By Tommy Acosta
Sedona News: It’s a no brainer Sedona is in dire need of affordable housing for our workforce. That is why it’s odd influential voices in the community would be arguing against the city’s purchase of the Cultural Park to be used for that purpose.
Yes, the price tag for the park itself is almost $20 million, and that’s only for the land.
However, one can be assured that there would be plenty of private enterprisers willing to sink a few million dollars into building affordable housing on the abandoned property.
It’s no secret the city is flush with big bucks and what better way to utilize the bounty than to build affordable housing without having to battle community homeowners who don’t want working force residents living near their properties?
This is what looking forward into the future means. Beautiful new, affordable homes or rentals would attract working force personnel and act as a beacon to individuals seeking employment and a better place to live.
We need younger, working class families and children to recharge our rapidly depleting school population.
Working class families also spend money and would do so locally, thereby supporting our economy.
Imagine what a boon it would be to those hard-working people to be able to live and work in one of the most beautiful places on earth.
The city should proceed full speed ahead purchasing the Cultural Park property.
The city can offer tax incentives and other tasty treats to potential developers.
Sure, some will grumble about the price tag but has anyone noticed how homes are increasing in value here in Sedona as more and more people flock here either to escape the mandates that are crippling blue states or cash in on the Airbnb market.
The cost is a trifle compared to the cost of Sedona going belly up because we don’t have enough working-class souls living here to keep our communal heart beating.
Circumventing the NIMBY people is definitely the best way to go. They would have little to complain about if the Cultural Park was re-imagined into a model community of affordable housing.
At best, they would be relegated to complaining about traffic and crowded supermarkets, squeaking their displeasure from the sidelines.
So, don’t listen to the naysayers wasting ink bleating their opposition to the idea. The city council needs to show some testicular fortitude and defy the pens of those trying to trash the concept by bullying the meeker members into submission.
Thinking out of the box will pull us out of the box we as a city and community are being stuffed into by those who fear change.
11 Comments
If the city builds such a complex, it will be turned into a slum by the people who would live there, unless management took a firm hold on who is allowed to live there and maintained it 24-7. Nice idea, but not feasible. The city does not need to get into the landlord business. .
It’s about time someone stands up to the bullies. Keep up the good work. Keep up the good work and keep it fair and balanced. Nice to have another voice for the people here in Sedona.
Not sure how many people remember the original agreement but there’s only two options: reopen the cultural park or give the land to the college for a film school.
Isn’t it interesting that everyone wants to do what Georgia Frontiera wanted to do when she donated 6 million to keep the park going, but the city council at the time did NOT want hotels, apartments (even affordable ones) or any shops or artist in residence to have a home here. Oh, but if only ….
Seems to me that no one but a handful of select people even knew the Park was for sale way back then. I worked at the cultural park and Alan Horton said NOTHING about the park being for sale until that Tuesday when he called all the staff in and let us know that the park was going to close on Friday. We had some big shows coming up — fundraisers for the park — and those shows were nearly sold out but the shows were canceled anyway and everyone was sent home.
The land used to be forest service, but this land was traded for land the county held so that it could be a venue to support the arts in Sedona and become a wonderful outdoor venue to BENEFIT ALL SEDONA RESIDENTS. But NO. Certain real estate investors just wasn’t having it – back room deals were made and the whole city could smell the stink of corruption — after the city invested over $700-k in trailheads and improvements. A parking structure was being planned, parking lots were to be paved, and more advertising was promised. But we were suddenly shut down without even so much as a whimper from the citizens of Sedona who lost all that money spent.
So if Sedona purchases this property, will the price be discounted for what we’ve already paid into it ? Of course. not.
The land was selected and blessed by a Native American medicine man on opening night. Anything built not in the original agreement will be snake bit and ill conceived – such is the medicine of the property. Many do not believe in prayers , blessings and curses given to the property and for them, I am truly sorry. Nothing good will come of the property if the agreements made are not upheld, as been proved over these past years.
What great place for the transit hub i stead of sticking it to those of us who live in Uptown and will deal with all the extra traffic as others will trying to get off Brewer Road to turn left to West Sedona. Already it is a problem, I am always stopping and letting them through. Now with the combination of the transit hub traffic and all the traffic exiting Tlaquepaque on an event night and other times having to get to Brewer Road to try and cross the line of cars whose drivers rarely stop to let anyone get through and block while they just sit there waiting for the traffic in front to move ….all this coming together is going to cause chaos. I never saw this problem discussed at any City Council Meeting but, perhaps missed it and if it were then it is an even worse mistake of incompetency. Include the traffic from all the residents in that whole area. Now the City is planning on a huge roundabout at the intersection of Ranger and Brewer and I see that now the beautiful historic Hart Store is for sale. The whole historic flavor of the whole area will be destroyed, Sedona in Motion is short on competency and foresight as is our City Council who says yes to everything they want.
Our Sedona if Motion needs a complete overhaul.
Joan Shannon, a HUB is always the CENTER of whatever. It would make no sense to have the HUB in the west of town. I read that the city has already bought the property across from the high school. How much sense would it be to have a park and ride across from the HUB? If the city were to consider anyplace, I would vote for 401 Jordan Road, It’s the height of our tourist area. As far as housing, I work for one of our local insurance company’s and because the house that I rented for the past 10 years was converted to a short rental, I would now be homeless had it not been for a member of my Church who is allowing me to couch surf. If I was fortunate to live in Sedona, I would be far from the type of person who would turn anything into a slum. Sounds like more NIMBY’ism to me.
The city owns a lot of property down on 89A by the water processing plant. It’s a bird Sanctuary. There has been talk of doing an affordable housing project there. The city is flush with too much money. Why spend $20 million on dirt when you own dirt?
And you can do 3 story, more efficient for apartments. The existing council rejected the perfect candidate to replace Bill Chilsom who has forgotten more about affordable housing them the entire council will ever know. Just broke ground in Cottonwood on a great 192 unit project.
Let’s put the egos to bed and get something real going. All talk, no action.
That’s an excellent idea. Why buy dirt when you own dirt? We can provide local transportation to the work force renters, in and out of the city. But would the air quality be affected by the processing plant? It would not be beneficial if the air quality in that area is toxic.
I ni e idea but can this work? I don’t think so – not if the city pays $20 million for the land and hopes to get its money back from developers.$20 millioms a little over 40 acres and some of these acres are not easily buildable. At $20 million that is about $500,000 an acre. Let’s say that half of these acres are buildable – that’s $1 million an acre. or $250,000 a quarter acre. If you build a house on the quarter acre it will cost at least another $250,000 (probably more today). The house and land it is on then cost a minimun total of $500,000. A builfder will want to make a profit as well. How can that be considered affordsble housing? Perhaps we are planning to build condos?
That’s why they should spend the money to build on the property they already own by the treatment facility.
If this fallacy comes to fruition and the so-called affordable housing is completed, assuming that some of them would be condos, what’s to prevent a new owner from turning some of them into Airb-n-b’s? Is the city now going to become a landlord? Are the residents of Sedona going to be on the hook for paying subsidies in perpetuity? Because of the costs of construction and the cost of land, there is no such thing as “Affordable Housing.” Nepenthe was originally built to be low-income housing starting at $80K for a one-bedroom condo. They are now selling for $350K and up. The Sedona City Counsil members are living in a dream world. It’s sooo easy to spend other people’s money.
Yes to Dale Casey…. thanks
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