffic vein through our uncrowded neighborhoods to accommodate the reckless development and greed of the City of Sedona? Am I missing something? Sedona has so many people marching through their trails that are killing the tree roots as well as destroying the sides of the roads to park anywhere. This will happen on Verde Valley School Road and Red Rock loop area. I do not want to be part of Sedona or live with your traffic.
The city needs to stay within their boundaries and create their own alternate route. This is the task of Sedona in Motion.
Plan to keep them out of our neighborhoods. We have our own traffic problems on the horizon.
Protect our neighborhoods, protect the Red Rock Crossing. SAY NO.
A Concerned Citizen living in Unincorporated Yavapai County by choice.
11 Comments
$35,000,000.00 was the cost estimate. As in thirty five million.
Page Springs Road is a good example of making winding residential desert roads a path available to the unfamiliar tourist. The new norm is head on collisions and death.
City of Sedona has no right to tell citizens outside the city limits to give up their peaceful rural home so that tourists and locals alike can get back and forth from VOC to West Sedona 10 minutes faster.
The City of Sedona has no right to tell all the county taxpayers to pay for a bridge in an environmentally sensitive area, to pay for the biological tests and examinations, and to pay for the bridge so that a tourist won’t be in backed up traffic in the canyon — a wholly different county.
The City of Sedona is planning “connector roads” which will disrupt our quiet residential neighborhoods and open new areas to exploit. This is guaranteed by the recent passage of YES on Home Rule.
The corruption continues, and now they want to spread it out thinly so, like the frog in the pan of water, no one notices how hot its getting.
Do not allow any more taxing districts in Big Park.
This is a favorite of the County in the unique Big Park
One district alone has an admin fee of 350,000 per year and they answer to no one. They also came in and almost doubled their fee on the threat of walking out at the other.
The County does not help. You have to call the Attorney General. Bad News for tax payers
Maybe a sure way to get them to back off is to reopen an old suggestion of making an alternate route to West Sedona from SR179 via Back’O Beyond to connect w/Shelby and/or Sunset. Direct shot either or both ways
First, I will give my first and last name.
Second, hospital route speed is bogus. The best resource for survival at an emergency is the first responder. The fastest way to get the first responder to a rural scene is by motorcycle, which they do in major cities to better maneuver through traffic. Harley Davidson has been modifying their product for years to accommodate fire and police. It’s the first few minutes that matter most.
Third, to reduce the traffic on SR179, convince the state to post a sign directing north bound traffic on I17 to Sedona via the expensive new and improved SR260.
Keep them off Cornville Road, though – that’s the route I take.
It’s too late. I work in a hotel and guests via are being routed via GPS through Cornville as much as 260.
We should be ashamed of our growth tactics and what we are doing to residents, neighbors and surrounding cities and towns. If you want to have Big Park and Red Rock Loop become part of the city, ask them. Be transparent.
Sedona is not Palm springs or any other carefully crafted community. They are Phoenix jr. Sprawl, building anything anywhere, utilities like APS sponsering things for them. They have sold us and are now trying to take our neighbors for their own. May you reap what you sow. I hope the lot of you are thrown in Jail with this pending lawsuit and there are no secret settlements. Let there be justice.
Having lived in the Village since 1983, I have witnessed the visitors from other zip codes get a “bright” idea and suggest a bridge at Red Rock Crossing. When greedy developers proposed it in 1995, Yavapai County paid for an environmental impact report and rejected the idea. They took it to court and lost. Took it to the Appeals Court and lost. It died there.
A Taxpayer group in DC called it one of the “most wasteful projects proposed in America over a several year period. It has been the site of over 60 movies and is part of the Cathedral Rock vortex.
But, let’s talk about healthcare. We have ONE OPPORTUNITY to get this right. Sedona Medical Center is fast becoming a cancer hospital. The ONLY two hospitals accessible are VMC in Cottonwood and Flagstaff Medical Center. If everyone wants to use COMMON SENSE, there is an ideal centrally located site for a good ER center to be established. That is on the Southeast corner of Hwy 179 and Jacks Canyon Road. It’s less than a mile from the excellent Fire Dept EMT’s, and provides easy access to Flagstaff via either 17 or up the canyon and to Cottonwood via Beaverhead Flat Road and Cornville Rd.
There is one major hangup. That property is owned by a family who purchased it in the 1990s and is ready to build another Hilton Hotel there. I have watched VVMC build a virtual monopoly in the valley. They OWE this community.
I would like to see VVMC make a very fair offer to the Patel Family to purchase this facility which would provide BADLY NEEDED medical care to the local VC community and its 6400 residents, many retired. Name it in their honor. It would provide access to a hospital far superior than any Bridge Crossing.
Do what’s right. Let’s end the insanity about a bridge crossing and take this simple solution seriously. Once there’s a hotel sitting on this site, our once chance at a central location for emergency care will be lost.
THE GOOD NEWS; As of this date, NO PROPOSAL HAS YET BEEN SUBMITTED. The property is zone single family residential. Time for VOC residents to organize and make sure OUR INTERESTS prevail over special interests…
I strongly support your thoughts.
An expanded urgent care facility is needed in. VOC.
RR Crossing – an expensive bridge and road with vehicles pumping npise and fumrs
Around this iconic beautiful location. Really???