Making Representative Government Work. Steve Williamson welcomes Sedona City Councilor Kathy Kinsella back to the show.
Whoever said that you can’t fight City Hall never met Kinsella who claims she actually likes listening to constituents. “I’m a people person,” she says, “So I really like people and knowing what they think.” To that end, she says that she is trying to create additional opportunities for the council to have more dialogue with residents.
Kinsella describes many of the initiatives within the city, ranging from the underpass at Tlaquepaque, which was recently finished, the changes to improve traffic flow, short-term rentals, and emergency evacuation plans.
Regarding traffic, she explains there are not a lot of ways to get around traffic because of the topography, noting that improvements must be incremental. “It’s project after project,” she says. Kinsella also says that new roads require a lot of intergovernmental cooperation. “We have to see ourselves regionally. Not just what happens in Sedona.”
As for short-term rentals, she says that they now comprise more than 17 percent of the city’s housing stock, but she notes, it’s not all bad. “Some of the short-term rentals have taken some depressed properties and improved those properties thereby improving the property values for their neighbors. But at the same time, as those properties go up and up and up, it’s spiraling, and people can’t keep up with the price of housing.”
The City Council is doing what it can to address the issue. But as Kinsella explains. “We’re not a state that allows a lot of local control to municipalities. And, in the case of regulating short-term rentals, we do not have the authorities. I’m a believer in local control. I think the local communities are the most responsive to the people…I would like to see more local control.”